The front desk is to the hotel what an ambassador is to a country. It either makes or breaks the deal. It creates the first and last impression of the hotel on the visitors. It also plays a crucial part in converting the new guest into a repeat customer. To simplify such demanding tasks of the front desk, front desk hotel software renders numerous services to it. The front desk and the front desk software ensure the smooth functioning of the department with the ultimate goal of delighting the guests.
Let us enunciate all of the imperative functions that a front desk hotel software must do;
Book and Reserve
Before making a booking or a reservation, you need to know all of the information on your fingertips. How is it possible? It is possible if the front desk hotel has all of the information regarding reservations and booking sorted out already. The front desk hotel software package has a new screen opened up upon pushing the button “Reservation”.
This button must provide a list to choose from. It gives options to book a king-sized or queen-sized room, and single or group of rooms. It reminds the front desk operator to complete the incomplete reservations, sends the confirmation email to the guest, and reminder emails to the guests who have reserved the room.
Check-in and Check-out
The guests usually head to the hotels for recreation and channeling out all of the mental and physical frustration. So, consider a guest to be always tired. Therefore, the check-in should always be very smooth. A good front desk hotel software asks for all of the necessary information for a check-in and check-out option. A check-in list is available to see all of the arrivals during last 24 hours. Last but not the least, a front desk hotel software also makes sure the “check-in” procedure is not too long and time consuming so that the guest does not get drained in this hefty process.
At the time of check-out, the guests are also usually in the subtle hurry to leave as the luggage is packed, and the cab is outside. So, naturally the check-out should be on the home screen to save the time in reaching out to the option. It should contain options like enter invoices, split the invoice, folio splitting, and adjust the invoice etc.
Guest ID Registration
The front desk hotel software recognizes the guest by scanning the guest’s ID card and passport. By scanning the ID card and passport, the time is saved spent in the exchange of the documents and converting the information from the ID card to the software by typing which also considerably increases the chances of the human error. With the help of the SSL certificate, the information about passports, ID cards and licenses is retrieved by the front desk hotel software.
Automated Communication
The font desk should automate the communication with the guests over the mail and other channels like messaging. These messages should communicate with the guest when they book, reserve, or cancel a booking. Also the front desk software hotel sends the message or email when a guest checks in or checks out the hotel.
Calendar and Notifications
The front desk hotel software has the calendar and notification system. The calendar has the important events marked on it, be it the arrival of a VVIP guest, or about the pool cleaning. The notifications pop up every day reminding the front desk managers and staff about all the exciting happenings on that day.
Room Types and Planer
There are different kinds of rooms with different kinds of room amenities. You need to have a look what room contains what far from the rooms. The room types and room plans show what a certain room has and the front desk operator cane easily tell from the distance what rooms best matches the demands of the visitor. Room Plan features shows if the particular room is already booked or not, if booked for how long it is booked.
Guest Ledger
The guest ledger is shown for each guest. Under this ledger account all of the costs and spending are visible, additionally how much balance is left is also calculated with each new transaction.
Payments and Refunds
The payment can be carries out using the front desk hotel software using the ledger account. The payment is made after the receipt is generated. An electronic or printed receipt, both can be generated. The printed one is handed over physically while digital is sent via email, or direct message.
If a guest wants to refund the money they paid for a stay they never had. It is also possible using this software package.
Waitlist/ Wishlist
If more customers want a room than it can accommodate, maintain those customers in the waitlist of the software. When the hotel room gets free, immediately contact the wishers to have the room. You can do it using the front desk hotel software’s waitlist feature.
Staff Performance Report
It also maintains the report of the front desk operators. It shows when the operator logged in/ logged out. Was it on time? What features he accessed? All can be traced using the staff performance report.
Switch between Properties
If the hotel has sister branches and properties, the same front desk hotel software can be used to switch between the front desk operation information of one property to another. This means one software is enough to contain the information of multiple properties and the company does not have to spend additional money for purchasing the licenses of numerous software. Hire a team of developers for custom hotel software development as per your requirements.
