The Importance of a Property Management System (PMS) in the Hotel Industry

Hotel Property Management Systems have come a long way to become one of the most essential technology tools for accommodation providers today. Simply put, a good PMS is considered the backbone for a hotel. Property management systems make it easier for coordinating the functions of the front office, guest management, sales, planning, and reporting. It allows property owners to manage front desk operations, rates and promotions, and customer loyalty data, consolidating the status of all hotel properties in one place.

Why every hotel needs a PMS and the benefits they can derive?

Guest Reservations

The most important benefit of a PMS is that it helps hotels to seamlessly manage guest reservations. An ideal PMS should allow a hotel to centralize all guest bookings in one place whether they are coming from third party channels. Brand.com or direct walk-ins. When all the reservations are reflected in one place, it becomes easier for the hotel staff to have access to up-to-date inventory information. It gives clarity to hotel employees to know which rooms are reserved and when, so they can manage operations accordingly.

Managing online third-party sales channels

Most PMSs work with various hotel channel managers, like RateTiger, to make it seamless for hotels to transfer rate and availability data to OTAs and get reservation delivery into the hotel system. Some PMSs offer in-built channel management functionality which allows hotels to offer better online reservation experience through a vast network of volume-producing online sales channels.

Revenue Management

Property management systems also helps hotels to manage revenue effectively.  It helps hoteliers to assess the performance of the property, using key performance indicators like ADR (average daily rate), RevPAR (revenue per available room) and GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room). A good PMS also offers rate plan management where hotels can quickly create room type-rate plan combinations, which assists hoteliers to easily respond to changes in demand. These change in demand may occur due to seasonality, local events, and various other factors.

Front-desk Operations

A front-office module allows a front-desk manager to view and update room reservation status, manage guest check-ins, and process payments. Some property management systems offer integration into check-in kiosks or allow checking in or out via QR code. This module connects reservation, housekeeping, spa, activities, and guest relations management modules in a single environment.

Digital Check-In

With social distancing becoming the norm, digital or contactless check-in is a preference for many guests nowadays. The contactless technology allows guests to arrive, and then check-in using the mobile app on their phone, or by using a self-service check-in machine. The PMS can sync automatically, keeping check-in and occupancy information updated.

Guest Data Management

It is critical for hotels to collect and organize guest data to keep in touch with current and past customers during and after check-out. A CRM integrated with PMS can help the front desk and reservation team to collect all guest information from these sources, store guest data and have a database in an accessible format.  Advanced PMS also enables hotels to manage guest loyalty programs effectively.

Third Party Integrations

Hotels today need multiple technology solutions to manage their property efficiently. But the key challenge for hotels is that most technology solutions work in silo, and it becomes difficult for hotels to get a clear picture of how everything can work together. An integrated system helps hotels to have synchronized data essential for informed decision making. Hence it is important for a hotel PMS to have open API or option to integrate to other technology systems so that hotels can take benefit of it.

Reporting

Last but not the least, is reporting. Everyday hotel staff access many reports including guest data, reservation, booking pace and trends, channel performance and various other relevant metrics for business performance analysis. A good PMS provides quality reports with advanced analytics and insights in easy-to-use formats.

How to get started?

If you are looking for a good PMS, get in touch with us today. RateTiger works closely with all leading PMSs including Opera, Prologic First, IDS Next, WinHMS, ArabSoft, Cenium, Guestline, ePMS, Ezcloud, Hotelogix, HotSoft, Indra, Infor, Protel, Intimus, Mews, Oracle, Skyware, and Visual Matrix,  and we are happy to recommend you systems that work well in your region.

Further, if your property is looking for any technology solution individually or integrated on a platform – Hotel Channel Manager, CRS, Internet Booking Engine (IBE), Rate Shopper, GDS & Metasearch management, Website development, Business Analytics – please reach out to us for a ‘no-obligation’ demo today – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

 

 

 

Connect to niche travel channels to generate more bookings

Explore Verychic and HalalBooking from the eRevMax Partner EcosystemAs the world slowly recovers from the impact of the pandemic and international borders are starting to open, travel is expected to pick up. In the post-COVID-19 world, travellers will be extremely conscious of safety protocols, hygiene as well as social distancing norms.

