Sure, you could do some or all of these things manually, but given the myriad tasks you’ve got to oversee 24/7/365, having an automated system that does them for you allows you to focus on creating the best possible guest experience and maximizing the profitability of your hotel. And when it comes to a PMS, that’s just the beginning of the functionality it offers. What exactly is a hotel PMS, then? At a basic level, a property management system streamlines and automates the operations and processes of your hotel. It allows you to manage reservations, guest check-ins, check-outs, room assignment, rates, billing, housekeeping, and more , all in the one system. The impact such a system can have on your hotel is huge. A good one will give you total visibility across your property and put time back in your day so you can spend your energy on things like marketing, growth, and ensuring your guests have the best possible stay. It allows you to reduce errors (no more double bookings or incorrectly-entered reservations), control costs (especially labor costs , often your biggest expense after COGs), and generally run a more efficient property.
What Is a Hotel PMS?
A hotel property management system (PMS) is a tool that helps hotel operators manage their business. Much like a human nervous system sends signals to the body to perform certain functions, a PMS does this for a hotel. It lets your team manage reservations, room assignments, check-ins, check-outs, guest folios, housekeeping status, and a lot more all at your fingertips.
By this point, we’ll take it for granted that every professional hospitality manager uses a solid Property Management System. Just like every office worker needs a computer. It’s hard to remember the days when ledgers and piles of paperwork were the backbone of your hotel’s or B&B’s activity. But cast your mind back to where you came from and how the evolution of the PMS has changed your daily routine.
Why the Right PMS Matters
Selecting the right property management system (PMS) is one of the most important business decisions you’ll make. Because it’s the control center of your property , tracking reservations, check-ins, housekeeping, maintenance schedules, accounting, and more. Too often we see hosts who settle for a system that’s cheap or familiar, without considering whether it meets their unique needs. Or hosts who rush the choice and go for the most advertised solution.
How can you avoid costly mistakes when choosing a software solution? You don’t want to be stuck with an option that doesn’t fit your needs. But with all the technology solutions out there, how do you even begin to figure out which is right for you?
The 12-Point Framework for Choosing a Hotel PMS
1. Define Your Property Type and Size
First, why do you need a hotel management system (HMS)? Front-desk operations, reservations, housekeeping, spa, restaurant, guest relationships, staff, and operations management, all covered? What about billing, rates, and loyalty programs? Do you need a self-service portal, mobile app, channel management? Help deciding? Get tallying the possibilities you see here.
2. Cloud-Based or On-Premise?
Fast-forward a decade, can you guess if on-site systems or new cloud-based systems prevail in the hotel tech world? It’s not a crystal ball question; the answer’s simple: cloud-based solutions reign! In fact, some predict there won’t be any on-site systems left by 2026.
3. Ease of Use and Staff Training
We hear the words ‘intuitive interface’ a lot… what exactly does that mean? Common ground is functionality that works the way our brains expect it to. For us, that’s dashboards where we can see our priorities at a glance rather than clicking through endless menus. What about you?
4. Integration Capabilities
How do we get guests in the first place? Well, a channel manager is your cheerleader. This tool helps you distribute your property in various booking sites, making advertisements in the digital world. It cheers for your team and gets your property noticed by likely bookers. Now, what is all that advertisement going to do if you don’t have a booking engine on your website? A booking engine is your reservation desk. It’s your cashier. It’s your little brother who bugs you at the movies for your share of the popcorn. It processes direct bookings through your website. Then the payment gateway is the local police. You want the nice ones. They securely process the money so that the bad guys can’t. Revenue management is your agent. Your cheerleaders are telling everyone for how much you’ll work. But your agent makes sure you get the right price for the right date. And what makes sure your cheerleaders, agent, and family all get along? It’s a good PMS that doesn’t play favorites and passes information back and forth.
5. Mobile Access and Flexibility
After all, who has time to run back and forth to the front desk when an alarm goes off in an unoccupied room, power is out in the east wing, the bar is flooded, and there’s also a guest who needs an anniversary bouquet delivered to his room? Our audience, that’s who. But they can easily respond to the crisis while on the other side of the property if their PMS is in the palm of their hand.
