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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

 

 

 

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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

 

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

Hotels can now display rate and availability without taking part in Google PPC

For long, Google has remained the Elephant in the Room for the hotel industry. In the last five years, the search -engine giant has consolidated its place as the leader in the meta search, now accounting for over 57% all metasearch bookings.

It is the first place to go for many people when they start their search. Google has now made it free for hotel owners and travel agencies to list their properties on Google Search.

When a potential booker selects a hotel from the search option, in the booking module, the overview section is now showing four paid listings under the Featured options and two organic search results. Clicking on the Prices Tab, the user would be able to see all four paid listings along with all search results.

This section is now showing booking links from unpaid listings as shown in the organic search by hotels and travel companies.

This is a major opportunity for hotels. Hotel booking links have always been offered via Google Hotel Ads, which acts like a metasearch channel displaying real-time pricing and availability for hotels for specific dates of travel. With this new development, this barrier is removed and gives hotels a chance to display their direct rates and booking links without worrying about metasearch budget.

This opportunity is available for all the hotels through their Hotel Center account. Hotels which are already taking part in Google’s Hotel Prices API and Hotel Ads do not need to take any action and will be shown in All Options based on the organic search ranking.

The ranking of the organic search results will be based on an algorithm that looks at non-commercial factors, and pricing accuracy will be ensured through new tools and processes as well as using reliable data sources.

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

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Capture the fastest-growing segment of bookers with Booking.com’s Mobile Rates

In these uncertain times, travellers are looking for extra flexibility. As hoteliers, you need to cater to the ever-changing guest expectation to drive demand to your property.

eRevMax offer seamless connectivity to multiple channel partners to expand your online brand visibility. With the growth in domestic tourism, Booking.com is expecting almost 74% of bookings to come from a mobile phone. Adding a mobile rate to your property will increase your visibility with these customers and unlock your market potential with last-minute mobile bookings. You can update Mobile Rates on Booking.com directly from RateTiger.

The use of mobile in emerging markets has changed how travel is searched and booked and by managing mobile rates, you too can improve reservations coming from mobile bookers.

Did you know?

  • 80% of travellers use a mobile app when researching a trip*
  • 50% of accommodation searches and bookings are made on mobile*
  • Mobile rates give partners 28% more bookings from mobile traffic*
  • 2-in-3 mobile bookings are made by Millennials or younger customers. Everyone might search from mobile but Millennials book.

What is Mobile Rate?

A Mobile Rate is a special discounted rate that’s only visible when someone uses Booking.com’s app or accesses Booking.com’s website using a mobile browser. You can use Mobile Rates to increase your bookings from mobile devices by up to 28%. Mobile Rates are active throughout the year.

How does your business benefit from Booking.com’s mobile rate?

Attract more bookings

Offering mobile rate drives more potential guests to your property page.

Mobile rates on average give partners 26% more bookings from mobile customers.

Mobile rates on average give partners 3% higher click-through rate from search results to the hotel page.

Stand out in searches

Once you activate the feature, a special badge will appear next to your property in search results and on your property page and during the booking process.

Position your property to digital natives who share experiences via social media.

Target mobile users with a special discount to encourage them to book your property immediately while they are on mobile.

Better price, better reviews, better ranking

Two-thirds of mobile bookings are made by millennials – who write more reviews than any other traveller segment. Attracting these bookers can positively impact your overall ranking on Booking.com.

Millennial smartphone ownership is rising: >94% in advanced economies, and >62% in emerging economies*. Attract this customer base with a special discount.

Avoid attention shifts to a competitor when they change device and start a new search process.

How Mobile Rates work?

  • Mobile rates are only visible to guests on mobile devices (on both the Booking.com app and mobile browsers).
  • A minimum 10% discount is recommended.
  • Mobile rates apply to all your rooms and rate plans. The discount combines with discounts for the Genius programme, as well as any other promotions you have set up. However, it does not add on to Country rate or Limited-time Deal.
  • You can set up 30 blackout days per calendar year.

The majority of reservations on Booking.com’s platform is made using mobile devices, so offering a Mobile Rate helps you tap into this large group of potential guests. Mobile Rates can also help you target millennials. The property can activate, edit and deactivate the mobile rates any times.

Creating Mobile Rates via RateTiger

If you do not already have a Mobile Rate set up for Booking.com, you can easily create one using through RateTiger.

  • Log in to your RateTiger platform – https://live.ratetiger.com/#/login
  • In the main dashboard, you will see the Promotions tile. Click on Create Promotion to go to the Promotions page.
  • On this page, select Mobile Promo and then select the channel – Booking-XML
  • Input the discount / promo and click on Create. The Mobile Rate gets created for Booking.com.

You can always update the settings of your Mobile Rates or deactivate them so that potential guests no longer see them.

