Cloud Hotel PMS – Key to success for independent hotels

Prabhash Bhatnagar -

The much-awaited Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC), Minneapolis is set to take place between June 17-20, 2019. Considered as one of the world’s largest hospitality technology shows, it brings the brightest minds and hottest technology from around the globe to one place.

On the day one, hospitality industry leaders attending this mega technology event will talk about one of the most important topics – Independent hotel in a big box world. Speakers for this session are –

  • Jim Bina, Director of Finance at Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Inc
  • Michael Duffy, Director of Technology at Seaport Companies
  • Carol Beggs, Director of Technology at Chatham Bars Inn
  • Michael Schubach, Chief Technology Officer at Millennium Technology

All the 4 eminent speakers will speak about how independent hotels can leverage new age hospitality technology solutions to compete with big and branded hotels. Most importantly, they will also discuss strategies that can help independent hotels thrive including how to decide between an on-premise or cloud-based hotel property management system.

As a globally leading cloud hotel property management system provider, at Hotelogix, we decided to take this opportunity to put forward our thoughts on this topic.

The rising importance of independent hotels

Independent hotels have the liberty to get creative when it comes to attract and serve more guests. It is mostly because they are not bound by any brand guidelines. Without any restrictive limitations like their branded counterparts, independent hotels have the flexibility to make required changes in their policies to cater to their guests’ niche needs. Moreover, today’s travelers seeking authentic experience are increasingly turning towards independent hospitality properties.

Now the big question is how independent hotels can stay competitive against their bigger and branded rivals. And, the answer to this is loud and clear – by adopting all-in-one cloud-based hotel property management system.

Let’s see how a Cloud Hotel PMS helps independent hotels compete with big hotel –

Reduces operating costs

With easy and faster implementation time, cloud-based Hotel PMS Software helps an independent property go live quickly. It doesn’t require the hotel owner to make additional investment in servers and IT team. Thus, with low Capex, it ensures lower cost of software ownership, which is a great advantage for independent hotel owners. Moreover, users don’t have to pay anything for software upgrades as it is for free. It also helps them scale up their business at a modest cost, too.

Efficiently automates operations

Cloud Hotel PMS System helps in streamlining and automating the entire operations at an independent hotel. Higher degree of automation reduces manual intervention and thus, reduces operational errors to a great extent. Plus, it also helps in saving precious man-hours and increasing staff efficiency. At the end, everything leads efficient guest service.

Ensures easy data access

Decision makers at independent hotels can access the cloud Hotel PMS from anywhere and anytime they want to. They can view their hotel status and business critical KPIs on the move, via a Mobile Hotel App. This helps them stay informed to make data-driven decisions from remote locations at the most appropriate time. Moreover, hundreds of hotel management reports and aggregated market demand help them act accordingly to fine-tune their business strategy.

Helps witness instant ROI with a host of third-party integrations

Yes, you heard it right. Integration capabilities with a wide range of operationally imperative third-party solutions makes a cloud Hotel PMS a better choice over an on-premise application.
Here are some of the important integrations that work well for independent hotels –

  • Channel Manager Integration – The integration between the cloud hotel management software and channel manager helps in updating rates and inventory on multiple OTAs in real-time. It ensures that a hotel’s up to the minute availability is reflecting on all the OTAs to avoid overbooking and double-booking issues. Moreover, independent hoteliers can leverage this integration to increase their online visibility in newer geographies to get more bookings via OTAs.
  • Booking Engine Integration – It helps an independent hotel to generate more direct bookings via its website and Facebook page. Increased direct bookings result in more room revenue while helping them save on OTA commission.
  • Online Reputation Management Integration – This is another important area in which a cloud hotel software helps an independent hotel quite efficiently. Through this integration, hotel owners can collect personalized feedback from their guests, see reviews from across multiple platforms to analyze and understand guest sentiment.

As mentioned above, with some of the important integration capabilities, a cloud-based hotel property management system helps an independent hotel to sell more rooms across all sales channels. This leads to increased occupancy. And with all these, an independent hotel can witness handsome ROI with a minimal turnaround time.

Don’t take our word for it. Many independent hotels operating across the United States have seen enormous benefits out of using our cloud-based Hotel PMS. For example – Colorado-based Pikes Peak Resort has seen a 10% growth in its revenues with us. In another case, our Hotel PMS has helped Ohio’s Fountain Inn witness a 40% increase in its revenue along with a 30% increase in both OTA and direct bookings.