Hotels are about the people. The people booking in for a comfortable stay. And, the people who work to make that stay memorable.
NB: This is an article from Welcome Anywhere
Moreover, it is the personal touches that are remembered. Excellent and personable staff increase your hotel revenue with excellent salesmanship. And of course, by creating a desire to return to the hotel at a later date.
This is all well and good. However, the world has become technologically driven, and it stands to reason that your hotel must cater for that. Without a deeply-functional PMS, a hotel has its work cut out. There are many ways that a PMS will increase your hotel revenue. Let me walk you through the top 5.
1. Administering the customer experience
If there is a member of your team hugging a desk, shuffling papers, or performing some other thankless administrative task, then they represent a hole in your customer experience. Nobody wants to be juggling bookings in a dark room, especially when they can make a difference out on the floor.
A PMS will free your staff up to interact with your guests. By taking on the clerical elements of a hotelier, they create the opportunity for customer interaction and help you build connections in a way that carves out memorable moments for guests. It’s these moments your guests will consider the next time they need to make a booking in your area.
2. Increasing your hotel revenue online
If there is one place you want to be as a hotelier, it is online. Whatever your geographical location, or additional facilities you offer, your guests are all the web. To increase your hotel revenue, your PMS needs to be capable of managing your online presence.
Most hotel guests are in your area for a reason beyond staying in a nice room for the night. They may be there to see Slipknot at your local concert venue, for instance, and those sweaty, tired rockers may not have been aware of your hotel. That is, until they were online looking for a place to stay – and it will have been your PMS that will have lured them conveniently through your door.
3. Distribution Management
A PMS with a channel management function is hugely beneficial. You can market yourself across all the OTAs and GDSs, as well as retail travel agents.
With such carnivorous competition in your market, creating partnerships in these channels is imperative. It’s important for survial, let alone increasing your hotel revenue.
It might be time to change your PMS if you are still manually updating the OTAs.
4. Transparent communication
Your PMS provides easy and clear communication between the various departments in your hotel. With your hotel functioning efficiently, your hotel is able to save time and offer guests a more personalised experience.
Importantly, your PMS is able to bypass unnecessary kerfuffle. Thus, you have the ability to craft moments for guests, because you will have built an environment for up-selling. Remember – transparent communication enables you to respond to the whims and desires of your guests.
5. Profitable decision making
Revenue and rate management in a modern PMS uses existing data to help identify trends and create profitable, enticing rate plans. With availability and competitor rates data available at your fingertips, you’ll find yourself equipped and ready to react to the market.
With such information at your disposal, you can drive higher occupancy rates and implement a competitive room pricing strategy. Manipulating this data and adjusting your rates accordingly will inevitably result in your hotel’s revenue increasing – it’s that simple.
Wrapping up
Yes, the hospitality industry is heavily influenced and manipulated by the human condition. But without a PMS installed into your hotel, your resources will be stretched beyond their ability to create a personal customer experience.
