Group bookings seem attractive. One request, many rooms, instant revenue. But in practice, many hoteliers experience just the opposite: more work, more stress and less control than with individual reservations.
How is it that group bookings, despite their potential, structurally cost more time and money than necessary? The answer is not in the group itself, but in how the group process is set up. In this blog, we will take you through the (hidden) parts of this process that consume more time than necessary.
Group bookings: high turnover, hidden costs
On paper, group bookings are interesting:
- multiple rooms at once
- often longer stays
- pre-arranged appointments
- fewer last-minute cancellations than individual bookings
But what is often lacking is insight into indirect costs:
- hours of manual work
- endless e-mail communication
- error-prone Excel lists
- last-minute stress towards arrival
- These costs are difficult to measure, but have a daily impact on workload, error rate and team continuity.
Where hotels structurally lose time with group bookings
For most hotels, it's not one big problem, but many small actions that accumulate.
1. Request & quote
- information comes in incomplete
- quotations are prepared manually
- Follow-up is done via separate reminders
2. Communication via e-mail
- changes are spread over several e-mails and contacts
- it takes a lot of time to find out what the latest information or latest version is
- documents and communication are stored in different Outlook folders and subfolders
- this sometimes results in working with outdated information
- information gets fragmented and the process becomes unnecessarily error-prone
3. Lists of names and room distribution
- delivered late
- several versions
- Manual processing towards front office and housekeeping
4. Changes and exceptions
- Each change requires new coordination
- impact is not immediately visible to all departments
5. Internal transfer
- sales → front office → housekeeping
- much verbal explanation
- errors occur during interpretation
Separately, these seem like small things. Together they cause structural loss of time.
The real costs: errors, repair work and workload
The biggest cost in group bookings is not the application itself, but what happens afterwards.
- Correcting errors takes more time than doing it right the first time
- last-minute adjustments create peak pressure
- teams lose track of things
This leads to:
- higher workload
- more stress towards arrival
- less rest on the work floor
And this is exactly the point where you lose time and money unnoticed.
Why these problems keep coming back
Many hotels have recognized this pattern for years. So why doesn't it change? Because group bookings are often:
- are done "on the side"
- haveno fixed, unambiguous process
- are met with Excel and mail
This creates emergency solutions that work temporarily but are structurally inefficient. So the problem is not in the people, but in the process.
Group bookings don't take too much time. Bad processes do
An important distinction is this: group bookings are not necessarily inefficient.The lack of structure makes them so.
Hotels that get a grip on group bookings do three things differently:
- they standardize the group process
- they automate repetitive, error-prone tasks
- they capture information centrally
As a result:
- a lot of manual work disappears
- errors decrease
- creates calm towards arrival
- creates more space for the guest
This is how hotels automate the group process from request to arrival
More and more hotels are choosing to no longer process their group bookings manually, but to automate the entire group process. With Groupz, hotels automate the group process from request to arrival. This means that requests, quotes, lists of names, changes and internal transfers no longer run through separate emails and Excel files, but are recorded centrally.
This ensures that:
- all parties involved, including the booker, work with the same up-to-date information
- changes are immediately visible
- errors and repair work are reduced
The result is not an extra layer of work, but less manual work and more overview in the group process. This creates more room for what really matters: hospitality.
What this means for hoteliers who want to save money
Those who want to cut costs in the hotel quickly think of fewer people, less service and less flexibility. But those are often short-term solutions with big risks.
But group bookings show that structural cost savings often lie in processes, not people. By organizing and automating group bookings smarter:
- reduces workload and creates more time
- The same capacity is used more effectively
- there is room for personal contact with the booker and better insight into what a group needs
- Quotations can better match demand, which contributes to a higher conversion.
- Service and guest experience are improved
This makes process optimization and automation a realistic alternative to cutting back on valuable employees.
Discover where you can gain time?
Then schedule a free & non-binding appointment with Jenneke so you can walk through your current situation together.