Lastly there are a host of additional solutions through which your property can benefit and attract more bookings. You can get full details of the Booking.com Recovery Toolkit on the partner page.

RateTiger, powered by LiveOS, provides rate shopping, channel management, booking engine and online distribution solutions to hotels worldwide. It offers 99.9% system uptime and is security certified under ISO, PCI and GDPR compliant. eRevMax continues to expand its partner base through new integrations to offer hoteliers seamless connections across different systems including PMSs, CRSs, OTAs, Metasearch channels, GDS, Wholesalers and offline tour operators among others.

Subscribe to RateTiger today and start using this feature. Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

 

 

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Travel Tech EMEA Day 5 – Tech Trends – How to reinvent the hotel management with small teams?

One major fallout of Covid19’s impact on the hospitality industry is the retrenchment across segments. The pummeling occupancy and revenue have forced hotels to take a hard look and reduce their workforce. According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the American hotels has lost over 870,000. Across the world, the number has been several millions.

The disruption is brutal. However, as with life, business must go on. People will eventually travel and stay in hotels. And the industry must adapt to the new way of managing things with smaller resources. As hotels prioritize operational cost control, technology is expected to take the central stage to optimize business efficiency in a reduced workforce and increased workload environment.

According to a Gartner report, 85% of customer interactions is expected to be managed by artificial intelligence by 2020. Automation has become a major player in customer experience, and in the post-Covid world, technology adaption is going to get accelerated to ensure resilience. With hotels have been using technology solutions like PMS, CRS, Channel Manager, IBE, RMS, POS etc, a data driven integrated platform where each solutions talk to each other breaking the silos would go a long way to help hotels identify service and performance gaps and boost operational productivity. Hotels would need to embrace advanced AI technologies designed to improve the overall customer experience by being proactive, anticipating customer needs and engaging on an emotional level.

In the last session of this series Travel Tech EMEA, Co-founder Vinicius Geraldo with Alejandro Gomez and Clarissa Trezzi will discuss the critical issue facing the hotel industry – how to reinvent the hotel management with small teams? Joining him in the panel are Jirka Helmich  of Mews, Alfredo Chiaramonte of CHAPP Solutions, Luís Brites of Clever Hospitality Analytics, Tiago Araújo of HiJiffy and Prithwish Dutta of eRevMax. Join us – register now – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

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Travel Tech EMEA Day 4 – Operations – Automation vs Human touch: the impact on operation and customer experience

Hospitality, by definition, is the relation between the guest and the host. Since the very beginning, guest engagement is determined by human interaction. Even with the growing popularity of automation, the key differentiation between a good hotel and a great one has been the human intervention. All that has changed now.

If automation was one of the considerations for hoteliers in the beginning of the year, it has become the top most priority now. Covid-19 has been the biggest disruptor in modern times with guest behaviour and preference gone for a radical shift. Social distancing and minimal contact have become the norm forcing hotels to look beyond human-centric service and embrace automation.

If the smiling front desk and house-keeping staff were a key contributor to guest satisfaction, in the post-Covid world, the expectation is self-check-in and robot cleaning with personalized service in place. As hotels readjust their operations to minimize touch points, striking a balance between automation and human touch has become the biggest challenge now.

In today’s session at Travel Tech EMEA, Vinicius Geraldo of HS LATAM is joined by Neha Ginoria of eRevMax  to discuss with industry experts – Neil James of ReviewPro, Felix Said of myHotel, Erik Tengen of Oaky, Chris Alexadre of GuestRevu, Amit Rahav of HyperGuest regarding Automation and impact on hotel operations and customer experience. Join us – register now – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

 

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Introducing Promotions for Booking.com through RateTiger CRS

RateTiger Central Reservation System has been enhanced allowing users to create and manage promotions for Booking.com directly from their RateTiger dashboard. Promotions are special prices that a property can offer during a certain time window, or to a certain type of booker. In RateTiger Settings, they appear under the Promotions tab in the Inventory Module.

On booking.com, hotels can create three types of Promotions from their RateTiger dashboard – Basic Deal, Mobile Rate and Profile Rate.

Basic Deal Promotion:

  • Easy and fully customizable promotion, which will give the guest a discount on selected rooms and rates.
  • Customize the promotion for everyone or members only
  • Control on MLOS, Dates and Room Type
  • Hotels can run the promotion for various Rateplan and Payment options

Mobile Rate Promotion: Options for-

  • an app only rate- i.e, guests booking (only) through Booking.com mobile app would get this discount
  • dot rate and t.dot rate- i.e, guests booking through the Booking.com website on their mobile browser

Profile Rate Promotion:

  • Target the promotion to a certain set of guests
  • Discount can be displayed only to verified, logged-in business travelers, and will apply to all your room types, rates and dates except excluded.

Monitor your Promotions:

  • On your RateTiger dashboard, the View and Apply Promotion widget provides a detailed report of all the existing promotions and allow users to modify / deactivate a campaign.

