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How To Start Online Hotel Booking and Reservation Business 2018 – Practical Tips

How To Start Online Hotel Booking and Reservation Business 2018 – Practical Tips

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How To Start Online Hotel Booking and Reservation Business In Nigeria

The 21st century brings with it many necessities. The need to have hotels has become crucial. For the purpose of businesses and pleasure, people will use the hotels available. This has ushered in a marvelous business opportunity. People can now start hotel booking and reservation business as a means towards achieving an end.

This business idea is quite lucrative as many people are venturing into it. It is indeed one of the fastest growing businesses in Nigeria. People will definitely have vacations, holidays, get-togethers and businesses.

Related: How to start a cooking gas retail business in Nigeria

The above needs of people will require a lodging accommodation and you can start a hotel booking and reservation business to fulfill this need.

This business gives the customers a little peace of mind as they can come in anytime bearing in mind that they have a place to stay.

This business thrives on the internet. You will need to get a website ready if you will venture into the business. You need to understand that the comfort needed by customers will be solved by the use of a website.

Technically speaking, hotel booking and reservation business is the business that deals with reserving an accommodation, a room, a table, a seat or a hall in advance for customers. This business ensures the comfort, safety, peace of mind and pleasure of the customers.

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In a question on Quora website, which says “How do I start a hotel booking site?”

I came across one of the questions on how to start a successful hotel booking business and i think you need to read it out in the quote below.

Firstly, What is a hotel booking site?

A hotel booking site, in its basic form, is a marketplace. A flea market of sorts. Hotels come and set up their wares to sell, customers come and browse the goods and pick the one they want to buy. You’re the one who provides the essentials to make this transaction happen.

Now with any marketplace, the suppliers don’t want to give you control of their goods and pricing them, the buyers want the best deal and you’re making money in the middle on the transactions.

Now that we’ve established this, you will need to think about how your marketplace is different from all the others that exist already. Do you specialize in a type of product? Do you attract a customer that the hotels can’t get to themselves? How much money will you spend doing it? Everything else, like web platforms, connectivity, etc. are operational aspects of it (while still important) aren’t a strategy in starting up the marketplace to begin with. At SuiteStory – we set out to cater to a niche market – inspiring travel for premium customers who stay in suites.

Once you’ve decided what kind of a marketplace you’re going to be, now the job is to attract buyers and sellers. That’s more difficult than selling your own product, because you have to now convince both parties there’s something in it for them. No one would set up shop in an empty marketplace, nor will customers come if there are only a couple of vendors. So you’re going to have to spend significant amounts of money initially to convince both parties that this is in their interest. Think about who you’re going to market to (suppliers and buyers) and how. How much money will you spend before you can sustain operations from revenues.

One more thing, in most marketplaces, one side runs faster than the other – meaning you’ll be able to get more suppliers on board more likely than customers. The trick is to keep both in sync at all times. Airbnb actually is one marketplace that has a supplier problem – not enough hosts, but far many more customers. Amazon played buyers against suppliers and vice versa for years before they got critical mass.

Once a marketplace achieves critical mass, it’s a fun ride and a really good business model. But it’s a long hard slog until you get there.

I think i can call this business a how to start a travel booking website, how to start online hotel business or how to start online flight booking business because they all work on same business model.

so, let go back to our main topic,

This article will guide you on what is needed to start a hotel booking and reservation business if you have interest in it.

Business Guide on How to Start Hotel Booking and Reservation Business in India, Nigeria, United States, Uk, etc,

hotel booking and reservation business

  1. Study the Business Thoroughly

The key to succeeding in any business is research and having the requisite information about the business. It is therefore imperative to go through the process of understanding the intricacies of the business before venturing into it.

The business is a service-oriented one and will require your understanding of the capital requirement, the process of registration, the number of employees you will need to run the business, how to care for the customers, how to ensure you satisfy the customers and the possibility of expansion through growth and expansion.

When you study hotel booking and reservation business, you will be able to come up with a good business plan that contains all the necessary information for the growth and success of the business.

  1. Write a good business plan

To start a hotel booking and reservation business, you will need a detailed business plan. The business plan puts your business into focus and directs your actions towards becoming successful in the business.

The business plan does a lot of things for you. It could help you access funds for starting the business, analyze your strengths and weaknesses, project your cash flow and do other necessary things.

  1. Register your business

You need to give your business an identity. The identity is the unique name with which your business will be known. Just work on making it a brand and see the magic that follows. The brand you build your business around can help in sales.

You will proceed to get your business registered with Corporate Affairs Commission by paying the required fee for registration. This makes you a legal entity protected by the existing business laws.

  1. You need a working and registered website

Like I earlier stated, this business thrives on the availability of the internet and through the platform known as websites. To that effect, you will need to create or build a website that has strong protection to avoid being constantly hacked. The website has to be registered with hotels around to ensure that customers can have access to it.

  1. Have a Database System for Your Business

    hotel booking and reservation business

Starting a hotel booking and reservation business requires that you build a database system for the business. You can do this by allowing search engines to rank your website. The essence of doing this is to attract more customers and make more money.

  1. The perfect hotel booking and reservation module will be needed

For the success of this business, you will need the right module which has the perfect features for setting up a proficient booking and reservation system. More so, the module has to have important features such as multiple languages, multiple payment methods, customer support and compatibility over multiple internet browsers.

  1. Make your booking system easy to use for customers

You can build an app or have a website that is user-friendly. Either way, your hotel booking and reservation business will thrive on having a booking system that is quite easy to use. Reduce the stress the customers are likely to encounter during and after registration.

When you have an easy-to-use booking system, you ensure that customer’s personal information is stored permanently and you eliminate the need for multiple registrations.

  1. Provide Immediate Feedback to Customers

Your feedback mechanism has to be effective. When a customer makes a booking for accommodation on your website, you will need to send an instant confirmation to the customer to show you are ready to take care of them.

  1. Advertise your Hotel Booking and Reservation business

Advertisement and marketing is the life wire of all businesses. You have to map out a strategy for advertisement. We usually advise that you use all channels available to you when you want to advertise your business.

For a start, you can start with free social media advertising. You can run free adverts on WhatsApp, facebook, twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, and other platforms.

When you have the necessary funds, you can run paid adverts on social media too which, of course, are more effective. You can also run offline adds through the print media and other media. Just make sure you are known.

  1. Hire competent staff and train them

You will need people that will work for you. Even if you start solo, you will need more hands along the line. Therefore, it is important you hire wisely as the staff you have can make or mar your business.

 

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About The Author

Ossi Samuel

Ossi Samuel is a mafian thinker, an avid reader and writer, and political analyst. Am a humanitarian and fun loving person. I love Tech by the way and will always have your time if you have any ideas. I can be reached on Facebook