What’s ThinkReservations?
ThinkReservations types itself as an all-in-one property administration answer constructed to streamline lodge companies. Between the ThinkReservations reserving system, PMS and channel supervisor, this ecosystem of instruments guarantees to save lots of time and improve bookings.
However is it the perfect answer for lodge companies? Or may one other instrument, SiteMinder, be even higher?
On this information we’ll place these two lodge options side-by-side to grasp their strengths, their weaknesses, and which could be the most suitable choice for your corporation.
Why examine ThinkReservations and SiteMinder?
It’s necessary to conduct a comparability between ThinkReservations and SiteMinder as a result of a lodge’s alternative of platform can have a big impression on its success shifting ahead. The proper instrument will supply all of the performance you require, and can mean you can streamline extra successfully and develop quicker.
ThinkReservations and SiteMinder each promise to boost your lodge enterprise. And per the SiteMinder and ThinkReservations opinions on HotelTechReport, each options are trusted by the trade. So which is greatest?
ThinkReservations is the product of a small staff understanding of Seattle, Washington. It provides an honest stage of performance, with its acknowledged objectives centring on driving extra direct bookings, saving time by means of automation, and accommodations placing the main focus again on the visitor.
Considerably of an upstart within the lodge PMS area, ThinkReservations faces lots of the frequent limitations that come from being a smaller participant: buyer help is restricted to US workplace hours, integrations with reserving channels and different lodge tech instruments are restricted, and insights aren’t as deep or highly effective.
SiteMinder, in the meantime, is the world’s largest open lodge commerce platform. It’s overflowing with best-in-class performance, providing all that ThinkReservations provides and far, far more: enterprise intelligence, advertising help, OTA partnerships and a strong reserving engine, to call however just a few key options.
Like ThinkReservations, SiteMinder is a growth- and efficiency-focused platform, and one which has loads of receipts to again up its claims, from a market-leading variety of integrations to the power for any lodge to construct an optimised and absolutely practical lodge web site in fast time.
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Between performance, usability and worth, no lodge answer fairly competes with SiteMinder. Work smarter and develop quicker with the assistance of the last word know-how companion.
Full comparability of ThinkReservations and SiteMinder
Each ThinkReservations and SiteMinder promise higher methods to handle and develop your lodge, and the options share quite a few related instruments and options that can assist you get to the place you need to go, equivalent to PMS capabilities, a reserving engine and a channel supervisor.
However there are some distinct variations in these two choices. Just a few key factors of comparability embody:
Integrations
It’s essential that your chosen lodge administration instrument can combine with the opposite lodge software program and instruments you utilize, whether or not OTAs, GDSs, PMSs or third-party lodge apps. The extra integrations an answer provides, the extra succesful and practical it will likely be, and the higher it is going to enable you to streamline and develop your lodge.
ThinkReservations lists a complete of 19 integration companions. Most notably it lacks integrations with essential channels like HotelBeds and Getaroom, which drive vital enterprise for a lot of accommodations.
SiteMinder, in the meantime, provides a market-leading variety of integrations: 1350+ in whole, with 450+ throughout reserving channels alone. Regardless of which know-how platforms, OTAs, PMSs, CRSs, GDSs, wholesalers and lodge apps you may use, you could be way more assured that they are going to work seamlessly with SiteMinder.
Assist
Let’s say you’re questioning the best way to mix room reservations on ThinkReservations. Or worse, let’s say your instrument simply crashed. As a comparatively small firm based mostly out of the US, ThinkReservations provides solely restricted help: you’ll be able to solely contact the corporate throughout the hours of 8am-7pm Mon-Fri Japanese US time. This will make issues awkward if a difficulty arises, notably for worldwide clients. The help can be not supplied on US vacation dates, when many accommodations are at their busiest.
SiteMinder, in the meantime, provides actually world, 24/7 help. Native, devoted success groups work in 20 completely different languages, offering one-on-one help from the very starting to make sure you perceive the platform and achieve the very best return out of your know-how funding. There’s additionally a tranche of on-line sources for these eager to search out their very own options.
