management technology was about the need to sell rooms, while a decade ago it was about selling rooms at the appropriate rate. After this it became about managing and promoting an entire suite of services, such as spa, golf and restaurant. Today, it’s about understanding the guest and maximising the guest experience.” However, according to Thomas Messett,
chief marketing officer at hospitality technol- ogy provider eviivo, not all operators require this level of functionality, which is aimed at larger hotels or hotel groups who are seeking more sophistication from their systems to sup- port their marketing and rate management. Eviivo, he says, targets properties with a smaller footprint – the sub-50 room category, such as pubs with rooms, boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts. Its suite of products includes a booking diary with a website that can take online payments and can also share availability across core OTA websites. “Not all operators need complexity,” says
Messett, who believes from a technology point of view that many properties need to get the basics right before they start considering any bells and whistles. He adds: “Across our sector, 66% of proper-
ties still do not offer booking and payment on their own website and 69% don’t have web- sites that are responsive to mobile devices. “We are offering technology that allows small businesses to compete online for an average of £40 per month.”
MOVE TO THE CLOUD
A key development in the PMS world that has helped models such as those offered by eviivo come into the market has been the move to cloud-based systems. Rather than a hospitality operator owning
the software and running it on a server kept on their premises, today in the UK the major- ity access their system via the internet with the system hosted remotely by a third-party pro- vider, in much the same way we access e-mail services like Gmail or online banking services.
“We are offering technology that allows small businesses to compete online for an average of £40 per month” Thomas Messett, eviivo
This cloud computing, software-as-a-service model means access to PMS systems tends to be more affordable for operators and more straightforward to manage and upgrade. At
Hotelogix.com, co-founder Aditya Sanghi
Snooze ups online bookings with eviivo
The property From the outside, Brighton boutique hotel Snooze looks like a traditional, unassuming Victorian building, but on the inside, it houses eight guest rooms, individually styled using vintage and mid-century furnishings. The property has won a number of awards, including the AA’s Funkiest Bed and Breakfast of the Year for 2016.
The challenge The owners, Paul Munton and Tony Mead, wanted an affordable system that would allow them to run a good-looking website and also take bookings from online guests. They also wanted to be able to publish room availability on key OTA websites.
The solution The hotel uses a number of products 46 | Technology Prospectus 2017
from eviivo’s suite of tools. These have provided it with a fully-managed, responsive website and enable it to accept bookings from all the leading travel websites including Tripadvisor, Laterooms and
Booking.com.
The outcome Munton says: “Eviivo has given us a presence on the web that we could never really afford to have for ourselves. The bottom line is when you hit Google we appear at the top because eviivo has so many partners. It’s great value for money.” Mead adds: “The software is good for us;
it’s easy to use. When you go on our website and press the booking button it takes you to the eviivo booking system – the layout is well-presented and it definitely helps us to get bookings.”
www.thecaterer.com
predicts 2017 is likely to witness more opera- tors migrating to cloud-based solutions. He said: “Owners are beginning to realise
that the cloud-based PMS is much more than an instrument to organise internal operations – it is an integral part of the business’s develop- ment and growth, helping the hotel scale and increase profitability. “This paradigm shift has contributed to the gradual demise of on-premise systems, espe- cially in the small and mid-sized segments of the market. In countries like the US and UK, the vast majority of hotels adopting manage-
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