Definitely being able to integrate a third-party Back to the PMS sounds great, but the reality is that in practice today is unlikely, too inefficient, extremely expensive and overwhelmingly unprofitable,
Alfredo Lamadrid*
This is the next step of the PMS, an ecosystem of software solutions for the hospitality industry that, either in On-Premise or Cloud Base is designed and developed to deliver integrated solutions to specific needs of hotels and hotel groups in all areas of operation, administration and finance, increase in revenue and profitability, distribution of sales in rooms and services, and provide extreme control by generating accurate information in real time in all areas of a hotel.
Providing a seamless guest experience
Thinking in a traditional way a PMS is a hotel management system for independent properties or a series of properties, we could define it as a platform to execute and manage capabilities such as being able to generate reservations, either in the most traditional and basic way such as telephone, or online which today certainly the fastest and with certainty where we will get the best rates, guest check-in/check-out, room assignment, room rate management, billing and more.
Certainly PMS technologies have evolved and larger integrations offer services that extend far beyond reception. The PMS is now a critical system of business operations that allows or should allow hoteliers to deliver a valuable experience to their guests. Today it should be much more flexible and should be integrated into many other third-party services, however this does not happen as hoteliers want or expect from their manufacturers and Software Developers (PMS), these are some examples where they should directly impact the guest experience.
F&B, Front Desk, Guest Services, Guest Services APP, POS, Gift Shop, POS Movil, POS APP, SPA Management, Reservations On Line or Contact Center, Ownership Management, Events & Groups, Sales & Catering, to mention a few that are directly facing the guest. But there are many more aspects that must be taken into account for the choice of pms.
I think that today the best choice of the PMS must go through a much deeper analysis of what it delivers behind the guest, I refer to the key areas of hotel operation and management such as, IT, finance, administration, BackOffice, managers, executives and of course investors and owners, regardless of whether it is an independent hotel, chain, operated or franchise.
These are some examples of what the extension of PMS functionalities must achieve and have a direct impact on the operation and administration, such as the Back Office, purchasing, payroll, CRM, Sales & Marketing, reservations, revenue managemnet, analytics, management of a corporate governance, developments, integrations and Interfaces, to name a few.
In reality, the choice of the PMS passes today through many hands and responsible since it must provide services to many areas of the hotel, so the smartest decision is to analyze much more deeply if only a PMS is required and try to integrate it with third-party solutions or look for products that by their nature are organically born from the same ecosystem, designed and developed for industry.
Some advantages to analyze in the adoption of a PMS
Enhanced Check in/Check out capabilities
Provide your guests with highly available multi-level services using a cloud-based hotel PMS & On-Premise enabled, designed and developed to provide real mobility.
Free up your reception talent so that they can register guests, wherever they may be, in a Pre Check-in, Mobile Check-in or a full self-service check-in at a Kiosk or mobile devices, assign rooms, enable services for guests, etc.
Hotel (integrated) back-office systems
Definitely being able to integrate a third-party Back to the PMS sounds very good, but the reality is that that in practice today is unlikely, too inefficient, extremely expensive and overwhelmingly unprofitable, not only because of the investment of the development but also because of the absurdly long times to achieve it, mainly the failure of this option is the little or no willingness of software manufacturers to take seriously the needs of their customers, before putting their egos and zero interest in the hospitality industry first.
Imagine an ecosystem totally thought and developed in an organic way to work together all in the same database, with the same manufacturer that can provide you with the scalability and functionality necessary for your Hotel.
Improved housekeeping
Increase cleaning service efficiency with instant updates on cleaning service mobile devices when customers are in and out of the home, freeing up rooms for cleaning in an extremely automated and intelligent way.
Enable greater flexibility with management and improve response time for service tasks.
Provide applications to guests and your staff to be able to manage requirements in a simple and low-cost way
Reasons to move your hotel to mobility
To make a big difference in this highly competitive industry, hotels need to provide unique and personalized experiences to their guests, streamline the operation and cost-effectively manage distribution. Real cloud-based solutions provide significant advantages in all of these key areas. The reality is that transnational companies are struggling to deliver these functionalities and their extensions in a real way.
I think this is due to their rigidity of seeing the industry as one globally instead of stopping for a second, thinking and analyzing what is really happening in the local or regional market specifically in Latin America, evolving and adapting to it.
For all this it makes them certainly viable options for their experience, but not very agile, scalable and adaptable to specific needs.
Implementation of the PMS
Probably if you are not it these values will not be very familiar topics for you, but with certainty I can tell you that this is what you will live with day by day after making the decision for some PMS, I strongly suggest that you go very deeply into these topics with the manufacturer before making a decision, understand very clearly what are the values that give you in them and the real differentiators, unfortunately the promises are usually many but in reality the costs, response times and final solutions can become very disappointing even in multinational companies.
The disruption of the PMS and its extended functionalities
The real disruption of the PMS comes only from that software manufacturer that is really committed to the Industry and its customers, to add strongly to the decision in the adoption of a PMS with extension of real functionalities, is to weigh everything that is per se outside the product, thinks that the choice will be a long-term investment, I think that adding intangible values would be a very good and interesting practice to your analysis in investment and technology adoption.
I could mention a long and extensive list of this but I think it can be summarized very easily in the delivery of the level of service and commitment that your technological ally has with your hotel, it will never be a bad idea to ask current customers of the main PMS of the market how they do in their day to day service satisfaction, in their experiences in the face of the adverse situations they may experience and how open they are in getting out of the box in thought and vision.
*Alfredo Lamadrid Alducin is an expert consultant in hospitality technologies; Managing Director @ PDT Positive Disruptive Thinking Hospitality Guest, Managing Partner @ HOSTEC Mexico. You can contact him through the [email protected] and [email protected]
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