Whitepaper: Guest LifecycLe series

The ImpacT of a pmS In The GueST LIfe cycLestages 1–3: pre-arrival, arrival and Occupancy/stay

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how roomKeypMs can Optimize the Guest experienceA hotelier is responsible for more than just daily operations—they’re in charge of identifying opportunities to boost guest experiences that will increase loyalty and ultimately build revenue. A next generation Property Management System (PMS) plays a vital role in improving the guest experience as well as the hotel’s efficiency and profitability. This paper is the second in a series of recommendations on using a PMS to address all stages before, during and after a guest’s visit. It focuses on the first three stages of the Guest Life Cycle (GLC): pre-arrival, arrival and occupancy.

Any hotel manager who isn’t using a PMS is missing out on potential bookings. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a PMS—the technology hub of a hotel—can capture more revenue and reduce the risk of lost profitability opportunities.

Today it’s critical to manage every stage of the guest experience—from travel plans and hotel arrival to check out and any post-stay activities. Customer care starts long before guests step into the lobby. With increased touch points comes valuable potential for improved communication that can capitalize on more than just room revenue. A PMS is an indispensable technology tool for all aspects of the hotel business—improved operations, smarter marketing and sales initiatives as well as better efficiency at reduced costs.

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the Guest Life cycle

Each stage of the GLC comes with its own set of opportunities and challenges. At any given point, a hotel has an opportunity to engage in activities that will increase occupancy rates in the short- and long-term.

Pre-Arrival 1

Arrival

Occupancy/Stay

Departure

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3

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Key challengesBefore making a PMS purchase decision, a hotelier or hotel manager must address current challenges that are keeping them from achieving their goals. While each property has its own special circumstances, there are common issues that each hotelier faces.

problem #1: Lack of Guest profile Info to Tailor pre-arrival upsells

We live in a buyer’s world, and the hospitality industry is no exception. Hotel guests have the choice to engage whenever and however they want. It’s the responsibility of the hotel to glean all appropriate and available information about a guest so that the hotel may serve them properly—and tailor upsells to capture their interest.

The challenge is capturing necessary guest information in order to craft personalized offers. If a hotel lacks crucial details like a patron’s demographics or travel reasons, they won’t be able to persuade guests to enjoy a fuller experience by making a booking with add-on options.

problem #2: Disjointed procedures from Guest arrival Throughout Stay

A new guest’s arrival at a hotel means the start of a new relationship. Unfortunately, the front desk staff may run into issues such as confirming a guest’s reservation details with the current hotel room rate or package deal.

The front desk team is also responsible for collecting guest information, but all too often that function is sacrificed for the sake of expediency. As a result, a guest’s requests may not be met throughout their stay. For instance, they may ask for a vegetarian or vegan dining menu or a room change, but the staff fails to honor these requests. Whether that’s because they don’t receive the appropriate level of attention or because they aren’t feasible to begin with, these issues stem from a critical communication breakdown between the hotel and the guest. All of these seemingly innocuous events can add up to negatively impact the guest’s perception of the property, putting loyalty and potential revenue at risk.

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problem #3: payment efficiency and Security challenges

Guests expect their online transactions to be completed quickly and safely, but even major hotel chains can occasionally get hit with security breaches or malware that can affect their payment processing systems.

During a breach, customer payment data—such as credit card information—can be accessed, leaving hotel guests vulnerable to theft and fraud. The hotel may receive a poor reputation, resulting in fewer bookings from new and previous guests. Even if the hotelier resolves to make investigative efforts into the breach, the property may have a long, upward climb to restoring customer loyalty.

problem #4: Inadequate communication Between front office and housekeeping Departments

Almost nothing has the potential to ruin a guest experience as much as poor housekeeping. Many times, this issue is due to a lack of clear communication between staff members. If housekeeping staff don’t know which rooms they’re responsible for and when those rooms are available for cleaning, their level of diligence may slide. This can make the hotel appear unprofessional, resulting in dissatisfied guests.

problem #5: missed opportunities for Guest personalization

Customers expect highly personalized touch points, especially during their hotel stays. However, many properties still use disparate systems for different functions such as bookings, loyalty programs and communications.

For instance, if a guest books through an Online Travel Agency (OTA), the hotel misses the opportunity to capture crucial customer data. Yet when the guest shows up at the hotel’s front desk, they expect that all their information and preferences will be present and accommodated regardless.

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problem #6: pmS platforms aren’t user-friendly

Traditional PMS platforms can be awkward to use if they lack integration and intuitive user functionality. Staff members can’t access guest information at any time and on any device. Consequently, guests aren’t able to freely communicate with the hotel staff and their needs are delayed—or not met at all. Some PMS platforms require the use of on-site hardware and are restricted to desktop usage, which limits the hotel staff’s responsiveness to requests.

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Next-Generation, cloud-Based pMs solutionsWith next-generation PMS solutions, hoteliers gain the ability to push efficiency and revenue in new and convenient ways. Besides core functions such as registrations, inventory maintenance, accounting and housekeeping scheduling, PMS products now include marketing and customer relationship management tools as well as the ability to integrate with other provider technologies to improve the guest experience.

