15 Key Features of Hotel Property Management System (Hotel PMS)

Explore 15 essential features that a modern hotel property management system (hotel PMS) should offer and choose the best fitting to propel your hotel forward.

Are you ready to take your hotel to new heights in 2024? If so, it’s time to consider investing in a hotel property management system.  

In today’s fast-paced and competitive hospitality industry, having the right software in place is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for success. A robust hotel PMS can not only enhance the efficiency of your operations but also accelerate the growth of your business. 

In this article, we will explore 15 essential features of a PMS system that can revolutionize your business. Then, you will be equipped with the knowledge to choose the ideal PMS that caters to your specific needs.

I. What is Hotel Property Management System

Hotel property management system enables hotel owners to streamline their administrative tasks while improving their bookings in the short and long term. Initially, PMS software focused on front-desk operations, reservations, channel management, housekeeping, rate and occupancy management, and payment processing.  

Today, hotel PMS technology goes beyond the front desk and has become a vital part of enhancing the overall guest experience. It serves as a comprehensive tool that integrates various functions of the front and back office, providing a centralized software system for hotel operations.  

With a hotel PMS, hoteliers can save time, access real-time information, and improve operational efficiency, all-in-one system. 

There are 3 types of hotel PMS, based on your business type and scale:  

_ Hotel property management system for chains and resorts 

_ PMS for vacation rentals, apartments, guest houses 

_ Hotel management software for small hotels and hostels 

II. Why Having a Hotel PMS so important in 2024

The hotel industry is always changing, and to stay competitive, you need the right tools. A hotel property management system is an indispensable tool for hotel managers and owners. 

Hotel PMS automates administrative tasks like managing room inventory, bookings, and staff scheduling. This saves you time and allows you to focus on other important aspects of your hotel business. A recent study has pointed out that 87% of travel businesses, agents and corporate travel managers wanted more simplified booking processes. That’s why having a PMS for your hotel is undeniable.  

In 2025, the guest experience will be a top priority. Loyal customers are reported to spend 22.4% more and stay 28% longer than others. Guests expect more than just good service and comfort. They want fast check-ins, easy access to amenities, and personalized attention. 

A hotel PMS helps you deliver a great guest experience by automating tasks and providing real-time customer feedback. This allows your staff to quickly respond to guest needs and provide personalized service. Real-time reporting helps you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. 

So that, make sure you have the right hotel property management system in place to stay ahead of the game in 2024 and beyond! 

If you want to explore more about How to create hotel management software: From A-to-Z guide. Explore here.  

III. 15 Key Features of Hotel Property Management System 

Currently, hotel property management systems are used by big hotel chains, small hostels, and everything in between. With these systems, hotels can see the booking status of rooms and control reservations. However, their functionality doesn’t end here. Via PMS, hoteliers can manage back-office processes, food and beverage services, and track room occupancy rates. Let’s take a closer look at the most common functions supported by PMS. 

Core features

1. Central reservation system

As it’s predicted that 76% of total revenue in the tourism industry will be generated through online channels by 2028, online bookings have become the primary sales channel for most hoteliers. A central reservation system allows travel companies to manage all online bookings effectively. 

A hotel reservation system stores all your inventory data and provides a convenient visual overview of your bookings, past, present, and future. It uses a user-friendly drag and drop interface with different colored blocks for organization. 

This system allows you to easily spot any potential scheduling conflicts or issues before they become major problems, giving you the opportunity to address them promptly. 

Moreover, it offers accessible information that can enhance the experience for both your guests and staff. For instance, if you notice that a room has been booked consecutively, but your executive suite is available during those dates, you can offer guests the chance to upgrade at a discounted rate or for free, providing them with a better experience. 

By making guests feel special and offering upgrades, you not only improve their satisfaction but also alleviate some pressure on your housekeeping staff during busy periods.

