Author: Claudine Vio

6 tips to reduce the waiting time at your hotel’s front desk

reduire-attente-reception
Posted on by Claudine Vio

We also wish to reduce this frustration during their check-out. When a client is about to leave for an activity, to hit the road, or even to go to a business meeting, we do not want them to wait indefinitely just to give them their bill or to take back their room key.

In the same manner, if a client simply wants to inquire about a particular subject, they can easily become frustrated if they have to wait a long time only to ask a simple question. This kind of customer service problem can significantly impact your client’s satisfaction, which is something we want to avoid. Here is how you can reduce the time spent waiting at your hotel’s front desk.

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Acquire a simple and effective hotel PMS Software

When your hotel registers a lot of arrivals at the same time, the efficiency and speed at which your hotel software can do so can make a significant difference. It can be an efficiently managed or a frustratingly chaotic for your clients.

Other elements, such as the accessibility of your software, will work in your favour. Your new employees will be able to use it in an efficient manner very quickly, without having to go through extensive training.

A clear sequence of actions requiring very few clicks will allow you to reduce the time needed for your employees to carry out actions within your management software. This will make your employees quick and efficient.

Additionally, the little details of your hotel PMS software, such as clear and visible icons, will allow your employees to rapidly track and recognize these icons on their screen and thus saving precious time.

Finally, many advanced features, such as splitting the bill by percentages according to the number of people will make sharing bills much easier. If a couple wants to split the bill evenly, you can tell your hotel PMS software that 50% of the bill goes to client A and 50% of the bill goes to client B. This automatic split of the bill significantly reduces the amount of time spent on your client’s check-out. Some advanced features also allow you to transfer the part of the bill that has already been charged, such as the package pre-paid by your clients if they book through a distributor, and only bill your client the residual part, by isolating the extras.

Set up check-in and check-out kiosks

In order to reduce your client’s waiting time, you can install check-in and check-out kiosks. These machines allow your clients to check themselves in upon their arrival. They can simply enter their information at the kiosk, and the machine will allow them to pay for their stay, find them a room and then give them their room key. Using these kiosks allows your clients to have the opportunity to go straight to their room without having to go to the front desk. Upon check-out, your client will also be able to use one of the kiosks to finalize their bill and return their room key.

Know your client’s time of arrival

This may seem obvious, but knowing your client’s exact time of arrival can allow you to adjust your staff’s timetable accordingly.

Additionally, by knowing their time of arrival, you can prioritize housekeeping for the rooms whose clients are arriving early. This way your clients won’t come to the front desk to check-in to actually realize that their room is not ready, and that they will wait again later to get their room key. You can thus offer a better service, while maintaining your efficiency.

Offer arrival and departure policies that correspond to your clientele

In order to reduce waiting time for arrivals, you can offer an early check-in for some of your clients for a small fee. This can accommodate your business clients, who usually arrive early.

Other clients can inform you of their late arrival. You can offer them a discount on their room, but, for example, you should warn them that their room would only be ready three hours later than the usual time. Your housekeeping staff will be able to rest by spacing out their house keeping tasks.

In order to cut down the line times at the front desk during check-out, you can offer an early check-out for your corporate clientele who already benefit from a special rate. Businessmen and businesswomen usually need to leave your hotel early, so it can be a significant advantage for them and for you to have this opportunity.

Other types of clientele may also prefer a late check-out, such as families who wish to make the most of your hotel’s activities before they leave. These adjustments will make check-ins and check-outs much easier, while offering a customized service that many of your clients will appreciate.

Have a billing system connected to your hotel PMS Software

By having a billing system connected to your hotel PMS software, you will save time on many different levels.

Upon your client’s arrival, you must carry out a pre-authorization. If your hotel has a billing system connected to your hotel PMS software, this operation will be quickly carried out as you will not have to manually enter information on the payment terminal, as your hotel PMS software will take care of it.

Later when your client checks out they will not have to go to the front desk. You can simply bill your client’s credit card as it will have been registered within your payment terminal. You can then send them their receipts by e-mail, thus creating an express check-out process. You therefore reduce the number of clients who have to line up at the front desk, while keeping your employees available to carry out other tasks.

Train your staff

Your staff’s training is extremely important. A rushed or incomplete training can have a negative impact on the quality of the services within your hotel.

Take the time to clearly explain how your hotel works to your new employees. Make sure they fully understand your hotel’s values and its history. Some details, such as the opening hours of the various services offered by your hotel, must not be left out. It is also valuable to know what is offered in your hotel’s neighborhood, such as some local activities or landmarks. These are some elements which can be of interest to your clients. You should also keep your employees updated with your hotel’s latest features and improvements.

You should also offer some training sessions on your computer system, especially if you have just set up a new hotel hotel PMS software. This will make your employees more comfortable with the new system and will increase their efficiency when the time comes to carry out operations within the hotel PMS software. Your clients will surely appreciate it!

Taking the time to train your employees will pay off in the long run. When a client has a question, your staff will be able to answer it within a respectable timeframe. This will allow you to keep a good image by showing that your staff is skilled and knows how to care for your clients.

