InnGenius PMS Hospitality Blog

Measure your return on your investment
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Every technology investment needs to ultimately translate into positive financial outcomes. Otherwise, what’s the point? When it comes to gauging the potential return on investment (ROI) on upgrading to a next-generation PMS, the first question to ask is: To what extent will the new system reduce the amount of time currently being spent on managing front desk activities, including check-ins and check-outs, and on such mundane (but time-consuming) tasks as consolidating guest accounts and managing rates and availability across distribution channels, including OTA, GDS, Web, and travel agents?

To what extent is the new system likely to improve sales and revenue — for example, by increasing bookings via web booking engine integration, increasing occupancy rates through real-time inventory updates, and increasing average daily rates through integrated revenue management and advanced forecasting tools?

Another key factor to consider pertains to reduction in losses, including losses related to errors in manual updates and mistakes in POS consolidations (guest purchases made across other parts of the property), as well as lower integration costs with third-party hardware and software.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that enhancing the quality of the overall guest experience through the deployment of a next-generation PMS should lead to a greater number of repeat guest stays as well as a higher volume and intensity of positive brand advocacy, including favorable guest reviews on TripAdvisor and other popular customer feedback sites. The correlation between favorable guest reviews and positive economic outcomes is obvious.

InnGenius PMS is significantly less expensive and require less up-front investment on the whole than the competitors. There are many reasons for the shift to increased affordability, including the fact that inngenius signup is less complex and hardware is always less expensive.

InnGenius users benefit from lower costs, because all the hotel data is stored in the cloud, eliminating the need for on-premise servers. Incidentally, InnGenius PMS is a subscription “pay as you go” model, which means no long-term contracts and no upfront capital investment for the software. This may be an important consideration, especially for small hotels, motels and inns operating with a limited budget.

A true PMS solution helps increase your sales and guest satisfaction!
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In today’s hypercompetitive, ever-changing marketplace, top-performing hotels depend on the advanced platform capabilities of a next-generation Property Management System (PMS). This solution allows hoteliers to do what they do best: deliver superior guest experiences and produce the company’s desired business results in terms of revenue and profitability.

Only with a state-of-the-art hospitality technology infrastructure — one that streamlines operations across the board while providing sophisticated management controls — can a hotel hope to achieve these goals and objectives. And it all starts with a next-generation PMS, which makes it possible to manage core functions like guest registration, room inventory maintenance, financial accounting and housekeeping assignment with high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. The solution also makes it possible to centrally manage the constant flow of data that is the lifeblood of any hotel operation, no matter the size and category of the property.

Virtually every hotel department and function generates huge volumes of data. Every action guests take during their hotel stay, from check-in to restaurant dining, spa sessions and golf outings, has the potential to generate meaningful data. The key is to harness the power of this data. Only then can a hotelier drive continuous improvement in both the quality of the guest experience and overall financial performance. These are two sides of the same coin. After all, presenting guests with relevant and personalized messages, offers and experiences (based on their past purchase behavior, stated and inferred preferences and other attributes of their personal profiles) invariably improves guest satisfaction. That, in turn, results in more revenue and greater profitability.

Utilizing revenue management strategies and tools, the treasure trove of guest data that resides in a next-generation PMS, along with access to external data related to competitor activity and other real-time market conditions, makes it possible to also drive continuous improvement in hotel occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. The tools that enable revenue management have evolved rapidly in recent years. Today, a state-of-the-art solution is capable of generating tens of thousands of optimal pricing and overbooking recommendations each day based on real-time analysis of all relevant data. The best of these solutions make it possible to fully automate the decision-making process, adding revenue and profits from not only guest rooms but from all parts of the hotel property to the balance sheet.



Choosing a true Cloud based PMS
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When it comes to hotel operations, no times are more interesting than these, to borrow that oft-quoted Chinese curse (or blessing, depending on your perspective): “May you live in interesting times.” Competition in many lodging markets is more intense than ever. Guest expectations, particularly with respect to anytime, anywhere mobile engagement and information access, are through the roof. Hoteliers face a variety of other challenges, too, from rising labor costs and onerous OTA commissions to competitive threats from disruptive business innovation, home-sharing models being an obvious example. In short, the world is changing fast and hoteliers cannot afford to sit back and relax.

