Hotel Property Management System - One Stop Solution For Hoteliers

Explore how a powerful hotel property management app can streamline operations, boost efficiency, and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

Are you troubled by the worries of managing the daily activities of your Hotel or property? Have you ever thought of implementing a Property Management System? Or are you using a generic property management system incapable of meeting your specific needs?

Owing to global digitalisation and the adoption of different technologies, the need for a top performing Property management system has become critical for the hotel industry to grow and survive the competition. For streamlining the workflow, it is important to upgrade your current software with a more customised and innovative one. PMS (Property Management System) helps to channel the daily workflow and stay organised so you can focus on the customers.

But why should you switch to a Property Management System? What features to include while selecting one? What are the advantages of PMS in the Hotel and Real Estate Industry? Should you select appropriate among off-the-shelf solutions or get a customised one built for your specific need? These are some of the questions to be considered before implementing a PMS in their business. We are going to shed some light on these questions to help you select the best one for your business. 

What is a Hotel Property Management System?

A hotel property management system (PMS) is an application that manages all aspects of hotel business operations, including the delivery of superior guest experiences. A cloud-based PMS system gives the freedom of managing the property from anywhere, anytime and using any device. The capabilities of PMS with time have evolved beyond the core functions like room inventory, reservations, housekeeping and assigning guests to rooms, to include all areas of hotel operations. It can easily customised to integrate third-party technologies, including channel managers, point-of-sale systems, payment gateways, accounting systems etc.

Benefits of using a hotel PMS system

Every business is challenged with providing a personalised experience to every client while operating effectively and the hotel industry is no different. The hotel PMS solutions help the hoteliers deliver the experience guests want, while efficiently managing their business. The benefits provided by PMS include - 

1. Improved guest experience - Using mobile-enabled cloud-based hotel PMS, you can provide anytime anywhere service to your guests. The staff will be able to easily manage tasks like checking guests in, assigning rooms, enabling guest services, checking guests out etc. giving a good experience to the clients.

2. Faster bookings - As all the data is better organised and updated, all the reservations can be tracked in one place, providing information on room availability and more. Also, clients can book their rooms online before their arrival and can proceed with online check-outs as well.

3. Daily task automation - PMS helps to streamline and automate various daily tasks. These include guest check-in and check-out, making reservations, transactions handling, guest service, housekeeping etc.

4. Better communication with staff members and vendors - PMS allows internal messaging or communication modules enabling seamless communication across departments. Front and back office operations can be synchronized using internal communications for sending messages, raising requests and tracking them.

5. Guest data - Centralised and secure customer data with accuracy of the guest profiles, reporting and analytics will help the business in understanding customer buying patterns. This will help in defining more targeted packages/services and ensuring compliance with national and international data-compliance rules.

6. Improved productivity and efficiency - PMS helps managers to efficiently manage employee productivity by providing real-time access to the most important information they need to perform their duties. Also, this helps in assisting the critical issues first and reallocating the workforce accordingly.

7. Reduces administrative mistakes - PMS provides real-time information in one place giving freedom from tracking and updating multiple sources and hence eliminating the chances of human errors. This will provide accuracy leading to better decision-making and hence satisfied customers.

Major Functions you need in your Hotel Property Management System

1. Control dashboard

User-friendly dashboard providing instant snapshots of the most critical information for daily tasks. These insights will help in the timely completion of the tasks. It must provide real-time updates and notifications.

2. Room reservations

This is one of the key functions of the PMS systems. It tracks information like room inventory and dates. It can be integrated with the calendar to show a pictorial view for quick assessment. Once connected with the booking method it shows all the bookings through third-party websites so that the room inventory remains updated in real time.

3. Housekeeping Management

This helps to automate the housekeeping hence making it more efficient. This helps in knowing which needs to be cleaned and which one needs to be prepared for the arriving guest. It allows assigning the employees to clean certain rooms. This can be integrated to send notifications on mobile devices or printed and shared with the respected team and hence updated once the work is completed.

4. Front desk operations

This module brings all the functions of the front desk staff together at one point. It includes monitoring room reservation status, checking guests in and out, processing payments and generating receipts for guests. It may include other features like automatically assigning rooms based on available inventory, managing key cards and allowing front desk staff to check if a room is clean and ready for guests.

5. Inventory management

The PMS must manage the entire inventory, from room types, amenities, and pricing to inventory levels for each room type. It generates reports and helps businesses avoid running out of stock unexpectedly because it helps them plan their purchase and stocks according to requirements.

