Hotels – Maintain Rate Parity With Ease With AIO CRS & PMS

Rate parity refers to the practice of maintaining consistent and same rates for the same room types across all the distribution channels platforms whether it is the hotel’s own website or OTAs, irrespective of the commission percentages being charged by an OTA. Hotels and OTAs both have to agree to rate parity norms while signing up with an OTA.

The practice of rate parity is there to safeguard the interests of the OTAs. If rate parity did not exist, hotels could keep very low prices on their websites and thus more and more people would start booking from the hotel website, effectively cutting out OTAs from business.

Challenges Relating to Rate Parity
Rate parity can pose several challenges for small and new hotels. In small hotels, the profit margins are usually thin and it can become difficult to pay hefty commission fees to OTAs on the room bookings.

If hotels do not want to associate with OTAs and want to do direct bookings, they would need to do lot of promotions in order to bring in more customers. Moreover competing with OTAs for prices can be super-difficult for any hotel since OTAs have been known to sometimes reduce prices below the agreed-upon amount by reducing their commissions. This can pose a big problem for the hotels as people would hesitate to book directly from the hotel website and would prefer to book through the OTA channel due to the price difference and also for other reasons and benefits.

So hotels are not left with much choice but to try their best to maintain rate parity across all the channels, otherwise they may stand to lose more than they can gain in the short run. However this again poses potential challenges.

Maintaining rate parity across multitude of platforms is usually not easy. In order to overcome the problems of constantly checking, updating and maintaining same rates across multiple platforms and systems, hotels need to invest in reliable PMS and CRS systems.

Check out our amazing range of reasonably priced and highly powerful software solutions including hotel PMS and CRS.

Improve OTA Placements With CRS – Save Thousands of $$$ on Commissions

Many people search and book hotel rooms through online travel agents (OTAs). It is estimated that more than 80% of online hotel bookings in the USA are done through major OTA channels like Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz and others.

For this reason many hotels register with the OTAs in order to increase exposure to their property and get more bookings. However due to the huge impact of the OTAs, the hotels become kind of slaves to them and also have to pay hefty commissions whenever booking happens through an OTA channel.

To get better rankings and exposure, hotel owners need to make direct contact with these channels, with direct merchant agreements. Regular GDS is not sufficient in most cases to provide you premium positions and listings on these channels.

This is where Central Reservation System (CRS) can help you by providing a direct interface with the leading OTA networks. With CRS, you won’t even need a channel management interface. A CRS has direct connections with all of the major GDS in the world, including Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus, Pegasus, etc.

With the help of CRS you can eliminate third party middlemen. CRS systems can help you offer packages to guests. CRS can be extremely beneficial for hotels which are highly dependent on travel agents or those properties which would like to increase exposure for increased business potential.

AIO Hospitality has great CRS solutions which has tons of amazing features. The cost is very affordable and reasonable. We pride ourselves in being able to provide latest, state-of-the-art technological solutions for hotels. Our CRS provides direct connection to Sabre, Pegasus, Innlink, and all major OTA channels. Our CRS has real time synchronization across all the channels in order to maintain rate parity.

Hotels can save thousands of dollars every year by using a CRS. It is a highly potent tool which can help hotels generate more bookings, increase their profits by saving thousands of dollars in commissions and other fees.

Why Hotels Should Choose Cloud PMS Instead of Local Onsite PMS

What is The Difference Between Cloud PMS and Onsite PMS
A local PMS or onsite PMS is installed on your property, at one or more computers. You can only access the PMS application from the computer where it resides. On the other hand a cloud based PMS exists online. You don’t have to install anything on your local machines.

To access online PMS you just need a good internet connection and the login credentials. You can access the cloud PMS from any machine or device. You can access it from any location in the world, even when you are not there physically at your hotel property. You don’t need to be present at your hotel.

Why Cloud PMS Is The Future
You may be traveling hundreds of miles away from your hotel and can still access the PMS, generate reports and check various activities. Another beautiful thing about cloud PMS besides not being restricted by physical boundaries, is the security part.

The cloud PMS resides on a safe and secure server. The PMS companies usually adhere to high security protocols and take steps to ensure maximum protection to the PMS data from threats such as hacking attacks, malware, spyware and other issues.

When you have a traditional legacy PMS that is installed locally on your hotel property, you will be responsible for maintaining its security. If the computer crashes, on which the PMS is present, you may lose tons of valuable and historical data unless you take regular backups.