By taking on these different practices, the waiting time at the front desk will significantly decrease, while keeping your clients and your staff happy!

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The 8 key performance indicators of a hotel

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Posted on by Claudine Vio

These are also often called “performance indicators”. However, some of the more complex aspects of these indicators may remain unclear.

Although your hotel management software remains a vital ally when it comes to collecting information for data calculations, it is also useful to be aware of how these calculations are carried out in order to use the results to make adequate decisions and to efficiently analyze a given situation. Here are the eight key metric indicators that a competent hotel manager should know.

Occupancy

Your hotel’s occupancy represents the percentage of occupied rooms relative to the number of rooms available in your hotel. Thus, if your hotel has 100 rooms and 65 of them are occupied, then your occupancy is 65%. This data is particularly relevant, as it allows you to precisely analyze your hotel’s current situation and to see which elements are attracting clients to book at any given time.
This idea can also be useful to you in terms of your hotel organization. It can provide you with some forecast data in many different departments. When you reach high occupancy, it is important that each service you provide meets your clients’ expectations. Occupancy has a significant influence on your human resource needs. It is thus essential to have a wide panorama of your occupancy in order to ensure that in periods of high occupancy, each department has enough employees to maintain a standard level of services.
By knowing how to compute your occupancy rate, you can access and utilize an analytic element in relation to your hotel’s profitability. Your occupancy can vary depending on a number of different factors, such as your room rates. For example, if your rates are low, you might have a high occupancy, but this does not necessarily equal optimal profitability. In other circumstances, your occupancy alone can be of very small significance when indicating your performance. For example, if you have a high occupancy, you will probably need to hire more staff, for housekeeping amongst others, which will inevitably have a negative impact on your profitability.

ADR

ADR (average daily rate) is your rooms’ average daily rate. It is computed by adding the rates of all your occupied rooms, and then dividing this sum by the number of occupied rooms. This indicator is interesting to look at, especially in order to compare your current average daily rate to that of the previous year. You can also analyze the impact of your mean ADR on your occupancy.
The ADR will provide you with some ideas and possibilities concerning your occupancy. It is obvious that the more you want a high ADR, the bigger the challenge for high occupancy will be and vice versa. It is by your pricing policy that you can find the right equilibrium between ADR and occupancy in order to maximize your income. Thus, the question becomes: Could I have had a better ADR with the same occupancy?
If you are able to offer some discounts, your ADR will be directly affected, as discounts often influence room rates. This is why it is essential to be aware of each discount and event happening at your hotel. With this knowledge you will be not be surprised by a considerable ADR gap between the current and previous year.

REVPAC

The REVPAC metric indicator (revenue per available customer) represents the total revenue generated by a single customer. The REVPAC is computed by taking the total revenue generated by all the customers and then dividing that sum by the total number of customers staying at your hotel. This computation yields the average revenue per hotel guest. This is useful when it comes to making predictions according to your occupancy and time of year. The REVPAC is often an easily improved element as it acts on clients that are already staying at your hotel. A small number of actions can be taken in order for to generate additional revenue. Why not offer a superior room (upsell) upon your client’s arrival for a small additional fee? Offering a superior room can have a wide variety of outcomes. First, your client will be pleased as they will believe they benefited from an advantageous rate. Then, the standard and vacant room will be available for another client who may want to book the room at a lower price.
Improving your REVPAC is an overall goal that can be taken into consideration by all the different departments in your hotel. You might want to include other hotel amenities, for example, bringing a bottle of wine from the hotel bar to the room (crossell), or other options, when you give your clients the opportunity to enjoy the experiences offered by your hotel. The front desk plays a key role given that it will present to your clients all the different available offerings, such as early check-in or late check-out.
If you fail to improve your REVPAC, you need to keep in mind that you can still act on a number of factors in your hotel, and that, sometimes, you just need to remind your staff of the numerous different sales opportunities your hotel offers.

REVPAR

The REVPAR (revenue per available room) is another key performance indicators. This means that a particular room can be rented during the observed period of time. This metric indicator is computed by multiplying the ADR by occupancy. It is used to determine the average rate displayed for the available rooms. Let’s take an example over a month: If, during one month, you rented your rooms at an average rate of $100 and your monthly occupancy was 75%, then your revenue per available room was $75. With this analysis, you can then adjust your rates and lower them to $75 in order to reach a 100% occupancy. On the other hand, if you realized that you had not reached your budgetary equilibrium point during the month, the solution would not necessarily be to lower your rates, but rather to find out which department had not been profitable. If it was that your housekeeping department hadn’t cut down on its expenses despite an occupancy of 75%, your loss of profitability could have possibly come from this department.

GOPPAR

The GOPPAR is perhaps the trickiest indicator to compute. It represents the gross profit per room. This metric indicator reflects the performance of the different departments of your hotel. It takes into account the overall profits generated by your hotel, including food and drink related sales. This amount is then divided by the number of rooms in your hotel to yield your GOPPAR. It allows you to have a clear view of your average profits generated when you rent a room. Thus, the closer to your mean ADR that your GOPPAR is, the less performant your departments will be, and vice versa.
The GOPPAR is a profit indicator as its computing is solely based on them. This means that it relies on the revenue minus the costs associated to generate that revenue. However the yielded result cannot precisely point out where the performance was better or worse. It is only an overall daily indicator.

