10 tips to get the best out of your cloud-native PMS
This list will help you make the most of a cloud-native PMS, helping to ensure you get the timesaving and revenue boost that your business deserves.
1. Take the time to train your team
To unlock the true potential of cloud-native technology, your workforce needs to know how to use it properly. This is an important part of the mindset shift, particularly if you have staff accustomed to legacy platforms and processes. Implement self-guided, role-based learning paths to minimize training time.
2. Embrace mobile access
One of the big benefits of going cloud-native with your PMS is that you can access everything you need from your phone, tablet or laptop, wherever you are. This empowers staff to step out from behind their big reception desks, and it means that management can check hotel status and run reports from a central office, their home, or if they’re traveling.
3. Integrate payments seamlessly
Full payment automation means that every transaction is fast and secure. Once you have verified card details on file (tokenized, of course), you can action further payments with a single click. This eliminates much of the transactional element of guest interactions, allowing them (and you) to focus on having a more meaningful experience.
4. Connect with industry-leading software
Forward-thinking hospitality clouds won’t charge you connection fees to integrate with other hospitality tools. Take advantage of all this connectivity and build your perfect tech stack – and if an integration doesn’t perform as you’d hoped, you can always unplug it and try another.
5. Rethink your guest experience
Once you move to a cloud-native platform, it opens up new possibilities for your guest experience. It makes it easy to offer new touchpoints like online check-in and self-serve kiosks, or even digital room keys. Eliminate any parts of the guest journey that don’t add value – just because you had to do it before, doesn’t mean you need to keep doing it.
6. Maximize revenue across your property
Introduce new revenue streams that seamlessly integrate into your guest journey. Add one-click upsells to your website booking engine, at online check-in and onsite kiosks. And sell different space types like parking spots and co-working desks, all from within the same platform.
7. Adopt heightened security features
31% of hospitality organizations suffered a data breach in 2023. Features like two-factor authentication (2FA) and card tokenization are easy to implement with a cloud-native solution and ensure guest and business data remains secure. Plus, certifications like SOC 2 and ISO 27001 give you peace of mind that your technology partners take security seriously. Read why 2FA is a must-have for hospitality security.
8. Pay attention to new features
Unlike on-premises solutions, being in the cloud means you’ll benefit from continual product updates and new feature releases. Some may be small, like performance improvements, but others could have a real impact on the way your team works. Sign up to product updates from your PMS, or regularly check their new releases page.
9. Reassess your KPIs
New revenue streams, new processes and new reports can transform the way you measure business success. Don’t just stick to what you’ve done before; consider tracking metrics like RevPAG (revenue per available guest) and space utilization to get a more accurate picture of your performance. Discover the New Era of Hospitality Metrics for General Managers.
10. Look to continuously improve
Monitor guest feedback so you can see how to improve experiences. There are plenty of smart reputation management tools that seek and analyze reviews, and making changes is easier in a flexible, cloud-native system. Gathering regular staff feedback is another good way to surface any processes that could be improved.
10 things to avoid when moving to a cloud-native PMS
We’ve covered some of the dos of cloud-native hotel management, but what about the don’ts? Here’s what NOT to do.
1. Don’t use technology for everything
Maybe it seems a bit strange for a hospitality tech company to make this statement, but we truly believe it. Use your PMS to automate all the tasks that don’t add value to your guest’s stay, so that your team have more time to spend with guests. We even bolded it, so you know we’re serious.
2. Don’t keep old ways of working
If you just lift and shift your operational processes from an on-premises to a cloud-native platform, you won’t see the big benefits you’re expecting. Make sure you truly understand your new software and the power it has to transform the way you work, whether that’s eliminating redundant tasks like night audits, or adopting automated room optimization.
3. Don’t use standard templates
You should absolutely embrace automation across guest comms like booking confirmation, online check-in and post-stay feedback. However, don’t just leave the default template as it is. Even small changes to the copy and imagery will ensure a more cohesive and elevated brand experience. Here’s how to perfect your guest communication.
4. Don’t treat every guest the same
Some guests want a fully digital experience, some want more of the personal touch. Cloud-native technology makes it easy to provide choice, so you can make sure everyone is happy. Likewise, personalization means you can provide tailored offers and messaging to guests, better matching your services to their wants and helping you boost revenue.
5. Don’t forget to update your teams
We already covered the benefits of regular product updates and feature releases. However, let’s be honest: not everyone in your organization is going to read them. It’s a good idea to nominate someone to be responsible for communicating relevant updates to the rest of your team. If everyone’s on the same page, it’ll have a huge impact on your efficiency.
6. Don’t take on too much at once
Changing your PMS is a big deal (though nowhere near as stressful as you think) and there’ll undoubtedly be a short period of adaptation. It’s best to let your teams get used to new ways of working before testing out various new integrations. Prioritize what’s most important (revenue management? Upselling?) so you don’t overwhelm your staff.
7. Don’t ignore the data
You’ll have an ocean of data at your fingertips, but it doesn’t mean anything unless you actively take time to analyze it. Automate key reports so they’re regularly sent straight to your inbox and make the most of any inbuilt dashboards that track performance.
8. Don’t obsess about the competition
Comp sets are all well and good, but if you spend too much time thinking about your competitors, you could lose sight of what makes your brand unique. Use the tools at your disposal to craft unique guest experiences that are true to your vision of hospitality, whether that’s enabled through custom-built solutions through an open API or the simplicity of outstanding service.
9. Don’t overlook access rights
A receptionist doesn’t need access to your accounting information, just as a housekeeper doesn’t need to know your room rates. Setting up proper role-based user access is an important part of security, and it will ensure that guest and property data remains safe. The same goes for running multiple hotels – only give staff access to relevant properties.
10. Don’t rush into a decision
If you’re still to make the move to a cloud-native PMS, don’t panic. Yes, you need to make the move soon, but don’t rush into it straight away. Be meticulous about your research and find someone who suits your business needs and who’ll become a true partner to grow with in the future.
Moving to a cloud-native PMS
There you have it. A thorough, if not exhaustive list of dos and don’ts for using a cloud-native PMS. And yes, we may have just set the record for the number of times we wrote ‘cloud-native’ in a single article.
If you’d like to learn more, check out our guide on How to Migrate to Mews from an On-premises PMS.
