Little Hotelier

Pros: Its easy to use and navigate and customer service is excellent, I like the team and the management and that they are based in Australia.

Cons: I am sorry to leave negative feedback as customer service is excellent but I have tried to contact directly 4 times (twice of those in writing) to prompt your software development team to fix some really basic functionality issues:
1. Automated Guest Letters - This is a basic function available in any hotel management system but Little Hotellier is the most limited I have seen.
- There are no "fields" that you can import from the booking itself. For example, if you want to set up an automated "guest arrival letter", you cannot import guest name, check in date or check out date, or check in time. What is the point of this letter if it needs to be so generic that it cannot confirm with a guest their name, date of arrival or anything specific about their booking? I am honestly so surprised by this as the other systems we use are much more advanced than this. This means I must leave a note in my diary to send a personalised letter to each guest on their day of check in confirming their booking details.
- The automated letters do not leave a note with the reservation itself. Again any other system I have used, you can click on the reservation and see the correspondance they have received from us. Its impossible to know if they received any letters or not.
- No option for custom letters.
If this is not sorted out soon I will have no option but to change systems as we are getting busier and its making our procedures so clunky and inefficient.

Comments: The only reason I wouldn't recco it now is because of the lack of tech support on the weekends. There's no excuse for the NO HELP on weekends. That's when we are the busiest and it's frustrating being hung out to dry with no help. What do you mean...your answering service says we are closed for the weekend....that's horrible to do to your customers who count on you to keep their balls in the air...I need to charge cards and get information and check for availability...Right now I can't stand this program.

Pros: I'm not saying anything above the software. I've read other peoples' comments and I am agreeing with them that it could be better. For me having 4 rooms and a private suite of 2 rooms...which means 5 total...and being the first online reservation program that I've ever used I was pleased...but no help on weekends? What's that about. That's nonsense. We in the wine country mostly have weekend visitors and that's when I might have a problem. I cannot sign in. I type in the name...then the password and enter and it acts like it's going to load and then reverts back to sign in again...I need to use my computer for this because the app doesn't provide the same capabilities. Changes cannot be made using the phone app. It's too small on my phone. It doesn't print out the same either. I can't get the cc# using the phone app. Can you? If anybody can provide help please let me know because I'm getting mad!

Cons: I haven't been able to access the program from my computer for three or so weeks. They've taken away the person who used to manage my account and she was a Gem. Return call right after her morning meetings...never let me hang. Even called me one time on a weekend. I thought can you imagine that....but not even a tech available on a weekend..my gosh...I can't use a program without assistance when I need it...could me once in a year but when you need help with running your business that is when you need it. Frustrated here in Plymouth, CA.

Comments: I am sorry, the team is really supportive. and I am sorry to send in this negative review. I like the overall tone of the app. the calendar part and the synking. but there are some INCREDIBLE FAULTS in the RESERVATION LIST page I tried so many times to send out the message that the PAYMENTS PART needs some URGENT and I believe essential adjustments. I wasted time training, and setting up. and now I find out that it is totally hidden in THE RESERVATION LIST who paid and who paid what. in the reservation list there is only the TOTAL AMONT DUE SHOWING, AND THE COLUMNS of the DEPOSIT AND THE BALANCE are hidden. this results in continuos risky, time consuming work inside the CALENDAR TIMELINE opening and closing all the bookings to find out who payd and who hasn't, who was processed in their credit cards and who sent in their bank transfers. Where I work (boutique hotel in Brazil) there are no automatic processings of credit cards. so unless you have this feature you should not use this app. and the team of littlehotelier should not advise to use their app from the beginning I believe if you do not have API services. which is what I really advise to do in Littlehotelier future because it was quite clarly stated to me that to adjust this function is not in their programs. which is quite amazing, in a negative way. everything is set up to offer clarity of administrative vision. but for some reason they do not want to open up the columns of the deposit and the final payments. after many messages the best reply I received was that Littlehoteliers are waiting for international similar requests. I had the feeling that they were playing around with their start up forgetting that their clients' time is their focus.

Comments: 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.

Pros: 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.

Cons: 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.

Comments: 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.