It’s that time of year again – hotel budget planning season. While it may not be the most exciting or festive of seasons, a hotel’s business, or any business, cannot survive without a budget! You’re the expert on your hotel’s budget from knowing your hotel on the inside and out, but with every budget planning season, comes new technology and updates to existing software and tools, which is where we’re here to help. While strategies vary depending on your hotel type, technology is applicable to every hotel and must be considered when determining your budget for the upcoming year.
Each department within a hotel is equally important whether its food and beverage, housekeeping, or sales and marketing, and all are deserving of appropriate budget allocations, but as the world continues to modernize and become increasingly technology-dependent, it’s a department that simply cannot be overlooked. As a hotel data platform with a hospitality application marketplace, we know a thing or two about the most up-to-date PMS options, add-on technology tools, and the most important digital channels for your hotel brand, so we’ve put together a list of ways your hotel can invest in technology while benefiting from the data within your very own hotel.
Tips:
1. Investing in a PMS that is well suited to your hotel, if you haven’t already
Shifting to a cloud-based system is critical to future-proof your hotel with new technology. On-premise and legacy based systems can’t integrate as easily as cloud-based systems and the future is seamless integrations.
A PMS can make or break your hotel’s performance as there is a wide range of PMS types available in the industry, but not all of them are suited for your hotel. Whether you’re an independent hotel or a chain hotel, there are many different options for your hotel type with cloud-based PMS, all-in-one type PMS, specialized PMS, and so on. As hotel technology develops and integrations between the technology types increase, it is becoming more important for your hotel to use a PMS that can integrate with these new technologies. According to Hotel Management, on average, hotels change their PMS every seven years, so investing in a new PMS is a major decision for a hotel and should not be taken lightly. However, if you are still using an older PMS that has minimal integrations, when the time to upgrade does arrive, it is key to consider a PMS with increased automation, so your operations will become more seamless, your revenue management will become even easier to manage, and you can access PMS data through other cloud-based devices. Not only will you be able to benefit from the new add-on systems that are becoming easier to use and more readily available for hotels, but you can also increase the return on your investment by selecting a SnapShot-friendly PMS as they grant access to SnapShot’s APIs. The well-documented APIs allow you to build a customized dashboard, connect systems, and create new analytics measurements to use as needed.
