Hotelier India examines the different software solutions that cater to the hospitality industry.
It is hard to imagine a world without computers and software in today’s time. As the world connects seamlessly and goes virtual, hospitality is making all the right moves as far as software is concerned.
And considering that maintaining guest relations is supreme, software has become an ideal tool to achieve this primary goal.
Software solutions
There are several companies that offer specific solutions for different areas of hotel operations. For example, there are pure property management software companies that offer solutions for the front office.
Then there are revenue management software companies that offer solutions for revenue management. Most of the property management software offers integration to room access solutions like key cards.
Also, there are companies that create software only for inventory management. In a highly customer-satisfaction dependent industry like hospitality, enterprise solutions are rapidly helping hospitality providers get faster, more efficient, more productive and more seamless in their offerings.
From helping manage bookings, tariffs and room availability to optimising logistics, supply chains and inventories, a wide range of solutions are driving hospitality brands to provide the complete 360 degree experience that matches up with the best in the world.
These solutions don’t just reduce human effort, but also increase accountability and uptime.
The vital software modules are reservations, front office, telephone call accounting, internet access and billing, door lock interface and back office accounting. In addition, points of sales, banquets booking, purchase, inventory and costing are also employed.
Other modules are need based. Hotels with spas may use a booking diary, larger hotels with yieldable customer profiles may use revenue management, luxury hotels may use guest response management, many hotels are beginning to use digital signage, and provide instant reservation at their website, chain hotels require a central reservation system and some hotels use interfaces with the airline systems and internet reservation portals.
Solution providers are increasingly seeing the huge opportunity in the hospitality sphere to develop and deploy solutions that can greatly enhance the efficiency and reduce overhead costs for hospitality brands.
“Unicel, the enterprise mobility specialist in the VAS sphere, has developed various solutions specific to the hospitality industry i.e. Inventory Management, IVR Booking solution, Customer SMS feedback mechanism, SMS booking and enquiries, Workforce Management solutions to effectively manage and allot resources on a day-to-day basis,” says Vinay Agrawal, founder and MD, Unicel Technologies.
“Changes are more in the technologies used to implement them. Examples from our own company include handheld point of sales, SMS messaging for coordination of guest services tasks, web based multi-property operations, software (instead of hardware) based Internet access & billing, similarly software based voice mail and more.
There are some application innovations also, driven by changes in business needs. For example, we offer a comprehensive guest profiling system for improved CRM, we offer industry standard interfaces for integration of third party systems, progressively we are adding more features of business intelligence,” says Amlan Ghose, Managing Director, Prologic First.
New vistas
Changing times means employing new technologies that are faster and better than what is available. The primary emphasis today is on mobile, cloud computing and software as a service.
“Our company already offers some applications on mobile devices. In the next few months, we will offer much more. Our applications are already architected for cloud computing so that the infrastructure required for deployment of systems at each hotel is minimised.
By offering SaaS we are also minimising investments and administration tasks related to application software,” says Ghose. The FortuneNEXT suite of solutions from IDS is among the most advanced integrated hotel management solutions. Their range of solutions empowers hospitality establishments as small as seven rooms and as large as 1000 rooms.
With fully integrated property management systems, restaurant management systems, centralised solutions, mobile and web applications, the FortuneNEXT range of hospitality management products is one of the leading choices for hotels in India, the Middle East, South and South East Asia, Africa, and the Oceanic countries.
Says Manoj Kumar Mohanty, National Sales Manager – South Asia, IDS Softwares, “The face of hotel technology is constantly evolving, with web based computing, mobile computing, BI tools and keyless entry with registration card being some of the popular technologies implemented. Hoteliers are now looking for all-in- one solutions that reduce the TCO considerably and reduce support issues.”
Trends
The way forward is one of integration rather than interfacing between modules. The distinction is that application modules will share a single database rather than multiple databases talking to each other. “Data silos will be eliminated.
For example, our software for all sales channels, CRM and hotel front office work out of a single multi-purpose and multi-property database. The benefits are more accurate inter-departmental data, greater efficiency and lower costs.
We see growing emphasis on electronic distribution channels as has already happened in more mature markets. We also see more emphasis on IP based in-room technologies starting with a shift to IP based phones and entertainment and following through with other IP based devices for energy control, lighting and even remote controlled curtains. In summary, the trend will be to further refine technologies in use,” says Ghose.
Adds Mohanty, “We see an increasingly large number of fully integrated systems, with the focus shifting from being purely transactional tools to products and services that provide the hotel with strategic inputs that are aimed at optimising productivity and costs.
With the number of innovations that are flooding the market, a thorough Technology Audit of the existing infrastructure will shed light on the current IT needs of the hotel as well as help save IT maintenance and support expenses.
A typical technology audit begins with an exhaustive asset inventory, following which relevant upgrades or replacements are recommended to optimise operations.”
In hospitality, more than any other industry, it is all about being closest to your clientele. “And irrespective of background and upbringing, the mobile phone is emerging as the best medium to contact, build and maintain relationships with existing and prospective clients.
