Why Hotels Should Move From Pen, Paper and Excel to Online PMS

 

Before the advent of the revolution in technology, both large institutions and the more simple ones had to come up with a system of managing their affairs. For most of the less sophisticated institutions, the way out of getting into a messy state of things was by use of pen and paper. On the other hand, the more complex ones used more of spreadsheets like Excel for their operations. In the world we are living in today, things have completely taken a different turn.

Technology and the internet are the point of reference in this generation and have spilled over to the activities in industries. One of the components of the industry tree that’s much affected by this is hospitality. In this sector, the current and most effective asset is hotel management software and we’ll go ahead and show just why it should be the preferred method of management.

To really appreciate the importance of online software, let’s examine the shortcoming of manual methods of record keeping.

Shortcomings of Manual Methods of Record Keeping

a) Higher Chances Of Human Error

The main problem with these manual methods is that they give too big-a-room for human mistakes to occur. In the actual field, you’ll come across complaints such as a room being double booked, or some missing payment records who`s solution is getting a hotel billing software. In addition to that, you could get reports of clients who’ve had their specifications of housekeeping requests being over-looked that could have been eliminated by having a hotel reservation software.

b) Missing Out On The Online Market

Other than making such mistakes, these hotels also increase their chances of encountering various losses. The main one that becomes evident with time is missing out on the online market. Without an integration of their system to the internet, they become handicapped in that they cannot get online bookings from guests who are beyond their physical location.

Advantages of Online Software

a) Provides Remote Access To The Hotel Management

With the hotel management software being hosted in the cloud, it opens many doors for supervision and monitoring. For instance, hoteliers can have information regarding their property from whichever device they would wish to use, and at any given time. This method is quite useful because important data can be tracked effectively and with transparency.

b) Helps In The Accessing Of Archival Data And Guest Histories

Online software also outclasses the manual methods by having the ability to access maintained records for every guest that`s stayed in the hotel. In addition to that, these records have separate inputs for each and every visit plus the information pertaining their preferences. Most of the advanced systems go a step further to include reservation history on top of the guest history in their databases. This benefits the hotel by enabling them to reach to particular guest markets by diving back to their guest history data bases. The hoteliers can also access the E-mail addresses of guests if the need arises when making new reservations.

c) Provides A Brand Presence For The Hotel

A golden marketing strategy in the market today is making sure that your hotel brand has a high value online as much as it is while offline. Having online software assists immensely in this task because it helps build a remarkable reputation of the hotel online. This is done by the software helping to create posts and blogs with the hotel name in them and also capturing the positive comments left by guests. With an excellent name for your franchise online, it increases the chances of people to seek reservations in your hotel. In the absence of such software, your hotel will be too unfortunate to not have much of an impact online.

d) Used To Manage Online Bookings

Online hotel property management system for your hotel is a vital tool especially when it comes to online bookings. Other than increasing the booking rates of the hotel owners, it also takes charge of the bookings and makes it easier. It has automatic updates of the hotel calendar and advertising sites while making managing of booking preferences and tariffs easier. All this helps to reduce on the manual updates and continuous monitoring that would have been present if the software weren`t around.

e) Helps The Hotel And Its Management To Connect Better To The Guests

With the hotel property management system put into place, there are a variety of things that help create a more friendly interaction with the guests. The software gives the management more control over some aspects of the hotel. A good example of this is the controlling of room rates which can be changed directly from the hotel website. The latest technology in this online system also offers better interaction with the hotel by offering virtual tours of the place via the hotel`s website. With these innovations at hand, it helps create a better idea about the actual property.

Finally, the software can support technology that acquires precise and better information. An example of this is the technology that follows customer reservation and shopping patterns. Using this data, the hotel clientele have forehand knowledge of what the customers prefer when they are making reservations in that particular hotel.