Travel and tour operators will have a big role to play in designing itineraries that avoid public forms of transportation and crowded tourist areas. Further, hotels need to find new ways to market themselves to multiple audience types. Hence it is important to consider niche travel channels that cater to specific guest segments and could be a potential source to generate new bookings.

eRevMax works with a variety of digital travel platforms to offer its hotel partners a whole range of demand sources to choose from. Today we are featuring two such niche OTAs that you may want to consider adding to your distribution mix.

Verychic

VeryChic organizes private sale of outstanding hotel rooms exclusively for its select upscale members, offering attractive deals. It is one of the fastest growing online travel agencies in the French market with over 5000 hotels partnerships attracting 12,000 bookings per month. Verychic has a loyal customer base of over 9 million members across Europe. Verychic enables its luxury and upscale hotel partners to optimize distribution and provides them access to new guests via its private sales.

HalalBooking

UK based HalalBooking is a leading travel booking website for halal-conscious travelers, and allows travellers to find hotels, resorts and villas suitable for their individual needs. The website lists over 71,000 properties in 50 countries. Over 2000 travel agencies worldwide are part of its affiliate partner programme. You can now manage HalalBooking directly from your RateTiger / LiveOS platform.

If you are looking to add any of the above or manage a new tech partner or channel from your RateTiger platform, do contact us today

 

How to get onboard with Google Hotel Link for Free

Last month, Google has made hotel listings free for hotel businesses and travel agencies. If you are a hotel owner or a travel agency, you can now display your rates and availability in the All Options section. While the results shown in this section is based on organic search results, this is a major opportunity for hotels to showcase their properties on the world’s biggest search engine without worrying about metasearch budget.

In this blog, we have shared a quick guide for hotels to get on Google.

Why Booking links?

For long, hotels have had to compete through PPC campaigns to appear on Google Hotel Booking listings, where cost was often a big factor. This new development removes the cost barrier and gives hotels a level playing field to appear in Google when users search for accommodation. Based on the search query, a listing of various hotels appear along with property photos, ratings, prices, and a map. While the hotel website’s SEO would play a role in appearing in the top results, if done correctly, it helps hotels to connect with more travelers and drive more bookings at no cost.

Google Hotels immersive view

When a user searches for hotels in a particular location, Google shows an immersive view including both a list and a map of hotel search results that contains hotel names, photos, prices, and ratings. Often these results include property promotion ads, which are paid hotel ads on Google. The traveler then either books from the options or can further filter prices by check-in date, occupancy, price, amenities, user rating, brand, and hotel class. Clicking on a hotel sends the traveler to the hotel booking module. The overview section on the booking module shows four paid listings under the Featured options and two organic search results. Clicking on the Prices Tab, the traveller would be able to see all four paid listings along with all search results.

How to get started: Existing Hotel Ad Users

For hotels already displaying rates and availability and booking link through metasearch, they do not need to do anything as they are automatically eligible to show free booking links. Any property with a bid in a hotel campaign and participating feeds will be eligible. Bids also have no impact on the ranking of free booking links.

Hotels and travel agencies who do not take part in Hotel ads

If you are a hotel or a travel agency which does not take part in hotels ads, the first thing you need to have is a Hotel Center Account. Hotels and hotel booking partners who do not have a Hotel Center account but are interested in getting started with free booking links should fill out the interest form. Google has integration with multiple third-party integration partners including RateTiger and recommends hotels to work directly work with these providers to connect to Google. At RateTiger, we are helping many of our client hotels to set up Hotel Center Accounts. For onboarding, you need to provide us with the following:

  1. The hotel list containing all the properties that the hotel/ group/ travel agency wishes to show on Google.
  2. Selecting an option for sending hotel pricing updates to Google.
  3. Customize landing pages that will be shown to a traveler after they click on a hotel’s price on Google or Google Maps.
  4. Maintain an excellent Price Accuracy score

