Your property management system (PMS) is the backbone of your hotel – so why does it sometimes feel like it isn’t pulling its weight? 

Have you ever asked what makes your property management system crash so frequently? For hoteliers, the PMS can be a source of great advantage or anguish depending on how it decides to behave on any given day. From slow performance to unreliable integration and missing data, every hotelier has faced a PMS problem that’s impacted their ability to get the job done.

But there’s no need to struggle on. There are accessible, fast and affordable ways to transform your PMS from frustration to number one asset in managing performance, service and profitability.

Let’s break these down into five simple steps.

1.Performance audit:

This will identify whether your property management system crash woes or other frustrations are caused by an issue or combination of issues that can be quickly rectified. For example, boosting file storage space, reconfiguring settings or updating software may significantly lift performance without needing to go back to the drawing board.

 

2. Integration analysis:

Your PMS is central to service delivery from the moment a guest checks in. So, if it’s not communicating with your other systems, you’re bound to experience problems. Consider having your IT audited to identity integration opportunities and wave goodbye to data and billing headaches.

 

3. Training:

Inconsistent or poor PMS performance can occasionally be put down to how it’s being used. Your colleagues may be going around the houses with basic tasks, or integration tools aren’t used to best effect. Refreshing your team with a training session could immediately help your hotel to get more value from your PMS. This will give time back to colleagues to focus on guest service.

 

4. Cybersecurity audit:

Any PMS spring-cleaning of must be accompanied by a thorough cybersecurity review. Given that your PMS allows you to trade and stores vast amounts of data, a breach could have terrible operational, service and legal consequences.

Ensuring that cybersecurity policies, training and technologies are in place will protect you against costly and time-consuming infection. This allows you to get the most from your PMS without the worry of downtime, lacklustre performance or worse.

 

5. Disaster recovery:

Yes, it’s easy to get frustrated with your PMS when it’s having an off day. But every hotelier would be lost without it should it become inaccessible. Having a comprehensive and regularly tested disaster recovery plan for your business-critical applications means you won’t be thrown into the dark ages in the event of a crash or cyberattack attempt. Disaster recovery should enable you to continue using your PMS via a failover system. This means that you can trade and deliver great service even if your main system or application should fail.

Want more about how to prevent a property management system crash and resolve those daily IT struggles? Download our free IT Guide for Hotels eBook or click here to book a no-obligation hotel IT audit.