The Independent Hotelier's Guide to Property Management System Selection

Business Intelligence, What Is It and How Does It Pertain to Hotel Property Management Systems?

Business Intelligence (BI) is not a new term, but as BI is heard more regularly in the Lodging Industry it is still a mystery to many Hoteliers.

Business Intelligence means gaining business knowledge through the use of technology and turning this data into useful information for your business.  Having the ability to report on data from multiple systems and having access to this information by way of consolidated reporting, with the ability to drill down to analyse information further, enables Hoteliers to make informed business decisions.

Property Management System Vendors are offering their clients better tools to collect data from single, and multiple properties while providing the reporting capabilities required to analyse and review this information.   

Business Intelligence in the Hospitality Industry is improving as systems from multiple vendors are integrated.  A good example of some systems that we are seeing integrated are Property Management Systems, Employee Time Clock Systems, Spa Systems, Point of Sale Systems, Catering Systems and Golf Systems.  The ability to use one Business Intelligence Tool to get current information from all systems when you need it is quite powerful.  Providing Hoteliers with the information quickly, helps to make timely decisions instead of having to wait for the information from each system to be manually compiled.

The integration of unrelated systems is fully dependent on the Business Intelligence Tools available and the different system vendors working together to provide solutions for their customers. 

The key to Business Intelligence tools is that they access information that is stored in a database format and the use of databases is now quite common in a wide variety of Hospitality Systems.  With the availability of more, and better Business Intelligence Tools  being accessible to the Hotelier, business intelligence is a term we will hear more of in the Lodging Industry.    

The results provided by Business Intelligence Tools are only as good as the data that is available to be captured and reported upon, so it is imperative that Hotel Managers ensure that the correct information is going into their Hotel Systems or the end result will not be effective.

RECAP

Decisions are made by people. Data or information is entered into computer systems for most part, by people.  Business Intelligence Tools provide the means to access, sort, and report on this information. The information is useful when it makes sense, is accurate, and is accessible in a timely manner.  This information is analysed by Hoteliers so they can make better business decisions. 

Jeff Sefton

Travel Agent Functionality in the Hotel Property Management System

You can expect that the travel agent section of the Property Management System (PMS) will track the Travel Agents that make bookings for your lodging business and the commission percentage that they will earn for booking a reservation at your Hotel.

The contact information you can expect to enter into the Property Management System for each Travel Agent would be the travel agency name, address, phone number, fax number, email address and the contact name of the agent(s) as well as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) eight digit number which is the main identifier for the travel agency.  Although the International Air Transport Association distributes and maintains the IATA database numbers these IATA numbers are presented by travel agencies verbally when booking hotel reservations for their clients or more often the IATA number accompanies electronic reservations made via Global Distribution Systems (GDS).  

The property management system provides the ability to reconcile Travel Agent bookings in order to pay out commissions to the agencies that make bookings.  The Property Management System will typically offer the functionality to produce cheques, offer an export to another accounting system to produce the cheques, or offer an export to a service company that manages payment to the Travel Agencies for you.

Jeff Sefton

What Do Reporting, and Baking a Cake Have in Common?

When you are baking a cake, it is imperative that you follow the recipe, use all of the ingredients and  use the correct quantity to yield the best result.  Leave out just one ingredient or use the wrong quantity of any of the ingredients and  the result can be disappointing. 

The same holds true for reporting in respect to the data that is input into your property management system. Incorrect or missing data skews the reporting results;  however this can be more than disappointing.  If you are making business decisions based on reports that are created using incorrect or incomplete data, this can have a financial impact on your business.

Let’s take a look at an example of a marketing campaign and reporting.  This campaign has been launched, and a substantial portion of your marketing budget has been allocated to this campaign.  Within your property management system a special rate has been set up that relates directly to this marketing campaign. When a potential guest calls into your your hotel reservation office, the reservation clerk asks qualifying questions during the booking process and determines that this booking relates to this current promotional campaign.  The clerk chooses the appropriate source of business code, market segment and promotional rate for the reservation and inputs complete guest contact information including mailing address and email address.  You then have the information needed to send out a follow-up letter or email campaign for guest satisfaction surveys or perhaps email campaigns relating to future events or special rates to this customer.  Thanks to the accuracy of this particular reservation clerk, further reporting data is complete with an accurate source of business, market segment and rate selected.  This data is now available to yield accurate reporting.

Now let’s look at some factors that may affect why the data can be inaccurate or is incomplete.

• Not all clerks are thorough and consistent in obtaining and entering guest information.

• Reservation staff may be rewarded for volume, however accuracy is secondary.

• Some mandatory fields in a reservation may be bypassed and filled in with numbers or stars.

• When the front desk covers after hours for reservation staff they may not be as well informed.

• Front desk or reservation staff may be rushed and choose the quickest method of input, not the most accurate.

• Staff may be rushed and choose to go back to fill in the appropriate information, they end up unable to as they are too busy for entire shift and it never gets done.

• It’s easy to choose the first item in source of business or market segment list than it is to search for the correct one.

• Staff may choose to input the correct rate amount but do not choose the correct rate name or category.

It is essential to have a process in place that includes consistent training, and an ongoing auditing of  processes that affect your reporting data. 

Staff should be rewarded not just for productivity, but for productivity and accuracy combined, as both are equally important.

Accurate and consistent data can be created if everyone concerned understands the flow of data and the benefits that accurate reporting have on the business.   

Once you have decided on a property management system for your lodging business, the first thing that you want to understand is the data flow and how it affects reporting.  Build a process for best practices with regards to data entry in your new system, monitor it regularly and enjoy your accurate reporting.

Jeff Sefton