The hotel industry is one of the most competitive around, and one of the fastest-moving too. In recent years, surveys and reports show that hotels need to be more competitive than ever before, as guest satisfaction rates continue to climb and guests begin to expect higher standards of service from every hotel they visit.
It’s no wonder then that so many hoteliers are turning to hotel management software to enhance their offerings and streamline their services. These platforms can offer a range of benefits, from saving money on infrastructure and utility costs to saving time on trivial processes, raising revenue through expanded marketing opportunities, and, above all, providing better experiences for your guests.
But with so many different hotel management software platforms out there, choosing the right one for your brand can feel like a challenge.
1. Front Desk Dashboards
One of the most important features of any hotel management system is a front-desk dashboard, used by front-desk staff to help guests check-in and out, issue room keys, track the status and availability of rooms, process payments, and manage guest requests.
The best systems are able to offer all these features in one convenient, accessible, easy to understand dashboard, with minimal training required and maximum efficiency, making it so simple for workers to take payments, greet guests, and amend reservations on the fly.
2. Reservation Management
The best hotel management platforms also come with reservation management dashboards and features, making it so much easier not only for guests to make and amend their bookings online or through a mobile app, but also for workers to keep track of bookings, as well as organizing discounts and keeping track of room inventory too.
These platforms should make it as simple as possible for guests to reserve rooms at the correct rates, getting prompt confirmation messages, paying for their reservations securely online, and even being able to check-in automatically before or upon arrival. This service may be expanded with automated check-in features on mobile apps or even self-check-in kiosks incorporated into the hotel lobby.
3. Rate Management
The best hotel management software options also make it really easy to manage the rates and prices for rooms and upgrades, as well as any additional services and amenities you offer. Rates can be adjusted automatically to suit the season or time of year, with last-minute discounts or price hikes, depending on your strategy.
All adjustments can be made in real-time, visible to guests immediately, ensuring that everyone pays the correct prices, and any errors can be identified and amended right away, and this is one of the key features that’s contributing to the rising rate of hotel management software usage across the globe.
4. Housekeeping Management
As well as front desk workers, hotel management software can also be used to help out housekeeping and maintenance staff members too. Many platforms come with housekeeping management tabs, allowing for room statuses to be updated and displayed at any time for more prompt and better-managed cleaning schedules.
Rooms can be marked as clean and ready to use or dirty and in need of cleaning, with housekeeping agents assigned to specific floors or rooms with ease. This adds a stronger connection between the housekeeping/maintenance staff and the front desk, allowing them to communicate far more easily than before, helping to ensure that rooms are always clean and ready for guest arrivals and the housekeeping team performs as efficiently as possible.
5. Financial Management
A hotel management system may also incorporate some level of financial management. This may be in the form of a simple revenue tracking tab that lets you keep up with daily, weekly, and monthly profits, or something more advanced with features for managing outstanding charges and accepting online payments in a variety of methods.
Many of the best platforms even allow hoteliers to track a range of financial metrics in order to better understand their business’ financial performance, identifying potential areas of improvement, keeping track of competitors’ rates, and monitoring dates, weather, local events, and more in order to suggest possible rate adjustments that could lead to better booking rates and increased revenue overall.
Final Word
The benefits of hotel management systems are clear to see. With such a wide range of uses and applications, there are so many ways in which these systems can enhance your hotel’s operations, raising employee morale, fostering a more positive workplace culture, minimizing wasted time on trivial tasks, and providing much better, more memorable experiences for every single guest that steps through the doors. In the modern era, no ambitious hotelier can be without a management system.