All-In-One Cloud-Based PMS Solutions: The Future of Hotel Management

Cloud technologies date back to the 1950s and we only learned about them during the 90s when “cloud computing” was introduced.

Ever since the start of the 2000s, cloud solutions have been adopted commercially with constant growth. When it comes to the hospitality industry, cloud-based hotel software solutions are the manifestation of the cloud.

These systems come with many benefits such as cost-saving, greater customer satisfaction, and improved operations. However, there are still a lot of hoteliers that don’t use cloud-based hotel PMS tools even though their business would benefit a lot from them. At the same time, there is a new generation of all-in-one cloud PMSs that offer even greater benefits.

Since we are all about “the cloud”, let’s discuss its benefits and how all-in-one solutions have taken them to a new level.

Improved usability and flexibility

With so many systems deployed and a large number of departments, modern hotels have become difficult to manage and they have complex processes. If the hotel PMS is to be the backbone of your daily operations, it needs to do a lot more than just help you manage billing and reservations, don’t you agree?

Legacy PMSs are fixed systems, which means that the staff members are constantly stuck at their desks. No matter what information they need about their guests, they have to go back to their computer and this is a very outdated practice. This is especially important when you consider modern guests who want mobile options and want everything to be done quickly.

With a cloud-based hotel PMS, the life of hoteliers is made easier. Operations are streamlined and simplified while reducing the need to do things manually. Furthermore, the system can be accessed through any device, anywhere. An all-in-one solution enhances all these capabilities even further, as it offers various integrations within the system and staff members don’t need to jump from one software to another and neither have to be constrained to desks.

Better user experience

Many web-based hotel PMS solutions come with a lot of functionalities and features. However, all these things come at a high cost – they are complicated to use. This requires extensive employee training that could delay the switch to a cloud hotel property management system and not to mention all the extra costs.

It’s difficult on its own to make employees adopt new technologies and change the way they do their jobs and when the process requires extensive effort on their part, they will be even more against the idea. Even if the employees are able to learn how to use this kind of system, it could drastically decrease their productivity and make their jobs more difficult, which is the opposite of the final goal.

With the new, cloud PMS solutions, the system can be customized to each user's needs, great importance is given to the UI/UX, maximum work with minimum clicks and achieve maximum via touch, as today everyone is so used to touch and click, meaning that employees can easily get used to the new system.

At the same time, these kinds of systems automatically adapt to any device resolution, hence it becomes easy for staff to carry the work with them when on move within the property.

Zero Capex, Installation and Maintenance

One of the biggest reasons why so many hoteliers don’t make the switch from the Legacy PMS or their current web-based PMS is because they’ve already gone through the complex process of installing the system and integrating it, not to mention capex involved. This is why they are reluctant to do it again. Cloud solutions always come out on top of legacy PMS when it comes to capex, installation and maintenance costs.

They don’t require any hardware equipment, no cooling equipment, backup devices, constant updates for OS, database, Virus, and trojans, or maintaining on-site servers, so not only does cloud PMS save money, but it also saves space. However, even though most cloud solutions are easy to install, companies usually need IT professionals to configure them and maintain them and today cloud solution providers provide this as a service.

The new generation of web-based hotel PMS solutions addresses these issues. Their implementation requires no technical knowledge whatsoever and anyone with basic computer knowledge can handle them.

The best features of cloud solutions, therefore, include:

Zero CAPEX and no upfront investment.

Easy to use plans that are pocket-friendly.

Pay as you use plans that help hoteliers run technology only on OPEX.

Great UI/UX, so even staff turnover should not bother management or stop operations.

Always current technology and loads and loads of the third party integrations

All the updates, upgrades, and maintenance are done automatically by the provider and there is no need to have an in-house team of IT experts to babysit your system.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-in-one-cloud-based-pms-solutions-future-hotel-deepak-chauhan/