To know more or to get started, contact us today – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

eRevMax expands Partner Ecosystem with Discovery Loyalty, GuestPlus PMS and World2Meet (W2M)

With future booking numbers picking up across key destinations globally, domestic travel continues to aid travel recovery. The increasing number of technology requirements that assists hotels to manage their business efficiently can be mind-boggling. It is important that hotels choose their tech partners judiciously so that they are cost and time effective while leading to revenue generation.

eRevMax continues to expand its partner based to offer hoteliers with integrated solutions so they can manage multiple facets of hospitality operations seamlessly, directly from a single platform. Here we bring some of our newest technology partners – feel free to contact us to connect with any of them.

Discovery Loyalty

With more focus on domestic tourism and growing importance of loyalty programs, you may want to have a partner that can help you create and manage Loyalty Programs for your hotel. Our newest partner – Discovery Loyalty, provides 16 million members exclusive opportunities to immerse themselves in local culture wherever they travel. With over 570 hotels in 85 countries, the award-winning DISCOVERY programme generates approximately $2 billion in revenue and over 8 million room nights annually. Get your property listed with Discovery Loyalty and boost your hotel occupancy today.

GuestPlus PMS

A popular technology provider in the UAE, Armada GuestPlus PMS, is a fully configurable, PCI compliant Property Management System that can enable any sized hotel, holiday home, inns and resorts to manage their bookings and operations efficiently and profitably. GuestPlus PMS helps its hotel partners to boost revenue by up to 150%. Known for its user-friendly interface, Armada GuestPlus PMS might just be the right partner for your property. What’s more – you can continue to manage your OTAs seamlessly through RateTiger even with this new PMS. Contact us if you want to schedule a demo with the PMS.

World2Meet (W2M)

If you are looking to connect to a Spanish tour operator, look no further. World2Meet (W2M) – our new demand partner is connected to over 6000 travel agencies in Spain and Portugal and works closely with bed banks, OTAs and wholesalers. With direct contracts with more than 30,000 properties, this could just be the right partner for your hotel. Contact us today to know more about this channel.

Are you looking to manage any new tech partner or hotel channel manager software from your RateTiger platform? CONTACT US TODAY – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

The Week, That Was – March 2021 Week 4

In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the week, curated just for you. We present to you hand – picked news on latest industry perspectives and some general updates. Read on!!

Mayaland Hotels and Resorts endorse RateTiger for online distribution

One of the leading luxury heritage chains in Mexico, Mayaland Hotels & Resorts have highly recommended RateTiger for channel connectivity and online distribution. The group has been using RateTiger Channel Manager to update rates and availability across online sales channels for the last three years and have experienced significant improvement in occupancy and revenue.

https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/mar2021-erevmax-mayaland-hotels-resorts-endorse-ratetiger-online-distribution.html

Google launches property promotion ads for hotels globally

While standard hotel booking link ads are meant for advertisers to capture a booking for a hotel a user already chose, property promotion ads are designed to enable advertisers to influence the buying decision for users still looking for a hotel.

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10541931

Google makes hotel listings free – are you ready to grab the opportunity?

Do you know hotels can now display their rates and availability without taking part in Google PPC or Google Hotel Ads?  Through a recent announcement, Google has made hotel listings free. Google has a list of integrated partners including RateTiger through which hotels can feed data sources for booking links. If you are interested in displaying your rates on Google Hotel Ads, contact us today on marketing@erevmax.com

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2021/03/google-makes-hotel-listings-free-are-you-ready-to-grab-the-opportunity/

Vaccine passports: Can they save travel? Should they?

