A Property Management System (PMS) serves as the lifeblood of any hotel, resort or other lodging property. It is the organization’s central nervous system. To the extent that it facilitates a bi-directional flow of information to achieve mission-critical results, delivering real-time data and reports in the process, the technology platform can also be viewed as the organization’s command-and-control center.

Ideally, a  next-generation PMS should enable hoteliers to centrally manage, track, measure, analyze and optimize the constant flow of information across all parts of the organization in real-time. Ultimately, and most importantly, it should ensure that business operations run as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

As discussed in The 2015 Smart Decision Guide to Hotel Property Management Systems, these operations are largely interconnected. They generally include all front office, bookings and reservations functions, from assigning guests to rooms and maintaining guest folios to coordinating profile changes, posting room charges and maintaining housekeeping status.

They also generally include functions related to concierge and guest services, banquet and conference management, physical inventory, guestroom devices, room maintenance and security management — and, in some cases, golf, spa and other facilities management.

Beyond improving operational performance, a next-generation PMS should play an instrumental role in enhancing the quality of the guest experience. In fact, there may be no better measure of technology performance than the degree to which the new system helps raise the level of overall guest satisfaction. And increased guest satisfaction invariably leads to increased revenue growth.

Working in concert with a PMS, but separately enabled, is a hotel revenue management solution.

Next-generation hotel revenue management is fueled by the rapid growth of big data processing, advanced analytics, demand forecasting and pricing optimization models and next-generation technology platforms. These combined capabilities and technologies are helping to automate the pricing recommendations and decision-making processes that enable not only better inventory management and increased room occupancy, but higher revenues and profitability across all parts of the hotel, resort or other lodging property.

According to The 2016 Smart Decision Guide to Hospitality Revenue Management, the practice of hotel revenue management has gone from being an undertaking with uncertain financial upside potential to being a strategic imperative with predictable revenue outcomes. Indeed, when properly executed, hotel revenue management can be used to deliver very substantial increases in top-line revenue growth and profitability.

In fact, according to new research conducted by Starfleet Research, the implementation of Hospitality Revenue Management results in a 9 percent average increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for large and very large hotels. That percentage increase can translate into millions of dollars in additional profit on an annual basis.

Source: http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article87976.html