In today’s fast paced world, profitability is the word on everyone’s lips. We live in an age where almost everything we come in contact with has come off an assembly line, and hotels are no exception. While standardization has allowed hoteliers to improve their revenue, it’s left their properties reeking of mass-production.
But not boutique hotels. Unlike contemporary hotels, these properties prioritize the guest experience and everything from the décor to the room layout reflects this. Boutique hotels offer travelers an experience that is reminiscent of the early days of hospitality – when the quality of the guest’s stay took precedence over everything else. High levels of guest interaction and personalization set these establishments apart from other properties.
But running a hotel is no simple feat today and even boutique hotels cannot afford to skimp on technology while looking to improve the guest experience. With competition in the industry escalating every year, technology has become a necessity for all types of properties. But that’s not a bad thing!
Adopting modern tools actually simplifies a boutique hotel’s management, enabling the staff to dedicate themselves to ensuring a high-quality guest experience.
Automation of Daily Tasks
Boutique hotels do not strive to be like large corporate hotels, so automation may sound like a step in the wrong direction. But automating frequent back-end operations such as night auditing as reservation organization can actually help optimize the hotel’s resources, such as staff time. This frees them to focus more on the guest’s needs.
What’s more, automation actually enables further personalization and enhances the guest’s subsequent visits – an efficient property management system can recognize guest preferences based on their previous stays, allowing the manager to set up their room exactly how they like it.
Unprecedented Distribution
Proper distribution has become an absolute necessity for all hotels today. The sheer number of players in the market means that relying on traditional sources of bookings is no longer enough to guarantee optimal occupancy. By investing in a powerful distribution system, boutique hotels can attract guests from around the world – online travel agencies (OTAs) spend billions of dollars on marketing every year, and by simply being on their portals, these properties get to tap into massive new markets.
But distribution tools do more than just sell rooms. Real-time integration with a channel manager allows the software to update room availability instantly, eliminating double-bookings altogether. Cancelled bookings are also pushed back to the direct booking engine, accommodating more direct bookings if required.
These tools don’t just streamline operations within the property, they substantially improve the bottom-line and allow the hotel to enjoy enterprise-level management – without sacrificing their novelty. By migrating to the cloud, the property also has access to a host of other robust management software like revenue management tools, account managing tools, and even customer relationship management tools.