Customer acquisition cost

Customer acquisition cost is a metric indicator which represents the cost invested for each “acquired” customer, meaning, for each additional client who books at your hotel. The customer acquisition cost can be computed by summing the total amounts invested in sales and marketing, and then dividing that sum by the number of new clients acquired by the investment made in these departments. In order to make a profit on the invested costs, you can establish loyalty programs for your new clients, and, at the same time, improve your retention rate. For this to happen, you need to rely on customer experience, maintain a good level of satisfaction and try to target a clientele that is likely to become loyal, like the business clientele for example.
That way, you can compute the average amount of money you need to invest in order to attract new clients and entice them to book at your hotel. Depending on your loyal clients and your goals concerning new clients, these computations can give you a clear idea as to the degree of investment needed for the future.

ROI

The ROI corresponds to the profitability efficiency of an investment. It represents the percentage of revenue you collect on the overall original investment. For example, if you invest $100 in a project, and, if after a year this project has generated $120, you will have made a total of $20 profit and thus a 20% return on investment. The ROI is a significant indicator to analyze in order to evaluate whether the amounts you invest in your hotel are worth it or not.

Retention rate

In the hospitality industry, the retention rate represents the proportion of clients that remain loyal from time to time. Often, we consider a period of time of a year when analyzing the retention rate as it highly unlikely that a client would stay at your hotel every month. By being aware of the retention rate, you are able to adjust your strategy when it comes to retaining clients, and at the same time, improve their overall level of satisfaction.
The retention rate can also be used when analyzing what your clients have consumed during their stay at your hotel. You can look at which proportion of your clients dined at your restaurant, which proportion took a spa package, which proportion took part in activities, etc. You can then compute your retention rate by an expenditure source and thus improve your REVPAC.
With all these metric indicators within your reach, you can analyze your performance in a precise and efficient manner. However, it is important to keep in mind that these indicators must be used in a defined framed context and often combined with other indicators. When they are well analyzed, these eight key indicators will precisely represent your hotel’s performance to keep you competitive and help you achieve your hotel’s full potential.

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Yield management at your service

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Posted on by Claudine Vio

To have your occupancy rate reach its maximum potential, you must consider your hotel’s ability to attract clientele. For example, if you kept your high season rates during the low season, your hotel will never reach its full capacity. These adjustments are necessary to allow your hotel to achieve its full potential.

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What is really Yield Management?

In the hospitality industry, we are also concerned with revenue management, which is used in a broader context when talking about yield management.

Yield management is a technique in which you adapt your room rates according to a number of criteria in order to maximize your occupancy and your income. The idea is to find and display the best rate in real time to reach an equilibrium. You don’t want this rate to be too low because you would lose money even if your hotel was at full capacity, or too high, because too many rooms would remain vacant. Say there is a popular event going on near your hotel. You can then raise your rates as you benefit from a high demand. On the other hand, say you find yourself in a quieter period, in which case it is preferable to lower your rates. It is therefore obvious that the person in charge of altering your rates should have an extensive knowledge when it comes to popular events and happenings near your hotel. Knowing the precise dates of these events is not necessarily crucial, however you should still be aware of the type of events, participants and deals made with neighboring hotels. Fortunately, you are able to gather and centralize all this data using the yield management tool of your PMS system.

Which elements should you consider for Yield Management

Rate adjustment method

First, you need to establish whether you are using a PMS System or if you are doing calculations without specific tools, as this will impact the way you conduct your yield management. Without specific tools, your method is almost purely based on your own perception of the situation and external factors which could encourage your clientele to book elsewhere. When you equip your hotel management software with a yield management tool, you are then easily and quickly able to modify your rates, and immediately update these rates online. A yield management tool can also gather important data to justify rate fluctuations, compare your performance during the current year to the previous year, and contrast your rate versus your competitors’ rates in real time.

Neighbouring events

You also need to consider the events happening in your hotel’s neighborhood as these events have a direct influence on your occupancy and rates. Regardless of the season, an event will inevitably have an impact on your occupancy and/or rates. In fact, an event represents a potential opportunity to earn additional profit compared to an ordinary situation. You need to seize every business opportunity in order to boost profits and distinguish yourself from your competitors who may not be grasping every one of these opportunities. Competitive intelligence is of crucial importance in your yield management strategy.

Competition

In order to stand out from your competitors, you must analyze them. Many competitive intelligence tools are available, especially with booking platforms which can display your competitors daily rates. It is imperative to analyze your competition in detail, as you need to step into your potential clients’ shoes to have an overview of what is available to them when they are looking for a hotel.
The first challenge you must face is identifying your competition. This is not done simply by considering hotels close to yours, but also ones that offer the same services as yours. When comparing rates, you need to make sure you are comparing similar rooms and services, and, if not, you should take that into consideration when setting a final rate. There is no need to compare a standard room with a double bed to a suite which offers a queen bed and a larger area. If your competition does not have any more standard rooms in its inventory, you may want to ask yourself why. Is it because they only had very few standard rooms to begin with? Because the standard rooms all sold out? Or is it because your competitors’ pricing policy is more attractive than yours is and that your competition is well ahead of you?!

