Little Hotelier

Benefits:

I like to be able to view the calendar wherever I am, in order to check availability . My wife and I also give it a quick look in the morning and plan for the day. Second I love the reports key. I can check income, statistics and break them down in so many ways in seconds. It is great to be able to rattle off numbers to my boss at the drop of a hat. Third I have been very successful filling up rooms by running last minute specials on the OTAs. It only takes a few seconds to advertise world wide . I can also cancel them just as fast.

Drawbacks:

I would like to be able to remove any reservation or payment in cause of last minute change. Once you check someone in you can't reverse it. I would like to have a master code to check credit card information instead of having to go to my e-mail for a new code each time. One other very small item that is just a pet peeve but I wish it would auto format the phone numbers.

In sum:

After spending one month with front office manager we added OTAs. Two days before our second month ended I had to get surgery on my foot. I am now in the 5th week of having to spend 7 weeks with my foot elevated 23 1/2 hours a day. Because of little hotelier I have been able to run the office and manage the OTAs from my bed and the couch. July is traditionally one of our 3 slowest months. Despite my Recuperation restrictions we closed July with 87.6 % occupancy. How many times do you get to lay in bed for a month and earn a bonus.

Benefits:

The integrated features that link to all channel and our website, saving an enormous amount of time through automatics inventory updates and automatic emails to guests

Drawbacks:

The booking window could be expanded especially with the disruption of Covid some guests are tying to book more than 2 years from the current date..

In sum:

Very positive, the software generally suits all our needs as a small property and the support team is always very helpful.

Benefits:

The customer service team is extremely helpful

Drawbacks:

As the manager and sole operator of the system with the phone app I do not have the ability to make a reservation, change the length of a stay, build out a quote. or any of the most basic operations of the job. the phone app is only a window to view what is happening with the system and does not let me alter anything in the system. A broken tool. The reporting functions are EXTREMELY limited, we only have 19 rooms and i have to compile multiple reports just to compare year to date revenue. A broken tool. As the sole operate during the winter season i built the Lodge Email to receive the customer notifications and my business email to receive the management notifications. the customer notifications are full of vital information that the management notifications do not have, like the actual date the guest is going to be staying with us. Again, a broken tool.

In sum:

barley enough to do the job, and for context, we are a seasonal 19 room golf lodge, and it barley gets the job done.

Benefits:

Little Hotelier makes my life so much easier managing different OTA channels and is so easy to use and navigate. I would highly recommend to any small to medium sized B&B or Hotel.

Drawbacks:

The end of financial year reports for forward bookings is not great

Benefits:

Little Hotelier recently upgraded their software. It has helped make it very user friendly and easy to navigate. Site is set up in a logical way so that drop down boxes are clearly explained and navigated. When we get a booking we immediately get an email with detailed and clear information on the guests. Very easy for people to use who are not that confident with using websites. Other channel managers l have used in the past were extremely complicated and way to many dropdown boxes which made to very confusing.

Drawbacks:

I find when l first go into the site their are way to many steps until you finally get in. Needs to have some kind of shortcut.

In sum:

We run a small accommodation. Little Hotelier is the third channel manager we have used and have been with them for many years now. If l have any problems that l cannot fix they are always their to talk too on the phone in order to solve any problems.

Benefits:

The software is extremely simple to use, which is exactly what we needed. With just a little training, our staff is able to use it intuitively. Simplicity is key for our staff

Drawbacks:

Because it is very simple, it could use some additional features such as adding Agents or being able to split a bill. Few issues here and there, but it's good having chat to talk to staff when it's available. Our other PMS software is in India, but they have staff at northamerican hours A big problem is the time of services since the staff is in Australia or somewhere with a total different time zone , to practical for northamerica. They need at least couple of staff living in this continent working remotely to attend clients needs

In sum:

Great experience so far happy with it,

Benefits:

Ease of use solved the booking chart problem

Drawbacks:

nothing to dislike great product but price

In sum:

awesome But note i have been offered a new sytem at a lot less than LH

Benefits:

It was easy to set up and is easy to use (for a non-technical person!) and it streamlines our booking process. It allowed me to set up an 'enquire only' on the booking engine so I can vet my guests and gave me the ability to use a pricing calculator for booking enquiries and the use of a compliant credit card system. It was good to link it to my Facebook page. It is very handy to have it on my mobile to use whenever and wherever I like.

Drawbacks:

My only problem is that it's not a channel manager and the calendar doesn't link to Air BnB and Stayz - I have to change the calendars individually for every booking. That's because I don't take direct online bookings and need to vet guests first, but it would be good to link the calendar bookings to i-Cal.

Benefits:

Great customer service, very customizable, integrates seamlessly with our webpage

Drawbacks:

We have clients who speak English and Spanish. By changing the language in front desk there is a long delay before the language change is reflected on the invoices and hotel confirmations. It would be ideal if there was a way to detect the language of the user and send documents in their language of choice for best communication.

In sum:

We recently transitioned our property to this software and we are pleased with the software. As with any system, there are little things that could be adjusted or added that would make this a 5 star system, but at this time they are not implemented or available. Housekeeping report is very basic. Adjusting the rates is very easy and pushes out to all connected channels correctly. Guest emails and communication is good but could be better and more customization would be an added benefit. Adjusting inventory is a great feature as well and you can control what the OTA's get and stop sells and other features as well. Monthly sales and tax reporting is very basic and needs some added calculations for different tax rates so no manual calculation would be necessary. Color coding could be better to help show room status and payment status is done with a flag, but color coding is easier to read. As one review stated earlier, the reporting is very slim and lacking and mine does not work correctly, but I can get the numbers from other parts of the reporting or do a manual calculation and get the number I am looking for but its most likely a little bug that would be easy to fix. Overall, we are very pleased with this software and the integration with OTA channels and our website works like a charm. The only other complaint I would have would be the integration with the payment processor. We are doing this manually and it is working fine but integration with the software would be extremely great and save errors when reconciling. They say they are working on getting relationships for this service, so we will wait and see how that goes. I would recommend this company to new and future companies who want to integrate and move to a computer system for smaller properties.