The journey to improve your hotel’s operations and guest experience often begins with the Hotel Reservation system. In this world of hotel management, an approach towards open-source hotel management software can be a game changer.
In this blog, we will look at the guide to open-source hotel management.
Open Source Software (OSS) refers to computer programs whose source code is made available to the public. This helps users to view, modify, and distribute the software freely.
The term “open source” focuses on collaboration, transparency, and involvement of the community.
In terms of hotel management software, choosing open-source software helps you to utilize software more efficiently. Because the source code is publically accessible, the hoteliers can customize it according to their specific needs.
One of the major advantages of open-source hotel management software is its cost-effectiveness. The source code is freely available and there are no licensing fees involved.
So, small hotel chains with budget constraints can benefit from this.
The hotel industry spreads widely across the globe. It covers various ethnicities and cultures. So, every hotel has its own way of greeting their guest.
With open-source software for your hotel, you can tailor the system to meet your unique requirements. You can easily add new essential features or make changes to the user interface of your website using open-source software.
By this, you can showcase your unique way of hospitality to your guests.
Generally, open-source projects have a community of developers and users. This community support offers a vast amount of knowledge.
If you don’t have the technical knowledge, you can always find the solution to your problem in simple steps. Just follow the steps provided by the community and you are good to go.
You don’t always have to rely on technical support which can charge you a hefty amount just to resolve the simple issues.
Also, you can stay updated with the latest features of the software. You can even contribute towards the improvement of the software.
One of the most common misconceptions about open-source software is security. A large community of developers that constantly monitor, develop, and enhance the code. This makes the open-source software highly secure.
If any bugs or vulnerabilities occur in the software, the community of developers addresses it quickly. If you have some technical knowledge, you can use technical documentation or the public forum to address those issues.
Installing any open-source software is very easy. There is plenty of documentation, video tutorials and technical support available. However, there are some common steps involved in installing any open-source software. They are as follows:
The first step involves the downloading of the software. You can visit the software’s official website or find its GitHub repository. Look into the download or releases section and download the software for your operating system. (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Now, this step may vary for different software. For many softwares, you need to download a compressed file in ZIP or TAR format. Then you need to extract its content and paste it into the system directory.
You can easily install the open-source software by referring to the installation documentation.
Once you have successfully installed the software, you need to run it. You can execute a command in the terminal or find the software in your system’s application list.
Moreover, if you are someone who doesn’t have sound technical knowledge, there’s no need to worry. You can always opt for an installation service.
With this service, the technical experts will do all the installation on your behalf with some nominal charge.
As we have already discussed at the beginning of this blog, you can make changes in the source code as per your needs. However, there are many other software you can integrate into it. They are as follows:
If you are a hotel owner, there’s a good chance you also own a restaurant. A point-of-sale system (POS) can help to integrate all guest charges such as stay, food, and other services into a single bill. Moreover, you can track your inventory and manage your stock of items in your restaurant. POS also offers sales insight to track your hotel’s performance.
No matter how good your hospitality is, to sustain in this industry you need to keep track of your hotel’s revenue. A revenue management system provides you insights into your hotel’s performance through various reports and analytics dashboards.
Once your hotel starts gaining more attention, it will attract more tourists from different countries. You need a gateway to send and receive payments across those different countries.
With open-source hotel management software, you can easily integrate any preferred payment gateway of your choice. This will make payment processing in your hotel much easier.
An open-source hotel management software is a game changer for not only small-scale hotels but also for big hotel chains. With the endless options for customizations and the capability to integrate with multiple other software such as hotel channel manager and reservation management system potential of open source hotel management system is endless.
This was all about open-source hotel management software. Hope you enjoyed the reading.
One open-source hotel management software we recommend is QloApps – A Free hotel booking software
Feel free to share your suggestions with us on the QloApps forum.
If you need any technical assistance kindly raise a ticket.