All this security maintenance and data backup work can be very labor intensive and time consuming. You may need to recruit full-time technical employees or hire an outside firm to manage all these tasks for you. On the other hand, the cloud PMS can eliminate all these hassles. You won’t have to lift a finger while the PMS company takes care of all the security needs as well as taking timely backups of your important business data.

Many Hotels Are Stick Stuck With Legacy Systems
As you can see there are many major benefits of cloud based PMS over a traditional one. Still it is surprising to note how many hotels are stuck with legacy systems. They have not transitioned to the cloud PMS model. In USA and UK alone, it is estimated that just around 30% hotels have moved over to cloud technology while the remaining hotels continue with the age-old legacy technology.

There could be many reasons why hotels are not keen on making the shift. The fear of losing years of data could be one issue holding them back. The hoteliers may be afraid that moving all the data across the systems can be very complex, difficult, time-consuming or expensive. Or they may be uncertain how the cloud PMS will perform, whether it will be complex or user-friendly to operate, whether it will be reliable or not.

Another major fear that could be holding hotels back could be the cost factor. Many cloud PMS companies out there may be charging excessive amounts. Let us assure you all the above fears may be unnecessary. AIO Hospitality has a powerful cloud-based hotel PMS that can do wonders. It is not at all expensive, complex or difficult. We can assist and guide you in transitioning from your legacy system.

For a cost-effective, reliable and powerful cloud PMS solution get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Traditional PMS Vs Cloud PMS – Why Hotels Are Switching to Cloud PMS

Traditional hotel systems and PMS come with limited access. You can only access the application from a particular computer. However a modern cloud-based PMS, like the powerful AIO PMS system, overcomes this debilitating limitation and allows you access while on the go.

As you are attending to the guests or moving about in the hotel you can access the cloud based PMS from your mobile device or from any computer device that is nearby. With just a decent internet connection you can now stay connected to the PMS 24*7!

Traditional Vs Cloud PMS – Why Cloud PMS Is Superior

Cloud PMS solutions come with many benefits when compared to their traditional counterparts.

Traditional PMS are usually installed on a single or a few computers. To access them you have to be near that computer. The benefit of cloud based PMS system is that it gives you access anytime, anywhere so that you can efficiently carry out your activities.

Not just that, the AIO cloud-based PMS lets you manage a whole chain of hotels. If you are a hotel owner or manager you can conveniently generate reports and check all activity even when you are out of town.

Another area where the cloud based PMS is superior is security. Since the application is hosted on the cloud, there will be no effect if your local computer crashes. You need not worry about maintaining the security of your computer or protect the computer from viruses, etc.

The cloud server hosting the PMS will already have latest and high-quality security systems in place. There may be frequent security scans and checks, security upgrades and other activities undertaken by the cloud company. There is no manual intervention needed on your part.

So the security is taken care of without you having to lift a finger or hire an expensive security firm to look into it. Security worries are lifted off you so that you can focus purely on your business.

AIO is proud to be a Cloud PMS provider. We have a super-powerful PMS application which is feature-rich, reliable and affordable. Our amazing cloud based hotel PMS has amazing report-generation capabilities wherein you can generate hundreds of different kinds of reports for gaining better business insights.

Our PMS is suitable whether you have a smaller hotel or a chain of larger properties. Give us a call to discuss more…

The Rising Popularity of Online Survey Tools for Hotels

In the hospitality industry, surveys and customer feedback play a very important role. Hotels have always given lot of importance to obtaining feedback from the guests. The guest feedback can provide valuable insights to the hotels and help them identify problems, areas for improvement.

However traditional surveys are now getting outdated, being replaced by online surveys. There have cropped up an amazing array of different survey tools which can be used by businesses, including hotels, to ask various kind of questions, conduct polls and take ratings from the customers about different aspects of the business.

For example, a hotel may ask guests to give ratings for different things including its food, room service, cleanliness, friendly staff, etc. The guests can fill in the survey form and give ratings on the online portal, through their mobile phones. The guests can fill in the survey forms as is convenient for them, even a few days after they have checked out of the hotel.

Online surveys have become the rage these days because of their convenience and ease, and also because of their variety of uses and the plenty of options they come with. Hotels are sending survey questionnaires to guests at various stages of their stay, including before check-in, during the stay and after check-out.

During the stay these survey tools can be used to identify specific needs of the guest and address them swiftly. After check-out, these tools can be used to gauge the levels of user satisfaction.

There are a plethora of survey tools in the market, some free and some paid. There are also some hospitality-centric survey tools, meant specially for use by hotels and some generic ones, which can be used by any business house including hotels. These survey tools have been in existence from more than 10 years now, and are becoming more and more advanced and user-friendly with the passage of time.

