Vibhu Gaind
Byron, senior vice-president of services at customer experience consultancy Alliants. This is especially true for those hospitality businesses that have limited or even no in- house tech expertise. One such company is Mollie’s, the motel and diner concept created by Soho House. Alliants project managed the creation of Mollie’s award-winning tech stack and looks after its ongoing tech support. An Apaleo open PMS was selected for its suitabil- ity to Mollie’s size and business model. Another brand to recently adopt Apaleo is
citizenM. With a relatively small core of func- tions, Apaleo provides hoteliers with a plat- form for multiple third-party integrations that can be turned on and off, much like apps on a smartphone. Byron comments: “As a brand- agnostic team, we advise hoteliers on the very best-in-class, scalable solutions that are most suitable for their business’s particular needs.”
ONBOARDING YOUR STAFF
What kind of staff training does your PMS vendor provide? At the Elms Hotel & Spa in Worcester, when Mark Bevan took over as managing director in November 2021, the hotel was using Avondata’s server-based
What to avoid when changing PMS provider
Watch out for these warning signs when choosing a new tech partner, says Ryan Haynes, lead consultant at Haynes MarComs. • Self-promotion: watch out for companies selling on features and only communicating their own achievements. • Lack of evidence: be cautious of vendors without informative and recent case studies and success stories. • Innovation versus nuts and bolts: it’s great that your partner may push boundaries, but can they deliver the basics with confidence? • Investment: if a partner is unable to demonstrate how they are investing in their product, service and business, the likelihood is they are complacent.
36 | Technology Prospectus 2024
“It should be a system for this generation, intuitive and easy for
the workforce to use” Vibhu Gaind
PMS and Bevan was keen to migrate to a cloud-based PMS as soon as possible. “Server-based systems tend to involve less flexibility, lots of inconvenient workarounds, and are clunky in comparison, with far more manual operations to complete,” explains Bevan. “And you can’t operate them anywhere, from any device. I’m out of the office a lot of the time, so being able to work anytime, any- where, on any device has been liberating.” When the Elms migrated to Avondata’s new
system in December 2021 the mobile flexibil- ity of the staff training was a benefit too. “The online training went very smoothly,
and our staff valued the bite-size sessions,” Bevan remembers. “We found it especially helpful that users could undertake their train- ing anytime, anywhere – but it had to be com- pleted in order to get a log in, which ensured all our staff finished the course and were fully operational by the time they completed it.”
CONTINUOUS STAFF TRAINING
Another consideration is post-onboarding training. Not all, but many hospitality busi- nesses have a high rates of staff turnover, so what training collateral does your PMS provider deliver? Hotel teams using Mews products have access to Mews University, an online portal which provides detailed training, videos, role-based learning paths and certification. Richard Valtr, founder of Mews, says: “Onboarding never truly stops as you wel- come new staff members, so it’s useful to have access to training all year round. We also really encourage our customers to discover the system for themselves. Being hands-on is one of the best ways to learn.”
When choosing a new PMS, Vibhu Gaind,
chief information officer at RBH Hospitality Management, says a key consideration is ease of onboarding. “It should be a system for this generation, intuitive and easy for the work- force to use, a system we can literally onboard within a matter of hours rather than days.”
LIVE LOADING
Typically, a provider can onboard a new PMS within one to four weeks depending on the number of reservations, number of rooms and rooms with customisations, the number of properties, and the number of channels you wish to connect to. James Cannon, sales and marketing manager, Guestline, an Access Company, says: “One of our trainers is on-site for the duration of the implementation to guide you
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