6. Customer Relationship Management

This module collects guest information, such as contact information, gathered from the front desk, reservations or other sources. This information helps to measure guest satisfaction, organise promotions, manage marketing and run membership and loyalty programs.

7. Channel management

This feature helps in selling the inventory to various online distribution channels and syncing the information for updates in real-time. This will help enhance the online visibility and increase reservations.

8. Order & service management

This allows the creation of different orders, such as room service, catering, laundry, and concierge services. It is a combination of modules that also allows the creation of various services for every order, such as room cleaning or laundry, keeping track of staff invoicing, shift audits, and delivering a hassle-free experience for guests. This automation will increase the efficiency of the hotel staff.

9. Invoice & payment options

Automating and recording financial processes, and expenses incurred by the business, such as food costs, labor costs, management fees, various subscription fees, etc. This can be automated for generating invoices on certain conditions and automatically printed or sent to the customers, which can be further integrated with the payment system.

10. Reporting & Analytics

Reports are important for every business as these are the best ways to take the business to the next level hence must be included in the PMS. This allows managers to drill down into the data and view reports for specific dates or periods as well as for individual departments within the hotel.

11. Mobile application

This will help the property managers access the system remotely. Even if you are out for meetings with clients, open houses, and commuting from one place to another still can keep an eye on important things.

12. Data security

Data security is a must for every business and they must ensure the same for clients. The data processed in the hotel PMS is very critical and hence must include features like Two-factor authentication and Push- notifications (about unauthorized logins, sudden breaks, etc) to ensure the security of the system.

13. Cloud solution

With all necessary information stored on the cloud allows the flexibility of working from anywhere and anytime. The staff can get the alerts without sticking to the system throughout. This enhances the capability of the staff and also reduces the hardware and maintenance costs of the business.   

14. Payment Processing

This feature aims at streamlining guest payments and accounting, along with reports. When integrated with the point of sale it can handle payments along with related tasks such as reporting, reconciliations, chargebacks, and more.  

15. Revenue Management

This feature will help in optimizing the pricing plans for both profit and occupancy by taking the guesswork out of hotel performance metrics such as ADR (average daily rate), RevPAR (revenue per available room) and more.

Things to consider when choosing a Hotel Property Management System

The market is full of various types of Hotel PMS, available for varied requirements making it hard choice to select one that is best suited for you. Here are some factors to consider when selecting a hotel PMS system:

1. Integration - If the hotel already has some system or software in use the PMS should have the flexibility of integrating with them to enhance the functionality and efficiency of the respective teams.

2. Cloud solutions - Cloud-based PMS systems are available in mobile and tablet versions making it easy for staff to access the system from anywhere on the premises. Various managers can update the system in real-time when they are out to inspect.

3. User-friendliness - The system must be easy to use for the staff. The interface must be simple, organized and intuitive to make it easier for staff to learn how to navigate it.

4. Guest communication - It is always a good option to allow staff to communicate with guests. These features may let you set up automated emails for a variety of situations, such as confirmation emails when a guest books a room. Setting up notifications for the arriving guests and other important tasks.

5. Customisation - Finding a PMS system with standardized functions is helpful but it must have the scope of customization to include certain features or settings.

6. Detailed reservation control - The reservation being the most critical part of the entire system must be simple and easy to understand. It must include basic features like tracking sources of booking to smart features like shiting the reservation when a customer calls to reschedule.

7. Customer support - It is better to choose a vendor that provides 24/7 technical support. As it ensures getting support even during late hours and holiday seasons.

8. Cost-effective - Cost is an important factor in choosing any system. Consider the base cost of the system and research if any modules require extra payment. One may consider cost over time as the PMS system can increase efficiency and a higher-priced system still may save the hotel money in the long term.

Why Cloud PMS from Zillion IT Solutions?

Every business is unique, and hence are their requirements. Whether it is managing a property for rent or running a hotel/hostel/stays. Choosing a generic software may appear cheap and lucrative but may increase expenses without meeting the business's specific needs. Whereas when a business opts for a customised property management system, it can add any feature that is important and required for streamlining the business process along with enhanced security options.

If you own a property and are doing firefighting in managing it, we have a solution for that. Our experienced team of expert developers can design and develop the best-suiting application to answer all your challenges at an affordable price without compromising on quality. We deploy the latest tools and technology and ensure the designs are user-friendly. Some of the main features included in our PMS are marketplace integration, Guest engagement, an integrated hotel payment processing solution, and a pricing Intelligence Engine. We provide a cloud-based PMS with user-friendly navigations, built-in reservations capabilities, a drag-and-drop calendar, powerful reporting and analytics, and email automation fully designed to suit best to the client’s business needs.