Moved two small Inns from RezOvation to InnRoad and haven't regretted one moment

Within the past 6 months, I have moved two small Inns over to InnRoad from RezOvation. The Sales Team offered me a discount if I started the migration right away and although I was hesitant I agreed - No time like the present right. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of the busy season and I couldn't do it and I asked if we could postpone the migration until the end of the season and they were more than happy to comply. The move is relatively seamless but it is tedious work if you want to bring everything with you, that being said I wish some more of the functionality had been explained prior to the migration because I would have been able to make better decisions on how we specifically were going to handle different situations and I would have done things much simpler. An Inn starting from scratch would be super simple. Our Inns have unique rooms so we had to make a room type for almost every room which requires a little more time for everything that follows, but the end result is worth it. I work hard on yield management and InnRoads has many capabilities that RezOvations did not offer that I now take full advantage of. This also translates into their Booking Engine capabilities. First, you set up your seasons, then your rates, then minimum stays (discuss this with your Implementation person first as there are several ways you can set this up). It seems like a lot of steps, but once it is all in there it is super easy to work with. Adding a short term special is very easy, especially if it is a discount off of your Rack rate. You can automate some, all or none of your emails - so handy. The reports are well put together and easy to use. The search capabilities are wonderful - you can find a booking by the last four digits of their Credit card. I mainly moved over because of the cost. With RezOvations and using Bed & Breakfast.com to link to the OTA's for two properties. We have easily cut the cost in half. I thought I would be giving up a lot of functionality with the reduced cost, but I have actually gained much more control of my rates. Just do it...it's worth it. The Support team is very responsive. I have had a few little bugs, which I may have caused myself, but they have cleared them all up relatively quickly.

Pros

Very easy to use, very easy to set up.
Credit card set up is a breeze, we did switch credit card processors.
Booking Engine came together beautifully, we put both Inns together.
The link to the OTA's - three for each property (Expedia, Booking & Trip Advisor) and we only had brief troubles with one of them - was easy.
If you are having reservations about moving just take it slow and steady one piece at a time and you will get there unscathed.

Cons

My main complaint and I think this is only because I was moving over from another system, is that the functionality of things were not explained.
The Sales Department gives its pitch and then you are turned over to an Implementation Team which I think should ask a lot more questions about how you run your business than they did. We would have saved a lot of time, effort and frustration.
A simple example is in some of their List Items, you enter all your Market Segment options in setup for a drop down menu that appears on the Reservation screen. Had they told me that the drop-down list shows up in the order that you enter them I would have entered them in a much different order. Simple stuff like that would have been very handy to know in advance.

The housekeeping functionality is seriously lacking, but I haven't really seen a system that has a good one.

Saves Time and Money

Inn Road Software is simple to navigate and to learn. Although I did not start with Inn Road software integration from the beginning, it has proved to be useful in operations for the small 39 room hotel I operate. To make a long story short, I started as the GM last year in 2015; without training from my predecessor. I've not experienced such a cloud based software before, rather my strong suite was with another brand in a POS/Hospitality software. Being tossed into a new software, well. . . I only had my knowledge of computers and my wit to figure out applications being hindered and harbored in the technological era. After a month and a half, I've caught onto how the system operates. It wasn't too difficult to adapt to the generalities of how Inn Road Operates. In most areas I prefer the ease of Inn Road. Not only because I caught on fast in the areas needed to manage the hotel and all the reservation types that come wit it, but it allowed for me and others to correct ourselves prior to saving our mistakes. To explain, required information needs to be filled out prior to advancing and saving anything. It may seem archaic in regards to applications or forms have always required fields to be filled in before proceeding, but I've never had this luxury with the original operating system I've used. This has been beneficial and is a great regarding the software because it no longer requires many reports to be printed and trying to find the origin of the mistake to make corrections from the beginning. Overall, Inn Road has and continues to save time, which in return saves money, and sanity. I've always appreciated the cliché phrase "Work smarter, not harder." In my opinion, Inn Road's software allows me to accomplish this objective.

Pros

Employee Mistakes are easy to find and correct. Simple enough to remember the corrective action once experienced. For example, how to change a room using parking lot.

It has a question mark in the upper right that allows you to search for tips and read up on the features.

The customer service has never let me down. If I have a question I either call in or email, depending on my time constraints. They've been great with their help and responses to my staff and myself. If it is something that they are unable to manage or correct from their stand point, then it is passed to the IT department to investigate.

