100% Online started 2003
The following four paragraphs are taken directly from Reservation Nexus web pages.
It is a good starting point because they have a pretty good self description.
Quote:
Don't be fooled by other hotel software and guest management systems. By the time
you get their "complete software solution" on all your computers, with all their
hidden fees, support licenses and maintenance plans, you have gone over budget and
spent thousands of dollars. Then, as new software versions come out for your hotel,
you are charged again and for each computer. Enjoy our all-in-one bed and breakfast
software or hotel software solution.
On the other side, you may find a system that is unbelievably affordable that makes
you wonder how they stay in business or if they have a side job. You come to find
out why it's so cheap when you have to set the thing up yourself and with no help.
Then there are "extra" costs if you want to do everything you need such as guest
management.
Reservation Nexus is everything you need in one system. Reservation Nexus is 100%
web based and can be accessed at work, at home and on vacation. There are no additional
costs for having it on all your inn's computers. There is no software to install
or upgrade. Reservation Nexus is a living system, with new innovations every quarter.
With Reservation Nexus, you avoid having to buy a new software version every couple
of years. There is no complicated installation, setup or learning curve.
Reservation Nexus has no hidden fees or commissions, just a low monthly or yearly
investment. All setup and training are free! Why? Reservation Nexus delivers. We
have found that over 90% of all inns, hotels, and bed and breakfasts that try Reservation
Nexus, are blown away and become long term raving fans.
Ok, enough, I give. Who would want to go anywhere else I
am in love.
As stated above this company is 100% internet based. That simply means that
there is no hardware requirement, you do not ever install or upgrade their software,
and it is available to you where ever you have internet access.
They do ask you to do business their way because although there are many ways to
configure their pages to your particular look or theme, the software is basically
built to suite everyone under one umbrella, and requires you to switch from how
you used to run your business to the a system of how you they believe you should
run your business.
Now if you are a new Inn and do not have an existing system this es a great
way to start. If you have a successful business already and have at least
one other employee or family member helping you, then you need to find a way to
transition from how you are currently doing business to this new system.
For instance, if you keep all your reservations in a calendar ledger by hand, you
will be required to enter all those reservations and any new ones that start coming
in to the Nexus system so that when their system goes live, your new internet customers
will not book rooms that you have already booked. You may also keep the customer
names, addresses, etc. in another ledger and use an invoice number to reference
their reservation in the reservation ledger. Again, you will need to enter
all of those customers and their information with Nexus before you can start using
any email, billing, reminders, accounting, or other neat features they offer.
You cannot block reserve the rooms without the customer information.
Again, if you are a very small B&B with a small client list and few future reservations
to deal with then this is a great way to go. With their scaled monthly
payments and income guarantee you are getting good value. If you have a lot
of rooms and a large clientele then you could be looking at some real work and time
spent before you make the switch.
I have no first hand knowledge about this company except that it is very large
and so you should ask some questions before you buy.
Do you get a different person each time you call? Do they have regular business
hours or can you call 24/7? What about email, is it always a form letter or
pdf file of FAQs, or do you get personal attention?
In general, personal service and quick responses can be limited with large
companies. Imagine if you have thousands of customers and hundreds of setups
going on a month. I doubt their claim for great service.
Also with large complex systems that offer many tools, charts, emails, notification
etc. the training cycle will be large. You might need weeks to a couple of
months to learn all this stuff since you may have a pretty busy schedule just running
your own business and not have a lot of time to learn a completely new system.
Find out if there is a way to continue using any of your existing computer
tools, like POS, accounting or in house reservations and then gradually switch over
with time.
Your rewards will be better with 100% online systems because of the unlimited access
from any where on earth, no maintenance or backups needed, and the industry standards
and practices employed in management and accounting. If you are not that good
at business, then this type of service will train you and make it easier to run
your business. Whether or not you need the business tools, you will definitely
do better with your own online reservations system as more and more of your customers
book rooms online.
If you pay commission to have your rooms reserved through a service, there is a
industry trend to be aware of. The trend for some customers to bypass the
big travel agencies and book directly with your business. This is good to
keep in mind in order to save money and get better information to your customer
on your rooms and location. Depending on what kind of inn or business
you are taking reservations with, and what service you use, the number of customers
that will goto your website directly will vary. You can also offer rooms at
a lower cost when selling direct, saving your customer money for reserving with
you directly.
Reservation Nexus is a complete system that will satisfy most if not all
of your business needs. Their size alone tells you that they know what they
are doing and are reliable. The internet is definitely where the future resides
and you will find more and more companies competing for this market.
Shop around and do not be afraid to ask questions, as you will learn a lot about
a company this way, and find out quickly how flexible or helpful they might be.
With any commitment of your time, money, and energy you need to be sure that you
will not be sorry and that you checked out all the claims before getting started.
Feed Back on this Article:
I used reservation
Nexus with my first bed and breakfast two years ago. I have always had the exact
same person that I worked with every time. He knows me. He calls me if he sees something
I may have missed on the site, he helps me customize the system 100% to mach MY
method of doing business. They have even added
features because of my suggestions.
The system is so easy to use that even anyone with no
computer knowledge can do it with very little training. I spent about half an hour
to maybe an hour on the phone for my training. Their customer support is amazing.
Any time I called my guy, I either got him right away for left a message and he
called me back very promptly. They even have 24 hour emergency support. All of this
is included in the service, unlike the up to $400 for customer support that many
other companies such as Renovations charges.
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