Contents
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The worst feeling as a hotelier? Overbookings.
A close second? Sitting at 2 a.m., exhausted from a day of guest arrivals, housekeeping, and everything in between, just to prep invoices for the next day’s check-outs. And if a guest added to their bill the next morning? That meant I’d have to go back into the Excel spreadsheet and rework it.
My “system” back then was a scattered combination of pen and paper, a standalone channel manager, and a booking engine that didn’t sync with anything else.
Each booking, each update, each change had to be manually entered across multiple systems by me and the team. We’d mark and cross out, white-out, and rewrite—going through bottles of Tippex to keep track of everything.
Looking back, this wasn’t room management; it was organized chaos. Far from efficient, and definitely not sustainable.
Just one page from The Bliss’ reservation book reveals the chaos—scribbles, Tippex, and constant modifications—that came with managing reservations by hand.
Mistakes made ❌ lessons gained ✅
❌ Reservation book
I managed all our reservations with a pen and paper in an old-school reservation book (see above). Honestly, it was far from ideal.
Since the book stayed at the hotel, any time a reservation request came in while I was away, I couldn’t check availability—leading to lost business.
✅ Cloud property management system (PMS)
With an integrated, cloud-based hotel PMS, you can check availability on the go and add a new reservation from any device.
❌ Manual invoices via Excel
I spent countless early mornings creating invoices in Excel for the next day’s check-outs. If a guest added any extra charges in the meantime, I’d have to update the invoice, resave it as a PDF, and send it again—an incredibly time-consuming process.
✅ Automated invoices via PMS
With a property management system like RoomRaccoon, proforma invoices are automatically generated for new reservations, and charges can be easily added during a guest’s stay. Splitting and emailing invoices is as simple as a click.
❌ Stand-alone channel manager
Even though I had a channel manager, The Bliss still got plenty of direct bookings by phone and email.
This meant I had to jump in quickly to update availability, but this manual process often led to overbookings.
✅ Integrated channel manager
For instant data sync, use a fully integrated channel manager connected to your booking engine and PMS.
With RoomRaccoon, booking proposals sent via emails are automatically saved as provisional bookings and seamlessly convert to confirmed bookings once payments are received. This means you don’t have to manually update the booking status or send follow-up reminders—RoomRaccoon handles it all.
❌ One phone line
The Bliss had a single phone line for everything—reservation requests, guest service requests, emergencies—and after hours, it went straight to my personal phone.
✅ Emergency line
Have a dedicated emergency line if you’d rather not feel a minor panic attack every time the phone rings.
❌ Inappropriate guest conduct
Occasionally, we encountered guests who exhibited disruptive or inappropriate behavior.
✅ Staff safety protocols
I implemented training to help staff handle disruptive guest behavior confidently and safely, ensuring a respectful and secure environment for everyone.
