All about gaining operational efficiency with a multi-property management system

Managing a hotel group requires a lot of effort. Due to the vastness of operations across departments, it becomes exceptionally crucial for you to gain operational efficiency at all levels. It enables you to boost your brand reputation, become sustainable, increase sales and profitability, and, most importantly, enhance the guest experience. 

This blog will look at what it takes to operate efficiently, the benefits, and how technology, especially a multi-property management system, can help them with this. 

Cost saving

Every enterprise looks for ways to save costs, and hotel groups are no different. First, you can save on IT expenses by significantly lowering your software ownership cost. For this, you would need a cloud-based multi-property management system that doesn't involve an upfront annual license fee. It can streamline operations across departments and automate repetitive tasks, improving staff performance and reducing errors. Moreover, you don't have to spend on expensive servers, IT teams, and costly annual maintenance costs.

Centralized control

A cloud-based multi-property management system allows you to monitor operations across all the properties with just a single sign-on from the central office. You can also access the solution via the web or a Mobile Hotel PMS App to track group-wide or property-level positions from anywhere you want to. The solution lets you access the centralized guest history to know your past guests' preferences. It helps you serve them better during their next visit. 

Also, with a Central Reservation Office (CRO) tool, you can allow your central call center staff to view availability across member properties and make reservations for your guests. There is more to it. 

Efficient distribution

It is all about selling more online. In today's era of online travel, you need to put extra effort into strengthening your online distribution capabilities. You can achieve this with a multi-property solution that integrates with a channel manager. This arrangement automatically updates rates and availability across all the OTAs and metasearch engines in real time. It saves time and eliminates double bookings that could have otherwise led to lost business opportunities and guest dissatisfaction. 

More direct sales

Getting more direct bookings has been one of the top priorities of hotels. And why not? After all, you can save a lot on booking commissions. Here too, a web booking engine can assist you. Ensure that your Hotel PMS is integrated with the web booking engine and that you are ready. This integration can automatically handle and process direct booking queries and confirmed reservations from your guests 24/7. It is the best way to generate incremental direct bookings via your brand website and social media pages with enhanced operational capabilities. 

Serving corporate clients & travel agents

We know how critical it is for you to get more bookings from these two sources. And for this reason, you would need a multi-property management system. Why? Because it will enable you to provide direct and easy access to your corporate clients and travel agents so that they can log in to the system and make reservations as per their requirements 24/7. You don't have to worry about having a staff to manage all these bookings. It is one of the most efficient ways to ensure improved conversion while saving cost and time. 

Data-backed decision-making

A multi-property solution helps you with hundreds of group-wide and property-level reports. These reports, including forecast reports, revenue reports, manager flash reports, and many more, are critical for your staff to gain intelligence on your hotel group's operational and financial health. Once you have clarity on what works for you and what doesn’t, you can make the right decision at the right time. This is also an apt example of increasing operational efficiency backed by data-driven decision-making capabilities. 

Revenue management

You can gain operational efficiency with a multi-property management system in several other ways. Take, for example, the area of room pricing and revenue management. The solution is smart enough to suggest the best rates based on your occupancy and demand. Just imagine this - would it have been possible for you to manually configure the best room rates based on pure guesswork? It can also integrate with a revenue management/rate shopper tool to help you with automated pricing, monitoring of competition rates along with their online ratings, and reputation. 

Technology-powered automation across departments is vital to operate efficiently. It improves your capabilities to sell more and market your brand with a higher level of collaboration between your teams. Ultimately, this is the key to gaining a competitive edge and driving growth.