Why You Should Have A Relationship With Your Property Management System Vendor

Having good relationships with your vendors is important to your business.

Successful Chefs understand the value of having a good relationship with their vendors, it's essential to providing the best food experience for their customers.  A chef that understands relationships, wants to work with a food supplier (vendor) he trusts, offers him a superior product, delivered on time and at a fair price.  The chef knows that his business depends on serving meals to his customers that keep them coming back, while keeping his and his restaurant's reputation intact.  The vendor in turn knows they keep their customer, the Chef, by having a good relationship and taking care of him.

Their relationship may mean that if the Chef gets in a bind and needs an emergency delivery, his food vendor will go out of his way to look after him, and in return the Chef is a loyal customer, pays his bill on time and treats his vendor with respect.

Something to note here is that the Chef and the Vendor have the relationship, not their respective companies.  Relationships are between people and relationships are about trust.

When you are selecting a property management system vendor, you need to remember that the vendor you select will be supplying your business with a tool that will be an integral part of running your business and looking after your guests.  Your team will be using the system to reserve rooms for your guests, check them in and out of your Hotel, account for charges, manage guest services, special requests, compile guest history, produce reporting, rate/revenue management, forecasting, calculate Travel Agent commissions and much more. Departments such as Front Office, Sales, Housekeeping and others rely on the property management system every day and they also rely on the property management system vendor to provide a good product and a superior level of support.

You can get a feel for the potential property management system team by speaking with as many people in the organization as possible.  Since relationships are between people you want to make sure that the organization as a whole is geared to looking after their clients.  You also need to speak with the vendor's existing clients for references, ask them if they have a good relationship with the vendor team and find out how they are being treated.

If you cannot visualize yourself having a good relationship with your potential property management system team then choose another property management system.

Good luck with your evaluation process and your business relationships.

Jeff Sefton