Perhaps the biggest challenge — and, also, the biggest opportunity — relates to the increasingly large role that technologies play in enhancing the quality of the guest experience. Foremost amongst these technologies are next-generation cloud property management systems (PMS). Most hoteliers who haven’t already upgraded to a cloud platform plan to do so shortly, if only to keep pace with others in the same competitive set. And while even the most advanced cloud PMS cannot address all the challenges hoteliers face, it can address many of them while setting the stage for continuous performance improvement.

Illustration of cloud storage

The allure of the cloud is undeniable. Oft-cited benefits include elimination of on-site server hardware (and the day-to-day maintenance that goes with it) and software that is continually updated with the latest features and functionality, without the need to purchase and install each new release. Also, with a cloud solution it becomes much easier to integrate data from different sources and integrate other technologies. What’s more, a cloud solution usually allows for nimble technology stacks. If part of the integrated system becomes obsolete or fails, for whatever reason, new software can be readily plugged in to replace it.

Hotels have come to embrace the cloud somewhat belatedly compared to other industries. Some of the “blame” for the lagging cloud movement lands squarely with the hotel brands themselves. On-property legacy system solutions, including proprietary technology stacks built by internal IT departments for

exorbitant sums of money, have, ironically, become a hinderance to achieving optimal hotel performance. Having underestimated the need to migrate their product road map to the cloud, and hamstrung with legacy installations across thousands of customers, some major solution providers are also to “blame.”

As if to make up for lost time, hoteliers are now upgrading to next-generation cloud solutions in record numbers. Today nobody questions the cost savings that come from streamlining operations across all hotel functions and all parts of the property (or properties). By now, everyone can agree that having a cloud PMS is a prerequisite to improving guest satisfaction, speeding guest services — from check-in and housekeeping to concierge and maintenance response times — and enabling guest-facing interfaces, including self-service options. Hoteliers know that only by harnessing the power of data and analytics — core features of a cloud PMS — can they present guests with relevant and personalized offers, messages and treatments, further engendering satisfaction and loyalty.

But buyer beware: Not all cloud solutions billed as “next-generation” are worthy of that description. For that matter, not all cloud solutions are even truly cloud solutions. Fact is, some legacy on-premise solution providers, eager to jump on the cloud PMS bandwagon, engaged in what is commonly known as “cloud-washing.” Even today, solutions billed as cloud-based may not, in fact, be true cloud solutions. It is important to understand the difference between a “true cloud solution” and a “fake cloud solution.” Whereas the latter is built on software originally designed to run on-premise, a true cloud solution is built from the ground up, coded to perform as a fully-hosted cloud solution and optimized for tablet and mobile use. The solution provider hosts the solution across hundreds of servers and with multiple levels of data redundancy in a multi-tenant “pure cloud’ environment. Customers typically access the same solution via an internet browser, allowing for instantaneous product upgrades. A customization platform maintains property-specific changes following these software upgrades so that customers can gain immediate access to the latest functionality without having to re-implement custom changes and integrations.

Importance of having a booking engine
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Independent property owners can now no longer ignore the need for an integrated online booking engine. With such a large proportion of business and leisure travel researched and booked online, if your property does not have an online presence then your cannot be found. Plus operators should be leveraging their property website by integrating an online booking engine to drive their own direct bookings and control a greater share of their business.

An online hotel booking engine enables guests to book directly through the website of the hotel, providing the operator with all the guests details, higher revenue and reduced commission costs.

Today in hospitality there is an ongoing conversation around the over reliance on OTAs (Online Travel Agents) and the dominance that they have over the distribution of online reservations. The OTAs offer a valuable service, as a key distribution partner for hotels, but at a cost – both in terms of the commission that hoteliers pay, but also that hotels are losing the ability to engage directly with a guest pre and post stay.

Even though the OTAs vastly outspend hotel operators in terms of marketing activity and brand awareness, customers will in addition to using the OTAs site, look at an individual hotels website to search for more or local information whilst making a shortlist of booking options.

