As technology continues its rapid advance across all industries around the world, hospitality is really beginning to see the benefits. Hotel management software has come a long way in helping hoteliers improve the way their business operates, and there is little doubt as to its transformative impact.
A modern property management system helps you to streamline administrative systems and processes, as well as boost the company's overall operations. It's easy to see why the vast majority of hotel owners believe an excellent management system is essential for their business.
There are countless advantages to a reliable hotel management software. Whether it’s time saving on manual tasks or increasing direct bookings, every element of a hospitality system should be working towards the end goals of improving efficiency and enhancing the guest experience.
What are the advantages of using a hotel management system?
In case you still need convincing, here are ten advantages of implementing a modern hotel management system.
1. Save time on admin tasks
The right hotel management software will vastly cut down the time you spend on manual administrative tasks. The software does the majority of the work and lets you divert your time to more important tasks, such as serving your guests.
More than any other software you use, a hotel management system will touch every department at your property. Front of house, revenue management, housekeeping… If you pick the right solution, you can make significant time savings across almost every area of your business, also boosting your staff’s productivity and satisfaction.
2. Develop strong relationships with your guests
A more streamlined check-in and check-out experience will boost your guest happiness. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg – anything from improved communication and additional services will also heighten guest loyalty. Choosing the best property management software will likely mean an increased level of retention in both guests and staff.
3. Increase your online visibility
The right software is an important factor in developing your online presence. You can integrate guest-facing software like hotel booking engines, chat bots and a guest portal with your website design, enabling you to instantly accept online reservations and make guests feel confident in their choice to book directly with you.
Google values and assesses the user experience on websites, and those that offer a better user journey and interface will rank higher on Google searches – and other search engines.
4. Implement an effective revenue management system
Most hotel management systems include pricing tools and other features to optimize revenue.
Gone are the days of having just a peak season price and a low season price – if you’re not setting prices in a more sophisticated manner, you’re losing out on bookings and not making the most of the guests that do book. You should be able to create and customize product rates, rate dependencies, and special offers and rules such as package rates.
5. Manage distribution functions
A modern hospitality cloud should be able to easily connect to a channel manager so you can advertise across many channels and easily promote your business across the industry’s OTAs and third party booking services.
It provides real-time information that will help you grow your number of reservations and spread awareness of your property.
6. Increase bookings
Every feature in your hotel management system should work to improve your overall number of bookings. Whether you intend to explore new markets or boost bookings in low season, the right software system is all about optimizing and maximizing what you can achieve.
Revenue management and a direct booking engine are two obvious features that will help you in this regard, but everything from integrations to smart reporting and automation will ultimately contribute.
7. Accurate daily reports
Hotel management, finance and revenue teams will have access to accurate daily earnings reports thanks to data-savvy hotel management software.
Meanwhile, operations and marketing reports will help you and your team to make reliable, data-driven decisions across your business.
If everything is in the cloud, these invaluable metrics are at your fingertips whenever you need them, without the need for time-consuming manual exporting and compiling.
8. Prevent double bookings and manual errors
Hospitality management software systems are programmed to avoid double bookings and overbookings. Thanks to task automation, they also help prevent errors when front desk staff are inputting important customer data like name, passport details, and card numbers.
This means a better guest experience (no awkward follow up conversations asking for their correct details), more time for staff to focus on their important work, and more reliable business data and reporting.
9. Analyze your customer base
Market and guest segmentation is another important benefit of the right guest management software system. The GM and Marketing Managers can keep track of the different types of visitors, with key demographic breakdowns such as age, gender and nationality.
This data allows you to make informed decisions on your marketing strategy. and increase the long-term revenue trends of your business.
10. Transform your property
The many benefits of a hotel management system could help you grow your business in a short amount of time. If you’re not currently using the right solution, migrating to a more modern software could help you see big improvement almost immediately.
This can have lasting benefits that extend beyond the day-to-day usage of the system – it can also encourage a mindset shift and transform the way you and your team works. Here are some examples of how moving to the right hospitality cloud transformed these properties.
Conclusion
As with all products, the cheapest option is not always the best option – and the same goes for the most expensive choice. There are many inexpensive products that will end up costing you money if you’re not careful when buying a hotel management software system.
Take the time to do some extensive research before investing in the right system for your hotel business. Make sure you get feedback from each of your departments and understand their specific needs before deciding on a solution.
If you do, the benefits can be transformational.
Begin your transformation
Every journey begins with a single step, but before you set out it's good to know what that journey will look like and how long it will take.
Read our Guide to Switching Your PMS to find out the 10 questions you need to ask when moving, typical implementation timelines, and what makes a successful onboarding.
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