Powerful Features & Templates:
The survey tools often come with handy, ready-to-use modules, functionalities and addons that make them all the more powerful. For example, some survey tools have pre-defined templates which can prove extremely valuable for people who are amateur and not good at creating surveys.

If you are not sure what questions to ask, you can make use of these ready made templates to give you ideas and also save you lot of time. For example – Survey Monkey has a ready-made hotel feedback survey template which has around 20 odd questions to get you started!

Popular Survey Tools In the Market:
Some of the popular and worthwhile survey tools which hotels can use on their website are:

Most of the time you can setup survey on your hotel website using the above tools in a matter of minutes. So what is stopping you? Go ahead and try some of these tools!

 

AIO PMS – Travel Agent Module

Travel agents are very important for hotels as they can help the hotel sell its inventory to a large global audience. Hotels can increase their occupancy rates, reach wider audience, gain more exposure and hence grow their business by leaps and bounds with the help of travel agents and online travel agents.

When hotels can tap into a huge network of travel agents and online travel agents, they won’t need a sales team of their own to do marketing for them. Sales teams can have various limitations whereas the travel agents can help you reach more diverse audience.

The problem is that when you have travel agents you need to calculate commissions for them based on the rates you fix for them. You may have different rates for different agents and your hotel software should be able to keep track of how many sales are being driven by each travel agent you are associated with. Not only that, the software application should also calculate the commissions payable to each agent based on the number of bookings, the room rates at which the bookings were made, any discounts or concessions that were given to the guests, etc.

The good news is that Travel Agent Module of AIO software suite does all this for you on autopilot. This is a great feature which can eliminate lot of headaches for hoteliers. It can be such a relief when you can accurately track the number of bookings of each agent as well as calculate the commissions you owe them, all this without any additional manual work on your part.

If you want to get the full benefit of this powerful feature you can check out our AIO PMS and other powerful, feature-rich software applications which can make your hotel management work easier and hassle-free for you – All In One Hotel PMS.

Good PMS Software – An Urgent Need of All Hotels

A good property management system (PMS) plays an important part in the success of a hotel. A good PMS system will make the front desk workflow easy and smooth, paving the way for a seamless guest experience.

Gone are the days when hotels could ignore the use of technology and run their business the traditional way which they had been accustomed to from decades. In today’s time and age if you don’t embrace technology and make it an integral part of your business you may suffer huge consequences.

Those hotels which have a good PMS system enjoy numerous benefits such as:

Efficiency of Operations – In today’s fast paced world, business operations are quite complex and can take lot of time to complete, requiring the involvement of numerous staff members. However, the use of PMS can automate a lot of these tasks, freeing up the staff to focus on the guests and provide them a better service.

Save Time & Manpower – Hotels can save lot of time and manpower when they integrate a PMS system. Earlier if there was a need for 10 people to do certain tasks, that could be reduced to 5 or lesser people with the use of PMS application. Hotels may need to employ fewer people and thus save lot of money. Deployment of PMS not only saves time and labor, it also makes the work more efficient, error-free and effective.

Streamlining Bookings – Guests don’t need to wait in long queues or check-ins or check-outs. PMS systems help the hotel staff to perform the front desk operations with ease and speed, thus saving lot of time. Thus the guests don’t have to wait for long periods and can get quicker service.

Choosing Right PMS:

The important question is which is the right PMS for your hotel needs. You need to define your requirements and then select a PMS that has all the features you need. Then you need to consider the initial and the ongoing cost of the PMS, to make sure it falls within your budget limits. You also need to consider the company behind the software – is the company reliable, does it have long standing in the market, etc.

We invite hotelier to check out our AIO PMS software solution. We have been in this industry from 15+ years. We are a hospitality solutions company which provides affordable, cloud based PMS, CRS, GDS, booking engine, channel manager, OTA/TA connections, web development, marketing and distribution.

7 Reasons to Choose AIO Hospitality Software

1. Built by hoteliers for hoteliers – Our software suite is developed specifically for hoteliers. The team behind the development of the software applications has been in the hospitality industry from many decades, so we know what are the requirements and challenges facing the hotel management, and what software features are the most required. We have developed the software applications keeping these considerations in mind.

2. Feature rich – Our applications are feature-rich, allowing the hotels to use them for improving their operations, efficiency, and business growth. The applications can automate lot of operations and manage huge amounts of data. This data can be really helpful in analyzing the business and making better decisions.

