jeudi 17 juillet 2014

How To Evaluate A Hotel Property Management System

By Rosella Campbell


Traveling abroad for business or pleasure has become commonplace. Millions of people visit foreign countries or tourist destinations in their own countries each year. Tourism is a massive industry that generates billion in revenue each year. Naturally, travelers need to sleep and eat and consequently the growth of tourism has seen to an enormous increase in hospitality establishments. However, the competition is ferocious and only establishments with a highly effective hotel property management system can hope to survive or thrive.

Hospitality establishments need to keep a very wide variety of records and they need to be super efficient. One of the main purposes of a managing program is therefor to keep track of their bookings. They need to know the exact arrival and departure dates of each guest. Moreover, they need to keep record of special requirements such as diet or access for disabled people.

The bread and butter of any hospitality establishment are group bookings. This business is done through large tour operators. Another important category of guest is celebrities or travelers making frequent bookings. Record must be kept of special guests and it is vital to keep track of the various rates charged to different customers. This can only be done with a state of the art managing system.

Another very important function of a good managing program is to make sure that guests are not bothered with time consuming administration. The program must therefore be able to keep all information relevant to the guest up to date. This is the only way to ensure that a bill can be presented instantly or that an enquiry can be answered on the spot.

Large hospitality groups normally employ IT departments that develop their managing software in house. Smaller establishments can choose between several software packages specifically developed with the hospitality industry in mind. When considering such packages it is important to ensure that it is fully integrated. Poorly designed software requires users to provide the same input for each component. This wastes time and it increases the risk or error.

In the fiercely competitive tourism industry reliable and accurate management information often means the difference between failure and success. Managing programs must be able to produce reports that can portray information in any format. This information is vital in making strategic and marketing decisions. The scheduling of major maintenance tasks, for example, depends upon accurate occupancy information and forecasts.

The level of support promised by the software supplier is of the utmost importance. Most establishments rely on their systems utterly and if it crash it can cause a disaster. It is vital to enter into a comprehensive support contract that also includes intensive training on a regular basis. The system should make provision for regular backups. It may be wise to test drive a few packages on a trial basis before making a decision.

In the highly competitive tourism industry it is establishments with access to reliable data that are able to spot the trends and to make informed decisions. Managing programs can help owners to save money when it ca be saved and to increase their profitability, thus ensuring the long term success of the enterprise.




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