Increase your direct bookings with an online booking engine, commission-free.

Turn website visitors into paying guests with a customisble booking engine. Offer guests a modern direct booking experience with seamless payment processing and capitalise on commission-free bookings!

We’re a Google Hotels connectivity partner. Drive your ad traffic directly to RoomRaccoon’s booking engine.

Provide the fastest, smoothest direct booking experience

With real-time availability and a seamless 5-step booking process, guests can enjoy a consistent, personalised brand experience that tops OTAs.

STEP 1

The guest specifies their stay dates and number of guests, including adults and/or children grouped by age.

STEP 2

The guest can select the most suitable room or multiple rooms based on the available rate plans.

STEP 3

The guest can also conveniently choose to include add-ons like a bottle of wine or a flower bouquet to personalise their stay.

STEP 4

After selecting "book now," the guest is directed to a secure payment page to complete the payment process. If the guest has stayed with you previously, the system will recognize them and can save time by automatically filling in their details.

STEP 5

The guest receives a booking confirmation email with information about their upcoming stay.

Popular Premium Upgrades

More exciting tools to level up your operations. Set up your property for success with tools and features that drive better-performing businesses and guest engagement.

Multi-property booking engine

Show your availability across multiple
properties from a single screen.

Showcase all your properties on a single booking engine page. The convenient dropdown menu lists your property locations, maximising occupancy across your entire portfolio.

Raccoon Price Checker

Spotlight your direct booking rates.

The nifty price comparison widget shows your active rates on popular booking channels (Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, and Airbnb). This way, guests know they’re getting your best deal directly.

Hotel Website Builder

Build & publish your website effortlessly.

RoomRaccoon’s hotel website builder allows you to customise one of our stunning hotel-tailored templates to quickly and easily get your website live. Explore our range of services available.

White-Label Booking Engine

Maintain a consistent brand experience.

We offer white labeling services to remove RoomRaccoon branding from the booking engine and all associated documents so you can create a brand-centric booking experience.

Actively encourage direct bookings with revenue-generating features.

RoomRaccoon's booking engine not only captures online bookings but actively boosts direct bookings through a range of features engineered to turn lookers into instant bookers.


Buff & Fellow drives guest spending with add-ons in their booking engine to provide added value and enjoy more revenue.

Booking engine appearance
and booking conditions

  • Customise your booking engine colors and logo.
  • Upload room photos and descriptions.
  • Select the languages that you would like to be available.
  • Set your payment conditions: pre-payment, full amount, or payable during online check-in.
  • Customise the guest information fields by selecting the details you need.

A single platform to increase revenue, streamline operations & delight guests.

FAQs About Booking Engines

1What is a booking engine?
A booking engine is software on a hotel’s website that captures online bookings. An online booking page typically consists of a date picker that allows potential guests to select their preferred dates and then shows the hotel’s rates and availability for the selection. It also displays room photos and descriptions along with in-room amenities. With this tool, guests can easily make payments online, and the system will immediately confirm their booking by sending a confirmation email. This ensures that the booking process is quick and hassle-free for guests and property managers. Additionally, the booking engine will communicate with your property management system or reservation software to update availability in real time. This means you can easily avoid double bookings and keep track of your inventory.
2Why do I need a booking engine?
Accommodations like independent hotels, hostels,lodges,B&Bs, and serviced apartments without bookable websites are leaving money on the table. Having a website without a booking engine is like owning a restaurant with a beautifully designed menu but no tables for customers to sit and order their food. You've showcased your offerings and made potential diners hungry for what you serve, but without the ability to take their orders and reservations, they'll end up leaving and going elsewhere to satisfy their appetite. Modern travellers expect the instant gratification of online self-service. They desire the ability to swiftly check rates and availability without the hassle of filling out online query forms and waiting for responses. This desire for quick access to information is a key reason behind the popularity of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) among travellers. Finally, acquiring new customers is one of the most expensive aspects of running a hotel. It makes sense to leverage every sales channel, including your website, by equipping it with a powerful booking engine that gives you a competitive edge.
3What are the key features of a booking engine?
Here are the 10 key features of a modern booking engine:
  1. User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive and easy-to-navigate online booking page for users to search, select, and book accommodation in 5 quick steps.
  2. Mobile Responsiveness: A responsive booking engine that responds to various screen sizes and works smoothly on smartphones and tablets.
  3. Online Payment Processing: Secure payment processing with the option to take pre-payments or full payments at the time of booking.
  4. Real-Time Availability: Provide up-to-the-minute availability information, ensuring prospective guests can see current occupancy and rates.
  5. Multi-Currency, and Language: Cater to a global audience by offering language options and displaying prices in multiple currencies.
  6. Discount Codes & Rate Comparisons: Enable promo codes and rate comparisons to encourage prospective guests to book directly.
  7. Commission-Free: Ensure that your booking engine provider does not take a cut of your direct booking revenue.
  8. Upsell Capabilities: Enhance your guests' experience and bring in additional revenue by offering them the option to include add-ons to their booking.
  9. Dynamic Pricing: Ride the wave of demand with pricing rules that adjust your rates in real-time. Maximise occupancy and revenue with an easy-to-implement smart pricing strategy.
  10. Integration with Property Management Systems (PMS): Seamlessly connect with a PMS for automated room allocation, inventory management, and real-time updates.
If you want to avoid a complex tech stack that can result in more frustration, consider using an all-in-one hotel management system like RoomRaccoon. RoomRaccoon's Property Management System (PMS), Channel Manager, and Booking Engine are engineered with compatibility in mind and are fully integrated into a user-friendly platform.
4How can you track the success of your Google or Facebook ad campaigns?
RoomRaccoon's booking engine allows you to track the success of your hotel marketing campaigns by integrating Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and a Facebook Widget. With Google Tag Manager (GTM), your marketing team can track specific user actions through advanced e-commerce event tracking.

Track the e-commerce actions taking place on your booking engine. This includes:
- Hotel availability searches
- Adding or removing rooms and add-ons from the checkout cart
- Initiating checkout
- Logging in as a guest or travel agent
- Completed bookings
- And more!

Tag Manager is a tool that allows you to add and update tags for various purposes, such as conversion tracking, site analytics, and remarketing. To make the process more efficient, it's important to know the event names that are being tagged. These unique tags help you identify which events are being triggered and make it easier to connect your analytics platform to Tag Manager. By analysing these real-time events through platforms like Google Analytics, you can refine and optimize your hotel marketing and spending strategies.

Please note that RoomRaccoon is not responsible for the set-up or management of your GA4 account to Tag Manager.
5How much does a booking engine cost?
The RoomRaccoon booking engine is fully integrated into our hotel management platform. This subscription includes our all-in-one Property Management System (PMS), Channel Manager, and Booking Engine for a monthly or discounted annual fee. The Entry Package starts at R2175 per month based on 18 rooms. Discover our range of subscription packages and upgrade features.

Hotel Booking Guide: A Guide To More Direct Bookings

Customise your booking engine to match your website. Select colours, upload photos of your rooms, and insert your logo for a seamless user experience. You can select preferred booking conditions like 50% pre-payments and the required guest information fields.

Download our guide to unlock insights.