Like all other industries, the hotel industry is also undergoing heavy digitalization. Undoubtedly, it is the way forward to increase efficiency and ROI. Hoteliers often outsource many functions of their business to third-party vendors, which is a fantastic way to manage costs and direct focus on the core functions of the entity.
However, as a hotelier, you do not want to lose control over pricing and selling your room inventory, as your hotel rooms are your most profitable product. You can have more control over the distribution of rooms and save and minimize travel agency commissions by integrating a hotel inventory management system with your PMS.
As per McKinsey “There are two main benefits hospitality units can get with hotel inventory management: interacting with their new customers, holding the existing ones, and receiving better revenue by improving their service delivery.”
Before we dive into the benefits of using inventory management solutions, let us first briefly understand how a hotel inventory management system works.
How does a hotel inventory management system work?
A hotel inventory management system has a set of automated software modules that help your hotel staff perform various functions needed to run a hotel chain or individual unit. Let us look at some of the key modules of an Inventory Management System.
#1 Booking System
If you decide not to sell most of your rooms to external travel agencies for high fees, the booking system module provided by IMS is good enough to manage your end-to-end booking needs. The module can receive, process, and analyze all your direct reservations and synchronize all your external reservations from online travel agencies.
#2 Room Management
The room management module manages the room availability, tracks the status of supplies, reserves rooms for upselling, and, when needed, blocks them for cleaning and renovation.
#3 Guest Module
The guest module helps you manage your communication with the visitors. You can inform the visitors about their in-hotel transactions and external services you may have to offer and ask for live feedback.
#4 General Management
The general management module helps you bolster revenue in operations. For example, your staff can control visitor transactions and create upselling opportunities by providing deals and discounts to visitors, all in one system.
Also Read – Five Ways to Measure the Effectiveness of a Hotel Chatbot
Five key benefits of employing an inventory management system
Now that you have clarity on the value an IMS can offer. Let us look at the major benefits you get from employing inventory management software.
1. Preventing Duplicate Sales
When you sell rooms on too many online channels, you risk selling the same room to different customers. And, post-sales, unlike product businesses that can manufacture more quantity and deliver, it is virtually impossible for hotels to manage accommodations for their customers. Therefore, by holding a sizeable amount of inventory with yourself, you avoid the risk of overselling or duplicate sales. And if you want to negate this possibility completely, you can use a hotel mapping tool.
2. Capacity Enhancement
Having first-hand information on the status of your critical units enables you to analyze your weak points, identify strengths, and find hero entities that further open the doors for upselling. Also, when you have more control over your inventory, you will always be able to serve better experiences to your visitors and earn more through organic branding.
3. Cost-effective Services
It is always a challenge for hoteliers to provide best-in-class services without breaking the bank. With the deployment of a Hotel Inventory Management System, you reduce your dependency on third-party service providers, so you straight up save the cost there. You can use this extra financial bandwidth to provide better services for your visitors.
4. Room Availability Management
The real-time room availability data provided by your IMS is a significant force multiplier. It helps you clearly define your hotel development and distribution strategy. Let us Say you have an off-season approaching; you can be ready with lucrative offers for your potential guests and maximize revenue during that period.
5. Improved ROI
It is well-established thought in the hospitality industry that you need micro-level process optimization to run a profitable hospitality business. That is where your hotel inventory management system will help you the most by offering crucial insights into your targets and priorities. Thereby, you will be able to chalk out the best strategy for hotel development and make the most out of your resources.
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In this article, we examined the utility of hotel inventory management software and highlighted the benefits of its implementation; the tool could well be the efficiency enabler and profit maximizer for your hospitality business.
