Selecting hotel software systems is like purchasing a vehicle : it is quite easy to feel overwhelmed by the overabundance of options, and it can be really challenging to find trusted advice about the overall system features you require the most.
You know there has been a misconception in business software that one single size fits all. Every hotel has quite specific needs based on their overall property size, chain scale, the geography, and lots of other variables. On top of this , every owner or manager has their own sets of preferences in terms of design, usability, and even support. Here are some things that you should consider when selecting HMS for your hotel.
Necessary Hotel Management Software Functionalities You Must Know
It is time that you start with the basics. These features are true must-haves for any sort of modern hotelier who really wants to use technology to enhance the guest experience, make back office operations a lot more efficient, and build lasting relationships with overall guests.
- Spontaneous & easy-to-use interface
A user-friendly interface is the most crucial factor when picking mission-critical hotel management software for your hotel. If your hotel software is somewhat complicated or complex and confusing, more errors or mistakes will be made. Now, this is something that would be costing you more money. Common tasks must not take lots of time and even steps, as this simply slows down your team and even limits your capability to grow swiftly and hence the requirement for a robust hotel management software system.
- Mobile & tablet optimised software or system
Once your manager, housekeeping team, and even other types of staff members need to check details on a booking quickly they should not have to simply rush back to the office. The point is simple, any system you use should not just be accessible by, but even optimized for use on mobile phones and even tablets. The point is even your owner should be in a position to check performance while on vacation or holiday. The point is simple, anyone who has to use the hotel software should be able to access it from anywhere and form any device easily and effectively.
- Pure visibility of the grid
Adding special types of events that are happening in the region, underlining or highlighting returning guests, and even recognizing guests who are yet to pay their bill are all kinds of the features your grid should allow by default. Moreover, your grid should permit you to quickly as well as easily see key information about your overall guests. In this way, there would be smoothness and ease at every level. Lack of difficulties means better efficiency and effectivity.
- Good level of reservation management
Perhaps the absolute most necessary hotel software feature is reservations management and front office features. By including all of your reservations digitally, hoteliers can easily and effectively make a paper reservation book a thing of the traditional times. Inside the realm of reservations management, you must be able to set rates, even control availability, offer promotions, and even imagine reservations on a calendar.
- Quick room management
The room management module of your hotel management software is like your virtual front desk. This is one functionality that allows your front desk agents check guests in and out, and even cancel or extend reservations with only a few of the simple clicks.
- Group bookings or reservations
In case your hotel plans on hosting any kind of event or group of guests, then group reservations functionality is somewhat crucial. Group reservation features encompass permitting guests to book reservations inside the room block, exporting a room list, and even properly configuring billing settings so that you can easily bill one account for diverse rooms.
- Effective and quick Invoicing
When most of the guests check out, they look forward to have a copy of their bill, so, your software should be in a position to easily export guests’ folios that includes all charges from their stay. Similarly, you would even wish solid, straightforward financial reporting that aids you settle revenue and expenses from room revenue, outlets, vendors, and even more.
- Proper payment processing
Gone are the days when guests paid with money or cheque, so you would really wish an HMS with a payment processor integration that enables you to effortlessly charge guests’ credit cards and even have secure access to huge payment gateways.
- Overall guest profiles
Are you simply working on building guest loyalty? Well, guest profiles store your guests’ contact data , stay history, and also preferences, so that you can easily deliver a more personalized experience during their next stay. Better yet, a guest profile having stored CC’s of your guest is going to make it even convenient for returning guests. Hence, everything is going to be streamlined.
- Proper email automation
You can easily communicate with guests and even diminish manual type of work for your staff by using personalised, customised, and even automated emails. Once you use your own templates, the automated email functionality permits you to build a communication journey from the right initial booking to targeted offers for recurrence guests.
- Proper Housekeeping management
Your hotel management software should be in a position to allow the housekeeping team in the hotel to mark rooms as clean, dirty, or even out of order. Once there is availability of this information in one central place, it gives the front desk visibility of room overall statuses, so that they can easily accommodate early check-in’s and even room moves without requiring to radio the overall housekeeping supervisor. Of course, all these things make an impactful effect.
Conclusion
To sum up , you can check out hotel management system software that includes all the features that mentioned in this post. Hence, you can be sure that you have chosen one that works wonderfully for your hotel. After all, a right software can do wonders for the growth of your hotel and its overall working!