As with many enterprise technology solutions, most PMS products are migrating to the cloud, which provides ease of use, global scale as well as distributed access to information and interfaces.

Savvy hoteliers recognize the benefits of a next-generation PMS. According to The 2016 Smart Decision Guide to Hotel Property Management Systems, more than a quarter of hoteliers who haven’t upgraded their PMS within the past three years expect to do so within the next year.

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Optimizing the Guest Life cycle

Stage 1: pre-arrival upselling

Even before a guest arrives at your property, they’ve already developed an impression of your hotel. They’ve done their research online and your hotel has communicated via email or another marketing initiative to capture the reservation. This is also the point when you can generate additional revenue through upselling features and other amenities designed to enhance a guest’s stay.

Upselling is the process of selling more lucrative—or additional—versions of a product or service that a guest had originally intended to purchase.

Upselling benefits include:

• Greater customer satisfaction and loyalty due to the enhanced experience of personalized services

• Increased Average Daily Rate (ADR) and revenue through higher customer expenditures• Detailed guest data for use in customer relationship management initiatives

Common features that add to upselling revenue include:

• Room upgrades and special packages• Special dinners, cocktails and wait staff recommendations • Bonus events and activities administered by hotel staff or complementary vendors• In-room extras such as customized media features, massages or champagne

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In recognition of the importance of customer engagement, RoomKeyPMS has partnered with Guestfolio, an automated hotel marketing platform that integrates directly with RoomKeyPMS’s reservation data. This partnership provides hoteliers with the opportunity to personalize the guest experience, gain insights on their customers’ behavior and use tools that build lasting brand loyalty and encourage increased direct bookings.

“By allowing hoteliers to engage with their guests throughout the travel journey, a Guestfolio and RoomKeyPMS partnership will enable hoteliers to see an increase in guest satisfaction, pre-arrival purchases and most importantly, guest retention.”

— Jasmin Wong, Customer Success Manager, Guestfolio

customer Loyalty Begins prior to Guest arrival

In the hospitality industry, the objective is to facilitate customer loyalty in order to increase revenue. That begins with understanding guests long before they show up to check-in. If a couple plans to celebrate an anniversary, for example, you have an opportunity to upsell a romantic suite package. A Property Management System like RoomKeyPMS can also help with upselling because it provides guest profile information that allows your staff to meet customer needs before, during and after their stay.

With RoomKeyPMS, you can begin the upselling process by:

• Prompting staff to promote special services and items at check-in• Highlighting high quality amenities on your website• Sending confirmation emails that share details of amenities and services the

guest may choose to access

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RoomKeyPMS captures meaningful customer information so that you can recommend add-ons applicable to each guest’s visit. Booking options with relevant upsells can be presented to website visitors, enticing them to not only book, but opt in to additional services and amenities as well. All this data is then tracked along with ongoing guest activity to build more comprehensive profiles.

consolidate Guest Information for Smooth experiences

The biggest pain point in improving customer service is obtaining guest knowledge and decreasing fragmented information, which can result from OTAs and other indirect booking channels.

With RoomKeyPMS’s Guest Merge option, you can bring together various customer details into one centralized database.

Guest Merge features include:

• Datacleansewithfuzzylogic:A guest’s basic information—such as first and last names, email address, license plate and more—is tracked. The system flags potential duplications in order to streamline guest profiles. When exact matches are not found, fuzzy logic can be applied to help identify potential duplicates that differ based on minor spelling inconsistencies, reversed numbers or unique characters (e.g. accents).

• Historytracking:All instances of a guest’s previous stays at the hotel or a different one within the same chain are documented. This is particularly helpful for business travelers and other VIPs who rack up points at their most common destination to be used at other locations.

• Multipleprofileintegration: The platform enables phonetic name spelling and multiple guest images (typically acquired when merging assorted accounts or when clients sign up via a social media profile such as Facebook). This information enables staff such as valets to recognize a guest and offer more efficient service.

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• Specialinformation: Other core information is acquired at various touch points throughout a guest’s stay (including food or laundry detergent allergies, anniversaries, birthdays and other special dates). This data can be used to customize their next stay and provide valuable personal offers such as a free bottle of wine to celebrate a special occasion.

Stage 2: efficient arrivals

A guest’s arrival is an opportunity to validate their positive perception of your hotel. While this won’t be their first impression, it will be the one that confirms whether or not they’ve made the right choice. A Property Management System helps a hotel provide a guest-centered check-in and arrival with efficient front desk technology.

To ensure a smooth and welcoming arrival, hotel staff can greet guests properly and facilitate their check-in through automated features. A PMS can update your hotel’s bookings in real-time, whether they’re made online or with agents over the phone.

With RoomKeyPMS’s Guest Merge solution, you can also collect data on customer preferences or habits over time. Front desk staff can use RoomKeyPMS to pull up a wealth of information related to a guest’s reservation, their preferences and your hotel’s room capacity. This service will help make the guest experience more personalized, while providing staff the flexibility they need to adjust or change a reservation immediately.

payment Security Streamlines payments and Boosts Guest peace of mind

One of the most serious customer concerns involves safe on-site storage of credit card information. According to a Verizon report, 91% of data breaches in the hospitality industry involves POS transactions. RoomKeyPMS’s Payment Security solution, Vault, removes security threats and streamlines payments.

