Oracle Hospitality Sponsored Research Explores the State of the Central Reservation System Globally

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Feb. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Hospitality announced today the findings of a global research study – conducted by analyst firm h2c ­­– surveying more than 90 hotel chains to assess the state of central reservation systems (CRS) and the improvements needed to prioritize IT development and, ultimately, enhance guest service.

Commissioned by Oracle Hospitality, h2c's research scope focused on an online survey and expert interviews with hotel chains in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Americas and Asia Pacific – representing more than 11,000 properties and 1.7 million rooms worldwide. The primary objectives: determine chains' satisfaction level with their current CRS solution, identify missing features and functionalities, and seek recommendations to achieve improvements.

"Today's guests increasingly demand a hassle-free journey. The findings of the h2c report clearly indicate that the hotel industry is challenged to meet such expectations," said Laura Calin, vice president strategy and solutions management, Oracle Hospitality. "At Oracle, we're working diligently with our customers to simplify and integrate solutions, making it easier to leverage technology to attract new guests and win the loyalty of existing ones."

Among the most significant findings: dissatisfaction with CRS is common among hotel operators, with one third of respondents reporting they are missing more than 30% of required functionality. Furthermore, half of all chains reported missing at least one key CRS functionality.

Although respondents readily cited their CRS deficiencies, many struggled to identify means to remedy shortcomings. Such issues underscore the need for technology providers/CRS vendors to collaborate with clients to truly understand problems before driving innovation with new features.

Based on the findings, h2c forecasts that PMS and CRS solutions will continue to merge in the future, either in the form of hybrid solutions or as entirely new hotel management platforms.

The following are some of the key highlights from The Next Generation Central Reservation System – Implications for Future CRS Developments:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) poses the largest demand for CRS integration. Small and medium-sized hotel groups, with or without full-fledged loyalty programs, are under intense pressure to improve their guest experience to better compete with the personalization capabilities of global chains. CRS integration is minimal and even non-existent in some regions, making it a critical priority for CRS vendors to address – either with a proprietary product or a third-party integration.
• Internet booking engine (IBE) reservations are the greatest value driver, but underperforming. Though hotel chains are changing their online sales policy (including price disparity and/or offering free benefits) to compete against OTAs, the IBE needs to facilitate more sophisticated business rules. Such trends are mandating a reinvention of the IBE, which would enable more e-commerce functionality such as discounting packages.
• Future distribution management tasks will shift to non-CRS systems. From the hoteliers' perspective, some key CRS tasks such as availability and rates (ARI) management, will likely migrate to other systems in their IT portfolio or become part of a still-to-be-developed platform solution.

A full copy of the report can be found here.

Oracle will convene a global community of hospitality leadership at Oracle Industry Connect April 10-11, 2018 in New York, NY. Oracle Industry Connect provides attendees with intimate peer networking opportunities in addition to over 30 customer-led presentations with themes including how to move to the cloud to accelerate innovation and reduce IT complexity, mine data to gain insights and competitive advantages and capitalize on mobility to empower staff and serve guests. To learn more about Oracle Industry Connect 2018 and register to attend visit: www.oracle.com/oracleindustryconnect/

About Oracle Hospitality

Oracle Hospitality brings 35 years of experience in providing technology solutions to food and beverage operators. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to deliver exceptional guest experiences while maximizing profitability. Our solutions include integrated point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and analytics, inventory and labor management, all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility.

For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.Oracle.com/Hospitality

About h2c

h2c's services to the hospitality industry are unbiased and customer-focused. h2c's clients benefit from B2B research, Content Marketing services, hospitality technology RFPs and CONTtest, a channel manager for static hotel content.

Our Mission: h2c inspires success in hospitality commerce. Our passion to translate marketplace complexities into actionable strategies shapes our relationships. The goal: clients are confidently in control." For more information, please visit our website.

SOURCE Oracle

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