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Hotel PMS
Believe it or not, some hotel managers still use paper and pencils to register their client’s check in and check out. The hotel PMS is an essential tool for hotel management, recurrent task automation and data collection. Some PMS are more modern than others. A hotel PMS equipped with advanced features will allow you to manage your hotel more efficiently. One of these advanced features is yield management, with which you can fluctuate and adjust your rates in order for your pricing to remain competitive at all times while maximizing profits. You can also generate reports using advanced features, which is a major advantage for any modern hotel. With these reports you will be able to analyze and compare past data with present data, thus helping you in making more informed decisions. Some hotel PMS’ can even use Cloud technology, meaning you can manage your hotel through your PMS from any device connected to the internet, whether it be a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. The data collected by your hotel PMS is precious and can help you to personalize your client’s stay and thus increase their overall satisfaction before, during and after their stay. Modern PMS’s can be connected to other technologies via API’s, more commonly known as integrations. The next technologies we will discuss are technologies which can be connected to your hotel PMS in order for you to centralize your operations as much as possible.
Self-service kiosks
We are only starting to hear about self-service kiosks in the hospitality industry. They are a cutting-edge technology and have only recently been made available for hotels. Your clients can check-in using the kiosks, independent on whether they have made a booking or not. When comes the moment to check-out, your clients can simply use the kiosk to pay any outstanding balance and confirm their departure. Your clients, particularly your business travellers, will appreciate this technology as it allows them to speed up the check-in and check-out process. These kiosks are obviously connected to your hotel PMS so that data can flow between these two technologies at all times. With this modern hotel front desk, your staff can focus on increasing your guests’ satisfaction with little courtesies or simply by being available to meet any of their demands, rather than having to take care of check-in and check-out.
Booking engine
An efficient booking engine is essential for any modern hotel. Online booking is ubiquitous nowadays, and many clients now book using their smartphone. This is why it is extremely important for your booking engine (and your website) to be responsive. If your booking engine is connected to a distribution channel, your room inventory will be automatically updated within your hotel PMS when direct bookings will be made on your website. This way you will avoid overbooking, or having to manually register online booking in your hotel PMS.
Point of sale software (POS)
If you hotel has sources of income other than your rooms, it is essential for your to have a POS. This software will take care of sales, billing, restaurant orders, activities, meals, and the hotel boutique. This POS software will of course be connected to your hotel PMS in order for you to register and bill any extras or activities directly to your client’s room. This way, your client will no longer need to carry their wallet everywhere during their stay. At the same time, your client will be under the impression that they are spending less than they think, which can only tempt them into spending even more at your hotel.
Housekeeping management software
A housekeeping management software or app is another essential technology for a modern hotel. Your hotel’s housekeeping department can be hard to manage. Your staff must know which rooms are ready to be cleaned and which kind of housekeeping they are expected to deliver. To avoid useless trips between the front desk and the rooms, or the scribbly rooms lists it is important for you to invest in a housekeeping management software connected to your hotel PMS. This software will improve communication between the different departments in your hotel and boosts your staff’s efficiency, while providing you with an overall view of the housekeeping activities within your hotel. Information on room status will also be made available in real time between the front desk and your housekeeping staff, making life much easier for both departments.
Reputation management software
Any modern hotel needs to have a reputation management software. This kind of tool allows you to manage any advice your customers leave you, whether it be on TripAdvisor or other websites, so that you can reply to them using a single platform. You can thus control your hotel’s reputation and gather your client’s impressions, for example by using a satisfaction survey.
In order for you to be one of the cutting-edge modern hotels in term of technology, make sure you possess the six major technologies mentioned above.