The responsibilities of hotel managers are endless. From supervising staff and managing budgets to managing events, room booking, and handling customer complaints, these are only a glimpse of the day-to-day activity that hotel managers have to navigate through.
Read more: How hotel management works
Sure, a lot of people are told that implementing technology into their business makes everything better but they’re hardly told how. This article will focus on the actual benefits of technology in hotel management and how hotel managers can leverage technology to turn their establishment around.
Introduction
Technology is a broad term that is used to refer to the application of science to develop machinery or equipment that can be used for practical purposes. In our world today, technology is all around us. When the term ‘technology’ is used concerning management in the hospitality industry, it refers to software and applications that can be integrated with the establishment’s system. Some of these applications could include:
- Booking Engine
- Website Builder
- Check-In/out software
- Ticketing tool
- Payment integrations
These technological innovations are specifically tailored to the hospitality industry and are designed to make operations run smoothly. Now, let’s look at how technology can be used to make the duty of hotel managers, less of a chore.
How Technology benefits Hotel Managers
1. Managing Hotel's reputation and potential clients
It is without a doubt that the reputation of a hotel and many similar establishments is dependent on how your property is perceived on the web. According to TripAdvisor, 53% of the people surveyed would not book a hotel that didn’t have online reviews. This goes to show that having a strong online presence is essential to the growth of your hotel and managing the reputation of your establishment.
The bigger your establishment gets, the larger your clientele becomes. You’d have to keep the current clients, the potential clients, former clients, and referrals from clients all in check. It could get really difficult to keep a tab on all of these clients if you’re using traditional methods of management. Making use of the right tech products helps you properly manage your potential clients with this. This, in turn, is good for the reputation of your Hotel.
Management of your Hotel’s reputation with the use of technology doesn’t begin and end with client management but, could also include building user-friendly websites with app builders, integrating automated email marketing to reach out to clients, and presenting your hotel as a modern and technologically advanced establishment.
2. Employee Management
In any proper operating hotel, there are many different departments and employee positions. Common departments are housekeeping staff, culinary staff, security staff, and hospitality staff. In each of these departments, there could be tens of staff or more depending on the size of the organization. Employee management in a medium or large establishment can easily get out of hand. Implementing the right technological tools could be the solution to getting it under control.
Proper employee management not only covers performance management but also covers things related to new employee recruitment, payroll management, and more. Some apps are built solely for employee management and team management. For a hotel, investing in a PMS that also offers staff management features might be a more efficient method as they also have other features that you might need in one solution.
3. Updated reports and analysis
To gauge the progress of your establishment and determine if your methods are working, you need proper analytical tools. Before any big decision can be made in a business, the data available must be analyzed. Even without professional data analysts on the team, there are various Property management systems and tools that provide detailed analysis and reports in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
One of the largest and most successful hospitality companies in the world - the Marriott, explained that they were able to get a competitive advantage from their use of big data analytics. By collecting accurate data and updated reports and analyzing this information, you could be able to predict customer behavior determine if your marketing strategies are effective, and much more.
4. Personalizing hotel guest experience: One of the top trends in the hospitality industry is personalizing the hotel guest experience and creating a unique experience for your guests based on their personal preferences. As easy as this sounds, it’s not. According to a 2008 research from Monash University, there is an ‘existence of a large gap between what managers believe is important and what guests say is important in the selection and evaluation of accommodation’. This shows that as a hotel manager, your deduction on what is important for customers could often be wrong. Traditional tools such as surveys and the use of questionnaires have been used for a long time to try to understand the mind of the customer. However, understanding the customer’s wants can be complex and tedious. Thankfully, the use of technology simplifies this process. There are property management software (PMS) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools and apps that are available to take most of the burden off your shoulders.
Leverage your PMS and CRM tools and give your customers the ultimate guest experience.
The Tech Product you Need
Knowing that technology can benefit you as a hotel manager is one thing, but getting the right applications is a whole other ball game. Booking Ninjas is a singular and easy-to-use cloud-based property management system that combines all of the features and services your establishment might need into one solution.
With our advanced system which allows you to manage reservations, manage your staff and clients, tailor customer experience according to your whims, among other powerful features, Booking Ninjas is leagues ahead of our competitors in the game.
To find out more about our all in one solution, check out our features page