Streamlining hotel operations with property management system

Are you a hotel manager who is struggling to manage various hotel operations in one place whether it’s managing reservations, freeing up your front desk staff, setting room rates, or smoothening your check-in and check-out process?

This is where you need to invest in property management system for hotels

What is a Hotel property management system (PMS)?

Hotel PMS acts as a one-stop shop for hoteliers where they can manage various hotel operations such as confirming bookings, managing reservations, check-in/check-out, generating reports, etc.

The property management system for hotels is used by the front desk staff, general manager of the hotel, the housekeeping staff, etc.

Consider that PMS for hotels is not merely a back-office software but it enhances the overall guest experience right from the moment when guests begin their online booking journey till the time, they stay in your hotel.

PMS can be either physically located in the hotel meaning that if you are behind the front desk, you can access it on the go, or it can be even cloud-based.

In the 21st century, PMS has become a MUST-HAVE necessity for hoteliers to manage their inventory and revenues.

Furthermore, you can seamlessly integrate PMS with an online booking engine, channel manager, and other payment processing systems.

Major challenges hoteliers face before the introduction of PMS

Let’s discuss some common challenges hoteliers used to face in managing their day-to-day operations-

1. Complexity in managing reservations

It becomes challenging for hoteliers to manage the huge volume of reservations because guests intend to make bookings from various channels such as the hotel’s website or online travel agencies.

Lack of automation in managing bookings across various channels leads to overbookings and potential revenue loss for hoteliers.

2. Challenges in room allocation

As there is no centralized system, it becomes cumbersome for hoteliers to assign hotel rooms to arrive guests.

When a guest arrives at your hotel, front desk staff need to check the room availability and assign an appropriate room that aligns with your guest’s preferences.

While doing this, they need to waste long hours in assigning the right room to the right guests resulting in delays in check-ins and affecting overall guest experience.

3. Poor guest experience

Digital evolution is there to stay, and if you don’t have the right tools to serve your guests, then you are in the backseat.

Today’s guests want quick check-in and check-out processes because they want to spend maximum time enjoying their stay. Long queues at the front desk often disappoint your guests and affect their overall experience.

How can hoteliers benefit from using PMS?

Investing in a hotel property management system (PMS) adds value to your business by offering you various benefits as mentioned below-

1. Automate your hotel operations

With PMS, you can streamline various hotel operations such as automating reservations, check-in/check-out, housekeeping, etc. By automating such manual tasks, hoteliers can become more efficient as they can now focus on other important tasks that are of high priority.

At the same time, they can serve their guests in a better way by providing them with personalized service.

2. Manage channels of distribution

Integration of PMS with a channel manager saves time and effort for hoteliers as they can manage and advertise their hotels across various channels (online travel agencies, direct bookings, meta-search engine) using one central system.

Having such a feature in PMS eliminates all your worries by automating room rates and availability on various channels.

3. Contactless check-in/check-out

Gone are the days when traditional check-in and check-out processes became challenging for hotel staff and guests.

Hotel PMS introduces contactless check-in/check-out functionality to redefine guest’s experience.

Therefore, hoteliers now can manage everything at their fingertips ranging from check-in/check-out, to managing reservations, guest requests, etc.

4. Saves your time and money

Investing in PMS can be a game changer for your hotel business as it automates various time-consuming tasks that would otherwise be done manually such as check-in/check-out, reporting, etc.

With this, staff can now incline themselves towards revenue-generating tasks that contribute to the profitability of the hotel.

Thus, automation of such tasks results in saving your labor costs.

5. Increases your hotel revenue

Property management systems enable hoteliers to formulate revenue management strategies by providing access to required information such as key performance indicators (KPIs), average daily rate (ADR), etc.

Such metrics help hoteliers formulate revenue strategies that become a guiding factor for them to maximize hotel revenue.

Importance of PMS in the hospitality industry

Here’s why hoteliers should invest in PMS so that they can delight their guests and reduce the burden on their staff-

1. Automate inventory management

Property management system for hotels aka hotel booking software simplifies the inventory management process.

Earlier, it was frustrating for hotel managers to see whether guests booked a hotel through direct or indirect sources. On the flip side, guests had to call front desk staff or make a hotel reservation through OTAs. Then, they had to wait for the confirmation of booking at a hotel.

With PMS, information about guest bookings is updated in real time regardless of their source so there are no issues regarding double bookings.

As a hotelier, you don’t need to worry as updating inventory is no longer a battle for you even if the property gets booked on multiple channels or through multiple agents.

2. Personalizes the guest experience

There are dozens of hotels operating in your area and they are offering similar facilities to you. So, as a hotelier how will you stand out?

By focusing on personalization, you can enhance your guest experience.

Personalization starts when you have access to guest data. This is possible when you are leveraging the use of PMS for your hotel.

With a great PMS, everything is available at your fingertips as it saves your guest information such as guest preferences, stay history, dietary restrictions, etc.

Such information helps you learn a lot about guests and personalize their stay. Apart from that, you can target those guests and upsell their services.

For example – Through PMS, you get to know that an ABC guest is interested in SPA service, and you can promote those services the next time the same guest visits.

3. Self check-in and check-out

Hoteliers need to adapt themselves to changes in guest preferences and expectations. With PMS, hoteliers can automate the check-in and check-out process.

When you are dealing with multiple guests, it creates chaos for you many times. With contactless check-in and check-out, you don’t need to engage with all guests and better serve the ones that require human assistance.

Author Bio

Shubhneet Gulati is a versatile Marketing and Content Writer, who brings expertise in Hotel Management Software. With a passion for streamlining operations, Shubhneet is dedicated to crafting engaging content that resonates with the hospitality industry, offering valuable insights for improved efficiency and guest satisfactions.