2. Booking engine for direct distribution

With a booking engine integrated with your hotel PMS, you can seamlessly handle guest reservations through your website, mobile app, or social media platforms. The booking engine receives data from your hotel’s property management system and sends confirmation details to the guest. 

Thanks to this, you can have greater control over how your information is presented and enables you to manage your inventory while avoiding unnecessary commissions from online travel agencies (OTAs). 

Here are some key benefits of using a booking engine: 

_ Improved visibility into your booking data, allowing you to gain valuable insights about your customers and make informed decisions. 

_ Effortless management of your bookings and reservations, helping you stay on top of any changes or cancellations.  

_ Enhanced control over pricing and promotions, enabling you to maximize your return on investment (ROI) and boost revenue. 

_ Seamless integration with other hotel systems, such as property management systems or channel managers, creating a more streamlined and efficient booking process overall. 

3. Channel management

As a hotel owner, it’s crucial to reach as many potential customers as possible. In today’s digital world, this means selling your rooms through different sites, like online travel agencies or websites. Channel management is the process of managing and coordinating all these sales channels to make the most of your available rooms. 

With the channel management feature of the hotel management system, you can easily keep your information up to date across all channels in real-time. This helps you effectively manage your rooms and stay competitive, allowing you to attract more customers and increase your revenue. 

Using a channel manager also offers other benefits, such as: 

_ Better visibility of your sales data and performance on all channels 

_ More control over how your property is listed and presented on each website 

_ Improved pricing strategies based on data analytics and trends 

_ Easy listing and updating of your property information across all channels 

4. Customer data management and CRM module

With the feature of centralizing customer data and leveraging the capabilities, hoteliers can enhance guest satisfaction, personalize their services, and execute targeted marketing campaigns more effectively.  

Besides, to foster guest loyalty, hotel PMS should support the implementation and management of customer loyalty programs. This helps hotels to reward and incentivize repeat guests, enhancing their overall experience. 

Front-office management features 

5. Revenue management

In any sector, revenue is the bottom line and it’s what all hotel stakeholders are most interested in, making revenue trends a constant source of interest.  

A revenue management feature can be incredibly valuable for hotel managers and staff, as it allows them to assess the performance of the hotel using key performance indicators such as ADR (average daily rate), RevPAR (revenue per available room), and GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room). 

In addition to revenue management, a good hotel PMS system also includes rate plan management. With this feature, hotels can swiftly create and implement room rate plans, enabling managers to easily respond to changes in demand.  

With a comprehensive hotel property management system, you can gain insights on various aspects to increase your business revenue, including: 

_ The best-performing channels for different customer segments 

_ Customer behavior and regional demand trends 

_ The rates at which each room gets sold across different channels 

_ Seasonality trends across various channels 

_ Different booking patterns for each room category 

6. Payment management

It is very important to provide a seamless and hassle-free payment experience for your customers. One way to achieve this is by implementing an auto-payment system. Auto-payment streamlines the payment process by automatically charging guests on specified dates, eliminating the need for manual input or effort on your part.  

By utilizing auto-payment in your hotel, you can enjoy several advantages:
_ Greater financial control for your business. With automatic payment schedules, you can avoid the risk of late payments or missed charges, ensuring a steady cash flow. 

_ Say goodbye to the tedious task of manually processing payments and chasing overdue payments. This feature takes care of these tasks for you, freeing up your time to focus on other important aspects of your business. 

_ Auto-payment feature makes the booking and payment process effortless for your guests. It can make their reservations and complete payments with ease, resulting in a smooth and satisfying experience. 

_ With auto-payment, all charges are automatically recorded in your system, making the reconciliation of sales data simpler and more accurate 

7. Check-in/ check-out functionality

Digital check-in and check-out functionality is an increasingly popular feature offered by hotel PMS. It allows guests to conveniently check-in and check-out using their mobile app or self-service check-in machines, providing a seamless and efficient experience. 