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Vault’s Payment Security features include:

• Increasedprotectionfromcreditcardfraud.Vault exceeds security standards for trans-mission and storage of payment information. Guests’ credit card information is sent to an off-site server in a PCI-certified facility in order to additionally protect guests from security breaches or misuse of credit card information.

• Adaptabilitytoever-changingpaymentsystems. RoomKeyPMS Vault will continue to evolve alongside future security and payment technology. For instance, Vault’s EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) technology allows Canadian and U.S. hotel partners to implement an extra identification authentication feature through a credit card’s microprocessor chip for added security.

• Designedtostreamlineyourbusiness.RoomKeyPMS Vault grows alongside your business and needs. By providing reduced touchpoints, businesses only need to collect guest information once. All further account, room and restaurant changes are streamlined with express checkouts.

While it’s important to staff your front desk with professionals who can be supportive and helpful to arriving guests, a secure PMS can go a long way in helping your team ensure guests’ security and peace of mind.

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Stage 3: creating Great Stays

As a Harvard customer experience study found, customers who had great experiences with a business in the past spent 140% more than those who had lackluster past experiences. Ensuring a guest enjoys a quality stay requires a combination of real world interactions and relevant, accessible data. With a PMS, you can break down data silos of different parts of your property in order to get a full view of a guest. By knowing a guest’s preferences in all areas of the hotel—dining, housekeeping, off-site interests and more—you can anticipate and recommend events and services that will appeal to the guest.

RoomKeyPMS can integrate with other applications and solutions to further expand guest knowledge. It tracks important customer data including demographics, psychographics and past behavioral preferences so your hotel is well-prepared to create a valuable and enjoyable stay for a guest. That, in turn, will build customer loyalty and drive repeat visits, resulting in more revenue for your property.

RoomKeyPMS’s partnership with Go Moment, an artificial intelligence company, allows for seamless guest experiences by contacting guests directly via real-time texting. Ivy, their intelligent texting platform, works like a digital personal assistant, by proactively communicating with guests throughout their stays. The AI can book restaurant reservations or spa appointments, allowing guests to easily take advantage of your hotel’s amenities. It can also route guest questions to your hotel’s appropriate service area, to help resolve immediate issues and ultimately improve guest satisfaction.

“Every hotel wants a seamless and effective solution to take the guest through the life cycle. We work with RoomKeyPMS to enhance guest-facing communication to drive strong engagement and track important data for their clients.”

— Beau Noonan, Director of Strategic Sales, Go Moment

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housekeeping module maximizes on Room Vacancies

Poor communication between housekeeping staff can mean guests are interrupted or rooms are left untidy. This can damage both the check-in and check-out process: an arriving guest can be left waiting for their room to be cleaned up, and a departing guest can leave unhappy with the service during their stay. In both cases, the guest may decide not to book at your hotel again and discourage others from doing so as well.

RoomKeyPMS’s Housekeeping Module has been designed to improve housekeeping efforts.

Features include:

• Roomprioritization. Housekeeping staff are able to indicate which rooms need cleaning and when that should occur.

• Delegationofcleaningassignmentswithschedules. Housekeeping executives can create units of work and assign an appropriate amount of work to each staff member.

• Real-timeupdatesforhousekeepingandfrontdeskstaff.The housekeeping team can clean more rooms quicker with the same, or fewer, staff members. It empowers Housekeeping to better assist in maintaining efficient check-ins, by notifying the front desk when rooms are ready.

• Mobilecompatibility. The RoomKeyPMS housekeeping module is accessible on all desktop, mobile and tablet devices. Thanks to OS compatibility, housekeeping managers can receive real-time updates while they’re on the floor, significantly improving internal communication.

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Boosting the efficiency and profitability of the Guest Life cycleA next-generation PMS is the central hub of any hotel operation. Among its many benefits, a PMS can:

• Streamline operations across the enterprise• Provide better management controls• Increase occupancy rates, RevPAR and overall profitability through improved data

accessibility and process efficiencies• Create better analytical reporting, leading to deeper guest behavioral insights

During the three stages of the guest life cycle addressed, there are multiple opportunities for a hotel manager to create a high quality experience for guests. Using a powerful and comprehensive PMS like RoomKeyPMS, you can raise customer satisfaction and build your hotel’s brand reputation, in turn boosting the profitability of your property.

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about roomKeypMsRoomKeyPMS is your single, integrated hotel software provider. RoomKeyPMS integrates to hundreds of hospitality systems, drives revenues with no transaction fees while saving time with our easy to use System. Every year our cloud platform is trusted to handle over 20 million transactions for our hoteliers. Our customers agree RoomKeyPMS is the leading cloud-based hotel PMS that is easy to use for front-desk staff, insightful for revenue managers, and robust for executive teams. RoomKeyPMS will give you the power and control to maximize your RevPAR and ADR with a product offering unmatched in the industry.

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