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Consumers today are more comfortable with technology solutions than ever before. The mass adoption of mobile devices (i.e., smartphones) is a major reason why. But hardware is only half the answer. The other half is the explosion of high-quality, web-based softwares.
Modern web-based business software is commonly referred to as 'software-as-a-service' (or SaaS). The advantages of SaaS solutions are that they are affordable, easy to implement and never out of date.
Today, even business verticals that are usually slow to update their technology stacks, like the hotel industry, are reaping the benefits of this software revolution.
Hotel software tools can now streamline and improve operations across every department at a property — from the front desk to the back office.
But, with so many software options available, it can be a challenge for hoteliers to discover which types — and which providers — are the most effective at meeting the needs of their properties.
In this post, we’ll cover why hoteliers need to invest in modern technology solutions and examine the 10 most essential software tools and providers of 2022.
These include:
Just because the hospitality industry is literally older than recorded history, doesn’t mean that hoteliers today can ignore modern business practices or consumer behaviors. All consumers — including hotel guests — have gotten more used to engaging with a business through a digital environment. But it isn’t just for the sake of guest satisfaction that hoteliers need to deploy modern solutions. To remain competitive and maximize revenue, up-to-date technology is now an absolute must.
Let’s now take a quick look at some of the key areas in which the right hotel software can have a big impact.
More people than ever are paying for hotel rooms with debit and credit cards. And this means hoteliers are constantly working with sensitive data. The problem is, data thieves are always lurking. In July of 2022, Marriott International confirmed that it lost 20 gigabytes of sensitive data to hackers. Unfortunately, this also included guest credit card information. The right hotel software can help protect against these threats and ensure you are up to date with the latest security standards.
The correct combination of hotel software solutions can make staff much more efficient across a property. And this is especially true for departments like the front office and housekeeping. Making these departments more efficient can help hotels provide the same great guest experience with fewer staff. This can be particularly important during a labor shortage or inflationary period.
An excellent guest experience is one of the most important elements of any successful hotel. And the software deployed at a property that guests interact with can make or break that experience. This is why it’s important for hotel’s to opt for guest-facing software solutions, like Contactless Check-In and Guest Messaging, that are easy-to-use and offer a low barrier to entry (i.e., no app downloads, no new hardware, etc.).
Also, it’s important to note that consumers actually want to engage with technology solutions during their stay that streamline administrative processes and provide more autonomy. A recent Oracle and Skift study found 73 percent of travelers are more likely to stay in a hotel that offers self-service technology.
Hotel finance and sales team are very familiar with the challenges of demand forecasting and growing revenue. However, today’s web-based software solutions can make these tasks easier than ever. They also enjoy regular updates, so you know your toolset will keep up with the latest revenue management trends.
Fraud and chargebacks can cost hotels thousands of dollars per year and a lack of proper modern hotel software can make the problem even worse. In fact, many hotels still use paper forms to process credit card authorizations even though they are no longer PCI compliant. Being out of PCI compliance makes it almost impossible to ever win a chargeback. It also increases the likelihood that a hotel will become a victim of fraud. However, modern digital solutions can bring hoteliers into compliance and provide various levels of fraud detection. This helps hoteliers prevent most chargebacks and win them if/when they happen.
Now that we've covered the areas of a hotel business that modern software can affect, let’s look at the 10 most essential tools for any property. The recommended providers of these tools were included in this list based a variety of criteria, including:
Let’s dive in…
A Guest Management System (GMS) is an integrated suite of guest-facing, web-hosted software products. These solutions generally act as a conduit between hotel staff and guests and are used to streamline communication and tasks of all kinds.
Canary Technologies offers the industry’s leading guest management system for hoteliers and other lodging property operators.
Qualifying Criteria:
Built on top of a robust PCI compliant architecture, Canary’s GMS helps hotels drive more revenue, enhance the guest experience, increase 4- and 5-star reviews, reduce chargebacks and fraud, and improve staff efficiency.
A Property Management System (PMS) can be thought of as the hotel software equivalent of a nervous system. It’s within a PMS that hotel staff members will handle many of the day-to-day tasks that are involved in the operation of a hotel including managing reservations, guest check-ins and checkouts, room assignments, room rates, billing and analytics.
One of the most widely used and comprehensive PMSs is OPERA by Oracle. Oracle Hospitality created its OPERA Cloud Property Management product to simplify IT and centralize data, making key information accessible to all of the relevant players at a property.
Qualifying Criteria:
OPERA Cloud Property Management boasts an open architecture, built-in integration services, and open APIs to accelerate innovation and exceed the needs of hoteliers.
A Central Reservation System (CRS) is a type of software that enables hoteliers to manage inventory and rates in real time and push that data across multiple distribution channels. A CRS is what allows hotel operators to handle guest reservations more effectively and acts as a single source of truth that ensures guests aren’t overbooking through any given channel.
SynXis Central Reservations is one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use CRSs on the market today.
Qualifying Criteria:
SynXis is available in eight languages and enables you to enforce unique, fine-tuned distribution strategies that reach the broadest points of distribution in the industry.