With digital check-in, guests can have their payment cards authorized in advance, enabling them to arrive at the hotel and proceed directly to their rooms without the need for manual check-in at the reception desk. This not only saves time for guests but also improves the overall speed and efficiency of the check-in process. 

The hotel property management system automatically updates the check-in and occupancy information, keeping everything synchronized. This real-time updating ensures that the hotel staff has accurate and up-to-date information about room availability and guest status. 

Benefits you can get thanks to this feature:  

_ Digital check-in eliminates the need for guests to wait in line at the reception desk, resulting in a faster and smoother check-in process.  

_ Through the mobile app used for check-in, hotels can communicate important information and updates to guests directly (hotel amenities, special offers, and personalized messages, creating a more tailored and engaging guest experience, …) 

_ Hotels can offer additional services or upgrades to guests during the check-in process. For example, the app can showcase available room upgrades or promote special packages, allowing hotels to maximize revenue and enhance the guest experience. 

8. Marketing campaign management automation

This marketing feature refers to the ability of the system to automate and streamline marketing campaigns for hotels, allowing hoteliers to create, execute, and analyze marketing campaigns more efficiently and effectively. 

Hoteliers can automate various marketing tasks, such as email marketing, lead tracking, and scoring, as well as the creation and management of landing pages. The PMS can also integrate with other marketing tools and platforms, allowing for seamless execution of campaigns across multiple channels. 

What’s more, the automation feature enables hoteliers to schedule and send targeted email campaigns, track customer engagement. It also provides the ability to segment customer data and personalize marketing messages. That’s why hotel owners can deliver more relevant and tailored marketing content to their guests while boosting customer loyalty. As loyalty members contribute around 30-60% of room revenue, this feature is truly necessary.  

9. Ancillary services management

These days, numerous hotels provide ancillary services such as amenities, facilities, and offerings such as restaurants, spas, gyms, room service, and more. 

Hotel property management system enables hoteliers to efficiently manage, and track transactions related to these ancillary services.  

This feature allows staff members to handle billing, track inventory, and update guest accounts for services availed. It also ensures that all charges for ancillary services are accurately recorded and added to the guest’s bill. 

10. Analytics and reporting

All hotel owners use analytics to keep track of what’s happening in their business and how well it’s doing. A hotel PMS is like a smart tool that helps hotel owners by gathering important hotel information and giving them different kinds of automated reports.  

Depending on the software, it can make reports about things like what happened during the night, the money guests pay for their rooms, checks on shifts, when guests arrive or leave, the status of housekeeping, and other regular updates. 

Back-office management features 

11. Housekeeping management

In the past, if you wanted to know the status of your hotel rooms, you had to talk to your housekeeping staff, which could be a slow and inefficient process. But now, there are tools available for housekeeping management that let you track room status in real-time. 

One important feature of these tools is the ability to see the status of each room, such as whether it has been cleaned, if a guest has checked out, if they’re staying another night, or if new guests are arriving. This helps you prioritize which rooms need to be cleaned first, based on how many guests are staying and their specific needs. 

Along with room status, another useful tool is the ability to add notes for your housekeeping staff. This allows you to give them additional instructions, communicate any changes in service requirements, and keep track of the progress of their work. Having this communication tool helps ensure that everyone is on the same page and that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively. 

12. Staff management

Staff management feature assists with various aspects of staff management, including: 

_ Create and manage staff schedules, assign shifts, and track attendance 

_ Assign tasks to specific staff members or departments and track their progress 

_ Enhance internal communication and collaboration among staff members 

_ Monitor staff performance, such as tracking response times, guest satisfaction ratings, or productivity metrics 

13. Events, meetings, conferences management

Hoteliers can efficiently manage and track events, meetings, and conferences, including the booking of conference rooms, meeting spaces, banquet halls, and other facilities required for such events thanks to this hotel property management software’s feature.  

You can more easily handle:  

_ Booking and reservation process for events, meetings, and conferences. 

