Yves Ducommun

Hi to everyone,

In South Africa, we have no other choice than "Multichoice" for satellite channels. No competition means high prices.

Of course, there are other options:

• via smart TV, but it's also somewhat of a budget to upgrade all our TV sets to smart TVs,
• I had lots of hopes in Google Chromecast, only to discover that one would need to download as many paying apps as type of channels that one would need (ie: news, sport, etc...). Besides, I don't see how we can ask all our guests to download those apps to allow them to watch the channel of their choice...
• I was also advised to buy a device allowing streaming (MyGica Media Player ATV1900Pro),

What is the most user friendly and cost effective option, if any?... Or should I just rather stick to tMultichoice and continue paying their hospitality industry set package?

Thanks for your input.

Best regards / Yves

Hi Stay,

What's your e-mail address? Thanks.

Best regards / Yves

OMG! There's such a wide range of PMS/CM... and the more reply or suggestions I read, the more confusing it becomes!...

Dear Claire-Louise,

Thanks for your feedback. As much as I was also very happy with NightsBridge at the beginning, I started picking up issue a couple of years back. I escalated to NB Management, but non avail.I can understand that all systems have their pros & cons, but they showed no interest in addressing any.(cf listed hereunder)

I am currently looking very closely at Site Minder / Little Hotelier (same company). I just have to get over the pricing factor, as it's more than double the price I am currently paying, but if it's bringing double the bookings, then hey...

Best regards

List of issues with NB:

• Click & drag option for bookings: this is a “windows” approach, and it would be far easier to click and drag on a booking as oppose to having to open the booking, change the in/out days and the room,
• Guest photo attached to bookings. We could have a small ID block where one could copy & paste either a webcam picture taken at reception, or a copy from the web (ie:Facebook profile pic). That would help us putting a face on a name,
• Child rate: linked to the yearly rate sheets to avoid discrepancies for bookings outside the period,
• One rate sheet and all other special rates are linked to this ONLY main sheet (iso Rack, STO & specials rate sheets). We’d just need to inter one rate sheet for each season, and if STO is –10%, then whichever entity has access to STO rates, would get the right rate, without us having to yet insert a second STO rate sheet,
• Scroll down menu for “extras” pricing,
• Paybridge: issued to “made by” field iso guest name,
• Most OTA, info migrating within “Booking Notes” are all irrelevant as all redundant,
• Bookings made through the “login” should be more flexible and not only designed for travel agents (ie: consultant is irrelevant to me),
• Specials via NB should be as flexible as what most OTA offer. In being so limited, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot whereby prices on OTA are cheaper than the ones on our own site. Unfair!
• Misleading booking confirmation the guest gets when making an online booking through NB, even if no deposit has been secured! That lead to an incident that could have had serious consequences for us
• Same day bookings delay between SMS and email to retrieve credit card details. – Guests arrives before the email from Nightsbridge.

Good morning,

Promotions, specials, discounts, a catch 22!... My Channel Management System (Nightsbridge) allows us to have a direct interface with most OTAs giving us a good "billboard effect" or in other words a good presence on the web. Having said that, one must be very cautious when creating specials, especially if you're on more than one OTA.

Every large OTA uses algorithm to check your pricing and if you happen to be cheaper on any other channel than theirs, you go down their ranking. They use TripAdvisor mostly. Search for your property and have a look for yourself.

Now comes the specials. Some OTA are more creative than others and more user friendly. Bkg.com is most probably the best for that. Why would you want to create a special? Well, most probably it's because you are on a seasonal market and you are trying to boost your bookings. And this is where the catch is! Being very seasonal in Cape Town, we are bound to feel a nice drop in our sales in our winter (Jun-Sep), so I am just wondering if offering specials will just drop the very little income we get in winter.. Specials we do, but that often leaves us with as little as 50% gross revenue, meaning an even smaller net margin (15% VAT + 15% commission + 15% additional special + etc....).

I was also over the moon, when I saw my listing on top of the BKG.com page. I thought I was being so clever in offering BKG.com a higher commission, thinking it would push me to the very top. But like Yew Bh said, it's only because I kept on checking on my listing, thus being identified by BKG.com as a potential guest, hence my top position. Try from another computer...

The bottom line is that there's lots of competition out there, and we are in a very challenging industry. We're all trying to get the most of our business, but some external factors are difficult to curb. Be it the seasonality, new immigration rules (like the birth unabridged certificate for minors entering RSA), weather (with unfortunately too famous "Day Zero" water saga in Cape Town), economy, political uncertainty, etc... So I don't know if any discount or special would in fact attract more bookings, or like I said just shoot ourselves in the foot, hindering even more the little revenue we're getting...

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday. Here it's sunny in CPT, reaching up to 22deg today. Best regards / Yves

Good morning everyone,

We've been using Nightsbridge for the past 7 years, but we've come across some issues and it has it's limits.

There is this new PMS/CM company that is coming quite aggressively on the South African Market: Room Raccon. Like always, it looks great from the salesman's perspective, but I would like to know what are it's limits and/or glitches if any from the end user.

Thank you for your valued input on the matter.

Wishing you all a great weekend / Yves

Hi,

I've just learnt from a guest that a good option is as follows:

• get a strong wifi connection with a good coverage,
• then buy Google Chrome cast streaming media player. Between 20-75USD depending on the type,

The good thing is you don't need a smart TV, as long as it has a USB port. It's easy to set-up and since it's rather small, either you secure it to your TV and you make it available at reception against a deposit, to avoid any mishaps...

Hope this helps.

Best regards / Yves

Hello everyone,

We're a small GH, so self check-in won't work as they'd need a key to get in in the first place. Besides I like to know who I am dealing with...

If I am not mistaken, within your Booking.com Extranet, under "policies", "other policies" & finally "Guest Information", you can set your check in times (ie: from 14h00, till 19h00).

Should you be using a Channel Manager (ie: Little Hotelier, Site Minder or NightsBridge), you can get them to set a time limit after which no one can make a same day booking.

Hoping that this will help you.

Best regards / Yves