A hotel PMS, property management system, is a software that assists hotels in scheduling, managing, and organising their day-to-day operations efficiently. Through the software, small and independent hotels and groups can handle front office workflow, guest check-in and check-out, booking, room assignment to guests, billing, and housekeeping tasks delegation.
A hotel PMS is a vital component for any successful hotel business operation. Not only does the system help in facilitating streamlined services, but it also builds accountability and convenient hotel service delivery. In addition, through the system, the hotel keeps better clients’ records with the information being used to make their future stays even better.
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Who is using PMS in the hotel
A wide array of people work on the PMS of a hotel, ranging from front desk employees, the general manager, POS staff, and housekeeping staff. Let us look at how the PMS is helpful to each of them.
Front Desk Employees
With the aid of a hotel PMS, the hotel’s front desk staff can smoothen the entire reservation process, starting from bookings acceptance (received through OTAs, walk-ins, travel agents) to room assignment, confirmation of the same, and relaying confirmation mails to guests. The staff can also handle booking modifications or cancellations and room enhancements requests. The tasks that the front office employees can accomplish using a hotel PMS include:
- Check-in/check-out
- Guest registration
- Room management
- Night Audit
Housekeeping Staff
An exceptional housekeeping service plays a significant role in guaranteeing guest satisfaction. After check-out, as front office employees mark a vacant room, the PMS relays a notification to the housekeeping department.
And upon finishing the cleaning and the room is all set, housekeeping employees mark the room ready for occupation on the PMS. This assists front desk employees in knowing the rooms available to be moved in and therefore facilitates quicker check-ins for guests. In addition, the PMS can aid in planning housekeeping tasks, allocate staff, and monitor the tasks for timely completion.
POS Staff
Guests of a hotel reside in the hotel and use the hotel�s amenities such as bars, restaurants, spas, gyms, and gift shops (also referred to as POS outlets). It would not be the best experience for clients to pay every time they visit such amenities. Therefore, the recommendation is to post every POS charge to their rooms directly in such cases. Such automation is possible through a PMS and a POS integration and helps save time and avoid charging errors.
General Manager
A general manager is in charge of the general administration of a hotel. In addition, they are tasked with strategic planning to guarantee the success of the hotel business. Therefore, the power coming with an all-inclusive hotel PMS is vital to them as far as insights and KPIs are concerned.
Hotel PMS offers various operational reports to make essential business decisions, including forecast and history reports, reservation reports, occupancy reports, and revenue reports.
How Hotel PMS Work
When hotels began taking up hotel PMS, the desire was to efficiently manage housekeeping services, check-ins, and check-outs. Nonetheless, things have changed with the hotel PMS, not just an application to enhance the automation levels.
Instead, it now entails the whole guest experience from booking to getting the guest information for future guest relationship management. To get a better understanding, let us dive deeper. First, we discuss some of the most vital PMS features, instrumental in the general hotel management efficiency.
Advantages of Hotel PMS
The travel journey of consumers starts by choosing a destination as they look for hotels to stay in. The pre-stay booking and shopping interaction, on-property interaction with hotel staff, in-room experiences, and relaying of feedback following their stay are all a part of the guest experience.
Hoteliers are tasked with offering personalised guest experiences as they operate effective businesses. Presently, hoteliers can deliver the desired guest experiences from the hotel PMS definition.
Guest History Management
A PMS will record every guest detail, including their full name, type (corporate or FIT), nationality, gender, contact information, special preferences such as payment methods, likes and dislikes, and the last booked room type. For added precision, the hotel property management software takes and stores all guest details to better understand and serve customers during their future course of stay in the hotel.
Guest Accounting
It assists in posting additional charges that may come up to the reservation throughout a guest’s stay. In addition, it can help you to handle a variety of other processes such as automated direct billing from the front desk, dividing various folios with particular billing instructions, and invoices.
