All hoteliers very well understand the importance of a Property Management System in the functioning of hotel business. Having a cloud PMS helps you earn more and save more? We are doing to delve into this subject in this blog.
There are a lot of Cloud-based Property Management Systems available today, but not all are equipped to support an enterprise hotel. An enterprise grade PMS would necessarily need to be born on the cloud and then mature on the cloud with experience of years, not just to support detailed operational SOPs of a hotel, but also to take care of performance, security, reliability and in-depth analytics. Hence, if you are from a chain hotel management, you need to onboard a PMS that is capable of handling requirements of your enterprise hotel.
Having a PMS that’s built for enterprise hotels can help you get centralized control of all your hotel apart from automating and streamlining your everyday hotel operations. And, it could be a big lifesaver in the face of business adversity and stiff competition. By taking a very integrated and holistic approach to revenue management, these convenient cloud-based systems drive bookings and boost overall hotel ROI.
Let’s get into individual factors that help you earn more revenue by using a cloud PMS tool.
1. Cloud-based solutions are real-time– We all know that Cloud-based solutions are accessible anytime and anywhere, vis-à-vis on-premise PMS this makes hotel operations very efficient. They are designed for handling real-time service. Because of this factor, you are always updated and on top of the latest updates and changes in the industry and market. As a result, you have both the capability and the information to make changes to your price, inventory distribution and other strategic decisions. Cloud solutions help you keep your game up by practicing dynamic pricing and thus help you improve your revenue, otherwise lost because of bad pricing strategy. Two way collaboration of Cloud solutions helps in dynamic pricing and dynamic distribution, which directly impacts your revenue, RevPAR and profitability.
2. Cloud based solutions are more cost effective – Cloud based solutions are very cost effective than other in-house software or on-premise solutions. One reason for this is that cloud solutions can be used in a subscription-based model which is not possible with an on-premise PMS. On-premise solutions are Capital Expense (Capex) based unlike cloud solutions which are more Operational Expense (Opex) based. Hence, Cloud-based solutions help in more cash flow as they are not capital intensive. This gives a good cash flow to hotels hence cloud PMS makes hotel operations much stress free from a financial point of view.
3. Increased direct bookings with cloud PMS – Thanks to the integration between Hotel PMS and booking engine, your hotel website helps you generate more direct bookings. Further, it also helps you to get increased direct bookings from your hotel’s social media pages like Facebook. A cloud-based property management system’s capability to help you with long-term sustainability does not just end here. You can leverage the power of this new-age application to do more. Increased direct bookings are primary to improving your bottom line.
4. Cost-efficient direct bookings via the hotel’s metasearch engine – A cloud-based hotel property management software helps you get more out of metasearch engines. They help you connect with leading hotel metasearch brands so that you can get more direct bookings out of your metasearch investment. PMS tools along with the right approach and strategy, help you generate more bookings via your website.
Industry research suggests that the cost of acquiring customers is as low as 8% when compared to hefty OTA commissions, which range from 10% to as high as 30%. This is in light when more than 72% of consumers use meta search in their pre-booking journey & 65% of Independent hotels in US & Europe rate meta search as a beneficial marketing channel.
5. Helps serve guests better – Cloud PMS does not only help you get access to the guest information you have in your database, but it allows you to have access to a very curated set of information about your guests. It helps you get consolidated information about guest behavior on the internet, social media and other travel review sites. It also helps you get guest sentiment analytics. Guest sentiment analytics combined with guest history helps curate a very personalized guest experience, which is not possible with any other PMS .
6. Cloud-based PMS helps improve your online reviews and ratings – Satisfied customers are your assets as they recommend you to their family and friends, and we all know that peer recommendation is always preferred over any other form of advertisement or marketing. High operational efficiency and personalized attention go a long way in creating memorable stays for your guests. And if asked at the right moment, they will not hesitate to write a good review and give a good rating to your hotel and your services.
But that’s not all that a cloud PMS solution can do for your brand recognition and marketing, a cloud Hotel PMS helps you automate the process of gathering feedback and reviews from your guests through online reputation management solution. Easy integration of online reputation management solutions with cloud PMS makes it easier for you to keep track of multiple review sites from a single dashboard.
Further, you can also do a sentiment analysis of guest feedback to understand their true emotion and feedback. Using this insight, you can make the required changes in your offerings to project yourself as a hotel that listens to its guests. There are credible services like tripadvisor’s ‘Review Express’ that are freely available and cloud PMS integrates with them seamlessly to build on the reputation.
7. Omni-channelling is one of the best features of cloud PMS – Cloud PMS is appreciated for its omnichannel facility. And the reason is simple – it keeps your reception open 24X7, unlike other solutions. It empowers you to encompass all channels including both online & offline, as your real-time sales channels. An omnichannel feature is available only with modern cloud PMS tools. It essentially allows you to manage reservations coming from multiple channels like travel agents, telephone, corporate bookings, OTAs, social media, messaging apps, and your business website. This is real-time in true sense as reservations can be confirmed 24X7 in real-time. Further, any leakage between booking inquiry and booking confirmation can be completely eliminated. Also, you can discover which booking channels provide the greatest influx of new guests and calculate opportunity costs based on this information. Needless to say, it simultaneously enables you to track revenue on each of them.
80% of customers prefer to self-serve to get the information that they need hence it is important that you are available to them when they need it. Modern times call for modern measures, and if you say that you offer online bookings at better rates, you will capture more leads and have better revenue rates.
8. Increase ancillary revenue with cloud PMS- A comprehensive cloud PMS supports a total hotel revenue solutions. In addition to competitive rates and package management features, a modern cloud PMS helps in increasing ancillary revenue through point-of-sale (POS) functionality, booking add-ons.
A cloud hotel PMS allows you to add new point of sale outlets like F&B, restaurant, gift shop, gym, spa, souvenirs, activities to in-room extras. An advanced PMS will allow you to offer various products and services that can be added to reservations at the time of booking or can be sold individually also, making upselling a cake-walk. Add-ons are readily available to customers through the direct online booking engine, it encourages customers to personalize their stay, generating ancillary revenue for your hotel. Using guest data, you can provide upsell offers that are more targeted and personalized.
Apart from this Cloud PMS is capable of extending itself to external stakeholders in case you want to outsource any services to a third party. With a cloud system, you can easily outsource services like travel-desk, F&B etc. to any external stakeholder, who can access your system and provide service on your behalf easily.
With a cloud based system you can generate additional revenue from the F & B stream also. Say for example you can easily integrate with a food delivery service, in room dining, restaurant table booking service, etc. This will help you earn extra revenue easily.
9. Intuitive and easy to use solution – Cloud PMS solutions are very user-friendly and intuitive. Hotel staff can learn to use it in a really short time, thereby reducing your staff’s learning curve. With a cloud PMS implemented your staff don’t have to spend their time doing mundane repetitive tasks. Hence, it saves their time and increases their productivity considerably. This in a way reflects in your guest service also. Over and above this, cloud solutions are not only coherent with the current times, they are very much capable of adjusting to future technology changes also.
Conclusion –
Implementing an automated cloud hotel PMS helps you automate and streamline everyday operations. Cloud PMS solutions enable centralized control and real-time synchronization between different systems. This feature is a lifesaver in the face of tough business competition. Moreover its implementation is really fast and hassle free. By taking the holistic approach to revenue management, a comprehensive cloud-based system helps drive more bookings and boost the overall ROI of a hotel.
