Hotel
extranet stands for hotel central reservation system
and is commonly used by travel agencies worldwide. Its about
compiling the global hotel data in niche places and setting up the DB
with hotel details, images, availability and pricing. It works like
as independent online hotel booking system but for niche
cities and specific hotels, which are not available across all the
web portals.
CRS
as a tool is used to reach the global distribution system or GDS
along with internet distribution system from a single point system.
Hotel managers use this tool to manage their online sales and
marketing avenues. They also project their rates and availabilities
which are easily viewable by the sales channel i.e. the online travel
agencies team aligned with CRS.
Some
of the primary functions in CRS as below
Fully
flexible and scalable for growing business.
Platform
which is easier to use.
Manageability
of rates, availability and content or information from single point
of entry.
Connectivity
of hotels to GDS, online travel agents as well as mobile booking
engines.
Multiple
distribution channels emphasized with channel manager usage.
Now
lets understand, what information is stored in Hotel CRS. Information
includes room types, room rates, conditions, inventories, plan rate
architecture, reservation information, graphical information in the
form of video, pictures and detailed hotel information like address,
phone and fax numbers and geographical code information.
Hotel
CRS
reporting module is very important and calls for a number of standard
reports. System reports are those reports which can be run daily,
weekly, monthly or yearly and sometimes on need based request. Some
of the basic reports include for expected arrivals, reservation,
property forecasting, property details, agent activity and daily
booking activity summary.
So
CRS can be conceptualized as backend office system of a booking
engine which enables administration of rates and availabilities with
ease and comfort. It also involves the management of statistical
evolution of all incoming reservations.
In
a nutshell, with the presence of Hotel
CRS, travelers can search for more hotels and book
them in a more efficient manner, as it works like a hotel’s central
reservation system.
Here
are few ways CRS benefits a company and travelers
While
travelers reserve their requirements over the hotel spread,
convenience and efficiency comes into picture.
Travel
policy compliance increases as travelers use company-preferred
booking or reservation channels
From
company’s viewpoint, as hotel booking data which is very vital is
captured, this data is used for performance measurements and
sometimes supplier negotiations.
Traveler
satisfaction is boosted as the tool is more user-friendly.
Find more about –
Author:
Author is a travel
technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal
development projects.
Resources:
