Property Management Systems (or PMS) play a vital role in the day-to-day operation of a hotel.Ê We rely on them to hold our availability and rate data, process new reservations, and store profiles of our guests, as well as of the companies and travel agencies with whom we work.Ê We depend on the PMS to accept and hold room charge data, produce folios at guest check-out, interface with numerous on- and above property systems, and prepare reports of property activity.Ê

Yes, a PMS is indispensable for a modern hotel.Ê But is the PMS that served us well in the past, and which is adequate today, the system that we will need in the future?Ê That is an interesting question.

Yesterday’s PMS

From the emergence of PMSs in the mid-1970Ôs with the introduction of Micor and EECO systems, PMSs have had to be self-contained, self-sufficient systems. Their developers used the available limited technology to create systems to store (and access) all inventory, rates, reservations, and in-house guest charge data.

All of that information was keyed into the PMS by hand, every room charge, every F&B purchase, every telephone call.Ê Then that data was accessed on small green screen displays or on dot matrix printers.Ê However primitive these pioneer systems were by today’s standards, they brought order and organization to the fast-growing volumes of information a hotel needed to manage and in doing so bringing lasting benefit to our industry.

Today’s PMS

Fast forward forty years and we see enormously more sophisticated PMSs installed in our hotels today.Ê We now have multiple other on-property computer systems Ð door locks, F&B point of sale, call accounting, WiFi, entertainment, maybe HVAC and minibar as well.Ê All of them are interfaced with the PMS.Ê Room charge data is now entered automatically; it is accessed with much improved user displays, and with activity reports that provide information indispensable to the hotel’s operation.Ê Our PMSs in 2017 are infinitely more useful to us as hoteliers then were their predecessors.

Improvement acknowledged we need to also recognize our current systems’ shortcomings.Ê Whether we think of them as problems, or areas of opportunity, we know that our PMS user displays certainly do not exemplify elegant simplicity.Ê Instead,they are crowded with information.Ê While important in specific situations, the mass of displayed data commonly presented demands our staff’s attention at the expense of guest interaction.

Process workflows in our PMS are not intuitive Ð completion of one action does not generate the display of the next appropriate screen.Ê Concentrated attention is needed from our staff for PMS operation, sometimes to the detriment of our guests.Ê Plus, training times remain long, with inconsistent results.

We suffer function invisibility.Ê Our PMS have become highly capable and highly complex.Ê Our hotel staff is unaware of many of the potentially beneficial features available to them, for which we paid initially and for which we pay annual maintenance fees.

On-premises PMSs still vastly outnumber recently introduced cloud-based PMSs.Ê The result is that on-property hardware must be safeguarded and serviced by trained staff, and the PMS software must be periodically updated.

PMS reports on property activity Ð reservations, revenues, business sources, and so on, are limited in number and scope, sometimes leaving as many questions unanswered as answered. Finally, many functions are duplicated in the PMS and the CRS (Central Reservation System).Ê This redundancy brings challenges to keep the duplicate data synchronized and accurate in both locations.

The distance that our PMS have progressed is impressive, but there is clearly further work to be done.

Tomorrow’s PMS Ð Arriving Today

Hotels operate in a more competitive environment than at any previous time.Ê Not only do we compete fiercely among ourselves but we battle with adept Online Travel Agencies for direct reservations and with alternate accommodation sources for traveler’s selection of the lodging that we offer.

In these efforts, our PMS remains a vital tool and we hope a point of advantage of us.Ê So, what will tomorrow’s PMSs look like?Ê It will not be necessary for us to wait to find out Ð the latest generation of PMSs now in the marketplace gives us a clear demonstration of the direction of future PMS development.

In this newest generation of PMSs we are already seeing markedly cleaner information displays, their design driven by the belief that streamlined data presentation allows our staff to interact more with our guests.Ê These leaner displays are striving, and increasingly succeeding at, striking a delicate balance between presentation of operational information and display of guest biographical data Ð stay history, loyalty status, service preferences, and so on Ð to enable more personalized service at the Front Desk and throughout the property.

On-screen workflow is now much more apparent to users; the PMSs are intuitive, automatically replacing one screen with the next in the work sequence to reduce keystrokes and allow focus on the guest.

Aiming to enable ever greater dialogue with our guests, the latest PMSs are either including their own Guest Experience Management application or are offering tight integration with a third party’s GEM app.Ê Through it, pre-arrival contact, including confirmation of needs, upgrade opportunities and on-property promotions, are now possible.Ê In-stay problem reporting (with an immediate response), F&B ordering, and promotions is also accessible, as is in-stay and post-stay satisfaction assurance.

Operational information is already more complete and more accessible.Ê ÒDesign your own reportÓ opportunities are accompanied by customizable dashboards and anytime, anywhere, PMS data access.

Finally, across the board, the new generation of PMSs is cloud-based.Ê Hosted in remote, highly secure data centers, on-property PMS hardware is now (thankfully) generally reduced to PCs and printers.Ê The PMS has evolved into a highly efficient interface hub, enabling speedy activation in the hotel of new, PMS-interfaced systems and services.Ê Software updating, interface installation and maintenance, and system resiliency are administered by the PMS vendor’s specialist staff. ÊFinally, the pricing model has now moved from a large, one-time capital fee to a per-room, per-day operations budget fee.

The central, and increasingly accomplishedÊgoal of the next generation of Property Management Systems is to allow us as hoteliers to communicate more, understand more, and relate more.Ê The core functions are now in place and their access and operation are much improved.

In our competition with OTAs for direct bookings, and with alternate accommodation providers for travelers’ selection of our hotel for their accommodation, PMS designers are dramatically reducing the Òsystem operationÓ role for our staff, as the new generation of PMS automatically aggregates, displays and processes more data on our behalf, so that we can understand, relate, and compete as successfully as possible.

We understand the need to have personalized relationships with our guests.Ê As our technology becomes steadily less intrusive, we have the opportunity and tools to do so.Ê The question is how quickly we will move to implement this new generation of PMS.

About the Author:

John Burns CHA established Hospitality Technology Consulting (HTC) to assist hotels and other travel companies deal successfully with the increasingly complex world of electronic travel distribution. Mr. Burns founded HTC in 1992, heading this international consulting service specializing in assisting hotel chains and independent hotels in optimizing their central reservations, electronic distribution and revenue management programs. Contact John atÊJohn@burns-htc.com. This article was sponsored byÊInfor Hospitality.ÊMore than 20,000 hotels, restaurants, and casinos worldwide Ñ including 10 of the world’s 10 largest hotel companies ÑÊ use Infor Hospitality software. Learn more at, https://www.infor.com/hospitality