Perhaps the main obstacle to wide use of vaccine passports is political: Ethical concerns about dividing the world into vaccinated and unvaccinated for purposes of travel freedom.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Vaccine-passports-Can-they-save-travel-Should-they

5 big signs that travel is roaring back

Hotel reservations on Expedia.com for some parts of the United States this summer are “all booked up” and the company expects Europe will soon follow as the number of vaccinations grow.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/20/business/travel-rebound-coronavirus/index.html

Hotels show signs of life, with travel boom in sight

Hotels are preparing for the prospect of a surge in demand, as occupancy rates at U.S. hotels reached 52% last week, the highest since Covid-19 lockdowns began, according to STR.

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/hospitality-tourism/hotels-show-signs-life-travel-boom-sight

Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Thanks and have a good day!

 

5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 5

We aim to bring to hotels quick and easy ways to optimize their presence on Booking.com and get more reservations for their property. Through this series, we are highlighting tips that you can leverage through the various promotional options that Booking.com provides.

In the last part of this series, we will talk about the Payment solutions available through Booking.com

Allow Booking.com to take care of online payments

Data breach and payment security have been one of the biggest concerns of the hotel industry. In the last 2 years, many hotel chains have been victims of data compromise. A robust payment solution is a must-have for hotels to avoid security breach and guaranteed pay outs.

Booking.com has recently introduced guest payment options which can help hotels reach more guests, reduce cancellations, and save time on administration related stuff.

Secure, reliable, and easy to manage, the payment module gives hotels a wide range of options including internationally recognized PayPal, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

To know more about this, please check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKfMcRLebY&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Booking.comPartners

Benefits for Hotels choosing Booking payment solutions –

  • Put an end to chasing down guest payments
  • Eliminate dealings with fraudulent online bookings
  • Avoid guaranteed payouts according to the hotel policy

Benefit for Guests –

  • Choice to select from a wide range of payment options

According to Booking.com data, guests who make online payments are much less likely to cancel or have no-show than those who don’t – ensuring more secure revenue for the hotel.

Booking.com offer properties two payments solutions to choose from:

  1. Guests can only pay online (i.e. Booking.com facilitates all payments),
  2. Guests can either pay online or at the property (i.e. Booking.com only deal with the hotel’s online payments).

To know more about how you can get started, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

 

5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 4

In this series, we are focusing on easy recommendations that you can leverage for driving more demand to your property through Booking.com.

In the fourth part of this series, we will discuss Non-refundable Rates and how you can benefit from it.

Non-refundable Rate

According to a recent survey done by Booking.com, the two most important considerations for making new bookings are flexible cancellation policies and competitive pricing offers. In the third part of the series, we discussed the benefits of Flexible Rate Plans. However, for 40% of travelers, pricing is a major factor, and this is where non-refundable rate comes into play.

Benefits of Non-refundable Rate

Non-refundable rate typically offers lower rates than fully flexible rates and are quite popular with travelers with fixed plans. Hotels often offer non-refundable rates to secure guaranteed bookings and revenue.

According to Booking.com data, hotels who offer this Rate Plan reduce cancellations by an average of at least 9% and have experienced overall booking boost by up to 5%.

Booking.com recommends participating hotels to combine at least two of three rate plans: Free Cancellation, Non-Refundable and Early Booker. Data shows that hotels who have efficiently used all three have seen a 5% increase in bookings, an 11% increase in visibility and a 9% reduction in cancellations.

Hotels can activate the Non-refundable rate plan from their RateTiger dashboard, by simply selecting the option from the promotion tab. They can also monitor and modify all existing campaigns on Booking.com from the View and Apply Promotion Module on RateTiger.

To know more about it, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 3

Through this series, we are highlighting some of the deals and promotions that you can leverage to attract more business to your property through Booking.com.

In the third part of this series, let’s look at Flexi Rate and how and when to activate it.

Be more flexible with your rate policy

Thanks to the uncertain times we are living in, traveler behaviour has gone for a radical shift in the past one year. With flights being rebooked and travel plans being bumped, many guests are now wary of sudden change in plans.

According to a survey done in April 2020 by Booking.com, 73% of customers cited free cancellation as their main reason for booking a property. A fully flexible rate plan allows hotels to offer potential bookers more freedom in case their travel plans or general circumstances change.

