Regardless of the era, hotels have always had a way to manage their operations- be it registers, excel sheets, legacy systems or the more modern cloud-based Property Management Systems. For each ‘already existing’ system to be replaced with a newer, more relevant upgrade, necessity has played a huge role. And this still holds true. Agreed, PMS has pretty much been accepted and adapted globally as the most efficient way of managing hotels, but this is just one battle won! If your aim is to succeed in the long run and win the war, you need to ask yourself if the PMS hotel software you are using right now is the one for you.
- Does it suit your current needs?
- Is it still as relevant as it was when you first implemented it?
- What if there is a better, faster, simpler solution to your needs which you are unaware of?
There are two things to consider here
On the one hand you have changing times- where you must adapt to the technological advancements and embrace the era of automation- on the other hand, your own hotel’s needs evolve with time. If you’ve been in the business for a decade or so, you would agree that managing your hotel’s operations back in the day was considerably different from what it is now! So, it is necessary for you to switch to a cloud-based PMS if you are still using traditional methods. And if you are already using a cloud-based PMS, it is important to sit back and assess if the one you are using is still the best for you or if it is time to switch to a new hotel PMS.
Often, hoteliers hesitate to switch to a new hotel PMS owing to various factors like the lack of awareness about other options available, fear of a stormy transition, time and cost involved, etc. Whatever be the case, you have more to lose by using an inefficient system than by switching to a better PMS at the right time. Watching out for the signs and taking timely action can save you a lot of trouble.
We’ve listed out 5 classic signs that indicate that it is time for your hotel to switch to a new hotel PMS:
- 1. You have little idea of what is happening with your hotel operations
The fundamental purpose of a PMS is to manage your hotel operations smoothly. It makes sure that all the processes are streamlined and everything that can be automated, is. A robust PMS simplifies otherwise complex tasks. But it isn’t a compliment to your PMS if you are completely in the dark about what is happening! If you find yourself more confused with data than aware then you might need to look into a simpler Property Management System.
- 2. Your staff is always struggling with one thing or another
The real value of a PMS is put to test when your staff can handle it with as effortlessly and use it as effectively as you do! Another thing to watch out for, is, if your staff has to undergo several days of training to start using the system. It needn’t be so exhausting. A smart PMS is user-friendly, simple and transparent.
Be it front desk management, housekeeping, the restaurant manager or any POS staff- every employee must be able to easily access and use the PMS. Unless you can claim to have saved ‘x’ amount of man hours every week since the implementation of your PMS, your PMS is not serving you very well and it is time to shift to a new hotel PMS.
- 3. Your current PMS isn’t comprehensive & a one-stop solution
This is one of the prime reasons why hotels change to a cloud-based PMS – the fact that it can integrate several independent solutions to become one holistic hotel management system. If you find yourself integrating with several other services and signing contracts with two dozen other vendors in order to support your PMS, then please start seriously considering your switch to another cloud-based PMS which is better equipped and comprehensive.
The ideal cloud-based PMS support several integrations and make it hassle-free. For eg: a PMS that will take the load off you will be able to integrate with channel managers, revenue managers, payment gateways, unlimited POSs, business intelligence tools, rate management tools and anything else you deem necessary to run your entire operations from a single dashboard.
- 4. You spend more on it than what you get from it
In this day and age, when technology has paved way for smarter ways of getting things done, it is absolutely unacceptable to pay more to get less. A server-based PMS, also called as the legacy system, is so much more expensive when compared to a cloud-based PMS.
Monetarily speaking, you spend on the infrastructure, training your staff, the maintenance, a dedicated IT team to make sure everything is up and running at all times. This apart, you must also account for all the loss you incur if the server crashes or for the downtime. You’ll have none of these hassles with a cloud-based PMS.
- 5. You don’t have numbers at your fingertips
The saying “what you cannot measure you cannot manage” couldn’t be of more value to you as a hotelier. Unless you have all the data pertaining to your hotel at your fingertips, chances are you don’t have complete control over your hotel operations. But how much can you possibly measure manually? How do you consider all the variable factors and understand what you have grown over a given period of time, your occupancy, your revenue, profit or loss, best price for a given season, etc. How much time do you think all of this would take? And this is just the basic data you need to be aware of.
This is where a robust PMS hotel software does all this and more for you. Switch to a cloud PMS and you’ll discover just how simple it is to track, measure and stay on top of all the data relating to your hotel. In fact, you can also automate these reports to be sent to your inbox at a frequency that suits you best- daily, weekly, monthly, etc. You can revisit data from any timeline to compare. And because all this is stored on the cloud, you can access numbers on the go, whenever you want, wherever you are, from any device you use.
If even one of these points have got you thinking about how to change a hotel PMS, you should really do it, and do it now. Because compromise can potentially jeopardize your hotel business and, honestly, with the amount of PMSs available today there is no reason to settle for anything less than the best.
This article was originally published on ehotelier.