From interactive outbound dialers and virtual call centres, to SMS driven easy booking and confirmation processes, solutions with VAS are rapidly emerging as powerful alternatives to conventional methods,” says Agrawal.
Hoteliers speak
Software replaces human effort to maintain accuracy in inventory management, helps avoid service shortfalls, aids communication and helps assign rooms as per guests’ preference while maintaining guest profiles correctly.
It also allows the hotel management to monitor work procedures, audit compliances, revenue accounting and employee performance. Says Anuj Prakash, GM of The Resort, Mumbai, “Software means communication and the hotel business is all about human communication. Software therefore enhances the personalised experiences of the guests by equipping the service provider with better intelligence in order to serve guests effectively.”
In today’s world the entire operations in a large scale hotel or property is completely dependent on its own software. Most hotels are developing these or using the ones with international capabilities.
“It helps in running the operations very smoothly and with greater levels of productivity and profitability. The biggest benefit of having software in place is to store the data, guest history and profiles in a centralised server. It helps to enhance customer loyalty by offering special schemes and offers to their regular customers,” says Priti Chand, AVP, Communications, The Zuri Hotels.
Software solutions integrate all the various departments of an organisation and results in real time data being processed and information being available across the organisation at all times.
“It improves efficiency by ensuring all departments are in sync and delivering superior results by ensuring timely delivery. And it improves effectiveness as it processes high amounts of information in very small amounts of time, minimises the scope of error and provides solutions based on the needs of the business, which would not have been possible if done manually,” says Rakshit Talwar, Director of Sales, Courtyard by Marriott, Pune Hinjewadi.
Amrendra Gupta, Manager IT, Hotel Sahara Star adds, “All the complaints are received by our centralised Help Desk Star Service. Star Service agents feed the request/complaint in the system and it is automatically delivered as an SMS to the respective area’s supervisor’s mobile and the required service is given to the guest.
The completed complaints are closed from the mobile itself. The Guest feedback System (GFS) is used to send an online feedback form to our room guest that helps us to improve and elevate their experience to a new level.
The online feedback has major advantages of being automated and secure process over manual hand written feedback form. This full process and analysis of received feedback is managed by our CEO’s office on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.”
The right fit
Again deploying a software solution in the context of hospitality is no small matter and needs careful planning and tight execution. The first step in deciding on the right kind of software is to conduct a needs analysis where senior management determines the required scope of their needs.
The needs analysis documents exactly what processes a particular hotel will require from its software. Factors such as the hotel size, product type, location and target market affect this analysis. The sheer number of transactions and users involved in day-to-day operations of a hotel would require a much more robust system. Again, customisation is the name of the game as far as software is concerned.
“As we are a chain operation, we choose software that embraces the different types of hotels that we operate. We look for software that helps us maintain brand standards and audit compliances.
The things we look for are – that the software must follow the grammar that is common to our diverse units and it must interface seamlessly with other software such as MIS generator, accounts receivables, complaint management system and point of sales in F&B and other revenue earning departments,” explains, Charles Morris, General Manager, The Leela Palace, New Delhi.
Their Property Management System (PMS) has special fields that capture guests’ flight and meal preferences making them capable of delighting the guest even after they have checked-out of the hotel!
Along with the basic Hotel PMS, a software’s ability to customise and upgrade itself with seasons meeting the ever changing demands of a hotelier, which in turn has to constantly meet the demand of its customer, makes one software stand apart from its competitors.
Say Gautam and Arjun Thapar of Te, New Delhi, “For a small boutique hotel like Te, if I want to compete with bigger chains in terms of guest experience, I need to make my guest feel extremely special – which is possible only if I know and understand the guest.
Hence my software helps me to store guest information like- his likes, dislikes, allergies, room view preference, mini bar preferences, room service previous orders, special request, newsletters and when the guest revisits, the same is executed by the hotel with the help of the software then it can really help to satisfy clients and win their business again.”
In Te – the Naturally suites have the 12pm check out policy, while the Superia suites have a 24 hour check out policy.
With so much at stake it is natural that software has benefits that can actually be measured and contribute to the hotel’s bottom line.
Pro Logic’s experience suggests that use of revenue management improves REVPAR by at least 4% in most qualified hotels (where yield management policies can be implemented).
Instant confirmation over electronic channels improves occupancies by 3% or more, business travellers prefer hotels that manage their internet bandwidth to provide sustained in-room Internet services and F&B customer profiling and loyalty programs bring in a significant rise in average revenue per seat.
Analysis of potential versus actual costs can contribute 4% savings in cost. Then there are non-financial benefits. For example, shared multi-property back office services can help tide over scarcity of trained back office professionals.
“Our experience over the years, indicate that, use of such software, does contribute to reduction in man power, plugging revenue losses, reduction in inventory carrying cost, improving guest satisfaction through fast check in and checkout, etc.
For example, in the case of FortuneNEXT, several of our clients have witnessed an increase in operational and staff effectiveness by 30% as well as a revenue increase of 20%. Besides this, clients have also seen an increase in customer satisfaction by 60% and customer retention by 50%,” explains Mohanty.
