Cancellation rates have been steadily growing over the last decade, with the average cancellation rate at over 40% in 2022. Most of the cancelled bookings are coming from online travel agencies, which prompts hotel managers to combat cancellation rates by improving their direct bookings. With an online booking engine, you can maximise your profits and avoid losses from cancellations.

What is an online booking engine?

With an online booking engine, hoteliers can offer their guests a simple and easy-to-use reservation system that only makes the process more user-friendly, but also increases your revenue and provides opportunities for upselling.  

One of the biggest advantages of direct bookings is that you don’t have to pay an OTA fee from each reservation, increasing your profits by a significant margin for each booking. With an online booking engine, direct bookings are easy to make for guests, while hoteliers are left with full freedom to customise the booking experience however they wish.

Benefits of using an online room reservation system

There are many benefits of using an online room reservation system, in addition to helping you increase direct bookings. Modern travellers prefer online bookings to traditional methods of making reservations (phone calls, in-person, e-mail etc.). According to current statistics, over 90% of guests do their research online, and about 80% will end up placing their bookings online as well. 

Thanks to this program, employees can smoothly register guests and solve their problems on an ongoing basis. Due to this unique tool, the number of hotel stay bookings will be much higher. This app also enables to attract and encourage customers to the hotel, streamlines service operations, and makes guests’ stay more enjoyable. The hotel operates efficiently and quickly, which proves its high standard.  

More online bookings and less phone calls and walk-ins to handle also means more time saved and a lower cancellation rate. According to multiple studies, hotels with more direct bookings have a lower cancellation rate – something that an online booking system can help greatly with.

How else can you lower the cancellation rate at a hotel?

There are other ways of fighting against the rising cancellation rates at your hotel. Consider adjusting your cancellation policy – something that most popular hotel chains have already done. Changing the cancellation grace period from 24 hours to 48 and 72 hours saved hotels like Marriott and Hilton tons of revenue in avoided losses.  

You can also offer your guests to reschedule their bookings instead of cancelling them. By editing a booking in an online booking engine, guests can easily reschedule their bookings to a future date, avoiding lost revenue.