Comparing your performance to the previous year

It is also important to evaluate the current period against the same period as the year before. The result of this comparison will allow you to situate yourself in terms of bookings compared to a specific date during the previous year, and thus to be more proactive in modifying your rates. You also need to take into account whether, during the same period last year, an event boosted your rates and occupancy or, on the other hand, if it was an ordinary period.

External factors

You also need to consider other external factors when adjusting your rates. Say you run a resort. Your clientele is more likely to consider dates where they will be able to enjoy all of the attractions you have to offer. Therefore, during summertime, the weather will play a crucial role on your hotel’s attractiveness. Some hotels transform this aspect into a marketing feature, adjusting rates during the winter according to the weather. In the event of a very cold day, your clients are offered a greater discount than on more mild days. This rate management, which resembles yield management, was adopted by some hotels after easily noticing that, during colder days, fewer clients are likely to book.

The time of booking

The last factor to consider in your rate analysis is your clientele’s time of booking. By time of booking, we mean the number of days, on average, that separates the moment your clients make the reservation and the actual moment they check-in at your hotel. The time of booking indicates a tendency which reflects whether the vast majority of bookings were already made according to a specific date, or if the majority of bookings is yet to come. This is tremendously important, as it will ensure your ability to reach optimum occupancy for specific dates. If your rate is not adjusted when the majority of your clients call, you put yourself at risk of losing many clients or losing a significant amount of money. On the other hand, if your rate is perfectly adjusted according to all your criteria, you will be more likely to attract clientele and maximize your income rather than watching your potential clients book elsewhere.

Additionally, due to the fact that you take bookings for the near future, it is very important to know at all times which dates your clients are likely to book. This will allow you to adjust your rates for these dates accordingly, rather than adjusting them after the majority of your clients have already booked; which will then be too late. Once again, your PMS System supplies this important data.

For hotel managers who are able to play with overbooking, and thus have a significant amount of no shows, the rate adjustment task is made even trickier. An extensive analysis of no shows will be of significant importance because it is part of the everyday reality. It is possible for a client not to show up because the rate at which they had booked was higher than that of the competition a few days before their stay. This can lead to your client changing their decision at the last minute, if your cancellation policy allows it.

In order to avoid such a situation, the choice of booking policy is also something which you should control as a hotel manager, so that you can attract even more clients and avoid clients not showing up.

All these yield management concepts can and will be very effective if you are equipped with the right tools. Your PMS System must be able to provide you with current and past data and also predict your future data to guide you in the right direction. Your competition analysis must be done carefully to ensure you do not miss relevant data, and you must pay attention to customer behavior and the reasons that they might book elsewhere.

Ultimately, do not confuse yield management with pricing policy. Yield management allows you to adjust your rates in the few days preceding bookings. It is therefore interesting and useful to combine pricing policy and yield management to maximize your income. The final adjustments in your pricing strategy will allow you to distinguish yourself from the competition and always be one step ahead.

Managing overbooking with your hotel PMS

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Posted on by Claudine Vio
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Gérer la surréservation grâce à votre PMS hôtel

Overbooking scenarios

In a hotel that has multiple types of rooms, overbooking can happen on two levels: room type overbooking and overall hotel overbooking.

Room type overbooking occurs when a single room category is no longer available, but other types of rooms remain available. In such a case, you should review your pricing strategy to optimize income from other room types. If you consult your yield management module carefully, you may discover that the date in question is popular because of an event being held near your hotel. You may have estimated your occupation rate in a specific way, but it turns out that the event also generates more interest in your hotel. Before your remaining rooms are all sold, it’s a good time to review your rates.

A fully overbooked hotel is more difficult to manage since no rooms are available at all and you must relocate surplus guests.

How does a hotel get overbooked?

A hotel may face overbooking for many reasons. Sometimes, overbooking happens because a guest books the last room via an online booking agency, while another guest books the same room directly on your hotel’s booking site. In such a scenario, if you don’t have a hotel PMS connected to the booking engine, your hotel’s available room inventory won’t have had time to be updated on the various online sales platforms. Thanks to hotel PMS and online booking engine connectivity, your room inventory and rates are updated in real time. If your hotel PMS doesn’t have this feature, you must deal with two guests who have booked your last available room. You will need to relocate one of these two guests.

Your hotel may also face an overbooking situation if you decide to risk leaving rooms available in anticipation of eventual cancellations. In this way, even if you have two guests booked in the same room within a given room category, when a guest cancels a reservation for that same category, you will end up with a free room to which you can allocate the extra guest before their arrival.

Depending on your pricing policy and overbooking strategy, you could choose to keep a very popular room type available online, even if it’s not, and provide a few loyal guests with an upgrade upon arrival. You could also upsell to your guests; they’ll enjoy a superior room, and you’ll increase this guest’s average basket.

