Property Management System (PMS) for hotels
Hotel Property Management System is a computerised system that helps the hotel to maintain its most important resources like room inventory, stores, accounts, banquet hall or function hall booking, call record handling, and POS billing etc.
USE OF Hotel Property Management System
In hotels Hotel Property Management System PMS are used to cover basic objectives such as coordinating the operational functions of Front Office, sales, and planning etc. and administrating reservations and managing hotel inventory, and to unify the front and back office management and also to improve general management functions such as accounting, budgeting, finance, marketing and research and planning and also forecasting and yield management, payroll, personnel and purchasing areas.
Use of internet has reduced the capital and operational cost of hotel operations drastically. It cuts down the reservation costs, and costs involved in area such as printing, stores, administration, brochures and other promotional material. Internet connectivity with GDS of the hotel such as THISCO (The Hotel Industry Switch Company) and WIZCOM systems have emerged to provide interface between the various systems and to enable a certain degree of transparency. This reduces the setup cost and reservation costs, both. While facilitating reservations through several distribution channels.
Unfortunately small and medium sized, independent, seasonal and family run hotels do not get the benefits such as cost reduction and competitive enhancement because of lack of capital for the purchase of hardware and software, insufficient marketing prowess, inadequate technological training and understanding, small size with no economics of scale, and the unwillingness of the owner to lose control over their property. To overcome such problems destination based collaborations that encourage small firms to pool resources together, should be established to share development and operation costs to the benefit of all providing direct access to target markets at an affordable price.
THE TOTAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT SOLUTION SYSTEM also includes Hotel Property Management System
People may be comfortable with technology that allows them to depend upon when and where they still want the option to deal with human beings on occasions. Any technological enhancement that impedes guest comfort – no matter how much money it saves – is not a profitable solution for hotels. Thus the technology should be so developed so as to improve efficiency and provide the guests with a unique hotel experience.
A total hotel management operation system or Hotel Property Management System should normally include: (1) Front office system, and (2) Back office system, which includes five main areas such as (a) Financial accounting system, (b) Material management system, (c) Personnel management system, (d) Food and beverage cost control system, and (e) Management information system.
Front Office System
The system should include the following aspects:
Reservations
The reservations system handles all reservation and related activities within a hotel. This subsystem allows for individual (F.I.T). tour group, conference and miscellaneous group bookings to be made for any date in the future. The reservation accounting function allows for advance deposit handling and transfer of charges to future reservations. Room availability is also checked for every reservation request, depending on room type and number of rooms requested. It handles room-wise, type-of-room-wisc and name-wise enquiry, makes the accept/refuse decisions and may also prepare letters for confirmation, refusal, etc. The reservations system handles deposits and generates necessary reports. Its a very important part of Hotel Property Management System.
Guest History
The guest history system provides for a personal, thoughtful and efficient guest service and hospitality. Personal histories on each individual guest are compiled, maintained and updated automatically. This information is available for review by the Front Office Staff.
Registrations
The registration system is linked by information transfer from the reservation system. Pre- registration. guest rooms assignment and on-line room status inquiry facilitates faster check-in. It has very powerful features for inquiry on in-house guest information. It also handles group registration key cards and electronic keys and handles walk-in arrival within Hotel Property Management System.
Guest Accounting, Departure and Payment
The guest accounting system provides for accurate, on-line posting of guest charges. Split multiple folios with specific billing instructions can be set up for each guest if required. Speedy group check-out is possible with the group auto-printing, settlement and check-out features, master and split folios, bills inspection, unposted charges, foreign exchange, voucher control, receipts, payment methods.
Housekeeping
The housekeeping system allows for constant updating of room status within the hotel. An interface with EPABX is also there.
Telephone Operator
The telephone operator system is also included with Hotel Property Management System enables operators to have easy access to information about all in-housc guests, expected arrivals and departures. An optional interface with the FPABX system should allow for automatic posting of telephone charges to guest folios.
Banquet
The banquet module of Hotel Property Management System is an unique system that caters to banquet reservations. The extensive inquiry capability of the banquet system gives information on booking positions for any particular hall, function, day or time. Billing and posting of transactions to the sales ledger also should be handled by this module.
Points-of-sale
The points-of-sale system is designed for the complete order-taking and cashiering functions at any outlet. A POS System, a core foundational application, can enhance decision-making, operational control, guest service, and revenues. However, not all POS systems offer the same features and potential for profi improvement. The purpose of this section is to discuss those factors that are critical to POS system selection for table service restaurants.
Application & the uses of information technology in the hospitality industry
