A variety of fields are components of the hospitality service industry. Tourism, food and drink services, entertainment venues and lodging account for the burgeoning size of the global hospitality market. In 2020, people spent 3486.77 billion dollars within the industry, which was forecast to exceed 4232 billion in 2021.
Since then, this industry has only grown, and hotels account for a large portion of those expenditures. Working in this sector of the hospitality business involves many tasks such as reservation management, cleaning schedules, ordering inventory, and restaurant or bar management if the establishment operates one or both of these. We checked out a few of the most common questions concerning hospitality software that has digitalized the industry that we’ll cover here.
What Are Hotel Management Systems?
The first hotel reservation system came into existence over 70 years ago and was introduce by the Westin chain under the name Hoteltype. Before this time, books and pages were use to keep track of reservations of guests checking in and out of the hotel. Hotel management systems include software applications that automate and track certain elements of business operations.
In hotels, they store information such as upcoming room reservations, which rooms are available, pending maintenance requests and payment records. This back-end software tool is a major technological advancement that can also be useful for restaurants, bars and nightclubs, banquet halls and any other type of hospitality business. Essentially, they can take charge of many tasks that a manager would need to complete manually.
What Are the Capabilities of a Hospitality Management System?
Some of the most common abilities of hospitality management systems include:
- Guest Management: Helps keep track of reservations, billing and guest feedback.
- Human Resources Management: Documenting employee hours, tallying payroll and managing staff training.
- Staffing: Managing schedules, updating vacation schedules and staff contact information.
- Dining Room Management: Can create seating plans, take reservation requests for onsite restaurants or tasks related to room service.
- Menu Planning: Can create menus based upon inventory on hand, dietary restrictions and profit margins.
- Ordering Wholesale Goods: Wholesale suppliers provide products in bulk ranging from equipment and food to decorative items for rooms and shared areas of the hotel. A management platform can track deliveries and help with plans for storage organization.
How Long Does Implementation of a Management System Take?
Fortunately, many hospitality management systems are fairly easy to learn and implement. Many providers actually offer consultant services to get you start and to streamline the transition. Some companies need the system in place within 24 hours, while some can begin implementing the software weeks before opening their doors.
How Can Hotel Operators Benefit from Hotel Management Software?
The most obvious perks of using a hospitality management platform is that it cuts back on managers’ manual efforts while making operations more efficient. Having more time equates to operational teams having time for other tasks. These systems also help improve the bottom line, because they can forecast guest intake, manage menus and analyze sales data and expenses.
These programs also offer insight into customers’ needs and identify which features to highlight or ones that should be brought into the scene. This helps you improve overall customer service by storing feedback, responding to guest concerns and increasing their satisfaction. Hotel management software also tracks staff performance, allowing any issues to be recognized and addressed before they become major problems.