Hotel workers using PMS system for hotels

What is a Hotel Property Management System?

Not too long ago, when checking into a hotel, you knew a paper reservation voucher and metal key with your room number were waiting for you at the front desk. Now, paperless processes are becoming the norm for the hotel industry.

When guests walk into a hotel, they’re hoping to be greeted with a warm smile, a friendly welcome, and a plastic keycard. Gone are the days of paper slips, reservation vouchers, and metal keys!

Electronic check-ins, digital conformations, and seamless digital payment gateways not only improve front desk efficiency but also improve the guest experience.

Hotel management software solutions that automate administrative tasks leave front desk staff free to attend to guests instead of fretting over paperwork during check-in. They improve response time for housekeeping staff and reduce errors in back-office tasks. 

Hoteliers who invest in a best-in-class property management system (PMS) see far-reaching improvements in operational efficiency, better revenue management, happier staff, and delighted guests! 

Prosper Hotels helps you make the most of your PMS software by leveraging its revenue management features to their fullest potential, analyzing KPIs such as ADR and RevPar to devise pricing and promotional strategies that keep your hotel far ahead of your competition. 

What is a Hotel Property Management System (PMS)?

A property management system, or PMS, for hotels is an essential business tool for the modern hotelier.

An all-in-one PMS controls and manages a range of hotel management processes, including front-office services, back-office tasks, housekeeping, guest communications, property maintenance, invoicing, and payments.

The PMS functions as your hotel’s centralized business system that streamlines your everyday hotel operations and speeds up workflows by eliminating paper processes and, ultimately, improves profitability. 

With a robust PMS system for hotels, operations managers, channel managers, and other stakeholders can keep a sharp eye on key business metrics and operational processes.

Most importantly, a good PMS improves revenue management and enables you to provide an enhanced guest experience.

What Can a Hotel Property Management System Do?

A hotel property management system leverages automation technology to simplify front-office tasks, such as making reservations, handling guest check-ins and check-outs, allocating rooms to guests, managing room rates, and billing. 

It improves the efficiency of back-office services, such as handling schedules for housekeeping or managing maintenance tasks. 

A PMS system for hotels functions as the nerve center of all activity for your property. It plays an important role in all the major functions of managing your hotel, including:

  • Reservation management: Process reservations, whether from online travel agents (OTAs) or point of sale systems (POS). Get a clear picture of room availability and capitalize on reservation optimization opportunities. Online booking engine functionality allows you to accept reservations via direct channels such as your hotel’s website or social media pages.
  • Guest management: Keep a record of all guest data — much like a CRM, but also keep track of guest booking dates, food and beverage (F&B) preferences, and guest messaging, including email and SMS notifications, reminders, and alerts. 
  • Channel management: Manage inventory distribution through various online and offline booking channels. Any changes, such as released availability or room rate changes, are updated in real time across all channels. This reduces the risk of overbooking by giving you full control of occupancy.
  • Revenue management: Monitor competitor pricing and review real-time market data with a full-featured revenue management system. Optimize pricing plans and keep track of key performance metrics such as RevPAR (revenue per available room).
  • Payments processing: Streamline billing, accounts, and payments with integrated payment processing. Integrated credit card processing or integration with a POS system ensures automated reporting, reconciliations, and chargeback management.
  • Reporting: Automated reporting functionality ensures accurate, consistent, and regular reporting that supports data-driven decision-making.

Prosper Hotels supports your operations teams in monitoring critical PMS functions like revenue management and reporting. We help you optimize key metrics such as monthly revenue collection, direct bookings, customer satisfaction, and more.

The Benefits of a Property Management System for Hotels

If you are in the hotel business – whether a popular self-service inn, convenience motel, vacation rentals agent, or luxury hotel chain, you will already be aware of the benefits of a user-friendly PMS solution to help you with daily business operations, customer support, and manage distribution channels. 

Let’s take a deep dive into some of these benefits:

Streamlined Guest Experience

A hotel is only as good as guests think it is. The survival of a property is closely linked to reviews and ratings by customers. Guest experience is a key parameter for success in the hotel and hospitality industry.

How do you provide an enhanced guest experience?

Keeping all guest profiles in a centralized, secure, cloud-based PMS system helps. 

Any department, from reservations, F&B, and housekeeping to accounts, can access guest preferences or booking details to ensure an error-free, personalized service delivery.   

In large hotel chains, front-desk hotel staff may find it challenging to engage with each guest staying at their property, but an automated, systematic guest communication program handled through a PMS does the job well enough. Use it to send reminders about upcoming hotel bookings, travel tips or weather advisories, F&B suggestions, or a feedback survey. 

Most importantly, if service throughout the stay is error-free and personalized, guests will prefer your property on future visits.

Improved Operations

Modern PMS systems for independent hotels can provide mobile alerts to the housekeeping staff, signaling that a room is ready for post-check-out cleaning or that a guest has a specific housekeeping request. Fast response time and error-free service result in higher efficiency and better customer satisfaction scores.

A PMS system streamlines back-office processes like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and property maintenance tasks. Operational efficiency saves costs and directly impacts the business’s bottom line. Besides, with a comprehensive, automated system, your staff is less stressed, more satisfied at work, and can focus on enhancing guest services.  

Are you struggling with inefficiencies in housekeeping reports, errors in accounting, and billing inconsistencies? 

Prosper’s expert revenue advisors are always at hand to help you analyze your PMS reports, identify inefficiencies, and recommend best practices to optimize costs, upsell services, and discover additional revenue opportunities.

Integrated Processes

An advanced PMS helps you integrate your hotel’s backend systems. For example, integrating daily operations and financial processes ensures guests have a seamless experience with accurate billing and fast check-outs.

Keep housekeeping staff in the know about special requests by guests, such as extra blankets or mini bar replenishments. Alert F&B teams about allergy information that guests share via a mobile app. And even integrate accounts with commissions for reservations through various OTAs.

An integrated dashboard that shows real-time information about room inventory, occupancy, arrivals, and departures helps hotel managers and owners make critical pricing decisions.

Efficiency in every aspect of hotel management will improve profitability and enhance guest experience.

Prosper’s revenue reporting services concentrate on building efficiency in your operations and administrative processes.  

Supplement Revenue Management

A good hotel PMS system improves your ability to manage revenue better. 

In-built business intelligence reporting supports you with KPIs you can view at a glance.

And data can give you valuable insights into where and how you can improve your hotel’s revenue and profitability. For example, adjust daily room rates based on occupancy and channel management reports. React quickly to seasonal fluctuations and competitor data by optimizing rates and making promotional offers.

Investing in a robust property or hotel management system will yield a significant increase in your room bookings, enabling you to grow your business and keep improving the experience for your guests.

Refine Your Revenue Management with Prosper Hotels

You can deploy a best-in-class hotel property management software and yet struggle to gain revenue-generating insights from its data and reports.

Trying to manage your revenue can be a time-consuming and costly task for hotel owners or in-house managers.

That’s where Prosper steps in.

Prosper Hotels has a team of experienced hotel industry experts who can help to achieve your specific revenue goals.

We create a winning strategy for your hotel to drive additional revenue. Our ongoing support and guidance help your teams to manage resources better, position your property powerfully in your market segment, and maximize profits with operational efficiency. 

Connect with Prosper Hotels today and learn more about our revenue reporting and consulting services to help you get the most out of your hotel’s property management solution.  

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