Tips on dealing with overbooking

Overbooking often creates a crisis situation at a hotel. And yet, some hotels live with this reality on a daily basis. For instance, a downtown hotel with a very flexible cancellation policy may accept multiple overbookings and deal with them the same day. Indeed, it’s essential for these hotels to have excess reservations, because their no-show rate is often high. Overbooking is an innate part of doing business for these hotels if they’re looking to optimize their income and reach maximum occupancy.

If your hotel is overbooked, you’ll need to upgrade some guests in some cases and relocate others when no rooms are left to allocate. It’s essential to offer guests an alternative hotel of the same or of a better quality that has similar services. Gifts or discounts on a future stay can also help make the situation easier for guests and ensure they consider staying with you the next time they’re planning to stay in the area.

To avoid guest dissatisfaction, call and prepay a taxi to take them to the alternate hotel. In this way, you manage your guests effectively and show you care about their satisfaction.

In cases where overbooking can be avoided, a hotel PMS is a huge asset. If you have a room available and a guest books a long stay, room allocation performed manually in advance may not be optimal. A hotel PMS that assigns rooms automatically will optimize room allocation and let a guest book a room for multiple days without having to change rooms during their stay.

Which guests should you relocate when overbooked?

Once you have determined that you need to relocate one guest or more, you need to ask yourself which guest would be most likely to accept this inconvenience without too much trouble. In general, business travellers don’t object too much to an unforeseen change of hotel, as long as the hotel to which you move them isn’t too far from where their conference or event is taking place, and their room includes amenities such as Wi-Fi and services equivalent to yours. Of course, groups are out of reach and guests who are staying for multiple days would prefer not to have to reschedule their entire trip.

Guests staying for only one night can often be relocated more easily, without disturbing their plans too much. However, here again, make sure to pick a similar hotel that offers an experience close enough to the one the guest was looking for at your hotel.

Relocation is a delicate task. Be sure to analyze all the options to make the best decision possible. Thanks to the wealth of information your hotel PMS provides, you can orchestrate these changes in the most efficient way. Overbooking won’t be a headache anymore since you can manage it with confidence.

How well do you know cloud hotel management systems?

logiciels-hoteliers-cloud
Posted on by Claudine Vio

In poetic terms, cloud hosting literally happens “in the clouds.” The process is a bit more complicated than that, but the fact remains that the concept has scared many people since its inception.

It’s worthwhile to learn more about Cloud hotel management systems, so here’s a run-down of the basics you need to know about it. As you’ll see, there’s no reason to fear this technology!

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Connaissez-vous bien les logiciels hôteliers Cloud?

What is a cloud hotel management system?

Before outlining the many benefits of a Cloud hotel management system, it’s important to know precisely what such a system is. While Cloud technology is virtually ubiquitous today, you’re probably aware that it sparked a revolution when it appeared on the digital landscape.

Cloud hosting refers to app and data hosting on remote servers on the internet, as opposed to the old method of stocking and installing software on site.

With any Internet-connected device, you can access your software, even your PMS, which is hosted on the Cloud. A Cloud hotel management system consists of the apps stocked and installed on remote servers.

There are a ton of benefits to choosing cloud hosting for your hotel management system. In addition to having the freedom of working anywhere from any device, a Cloud hotel management system is a window onto the future of technology.

The benefits of a cloud hotel management system

Let’s cut to the chase. A Cloud hotel management system offers many benefits. Cloud technology is popular for many reasons.

Security

Security is the top worry clients have about a Cloud hotel management system. The Cloud is a safe space to host your data because it must comply with numerous international rules. Moreover, back-ups are done regularly on the Cloud so that you can avoid losing all your data if an incident should occur.

Cost savings

Surprisingly, a Cloud hotel management system is a tool that can save companies money. Since licences are billed monthly, they don’t require a substantial investment upfront. Additionally, the cost and features can be adjusted seasonally according to your financial cycle. Savings are also possible because no specialized hardware is required to host a Cloud hotel management system, which means you also save on maintenance.

No hardware required

Obviously, since hosting happens on the internet, you won’t have any physical infrastructure to maintain. Forget about breakdowns, accidents, flooding and hardware wear and tear; a Cloud hotel management system doesn’t require any maintenance.

Scalable

A Cloud hotel management system is a savvy choice because it’s easy to modify, improve or simplify. All you need to do is call your Cloud specialist, and they will help you add or remove features according to your company’s growth and evolution. Nothing could be simpler!

In short, choosing software that’s not on the cloud might put you at risk!

Even though you may understand the benefits of Cloud hosting listed above in an abstract sense, it can be hard to imagine what could go wrong with traditional software hosted on your site. However, the truth is that the Cloud is a much safer and reliable technology. Software hosted on site isn’t stored in the Cloud. Rather, it’s installed on servers on site, which can be unsafe in many ways.

First, it’s important to remember that a hotel management system hosted on site will need technical support for its infrastructure. Therefore, you’ll need to perform maintenance and updates on physical servers in your offices. The fact that you’ll have to rely on physical infrastructure to accomplish your work could complicate matters.

