The PMS or Property Management Software is at the heart of a hotel’s operations due to its multiple functionalities. More often than not, the PMS is not used to its fullest potential, both on an operational level and in terms of the data it can provide.
Here are some tips to maximize the potential of your Property Management Software.
Complete your training with your supplier
A Property Management Software is a software that includes multiple functionalities and opportunities, whether it be for day-to-day operations with check-ins and check-outs or for management purposes using forecasting reports and performance analyses.
In order to get to know your software in depth and to make the best use of it, you should contact your supplier regularly. You can perfect your knowledge via training, in order to make better use of your PMS, be more efficient and improve you hotel’s profitability.
The hotel industry has a high staff turnover, so it is important to offer your staff training for them to acquire knowledge about the Property Management Software and learn about best practices. Usually, all the information about the hotel and the Property Management Software is lost whenever the person in charge of it leaves. It is therefore important to keep your management team and the people who use the Property Management Software up to date.
Watch for performance indicators
Your Property Management Software is a key source of information that will allow you to better understand, anticipate and prepare your operations. It includes indicators which can highlight opportunities which you could have missed or shortfalls which you should investigate in order to improve your profitability.
The indicators available in your Property Management Software are plentiful and easily accessible at all times. The key indicators for a hotel are: occupancy rate, ADR, REVPAR, REVPAC, GOPPAR, customer acquisition cost, ROI and retention rate. Among these 8 key performance indicators for hotel managers, some are often under-exploited, such as ADR, REVPAR and REVPAC.
Each of these indicators can give you additional information on your hotel’s performance. The ADR, which you can compare across years, will allow you to fine-tune your pricing strategy.
The REVPAR will help you too improve the additional revenue you can generate from a room.
The REVPAC allows you to analyze the revenue generated by each customer and therefore to act on the sale of additional products on top of the room for each customer.
Use the data
The Property Management Software collects all your hotel’s and customers’ data. Customer data includes but is not limited to: type of customer, country of origin and reason for their stay. All this information is continuously collected.
Therefore, you can consult and use this data for marketing purposes. By comparing several indicators and their relevant customer data, you could for example realize that customers from a certain country generate a higher REVPAR or REVPAC. In this case, it would be relevant to adapt your offers geographically to target this clientele.
This data is important for your pricing and advertising strategies. It should influence your operations in order to adjust your offer to the demand of targeted clienteles.
Don’t let day-to-day operations take over
A Property Management Software is often underutilized because of hotel staff getting caught up in day-to-day operations and lacking the time to focus on the software’s potential. As a result, the implementation of new connectivity and time-saving modules is often delayed or overlooked. The lack of time to implement these additional tools means that the hotel is not benefitting from the software’s full potential. When the off-season comes, other tasks can overwhelm for the remaining staff and the optimization of the Property Management Software is again postponed.
The Property Management Software is a complete software that allows you to manage all of you hotel’s departments. Knowing your Property Management Software perfectly is almost impossible, but it is important to regularly updated your knowledge in order to fully exploit its potential. This will in turn help you to simplify operations and of course to improve your hotel’s profitability.
