The post-pandemic world is going to be a much different place than we are used to. While a promising vaccine has encouraged travelers to plan vacations in 2021, most travelers are prioritizing safety.
COVID-19 has made it necessary for hotels to adopt AI and automation to create a no-contact stay experience and an efficient hotel PM software does just that!
A hotel PMS software will not only deliver on the promise of a great guest experience but will also help keep your guests safe.
Let us look at a few reasons why you need to update your hotel management system software to cater to the needs of a post-coronavirus traveler:
1. Make Efficient Bookings
Most guests are going to be looking for virtual sources of booking rooms- OTAs and direct web booking. A good hotel property management system (PMS) will provide you with efficient means to manage both.
- Web Booking Engine: Show your potential guests that you care about their safety and yours by following hygiene protocols and safety standards. You can share this through your website and social media pages. Once you have earned the confidence of your guests, reservations are expected to pour in from multiple sources. A cloud based hotel management software allows guests to understand rates, packages, provide discounts, and make instant direct bookings.
Hotelogix PMS allows you to drive direct bookings through a web booking engine. You can add this to your hotel website and/or your hotel’s Facebook page to attract guests. The Hotelogix web booking engine is mobile-friendly which makes booking rooms as easy as ordering groceries from smartphones and tablets. Additionally, it provides regular guests with their own login details encouraging guest loyalty. - Channel Manager: About 83% of guests choose their hotels based on guest reviews. While your guests are comparing prices on various OTAs, your hotel property management system will double as an integrated channel manager. A PMS updates inventory in real-time and prevents double-booking of rooms reducing the loss in revenue due to manual errors
Furthermore, automating communication with the guests once the booking is successful, gathering their details and preferences, and, will ensure a great guest experience even before they have checked-in.
2. Contactless Service
Contactless service is not just important for your guests but also makes employees feel safer. A cloud-based hotel property management system ensures that employees can visualize their tasks and work area dashboard from their own devices. This will help reduce task assignment meetings or physical handover at the end of every shift.
Having a messy, crowded front desk is a thing of the past. Guests no longer want to wait in line near other people in order to check in to their rooms. Most guests would prefer to make payments, receive messages, and even make inquiries from the comfort of their rooms.
Hotels need to adapt to new contactless technology like mobile apps or kiosks, QR codes for check-in, etc. Hoteliers are also encouraging the use of digital room keys and promoting online registration for identification documents This has improved the confidence of guests about their stay.
3. Impeccable Hygiene
Cleanliness has never been more important than it is now. Hoteliers are focusing on making their hotels not only aesthetically clean but also clinically clean. Traditionally, this process was done behind closed doors. However, now it’s important to keep your guests informed about your cleaning procedures.
A hotel management system software will help you track housekeeping status, assign and track tasks to ensure that hygiene strategy is maintained. Additional features like automated room status change after a certain time, alerting the housekeeping staff after guest checkout, or even keeping track of maintenance and hygiene in public areas.
This will also improve cross-departmental communication within a hotel ensuring accountability and productivity.
4. Reviews Management
For hotels to be successful, hoteliers need to constantly monitor their online presence and reputation. With information freely available online, most guests choose to know their hotel before they decide to book a room with them. 96% of users on TripAdvisor, a reviews website, consider reviews especially important to planning trips and booking a hotel.
Additionally, it is equally important to ask satisfied guests to leave you reviews- to maintain your reputation and to improve the guests’ experience based on feedback. Over half of the users on TripAdvisor will not even consider booking a property that has no reviews. Almost 4 out of 5 users think that hotels that respond to guest reviews care more about their guests.
A good hotel management system software allows you to not only ask guests for their feedback but also lets you automate this process. You can also view and respond to guest reviews or comments on various review sites. This ensures that your guests have a good experience with your hotel even after check-out.
5. Enhance Employee Productivity
Automation of tasks is no longer considered a luxury, but a necessity. Automating daily tasks like the night audit, email confirmations, processing payments, updating inventory, pricing, housekeeping status, concierge services, and more will give your staff more time to focus on more important tasks in the hotel.
Elimination of simple manual tasks allows hotels to boost productivity giving them an edge over their competitors, not to mention the number of man-hours it saves which will boost employee satisfaction as well.
6. Management of Point-of-Sale Services
Remote management of Point of sale (POS) points would be an added advantage. You can use a single dashboard to keep track of your inventory, create POS points, and manage kitchen orders. As for payments, you can offer your guests the option to split the bill or pay online, or even charge the room.
A cloud-based property management system makes the experience simple for your guests as well as the staff. Your staff can monitor operations remotely and generate KOTs from one single dashboard. Whether your guests want to order room service or dine out in your restaurant, you can cater to your guests as per their preferences.
App-based or online food ordering systems will give customers an additional option of staying and ordering as per their convenience.
Hotelogix’s PMS lets you create infinite POS points. Each point can be personalized including menus and even seating arrangements. All POS points can be organized and accessed remotely through one single dashboard.
7. Sophisticated Revenue Management
Global demand for hotels has become unpredictable due to the pandemic. Demand patterns can vary depending on the preventive measures, events, festivals, and get-togethers in most areas.
As businesses begin to restart, how does one know what the right price to sell their room is?
Hotelogix’s PMS provides you with an in-depth analysis of how your hotel is doing. You can access a wide range of reports that will help you track occupancy, trends, and analyze your competitors closely. With a robust cloud-based system, you can set room prices across booking sources, but you can also manage them all under one centralized system. Dynamic pricing features can be set where the price of rooms changes automatically depending on the occupancy of the hotel. You can also make numerous packages, discounts, promo codes, add taxes, additional services, and more and manage all of this within one single dashboard.
Hotelogix PMS is a one-stop solution for all your hotel needs. It offers all the right features for your hotel needs. Whether you manage a small bed and breakfast or are leading a multi-property business, Hotelogix is a flexible property management system that can be moulded as per your needs. With multiple Third Party integrations and award-winning support, we help you deliver quality service to your guests.
