If you are a property owner, this article will definitely focus on information that will interest you. In many hoteliers’ minds, the question that appears the most is how to connect additional service areas (restaurant, café, bar, club, beach, SPA, etc.) to the hotel management system. Also, how easily they can follow the transactions in these areas. Although this may not seem very important initially, it is an issue that will seriously affect your operational process.
You may be using a hotel management system that works very well and meets your operational needs. Does the PMS you use work fully integrated with your additional service areas, though? As we mentioned above, the fully integrated and simultaneous operation of management systems is no longer a luxury. On the contrary, it has become a necessity. With the ever-evolving age of technology, it is no longer possible to avoid automated and especially cloud-based technological solutions. Your guests are looking for personalized services and, therefore, services that put the experience first. In order to provide good services, you must get to know your guests and their consumption habits, preferences, and profiles.
What criteria that I look for in my restaurant management?
Although restaurant management is a vast field, let’s start with the POS system. There are certain basic but equally important features that you should expect from a POS system. First, your first expectation from any management system will be to reduce the workload and work seamlessly with other systems and modules. Regarding the hospitality sector, the most significant feature you should expect from a POS system is the two-way integration with PMS. As we mentioned when talking about guest data, even your guests’ minibar usage can give you a lot of insight into them. You need to be able to monitor the consumption in your hotel cafe or restaurant, know their interests, and how much they are willing to spend. The POS system may be recording these data but is this data transferred to PMS to create a specific guest profile?
Managing the modules on PMS integrated into the POS system is another issue you should pay attention to. For example, can you view your PMS transactions while tracking stocks and costs on the POS system? Can your restaurant loyalty programs linked to guest profiles in your hotel management system provide integrated data transfer? Can you follow the reports of all expenditures in the food and beverage areas, including the expenses in your beach operations, on your mobile phone whenever you want?
If we were to look back 5 years, perhaps the answer to these questions would be, “Do I need all these operations?”. But now, all of these features have become a must for all hospitality businesses, no matter big or small. The technology is at your fingertips. Trust us, you will realize how much easier it will be as soon as you start using it.
How should I choose my hotel management system?
The system that can be called the backbone of every hospitality business, regardless of whether it is small or large, is the hotel management system. To control and manage all areas of your business most effectively, be careful when choosing your hotel management system. So what are the features you should pay attention to the most?
24×7 Uninterrupted Support
Although it may sound like a basic and simple criterion, it is the standard to which you should give the most importance. We can say that it is vital that you can reach the company that provides your PMS system and the support team 24×7. Especially if you have a property, your guests will not be satisfied when they hear, “The system is not working right now.”. Including all your operations, the fact that PMS does not work even for 5 minutes can bring negative results. They will expect a fully operational process from access systems to payment and additional service areas, from check-in to in-room technology. For this reason, we recommend choosing a company where you can get 24/7 uninterrupted support.
Easy Interface
Here is another fact that does not seem very critical but is equally important. Have you ever thought about how many owners change their hotel management system because their staff can’t figure out how to use it? Let’s say hundreds. For the system to be used effectively in all areas, you should ensure that you choose an interface that all employees can quickly learn.
Agile Structure
What does agile structure mean? Agile structure means easy-to-use, fully automated processes, thus, increasing work efficiency regarding user experience. For example;
To be able to instantly view how many rooms in the hotel are booked and how many are empty,
To provide faster and better service to the guests by monitoring the housekeeping info,
To be able to view all processes related to the state of the rooms on a single screen,
To enter the detailed information of all guests to create customer profiles.
Advanced Integrations
We talked about the restaurant automation hotel management system connection above. Under the heading of integrations, the first integration to be highlighted is the POS system. Even though your hotel’s restaurant is the first thing that comes to mind regarding the POS system, it is helpful to think on a larger scale. Some hotel areas that will be included in the POS system usage areas;
Restaurant
Cafe
Beach
Club
Bar
Mall
Pharmacy
Bakery
Apart from POS system integration, some of the other integrations you should have;
Channel Manager
Online Booking Engine
Central Data Management System
Revenue Management System
Metasearch
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