The financial benefits of implementing a property management system (PMS) are now widely accepted, as hoteliers around the world are discovering the value of software-enabled automation and organization. The improved efficiency and simpler management enabled by these systems has a direct impact on the property’s bottom-line, allowing owners to lower their costs as well as save time – an invaluable commodity for busy front desk managers.
However, it’s not just management that gets simpler with hotel software, the guest experience is also enhanced. Better technology allows properties to manage all operations more fluently and these benefits inevitably trickle down to the guest experience as well.
The relationship between smoother back-end operation and higher user satisfaction is not hypothetical – there are a number of processes that directly and indirectly influence the establishment’s ability to look after its guests, and many of them are determined by how well the hotel’s core activities are handled.
Lesser Errors, More Time for Staff
With a PMS comes automation – repetitive tasks such as night auditing, reservation organization, inventory updating and so on can be automated, freeing the hotel’s staff from these duties and allowing them to spend more time with guests. The system also enables the manager to assign certain tasks to specific employees, reducing the likelihood of mix-ups. The staff can also quickly communicate with the front desk in real-time through integrated mobile devices, allowing for any last minute changes. Over time, this forges an environment of high-quality, standardized routines with little room for error – human errors usually originate in departments with no or little standardization. These processes ease the burden on the staff and make it easier for them to greet guests in a warm and friendly manner, all day long.
A More Personalized Experience
Guests love personalization and always remember an establishment that goes the extra mile to make them feel special but with the large number of tourists checking in and out of hotels today, it can become almost impossible to keep track of all their preferences. A PMS enables hotels to create guest profiles that record preferences and services requested during the course of their stay. Hotel groups can then share this guest information between different properties or refer to them at anytime in the future when the guest visits again, helping the brand develop a stronger bond with the guest. This not only enriches the guest’s stay, it also encourages them to leave a positive review which in turn improves the property’s online ranking.
Better Insights Into Guest Trends
Gathering and compiling reports can become an extremely tedious process as data needs to be collected from each and every department of the hotel before being verified and analyzed. Since most of the hotel’s operations are registered by the PMS, the system can produce detailed reports on a variety of trends using its own database of information. This allows managers to implicitly pick out factors that are influencing guest trends and reinforce the ones that have a positive effect. The system can also help hoteliers determine the most popular points-of-sale and expand where necessary, helping the property scale at the same time.
No longer are travelers looking to stay in only the popular branded hotels, independent properties have as much leverage – maybe even more – when it comes to attracting guests today. However, most independent hotels aren’t as well equipped to deal with a higher level of occupancy as efficiently as the larger properties, and a PMS solves this problem for them.
At the end of the day, simplifying things for your managers and employees will allow them to focus better on what’s really important – the guest.