For instance, in the event of a fire or flood, your on-site data could be compromised. And since your hotel management system is installed on those same affected servers, it could be inaccessible for days, even weeks.

Also, a hotel management system hosted on site could put the security of your data at risk, especially if you don’t back up your data frequently. Servers are often the target of cyberattacks that aim to steal or even destroy your data with viruses. It’s also easier to steal or clone data when servers are at hand.

Finally, if you choose not to host your hotel management system on the Cloud, you run the risk of lost or stolen data, equipment breakdowns and data backup issues. Software hosted on site contributes to some risks.

Multiple cloud hotel management system options are available

Many hotel management system solutions exist either hosted on the Cloud or on site. You’ll find a wide array of products in both categories. First and foremost comes the essential PMS (property management system), which is a complete solution that includes various apps and modules to improve the overall management of your hotel.

For its part, the POS takes care of everything related to sales. Point-of-sale software makes it possible to generate sales and manage payments and invoices as well as inventory. Generally, the booking engine is hosted on the Cloud and lets you manage everything involving reservations, availability and so forth. The email marketing tools are often hosted on the internet, too.

Finally, multiple relationship management tools like Guestfolio or Trustyou are also on the Cloud.

In conclusion, Cloud hotel management systems are here to stay. Besides being omnipresent in the hotel world, they offer numerous benefits and undeniable safety. Even though the technology is recent, there’s no good reason not to trust it. If you want to learn more about Cloud hotel management systems, contact one of our experts

What is a hotel PMS, and what features should it have?

hotel-pms
Posted on by Claudine Vio
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What is a hotel PMS?

A hotel PMS – or synonyms such as PMS Software, PMS system, PMS, Property Management Software, Property Management System – is a property management system that ensures complete, consistent and flawless hotel management. A PMS Software includes numerous features and, depending on your needs, it can assist you in various departments. A PMS Software’ main purpose is to help you manage room availability, prices, invoices, contacts, booking and sending automated booking emails before clients arrive, among other things.

Unlike its ancestor, the Excel file, property management software doesn’t require you to intervene or supervise to coordinate information, ensure an occupancy rate close to 100% or inform management of guest stay length or room vacancy rate. Awesome, right? So, when a PMS Software handles every aspect of your hotel, what’s left for you to do? What you do best: take care of your guests, offer them an unforgettable stay and ensure no details are overlooked.

What hotel PMS features does a good manager need?

Since hotel PMS software includes a wide range of applications and features, it goes without saying that it has to be adapted to meet each establishment’s needs and issues. However, there are some services you absolutely must have to leverage the power of your PMS Software fully.

You need PMS Software activity reports

As a manager, your decisions rely on numbers and stats, and even if your instincts are good, you need to analyze the data to make the right choices. This is why you should consider adding a module that generates hotel activity reports.

A hotel PMS can create all kinds of reports:

You need access to data

Try to get property management software that provides the data you need to better understand your clientele. Guests come through your doors every day, live in your rooms and see your hotel as their home for a few nights. It’s your duty to know your guests. Hotel PMS software offers complete management for your establishment. It’s the ultimate place to collect all the information related to your business.

Guaranteeing you have access to this information will help you make a wide range of decisions:

  • Client type
  • Stay type
  • How many days in advance do guests book their room?
  • Contact list to improve guest communication

Finally, while you need this data, you also need to be able to export, analyze, process and use it. Never underestimate the power of data! For example, if you want to attract business travellers, this data could help you set up various strategies based on the conclusions you draw from it.

Think about adding a yield management module to your hotel PMS Software

Unique to our industry, the yield management feature automates price management according to special events or activities. There’s no need to calculate the price manually as the module handles the task for you!
Remember to always look for a yield management function that will be easy to use and let you add notes to your calendar about all the important events that could influence your price. 
And, as you already know it, this module will complement the reports your hotel PMS generates. By analyzing these numbers, you’ll be able to set your prices better.

Finally, automation is vital to your hotel

Thanks to its modules and features, hotel PMS software can save you hundreds of hours of work. The ability to automate and free you from redundant and time-consuming tasks is its strength. One of the tasks it can take care of is room assignment.
You already know that optimizing hotel management and achieving an occupancy rate close to 100% are no small tasks. They’re like a Tetris game where your company’s profit, your guests’ satisfaction and your internal logistics are at stake.
By choosing a PMS Software that assigns rooms automatically, room turnover and space management are optimized to guarantee equal use of your infrastructure and equipment and avoid inconsistent bookings.

A hotel PMS is an essential tool for every department of your hotel

Your hotel PMS can assign rooms or develop data-based strategies, and it can also support every aspect of hotel management. Have you ever thought that software could help you manage your cleaning service better? Well, it can. A hotel PMS makes it possible for your department to communicate room statuses directly to the front desk to boost room cleaning speed and consistency between all your hotel’s teams.

