The inner workings of a hotel encompass a few vital functions. Each moving part of a hotel requires organization and meticulous planning. Each area of a hotel should be able to function in harmony to ensure the best service and guest fluency. To replace the meticulous and mundane hotel workflow strategies, property management software comes into play.
Even the smallest wrench in a well-oiled machine can cause chaos to ensue. Hotel management software can alert all users of the slightest malfunction anywhere in your hotel. There are many other complications that software like this can address and optimize.
Effortless control, awareness, synchronization, and speed are all a part of what makes this software necessary for hotel management. The only thing left is finding out how to choose the best hotel management software for your business. Not all hotel management services are one-size-fits-all. It’s necessary to take extra caution searching for the perfect property management software for your business.
Hotel Management Challenges
Common business issues are seen in every industry. From a lackluster workforce to underachieving customer relations, managing a hotel reveals its own set of avoidable hardships. Without management solutions, human errors and discrepancies become more commonplace.
These problems leave room for the collapse of customer and employee satisfaction, among other things. They each share similar downfalls associated with the guest, the employee, and how the business handles their relationship. Many successes and failures of a business stem from challenges such as:
Inferior Guest Relations
As the world becomes more technologically advanced, our expectations for speed and convenience intensify. As a result, guests anticipate immediate personable attention to detail with each visit. Their experiences are what drive a business to operate more efficiently.
9% of guest complaints are centered around the service of the hotel. Even before the moment they step foot in your establishment, guests require respectful and expeditious service. This infers check-in should be instantaneous; activities should be simple to book and maintain, and services like transportation or turndown should be professionally handled with deliberate forethought.
The challenge here is finding ways to increase guest satisfaction. Management must cater to their needs as easily and carefully as possible. How can a hospitality business adhere to the whims of individual guests without leaving gaps in the upkeep of other departments?
Insufficient Work Ethic
Another hand in the overall success of a hospitality business falls with the employees and their productivity. It’s no secret that a happy employee is a hard-working employee. They’re at least 20% more productive at work than their unhappier co-workers. In the hospitality industry, devotion to daily tasks is a must for the best service possible.
An employee’s lack of enthusiasm paves the way for the degradation of many different business areas. These pitfalls manifest as:
- Terrible customer service and reviews
- Mismanaged timekeeping and budgeting
- Unhygienic and unsafe practices or procedures
- Security breaches
- Costly human errors
- Increased absenteeism
- Decreased profits
The cause of employee unhappiness can come from many different areas. Hard workers become happier and more productive when they’re recognized for their work, supported by their colleagues, compensated well for their achievements, and provided with an elementary workflow. This presents another challenge for management: raising employee satisfaction without ignoring other business aspects.
Mediocre Workplace Transparency
For managers and staff members alike, the left hand should always know what the right hand is doing. Without even being within its halls, management should be aware of the inner workings of the hotel. This typically looks like a sign-in/out sheet or other time management system that keeps each department from working on top of the other.
Older manual methods like these leave gaps in the average workflow, however. When management has endless places to seek attention to detail, the search only slows and complicates the process. You may find yourself performing duties more than once or endlessly thumbing through documents to find the right guest information.
How a PMS Helps
Property Management System (PMS) was created to relieve the tension associated with the challenges mentioned previously. Anyone needing a better way to control and organize daily tasks connected to a property will benefit from a PMS. A PMS could benefit those who own or manage a hotel, bed & breakfast, rental property, or other hospitality establishments.
The best PMS will allow hotel workers to:
- Streamline their day-to-day activities. An employee interface should make room for the management, operation, and coordination of hotel staff. PMS effectively synchronizes each department and its tasks, from the front desk to housekeeping, and back again. This allows each team member to work simpatico and stay focused on the matters at hand.
- Integrate with (or eliminate the need for) other management software services. When the hotel has many different departments, corresponding platforms and software are necessary for a job well done. PMS can be an “all-in-one” service, or it can be melded with other software to create a one-stop shop for all employee workflows.
- View and handle guest interactions from start to finish. Each department has access to all the data involved with a guest so they can offer only the most personalized experience. It’s not enough for the front desk to know all their information. With a PMS, kitchen staff can be made aware of a guest’s allergies, housekeeping can be ready for efficient turndown service, and so on.
- See how other hotel areas are performing. Each department can keep up with what the other departments are doing in real time. This means no more scrambling to find reports, documents, billing, or guest information. Any and everything staff need to do their job is found within the PMS.
Things to Consider when Purchasing a PMS
When shopping for the best hotel management software for your establishment, you should consider some critical factors. Hastily choosing a PMS without making sure it follows generic guidelines for the optimization of your business could have some costly outcomes. Instead, consider if the PMS:
1. Can handle most of the needs of a hotel?
Think about all the features necessary for the finest hotel. Online booking and reservation management go a long way toward guest satisfaction regarding speed and clarity. These features and many others are the most effective and basic ways to streamline hotel workflows.
The more amenities your hotel offers, the more you should consider the best ways to enhance the experience of being in your establishment. Valet services, spa services, and more can be managed through the PMS.
- Can scale with the growth of your business?
A PMS that works with your small hotel business is essential. However, once that small business grows, going through the trouble of manually transferring your data may become a hassle.
The best project management software can help a business thrive with more productive features available on demand. This can look like add-ons to an existing subscription or the choice of higher tiers with more benefits. Either way, you’ll want to ensure your PMS can keep you from shopping for more robust systems down the line.
- Can seamlessly integrate with other software?
If you can’t find software that fulfills all the needs of all your departments, integrations will be necessary. At this point, it counts to research how well your chosen PMS integrates with other software, such as CRM, RPM, security software, online travel agencies, and more.
Integrations can be bothersome and complicated at times. To diminish the possibility of manual transfers or the frustration involved with integration technicalities, it’s best to find a PMS that can easily jibe with other programs.
- Is secure and accessible from anywhere, at any time?
The data from your hotel is very personal and confidential, which is why security and privacy are of utmost importance. Be ready to delve into the top-notch security measures offered by your chosen PMS. This is especially the case for those that you can access remotely.
Being able to access dashboards from your PMS remotely has many security benefits. For one, you can see who has access to your hotel even if you’re miles away from it. Plus, if anyone calls you with a problem, you can manage the outcome from the palm of your hand. Just make sure the mobile applications are as simple and user-friendly as your desktop software.
- Is simple to understand and be trained in?
A user-friendly interface can make a world of difference for those using the software. Arguably, employee satisfaction can be made or broken by how easy their PMS is to use, customize, and learn.
As a result, PMS needs to be intuitive and easy to operate so employees can use the software without making confusing mistakes. If it seems too overwhelming at first glance, make sure it comes with training, guidelines, and a useful helpdesk, at least.
Final Thoughts
The best hotel management software offers a new level of workplace optimization and clarity. With better transparency comes increased employee and guest satisfaction, which leads to more profits and a solid business foundation.
With a successful PMS, staff members can work happily without confusion, and management can easily mitigate errors and workflows. These assets facilitate undivided attention to detail, individualized guest experiences, and a stay they’ll never forget.