Reporting and insights
A serious level of distinction between the 2 options is the extent of perception every provides. The ThinkReservation reporting suite is restricted, exhibiting solely easy accounting and reservation statistics. Whereas it’s able to producing predictive evaluation, equivalent to yield administration stories that forecast demand and information price changes, some customers say that these stories don’t convert effectively to Excel.
An answer that comes full with a strong enterprise intelligence instrument, Siteminder provides deep and complete reporting. A person can use real-time price intelligence to match their choices in opposition to direct opponents and regulate them accordingly. It’s also possible to determine and capitalise on tendencies regarding your clients, your opponents and your vacation spot.
Funds
ThinkReservation provides direct connections with simply 4 cost platforms: Heartland, MPI, Stripe and Braintree. When you don’t use any of those platforms you’ll want to attach by means of an Authorize.web account, a US bank card processing platform with a $25 USD month-to-month gateway price and a 2.9% transaction price. It may well subsequently be tough and costly to handle ThinkReservation funds, and the answer doesn’t make point out of real-time cost processing.
SiteMinder provides real-time cost processing, which permits quick, correct reconciliation inside its real-time transaction dashboard. There are not any setup charges, no month-to-month charges and no hidden charges – only a small transaction fee price. All funds are absolutely safe and PCI-DSS compliant.
App
ThinkReservations is desktop solely. A person must bookmark the reserving calendar on their internet browser. The shortage of ThinkReservations app implies that there’s additionally no option to combine a calling service by means of your smartphone.
SiteMinder is obtainable as an iOS and Android app on your smartphone and pill. The app provides nice performance, permitting you to view your property dashboard, handle charges and availability through a simple to make use of grid, examine the standing of your property and company, and get in contact with the SiteMinder help staff through a useful chat perform.
Why is SiteMinder the perfect ThinkReservations different?
When you’re contemplating ThinkReservations as your most well-liked lodge administration answer, it might be value considering once more. In SiteMinder you could have a instrument that provides just about all of the performance supplied by means of the ThinkReservations login, in addition to an entire lot extra, at a really compelling worth.
Improve direct income
Each ThinkReservations and SiteMinder put a give attention to direct bookings – and so they need to. By getting company to ebook instantly with you, you get to maintain the 15%-25% fee charges generally charged by OTAs like Reserving.com and Expedia.
Solely SiteMinder, nonetheless, brings collectively a strong direct reserving engine, a clear lodge cost processing instrument and a devoted lodge web site builder. It’s as much as you whether or not you combine the reserving engine and cost processor along with your present website, or create a brand new, absolutely practical web site designed to draw extra direct bookings!
Easy integration to channels
With the power to attach with 450+ OTAs and reserving channels, SiteMinder boasts unmatched distribution protection, notably when in comparison with the 19 integrations listed by ThinkReservations. Regardless of which reserving channels you utilize, from the largest to essentially the most area of interest, you could be assured in SiteMinder’s capacity to combine.
Keep direct communication with visitor
Visitor engagement is a central focus of the SiteMinder answer, each when it comes to the automation that offers you extra time to give attention to the visitor expertise, and the purpose-built Visitor Engagement instrument, which does all the pieces from offering a digital check-in expertise, to sending personalised upsell provides, to requesting suggestions after a keep.
Streamline processes
SiteMinder can type a staff of backroom workers who work 24/7 on the low worth and laborious stuff, so that you and your staff can give attention to the excessive worth and enjoyable stuff. Any variety of processes could be streamlined, equivalent to how the channel supervisor can convey all of your reserving channels collectively on one display, permitting you to replace pricing and availability immediately throughout all OTAs.
Drive bookings from social media and metasearch
SiteMinder is uniquely positioned to extend your direct bookings. The metasearch experience supplied by our Demand Plus staff places your lodge up in lights on platforms like Google Resorts, TripAdvisor and Trivago.
And with automation blessing you with additional time, you’ll be able to focus extra on curating and enhancing your social media presence, driving much more bookings.