As end consumers we all tend to have a “deal mentality” believing if we form a direct relationship and cut out “the middle man” we can get a better deal. A hotel website is the ideal platform to do this. It yields the lowest cost of customer acquisition because of the direct interaction and an integrated online booking engine provides a source of direct bookings that can replace having to rely on the OTAs.

By receiving a direct online reservation, there is the financial benefit from spending less on commission payments plus operators are able to own the direct on-going relationship to use for their own advantage.

As an independent operator it would be great of course to have the majority of bookings come direct without paying commission – but in todays marketplace it makes sense to balance direct business along with reservations from the third party OTA channels. You are able to manage and spread the risk by sourcing reservations from multiple channels, keep costs down and “turn the tap on” for OTA business when the time is right and the conditions dictate it. 

If operators chose to turn off the reservations from OTAs based purely on cost considerations then there is the risk that a hotel could miss out on the product exposure offered by the OTA websites. Guests frequently use these sites for research purposes and an OTA is likely to have far better brand awareness compared to an independent property and subsequently a larger volume of visitor traffic. Awareness that provides access to potential guests that an operator would not normally get exposure to.

Independent hotel operators are becoming far more proactive in developing their own direct booking strategy, using a combination of marketing activity and online booking software.

Any reduction in the OTA commission costs will go directly to the bottom line as profit. Plus often the booking value of a direct reservation can be higher than that of an OTA booking. 

OTA
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What is the meaning / definition of OTA, in the hospitality industry?

OTA stands for: Online Travel Agency.

OTAs are online companies whose websites allow consumers to book various travel related services directly via Internet. 
They are 3rd party agents reselling trips, hotels, cars, flights, vacation packages etc. provided / organised by others.

Travel shopping via online agencies has become very popular nowadays. Especially in the last minute segment and also because of the frequent usage of the smartphones. Today consumers are on-the-go and the advantage of a booking engine and the reservation solutions provided by the OTAs is that it offers instant payment and booking confirmation.

Examples of the most commonly known OTAs are:

  • The Priceline Group (Booking.com, Priceline.com, agoda.com, KAYAK, rentalcars.com, OpenTable)
  • Expedia, Inc. (Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Egencia, Hotwire, Trivago, Venere.com, CarRentals.com, Classic Vacations, Expedia CruiseShipCenters, Expedia Local Expert (LX), Wotif Group, Travelocity)
  • TripAdvisor Inc (tripadvisor.com)

Synonyms for OTA are Alternative Distribution System (ADS) and Internet Distribution System (IDS).

What is PMS in a Hotel?
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What is the meaning / definition of PMS, in the hospitality industry?

PMS stands for: Property Management System. It is a local or a cloud based hotel administration system used for reservation, availability and occupancy management, check-in/out, incidental, guest records, report generation etc. This application is used in-house (in an individual hotel) to control the onsite property activities.

The PMS can be connected with other applications such as the hotel point-of-sale (POS) or the CRS. The interface to a CRS is an additional option in order to transfer availability, reservations and guest profile information.

Additionally, various interfaces are available to create further links to internal and external systems such as room key systems, restaurant and banquet cash registers, minibar, telephone and call centers, revenue management etc.

PMS is also known as Hotel Operating System (Hotel OS).

What is channel management in hospitality
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What is the meaning / definition of Channel Management in the hospitality industry?

Channel Management (also Multi-Channel-Management) refers to the techniques and systems used by hotels in line with their distribution policy. This management method includes content management as well as data reconciliation in various distribution channels. It means the updating of the hotel information, of room rates and availabilities across all distribution channels, such as hotels website, third parties (OTAs, IDS, ADS) and the CRS/GDS.

Effective channel management solutions should improve efficiency by providing a centralise way to control multiple channels. 
In other words: Using a Channel Manager is a smart way to save time and avoid errors. There is no need to update dozens of extranets manually, as nowadays you can do that just from one system: InnConnect channel manager will control all your rates and availability on all the platforms to maximize room revenues.