The path for any business to achieve economic success is to streamline operational processes and ensure a good reputation.
At first glance, these two objectives may seem contradictory, but in reality, they positively reinforce each other: if time can be saved, more time can be dedicated to the customer, thus improving the establishment's reputation and increasing sales and profit margin.
Hoteliers know this, and that's why they have been adapting their tools to solutions whose modules are interconnected to achieve time savings. This is why all-in-one systems are successful, as they allow controlling the entire process from reservation sales to billing in a single system. The next step in this integration is also connecting the hotel's point of sale systems.
Let's see the state of the technology: Integrated online sales
All-in-one systems connect the main management system (PMS) with direct online sales modules (booking engine) and indirect sales modules (channel manager) using the same source of information for all. Clearly, this centralization has great advantages, allowing to maximize sales, streamline the check-in process, improve business control, and overall, improve operational margin.
In other words, with all-in-one systems, almost everything can be automated. For example, there is no longer a need to guess whether the inventory can be increased on OTAs. Since the channel management module has access to all reservation information, it can directly control the inventory without human intervention. And when a reservation is made, there is no need to copy data to enter it into the system. Reservations from both the booking engine and the channel manager are entered directly into the PMS with all their data. If the customer changes or cancels their reservation, the system acts on its own. Business control is super easy, as there is no need to collect data to see how sales, payments, occupancy, etc. are going; all the information is available with a click of a mouse.
We also integrate on-site sales
Some all-in-one systems go further and also connect the point of sale terminals with the hotel management system. This way, costs for, for example, the bar, restaurant, or sauna can be directly charged to the guest's room.
This obviously saves a lot of time for the hotelier and provides convenience for the guest. It also provides greater control over revenue and perhaps even more importantly, allows for point of sale terminals with staff who do not need to handle money or make payments.
Complete and integrated: The advantages are clear. Integration provides great benefits. All-in-one systems are the solution for hoteliers.