Gone are the mundane days of paper, ink and thick, dusty guest ledgers. The hotel industry has long since moved on to include technology into their hospitality scene to satisfy their guests’ growing needs.

The change first began with an application software which created a platform to cover elementary objectives like maintaining guest bookings and updating digital guest ledgers. The software has since evolved further into an IT solution called Property Management System.

Oracle’s OPERA PMS presently runs the hotel show; actively working from the moment a guest decides they need a vacation and chooses a hotel destination, to the moment they check out and pay their final dues.

Reservations

When hotels welcome walk-in guests, they first make them a reservation. Step one will be to pick the number of days the guests will be staying for, then they proceed to choosing a room type. Once a room is selected, guest details like address, phone number and credit card numbers are added into the PMS; this becomes a guest profile which is continuously updated with guest details during their stay.

Front Desk

Guests who have already made reservations simply need to provide their name or confirmation number at the desk to check in. For these guests a profile already exists and rooms are already picked out for them by the PMS. Details on the profile can be changed or updated if needed. The Front Desk can manage guest alerts, messages or packages on the PMS which can be delivered to the guest on arrival or sent to their room as per request.

Room Management

Managing all rooms within a hotel has never been a simpler affair. Housekeeping updates the status of the room through the room telephone, automatically updating room status on the PMS. There are even options for front desk to block a room in case some facilities within it are out of order. Rooms can even be set to queue in case of walk-ins and queued rooms can be prioritized for VIP guests.

Cashiering

The first feature here is that each staff member has a cashier ID to account for all transactions made in their presence. It also has the Guest Folio feature which lets cashiers compile and bill different charges separately as per guest convenience. The Quick Checkout Feature lets staff handle several departures simultaneously; whereas the Fast Posting lets staff bill multiple rooms for a same charge.

Account Receivables

AR comes into play when bills for business guests’ are covered by their company. The system creates a unique report that is sent to the company directly and accounts are settled on a selected date between the two parties. Sometimes companies don’t cover the bill for all facilities used by the guest at the hotel, in such cases PMS can block certain bills and create separate bills for an individual charge.

Commissions

Commissions are calculated after a guest’s stay and then paid directly through check or Electronic Fund Transfer. All travel agencies have a profile in the PMS with their bank details. Commission processing helps identify agents and sources eligible for commission and observes how much they have earned. These details can always be changed or added onto the system.

End of Day

This little button on the PMS performs one of the most important job at the hotel. The night audit runs every night where it updates room status for the day, counts the number of current guests and reservations and also sets the clock within the system. In a nutshell, it closes all the accounts for the day and sends it to the next.

OPERA PMS also has the capability to generate all kinds of reports for the hotel, besides the daily night audit it can also create forecast report that tells the hotel how much business they can expect for the next week or month from prior reservations made. Reports on housekeeping, accommodation charges, guest profile statistics, employee performance, room inventory and more can all be generated here.

And so the guest cycle continues. With all guest information stored in the profiles, hotels can now recall their guests’ preferences and prepare for their next visit. Armed with details about what food and type of room they prefer, hotels can fully cater to their guests’ and offer more delightful deals to their guests.

Impressive right? A hotel can really thrive with the presence of a good PMS. But what if you have multiple other branches all across the seas with loyal guests awaiting the same treatment with high expectations?

Don’t sweat it, all guest profiles with their precious data can be accessed by hotel branches everywhere, thanks to the OPERA Multi-property Solution that can be installed within the OPERA PMS on the central server. It can be set to give complete or limited access to authorized personnel.

Indeed without IT, the Hospitality industry would be hanging by a thread, making it near impossible for a hotel to run without the presence of a fantastic Property Management System after all.