Having the rights hotel management system software is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity for any property to stay competitive. Hotel property management software needs to have certain features, as well, if it is to be effective.
Why Is Hotel PMS Crucial?
Your hotel management software is one of the most important ways of ensuring an excellent customer experience. Research done by CEP has found that 96% of people who have to expend what they consider to be a “high” effort with the company in order to resolve a problem are very likely to be disloyal to the company. Another poll found that in 2011, 86% of customers had stopped doing business with some company or other because they were displeased with the customer experience interaction.
Hotel management solutions are also crucial because they allow you to manage your online interactions. This is increasingly important since 53% of people are now using mobile phones to research before they travel and conducting an average of 17 different sessions of research before they make a final booking.
What Hotel Management Software Features Do You Need?
Here are six things to look for as you consider hotel management software features.
- Automated bookings for increased efficiency. One of the first features to look for is the ability to reduce the amount of time you and your staff have to spend on basic administrative tasks. Instead of manually updating everything, your computer software should be able to update bookings, keep a running tally of inventory, adjust rates as needed, and schedule housekeeping and other tasks and activities.
- Automatic updates. Computer systems are constantly being developed and upgraded. With that in mind, know that it’s not going to be long before your current hotel software becomes obsolete. Before you buy, look for a system that includes free upgrades and a clear model for pricing.
- Fast and intuitive onboarding. Among the hotel management software features you want to look for should be intuitiveness. You shouldn’t have to bring your entire property to a complete halt in order to get all of your staff trained up to an elaborate and complicated system. Look for systems that require nothing more than a basic competence with computers. Ideally, you want a system that offers training videos that make it easy for you to get all your staff up to speed.
- Flexibility in choosing channel managers. Cloud-based systems are the wave of the future, and good software will let you choose the channel managers you want so that your bookings, inventory, and rates are simultaneously synced up across media channels as well as to your own system. You also want a system that will natively connect with important sites for the industry, such as TripAdvisor or Facebook.
- Strong security. A security breach can be devastating to your brand and to your customers. One of the most important hotel management software features you need is a strong and robust security system for payments and personal information. Ideally, you also want a system that lets your employees log in at different levels of access so that you’re always limiting how many individual people have access to a guest’s most sensitive private details.
- Third-party integrations. Can the software that you are looking at integrate with Channel Manager, Xero, Kounter, Payment Gateway, or similar third-party systems? Check before you buy.
The Future of Hotel Management Software
The guest of the future is only going to be more sophisticated and technologically astute. At the same time, there is a growing interest in personalization and customer expectations for speed, connectivity, personalization, and integration across multiple communication channels is growing by the decade. This means that the hotel management software of the future needs to focus on customers, learn how to leverage big data, and thoroughly master seamless direct bookings.
Those hotels who invest in innovative hotel management solutions will be best poised to move ahead in the changing digital world. Make sure your property is ready for the future by finding hotel management software with the important features you need to stay competitive and deliver an excellent experience to your guests.