Also, the cleaning service and all your service employees will be able to manage lost and found items, packages, activities or bookings more easily. You’ll find all the information you need in the software, add notes to the client file or create alerts to ensure better communication, coordination, and consistency. Besides helping you plan better, you will have everything you need to guarantee service quality. Indeed, adding a connection between your establishment’s various services will set your business apart from the competition and offer a flawless high-end experience to guests.

A hotel PMS is a versatile and efficient tool that can handle any aspect of your daily duties, free you from redundant tasks and help you avoid potential issues. Moreover, property management software makes it possible to automate room assignment, the sending of emails before and after stays and even group coordination.

The ultimate perk? Software like this gathers all the information linked to your hotel operations in one place. With a PMS Software supporting you at every turn, automating tasks and enabling fluid communication between your staff, nothing can stop you from providing the best service to guests so that they enjoy an unforgettable stay.

Hotel PMS and POS: the hotelier’s dynamic duo

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Posted on by Claudine Vio
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The difference between a hotel PMS and a POS

A POS is point of sale software available on the Cloud that allows you to take charge of sales, invoicing and ordering for your restaurant, rooms, activities, meals and hotel boutiques. More than just a simple invoicing software, a POS can integrate with your PMS to take charge of transactions during your client’s stay. Hotel PMS and POS integration generates unique, understandable and coherent invoices for all the services offered in your establishment, which ensures a worry-free and streamlined guest experience. A POS will not only work at your restaurant but for hotel activities, the boutique and room service as well. A POS ensures a connection between your hotel’s various departments, makes you more efficient and helps you offer a flawless high-end experience.

Why a hotel PMS and a POS are essential

In all great teams, each member has a strength:

  • The hotel PMS handles room booking while the POS processes restaurant orders.
  • The hotel PMS manages room inventory while the POS helps manage restaurant or boutique stocks.
  • The hotel PMS notifies you if a room needs to be cleaned or is ready for guests while the POS tells you if a table is available or booked.

If you own a resort, your hotel PMS helps book rooms, but your POS lends a hand with invoicing activities or extras directly to the room to simplify your guest’s experience. From the spa to the restaurant to the bar to the souvenir boutique, the hotel PMS and POS are there at each point of sale to ensure consistent and guest-friendly service.

Better service through hotel PMS and POS integration

PMS and POS integration can offer guests the ultimate experience. Since your hotel provides numerous services and has hundreds of rooms and guests, it can be complicated and difficult to check each one and make sure all services are paid before guests check out. So, to ensure that everything goes smoothly, the restaurant, boutique, room service and concierge can access the POS to provide a unique and complete invoice and enter any purchases. This way, the guests don’t have to carry a credit card during their stay. According to some studies, this freedom gives guests the impression of spending less, which encourages them to spend more. This unique invoice approach makes your hotel staff’s job easier and contributes to a pleasant stay for your guests. Moreover, if guests have a package or a credit flagged in their file, the connection between the different services eases communication and avoids confusion.

The hotel PMS and POS combo ensures the perfect stay

By connecting both your booking system and hotel management to all your points of sale, you can offer a true benefit to your guests. You help them enjoy their stay without having to worry about bills or invoicing errors. With the hotel PMS and POS combo, unpaid bills at your restaurant can be automatically added to a guest’s room invoice. Additionally, you can establish a pre-authorized limit for each room to avoid uncomfortable surprises at checkout. Once the limit is reached, all the point of sales linked to your hotel PMS will be alerted and will prompt the guest to pay directly. In this way, you’re guaranteed to avoid invoices that extend your guests’ ability to pay.

With PMS and POS integration, service centralization offers an invoicing mode that’s unique and clear. You’ll get fewer complaints when guests check out as invoices will be transparent. Fewer complaints at the end of the stay also mean less time spent at the hotel’s reception desk, which guarantees a quick and efficient guest experience.

Your hotel PMS and POS are interdependent and help you manage from your hotel from A to Z by drawing on the strength of both software systems to help your company deliver a more connected and efficient guest experience. And by leveraging the power of solutions like these, you’ll have more time to focus on what you do best: take care of guests so they can enjoy their stay. Want to learn more?

Let automation lead the way

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Posted on by Claudine Vio
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The booking process

Automation begins with booking. When booking is done online, the booking engine must have access to the very latest, up-to-date inventory. Information about inventory derives from the Hotel PMS. For this information to be available in real time, your PMS and your booking engine must be integrated. Without this integration, the inventory must be done manually on your booking engine, which could lead to adverse impacts, such as overbooking or, conversely, to a loss of sales because too many restrictions are placed on the inventory.

Once a booking is complete, it is automatically sent to your Hotel Management System. Once again, when the booking engine and hotel software are integrated, the process is seamless and happens automatically, so there’s nothing left to do by hand.

Room allocation

Hotels must manage available space efficiently and use rooms equally. There’s no better way to do this than letting automation work for you to automatically allocate rooms. The property management software packages that offer this option use an algorithm to optimize room allocation.

Communication

Communicate even more efficiently with your current or future guests. Your PMS System can easily automate tasks such as sending confirmations, stay reminders and thank-you messages.

