Raring to go: 9 nuts and bolts of a hotel PMS

To an outsider, a smoothly run hotel's operations can seem like a black box. But we know better: It's because of its Property Management System. 

If the basic functions of a hotel are conducted through a Property Management System then just what is in it? What are the major modules or sections of a hotel operating system that really make it go? Buckle up and settle in for a quick ride through the highlights of essential hotel management system software built for 2020 and beyond.

You need it all at a glance

It all starts with a solid dashboard. Like the control panel on the Starship Enterprise, your dashboard controls the whole ship. It will provide clear, readable information about arrivals and departures, rates, and more. You should get a snapshot of the overall workings of your property at a glance.

Design matters with a dashboard. It should be uncluttered, simple, but powerful with infinite possibilities, like a Google search home page. 

Know your money flow

Good Property Management System will allow you to see the day's sales, cancellations, and let you act on that information. Need to make rate changes? Release room availability? The sales panel will give you access to all that. 

Master of your domain

The base transaction of hotels - reservations - is an important part of hotel management software. In addition to third-party sites, good Property Management System will help you attract more direct bookings through robust online hotel booking software. Being able to quickly access and manipulate guest bookings will go a long way in keeping guests happy and customer service high.

Save the date

Many of us are visual learners. Sometimes seeing a graphical rendering of hotel activities over time is more helpful than in a dry spreadsheet. Perhaps you will see opportunities where guests can be moved to reduce vacancy. Or housekeeping demands may be more apparent, discovering which rooms need to be touched up or completely cleaned for arrivals.

You've got to coordinate

The hospitality industry lives online - make sure your hotel Property Management System software is a part of it.  An effective online property management system will be integrated with online travel agents (OTAs) and a travel industry global distribution system (GDS). This type of networking not only opens your property's inventory status to popular online booking engines like Expedia and Travelocity, but also allows the hotelier to quickly adjust rates across the network. Imagine how tedious it would be to have to manually go to or contact every travel website that hosted vacancies at your hotel just to make a change? 

This type of efficiency will be built into an effective Property Management System. The very best hotel Property Management System software will have artificial intelligence working for it as well.  AI helps analyze your property's data, automatically adjust room vacancies, and find the optimal rates to ensure traffic based on season.

Whether you are good a math or not, artificial intelligence knows how to find the best available rate better than we do. Your Property Management System should be able to let you set best rates for different seasons so you won't have to worry about manually adjusting different rates for different rooms on a daily basis. And when the data suggests a different price, your AI-informed Property Management System will bring this to your attention and increase future guest stays.

Sell from anywhere

Since almost any amenity can and should be charged to a guest's room or account, having a point of sale (POS) system baked into your Property Management System is so necessary. Haven't we all had dinner or a nice glass of wine at the bar and just tossed off, "Just charge it to my room, please?" Control food delivery, kitchen displays, self-serve kiosks, and, yes, customize dining in real-time - all from well-appointed property management software. It's the POS in the Property Management System that makes that possible: It's all connected.

Leave the details to the nerds

Speaking of connected, a big feature required of the modern hotel property management system is being cloud-based. The most productive applications are cloud-based these days, living and maintained on remote servers so you won't have to. 

The benefits of cloud hotel Property Management System systems are myriad. In exchange for a monthly fee, the hotelier can store unlimited amounts of data relevant to hotel operations, guest profiles, and more. Due to the massive amounts of guest financial data, security is a serious priority for cloud-based SaaS companies. And these systems are typically compatible with mobile devices. This frees up hotel staff from being chained behind a desk and monitor, able to handle issues on the fly from the convenience of a smartphone.

Manage your staff with a light touch

Although the guest comes first, employees are people, too. Access, schedules, payment issues can all be made easier through technology. Being able to manage user permissions among staff, shift rosters and scheduling, among other concerns, will only be a few clicks away in a competent hotel Property Management System.

You are not alone

As the only constant in life - and technology - is change, a major feature of today's Property Management System is flexibility. There should be a section that allows for third-party integrations or customizations. With platforms like Salesforce backing some of the best-in-class hotel Property Management System systems in the world, a capable system will be customizable to specific business needs and future-proof. 

A lot goes into the creation and maintenance of today's property management software. As the world's top hotels are in competition with each other and online travel agents, having an effective property management software is mandatory for success. Don't be left out of the new Industrial Revolution - data! Like, follow, and visit us at BookingNinjas.com for hotel-related content.