• Apr 4, 2025 modified: Apr, 04 2025

Alternatives to Booking.com for booking systems

The reality for some accommodation providers is that they are compelled to use Booking.com to maintain accommodation sales.
One provider said -:

I have to pay 26% to Booking.com to keep my business running

Hence some people suggest to do the research with Booking.com and book directly with the hotel. There is typically a 10% to 25% commission paid for bookings in Australia.

Calendaring systems are complex

One of the most difficult computer programming tasks is calendars-:

• Timezones
• Daylight Saving
• Leap Years
• Regional Public Holidays
• Gaps between appointments
• Recurring appointments
• Availability

Our Appointment Booking System front-end

On top of that calendaring system complexity is email systems. Spam and spam filters have caused issues world wide. Properly authenticating an email makes it near impossible for a system like Booking.com to do anything but work arounds to communicate between the client the hotel and the booking. You may leave a message on your booking that needs to be relayed to the accommodation provider. Hence we can add language difficulties to that as well.

If using a system like Booking.com you still need to maintain your own system and co-ordinate it with the online system.

We take a look at Booking.com, combining Booking.com with Preno (Hotel Management Software) and our solution that combines booking management and SEO.

Using Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the world's leading online travel agencies (OTAs). It facilitates booking accommodations, flights, rental cars, and other travel-related services. Founded in 1996 in the Netherlands, Booking.com has since become one of the largest and most well-known platforms for booking accommodations worldwide.

Booking.com is known for its user-friendly interface, extensive inventory, competitive pricing, and flexible booking options, such as free cancellation on many properties. It also provides user reviews and ratings for each accommodation, helping travellers make informed decisions.

Booking.com is a trusted name in the online booking industry. It's a popular and reliable platform that attracts millions of visitors each month and maintains a strong presence in multiple markets worldwide. Its extensive reach, diverse range of accommodations, competitive pricing, and reputation for reliability and convenience make it a top choice for travellers.

Integration with Preno

Preno, a cloud-based property management system (PMS), is designed with your convenience in mind. It integrates various functions such as reservations, front desk management, housekeeping, billing, and reporting into one cohesive platform, making your operations smoother and more efficient.

Preno can be integrated with Booking.com through a channel manager or a two-way connectivity solution. Here's how Preno can be used alongside Booking.com:

1 Channel Manager Integration

Preno can be integrated with a channel manager that supports connectivity with Booking.com. A channel manager acts as a bridge between the hotel's property management system (PMS), like Preno, and various online distribution channels, including Booking.com.

This integration allows Preno to automatically update room availability, rates, and inventory on Booking.com in real-time. When a booking is made on Booking.com, the channel manager communicates with Preno to ensure that the reservation is reflected accurately in the PMS.

2 Two-Way Connectivity

Alternatively, Preno may offer direct two-way connectivity with Booking.com. This means that Preno has built-in functionality to connect directly to Booking.com's system, allowing seamless data synchronization between the two platforms.

With two-way connectivity, updates such as new bookings, cancellations, and modifications made on Booking.com are automatically reflected in Preno and vice versa. This eliminates the need for a separate channel manager and simplifies the management of online reservations.

Regardless of the method used for integration, here are some benefits of using Preno alongside Booking.com:

• Efficient Management: Integrating Preno with Booking.com streamlines the management of online reservations by automating the update of availability and inventory across channels. This helps prevent overbooking and ensures that room information is always up to date.
• Increased Visibility: By listing rooms on Booking.com, hotels can increase their visibility to a global audience of travellers who use the platform to search for accommodations. Integration with Preno ensures that the hotel's inventory is effectively marketed and accessible to potential guests.
• Centralized Operations: With Preno serving as the central hub for managing reservations, hotels can streamline operations and reduce the need for manual data entry. This centralized approach enables hotel staff to focus on providing excellent guest experiences rather than managing multiple systems separately.

How does this benefit your customers?

Integrating Preno with platforms like Booking.com makes things easy for your customers. They can quickly see what rooms are available, get instant confirmation when they book, and you can communicate with them effortlessly.

Plus, having all their details stored in Preno means you can give them personalized service and make their check-in and check-out smooth. It's all about making their experience as seamless and enjoyable as possible!

Overall, seamlessly integrating Preno with platforms like Booking.com can enhance your customers' booking experience, streamline your operations, and deliver exceptional service at every touchpoint of their journey.

Integrating Preno with platforms like Booking.com is about more than making your job easier as an accommodation provider; it's about enhancing the entire customer experience.

With seamless booking, instant confirmation, personalized service, and smooth check-ins and check-outs, you're not just providing a place to stay—you're creating unforgettable memories and building lasting relationships with your guests. So, why wait?

Booking management and SEO - our solution

In 2006 we built an accommodation booking system for an owner of several units in a Gold Coast Apartment (the tallest in the world at the time). An immediate success, the website out ranked the building's own website. As a professional SEO anything was possible in the 2000s. It wasn't uncommon to outrank major international corporations on their own keywords.

The front-end of our system was built in Flash (no longer supported in most browsers) - this provided a user friendly visible interface. My back-ground was user interface design coupled with Object Oriented Programming in Java. Java has techniques of building 'objects' that can be re-used. The language itself can streamline things like comparing one date to another with incredible efficiency.
So in short we built a very effective calendaring back-end system that could be re-used for any booking functionality.

Later I specialised in payment gateways and eCommerce and specifically using Stripe.com payment. Stripe is secure with great support of legacy systems.
If this type of modulation was used for building homes in Australia we would not have a housing crisis.
Your house would evolve into a better home.

Relying on external systems, necessarily means having the rug pulled out from under you - (like building a front-end in Flash which is no longer supported in most browsers).
Some bank payments systems were not made well and needed to be trashed rather than updated. ("Our system support for x ends on [insert date here]")
Hence building an adaptable booking system capable of being extended efficiently is our aim.
Combining that booking system with automated email and virtually no intervening systems to rely on simplifies maintenance.
Using servers set-up by experts that are monitored daily reduces maintenance.

One specialty front-end we use is https://fullcalendar.io/ which can combine standards like iCalender (iCal), Google Calendars and any calendaring information from external systems if formatted in JSON (a universal transport system). Also websites we create use the Bootstrap CSS system - so formatting of pages can use HTML templates created using that system. (So beautiful efficiently made designs)
Websites are complex just including images for a property requires a level of skill.

Calendaring systems often need to include relevant public holidays. These can vary from region to region Brisbane show day is not the same as Gold Coast show day. Our solution is to allow JSON data to be create via ai and easily integrated. A simple system can have powerful time saving features.

We don't build 1000's of these calendaring websites and rely on a team of OS telephone operators for support. I provide support directly.
A typical issue may be the client entering a wrong email address - that can upset even the best system - fixing it should not take an hour on the phone and 10 verification procedures.
Our systems will never be as complex as systems made by large teams eg Wix, Squarespace, WordPress etc they are built to be reliable and as simple as possible.

If you have read all of this article - Calendars are anything but simple and our system are ideal for some smaller operators but not all.
They do have nearly 20 years of development behind them and 25+ years of SEO experience. The intention is to find niches where accommodation providers can save on commissions.

We charge a flat monthly fee starting at $880 per month - no commissions - no hosting fees - everything is on your website.
That fee includes SEO designed to make your website attractive to visitors and bypass the need for external booking conglomerates.
There is not much to lose because you could allocate a number of rooms to your website and our system and transition away from commissions on accommodation sales.