Selecting the best hotel management software system
When it comes to hotel management computer software solution, hotels often make the mistake of choosing complex systems that don’t fulfil their basic requirements – or in other scenarios, they opt for a high-end solution that comes with a lot of features which may not be of much use to them.

To help hotels make the right decision when selecting a web-based management system, we’ve created a quick feature checklist to refer to.

What 6 features should you look for in a complete hotel management software system?

1. Real-time Reporting and Business Intelligence

Accurate data drives accurate decisions, so it is unsurprising that reporting is a very important aspect of your hotel’s operations and strategic planning.

When selecting a hotel management system, look at the different reports it provides.

Ask yourself whether it will help gain insights on the revenue, profits and performance of the business.
Make sure the reports generated are pulling from genuine sources and there is no time lag. Accurate data is generated in real-time.
2. Quality System Integrations

A hotel management platform should be able to integrate with the one system at the heart of a hotel; that is, the property management system (PMS).

Additionally, through channel integration, it should integrate with other solutions such as Revenue Management Systems (RMSs) and Reputation Management Systems. See if the vendor is well connected with reputable systems.

This will save you and your staff time in tedious admin work.

3. Integrated Reservation System

Online booking systems are an important part of generating revenue and profit.

Too often, we have seen properties lose out on their direct bookings by either;

Not having an internet booking engine integrated on their website, or partnering with one that
charges commissions
is not mobile optimised or,
doesn’t integrate with the properties’ channel manager.
Choosing a hotel management system with its own mobile-optimised Internet booking engine is a must-have feature.

4. After Sales Support and Data Security

Hoteliers should look at the after-sales support of the system and the data security features offered as part of the solution.

A PCI-DSS compliant vendor is absolutely essential in today’s privacy-driven society. Your guests will demand it, and so should you.

Ask questions like:

Where is the data is being stored?
Are credit card payments are being done through the system?
Make sure that the basic standards of PCI-DSS are met.

5. Ability to sell and market to guests efficiently

The distribution landscape has been evolving at an exponential rate with many OTAs, meta search engines, wholesalers, review sites, social media and aggregators entering the market.

This is why it is important to…

Ensure your solution includes a reliable and powerful integrated channel manager
To have a successful sales and marketing strategy, hotels cannot ignore channel management technology.A channel manager is necessary to connect to the online travel agencies (OTAs) and global distribution systems (GDSs) for real-time distribution of room inventory and dynamic room pricing.Choosing hotel management software that does not provide this functionality could result in a huge loss of revenue.
Integrate social media and reputation management
The hotel management system should provide a platform that will connect to your social media platforms and review sites like TripAdvisor easily.Check if it offers a Facebook booking button to encourage direct bookings from your hotel’s Facebook page.

6. Pricing Intelligence

A leading hotel management system should provide a platform that will help you monitor your comp-set in real-time. This includes the ability to be notified of pricing increases or decreases straight to your inbox.