Inn Road takes care of Credit Card processing during the Audit process. We just have to run the reports and post everything from the day officially. Other than that, it is a simple print of the reports.

Cons

There are features I miss that an older software I used had; like having a DO NOT RENT LIST for trouble guests.

The software is still learning and I consider it a Beta Phase until they've incorporated many features that people are requesting to see with the software.

Lock night audit periods!! The system allows you to proceed without completing this feature, which is a blessing and a curse; not sure if it is a pro or a con at this point.

So happy we switched!

We decided to switch to InnRoad last winter and it was the best decision we made! One of my biggest fears was our initial integration, but with the help of Jeff our property setup and integration were really easy and a lot faster than I anticipated. InnRoad is extremely user friendly when it comes to the day to day operation of the system. We have had a couple glitches with the interfacing of InnRoad and Booking.com which lead to a handful of over-bookings but InnRoad seems to have fixed whatever the problem was. The one thing I think they can work on or change protocol is following up with clients who contact the 24-7 Client Services department. Once you call or contact the Client Services Department and a ticket or work order is created that is the last you hear from them until you receive an email asking to fill out a short survey referencing the closed ticket item. The survey asks you how their customer service was and if you have any comments or feedback as to what they can do better. I am the type of person who would like a phone call or short email back from tech support saying "hey, we fixed the problem - this is what went wrong, this is what we did to fix it." That way I know the issue was resolved. Otherwise I just assume the ticket is still outstanding. Once you receive the email with the survey it means everything is resolved but I just like to be in the know so next time something happens I have knowledge as to what the problem could be. That is the one and only thing I think they could improve. Oh and maybe they could design an app for my phone/tablet so I can work on the go - other than that LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Highly recommend the change if you are on the fence. It has made my life a thousands times easier.

Pros

How user friendly it is. How it has streamlined our two properties. Ability to run reports and track where guests are booking from and traveling from.

Cons

How I can't use on my iPhone or tablet. So if I'm not at my desk I can't take a reservation.

Very good. I highly recommend this software.

Pros

After looking at several other systems, including a couple of the ones aimed at large, chain hotels, innRoad seemed to be the best designed for the small, single location business. We are very new to this business, so anything that could clearly improve our operations and sales is a bonus. A few things we do that are somewhat unique require creating workarounds that aren't as precise as would be ideal, but the customization available is great. Customer support and training has been really good, as well, leaving me in no doubt that the vendor actually does care about their customers. Even on a holiday, you can get live help on the phone quickly. The channel management features got us quickly online with major OTAs so we could get loads more exposure than traditional advertising would for the same cost. Already we are up 73% in sales over the same time period in the previous year! Of course, your mileage may vary. The pricing is also very competitive. I would not say it is the lowest I found, but based on every point I compared among systems, the system returns good value for the cost.

Cons

We have a vacation rental component to the way we do business that doesn't really fit the traditional inn model. This software is clearly aimed those businesses that hew closely to the inn model. I agree that their focus is entirely appropriate, but managing the kind of group bookings we do is a little harder than it would be using a system designed for vacation rentals. That said, vacation rental-based systems are far more limited in their overall scope. My only other nit to pick is that a few of the functions scattered throughout the system don't always respond reliably, but this may be more a function of the system being web-based, rather than run from a local server.

Definitely choose Innroads when user support matters

The reason I did not rate the price / value was I'm a Reservation Agent and unaware of the rate paid, definitely not because I think it unfair. I do however feel like with the customer support they offer 24/7 being superior than any I've dealt with I wouldn't even enter price in to my decision equation. It's like having great car insurance, price is irrelevant if excellent support is available when you need it.

Pros

Ease of use, tutorials available, articles/how to guides just by searching a related term/word even if generalized. Hands down best customer support agents who don't stop if they aren't able to answer a question, instead they take it to a specialized team who proceeds with the inquiry/issue. They've followed up via email and phone every time I brought things to them. (I'm the squeaky wheel & utilize customer support a lot!) When responding to a feature availability inquiry the response has always been thorough and/or if feature was not currently an option they've taken it to a design team who has implemented it when possible. Their customer support has made reservation life so much more efficient.

Cons

A few quirky things about the program are puzzling, but not deal breakers. I was an opera user before and miss the feature of having everything about a person and all charges and history be available on one screen in pop ups ~ it was like all my sticky notes right where I could see them with the guest in front of me.

Great for our property! We're a smaller boutique hotel with 11 guest rooms currently. We're growing, adding rooms and features. InnRoad has supported and helped us significantly with our growth.

