The hotel management program is an operating system that combines the reservation, room status, guest, folio, payment and reporting processes on the same data. When properly installed, it increases the speed of reception, reduces the loss of information between departments and gives the management an instant business look.
- PMS is the main operating record of the hotel from booking to invoice.
- The right choice is made with the number of screens more than the data integrity, authorization and support quality.
- The transition should be planned by data matching, sample transfer, role definition and real scenario test.
PMS is not just a booking screen.
PMS (Property Management System) is the center of a hotel’s daily operation. When a reservation is created, the availability in the room plan changes; with check-in the guest records and folios are opened; night transactions process the room income; bills are reflected in the cash and reports. The progress of this chain in the same system prevents the same information from being repeatedly written into different Excel files.
Systems such as channel manager, accounting, identity notification or POS do not replace PMS. These are separate functions that exchange data with PMS. When choosing, you need to check not only how many buttons are on the screen, but whether these functions work consistently through a single record.
The main features that you need to find in a hotel program
A good system reservation must cover the entire life cycle: offer or reservation, room assignment, check-in, spending and payment, invoice, check-out and past registration. room plan must show real availability; an unauthorized user must not change the price, cancellation or financial registration.
The disadvantage, ADR, RevPAR, income center, channel and tax breakthroughs on the report side should be produced from the same operating data. The hand-combined tables later appear fast, but create disconnection at the end of the period.
- Room plan, booking and check-in flow work together
- Folio, posting, billing, cash and invoice link
- User role and process-based authorization
- Night audit and recoverable controlled processes
- API ready for channel, identity notification and e-document integrations
- The hotel-based data and verified backups
How to evaluate security when choosing a cloud-based system?
Cloud-based does not mean being safe alone. The data of each hotel must be kept within the separate rental frame, all queries must be limited to the hotel identity and critical processes must be recorded. Passwords should not be readily stored; roles such as manager, accounting, reception and floor services should only access the screens they need.
It is also important to perform a recovery test as much as the presence of the backup. Ask the supplier how often the backup is taken, how the facilities are separated and how the records are examined in a security incident.
How to plan the transition project?
The new program transition is not a file copy work. First, the data matching for rooms types, rooms, price plans, agents, open reservations and charity balances is done. Example transfer is checked; user roles are defined; the reception team tries with real scenarios.
The old system can be kept read only on the day of the transition. After the first check-in, the billing and night audit are verified together, the new system becomes the main record. This approach reduces the risk of transition without ceasing the operation.
8 questions to ask the provider when choosing PMS
Do not leave the purchase interview as a presentation where the feature list is read. Ask the provider to show real operations examples; to explain clearly the interruption, data transfer and support processes. The writing of the answers makes it easy to compare the offers with the same standards.
- How is the data and user authority of each facility separated?
- What is the number of times that the backup is taken and the recovery test is done?
- Can the reservation, payment and price changes be seen in the transaction history?
- How do channel manager, e-documents and identity notification links be traced?
- What records are transferred, which are archived?
- What is the operation plan for a Internet interruption or service problem?
- What are the support hours and the response time for critical events?
- What forms are data submitted when the contract is terminated?
Where is RoomFollow in this structure?
RoomFollow is designed to run front office, room plan, folio, box, reporting and operating modules on the same hotel data. The purpose is to transfer the fast processing layout in the desktop program habit to a web-based and hotel-based architecture.
Before making a decision, try three real scenarios of your own hotel: opening a reservation in a busy hour, adding spending during the stay and closing the day end. The value of a PMS does not appear on the advertising screen, but when these flows are clear and traceable.
FAQ
Is PMS and Channel Manager the same?
PMS is the main operating system of the hotel, and the channel manager carries the price, availability and booking data between PMS and the online sales channels.
Is a hotel management program needed for small hotels?
Even if the number of rooms is small, the reservation, folio, billing and the room status in a single record reduces the errors. The number of modules required can be simplified according to the scale of the operator.
Do you need a cloud-based PMS?
Usually the browser and secure internet connection are enough. But you need a planned first installation for the room, price, user, printer and integration settings again.
