Hospitality business is an industry that requires effective technological solutions. A Hospitality Management System (HMS) is necessary for your hotel to operate productively and improve the comfort of its visitors.
In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits that HMS can bring to your business, its differences from a Property Management System (PMS), and how you can implement it.
What is HMS?
A Hotel Management System is a solution for comprehensive management of hotels and other hospitality-related businesses. The software works as a central database containing all information about your business. This data is conveniently stored in one place and can be transferred to different departments using cloud infrastructure.
A Property Management System is a solution that simplifies real estate processes. It is very useful for property managers, investors, and owners.
Thus, the PMS only has a fraction of the functionality that an HMS can offer.
What is the Role of HMS in Hotel Management?
The system integrates several working environments, optimizing the following key processes:
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Booking. Online booking is an essential element of any HMS, which allows your clients to book rooms via various channels, including your hotel’s website.
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Guest registration and room management. HMS allows you to view and update the status of room reservations, register guests, and process payments.
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Booking channel manager. A system for simultaneously managing sales channels for hotel rooms. Allows the hotel administration to combine the management of all hotel booking services, such as Booking, Expedia, Airbnb, etc.
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Revenue management. The system helps managers understand how to adjust processes to achieve better results and control finances.
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Property maintenance. Room cleaning and other critical processes.
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CRM and customer data management. HMS stores guest data and provides a database in an accessible format. This is especially important when organizing marketing events.
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Reports and analytics. The system monitors current processes, which helps you better understand your business performance.
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Back office management. HMS facilitates the management of your hotel team and administrative operations.
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Services at points of sale. This feature is required to enable additional fees and discounts in the final invoice for the client.
Generally, hotel management software optimizes various business tasks, systematizes information about business and clients, generates reports, and stores financial data in one place.
Implementation of HMS in Your Business
Before you start using the system, it is important to ensure the smoothness and transparency of internal processes.
Basic steps to implement the software in your business:
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Determine your hotel's needs. Formulate the goals for using the solution. What problems should it solve? What tasks and operations do you want to simplify? How will it affect the productivity of the team and the efficiency of the business as a whole?
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Order comprehensive software. Custom development is the best choice to get a system with all the required functions, a convenient interface, a high level of data protection, and the ability to scale.
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Take care of integrating your HMS with other enterprise solutions. It is necessary to establish smooth interaction of the new system with software you already use, set up data exchange, and ensure access for all team members.
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Train staff. It is essential that each team member knows how to use the program and can optimize their work processes. It will reduce routine and increase overall productivity.
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Check the quality of work. Monitor system performance and contact specialists if any changes are necessary (adding features, new integrations, etc.).
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Update and maintain the system. It is not enough to just implement the software. Don’t forget to modernize it and adapt it to changing business requirements.
Using reliable and multifunctional software, you increase the efficiency of business management and improve customer service. Remember that Hotel Operations Software is an integral part of your business success!