Call them independent or small hotels, they are one of the most important stakeholders of the larger hotel industry ecosystem. Out of over 54,200 hotels in the United States, nearly 33,654 hotels (61%) fall under the category of small and independent hotel. With their unique brand positioning and distinctively different style of guest service, they no doubt standout of the crowd.
Why guests like independent hotels?
Personalization
Independent hotels always have an upper hand when it comes to personalization. Being small in size, often with 50 to 100 rooms and 1 or 2 F&B outlets, they generally would have enough time to offer the ‘human touch’ in their services. Most importantly, they have flexible policies, enabling them to amend rules when it comes to offering personalized services to their guests.
Cost-effective services to guests
Very often, independent hotels offer many free services including in-room Wi-Fi and parking. But chain or group hotels do charge their guests for most of these services. That’s the main reason why independent and small hotels are in demand these days.
Individuality
Being not a part of any large chain/group, independent hotels can always maintain their distinctiveness. They are not like any standard run-of-the-mill property. They have the free hand to build their personality and create their brands’ niche depending on their location. This too helps them attract most of the guests.
However, independent hotels do face lots of challenges when it comes to competing with bigger brands. Right from keeping costs under control to distributing rates and availabilities online, they struggle a lot to attract more guests. This is where a cloud-based hotel property manager can help them efficiently.
Let’s see how –
Ensures less cost of PMS ownership
A cloud Hotel PMS ensures a very less upfront investment and no ongoing maintenance cost. Independent and small hotels don’t have to invest in servers, as the cloud PMS takes care of the date security. No server means that you don’t have to hire dedicated IT staff. Software upgrades are for free.
Aids in avoiding operational errors
A smart cloud-based Hotel PMS helps independent hoteliers manage two major areas of operations – reservation and housekeeping, with ease. It helps them in maintaining multiple POS outlets and handling accounting/billing process. Such automation helps you save man-hour and avoid errors that may result due to manual operations.
Helps distribute online
A cloud PMS can seamlessly integrate with a channel manager software. Such integration is considered as a basic PMS functionality in today’s world of online hotel distribution. With this, you can distribute your rooms and rates on OTAs in real-time. Apart from helping you generate more booking via OTA, this arrangement also helps you avoid overbooking and double-booking.
Assists in getting more direct booking
With an integrated booking engine, a cloud PMS can get you more direct bookings through your hotel’s website and Facebook page. Moreover, you can also drive direct bookings at a lower cost of acquisition from hotel metasearch sites. Simply said, it helps you earn more booking revenue while lowering your OTA dependency.
Supports in rate management
Considering your limited services and offerings, adopting a robust revenue management solution is going to cost you a lot. However, you don’t need to worry about this with a cloud PMS. You can create relational rates, multiple rates in a single stay and implement occupancy-based dynamic pricing to generate more revenues out of your room sales.
If you are an independent property owner and wants to stay competitive against big hotels in your area, you must adopt a powerful Hotel PMS that is on the cloud. For example, Hotelogix cloud PMS has helped Ohio-based Fountain Inn to see a 40% uptick in its revenue. This apart, many independent hotels across the United States have seen a rise in their overall revenues with Hotelogix in recent times.
