Choosing hotel software to optimise your operations is a smart move. In fact, it is essential in today’s world of hoteliering. But with so much choice, choosing the right hotel software for you is difficult.
In this article, that’s exactly what we’re going to help you with.
There are a whole host of different types of hotel management software on the market. The key is knowing the types of hotel management software that best suit your needs. It may be a case of identifying your needs and finding the software with the right solutions, but it can also involve learning exactly what the software available does – you might not know what you’re missing. Whichever’s the case, we’ve set out the principal software programs available to you below.
Channel Manager. A channel manager will synchronise all your channels (from Airbnb to Booking.com, and everything in between) to prevent overbooking, maximise occupancy, update operations automatically, provide reports, and more, in order to increase efficiency and professional workflow.
Booking engine. A booking engine that you can use across your own website and platforms will make it easier for your guests to make reservations, cut out intermediaries from your profit margins, and generally make your business a whole lot more professional.
POS. Point of Sale software can give you easy-to-understand graphics detailing the status of tables and orders, create tickets with different rates and fees, and charge via different payment methods and to different currencies, making the purchase and management of your services, be that with a restaurant, spa, gym, or anything else, that bit more streamlined and professional.
Cross-selling and upselling. The best way to increase your income is by maximising the revenue you make on every booking. With tools to offer add-on extras that satisfy any needs or wants your guests might have, and an easy-to-use online store, you’ll be left with happy customers and healthy income figures.
Customer loyalty software. Some online hotel management software works to optimise CRM (customer relationship management). Want to take your marketing to the next level? Customer loyalty technology will help you personalise email marketing campaigns and send clients special deals, offers and discounts. In turn, this is shown to guarantee higher conversion rates than on social media and increase traffic to your site.
Hotel PMS. One way to get all this together is to invest in an integrated property management system. A hotel PMS is a program for hotel management that combines all of the above (or at least, the best hotel PMS will). It carries out all business operations necessary for the most optimised experience possible. One central system, a world of optimisation tools.
identifying your needs and finding the software with the right solutions, but it can also involve learning exactly what the software available does – you might not know what you’re missing.
Aside from the above-mentioned areas of management, it’s important to think about the specifics of your needs when choosing a hotel software system. The finer details. It’s the small things that count – micro-management can give you the edge above your competition. And sometimes, it’s the small details that are overlooked when picking your software.
So, what might these details be? Let’s look at some of them.
Multi-property capability. If your hotel business spans across multiple properties, or if you intend to do so in the future, you’ll want to be able to manage them all from the same software. Using different software or set-ups across different properties is straight-up inefficient, not to mention costly. Ideally, you’ll want to find software that lets you manage multiple properties in different locations from a single central sign-in. And for ultimate optimisation, you’ll want to make sure the software lets you adapt to each property’s specific requirements – setting different rates and discounts across them for example – as no two properties will be the same.
Multi-platform capability. You’ll need your online hotel management software to work across multiple platforms if you want to access your reservations or backroom data at any time, any place. Androids, iPhones, iPad or computers, you need to make sure your software is compatible across the platforms you use.
Integration across software. Integration is key if you want fully optimised software. If it doesn’t work within your current set-up, it might even end up making your operations less efficient. On one level, you’ll want your different day-to-day running essential software to work seamlessly together – from your booking engine to your check ins and check outs. But on top of that, you need to think about the tools you use to provide added extras to the finer details. Use Homeit to smart lock your properties? Google Analytics to measure and analyse the traffic to your website? Sage 50Cloud for accounting and billing? Whatever you use, you’ll want to sync seamlessly together. And for extra infallibility, you’ll want the company making your software to have the ability to work towards integrating any new tools you pick up along the way.
Reporting. Reports and analysis are hugely important in the hotel business, but not all software provides them. Detailed analysis, whether that be for your channel management or customer relationship management success, can help you spot what’s going right and what’s going wrong, where this is happening and showing what you can do about it. The effectiveness of a program for hotel management is greatly reduced if you don’t actually know how it’s performing.
Luckily, there is hotel management technology that can do all this. Impressed by the software described above and what it could do for your hotel? It’s all possible with Avirato. Avirato is Spain’s leading hotel technology company, and for good reason
If you’re stuck on choosing hotel software that fits your needs, one fail-safe option you can trust is trialling Avirato’s PMS system. With a 20-day free trial, you can sample the whole range of services described above – from Channel Managers to Point of Sale systems – and see for yourself why over 8000 customers across 35 countries have put their faith in our software, generating 46 million bookings and over €25,000 per minute in revenue in the process.
Our figures are a guarantee – choosing hotel software has never been easier.
