A booking engine is an application on hotel websites and social media pages that captures and processes direct bookings. It’s a key way to drive bookings that don’t rely on third party channels like OTAs.

A booking engine will allow you to increase the amount of direct bookings you take. Instead of accepting direct bookings only via email, phone, or walk-in, you can take direct bookings from your own website (or direct booking webpage if you don’t yet have a website). This is important because travel bookings are predominantly being made online today, and you’ll be able to make more money for your business.

Direct.ac is designed specifically for owners, operators, and managers of B&Bs, boutique hotels, and other small properties. Our booking engine is easy to use and navigate on various devices, and it comes with 24/7 support. It’s part of an all-in-one technology solution that also includes a best practice hotel website, secure payment processing capabilities, front office system software, and online distribution channel manager, making it easier for you to drive more direct bookings, and manage your hotel from a single platform.

While a channel manager helps manage and oversee your connected booking channels, your booking engine will act as one of the channels being managed. When it comes to updating rates and managing bookings in your channel manager, your booking engine sits alongside other channels like Airbnb or Booking.com.

Metasearch sites are innovating fast and gaining ground on OTAs, winning over more and more travellers. With big metasearch players like Google and TripAdvisor acting as both a place to market your property and accept bookings, it’s a real opportunity for your business.
Small properties connected to Google Hotel Ads generally get 16% more direct bookings.

Google Hotel Ads is growing very quickly. Wherever a user is making travel-related decisions, Google surfaces hotel ads to help them compare pricing and booking options. Google Hotel Ads displays your hotel information like availability and rates — on Google Maps, Search and Assistant.

You can accept bookings through your booking engine on your own hotel website and your social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. You can also make your booking engine part of your email marketing strategy, and send customised emails to prospective guests with a link to your booking engine, so they can make a direct booking.

Guests interact with your booking engine through a ‘Book now’ button or similar call-to-action on your website or social media sites. Then they’re prompted to choose their checkin and check-out dates, and the number of guests staying. Based on these choices, your booking engine will display available rooms and rates. Guests can view room details, including photos and amenities, then choose the best room and rate for their budget and tastes. Before confirming the booking, guests can review their reservation details, including the total cost, any applicable taxes and fees, and cancellation policies. To complete their booking, guests must enter their personal information, including their name, email address, phone number, and payment details. Some booking engines also provide the option to create an account to store guest preferences and booking history. Once all necessary information is provided, guests can confirm their booking, and get a booking confirmation by email.

Integrating a booking engine to your website can happen in a number of ways. If you are using Direct.ac as an all-in-one solution, you will have a website builder and direct booking engine included, which will provide seamless integration. If you are using your own website or a website created by popular methods such as Wix, you’ll need to add a button and link to your booking engine manually – Direct.ac has guides for this if you need help.

You can customise your booking engine to have as much information on it as you want—from detailed room information, photos, and feature lists to property information, T&Cs and policies. To get online quickly, simply use your booking engine as a direct booking webpage and start taking those valuable direct reservations. Your Direct.ac webpage will be indexed by search engines like Google and Bing, making it visible to guests looking for accommodations online.  Plus, you can customise your web address (URL), and add it to your Google Business profile so it gets listed on Google Places.