_ Scheduling and managing events, meetings, and conferences 

_ Billing and invoices 

_ Attendee information 

_ Resource allocation 

Third-party integration features 

14. Point-of-sale (POS) service

Nowadays, modern hotels offer a variety of additional amenities, services, and outlets where guests can make purchases. These transactions need to be recorded and added to the guest’s final bill, which is presented during check-out. That’s why having a hotel property management system with POS is crucial. 

With this integration feature, the staff at the hotel’s restaurant, gym, spa, and room service can easily handle transactions and update the guest’s bill accordingly.  

Hotel PMS system should also allow for discounts to be applied when applicable. The advantage of having these services integrated into the property management system is that it reduces the likelihood of errors and streamlines the handling of transactions. 

15. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration

ERP integration feature is comprehensive software platforms used by businesses to manage and integrate various aspects of their business operations. 

In the context of a hotel PMS, the ERP integration feature allows for the exchange of data and information between the PMS and the ERP system. This integration enables the synchronization of critical business processes and data across different departments and functions within the hotel.

IV. What to Consider When Choosing a PMS For Your Hotel

When it comes to selecting a hotel property management system for your hotel, there are several factors to consider. The choice of a PMS depends on the size and type of your hotel property, as different systems have their own sets of core features and additional modules. 

Here are some key considerations to keep in mind: 

1. You should check integration options

Before deciding, it’s important to ensure that the hotel PMS you choose can integrate with other systems and platforms that are essential for your hotel’s operations. Consider some integrations such as: 

_ OTA 

_ Channel managers 

_ Payment gateways 

_ Other third-party software 

2. You should consider a PMS solution with mobile access

In today’s digital era, it’s beneficial to opt for a cloud-based PMS that offers mobile access. Cloud solutions eliminate the need for on-premises servers, providing flexibility and scalability. 

And, with mobile access, you and your staff can access the PMS from anywhere, allowing for real-time updates, improved communication, and efficient management even while on the go.

3. You should prioritize ease of use

Your system should be easy to navigate and understand, ensuring that your staff can quickly adapt and utilize its features without extensive training to promote efficiency, reduce errors, and enhance overall productivity. 

4. You should consider customer support and maintenance

Reliable customer support and ongoing maintenance are essential for smooth hotel property management software experience.  

Look for a provider that offers responsive customer support, including timely assistance, troubleshooting, and regular software updates. This ensures that any issues or concerns can be addressed promptly, minimizing downtime and maximizing the system’s performance.

V. Today’s Hotel Property Management System: On-going Trends

The hospitality industry is constantly evolving, driven by advancements in technology. These developments aim to optimize daily operations and adapt to the demands of a digitized world.  

_ API-first: Property management systems are shifting towards cloud-based platforms and adopting an API-first approach. The use of open APIs enhances connectivity and allows for more efficient communication between various systems.  

For a detailed overview of travel API in hotel, you can refer to our comprehensive guide  

_ AI-powered: AI and ML have made their way into the hospitality industry. Hotel property management systems are incorporating AI technologies, particularly in areas such as business intelligence, revenue management, and guest service. AI-driven solutions, such as chatbots and e-concierges, enhance guest experiences and streamline operations. 

_ Internet of Things (IoT): This technology, which includes in-room controls and facial recognition systems, is often based on IoT connections. To effectively manage and control these smart devices, they need to be connected to the hotel’s central operation center, which is the hotel property management system.

VI. Adamo – A Premier Travel and Hospitality Software Development Partner for Your Hotel PMS

At Adamo Software, a leading software development company in Vietnam specializing in the travel and hospitality industry, we prioritize timely market launches and provide cost-effective software solutions for both small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations. Our team is readily available to allocate the necessary human resources for your software development projects. 

This article aims to assist you in selecting the most suitable hotel property management software by highlighting 15 essential features that a PMS should possess. 

If you are considering developing a custom hotel property management system, you can reach out to us today. Our team is ready to assist you in creating a tailored solution that meets your specific needs.