For hotel owners, revenue management is incredibly important. It involves selling the right room at the right time and price to the right customer via the right distribution channel to maximize business results. To assist with this, many hotels use hotel management software packages. In this article, you will find the five most important software solutions within the hospitality industry.

Hotel Management Software Solutions

Essentially, a hotel management software solution is any software that can assist in a hotel or resort’s everyday management and operations. Many of these solutions can be used individually, but they can also often be connected, and some software providers offer all-in-one solutions.

Generally, the bare minimum a modern hotel should be using is a property management system (PMS), as this will assist with various key aspects of day-to-day management. However, other solutions also have major plus points, and those failing to utilize them could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Table: Key Benefits of Hotel Management Software

Key Benefit Description Impact on Customer Experience
Streamlined Check-In/Out Automates the check-in/out process, reducing wait times. Guests enjoy faster service, reducing frustration and improving satisfaction.
Personalized Guest Experiences Uses guest data to tailor services and communication. Enhances guest stays with customized services and communications, increasing loyalty.
Improved Room Booking Efficiency Simplifies the booking process with real-time availability and instant confirmation. Streamlines the booking process, making it easier and quicker for guests to reserve rooms.
Enhanced Operational Efficiency Integrates various operational aspects for better coordination and management. Reduces operational hiccups, ensuring a smoother stay for guests.
Dynamic Pricing Management Adjusts room prices in real-time based on demand and other factors. Offers competitive pricing for guests, potentially leading to cost savings.
Direct Communication Channels Facilitates direct messaging between guests and hotel staff for requests and information. Improves communication, allowing guests to easily express their needs and preferences.
Comprehensive Feedback Collection Gathers and analyzes guest feedback systematically. Enables hotels to address issues promptly, improving overall guest satisfaction.
Centralized Information Access Provides guests with easy access to hotel information and services through one platform. Enhances guest convenience by offering all necessary information and services at their fingertips.

5 Hotels Management Software Solutions

Below, we take a more detailed look at five of the most important and useful hotel management software solutions available for hotels, examining what they are used for and the main advantages of using each of them:

1. Property Management System (PMS)

As previously stated, a property management system will likely be the most critical hotel software solution for most hotels. Typically, these packages automatically process all online bookings, regardless of channel, and display those bookings in a user-friendly calendar.

The result is that staff can carry out various property management tasks more efficiently and effectively. For example, it will be easy to view all reservations, adjust reservations, move existing bookings, close rooms for set periods, manage existing customers, and add discounts for existing bookings.

Aside from helping hotels manage their properties more effectively, one of the most important advantages of using a PMS is its ability to facilitate growth. While old-fashioned reservation books or spreadsheets may work in smaller properties, they become increasingly problematic in larger hotels. According to the Hotel PMS Market Report by Mordor Intelligence, the global PMS market is projected to reach $1.83 billion by 2028.

The article “Essential Tips to Choose the Right Property Management System” explains PMS systems and how to choose the right one for your property.

Video: Hotel Property Management Systems 

2. Revenue Management System (RMS)

Revenue management systems are almost as essential as property management systems in the modern hotel industry because they pull together information about the market’s status, data from your hotel, and data from other hotels, allowing you to set the right prices at the right time to maximize your revenue.

A robust revenue management strategy involves adjusting prices based on competitors. Without the assistance of a revenue management system, this is a time-consuming, manual process with a high chance of error. Monitoring competitors’ prices 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is also simply not feasible.

The key advantage of an RMS is that it does the hard work for you, tracking rates in real-time, performing complex complications, and allowing you to adjust prices across different channels quickly and easily. As a result, you can speed up revenue management, reduce errors, and maximize your key performance metrics, like RevPAR.

Read more about an RMS system in the article “Revenue Management System (RMS): What Are the Advantages?”

3. Hotel Distribution Channel Manager

While direct bookings are usually the desired option for maximizing revenue, successful hotels also explore other distribution channels, including online travel agents, retail travel agents, and visitor information centers. A distribution channel manager package allows you to manage these channels more effectively.

One key feature is the ability to easily adjust rates across all distribution channels and manage promotions. A distribution channel manager also ensures all distribution partners have up-to-date information regarding your inventory and room availability.

There are numerous advantages to using a distribution channel. Repetitive administrative tasks can be automated, freeing up staff members to do more important jobs, while human errors related to double bookings can also be eradicated. Effective management can also improve relationships with distribution partners. According to the Global Hotel Channel Management Software Market Report by Verified Market Research, the global hotel channel management software market size is projected to reach $531.55 million by 2030.

For more information about hotel distribution channel management software, read “Hotel Distribution Channel Manager: What Are the Advantages?”

4. Rate Shopper Software

As stated, revenue management requires an awareness of your competitors and their strategies, and rate shopper software can help provide precisely that. Using a rate shopper package, you can obtain real-time information and intelligence about your competitors, their rates, and their promotions.

In addition to providing useful intelligence about other hotels, rate shopper software allows you to monitor your hotel’s rankings with online travel agents, track events in your local area, find important statistics, such as average rates for your area, and gain intelligence about the market’s supply and demand.

Ultimately, the primary benefit of using rate shopper software is learning about others operating in the local hotel industry and keeping track of the market’s state. This lets you make more informed, strategic revenue management decisions by anticipating demand and adjusting pricing.

5. Reputation and Review Management Software

Finally, a reputation and review management package is one of the most important software solutions for hotels operating today. These software applications combine online reviews and social media mentions into one centralized location.

By pulling content from potentially hundreds or even thousands of sources into a single place, the software can help you save huge amounts of time and achieve a complete view of your hotel’s online reputation. Additionally, reputation and review management software provides intelligence about competitors’ reputations.

In the modern business world, online reputation management is incredibly important. This applies double to hospitality industry employees because most customers look up reviews and complaints before booking a room. Many of these packages also include built-in response and resolution systems to aid with this.

Hotel Management Software Solutions FAQs

Generally, the best software solutions for hotel management include property management systems (PMS), revenue management systems (RMS), distribution channel managers and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

For room management and distribution, hotels will often use a combination of a property management system and a channel manager. A revenue management system is often used to assist with pricing decisions and forecasting, while customer relationship management software is effective for managing guest interactions.

Five-star hotels and luxury accommodation businesses will often use more sophisticated property management systems, which will offer advanced features related to auxiliary hotel services, like restaurants and spas. High-end software solutions for customer relationship management and revenue management are also likely to be used. For more information about five-star hotels, read “5-Star Hotel: Overview and Features of Five-Star Hotels.”

The front office in a hotel will typically make use of a property management system to assist with check-ins, check-outs, billing and reservations. Specialist applications may also be used for producing reports and creating schedules.

Certain hotel tasks and operations can be fully or partially automated by using software packages with automation features. Automation usually works best when different software solutions can be integrated, allowing for seamless sharing of data. Automation for guests can also be achieved through the use of smart or IoT devices in hotel rooms.

To maximize hotel business results and revenue management success, hospitality industry employees should take advantage of the various software solutions available. These solutions can be used individually or in combination and can help to improve ease, efficiency, and accuracy.

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Revfine.com is a knowledge platform for the hospitality & travel industry. Professionals use our insights, strategies and actionable tips to get inspired, optimise revenue, innovate processes and improve customer experience. You can find all hotel & hospitality tips in the categories Revenue Management, Marketing & Distribution, Hotel Operations, Staffing & Career, Technology and Software.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.