6. Reporting and Analytics
Data is what helps you make the best decisions for your hotel. So, you need a property management system that can provide real-time reports and insights into your occupancy, revenue, and average daily rate. Access to guest demographics is also key so you can drive direct bookings. Customizable dashboards also allow you to monitor your performance and identify areas in which you may need to adapt. A more advanced PMS will also provide data analytics, predict future demand, and even recommend rates. This is your most powerful tool in increasing revenue.
7. Guest Communication Tools
Visitors crave seamless, personalized service, but what else can a property management system do to optimize this outcome? Are they simply convenient solutions, or could they be essential systems that your property wouldn’t survive without?
8. Pricing and Contract Terms
Pricing for PMS is a bit all over the place! Some charge on a per-room-per-month flat model. Others are usage/feature/transaction based. Some also throw in set-up, training and add-on modules. So, be wary, ask the vendor to book a walk through the contract with you. How long is the initial term? Any provisions for early cancellation or downgrading? Look out for the fine print.
9. Customer Support and Reliability
What happens if your PMS goes offline? How about your point of sale system? Or the entire system? You probably take your property management system (PMS) for granted; it’s the central nervous system of your business. When all systems are “go,” guests are quickly and painlessly registered, housekeepers are notified the instant a guest checks out, and managers can monitor their property’s performance in real time. Nothing happens in your hotel without PMS processing it.
10. Security and Compliance
As a hotelier, what could be more disheartening than learning that a guest has had unauthorized charges on their credit card after staying with you? Or what could be more damaging to your business than a guest going to the press because his personal data was stolen from your booking records? Suffering a data breach is a nightmare for any hotel operator. A hotel PMS should help prevent such things. But assuming your PMS provider handles everything can be dangerous. For example, do you know if your current PMS complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for payment processing? The responsibility to ensure that your hotel is compliant lies squarely with you. Remember, almost all hotel PMSs handle credit card numbers! A credible PMS provider will provide you with documentation and discuss PCI-DSS compliance as well as their own past audits and procedures. If they don’t, watch out! Beyond PCI-DSS, many national and local jurisdictions are implementing data privacy legislation. As with payment card info, almost all PMSs store personal details on guests. If a regulation like Europe’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) covers you, what happens if your PMS and its database are out of compliance when guests request that you scrub their names from your records? Or worse, they claim you didn’t do enough to protect their data from theft? The impact on your hospitality business might be catastrophic! A hotel PMS should have robust procedures and the features to support you. Data security breaches often result from poorly trained staff or people using the wrong settings. A PMS should let you limit your staff to only that data necessary for their job. For instance, staff should only require access to a guest’s personal info when directly helping him. Settings should log who changes what and when as well as reverting to automatically log-out after times of inactivity. Look for a PMS with encryption to protect your data and your system from being used by others. It also helps prevent tampering and fraud inside and outside your business.
11. Scalability and Future Growth
How about we think about an app you use all the time? Your hotel’s Property Management System (PMS), for example. I’m not sure if anyone really knows how many bits of data ping-pong back and forth across the interwebs to keep your property ticking over on any given day. But, it’s a shedload. Every time you take a booking, update a rate, clear a room, or rifle through a pile of lost property that’s bound to contain at least 50% odd socks, you’re interacting with your PMS. This is the beating heart of your operation.
12. Vendor Reputation and Reviews
Researching and reading reviews of independent sites, seeking references, and participating in hotelier community forums to listen to real reviews. How long has the vendor been in business? What types of properties do they serve? If they have a solid track record and good reviews, you can feel secure in your decision.
Bringing It All Together
Deciding on a hotel PMS can be overwhelming, mainly because there are so many vanilla, feature-for-feature options out there. They all check the required boxes, so how do you know which system is best? This 12-point comparison gives you measures to score the candidates. Look for a system with interaction-based functionality, not just operational features. After all, a hotel PMS is not just a tool you use to manage property, it’s a system that runs your property.
