Frontdesk Anywhere - Avis

We have great experience with working with fda.

We use FDA to operate four very busy hotels in the Los Angeles area. The system allows us to make reservations, check guests in & out of the system, track deposits, run a multitude of reports including sales and future revenue on the books.

Pro's - Fairly user friendly. Like the ease of integrating website and online booking agents so I only have to manage availability and rates through the FDA system. Like that it is web based and information can never be lost. Simple to train staff of basic functions of the system. Lots of great reporting for future projections and marketing.
Con's - Reporting for month end reconciliation purposes needs improving. We had been reconciling to the Trial Balances Report but there is definitely a glitch somewhere. We are not sure why our balances outstanding totals for previous months, that had already past, would change. It should not be changing historical data. This is the main reason for the 3 star rating. T
Do not like that you cannot see your check outs from the reservation screen. I know you can select "check outs" from the list on the left and get all of your check out for the day but I think it would make more sense to put a line through the middle of each day so you have a clear visual of which units are leaving and arriving rather than having to flip flop between the check out/in lists.
It would be nice if you could drag reservations to different units instead of having to go into the folio and transferring that way. Sometimes I can see that there is availability in another unit and it still won't let me transfer guest. I double check dates, refresh screen and still cannot make that unit available although I can clearly see it is.
Last time I checked the "work order" option was not functioning properly. I could create them but could never delete them as finished. Same with the housekeeping options.
Your system should also be able to integrate with the telephone system. We have an NEC and I cannot link my cash calling account software to it. So I have to have a separate program on my hard drive that I have to refer and add the telephone calls to the invoices separately.
If all of the functions and reporting worked properly this system would be amazing but unless you can get the reporting rectified or someone can give me a straight answer as to why its changing historical data we will be forced to look at another reservation program...which I don't want to do.

Excellent!

We found that with other platforms, customer service was not always available (half-way around the world!), or not easily accessible. With FDA our personal contact is always available and helps solve issues practically immediately. FDA nearly eliminated repetitive and duplicate tasks across many platforms, freeing up literally hours of time for more important tasks. We love it!

Overall experience is fantastic as we been with Front Desk Anywhere for many many years now and we look forward to all the new bells and whistles they will soon come out with.

We've been using it for more than 2 years now and I can say that it's very simple to use for a software that can provide detailed reports when you need it.

PROS: ease of viewing the current schedule on tape chart, color coding gives a quick view of what is scheduled, on hold, blocked etc., housekeeping process is very easy and color coded to give easy view of what is dirty clean etc., auto email of confirmations and cancellations is a plus- time saver that was easily designed for our community complete with driving directions, can put a hold on dates for a guest if waiting for more information and change to a reservation when complete, blocking feature is nice when needed, support is great.

CONS: need to be able to VIEW the entire reservation screen when making a reservation - have to drag to open it EACH TIME to see the bottom selections: hold, block, reserve etc.; need cell for sales associate name - am using "Loyalty" cell in the mean time- would be nice to be able to alter that cell title; would be helpful to have a few cells that we could name as needed that would SHOW on the guest receipt to accommodate many different users, would like a rolling calendar on the left side instead of each individual month

Great set up. Excellent support team and always there when needed!

Promises,Promises,Promises that is all we receive. It is always going to be fixed by a certain date--
that date comes and goes and nothing gets done. They talk a good game but nothing gets accomplished.

I personally met with awesome crew behind the company. They are creative, smart and fun loving people who are pleasure to work with.

Just like any software, the product can be updated with patches, fixes and it will continuously improve. But it's more difficult to change the people and culture. Good people at FDA can be trusted and I know they will come through if we ever have any problems. And that confidence in a company is not something easy to find.

FDA system is a turn key operations with minimal investment to start. The key selling point is that whole system is on the cloud. This means you can manage the hotel from anywhere, even from your cellphone. (Which is what I use most of the time.) Their reporting system is great with many options to dissect the data.

Overall I highly recommend it!

FIVE Stars

This is my first experience with an electronic registration system. I find there is a lot of switching from screen to screen to complete one registration. It would be nice if the organization field would present a drop down of possible names. We have frequent repeat businessmen from one company. I cannot always remember the individual's name as they walk to the desk, but I remember the company.

I would like a monthly rate to just show a months billing on the invoice and not break it down to daily. This is not always the correct amount and I need to spend time going in to edit the rate.

We are learning more tricks to the system and ways to personalize it to our needs. Overall it has been a positive experience.

After conducting a thorough review (including demostration periods) of more than a dozen hospitality management solutions, both web based as well as physically installed software, our organization concluded that Frontdesk Anywhere was, without a doubt, the best overall combination of useful feature richness, ease of set up & implementation and price. With a responsive and professional support staff, Frontdesk Anywhere is, in our opinion, one of the industry's best values.