Hotel management system ROI

InnQuest iQ Kiosk

By Marni Andrews

Good hotel management systems require much more than just reservation software. Loyalty points, mystery shopping, cashless and off-premise foodservice, recreation and golf POS, staff training and customer relationship management (CRM) are just a few of the benefits hotel management systems can offer.

One of the toughest issues for hoteliers today could be determining how to manage responsively during uncertain economic conditions.
 
Consequently, one of the biggest trends in property management software is trying to find and implement return on investment technology that will empower hoteliers to generate revenue in tough times as opposed to continuing to run their operations the same way, says John Denver, vice-president business development, IQWARE, Inc.

“There are many tools that help drive traffic to a website such as pay per click campaigns, e-mail marketing campaigns and search engine optimization. We highly encourage general managers and marketing directors to take a look at launching an effective and very high return on investment online marketing campaign starting as soon as possible,” suggests Denver.

Managing hotel operations in a down economy is easier with MICROS’ system integration, says Stacey Oken, marketing coordinator, MICROS Systems, Inc. Without interface, the systems are fast and easy to install, adjust, maintain and manage, and thus save the business money.

She also identified green initiatives as a key trend for the industry and says that hosted solutions significantly reduce power and energy costs since the solutions are stored in a central database. Enterprise applications can contribute substantially to a company’s sustainability, says Oken. Beyond the obvious reduction of the paper trail, power and supplies used for printing are conserved. Also, with no need to print frequent reports, fuel and energy are saved.

Pablo Molinari, director of rooms for the 394-room Hyatt Regency Toronto, says that hotel management systems these days can do just about everything. The Hyatt Regency Toronto is using Micros Fidelio’s Opera system and Molinari says he can book a reservation at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina in three minutes simply by clicking “BUE.”

Alyssa Regier, sales and marketing manager, Hansen Software Corporation, claims that using Hansen’s CASH+ Call Accounting Software to bill telephone activity can increase revenue from 10 per cent to 100 per cent with flexible surcharge capabilities. For properties not using a PMS, Hansen’s CASH+ CheckOut feature will preview a guest’s calls before checkout. Regier notes that CASH+ can also produce a report showing wakeup calls and how they were scheduled to help ensure customer service is at its peak.

Only a handful of property management systems truly have a stellar reporting ability; there remains a significant area of opportunity, says Amy Stevens, regional revenue manager, Eastern Canada, Atlific Hotels ,with 40 properties across Canada. This will be an area to watch as it evolves. Particularly with the current economy, hoteliers are relying on reports to give them the information they need to make decisions looking forward, she says.

David Lipton, president, Sensors Quality Management Inc., which offers mystery shopping to the hotel industry, says that many people assume hotels cut back on this type of service when the economy is down. He says that many hotels look at mystery shopping as an essential tool to maintain their bottom line but just in case, SQM has developed a program to enable hotel companies of many sizes to participate in a no-fee program.

“The mystery shopper acts as a mirror for company management. Management can use them as a tool to gain insight into which procedures work well and which need improvement,” Lipton says.

Guests drive solutions

Technology is a very efficient tool to manage properties. But if the ultimate goal in hospitality is the guest experience, the human touch cannot be forgotten. In fact, according to Laura Kirby-Meck, chief marketing officer, MSI, the reason that hoteliers make changes to their technology is because of guest-centric issues. In effect, guests are indirect drivers of solutions.

For example, MSI developed a cashless system for the Hyatt Place chain that they called Place Point. The Hyatt Place hotels were designed around the needs of sophisticated travellers who rely on technology to enable their multi-tasking, very busy lifestyle. To appeal to their core demographic, Hyatt executives wanted to make the Hyatt Place experience in the Guest Kitchen truly cashless.

Since guests could place orders in the Guest Kitchen round the clock, the challenge was to design something that would allow guests to complete a cashless transaction on a touch screen menu. The result, Place Point, is a POS system that fully integrates with MSI’s Windows Property Management system. Guests swiped their room key card at the touch screen menu to place a food order and the purchase details transferred automatically to the guest folio.

“The guest has a direct influence on developing solutions for our PMS,” says Anais Berzi, director of marketing and operations at Mingus Software, creator of the Hotello Property Management System. “Their trends dictate the direction of our product development. More and more people are becoming their own travel agents. Properties that provide their clients with the possibility of an immediate reservation, complete with package selections, have a greater chance of securing that booking than properties that play the back-and-forth correspondence game.”

The 102-room Château Edmundston in Edmundston, NB is currently using the Hotello system. Front desk manager Nancy Leclerc says that when the hotel changed to an independent, they lost their frequent stay program and had to create one. Hotello technicians created an option in our system where members’ points accumulate by themselves, says Leclerc.

“All we do is add a guest in the membership list. No more cards to punch or replacing lost or damaged cards. Guests don’t need to add another card to their collection and they can’t cheat us out on their points because we can see all their stays and which ones they got credited for,” she explains.