RateTiger CRS, powered by LiveOS, is the next-generation reservation management platform for hotel revenue managers to manage multiple distribution channels including web, mobile, voice, travel agent and online travel agent (OTA) channels.

This is a very exciting opportunity as this marks the start of a series of upcoming releases, to give hotels different ways to create and sell Promotions on multiple platforms through RateTiger.

Get connected to RateTiger today and start selling promotions. Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

 

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How Marketing can help hotels in the ‘new normal’

With Covid-19 having affected every sector, simple things like traveling and eating out will never be the same again. However, even during these hard times, we tend to look for light at the end of the tunnel. As the hospitality sector is slowly reopening, hotels need dynamic marketing, communication and branding to gain guest confidence.

It is time for hotels to relook at their marketing strategies. Customer preference and behaviour have undergone a drastic shift. Their spending pattern has become more conservative. While cost-rationalization is a concern, there are still some marketing actions hotels can follow to get themselves ready for recovery.

It is critical not to go dark during this period but to keep proactive communication ongoing with your retail & corporate customers and channel partners.

Here are few tips to make the most use of marketing teams during this time of uncertainty –

  1. Communication, communication and communication. There is a reason they are called guests, and not customers in a hotel. This is the time to reach out to them. While you should be utilizing your social media / email and other channels, do not forget the old way of calling your loyal guests and partners to enquire about their well-being.  Share the measures you are taking to ensure safe environment.
  2. Your employees are your biggest brand ambassadors. Keep your employees active on social media, encourage them to share their experiences. Bring the human element in your hotel to showcase your core values.
  3. As you prepare to reopen, do an audit of your website content. That famous buffet would not be such a big draw now, nor will be the Saturday DJ Night. People are concerned about safety and social distancing. Explore what you can offer instead. The focus is on family, health and wellbeing. Experiences will prevail over pleasures. Create your packages around that.
  4. This is also the time to update your website assets. Post video and images of your sanitization process. Your housekeeping staffs are going to be your key player in gaining guest confidence.
  5. While taking recovery plan into action, it is important for hoteliers to know about the revenue management strategy and pricing strategy. In these uncertain times, traveler confidence is at an all-time low. A flexible cancellation policy will go a long way in attracting probable guests.
  6. This is also time for hotels to respond to reviews they have missed earlier due to work constraint. Create a review policy and reply to guest feedback with measures you are implementing to address their concerns.

Focus on the future and think what we can do to prepare for recovery. In times of crisis, it is even more important for hoteliers to maintain a public image, have a strong presence in social media, regular contact with clients and partners, to keep distribution channels populated with offers and rates they normally provide, even as business remains slow.

It is imperative to have the right technology partners that can help you update your hotel’s online content, rates and inventory across multiple channels effectively and seamlessly. Considered one of the best hotel channel managers in the market, RateTiger is integrated with more than 400 OTAs and works closely with 9000 hotels globally. It is the distribution connectivity partner of choice for large hotel groups, mid-scale chains as well as independent properties in both luxury and budget segment worldwide.

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

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Hotel Guest Expectations in the time of COVID-19

For a traveler, a hotel room is like a home away from home. The one main exception however is that hundreds of strangers would have used that hotel room in the past. Hence maintaining cleanliness is very important in the hospitality industry, but with the spread of COVID-19, in which it is said that the virus can live on surfaces for a few hours to days, proper sanitization of guest rooms has become paramount.

In today’s times, it is important that hotels align with changes in guest expectations and take appropriate measures to make the guests feel safe and comfortable. eRevMax shares some tips that hotels can implement now to be future ready for when travel rebounds and guests start to pour-in.

To connect to new source markets or other tips and tricks on improving your hotel revenue flow,  reach out to us on marketing@erevmax.com.

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Fighting Coronavirus: 5 short-term revenue generation tips for hotels

As the situation surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak continues to evolve, it’s time to join forces and participate in virtual discussions to learn new revenue sources for your hotel business.

5 short-term revenue generation tips –

– Self- isolation packages – Offer rooms for self-isolation stays in well sanitized rooms.

– Quarantine facility – Contact your local government health bodies to offer lodging and fooding to affected people in a 14-day quarantine package rate.

– WorkFromHotel space – Create a weekly package offering stay, all meals and hi-speed internet and promote to professionals who want to stay comfortably without worrying about daily chores.

– Extended Stay – Focus on offering extended stay packages at affordable rates with well sanitized rooms, meals and wi-fi included, to expats that might be staying in costly rented places and looking for alternative stay options.

– Brand visibility – Maintain your presence through social media and have regular contact with loyalty guests – as soon as people are ready to book, they will remember and reach out to you.

We are here for you! Together we are stronger.

Contact us on marketing@erevmax.com to set up a discussion with one of our revenue management and connectivity advisers.