Hospitality software is almost as important to your property as running water and reliable electricity. Technology impacts everything you do, allowing you to operate efficiently and productively while delivering a fine-tuned guest experience. Equally important, hospitality software lets you learn about your guests and improve how you serve them. The bottom line is that you can’t hope to succeed without great software that streamlines processes.

But not all software solutions are created equal. Putting aside the products that downright fail to deliver the tools needed to manage your property, even good software that appears to offer everything you want should be examined to ensure that it really has all the features and functionality needed. Here are 10 things you should consider when shopping around for hospitality software:    

1. Data Security: Hospitality software stores sensitive information about your hotel and your guests. Any platform you choose must be able to keep this data safe from hackers and other threats, otherwise it’s as much of a liability as an asset. Make sure that data is stored securely, and that access to sensitive information can be managed with ease.
2. Accessibility: The best software serves the broadest number of users possible, so it must be easy-to-use. Ideally, it takes minimal training to begin using it in full, and it’s designed to be intuitive and efficient throughout. The more accessible the hospitality software is to ew users, the more your staff will be able to take advantage of it.
3. Implementation: If it takes too long to implement the software, it could leave you without important systems for days or even weeks. Make sure that the solution you opt for is fairly easy to implement and won’t place too large a burden on your IT team. A comprehensive software solution will always take a bit of time to implement and get used to, but it shouldn’t disrupt operations for a long period of time.   
4. Interoperability: Any hospitality software that’s unable to integrate with the apps and systems you already rely on is sure to frustrate you and add unnecessary complexity to operations. In order to meet your specific needs, it must be able to integrate with a variety of third-party software such as channel managers and OTAs.
5. Features List: What features do you really need and which do you wish you had? Compare that list to the features in your potential hospitality software. You want it to check as many boxes as possible without being loaded down by features you will never use.
6. Ongoing Support: Considering how important hospitality software is, you need it to work perfectly at all times. If and when an issue arises, you also want the provider to fix it quickly. Explore what kind of service options and commitments a provider is willing to offer. Software is only as good as the support behind it. The provider should be available to help with technical issues, and should also be improving and updating the software behind the scenes. Software that doesn’t evolve alongside market needs will soon become irrelevant.     
7. Speed: Your staff and your guests both rely on hospitality software. If it’s slow and cumbersome to use, it just creates frustration for everyone. While it’s important to have loads of features and integrations, software should also be quick and easy to operate. Make sure that the user interface (UI) is intuitive and that the process of completing tasks isn’t slow and frustrating.    
8. Scalability: Regardless of the size of your operation at the moment, you want a software solution that’ll scale with your business. When choosing a piece of software, make sure that it will continue to function in much the same way, no matter how quickly (or significantly) your business expands.  
9. Mobility: Being able to access your software through a phone, tablet or web browser ensures you’re never disconnected from operations. Good software allows staff to gain instant access to information wherever you are, so make sure that the solution you opt for is compatible with all the most popular devices and operating systems.  
10. Revenue Generation: Some hospitality software only helps you manage operations. Others do that but also help you with sales, marketing and other functions that allow you to increase revenue in a meaningful way. A good software solution should provide the sort of data insights that not only allow you to streamline operations, but also identify the inefficiencies and missed opportunities that’ll allow you to grow the bottom line.

Hospitality software, like any tech solution, should make your life easier and allow you to manage your property more effectively. Make sure that the software you choose is leveraging the latest technology to provide the speed, functionality, integrations and most importantly, the insights, needed to take your business to the next level.  

RoomKeyPMS provides industry-leading hospitality software. We’re eager to show you what our software can do, so contact our team for a consultation, demonstration, or just to get more info.

Photo Credits: Shutterstock Inc / garetsworkshop