Tnooz.com published an article titled ‘Trends in the purchase of hotel technology show a shift to cloud systems’ that we thought would be good to share with you.

Improvements in hotel technology is accelerating, as hotels want to think less about behind the scenes actions and rather focus more on guests.

The following is information from a research by a purchasing advice company Software Advice: ‘Hotel Management Buyer Report - 2017,’ which looks at current hotel management software buyer behaviour.

The latest report shows that 96% of hotel software buyers, particularly independent hotels are now looking at cloud-based systems as it provides lower investment costs and is much more flexible.

The research ‘also identifies the most popular software functionality most hotels use to attract guests, facilitate direct bookings and improve the guest experience,’ writes tnooz.com.

Key findings of the research:

1. Hotel management system adoption has increased by 2% over the past two years.

2. 62% of buyers are wanting to replace problematic software, while 38% of new users would like to automate and increase organisation.

3. 96% of HMS buyers are opting for web-based deployment - hotels are almost entirely in the cloud.

The HMS adoption removes the old use of pen and paper, use of spreadsheets, as well as the need to click around different windows or log-in and out of different programs, as HMS serves as an all-in-one system. Its functionality includes:

Reservation management
Revenue management
Channel management
Guest relationship management
Point-of-sale

‘For HMS seekers, a combined 62% cite specific problems with the software - it’s old, it lacks features or it’s hard to use - as their reason for shopping around. Another 27% are just starting out and want a new system to help them stay organised from the beginning,’ writes tnooz.com.

The following is a graph that displays the buyers’ must-have functionalities:

About 148 million travel bookings are made online per year and that is 57% of all travel reservations made in a year. While 65% of same-day reservations are made on a smartphone.

As travellers shop for hotels and book online, it is advisable for you to use an online booking engine to get your property in front of them during their research and booking journey.

Tnooz.com advises that an online booking engine also offers other useful capabilities:

Customization and branding. Most OBE vendors allow hotels to embed the engine within a branded landing page, so guests stay engaged with your specific logos and themes throughout the booking experience.

Image gallery. In addition to logos, hotels can also insert professional photos and galleries into the page to show off your rooms and amenities.

Real time pricing and inventory. The rates and availability of rooms are pulled from the HMS directly, minimizing double bookings or other guest inconveniences.

The access the full report, click here.

To read the source article, click here.