R
emember when hotel check-in involved filling in mountains of forms and check- out invariably meant joining the long queue at 10.59am? Or more recently, in busy hotels, a paper invoice might be slipped under the door at 2am to encourage fast check-out. Those days may not quite be behind us, but
increasingly, that invoice under the door has been replaced by an automated email sent to the guest, which can be reviewed – on a smart- phone – over their early morning coffee in the room. Then it’s simply a case of clicking if they want to check out and, seconds later, the final invoice is in their mailbox.
The pre-stay process has become much more seamless too, with more hotels send- ing out pre-arrival emails to customers that allow them to check in prior to arrival, like they would before a flight. Some go even further. For example, Calum McIndoe, who is sales
director for hospitality at software giant Infor, was recently at an airport en route to Scotland to see a client, when he received an email ask- ing if he wanted to add breakfast or dinner to his room that night. “That’s a nice touch and a very seamless and natural upsell opportunity,” he says. “If I do take the breakfast upsell, I hope that the hotel stores that nugget carefully and uses it next time I stay. It’s not just about that upsell. It’s about personalising my experience based on my preferences, too.”
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
These things are becoming much easier for hotels to implement because property manage- ment systems are increasingly sophisticated. For example, not only do many now have the ability to integrate with third-party solutions that provide apps for enhancing the guest jour- ney, some of these apps are now becoming part of the core PMS solution, negating the cost of a third-party solution both in terms of the soft- ware and the interfacing cost.
Empowering guests to manage processes in their own time and at their own convenience
Tudor Court saves time
The management team at 38-bedroom boutique property Tudor Court hotel decided to invest in Hotelogix’s cloud-based PMS because its previous on-premises system was restricting the growth of the business in several ways. They couldn’t connect their
multiple PoSs to the PMS, it didn’t provide integration with a channel manager and it lacked reporting and accounting options. Since upgrading, the
business really has been transformed. Being a cloud-based PMS, Hotelogix addressed all the issues that
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come with legacy systems, such as data security and backup, remote access to data, and real-time updates. In addition, the system
is easy to implement, has comprehensive accounting and reporting features including a management dashboard, and offers a real- time connect between the PMS and channel manager. A year in, the team has saved
numerous man hours, which they’ve used to build marketing and guest engagement strategies. Moreover, they’ve seen a 40% increase in revenue, zero overbooking, an increase of over 30% in bookings via
OTAs and a 10% increase in direct bookings. “The Hotelogix property
management system is very user friendly. It has helped us manage our guests, our hotel inventory and the staff’s time quite efficiently,” says general manager Kazi Rahman. “Reservations, check-ins, and check-outs are now streamlined. Thanks to the 24/7 support, we now have the luxury of time to decide on offers, promotions and marketing ideas for future. Time is money, and in many ways Hotelogix has helped us save on operational time that incurred into costs.”
Technology Prospectus 2020 | 49
using mobile makes their experience better, while also giving hotels the oppor- tunity to upsell at every touchpoint during the customer journey – from before a booking is made through pre-arrival, guest stay and post-departure. Yet while McIndoe says that many hotels are already using apps or PMS func- tionality to have that continual ‘digital con- versation’ with their guests, there’s still much room for improvement.
“Those communications tend to be generic right now,” he says. “I am sure that everyone staying at my hotel that night got the same email asking if they wanted to add breakfast. Ideally, it would be better if they sent an email that had content specific to me and my vege- tarian diet, for instance. There’s a lot of room to improve on personalisation.” That’s certainly the way things are going, according to Aditya Sanghi, co-founder and chief executive at PMS provider Hotelogix. He says that some PMSs today can combine the guest history that these systems store with big data from the internet, such as guest sentiment analytics – what guests have said about your property on review sites and social media – to build a better understanding of individual guests than ever before. “Such technologies can actually be win-win for everyone,” he explains. “Intelligence in the PMSs can be used for upsells to in-house guests, pre-arrival promotions, or relevant pro- mos for departed guests for repeat bookings and referrals, increasing direct bookings.” Tanya Pratt, vice-president of strategy and product management at Oracle Hospitality, agrees: “Improved collection and centralisa- tion of data has led to better understanding of customer needs, resulting in greater and more consistent service and delivery of value at all customer touchpoints.” It’s one of the top priorities at the Langham London. “We see the two most critical fac- tors [of a PMS] being seamless connectivity, to keep pace with the ongoing trend toward
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