Upon arrival, a guest’s first impression is created as they step through your hotel door and interact with the front desk. In a general scenario, a property management system (PMS) should easily display the day’s arrivals and contain essential information about stay preferences attached to guest reservations. This guarantees you a good and unforgettable first impression.
A hotel property management system helps hotels efficiently organize, schedule and manage their daily operations. This allows hotels and small, independent groups to handle the front desk work process, including booking, hosting, and redeeming guests, assigning guest rooms, delegating duties and billing, and more. Simply put, PMS automates and streamlines operations, saves hours and helps serve guests better.
Essential features of a hotel Property Management System
1. Reservation management: The reservation service, which contains all the information about the inventory and its data, must be integrated into the website reservation mechanism and other sales channels. A practical and easy-to-use display shows current and upcoming management reservations. You can check room availability and conditions, monitor reservations and guests, and move them as needed. In addition, the reservation function should facilitate managing room reservations, discounts, room inventory, and accepting online payments.
2. Distribution channel management: This function eliminates manual administration and simplifies order transactions. The software creates a direct connection to the reservation system and offers a single interface for controlling and distributing stock through different channels. It syncs all bookings and updates room availability across all channels in real-time. It also provides consistency when it comes to hotel rates and discounts.
3. Revenue management and strategy: The hotel revenue management system provides a secure and straightforward interface for tracking, managing, and analysing payments. It accepts online payments, instant credit/debit card validation and helps track and manage unpaid charges in the event of non-payment. Hotel property management software also enables hoteliers to implement a flexible data-driven revenue management strategy.
4. Point-of-Sale (POS) service: Many hotels have restaurants, banquet and conference halls, fitness centres, day spas, gift shops, and other facilities. They can also include additional fees or provide discounts for food and beverages, room service, minibar, TV, or Wi-Fi for guest slides. The POS function of the hotel operating system helps manage all payments received smoothly through multiple sales terminals, automate transactions, and store data in one place.
5. Cloud-based: With a cloud-based PMS, you can achieve greater efficiency. It ensures that all your data is in one place, and every process is streamlined without the need for additional hardware or software. Hoteliers can broaden their reach by collecting bookings directly and listing their property on various OTA platforms. All-in-one property management systems provide the power to receive and record real-time reservation data and availability updates.
6. Check-in functionality: Digital check-in functionality is a relatively new offering within the PMS market but growing in popularity. This allows payment cards to be authorized in advance, allowing guests to arrive and then check-in using a mobile app on their phone or using a self-service check-in machine in the reception area. Then PMS syncs automatically, keeping check-in and occupancy information updated. Benefits include improved speed, communication with customers via the app, and up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.
7. Customer support and feedback: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), integrated with reception and reservation systems, collects and manages guest contact information and other data from these sources. The PMS Hotel system also offers a comprehensive feedback management function that gathers feedback from guests. Such data can be used on hotel websites, travel booking sites, mobile apps, or surveys.
8. Data analysis: With PMS, data analysis should be permitted under various points such as customer behaviour, ROI, booking patterns. This streamlines the process, helps you understand the flaws, and provides you with the knowledge to make smart decisions that can increase profit.
9. Hotel room inventory management: An efficient PMS should have a feature that helps you manage the hotel rooms by allowing you to access current and future inventory status and helps you to update it right away. Also, hotel rooms allocation should be automated.
The benefits of a Property Management System
A property management system can be one of your hotel’s most significant assets as it optimizes your day-to-day operations, increases efficiency, and ultimately makes a profit.
Contributor
Karan Iyer
Karan Iyer is an end-to-end digital marketer and blogger at Aiosell who inherently understands the hotel industry with his hospitality background. Karan knows how to convert the pain points and challenges of the hotel industry into business opportunities, and that’s what he writes about for his readers.