What is a hotel PMS

What is a hotel PMS?

The hotel industry is fast-paced and ever-changing. It’s growing, and constantly. And this means so too is the competition. As a result, the standards expected by guests jump higher and higher. People booking hotel rooms want the best they can get.

To provide this experience, hotels need to stay on top of their game and keep up with the demands. This is where technology comes into play. And luckily, there is a lot of good technology out there.

If you’ve not yet started automating your hotel operations with tailor-made software, you’re likely falling behind the competition.

So, what technology should you be using? Enter: the property management system (PMS). Find yourself the best PMS software and you’ll discover time, effort and costs savings galore.

In this article, we’re going to take an in-depth look into hotel PMS software. We’ll look at what a hotel PMS iswhat a PMS program can do for your hotel business, and how to choose the best PMS software. Pen and paper (or phone and laptop) at the ready!

If you’ve not yet started automating your hotel operations with tailor-made software, you’re likely falling behind the competition.

So, what exactly is a hotel PMS?

hotel PMS is software that organises and automates the day to day running of your hotel (as well as more specific operations, but we’ll get into that later). 

You might have heard of it under a few titles. It also goes by its full name – property management software – it can be called a property management system, or front desk software, or hotel management system, or… you get the idea. 

In the end, though, it all refers to the same thing. That is, a magic piece of software that will save you time and energy and increase your profit margins.

It’s software that can give you online check in and check out capability, reservation management, record keeping and accounting, revenue management, and more.

The advantages of a PMS system and boundless, but what should you be looking for in a PMS program?

What features should you look for in a hotel PMS?

Design

One of the most important features of a PMS program is good design. If you’re wanting to reap the benefits you’re sowing by implementing the software, you’re going to need to be able to use it.

This may seem obvious, but the amount of software on the market that is hard to use or non-intuitive is something to behold. To enjoy the hotel PMS benefits, your software should be easy to learn. You need it running smoothly as quickly as possible. And you need not only all your staff able to work it, but you need the parts of the software customers come into contact with to be user-friendly too. If their online and automated check in and check out process is confusing, they’re going to come down and queue anyway (and maybe even cause a scene at reception).

And, contrary to belief, you can have it all. It can be attractive and functional. In fact, the two go hand in hand. A modern, sleek and attractively designed software will be easier to manage.

Integration

Ideally, you’ll want an all-in-one system. That’s one where a booking engine, channel manager, front desk system – everything – is all run through the same system. This way, it’ll be integrated together with one central access, meaning it’s all synced up together in real-time.

Versatility

Versatility is absolutely key if you’re going to take full advantage of the hotel PMS benefits. If the software you use doesn’t fit with the existing software you use, it’s going to be seriously ineffective. If it only works from a Windows computer and you use different systems across your hotels, or even within the same one, it’s going to be seriously ineffective. And if you want an app to log in to your system wherever you are, you’re going to want your PMS to have that capability too, or, you guessed it, it’s going to be seriously ineffective. A versatile software is an efficient and user-friendly software.

 

How to find a PMS to give you the edge over competition

Now we’ve seen the features you should be looking out for if you want to take advantage of the hotel PMS benefits, let’s take things a step further. What marks out a PMS as the best on the market? How do you choose the best one for you?

Well, it’s simple really: you go for Avirato.

Alongside the features we talked about above – with intuitiveattractiveproductivity-focused designreal-time integration across different features and programs, from booking engine to channel manager, and multi-propertymulti-device capability – Avirato has solutions to the finer details. The kind that make the difference. Let’s look at a couple:

Reports

With access to all the top hotel performance metrics (from RevPar to GOPPAR, Lead Time analysis to Rate Shopper), you’ll be able to make smart pricingstaffing and organisation decisions. That’s alongside detailed booking engine reportschannel manager analysisPOS system sales statistics, and more. All of this means better revenue management, increased profit margins, and happy staff and customers as a result of your super-efficient and professional hotel business.

CRM

Avirato’s customer loyalty tools will keep them coming back for more. With welcome emails that reflect the hotel’s image, a newsletter managerpersonalised marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to make an impact with a professional approach to customer communication.

Updates

With Avirato, there’s more for you too. As a company that’s constantly on the pulse of market trends and always searching for new and better solutions, you can be sure you’ll never be left behind. Whether it’s the constantly updated booking channels in your manager (added with no hidden costs), or the two-year update of your web design, adapting the design so that its image is always up to date (again, free of charge).

And that’s only touching the surface, not to mention the integrated POS systemcross-selling and upselling tools, and on. 

The unique advantages of having a PMS system like Avirato’s mean you won’t simply be saving time, energy and money, you’ll be one step ahead of the competition.