3. Cloud based – Another beauty of AIO applications is they are hosted on fast, reliable servers. There is no need to install anything locally. You can access the PMS, channel manager or any other application from anywhere in the world. This can be quite helpful for managers and owners if they are traveling and want to check out some reports or access any data. They can login from anywhere as long as they have internet access.

4. Secure and reliable – If the software is not safe then there is no way hotels can use it, after all there is going to be lot of sensitive data that will be stored in the software applications. Data like customer details, contact and address details of staff and guests, guests booking history and preferences, credit card information, etc are all very valuable and highly confidential data that needs to be securely stored so that there are no mishaps happening which could land the hotel in legal trouble.

5. Powerful capabilities – The software modules have been built keeping in mind large hotel chains. So the capabilities and functionalities of the software modules are quite comprehensive and extensive. The software can be equally used by medium to smaller sized hotels as they can be used by large hotel chains.

6. Reasonable – Even though the software applications are powerful and secure, we have priced them reasonably enough so that almost every hotel can afford it. We are not charging exorbitantly like other software companies because we want to make it easily accessible for all hoteliers so that they can improve their hotel operations.

7. All under one roof – The beauty with using AIO hospitality is that you will be able to use all the software applications you need under a single roof. There are many companies in the market who only have their own PMS or their own booking engine. Hotels which use their booking engine would have to go somewhere else for channel manager and other applications.

 

Why Hotels Need a Property Management System – Simple Benefits

Why Hotels Need a Property Management System

Originally, hoteliers weren’t dealing with online bookings. They were collecting very limited information such as a name, residence, room and time of arrival because the majority of their clientele were walk-in guests.

Efficiency of Operations – In today’s fast paced world, managing hotel’s operations is becoming more complicated. There are lot of activities which need to be carried out, the performances monitored, results compared, etc. All this would take enormous amounts of time. The more the human involvement the more chances of errors and mistakes.

Automating a number of such day to day tasks can make it much more smoother and easier to manage a hotel efficiently. It can help the hotel staff to take better care of the guests as the mundane tasks are automated, leaving time on the hands of the staff to take care of other important things.

Time and Labor Efficiency – Lot of time can be saved when hotels automate the tasks that can be automated. This means the hotel can save human labor which would have otherwise been employed on the tasks which the PMS is now performing. A lot of manual, human labor can be cut down as well as lot of time saved. When a human does a certain task it may take him longer duration than a machine or a software program to do the same task, which can result in hundreds of hours of time saved over a period of a few months!

Better Decision Making – Managing the hotel becomes much more easier because you have lot of information and data available at your fingertips which you can study to find where you can make improvements in the business. Decision making can become easier with the availability of statistical data. Emerging trends can be identified and hotel can make changes to its approach to adapt to newer trends and even capitalize on them for its business growth.

AIO Hotel Management Software for Small Hotels

Don’t think just because your hotel is small you don’t need a reliable hotel management software. These days every hotel – big, small or medium is automating its operations. The good news is AIO Hospitality offers a secure, comprehensive, affordable and reliable hotel management software for small hotels.

Small hotels have smaller budgets. We realize this and have priced our software products accordingly so that we can provide a chance to every small and big hotel to implement technology. We want all hotels and motels to be able to avail the benefits of modern technology to improve their hotel operations and revenues.

Our hotel management software comes with a huge range of awesome features:

  • Cloud based software
  • Easy reservation management
  • Manage check-ins / check-outs, report generation, prices, inventory
  • Centralized management
  • Online booking engine
  • CMS, CRS, GDS, IDS features
  • Room management, rate management
  • Keep track of guests and save necessary information about them
  • Save personal and passport data of guests that stay at your hotel
  • Track your bookings and payments

Our all-in-one platform combines various features and systems to provide a comprehensive solution to small and big hotels alike. You don’t have to worry about the prices either as our prices are very reasonable and affordable.

It is a great opportunity for smaller hotels and motels to start automating more of their tasks through the use of a hotel management software. AIO Hospitality software is cloud based so there is nothing to install on the local computer, and the software can be easily accessed from anywhere.

Our hotel management software for smaller hotels can benefit you in the following ways:

  • Make operations smoother and easier
  • Make things more convenient
  • Save you lots of time and effort
  • Reduce manual labor
  • Automate lot of front desk tasks
  • Provide valuable data about your business
  • Provide valuable data and insights about your guests
  • Increase revenues and savings
  • Provide all in one solution for all your hotel’s technological needs