In an era of staffing shortages, a good property management system can be a friend indeed for harried hoteliers looking to maximize efficiency and do more with less.
Adam Harris, co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, noted that many hoteliers are overburdened with back-office tasks, which makes a hospitality management platform integral to their success.
The best PMS solutions, Harris said, are those that are part of an intelligent and easy-to-use platform that has powerful features of its own and also can connect easily to other systems, such as customer relations management and revenue management.
“This provides a holistic view of operations, ensuring real-time data updates and allowing for automation of workflows across systems,” Harris said. “Implementing these technologies allows hoteliers to save time on manual tasks and focus on the guest, ultimately driving satisfaction and loyalty.”
Streamline the Guest Experience
Richard Valtr, founder of Mews, agrees that a PMS should focus on “user disengagement”— reducing the time staff spend on screens so they can focus on providing remarkable guest experiences. To maximize a PMS’ potential, Valtr recommended automating nearly every aspect of hotel operations, which can eliminate repetitive day-to-day manual tasks and make operations faster, more intuitive and simpler for staff.
“At the core of our latest guest portal is a move to completely streamline the guest experience and offer guests a fully digitized guest journey,” Valtr said. “The guest portal will offer guests a new homepage where they can view all details of their trip and various reservations in one place, and pre-register their details before arriving at a property. With guests at the heart of every technological advance, hoteliers can tailor guest experiences and upsell amenities and services based on each guest’s purpose, preference and history.”
Valtr also recommended implementing a cloud-native PMS, which provides hoteliers with access to open APIs and unlimited integrations. This versatility will enable them to connect to the integrations that support their exact needs, enabling efficiencies across the board.
Gain a Comprehensive View
A PMS can go a long way to help management navigate workforce shortages and enhance staff efficiency, said Richard Oram, senior director of product enablement at Oracle Hospitality. A modern cloud-based hospitality platform can help deliver seamless integration of the PMS with other hotel systems—especially guest-facing solutions. With it, brands can get a comprehensive view of their hotel business, including distribution, sales, service interactions, loyalty programs, and more to make faster decisions that can benefit staff and guests.
“These modern platforms, such as Oracle Opera Cloud, can help onboard staff more quickly by providing them with self-service learning tools, a user interface that is simple and easy to navigate, as well as access to online content and intelligent knowledge bases and community groups,” Oram said.
Through a unified dashboard, employees’ day-to-day tasks are made simpler and quicker to action by reducing the amount of mundane and repetitive work required, helping employees to adhere to business processes and guest service without being hampered by technology.
“This can establish a more attractive workplace for both veteran and prospective employees, helping to reduce employee churn and assist hotels in retaining their valued staff members,” Oram said.
Thrive in Any Staffing Climate
At Solonis, Marketing Manager Kaelyn Beckman said a PMS should be a hotel’s partner in creating a lean, efficient property that thrives in any staffing climate.
According to Beckman, hoteliers can leverage their PMS to streamline tasks and maximize staff productivity to create a more efficient operation by:
- Automating repetitive tasks: Free your staff from handling check-in/out processes, housekeeping assignments and generating reports. This allows them to focus on delivering exceptional guest service.
- Empowering guests with self-service: Offer online check-in options, mobile key access and automated communication to reduce the burden on your front desk team.
- Unlocking the power of data: Successful hotel business strategies are created and adjusted based on accurate data analysis. The right software can help uncover valuable insights so you can make the best data-driven decisions.
“Maximizing your PMS also means including comprehensive and continuous training programs to ensure your staff can leverage the system's full potential,” Beckman said. “Additionally, seamless integrations with housekeeping applications, channel managers and payment gateways create a smooth workflow for your entire team.”
Beckman added that Solonis is partnering with business intelligence and analytics software company Tableau to create AI-driven data visualization to empower organizations to make specific, data-driven decisions.
Increase Upsell Opportunities
The most effective or impactful ways hotels use PMS to improve operational efficiency are centered around enhancing awareness of shifts in bookings, giving operators the information they need to accommodate incoming guests, and automating aspects of hotel operations, said Priya Rajamani, senior vice president of implementation and support at Stayntouch.
“Increasing the speed and value of communication between departments leads to fewer errors and provides more significant opportunities to provide standout service,” Rajamani said.
According to Rajamani, the newest capabilities added to the hotel PMS revolve around personalization and improving a hotel’s ability to serve guests’ needs directly. Tools and strategies such as attribute-based selling allow travelers to stipulate the exact elements they are looking for during the booking process. Operators can automatically account for these needs when attribute-based selling is filtered through the hotel PMS. All these capabilities improve efficiency and performance by growing occupancy and increasing upsell opportunities without demanding additional operations from hotel leaders.
“Best practices for hotel PMS optimization include ensuring core operational tools are available directly on the PMS and that integrations are available to build onto its existing infrastructure,” Rajamani said. “Hotels should also take PMS training and support seriously, and ensure their PMS is easy to use and easy to navigate for front-line workers. The less time spent learning to use a system, the more time hoteliers have to engage directly with guests.”
Flatten Barriers
Providing a seamless travel experience benefits hoteliers and travelers alike, but today it has grown increasingly important to flatten barriers between operators and simple service delivery, said Warren Dehan, president of Maestro PMS. He noted that the hotel PMS is being used to consolidate many individual services or solutions that cause inefficiency, particularly in independent hotels.
“For example, hotels with payment solutions embedded directly into their PMS allow operators to offer seamless and secure transactions while keeping guest payment activity in-house rather than going through a third-party provider,” Dehan said.
According to Dehan, the closer a technology is to the hotel PMS, the more the hotel benefits. Mobile check-in services and self-service kiosks both play a role in reducing operational overhead for hoteliers while empowering guests to travel on their terms. These services are most beneficial when operators can directly access them using their PMS; that way, hoteliers can quickly address discrepancies in service or delivery and store guest data in a form hotels can leverage for their long-term benefit.
“Similarly, applications that facilitate interdepartmental communications and two-way messaging between hotel operators and guests have been instrumental in reducing confusion and exceeding guest expectations,” Dehan said.
Dehan advised hoteliers to focus on technology that enhances their ability to respond to guest needs without requiring extensive training. “By providing intuitive, easy-to-use platforms, these systems enable staff to access and complete training at their own pace, ensuring they are well-equipped to deliver exceptional service without extensive new training programs,” he said.
This article was originally published in the July/August edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.