Staying Ahead of the Curve by Future-proofing Your PMS

Properties need to invest in scalable, flexible technologies that offer task automation to help make their employees’ jobs easier and keep up with changing guest demands.
6/1/2022
Housekeeping staff using a tablet while cleaning a guestroom

It is no secret that today’s hotels have more requests from guests and fewer employees to fill them. Property management systems (PMS) have always played a pivotal role in running a hotel's operations, but today more than ever, they must take a more active role in making daily tasks easier and less time consuming for employees.

In Hospitality Technology’s 2022 Lodging Technology Study, “Redefining the Guest Experience,” 66 percent of the 26,300 hotel properties surveyed plan to increase their IT budgets this year, and 64 percent believe the pandemic has “accelerated the automation of labor throughout the industry.”

In the past, hotel properties dragged their feet to adopt automation due to the need for higher-level integrations and difficulty working with legacy systems. What hoteliers, like those surveyed, have found however, is automation is now one of the most important features of a hotel’s technology stack. These solutions help hotel teams work smarter, faster and better – a necessity due to today’s labor shortages and budget limitations.

Technology providers have listened to their customers and have worked hard to provide full-featured hospitality operating systems that allow the integrations required to support automation and provide management with a real-time overview of their property and its guests. These systems do not break the bank, and they provide a wide array of solutions to support hotel operations.

With 68 percent of respondents from the 2022 Lodging Technology Study citing that increasing employee productivity was “very” or “extremely” important, it is clear that hoteliers want to help their employees become more efficient. Properties need to invest in scalable, flexible technologies that offer task automation to help make their employees’ jobs easier and keep up with changing guest demands.

Three Areas Ripe for Automation

Task Management

Automated employee scheduling and task assignment create more time for managers to focus on other duties, and create a clear line of communication with the employees. Staff members are alerted of work orders, when tasks are done, and when the next step needs to be completed. All departments benefit from easy-to-use solutions that automate manual and time-consuming tasks – whether front desk, inventory, housekeeping or maintenance staff. Reports ranging from preventive maintenance to room inspections can be autogenerated in a matter of minutes, and managers can access all information in real time.

Guest Interaction

Hotels can automate responses to common guest questions, or expedite more immediate or detailed requests to the correct staff member. Guests can be notified when a room is ready, or when a service request is complete. By automating guest communication for common requests, the front desk or service staff has more time to focus on other responsibilities.

Safety

In the event of an emergency, automatic alerts are sent to both guests and staff members, providing instructions and updates. Panic button functionality is also available, where a staff member can press a button on their personal device, instantly record audio and video, and response personnel is automatically alerted and dispatched.

These are just a few of the many areas where automation plays an important role in helping hotels become more efficient, support their staff members to be more productive, and future-proof their systems to accommodate changing guest demands. Through automation, seamless integrations, and other features provided by a flexible, full-featured PMS, hoteliers have the ability to face the hospitality industry’s labor shortage and still provide their guests with the best service possible.

Where You Can Read More

In an effort to shine a light on how hoteliers can future-proof their PMSs, hospitality professionals can now access, "Redefining the Role of the PMS in Hospitality Through Innovation and Collaboration," a special report by Visual Matrix.

This special report reviews the necessity of automation to manage labor shortages, open API architecture to support the seamless communication between systems to promote productivity, and the role mobility plays in driving operational efficiency and improving guest service. Not all property management systems are effective for every property. Hoteliers must find the right system for their property, and this special report reviews the features that will help them stay ahead of their competition and evolve with changing guest demands into the future.

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