Today’s hotel business environment has become fiercely competitive.
There is competition among hotels in almost every aspect of business – attracting and serving guests, retaining skilled staff, selling more rooms online, improving/adding new offerings and ultimately maximizing profits.
So, when the competition is so high, as a hotelier, you really can’t afford to go wrong. One uncalculated move related to hotel operations can wreak havoc on your business. Moreover, in today’s hospitality tech-driven hotel business environment, do you think that sticking to the old and traditional hotel management practices can help your business grow?
The answer is a resounding ‘NO’.
In this post, we will look at some of the outdated hotel management practices that make up a perfect recipe for disaster.
Here are four traditional practices that can potentially kill your hotel business:
#1 – Manually handling operations
Are you still using Excel sheets to manage your hotel operations? Do you still communicate verbally with your staff? If your answer is ‘Yes’, then you really can’t ensure the success of your hotel business in this era that is heavily dominated by hospitality technology.
For example – you ask your housekeeping staff to clean a certain room. What if he forgets? It would delay the guest check-in time and result in guest dissatisfaction. The same unpleasant situation will arise when your room service would forget to deliver stuff in time that your guests need.
Manually handling operations is prone to errors, errors that can cost your hotel dearly. Your staff will have to keep doing mundane and unproductive jobs that don’t add any value. Plus, they will get no or little time to attend to your guests’ needs with a personal touch.
#2 – Manual methods of record-keeping
Manually noting down reservations and assigning rooms is another traditional method that you must stop doing right now. In this method, you would never be able to keep track of your room status – how many are sold, how many are ready to occupy, and how many of them are out of service, etc. Moreover, you will face grave issues like overbooking or double booking that would again lead to guest dissatisfaction and loss of business opportunities.
With such a flawed practice in place, you won’t be able to efficiently maintain records of your hotel business. You will be forced to sift through numerous files and pages to locate a single piece of information. It would not help you understand how your business fared over Christmas season last year, making it impossible to take measures to do better this season. Yes, we are talking about ‘Data’ here. Today, no hotel business can survive without having timely access to guest data and operational data.
#3 – Using an outdated server-based Hotel Property Management System
Even if you have moved from pen and paper or Excel to a server-based Hotel Management Software , you still doesn’t mean that on the right track. A server-based Hotel PMS will help you automate your operations to some extent, but it can’t really help you gain a competitive advantage. Here are some of the reasons why – An on-premise system is expensive, you need to have dedicated servers and IT team to manage it. You will have to pay for software upgrades. Thus, your cost of software ownership will go up. The implementation time involving such Hotel PMSs are quite high and you also need to spend extra to get your staff trained on the same.
Plus, with a server-based hotel management system, you will find it extremely difficult to work with several operationally imperative third-party solutions. This is because most of the third-party solutions today are on the cloud and their integration with a server-based Hotel PMS will never be seamless oreasy. It would be a forced integration leading inconsistent data flow between them.
Not only that, you can’t view your business data and hotel position from outside your office as you can’t access the Hotel PMS once you are out of your property. Plus, these Hotel PMSs are not mobile optimized.
With all these negative aspects, a server-based or an on-premise Hotel Property Management System will never be able to technologically empower your hotel business.
#4 – Using a free cloud-based hotel software
Now, assuming you saw value in a cloud-based PMS, and decided to switch from an on-premise hotel management software to a “free” cloud-based Hotel PMS. This is a relatively good move, but not a laudable one. Even though you have migrated to a cloud-based hotel management software, which is the need of the hour, you still stand to lose a lot as you are using a free one.
With a free version of Cloud-based Hotel PMS, you will definitely not be spending anything. Such free application might even help you access the Hotel PMS and hotel data from remote locations. But, this is a hack and not really a solution which will not help you in the long run. You still have to deal with many operational issues including –
- Not being able to manage housekeeping status from the front desk
- It will not help you with reports
- No guarantee on data security
- No real-time flow of information between departments as it wouldn’t be an all-in-one Hotel PMS
- It will lack integration capabilities
- It might not get integrated with a channel manager to help you update/distribute your rates and rooms on OTAs in real-time
- You will not get an opportunity to drive more direct bookings via your hotel website and Facebook page as it would not come integrated with a web booking engine
- You cannot set up or manage multiple POS outlets
- And, you will not get timely support
This list of shortcomings in a free cloud PMS can go on and on… So, do you still plan to stick to your decision of using a free hotel management software?
Time to look at a smart cloud-based Hotel Property Management System
Yes. This is what you need to ensure a long-term success of your hotel business. This is not free but will help you with everything that you need to manage your hotel.
Here’s how our all-in-one Hotel Property Management System, Hotelogix, can help you with your hotel business:
- It ensures reduced operating costs with a lower cost of software ownership as you don’t have to spend on servers and IT staff to maintain them.
- Software updates and upgrades are free.
- Saves man-hours with a higher degree of operational automation, increases your staff productivity and efficiency
- Helps you set up multiple POS outlets to sell more non-room items
- Allows you to distribute your rooms and rates on OTA in real-time with integrated channel manager.
- Helps you to access the Hotel PMS from anywhere and anytime so you can stay on top of our business no matter where you are.
- Frees you up from the confinement of your office, helps you gain mobility with remote access.
- Helps you with reports so that you get to understand your business KPIs and make data-driven decisions.
- Seamlessly integrates with a host of third-party solutions including revenue management solution, online reputation management solution, booking engine, and business intelligence, etc.
- Guarantees complete and uncompromised data security.
- Offers minimum or zero downtime.
In the age of technology, business owners have little choice when it comes to tech adoption. To stay relevant and sustainable, dependency on technology is not only advisable but also lucrative. So, take your first step towards transforming your hotel business by adopting a cloud-based Hotel Property Management. Write in to us at editorial@hotelogix.com and we’ll get in touch with you.
