Reservation Software

Review by Steve Bellam, Owner of 3 Motels.

It doesn't matter if you run a Motel, Hotel, Guest House, Marina or even Dog Kennels or a Cattery - you need to have a really strong, flexible and easy to use reservation software to help you run your business easily and effectively.

Otherwise, you end up getting into all sorts of bother with cross bookings, double bookings, incorrect client details and just generally appearing to be very unprofessional when guests come to do business with you.

In this current business climate - that's not an image you should be giving. You need to be organised, efficient and on the ball as soon as a client walks through your door.

How do I know?

Well, sadly and to my shame to have to admit today, when I first started out in 2004 - I ran everything via an A4 binder on the desk - and made some terrible mistakes!

Choosing the right reservation software plays a cricitcal part of the process of being professional.

There are a variety of different reservation software packages available - but not many that cover the two most important parts required to make your business more profitable. These are a simple to use, flexible user interface and a realistic price point.

Our research has shown that 98% of the avilable booking software offerings that you can use today come with a very hefty cost - both for the initial purchase of the software and then, unbelievably, a monthly charge as well - on top!

Fancy paying out anything from $350 to $3,500 to buy the software and then pay a monthly charge of anything from $25 a month upto to $495 a month as well? For most Small to Medium size businesses - this just isn't viable.

I have a friend who runs a Cattery who had terrible problems finding decent software to manage the bookings. Using a paper system was becoming far to cumbersome for them, mistakes were being made and they were loosing customers through cross bookings, poor invoicing and a host of other reservation related problems - all from trying to use a diary to run their business!

In all my searches and testing of many different booking software I only found one that I could really recommend to her - read on to see why I recommended it!

'Reservation Master'

Price:- $199.95 (Basic Edition) $349.95 (Pro Version)

Released By:- Goldhillsoft

Available via:- 1.) Instant Download

'The Advice Centre' Score:

By far and away the best reservation software has to be "Reservation Master ".

There are two version of the software that you can buy - the basic edition which cost $199.95 or the Pro Version which costs $349.95. The main differences between the two are the Pro version has:-

1. the ability for you to create an occupancy calendar that you can upload to your website, allowing your customers to book online easily, something that more and more people expect to be able to do!
2. a calendar view tab which provides you with an overall occupancy for the selected year.
3. a product tab where you can easily maintain and create product reports
4. additional options for maintaining and controling product sales and inventory
5. a layout view which is activated when you select your floor plan / campground layout (BMP,JPG file)
6. an SQL query tab. From here you can create your own SQL queries (Advanced users only)
7. the ability to implement 'user' and 'security' levels to restrict access to certain portions of the program.

This Software is Easy for You to Use!

In running a business I have always believed that if you can’t understand a piece of software in five minutes, it’s too complicated to ever be of any proper, real use.

The booking sheet in Reservation Master is based on a normal, common pencil and paper booking sheet that most people are familiar with. A simple point and click system using the left mouse button to action and the right mouse button to open the menu of available selections is both normal and easy to master.

You won't need 5 minutes with this software - more like 2 - and 1 minute of that is turning your system on!

Generate Invoices and reports in your own language.

Although the program is in English, you can adapt the program interface and reports to almost any language you wish. Simply edit the language file and enter your translation. This will allow you to change the menu interface, reports and invoices to your preferred language.

Export raw data when required.

An easy-to-use interface is provided for exporting selected data, which you can then use in other programs of your choice. In my case Ijust click the Excel button to export the selected sheet into Excel.

Job Done!!

Find out your income and occupancy levels are at a touch of a button.

Now I obviously can't speak for you but one of the things I check daily is my income to date - forecast income and my occupancy levels, past, present and furute.

This software will generate these reports for you. A really nice and useful touch I found is that the occupancy levels are displayed on top of the booking sheets at all times.

How do you know this product is for you?

You most likely will be a Motel / Hotel operator, although this software has been used by other organizations, including a cattery. The guys who wrote the software are from the industry and recognize the limitations we all work under - both time and money!

That's why they have set it up so that you can download a FREE 30-Day trial to see for yourself.

There are no other restrictions to the free download program either - it's the full package.

If after the trial period, you decide that this program is indeed for you, you can be purchase itonline.

The best thing though? All of the data that you entered whilst you were testing the software is saved upon re-installation. Simply buy, download, install, open - and there is everything you had before - perfectly saved and ready to go.

It's amazing program and is recommended highly - both for cost and performance. Support is excellent too - even down to requesting new features that are incorporated quickly!