Integrations & Internet

“Hotels benefit when guest information and preferences are at their fingertips,” says Jordan Menu, marketing and sales, Smart Hotel Software. “Integrations are the wave of the future. We are seeing vendors specializing in their respective areas and partnering with like-minded and specialized vendors. This is especially true for accounting integrations.”

InnQuest Canada president Paul Barnes agrees that integration of management systems is a key trend and one that is moving down to smaller operators. He says that this year in Canada, the industry will see Internet marketing via real-time, no cost reservations along with integration to the many Global Distribution Systems (GDS) that provide properties with links to hotel booking websites. In fact, GDS’s are taking the place of many travel agents.

“We see self check-in kiosks as a means of increasing customer service, and they free front desk staff to better serve guests. And Central Reservation Systems are desired by more and more small chains. The Internet is levelling the playing field and helping all players. Of course, the guest is the driving force behind any innovation,” he notes. “They resisted kiosks when first introduced. Then the airlines made the kiosk an enjoyable experience. Now hotel guests see the benefit and are demanding them.”

The Internet has affected training too. First class hotel training is a crucial component of hotel management and yet traditionally has been expensive and difficult to find, says Laurence Marans, president of WeTrainHotels.com, which offers an online training tool for frontline teams using web technology, video and animation. Marans adds that properties have found traditional training difficult to sustain with turnovers, which makes return on investment hard to measure.

“Web-based training changes the training paradigm. Programs are available 24/7 and can be taken by anyone with access to a computer with speakers and high-speed Internet access,” he says. “Properties need to perform at a level that turns our guests into property advocates. You not only want the guest to return, you want them to recommend your property to others.”

Jennifer Walters, front office manager for the 181-room Cranberry Resort in Collingwood, ON, says that online booking is very important for the resort right now since more and more people are using Internet booking sites and calling hotels less to book reservations. Cranberry is using the Five Star Hotel System for room allocation, food and beverage POS, recreation and golf POS, accounting and online reservations.

“It’s great to use one system that integrates with all the rest, instead of being dependent on two or three different programs,” she says.

Trend toward remote food ordering

Marie-Eve Morin is marketing coordinator for Maitre’D by Posera. The trends she’s seeing are handheld POS restaurant solutions, real-time inventory systems for 24-hour bar inventory control, and room service ordering through either the television or an Internet-connected device in the guestroom.

Similar to centralizing room reservations, the ability to take room service ordering off premise in the same manner reservations are booked is a huge trend, says Rick Lamy, vice-president sales, Exit 41. It provides a high level of customer service since agents’ only focus is taking food orders and orders are more accurate. They are always available, which reduces guest hold times, and through the use of polite suggestive selling, cheque averages increase. As an option, guests can also place food and drink orders from poolside by using their iPhones.

“The service is more cost effective for the hotel chain especially during off-peak hours since they can leverage the labour over several or hundreds of properties,” explains Lamy. “The call center software allows for recurring food orders such as breakfast every day the guest is in the hotel and it stores a complete guest history of food transactions that can be accessed no matter which location the guest stays.”

ResortSuite iPhone reservation system

Real-time CRM will be important

The improvement of guest service at all touch points throughout a property has been a focus for the industry for some time and the trend will continue, says Frank Pitsikalis, founder and CEO of ResortSuite.

“Handheld technologies such as the iPhone and iPod touch will be used for check-in, to access bookings, and to order amenities and services such as golf tee times or spa services either poolside or online,” he says. “Real-time CRM capability will be equally as important. It considerably shortens the gap between idea and action because a guest’s information is accessible through a single unique data point.”

SiteBenefits Inc. president Geoff Erskine was motivated to create easy-to-use web tools for the restaurant and hotel industry after he experienced over and over the frustration of missed calls at the dozen or so restaurants he has opened over the years.

“One of the things that really bothered me was getting into the restaurant in the morning and checking the phone for messages. Many times the caller had hung up, leaving me to wonder if they might call back or, worse, was it a missed reservation?” he recalls.
 
Erskine cites a statistic from May 2008, reported by the National Leisure Travel Monitor. By May 2008, people were booking their travel reservations through the Internet 56 per cent of the time. This was up from only 19 per cent in 2000.

“In actual fact, a full 21 per cent of reservations processed through SiteBenefits are received between midnight and 10 am. A further 44 per cent are made during busy service times (12 pm to 3 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm) when staff is least able to spend time answering the phone,” he explains.

As a traveller and also from my knowledge of the industry, the guest experience could be improved with the development of better CRM technologies and capabilities that would cover more than simply choice of bed and smoking or non-smoking options, says Steven Weagle, operations manager, Swipe Halifax. For example, noting any allergies, meal or newspaper requests, and airport pickup requests.

“The ability to move this information easily through a hotel chain to help personalize your stay would certainly improve my experience,” he says.