Understanding Cloud-Based Hotel Management Software | Benefits and Future Prospects

The hotel industry is quintessentially customer-facing, primarily focusing on bettering the customer experience. With this guest-first approach, hoteliers have started switching to a more integrated, flexible, and seamless cloud-based hotel management software from age-old legacy systems.

Gone are the days when hotels took down bookings on excel sheets, and customers were guided throughout their stay by hotel staff. Changing customer expectations has also compelled the hotel industry to improvise how it used to work in several ways. With the influx of technology, cloud-based hotel management systems have brought a dynamic shift to the way hotels operate. With the majority of hotel-tech infrastructure estimated to become completely cloud-based by 2023, cloud-based hotel management software is the future of hotel property management software.

In this blog, we will look at how cloud migration has been helping the hotel industry scale on the technological front, creating a frictionless operational model. Before we begin, let's first look into what we understand by cloud-based hotel management software:

What is Cloud-based hotel management software?

Cloud-based hotel software is an integrated platform that facilitates the workflow for the hotel industry's front desk operations and back office operations. It enables the management of reservations, room inventory, occupancy, housekeeping operations, check-in, and check-out, invoicing, guest management, and reporting in one synchronized platform. This platform has been evolving over the years, with the addition of third-party applications that facilitate reservation systems or revenue management and other aspects of hotel operations.

With the changing customer expectations and increasingly competitive market conditions, the cloud-based PMS interface has evolved accordingly to create a frictionless, enhanced, tech-savvy experience for customers and hoteliers alike. Hoteliers with hotel chains in different demographics can look into the bookings, room availability, and revenue on the go.

Now that we have an idea about cloud-based management software, let's look into the benefits of a Cloud-based Property Management system to understand the role it plays in hotel operations and workflow chain:

Benefits of Cloud-Based Hotel Management Software:

1. Integration

One of the most crucial advantages of cloud-based hotel management software is that it consolidates data from a wide range of sources in one place, which can help hoteliers understand customer trends, drive marketable insights and improve their operations. PMS software can reduce the complications of reservation management processes. Inbuilt core applications such as CRM, online distribution channels, and payment processing systems also ease workflow management, and hotels can deliver better customer services.

2. Enhanced Customer Experience

As hoteliers consistently strive to deliver an enhanced customer experience, cloud-based PMS has helped the hotel industry improvise their hotel guest experience management to a large extent.

According to a study conducted by Marketing Dive, the percentage of people using their mobile devices to make online reservations have increased to 25% from 14% in 2014.

Thanks to cloud-based PMS, hoteliers have been able to implement these and meet up to customer expectations. Cloud-based hotel management software enables guest self-service options along with contactless payments and check-ins to cater to guests' convenience and deliver customer satisfaction.

3. Reduced need for IT Professionals to fix hardware and software issues

Hotels using legacy systems usually implement hardware and software upgrades for different operations individually and need frequent IT assistance when something goes wrong. The PMS software is integrated, and more importantly, companies providing PMS software provide comprehensive support.

If there is a problem with the interface or bug fixes are required, they will assist in solving it. They will take care of the routine upgrades and software checkups from time to time and ensure that you are benefiting the most from your PMS software. Mycloud Hospitality provides necessary support at all times to ensure the software is running seamlessly on client networks.

The cloud-based hotel management software has witnessed improvisation over the decades, with PMS providers constantly striving to make the interface customer friendly and less complicated. However, this transition hasn't been smooth, and many hoteliers are still struggling with the management aspect of the software. This brings us to the much-debated question, what is the future of the hotel's property management system? Read on to find out!

What is the future of hotel property management software?

There has been much debate amongst hoteliers about the future of property management software. The future of PMS is looking outside the hotel industry at the evolution of mobile phones, where everything can be accessed and operated in the blink of an eye. PMS providers are also shifting their perspective towards improving the software's functionality with reduced costs so that all hotels, from small inns to boutiques, can use the PMS to their advantage.

Hoteliers can envision the following advancements in the PMS platform in the future (which is not so far):

• a) A PMS platform that is user-friendly and intuitive.
• b) Automation of tasks and reduced labor force.
• c) A democratized platform that enables all hotels, from small inns to corporate hotels, to compete on a level-playing field, i.e., ensuring all hotels can implement the PMS software.
• d) A platform that provides a holistic overview of business stats and processes and consolidated guest data can be used to drive AI insights.
• e) Data intelligence to improve business performance and deliver enhanced customer experience.

The hotel industry is volatile. This means that it has its periodic ups and downs; hence having an integrated cloud-based system that provides data security and augments hotel operations is always an achievement for hotels, irrespective of their business size.

Conclusion

Finding a flexible, comprehensive, and cloud-based system that helps your business and meets the needs of your guests is the key to having a competitive edge in the hotel industry.

Although implementing PMS hotel software may be costly for some hotels, it's eventually becoming a necessity for hoteliers to stay ahead of the curve. Mycloud Hospitality provides the best PMS software at affordable prices for hotel chains across the globe, with a comprehensive suite of assistance and support for increased efficiency.

Mycloud offers a comprehensive hotel software for any size of property. The advanced features allow clients to manage their hotel operations efficiently and increases revenue.