Payments

With the necessary integration between a Hotel PMS and payment provider, payments can also be automated. This type of automation covers debit and credit card transactions as well as batch closures. Payment automation does much more than simplify tasks, though. It also secures transactions with a PIN, eliminates data entry errors and saves considerable time when balancing the cash.

Report generation

Another item that can be automated is report generation. Granted, generating reports isn’t the most arduous task. Still, you’ll save precious time by simply programming them once so that they’re automatically extracted according to a set schedule. All you’ll have left to do is read them!

Check-ins and check-outs

Electronic terminal/PMS integration offers a new type of automation. This new technology makes autonomous check-in and check-out possible. From the hotelier’s point of view, no intervention is required. This innovation is likely to revolutionize the hotel industry very quickly.

The more your recurring tasks are automated, the more efficient you’ll be in your other tasks. As a bonus, you’ll have more time to spend with guests, increasing their satisfaction rather than frittering away valuable time.

4 booking engine attributes that boost conversions

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Posted on by Claudine Vio
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User-friendly and intuitive

The easier and more intuitive the booking experience, the more likely conversions will result. Therefore, your booking engine must be as user-friendly as possible. It should clearly represent your rooms and list their price and availability, without the user needing to go looking for the information.

Connected

With a booking engine that’s connected to a distribution channel, you benefit from real-time updates based on direct and third-party bookings (OTA, GDS, etc.). As a result, you not only save time but avoid overbooking. A connected booking engine also makes faster conversions possible since users can see whether room availability matches their trip dates. Real-time connectivity keeps extra phone calls or email requests to a minimum and prevents the loss of bookings to your competitors.

Mobile and responsive

Les réservations mobiles constituent une source de conversions de plus en plus importante. C’est pourquoi votre site Web et votre moteur de réservation se doivent d’être accessibles sur mobile. Si cela n’est pas le cas, vous perdez des réservations directes. Il est vital que la version mobile de votre moteur de réservation soit responsive pour rendre le processus de réservation simple et facile sur un écran tactile.

Mobile devices are a growing source of direct booking conversions. For this reason, your website and booking engine must be mobile-device enabled. If it isn’t, you are missing out on direct bookings. It’s crucial to have a responsive booking engine that’s optimized to make the touchscreen booking process simple and easy.

International

Your hotel’s website can reach visitors all over the world. It’s essential to ensure your booking engine offers a wide choice of languages and currencies to encourage international client conversions.

To boost direct bookings and profits, you must have a good booking engine. To this end, your booking engine must be intuitive, connected, mobile, responsive and international. If your booking engine has these four attributes, you’re well on your way to boosting direct booking conversions.

9 Ways to Boost Hotel Bookings and Increase Revenue

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Posted on by Claudine Vio
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Tip 1: Solidify your hotel guest personas

With the help of your hotel database, find out who your guests are, why they’re staying with you and for what purpose, i.e., business or pleasure. Then, develop one or two guest personas so that you can properly tailor your marketing efforts to meet their needs.

Tip 2: Use a strong value proposition to resonate with guests

Clearly state what makes your hotel unique and why potential guests should stay with you rather than anywhere else. Be sure to emphasize the fact that you can meet their needs better than your competitors can.

Tip 3: Speed ​​up your website loading time

Research shows that the slower your website speed, the more likely visitors are to leave it for a competitor’s site. To avoid this, make sure that it does not take more than 3 seconds for your site to load.

Having a spectacular photo gallery is essential for any hotel website. Since potential guests visit this page to see what your hotel looks like, it is the ideal place to showcase your most beautiful rooms, features and amenities. Always ensure that your photos are high quality and up to date.

Tip 5: Keep your site simple

Simplify site design and navigation. A quick and easy-to-use site allows potential guests to better navigate the information and continue exploring your site.

Tip 6: Avoid overwhelming potential guests with too much choice

People who visit your website might be discouraged if faced with too many choices. Make sure you limit your packages and navigational options to the bare essentials.

Tip 7: Appeal to guests through visual storytelling

Images pack a huge emotional punch with potential guests. Fill your website with beautiful, powerful images that tell a story and convey strong emotions. You might be surprised to see just how positive an effect this can have on hotel reservations.

Tip 8: Think mobile friendly

Optimize your website for mobile. Ensure that your potential guests can book their stay with ease, without ever having to touch a computer. Also, be sure to include smartphone functionality on your mobile site so that guests can call you or get directions to your hotel with just one simple click.

Tip 9: Get down with your data

Website data can reveal a lot about your hotel and your guests, so take advantage of it! These informations are an invaluable personalization opportunity for your property. Whether it is to tailor the customer experience or offer them a personalized arrival, the use of this data helps to exceed their expectations. Certain information about your establishment can also be useful to analyze your performance with indicators such as the occupancy rate, the status of the rooms, your average monthly revenue and others. So what are you waiting for to take advantage of it!

Whether it’s by getting to know your customers, improving your website or your social media, all of these can contribute to your hotel’s reputation and therefore increase your profits. You will not only improve your reputation in the eyes of your customers, but also your position against your competitors through differentiation.