We've been using InnRoad for almost three years now. We've used three PMS/reservation systems over the last 12 years and this is by far the best we've used. As you work with them they will help you to build a better marketing presence and to optimize your mix of direct bookings on your site versus relying on third party reservation systems with high commission costs

Pros

Reliable and comprehensive reservation system for your own website and to automate and integrate connections to take reservations from third party reservation systems. Haven't encountered any over/under booking issues. We were able to set up packages and bundles to implement different rate structures and strategies (room only, bed & breakfast etc). Customer support is quite capable and impressive given the large number of smaller businesses they're serving and supporting.

Cons

User interfaces cram a lot of capability onto each screen by using small and somewhat cryptic graphical icons with limited or in some cases, no text. In the long run, this is a good thing, because it facilitates powerful quick navigation.. but, in the early going it adds to the learning curve to remember what the icons mean. But this is a MINOR issue and can be overcome fairly quickly.

Easy to adjust to

Pros

Although it is frustrating, I like that Inn Road allows one step to be completed at a time and you cannot proceed unless everything is done correctly. Working in a fast pace environment with hospitality a lot of things can be forgotten or overlooked because we multi-task upon multi-tasking. I've done so myself plenty of times, but the program is built to allow things to be done correctly the first time by having all the proper areas filled out. This way it limits the time one could waste backtracking to find a mistake made towards the beginning of the process or even at the beginning of the month.

Cons

The thing that I least like about Inn Road is that users can delete/void items that were done on a previous day and it can alter number totals for the MTD. The rule of thumb is to never change anything in the past!! Always do everything in real time and the date coincide with the date that the correction is being made; It is very important. To explain, an associate deleted the first night room charge on a guest that was staying 15 days total. What should have been done was to add a room charge adjustment that coincided with the actual date and type in the date it was correcting in the comment area. What was done was they deleted the posting and added a posting for a discounted percentage, but they changed the date for the posting to be for the first day. I hope this makes sense in text because it was confusing to locate where the issue was at first.

Very comprehensive system with great functionality

I am very impressed that I have a full property management system with back office accounting for a monthly fee and no investment. It includes a booking engine and mobile app, allowing me to have a system that compares in many ways to the property management systems of the industry giants.

Pros

The system is full of options but easy to use. Training and trainers are thorough and knowledgeable about system and patient throughout the process. They are very fast and can get you up and running quickly. Support is around the clock and case workers are there to assist with guidance. There online tools and tutorials

Cons

I signed up too early and should have waited to implement as I opened much later. Very impressive sales experience that took awhile to regain my confidence during implementation. Certain limitations, such as multiple persons in one room are not very well managed. The work around to get two names in one room is not acceptable as it alters the contact/billing information and eliminates the possibility of different prefixes for two individuals and the contact is associated with the payment processing. There are limitations to the marketing sources and sub-sources that need to be corrected, as they were clearly intended for use and were used by the first operators one can see.

huge improvements in coding and intuitive application

We have been with Innroads through several incarnations, and we are happy we stuck it out and are where we are. The systems are super cross-referenced and allow us to navigate all sorts of reservations, from daily to weekly, to extended and groups. Thank you all!

Pros

Innroads just implemented 2 chart upgrades which make the chart much more intuitive, end-user friendly and easy to check on reservations. We welcome the constant improvements, and welcome the efforts to add features and cross-referencing.
Some of Innroads customer service agents are excellent and know how to address issues on the spot - always a delight and happy to have certain agents on the phone.

Cons

Some minor suggestions:
we are waiting for a code change to ensure we do not close out a reservation with an neg/pos balance. We envision a color change when checking out so that staff and audit is alerted to the open balance.
Another suggestion is to ensure that the night tech team is trained enough to understand the issue at hand.

InnRoad is a long term partner for our busniess

Pros

I found the system to be user friendly, affordable and full of potential from day one. That fact that we were able to go live with the system in a blink of an eye due to the system being cloud based with no installation. The assigned account manager walked me through each step of the set up and continued with teaching the entire staff via conference calls. The tech support department was great with our learning curve and would assist us through each self placed hurdles. The InnRoad team assisted me in setting up accounts with all of the online travel agents (OTA's) and worked with our webmaster to link the booking engine seamlessly.
Almost immediately we began receiving bookings, the front desk agents were operating the system like pros and are "brand of one" began to grow.

Cons

I won't say that InnRoad is without it's cons, there have been some that have been addressed with upgrades and some that they are working to address...but, their pros have made them the best investment that I could have made.