These days, we live in a tech-centric society. We are always looking for the next best way to utilize technology. Technology touches every aspect of our day-to-day life: we have smartphones, smart fridges, smart watches, and…smart hotels.
Hospitality technology solutions such as PMS software and channel managers are making the hotel smarter every day. For technology in hotels, the main goal has been to optimize business operations and allow logistics to flow more smoothly. These software options make that possible and improve constantly. What is the must-have technology for hotels today, and what trends might emerge in new hospitality technology in the future?
Reservation System Software
Online reservation systems top the list of hotel technology available to hoteliers today. Hotel reservation systems allow guests to book online. They also allow available listings to be spread across multiple channels, including OTAs. This technology takes multiple channels and integrates the data into one convenient dashboard for the hotel operators. This system prevents double bookings by tracking, in real-time, which hotel rooms have been booked, whether on a third-party OTA website or directly through the hotel website.
Integrating hotel reservation software allows hotels to broaden their reach and improve profitability. When listings can automatically be posted across many channels, it allows more prospective guests to view your hotel and book there. Plus, with these systems integration features, broadening your reach does not mean complicating the workload. It’s a win-win!
Benefits of Hotel Reservation Systems
When it comes to hospitality tech, a hotel reservation system is among the most important to implement in your hotel. This is because hotel reservation software comes with many benefits that enable you to run your hotel more efficiently.
Integrated hotel reservation systems can help your hotel:
- Personalize the guest experience. Hotel staff can better prepare for incoming reservations, and any special request they may have, with the help of a centralized dashboard. When staff can prepare ahead of time for reservation arrivals and special requests that they’ve made online – they can better cater to the guest’s needs, in turn boosting guest satisfaction.
- Improve revenue. With hotel reservation technology, hotel management can easily see average vacancies.
- Optimize your staff’s workflow, resulting in fewer wasted billable hours.
- And more!
Hospitality reservation systems are crucial to the success of a hotel. However, reservation software isn’t the only useful and increasingly necessary technology for hotels to utilize.
Cloud-Based PMS Software
The PMS (property management software) is the heart of day-to-day operations in a hotel. This software enables a hotel (or group of hotels) to manage their operations across various functions on one easy-to-access platform.
The technology behind PMS allowed hotels to ditch the strenuous and tedious act of paperwork and keeping paper files. However, not all PMS software is built the same. Legacy PMS involves the hotel ownership to pay for and upkeep an on-premises server, have a dedicated IT person on the payroll, and limit hotel staff because they are only able to access servers from a connected desktop computer.
Cloud-based PMS was a breakthrough in technology used in hospitality because it frees hoteliers from a lot of the constraints posed by server-based, AKA legacy, PMS software. Cloud-based PMS can do everything a traditional legacy PMS can do…and more!
Benefits of Cloud-Based PMS Technology in Hotels
Cloud-based PMS technology in hotels has many benefits, including:
- Software is accessible on smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Your staff are untethered from the desk and can complete internal tasks while walking the building or interacting with guests.
- Since this software offers mobile capability, job roles like housekeeping will see great benefits. They can check off which rooms have been cleaned in real-time from their device – and it seamlessly shows through to the front desk staff downstairs.
- Able to centralize and secure guest data, to remember them for later or for analyzing trends in guest demographics.
- It requires no on-premises server. The costs associated with owning and maintaining a server, plus paying IT employee(s) are not a factor with cloud-based PMS.
- Update rates across OTAs in real-time with cloud-based integration.
- Get automatic updates to the software (which are typically free to the hotel ownership).
- And more!
A cloud-based PMS quickly grew in popularity, as few other hospitality technology solutions offer the same flexibility and freedom that cloud-based software can. Plus, cloud-based PMS requires fewer upfront costs to implement and is easier to maintain.
Channel Managers
A channel management system is a software tool that will allow your hotel to list all available rooms on all connected listing sites simultaneously. This includes integrating with OTAs, such as Booking.com or Expedia.
The channel manager tool automatically updates listings across all websites when a room is booked, or a reservation is canceled, in real-time. Without a channel manager, navigating today’s Internet-based hospitality landscape would be a headache to keep up with.
Imagine if someone books a room on an OTA, and then someone else books the same exact room on your direct booking website. They would be pretty unhappy when they finally arrive for check-in!
Your channel manager works in unison with your web-based booking software and PMS software to ensure seamless booking. In addition, channel managers help your hotel maximize profit by enabling you to list rooms, worry-free, across an array of OTAs. The more prospective guests that see your hotel, the more bookings you gain.
Channel managers help hoteliers navigate today’s world of technology-driven hospitality. Channel managers support your hotel to keep up with competitors, maximize revenue, avoid overbooking, and keep things organized in one centralized place.
Online Training
The uses of smart technology in hospitality go far beyond guest experience and business optimization. It can also reduce the time and money spent on staff training. In days of the past, training was completed in a face-to-face setting with multiple staff members at once. Typically, these training sessions lasted for hours at a time and basically ate up the employee’s entire day.
With online training, enabled with integrative hospitality software, these issues are a thing of the past. Staff members can load up training modules on their desktop or laptop, or even smartphone, and complete them. Traditional in-person training doesn’t allow people to learn at their own pace – which is a huge downside.
Online training benefits employers and employees. Your staff can train when they have a free hour, and still, watch the front desk and ensure all priorities are taken care of on the property. Employees can even opt to complete a few training modules after hours from the comfort of their homes if they have their devices with them. This negates the hassle of finding time to take employees away from their job. Plus, it allows employees agency and empowers them in their learning.
Conclusion
Technology in hotels is growing every day. So far, we have seen how integrative software like PMS and channel managers can change the game for hoteliers. These technological innovations in hotels make it so hoteliers can make more money, optimize operations, better manage staff, and improve the guest experience. Where is the downside?