How To Customize Your Hotel Extranet To Fit Your Hotel’s Needs

Traditional hotel booking methods are simply not enough to meet the requirements of modern-day customers. Nowadays, every traveler seeks something unique from such portals that not only simplifies the booking process but also elevates their overall experience. As a result, depending on right set of tools and technologies becomes very crucial for the hospitality business.

Hotel extranet system is one such technology that allows the OTAs, travel agencies, tour operators, hotel chains, B2B/B2C businesses, etc., to enhance performance, customer experience, and efficiency. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about customizing your hotel extranet, how it functions, and the benefits it brings. Let’s get started.

Understanding the Hotel Extranet System

Before getting started with anything too technical, let’s clear off our basics by understanding the role of the extranet system in a hotel booking software. In simple terms, a hotel extranet software acts as a centralized medium for hoteliers to manage their property details, room rates, inventory, and bookings across various online distribution channels.

The integrated channels are everything from OTAs to websites. It is basically a part of the hotel booking engine that defines all the functionalities of the platform and sets rules for customers to access data.

This information is then synced across all booking channels, minimizing overbookings and optimizing room occupancy. Overall, this central hub enables travel companies or hotel chains to streamline their operations and control the extent of their platform.

What Data is Stored in a Hotel Extranet?

Take a quick glimpse through all the information a hotel reservation system can access to with an extranet system.

• Room types and descriptions
• Rate plans and promotions
• Availability calendars
• Images and amenities
• Cancellation and child policies
• Special deals
• Tax structures
• Agent commissions and markups

Key Features of a Modern Hotel Extranet System

With that being said, let’s now get started with discussing all the key features that enhance the performance of a normal hotel booking engine to the next level.

Room and Rate Management

Make it easy for your customers to get accurate pricing and room availability in real-time. The hotel extranet system analyzes competitors, market trends, and room capacities to provide corresponding rates for different periods or target markets. Since the entire process is automated, travel companies can rest assured of this task.

Inventory and Availability Control in Real-Time

Hotel extranet software ensures that the system reflects accurate availability across all channels. This is extremely helpful if you are running the hospitality service across various devices like mobile applications, software, and websites. This not only helps the businesses streamline their operations but also improves user experience.

Agent and OTA Dashboard Access

Manage the access of authorized agents and third parties with one unified dashboard. Here you can simply control who can view or change the bookings, exclusive deals, and ongoing campaigns. It’s simply an easier way of ensuring that all the authorized members are working in harmony.

Auto Email Notifications to Guests and Partners

Let your customers know about their reservations with instant booking confirmations. Whether it’s reservation confirmations, payment receipts, or cancellation updates, enrich your hotel property management system to alert the management and users in real-time. Emails and app notifications are the best way to share instant updates.

Seamless Payment Gateway Integration

To embrace secure and friction-free transactions for all users, ensure the integrated extranet system provides support for all payments through popular payment gateways to streamline the booking process. This is also essential to build trust among consumers, where they can make payments in a streamlined manner.

Report Generation and Analytics Dashboard

Create comprehensive real-time and historical reports that provide in-depth insights into performance metrics and booking trends. These reports will enable you to analyze data effectively, identify patterns over time, and monitor fluctuations in bookings, allowing for informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Special Deals and Discount Module

The hotel extranet system boasts an effective way for businesses to manage all the special deals running on the hotel booking software. Create, manage, and display promotional offers targeted to specific customer groups. This simple yet effective way allows companies to add or remove offers based on the results.

Multi-language and Multi-currency Support

To cater to international customers without any hassle, your hotel booking engine should be equipped with multilingual capabilities. This is to ensure that the customers can access the platform in their native language. To make things more interesting, the extranet system also supports payments from multiple currencies with real-time conversions.

Customizable Policy Management

Reduce your third-party services dependency by taking control of all the policies right through your hotel extranet system. Define detailed policies for cancellations, refunds, and child accommodations as per your portal requirements and user base.

