How To Choose The Right Hotel Software Provider For Your Business?

In today's hotel business, technology has become an essential component and at the very least, offering a contactless guest journey has become a norm. However, the number one technology that greatly benefits the hotel is the Hotel Software. It is the heart of your property that ensures that all of its departments function in unison. Collecting the smallest amount of information about your customers' preferences or offering a completely contactless guest experience are just a few of the many features that Cloud PMS (Property Management Software) can provide.

Keeping all the oohs and aahs of what a hotel software can do for you aside, finding the right PMS can and is a very daunting task.

The perfect PMS should be cloud-native and guest-centric, allowing hotels to create their version of the ideal guest experience. At the same time, it should be easy to use and appeal to the hotel staff by simplifying operations. While also offering the hotel owners the flexibility they need to improve the business. Additionally, guest expectations from a hotel have changed a lot since the pandemic hit. Not to forget hotels also experienced significant changes with severe losses and letting go of the staff, further complicating the process of finding the right hotel software.

If you are looking for ways to digitize your property with hotel software post-pandemic, here are some questions you should ask your potential PMS provider.

1. Will the PMS perform all the basic hotel functions?
Sitting right band at the centre with a crown on its head and smile on its face, a cloud PMs is the most important piece of hotel technology that ensures efficiency of all hotel operations. Because it is so important to hotel operations, your hotel management software should come equipped with multiple features. For example, it should come with a booking engine, channel manager, housekeeping module, contactless check-in and check-out feature, integrated POS, integrated back-office system, guest management system, and more

It should also include reporting tools to help you track performance and analyze consumer behaviour and current trends. However, every function must be simple to use, so keep that in mind as well. Furthermore, the PMS you are considering must have a level of user experience that allows new staff to quickly comprehend its essential functions and use them easily. After all, what's the point of having a feature-rich hotel software if it takes ages to learn and operate?

2. Will the PMS help me with my Revenue management?
Recovery following a pandemic is uncertain and speculative. Markets change at a breakneck speed. Hoteliers may maximise earnings by utilizing the revenue management feature offered with cloud PMS. Some PMS vendors provide third-party revenue management services that allow hotels to verify their peers' prices just once a day, which should be enough. However, if once a day isn't enough, look for a PMS supplier that offers real-time competitor pricing updates and fast modifications that can help a hotel recover from COVID-related challenges.

3. Will the PMS Help ease streamline operations and manage the property with minimum staff?
If there were a silver lining to the spread of COVID-19, it is the fact that technological developments were on overdrive and accomplishments were happening every other day. However, even with the technological advancements, occupancy rates in hotels were at an all-time low during the pandemic. In fact, in 2020, hotels lost more than $46 billion in room revenue, according to the AHLA. To make up for that revenue loss, hoteliers were furloughing and letting rid of team members at the same time. Keeping this in mind, your new Cloud PMS system should help smooth operational snags for properties seeking to accomplish more with fewer people on board.

4. Will the PMS help me offer a completely contactless guest journey?
People are growing more comfortable with travelling again as COVID caseloads continue to drop and vaccination adoption rises. They do, however, want their hotels to retain the hygiene levels and social distancing setting. Giving your guests the choice of a completely contactless guest journey is one way to do this while simultaneously encouraging convenience and personalisation.

With the cloud PMS's contactless feature, your guests can check-in and out using their smartphone or any number of guest-facing smart-kiosks thoughtfully situated to complement your property's decor and enhance social distancing. Additionally, you can offer digital keys to avoid the transfer of germs through traditional keys. Make sure the hotel software you chose can smoothly integrate with a variety of third-party contactless payment gateways, keyless access systems, mobile messaging platforms, and more to provide the much-desired comprehensive contactless guest journey.

5. Will the PMS completely secure my hotel's data?
Most cloud PMS come with a myriad of features that often distract hotel owners and IT staff from investigating more about the software's security features. Don't ever do that. Your hotel's data security is not something you should ever neglect. The PMS that you are finalizing for your property must be PCI, GDPR compliant to fight against the latest cybersecurity threats. Always bear in mind that you will be working with your guest's sensitive personal and financial data, so do everything you can to keep it safe. Otherwise, in the event of a security breach, your property's image may be irreparably tarnished.

6. Will the PMS Scale with my Business, easily?
Yes, in 2021, hotels are still trying hard to reach the pre-pandemic levels of occupancy and revenues. However, the industry is picking up at a rapid pace and the hotels will soon move past this dip in occupancy. Understanding that, find a PMS that can adapt to the new trends easily, and is scalable enough to expand with your company as you continue to grow.

7. Will my PMS provider offer 24/7 online support and training?
Even if you have the best hotel software in the world, technical issues can arise at any time, and you must select a PMS provider that offers round the clock online support. If not, imagine having a crisis in the middle of the night and you having to wait for your PMS provider's working hours to resolve the issue #NightMare. The same scenario can be applied to software training: you could run into problems with current or newly introduced features, and support/ training should be provided right off the bat.

8. Is the Cloud PMS provider trustworthy?
When selecting a PMS, evaluate the provider's market reputation, stability, downtimes, alliances, and integrations. A PMS supplier should evolve in tandem with the demands of a hotel. It is critical to select a responsible and flexible PMS provider that will include new modules and features in the PMS as per the industry trends and the guest demands.

Even though making the right decision regarding your hotel's PMS can be a challenge, but you need to put the time and effort into this endeavour since it will affect your business for years to come. The best thing to do is to look at the functions that PMS offers and compare them with what you need and see if they fit each other. And, of course, use our questions above.

Remember, making compromises will not get you anywhere so, never take the second or third option when it comes to your hotel software- that's the only way you can jumpstart your hotel's success.

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Created on Feb 9th 2022 06:17. Viewed 249 times.

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