You really just want to focus on business, right? Doing what you do best. And that, by the way, would be the end of the day and the day's work done. Satisfied hotel guests, satisfied hotel management, hospitality on a professional level.
If only the world were that simple!
As the number of visitors increased in the 1970s, IT systems increasingly found their way into hotels and the industry as a whole. Property management and reservation systems (PMS/CRS) were so expensive to purchase, operate and maintain (and sometimes still are) that many hotel rooms had to be managed and many breakfast buffets had to be prepared just to recoup the purchase and annual IT and staff training costs.
After all, when everything is up and running, there has to be peace and quiet. There is a saying among computer scientists that has now also made it into everyday language: Never touch a running system. And as is so often the case, there is a profound truth to such sayings: Don't touch it if it works. "After all, we paid enough for it!" And anyone who once wanted a luxury sedan doesn't spontaneously mothball the Rolls Royce because Tesla is now available. Who can say what tomorrow will bring?
The fact is: 95% of hotel bookings today are made via the Internet. No PMS "stands alone", but another system, the Channel Manager, is required so that the PMS does not remain blind to the digital reality. All requests from the OTAs and, of course, from the company's own booking engine are received by the PMS via the Channel Manager - conversely, the PMS supplies all sales channels via the Channel Manager with the necessary information on inventory and price per booking day. Only the remaining 5% of internal hotel bookings are managed directly by the PMS.
The Channel Manager provides visibility of the inventory to the outside world. The PMS keeps track of everything that happens within the hotel: Therefore, one of its most distinguished functions is management reporting for hotel staff of all departments. Via the reports, the PMS tells the cleaning service when which departures will take place, tells the chef de cuisine how many palates to please, tells the purchasing department which needs to be met. No PMS without extensive management reporting.
Maintaining your own PMS servers costs money, year after year. The Internet brings new technologies all the time. Hotels meet the technical challenges by making the appropriate adjustments to channel managers and PMS. Because that's just how legacy server business looks to customers: Experts with expensive daily rates have to get to the server, supposedly customized solutions have to be installed. It is also a fact that about 90% of hotels and hotel chains have their own PMS servers in their basements. If a hotel needs an urgent extension of the PMS, costs are incurred not only for the PMS itself, but also for the connected systems. Adjustments to PMS and Channel Manager quickly run into the thousands. Plus the annual maintenance fee! A hotel has to have many guests to recoup these costs.
The Internet provides new technical surprises at ever shorter intervals. Who doesn't want to be on the cutting edge of technology and benefit from the latest developments to make more revenue? The concern of many hotels is understandable: You don't just change horses at a gallop, you don't just casually swap one system for another. Even if the new acquisition costs are low, the entire staff must also be retrained!
This is probably one of the main reasons why hotels shy away from integrating their PMS with state-of-the-art business intelligence tools. After all, the manufacturer of the Channel Manager also makes every change or extension costly. But how about being able to connect your BI tool without anyone even touching their PMS?
Every PMS comes with all the functionalities that a BI tool like HQ revenue needs to combine a look inside the hotel with a comprehensive view of the market (and the future of price development). The secret is in management reporting: your PMS already sends automated reports where they are needed. Use the power of your own existing data to take your revenue management to a new level. It's as simple as sending your anonymized report to HQ revenue in encrypted form. At no additional cost.
Who knows what the Internet will bring tomorrow? Are you prepared for it? Yes, you are! In this issue of GRANT, learn how HQ revenue connects all digital worlds - the past of legacy server business - to the future. Without having to relearn or pay for new interfaces.