How SiteMinder Exchange solves the hotel connectivity conundrum

Unfortunately, connectivity and communication between these new tech solutions and property management systems (PMS’) has been a challenge from the start. Often, developers of tech solutions had to spend a lot of time trying to get their programs to talk to the many PMS options out there.

This took a lot of resources away from further developing and improving tech tools and made it difficult for hoteliers to embrace new technology. Why? Because there was always the risk that a new app wouldn’t be able to integrate with their PMS properly. It’s not a surprise that this issue caused the hospitality industry to be slow in adopting innovations.

Now, the global hotel industry’s leading cloud platform, SiteMinder, is solving the connectivity issue with third-party providers and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) outside of PMS once and for all with its introduction this year of SiteMinder Exchange. It’s a powerful yet simple solution that enables seamless connectivity between a hotel PMS and various hotel applications.

Previously, building integrations took a lot of time and resources and had to be done separately for every PMS and third-party application available. Now, with SiteMinder Exchange, there’s a practical solution for creating point-to-point connections among PMSs and hundreds of SaaS options.

In short, SiteMinder Exchange:

• offers effortless integration
• is suitable for multiple partner systems, including Oaky
• is free for hotels that use SiteMinder..

This is great because now hoteliers can adopt new software solutions and connect them to their PMS immediately without having to worry about whether or not their systems can exchange information.SiteMinder’s SVP global partnerships, Dai Williams, says,

Having pioneered SaaS-based online room distribution solutions to work seamlessly with 250+ PMSs, the team at SiteMinder understands the importance of embracing technology. It delivers over 220,000 bookings daily and generates US$26.5 billion in hotel revenue each year. Along with its many solutions, SiteMinder provides efficient, real-time data synchronization of rates and inventory, so hoteliers can automate the flow of information between their selected third-party distribution channels and their PMS.

Thanks to seamless connectivity between the SiteMinder Exchange platform and Oaky, data can be collected more easily and made available to hoteliers. This new option of having data on-demand helps hoteliers better understand customer demand, the customer journey and how people respond to upselling deals.

In Oaky’s case, the improved sync between the upsell solution and the PMS means that it is easier to process upselling emails, log responses directly in the PMS and evaluate how recipients react to the offers they receive.

These insights give hoteliers a chance to improve their upselling strategy by learning from data collected directly from their guests. That way, not only the success rate of upselling e-mails can be improved but, more importantly, the guests’ experience will be better thanks to direct communication between Oaky and the PMS.

“What we love about upselling, and what makes it so difficult, is the elegance of being relevant without being intrusive. To a large extent, that elegance is fuelled by a combination of PMS data and guest behavioural data. With SiteMinder Exchange we feed two birds with one scone, making hoteliers and guests happier in the process.” - Erik Tengen, Co-Founder of Oaky.

The birth of SiteMinder Exchange is a huge step forward for the hospitality industry as a whole. Even if you are just doing a trial run of a new product, the integration works, making it easier to shop around for those who are curious to try new SaaS for their company. That fact that there is no additional cost for those already using a connected system is just the dot on the I.

Apart from hotel staff, SiteMinder Exchange also helps hospitality solutions providers. There’s no more need to build a new integration for every single PMS, making a connection to SiteMinder Exchange a cost-effective solution that leaves developers more time and energy to cook up another innovation.

All this will help the world of hospitality move forward more quickly and finally harness the power and potential modern technology can offer the industry.

SiteMinder is the global hotel industry’s leading guest acquisition platform, ranked among technology pioneers for its smart and simple solutions that put hotels everywhere their guests are, at every stage of their journey.

In an age of rising choice and accessibility for curious travellers, SiteMinder is the name synonymous with the belief that technology can empower any hotel to win in a consumer-led world and unleash their potential. SiteMinder is the global hotel industry's leading guest acquisition platform, ranked among technology pioneers for its smart and simple solutions that put hotels everywhere their guests are, at every stage of their journey. It's this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of more than 30,000 hotels, across 160 countries, to generate in excess of 80 million reservations worth over US$26 billion in revenue for hotels each year. For more information, visit www.siteminder.com.