Wednesday, 9 July 2014

How To Choose A Good Hotel Property Management System

By Rosella Campbell


In recent years tourism has grown to be one of the biggest industries on earth. More people travel to foreign climes than ever before. Of course, this massive increase has led to the development of numerous hospitality establishments and the competition for the business of travelers is fierce. It is vital to have a state of the art hotel property management system in order to make profits and to compete with numerous competitors.

One of the main components of any managing system is its booking facilities. Bookings are not as straight forward as one may think. If mistakes such as double bookings are made, the reputation of the establishment will take a serious knock. It is also very important to keep record of special guest requirements such as the need for special diets or access to facilities for the disabled.

No hospitality establishment charges standard rates to all their guests. Repeat guests and tour operators, for example, are often offered better rates. It is vital to keep track of the various rates applicable to every booking. If this is not done the client may feel inconvenienced and this needs to be avoided at all cost. A good managing system will have a customer database that keeps track of the rates as well as special requirements.

Another very important function of a good managing program is to make sure that guests are not bothered with time consuming administration. The program must therefore be able to keep all information relevant to the guest up to date. This is the only way to ensure that a bill can be presented instantly or that an enquiry can be answered on the spot.

Large hospitality groups normally employ IT departments that develop their managing software in house. Smaller establishments can choose between several software packages specifically developed with the hospitality industry in mind. When considering such packages it is important to ensure that it is fully integrated. Poorly designed software requires users to provide the same input for each component. This wastes time and it increases the risk or error.

The competitive nature of the tourism industry requires hospitality establishments to plan very carefully. This can only be done if accurate information and statistics are available. The managing system should be able to provide this information and to empower the establishment to spot trends and opportunities. It should be able to provide reports in just about any format.

The level of support promised by the software supplier is of the utmost importance. Most establishments rely on their systems utterly and if it crash it can cause a disaster. It is vital to enter into a comprehensive support contract that also includes intensive training on a regular basis. The system should make provision for regular backups. It may be wise to test drive a few packages on a trial basis before making a decision.

In the highly competitive tourism industry it is establishments with access to reliable data that are able to spot the trends and to make informed decisions. Managing programs can help owners to save money when it ca be saved and to increase their profitability, thus ensuring the long term success of the enterprise.




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