No matter how a hotel business grows, its technical capabilities should expand, too. Ten years ago, you might have started as a small B&B with a couple of beds, but today it’s a huge business with hundreds of rooms, its own spa, restaurant, and conference facility. Or you may have kept your boutique property small and cozy, but still want the opportunity to make improve guest services. No matter where you are on the size, no matter what type of lodging you provide, technology can get you where you want to be. We’ve already described the basics of a hotel property management system (PMS), explaining how hotels can effectively function using software solutions. In this article, we’re going to talk about third-party connectivity products that will help you manage and elevate the guest experience.
What is Hotel Property Management System?
A hotel PMS is a software that facilitates a hotel’s reservation management and administrative tasks. The modules of a PMS help manage the following operations: inventory distribution management, reservations, check-ins and check-outs, front-desk operations, revenue management, marketing and customer relations, housekeeping, reports and analytics, and back-office management.
Structure of a hotel PMS
Not all hospitality businesses use the whole functionality of hotel PMSs – in fact, today not every hotel has one. That’s one of the reasons why software vendors sell their solutions in separate systems that solve a particular problem, and connect to PMSs via APIs.
Max Starkov, a hospitality tech expert and Adjunct Professor at New York University Tisch Center of Hospitality, defines the following categories of hotel PMS connectivity solutions: Guest Engagement, Acquisition, and Retention Technologies, and Guest Services Technologies. For convenience, we decided to split these into three discrete categories below, describing the systems that serve these purposes.
Hospitality connectivity landscape
Software solutions for Guest Engagement and Acquisition
“These are technology applications focused on engaging and bringing the guest to the property, continuing the conversation pre-, during and post-stay and eventually turning the guest into a loyal and repeat guest,” explains Max.
In every business, a client is the center of the activity, so these systems are the core of healthy business function. The first integration from this category is the Central Reservation System.
