How an integrated tech stack can drive more direct bookings for hotels 

Is your hotel revenue manager stuck working overtime to manually adjust rates? Is your marketing team struggling to personalize campaigns due to data scattered across platforms?

Disconnected technology can cause major headaches across departments. 

But what if all your systems worked together seamlessly? Imagine all your systems working together seamlessly, offering real-time updates, personalized offers, and optimized rates with just a click. An integrated tech stack can streamline operations and boost direct bookings.

In this article, we explore what an integrated tech stack looks like and how it empowers hotel teams. 

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Unified vs. fragmented tech stack

What sets a unified tech stack apart from a fragmented one?

A unified tech stack is fully integrated - meaning that the tools a hotel uses seamlessly connect with each other, ideally through a centralized property management system (PMS). In a fragmented tech stack, individual systems, such as your booking engine or revenue management system (RMS), operate independently. That leads to data silos and operational inefficiencies. 

For example, a hotel uses a unified tech stack where the PMS automatically syncs booking data, rates, and availability with the RMS and guest profiles in the CRM. This enables dynamic pricing adjustments and personalized marketing campaigns. A hotel with a fragmented tech stack, on the other hand, may require manual data exports from the PMS to the RMS and CRM, resulting in delayed, outdated insights and potential errors. 

The benefits of using an integrated tech stack include:

• Real-time data sharing:  Instant, two-way communication between systems eliminates delays and ensures data is consistent and accurate. 
• Operational efficiency: Instead of comparing information or conducting manual exports, staff can spend time analyzing data and making impactful business decisions. 
• Enhanced guest experience: Data integration facilitates personalized interactions - like digital check-in, targeted offers, or relevant upsells.
• Increased revenue: Unified systems enable smarter pricing strategies and targeted marketing that drive more profitable business.

Many hotels struggle with fragmented systems due to legacy software, but today, there are systems that make unification possible. Modern systems have a suite of integrated tools and open APIs that make connecting applications simple.

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Systems in a hotel’s tech stack 

Each hotel will use different technologies depending on its priorities. Some hotels may be very high-tech and low-touch, looking to integrate a broad range of systems to streamline operations and facilitate a seamless guest experience. For the most part, however, these are the key systems in a hotel’s tech stack:

• Property management system: The central hub that connects all systems to manage reservations, check-ins, and operations.
• Booking engine: Enables bookings on a hotel’s direct platforms. 
• Channel manager: Syncs rates and availability across all distribution channels, reducing the risk of double bookings and pricing discrepancies
• Revenue management system: Optimizes pricing and inventory based on demand patterns and market data. 
• Customer relationship management system: Stores guest data to personalize marketing, loyalty, and communication. 

Additional integrations include guest messaging platforms, digital door locks, payment systems, accounting software, a central reservation system, and a point-of-sale system. 

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5 ways an integrated tech stack drives more direct bookings 

A unified system helps drive bookings of all types, from OTAs and wholesalers to corporate accounts. However, it also supports a hotel’s direct booking strategy. Here, we’ll dive into how an integrated system empowers hotels to capture more direct bookings. 

1. Better booking experience 

An integrated tech stack connects the booking engine, PMS, and channel manager, ensuring real-time updates on pricing and availability across all booking channels.This connectivity eliminates booking errors, ensuring that travelers get the most accurate rates and availability, which can otherwise frustrate potential guests. Hotels benefit from having a well-designed and optimized website, active social media channels linked to their booking engine, and metasearch ads to drive traffic away from OTAs.

2. Centralized guest data

By consolidating guest data from multiple sources, including the PMS, CRM, and POS, hotels can create detailed guest profiles. These profiles give hotels insight into guest preferences, helping them deliver personalized pre-stay communications, tailor loyalty incentives, and craft offers based on past behaviors. For example, a boutique hotel with an integrated platform can track a guest’s history of spa visits and wine tastings during a previous stay. To entice them back, the hotel can send an email offering a discounted spa package and a complimentary bottle of wine - redeemable through a direct booking code. Sending this offer during a lower-demand period can help boost occupancy while increasing guest satisfaction and loyalty. 

3. Automated marketing campaigns 

Using machine learning and AI integrated into your hotel tech stack enables hotels to launch targeted marketing campaigns automatically, reaching the right guests at the right time in their booking journey. These campaigns can range from seasonal promotions to personalized email reminders for abandoned bookings. The system would reference CRM, PMS, and RMS data to identify opportunities. For example, a beach resort may be looking to fill occupancy during the shoulder season. AI would analyze booking windows and suggest an early-bird campaign in February. The system would create a segmented list, maybe past guests who visited during this period, and send an email with an exclusive offer. That could increase direct bookings before the peak season starts.

4. Revenue optimization 

Dynamic pricing is now standard and can be optimized with the right technology. A unified system allows hotels to dynamically adjust rates based on market trends, demand fluctuations, and guest segments in real-time. Revenue managers no longer lag behind major events — they can adjust rates instantly.This also helps revenue managers with distribution. Say a nearby tech conference is coming to town. The RMS can automatically raise rates for direct bookings while shutting down inventory on third parties for the duration of the event. 

5. Cross-functional collaboration 

With unified systems, you also have unified analytics to track direct booking patterns and performance, evaluate guest behavior, and identify trends. This data empowers teams to refine strategies, optimize pricing, and improve the guest experience, fostering stronger alignment between departments. Hotels can use unified reports to identify the highest-performing direct channels and the promotions that drive results. For example, insights may reveal that loyalty members book directly more often when presented with bundled offers (i.e., a weekend spa getaway). The marketing team can then craft new campaigns promoting these perks to help increase direct bookings. 

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Drive more direct bookings

A unified tech stack transforms the way hotels operate, enabling data sharing, personalized marketing, dynamic pricing, and seamless booking experiences. By optimizing collaboration, data access, and guest personalization, your hotel can attract and convert more direct bookings – while fostering guest loyalty and maximizing revenue.

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About Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds is a leading platform that redefines the concept of PMS for the hospitality industry, supporting tens of thousands of properties across more than 150 countries. Designed from the ground up to be unified and scalable, the award-winning Cloudbeds platform integrates built-in solutions that streamline hotel operations, finance, distribution, marketing, guest experience, and revenue management.

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Visito & Cloudbeds

Visito is a conversational AI platform designed to enhance guest engagement for modern hotels. Through a seamless integration with Cloudbeds, Visito helps properties automate up to 97% of guest questions across messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. This integration empowers hotels to provide faster support, reduce operational costs, boost direct bookings, and deliver a personalized guest experience – all within the Cloudbeds ecosystem.