The automation of the miscellaneous tasks and operations that go unnoticed otherwise saves a lot of time of the front desk manager. They say “A stitch in nine saves the time”. It is certainly true about the front desk software hotel. The manager gets a lot of time to deal with the visitors and make the engagements fruitful.
Hotel Management Software in COVID Pandemic TimeIn 2019, the United States’ tourism industry generated revenue of 1.1 trillion dollars, but 2020 proved to be a complete bleak year for tourism. It is high time for the tourism and hotel industry to digitalize the standard operating procedures if they want to thrive their pompous past revenue-share in the American economy again. Let’s run through some features and the Covid-specific problems that they solve.
Inventory Optimization Software
Tourism and hotel industry need to add things in their inventory that were previously non-acclimated to it. It enlists personal protective equipment, sanitizer, face mask, rubber gloves, and oxygen cylinders to meet any emergency. The hotel industry must regulate her inventory optimization software into work if they already have one, or order one from CodingPixel software development company if they do not already have it. It plugs into ERPs and WMS to automate forecasting, planning, and replenishment tasks. The software automatically generates order proposals, which are dynamically calculated based on factors such as demand forecasts, dynamic stocking policies, target service levels, supplier lead times, and internal constraints.
Taking all these variables into account, reorder points and quantities are set, and a daily list of recommended orders is produced to feedback into your ERP to create purchase orders.
Temperature Tracing and disinfectant chambers
Employees and visitors come through a channel to the hotel. While in this channel, they come in contact with a lot of other humans who are also following their own channels in which they meet thousands of other humans. So, the chances are pretty high that a human would become a carrier to hundreds of other humans if caught the coronavirus. Eradicate the probability of virus transmission at your hotel by automating the temperature checking at the main door of the hotel. Hoteliers can use automatic infrared body temperature scanner and disinfectant chambers to check if any employee has already fallen prey to corona hence the rise in temperature or kill the virus stick to someone’s clothes or body through a bath of sanitization.
All this should, of course, be automated to relieve managers’ time, and to avoid generating a mound of paper archives and records can be produced in case an employee tests positive. The traditional, old-school hotel management software should introduce this technology already incorporated into them.
Connect Social-distance Technologies with Management Software
Visitors and staff are not acclimated to the social distancing, so if they tell you they’re practicing it, don’t trust them because they do not keep track of their movement. Use social-distance technologies to remind them again and again to practice the social distance. Social-distance technologies warn the user when they’re too close with other humans. Ultra-wideband can measure the precise distance between the two devices. One such technology is Bluetooth low energy.
The latest cellular phones have these two technologies incorporated in them already. Make sure to regulate these features in employee’s and visitor’s phones or make them wear social-distance technologies. Connect social-distance technologies with hotel management software for better results.
Enable more Artificial Intelligence
The hotel owners should move swiftly towards the more and better use of artificial industry in this pandemic outbreak. Some of the areas in which artificial intelligence can successfully replace the human services are self-check-in with codes, the connection of guests’ mobile devices with all switches and electronic devices in the room, virtual views on the hotel TV, automate food dispensers on each floor, automated billing for mini bars at each room and self-service amenities, robots for continuous surface cleaning of high touch points and use of big data analytics to monitor the behavior of guests, and automated dish washing. The data gathered through the hotel management software can be used to form the thresholds to automate the robotic cleaning, dishwashing, and other related tasks.
Cloud-based Property Management Systems
Gone are the days when local-based systems would make it to suffice and only staff could access it that too from the hotel’s desktops. Cloud-based property management systems enable hoteliers to manage their properties entirely off-site, from setting rates to managing reservations. Just like software, mobile app development can help with the growth for hotel bookings.
In addition to property management systems, cloud-based guest messaging systems allow hoteliers to communicate with their guests about reservation changes, cancellation policies, and refunds – all without setting foot on the property.