However, because of its flexible nature, this rate plan is also the most expensive one making it the most profitable for hotels.

Flexible – 1 day policy

Due to the ongoing pandemic, most hotels across the world have taken a flexible approach to their pricing policy. Booking.com has recently created the Flexible – 1 day policy which allows hotels to quickly extend all your free cancellation periods to one day before check-in. This basically means a guest can cancel for free until 24 hours before the check-in. After that point, they will be charged the cost of the first night if they decide to cancel.

Benefits of the Flexible – 1 day policy

  • Drive more bookings by potential guests looking for flexibility.
  • Improve visibility in search ranking.
  • Decide which rates you want to convert to ‘Flexible – 1 Day’ policy and have full control on all rates.

Adding Flexible Rate Plans

Hotels can create and manage the Flexible Rate Plan either from their RateTiger Channel Manager platform or from the Booking.com extranet. For any queries or to see how to set up this Rate, contact us today –marketing@erevmax.com

 

 

5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 2

In this series, we are focusing on easy and highly actionable tips on the best ways to optimize Booking.com channel to get more reservations for your property.

In the second part of this series, we are happy to highlight the Early Booker Rate on Booking.com.

Create special promotion for Early Bookers

Done correctly, promotion can be a great tool to grab attention of the bookers searching for a property.  Hotels can create targeted campaigns through their offers. Booking.com allows Early Booker Rate for hotels to target potential guests who prefer booking far in advance. This way, hotels can secure bookings well before a busier season giving it a chance to start from an advantageous position.

The Early Booker deals are flexible options where hotels can fix their own discounts, duration, time and booking window based on their requirements. They can set them up and run the promotion for multiple days or months when this promotion will be visible to guests.

Want to know where to start?

Booking.com recommends setting the Early Booker Deal promotion up for a minimum of 30 days in advance from check-in. Many hotels create special rates for lead time of 90 days and 180 days in advance as well.

In recent months, Booking.com made significant updates on this promotion. The Early Booker Rate is designed based on the COVID-19 recovery patterns identified in guest demand and can easily be adapted to any hotel’s particular situation and needs.

A point to remember

Hotels can leverage Early Booker Rate to improve occupancy for future dates. However, the hotel revenue management team needs to be extra careful to control this promotion and ensure only eligible guests receive this special rate.

You can now create and manage an Early Booker Rate directly from the Promotions section on your RateTiger dashboard. For any queries or to see how to set up this Rate, contact us today –marketing@erevmax.com

 

 

5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com

We are glad to bring you a short series of posts, where we will cover 5 specific tips on how you can optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com and attract more reservations.

Through our 5-tips series, we will share 1 recommendation on each post and explain how you can utilize it to your hotel’s advantage. Starting with the first of this series, lets talk about the Genius Program.

Join Booking.com’s Genius Program

Genius is an exclusive loyalty program which brings partner hotels and frequent bookers closer.

According to Booking.com data, on average, hotels taking part in the Genius program have experienced increase in their bookings by 18% and revenue by 17% – even including the cost of discount.

Hotels taking part in the Genius program gets a special Genius tag, ranking boost and better visibility in search results on Booking.com which helps in getting more bookings faster.

The property is displayed to a select group of customers who travel more often, book further in advance, and spend more when booking.

Hotels can always check their eligibility on the booking.com extranet:

https://admin.booking.com/hotel/hoteladmin/extranet_ng/manage/genius.html?lang=en&ref=menu&ses=9a4c805441d3dabfc9d218c48e008cf2&hotel_id=522903.

If the eligibility criteria are met, they can sign up to Genius via the “Opportunities” tab in their Booking.com Extranet.

The participating partners automatically enable the mandatory 10% Genius discount on their least expensive or most popular room and start attracting high-value Genius guests.

To know more about the perks of becoming a Genius Hotel Partner, click here.

If you are looking for assistance with managing your online channels, contact us today.