When used effectively, a Booking Engine can be one of the most valuable types of software that a hotel can invest in. Booking engines are special applications that connect a property’s website to their CRS and PMS. When a guest lands on the website, the booking engine provides the user interface that guests will actually use to make a reservation. Any booking engine used by a hotelier must fit comfortably in the design of the property’s website and seamlessly integrate well with the other components in a hotel technology stack.
SiteMinder is consistently ranked as one of the best booking engines on the market and widely used by hotels all over the world.
Qualifying Criteria:
With an award-winning pedigree, hoteliers can be sure that this tried-and-true platform will help maximize their direct bookings. SiteMinder is designed from the ground up to optimize every step of the direct hotel booking experience.
A Market Intelligence Platform enables hoteliers to get crucial insights into industry trends and their surrounding competitive set (compset). These software tools provide real-time hotel booking intent to uncover new revenue opportunities through the use of millions of unique data points.
A solid market intelligence platform is extremely useful for planning future business operations and critical for calculating key hotel KPIs that require outside compset data, such as market penetration index (MPI) and revenue generation index (RGI).
OTA Insight’s Market Insight solution offers one of the most comprehensive market intelligence platforms for hoteliers and other lodging industry professionals.
Qualifying Criteria:
Aggregating data across OTAs, GDSs, flight data, holidays, alternative lodging and meta review sites data, Market Insight enables hoteliers to quickly grasp market demand pre-booking and make informed decisions about their properties.
A Revenue Management Software (RMS) is used by hoteliers to determine the appropriate price for a specific type of room, at a specific point in time, in a specific channel to maximize revenue and profitability for their properties.
To accomplish this, RMSs look at historical and current data from a wide range of sources and cross-check these figures with demand forecasts to recommend rates for each customer and room type across distribution channels. It’s been reported that hotels that start to use an RMS can see 7-20% increases in RevPar.
Duetto provides modern hoteliers with one of the world’s most innovative revenue management systems and is used by thousands of hotels all over the world to reliably increase their revenue.
Qualifying Criteria:
Duetto’s RMS is powered by Open Pricing, flexible automation, and demand-based forecasting. The platform empowers revenue teams to deploy and scale profitable strategies while driving incremental customer value through real-time data integrations and alignment across departments.
Listing Management Software is used by all kinds of entrepreneurs to keep important facts about their businesses consistent across various public profiles. In the hospitality space, the important public profiles hoteliers should worry about the most include OTAs and GDSs, along with review profiles like Google Business and TripAdvisor. Any successful local SEO marketing strategy will include the use of a listing management software.
Listing management software acts as a single source of truth for basic information about your hotel that every guest would want to know (e.g., name, address, phone number, business photos, etc.). These tools enable hoteliers to update content across every demand partner simultaneously from one centralized location.
Headquartered in India, RateGain was founded in 2004. Its Content Management System is a widely trusted platform for listings management solutions and is one of the world’s largest processors of electronic transactions for travel and hospitality.
Qualifying Criteria:
RateGain enables hotel operators of all kinds to easily manage important information about their business across key channels to improve customer confidence and increase bookings.
Digital Tipping is one of the newest softwares to appear on the hospitality technology scene.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospitality industry suffered a historic staffing shortage that put a fresh focus on ways to attract and retain hotel staff. Additionally, guests today (and consumers at large) say they carry less cash than ever — cash that traditionally could have been used to leave a tip with a concierge or housekeeper.
In this environment, Digital Tipping emerged as one of the most effective ways to deal with this problem.
Canary Technologies provides one of the industry’s leading digital (or “mobile”) tipping solutions. Canary’s tipping software is available as either a standalone product or an integrated element of its Guest Management System.
Qualifying Criteria:
Canary’s Digital Tipping solution is available as a standalone product or as an integrated part of the platform’s comprehensive Guest Management System.
Large events can be a challenge to manage for the F&B/Catering and Sales Departments at a property. However, a full-powered customer relationship management (CRM) solution designed specifically for hotels that integrates with the rest of your technology stack can make everything much more manageable and efficient.
Amadeus Sales & Event Management (Delphi) is a full-service, cloud-native solution that empowers sales and catering teams to quickly respond to customer inquiries from anywhere.
Qualifying Criteria:
Amadeus Sales & Event Management (Delphi) is a favorite among catering teams and comes highly recommended by industry professionals.
Though not related to the day-to-day operations of a hotel, a property’s marketing efforts are equally important to its bottom line. There are a variety marketing tools that help help a hotel drive more bookings (both direct and indirect) and loyalty sign-ups across a brand or portfolio. And it’s important for hoteliers to choose those tools wisely.
TripTease is a complete hotel marketing platform that enables hoteliers to get more bookings at a lower cost.
Qualifying Criteria:
Increasing direct hotel bookings is one of the most effective ways for hoteliers to drive more revenue for their property. TripTeases marketing solutions enable them to do exactly that.
The modern guest expects a digital-first experience when they engage with hotel properties. Forward-thinking hoteliers clearly need to embrace this new reality to thrive, but guest-facing technology isn’t the only area in which hoteliers need to modernize. The back-office and other departments can heavily benefit from the introduction of modern hotel software.
For more information on how to modernize your hotel technology stack, reach out to a Canary specialist today to learn more about the benefits of web-based tech solutions.
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