Your Property Management System (also called PMS) is the heart of your daily hotel management. Not only it offers comprehensive features to manage the hotel and the bookings but also it contains all your data and guest information. Selecting the right hotel software solution will have a positive impact on your business as it is your most important tool. It is important to understand the PMS offers to make the right choice.
Depending on your hotel type, you will not have the same needs than other hoteliers for your hotel management and booking system. Your hotel is unique. You must expect the best for your business, your clients and your staff!
Features included and adds-on
Hotel management system industry evolves with regards to the market needs. PMS providers work hard to respond to the hoteliers demands, offering all the time the most comprehensive solution.
As a hotelier, you should be able to make the difference between two types of services:
- Included features: they are integrated with the PMS. That’s the added value of the solution. Comparing competitors’ offers must take into consideration the standard features.
- Adds-on: these features are not included in the basic offer. You can choose to activate one or all of them if needed to manage your business, with extra cost. For example, it could be the accounting data export feature.
Price analysis depends on your needs. Don’t look only on the base software price but make sure to get the right quotation with the features and adds-on that you need.
On-premise or cloud-based software?
The second point on your checklist: does the software request an installation or is it cloud-based?
There are endless benefits of using cloud solutions such as data security and safety as well as availability of your solution on every device. The price difference that we will discuss in this second point is related to all services that are included in these two models.
On premise software has often a cost by licence. Every licence usually is installed on one device. This means that you need to pay for the licences that you need as per the number of users or computers in your hotel. However, even If you buy the licence, you still need to consider the cost of the updates and the upgrades. You might also need to change the software after few years of use if your provider does not meet the industry requirement. And finally, you need to consider additional maintenance fees or other assistance fees.
Whereas a cloud solution offers one unique annual cost. The cost is based on the technological developments. You don’t need to care of any updates as the cloud guarantees the latest version of the software. You have all the time the new features as all development meets the industry changes and needs.
Consider this in the pricing offer: does the software guarantee you an up-to-date and powerful version? Or do you need to change because of the software obsolescence? With a cloud PMS, you save time and money!
Integration with third party providers
Now you have a clear idea about the features and the host service of your PMS, look deeper: does the PMS allow third party integration, does the PMS allow automatic syncing?
A high-performance PMS will help you connect to other systems. You will be able to centralize your hotel management and benefit from endless integrations:
- Door access control technology
- Secure payment, verification and debit options
- Integration of POS systems
- Etc…
Moreover, your PMS should facilitate automatic update of your planning and syncing your prices and availability in OTA (Online travel agencies such as Expedia, Booking.com or Agoda for example) as well as your direct bookings. Considering the PMS in the market, many providers integrate third party Channel manager; however, you need to start again your pricing and offer comparison to make the right choice and consider the new cost of such integration in your budget analysis.
On the other hand, other PMS provide native channel manager and booking engine. Both are integrated with the system. Talking about Misterbooking PMS, the major benefit is that both solutions are developed by the PMS provider team. Planning and channel manager are combined in one interface. Plus, you have a financial advantage with this 3-in-1 solution. To know more about it, read the article here.
Support service & hotline
What’s more frustrating than a high-performance software with nobody to help you when you are facing a blocking situation? And you have no idea what to do?
What if your receptionist is wondering how to solve a basic operation, unfortunately, you have no “hotline option” in your software contract?
The last point, but not the least, make sure to have a clear understanding of the following:
- Support service and hotline: are they included in the price?
- Is the hotline available in your language?
- What are the opening hours?
- Are they available for emergency after the office opening hours?
- Where are they located? Support and technical team are based in the same location?
To conclude, get a clear overview…
Consider, when looking at the PMS pricing, all features, partners and services that you might need. Think about PMS, but also the cost of the Channel Manager, the Booking engine, integrations, hotline and support, etc… There is a big chance that One software can meet your expectations, reduce your system providers to save costs. Your perfect PMS is somewhere around here! 😊
Finally, most of PMS editors offer free demo. This is your chance to discover the overall solution. So don’t hesitate! Ask all your questions during the demo. This is an important moment of your decision process.
This is all for today! but if you are curious to learn more about how to choose the good PMS for your Hotel, you can send an e-mail to our experts at sales@www.misterbooking.net.
We will be happy to help you!