Multi-Property and Chain Hotel Compatibility

Target multiple active regions seamlessly through one unified hotel booking engine. Hotel extranet system boasts an ideal way for hotel groups looking to centralize operations across multiple locations. What’s more, hotel chains and travel companies can run separate campaigns altogether in a streamlined manner. 

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How to Customize Your Hotel Extranet System

Now that you’re well-versed with the advantages boasted by the extranet for your hotel reservation system, let’s quickly also discuss the ways you can customize this integration in the best possible way. 

1. Set Clear Objectives

Starting off, you must have a well-crafted idea of where to take your hotel booking engine. Decide if you’re aiming to increase revenue, reduce overheads, or expand market reach, and then align your customization goals accordingly.

2. Choose a Scalable Architecture

The architecture you decide to work with will define the success of the hotel booking engine. As a result, opt for a Cloud, API-first approach as it facilitates seamless integration with a wide array of tools and services. It not only improves efficiency but also allows for greater flexibility in adapting to evolving business needs and technological advancements.

3. Prioritize UX/UI Customization

A clean and intuitive dashboard helps both your staff and partners work more efficiently. So, try to keep the navigation simple without overcomplicating the booking process. Remember that users of all ages should be able to make bookings seamlessly.  

4. Configure Role-Based Access

Ensure the right people have access to the right data, from front desk managers to sales agents. This is a crucial management step as you will not have to overlook the responsible personnel at every stage of the business.

5. Enable Regional Pricing and Market-Specific Deals

Offer customized rates based on geography, season, or loyalty tiers. This kind of special offer will allow you to build stronger relationships with your customers and will even attract the untapped audience.

6. Integrate With Your PMS and CRM Systems

By integrating both PMS and CRM systems, companies can streamline guest data, billing, and preferences in one place. As a result, managing the incoming bookings, user interests, and best working strategies can be optimized accordingly.

7. Add Custom Reports and KPIs

To boost your business successfully, you need to focus on the most crucial factors that significantly affect your business operations. These include:

• Occupancy rate is the percentage of available accommodation that is rented out during a certain time period. 
• ADR refers to the revenue earned per room per day.
• RevPAR, or revenue per available room, is a metric that combines two indicators of hotel performance: occupancy rate and ADR.

8. Enable White-Labeling and Branding Flexibility

Make the extranet system reflect your brand’s look and feel for a consistent experience if you opt for a white-label travel portal. This is important as it helps you to create a consistent brand image for your users.

Benefits of Using a Custom Hotel Extranet Software

Here are some major advantages of using an extranet software for your hotel reservation system. Let’s quickly hover through them all:

• Increased Booking Efficiency: Automation and real-time updates reduce dependency on manual entries.
• Enhanced Brand Control: Showcase your unique brand identity and offer more effectively.
• Improved Guest Communication: Keep guests informed through automated messaging.
• Higher Revenue: Customize rates and deals to target high-value markets.
• Informed Decisions: Access data-driven insights to guide sales, pricing, and marketing strategies.

Hotel Extranet Feature Comparison Table

Why Choose OneClick for Your Hotel Extranet Needs?

At OneClick, we don’t just deliver hotel extranet systems, we serve up feature-rich, tailor-made, and future-ready booking magic. Here’s what makes us your perfect travel-tech sidekick:

• Fully Custom Hotel Booking Engine Wizardry
• Plug ‘n Play Integrations (No Wires Required)
• Dashboard That Even Your Front Desk Will Love
• Dynamic Pricing Like a Pro Trader
• Reports That Speak Human (Not Spreadsheet)
• Agent & Partner Portal 
• Modular & Scalable Like LEGO®
• Mobile-Optimized & Tablet-Ready
• White-Label It, Own It
• 24/7 Real Human Support (No Robots, Promise)

Unlock Peak Performance with a Customized Hotel Extranet Strategy

If your hotel is unique, why settle for basic and traditional methods to showcase it with the world? The world is currently under AI revolution and any business that fails to comply or advance with this trend will simply be left behind. By customizing your hotel extranet system, you can streamline operations, delight guests, and drive higher revenue. And the best part is, OneClick can help you in this journey, whether you’re a boutique hotel or a growing chain.

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