What Is PMS Integration?
Whether you own a hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, or any other type of lodging property, it isn’t hard to see how every aspect of your operations contributes to your success. An efficient front desk means guests are checked in and out swiftly. An effective housekeeping staff keeps rooms clean and comfortable. A well-built online booking agent means travelers can make their reservations without a hitch. However, just because you understand how all of these elements work together to improve the guest experience doesn’t necessarily mean the software solutions you use to automate them do.
Your property management system (PMS) may be working well enough to keep your day-to-day operations running smoothly, but you’re not getting the full impact unless you integrate it with other tools. PMS integration means information is shared automatically between systems so you save time and avoid troublesome redundancies. Read on to learn more about what makes this valuable for the hospitality sector.
How Hotel PMS Integration Can Work for You
For an example of how this works and why you shouldn’t try to live without it, consider operating your PMS alongside a channel manager separately. A channel manager works to keep your inventory and rates consistent across all of the online travel agents (OTA) on which you’re featured, as well as your website. This means no matter if a guest books a room on Expedia, Tripadvisor, etc., every site is updated instantly and automatically.
If this is not fully integrated into your PMS, it means your staff may need to spend time and energy manually updating every time a new booking is added. Not only does this eat up resources that your personnel should be using to make your guests happy, but it also means the potential for human error becomes significant. Overbooking and charging rates that are too low or too high becomes a matter of when, not if.
On the other hand, if one integrates these functions successfully, you can save yourself from such headaches. You’ll experience fewer double-bookings and overbookings. In addition, your PMS can keep your channel manager up to date with all the latest information about your rates and available inventory of rooms. The channel manager will spread to every single booking platform where travelers can find you.
Where to Begin
If you’re concerned about how well your systems mesh together, the right place to start is with finding a PMS that has the features and capabilities to make it as easy as possible. ThinkReservations gives you a great foundation from which to get started, with our powerful and versatile PMS platform. It is designed from the ground up to be easy to use, giving you the ability to manage a wide range of jobs from a single point of contact.
For example, the reservation calendar presents your current bookings in a format that allows you to see all of the latest information at a glance. Its drag-and-drop functionality means altering reservations on the fly can be done in a snap. The detailed analytics and reports our software provides also empowers you to make the most informed decisions possible and simplify many of your most tedious and time-consuming front-office jobs. It also helps you by automating tasks such as guest emails, rate adjustments, and other functions. Best of all, it integrates smoothly with systems from our partners to create a full-featured solution that delivers everything you and your guests need.
A Complete Range of Solutions
When you choose to integrate our PMS with any of the other software products we provide, you gain a comprehensive lineup of advantages. These can help you offer better service to guests and strengthen your position in the marketplace. When built into a complete system alongside our offerings and those of our partners, you can improve communication with guests, manage your online reputation with ease, craft a focused marketing message, and more. Beyond our PMS, we also offer a booking engine, channel manager, payment processing, and more.
If you’re ready to learn more about everything we can do for you to streamline your property’s operations, reach out to us today. Our entire sales team has real-world lodging experience and we love what we do. We can’t wait to speak with you!