You most likely understand the implications of having a property management system for your business. Having a property management system gives you flexibility in your business operations.
It helps you in performing tasks that can be handled automatically, freeing time for more intelligent duties by humans. It also ensures efficient communications between various departments in your business which increases team spirit and boosts productivity.
With these benefits attached to a property management system (PMS), going wrong with one wouldn’t look good for you in any way.
Booking Ninjas case studies report values of improvements based on implementing a PMS for a hospitality business. Such values are a reference point to what is expected when a business adopts a PMS, so care must be taken to ensure you get the best of what you are paying for.
Without saying much, let’s dive into the 10 bad signs you should be looking out for in your PMS.
1. You waste time duplicating information from one system to another
If what you spend your time doing in the office is manually distributing information from one system to another, that’s a sign that you need to change your PMS. By manually distributing, I mean you have to carry data from one point to another, such as manually log bookings and reservations, delete records no longer needed, and visit all your third-party channels to update information on availability and much more.
That’s not what you want for your business. Such time could be spent on more productive tasks that could bring massive improvements to your business. In that case, it would be advisable to transition to a PMS that can automate the process of information duplication. You need a PMS that could bring about changes on all platforms connected to your hotel, saving you the time and energy to manually do so.
2. You are limited to one location or device
Obvious as it may sound, we are no longer in the times of desktop fixations. That’s why we have cloud-based systems to run operations from. A bad sign in a PMS is when you are limited to just one device, or one location because the application can only be accessed from that device. That’s not a good use of your productivity.
Due to cloud technology, services are now mostly deployed on the cloud, enabling users to access them from any location, with any device as long as there’s internet access. In that way, you don’t have to be limited as before. The upside of this is that you can be anywhere, doing whatever it is you want, while still being able to keep an eye on your business. You could be on a flight, at the gym, or at your favorite restaurant and perform operations like changing room rates and setting availability.
Booking Ninjas offers such capability, meaning a bulk of the work is already off your hands.
3. You have little or no information about your guests
The Idea of a PMS is to put your entire staff in a close relationship with the guest/customer. This means that it automatically retrieves, store and display information about any customer the moment they book with you. While this may seem hard, or even unnecessary, it is what separates the successful businesses from the others.
Your staff needs to know if a customer is new or a regular, so they can know exactly how they should be treated. It will create a lasting impression that will definitely come back to benefit you.
4. Guests have to wait or queue for everything
A very sad sight to see in hotels and villas is the long lines of people waiting to get a particular service. That should not be the case in this decade. Through improvements in digital technology, there are now self-service features your customers could use and save their time, and yours.
A Property Management System is supposed to contain those self-service features, letting your guests have reasonable control over the kind of service they need.
5. You are not getting the benefits you were promised.
A property management system must have benefits it brings along for the business. You can recognize them by observing how much faster things are being done, or how happy your guests are getting.
The exact values you see on your monthly, quarterly, and annual reports are huge indicators of what good your PMS is doing for your business. If the numbers aren’t what you think is reasonably OK, then the PMS is a useless part of your digital strategy. It’s time for a new one.
6. Your software vendor doesn’t offer you adequate support
For a PMS to function adequately without any interruption, the software vendor must be on deck 24/7 to answer any questions you might have. They need to be available to ensure you are getting the benefits they said you’d get, and make sure it goes on continually.
If your software vendor doesn’t provide this level of support, that’s a huge red flag for your PMS. You will be better off switching to a new one where you get all the support you need.
7. Little or no third-party integrations
Whatever business you are running, be it a hotel, holiday resort, or a rental, you will need some digital tools that can’t come with your current PMS. There’s Stripe for allowing your customers to make fast payments, Door locks and biometrics to let your guests protect themselves in your property, communication channels that improve relationships, and so on.
Your business PMS should integrate these third-party solutions if you are going to get anything meaningful out of it. If that’s not the case, a transition is required.
8. Too much dependence on several partners
While it’s true that your business PMS should feature third party integrations, it should not be too dependent on it, especially for its core performance. The main structure of your PMS should feature only the work of the software vendor, so even if there’s a problem with the integration providers, your business platform is left unaffected.
One major mistake hotel make is using a hotel PMS that depends on external factors for its main system core. That’s not just irresponsible; it’s also very harmful. Your data may be breached simply because the third-party solutions provider was hacked recently.
Whatever the case, ensure the core functionalities are the sole responsibility of the software vendor and not someone else.
9. Switching is almost impossible to do
As a business owner, you should be on your toes about switching to the next best PMS without having to sweat it. Times change and so do digital technology. The best way to put your organization at an advantage is to be ready to move on whatever PMS you are sure can help your business be where it needs to be.
For that to happen, data should be able to move from your current PMS to your next one with just a few clicks. The job of your software vendor is to ensure data migration (moving data from one platform to another) is a relatively easy process. A PMS that doesn’t offer such functionality has no place in your business.
10. It’s not easy to use
This should be first, but I saved the best for last. A PMS should be intuitively easy to operate, even without any explicit instructions from the software vendor. Any computer user who has navigated a computer software before should, with a fair amount of accuracy, be able to use the PMS without being told what to do.
Using an intuitive PMS will not only save you learning time, but it will also help you get the best from the software in a short period of time.
With these signs listed above, you now know what a good property management software entails for your business. It’s better to switch to the better PMS than staying dissatisfied with the old one. Don’t be the one left out in the digital advancement in the hospitality industry.
Note: The Booking Ninjas PMS considers the above list, and we are proud to tell you we are good on all fronts. We will ensure you get the best from what is being offered in the digital space. And we won’t leave you in the wild. Our support unit will be with you to make sure you reach your goals in using our application.
