Many hotel owners and managers have decided that automation is the way ahead for the hospitality industry and so they have incorporated many elements of automation technology into their daily activities. It means that otherwise boring, repetitive and manual tasks and procedures are now changed into automated processes and all of this is done by using information technology and software instead of people. It means that this essential software can be used to make sure that hotel processes happen even when managers are not actually there to make the decision. It’s all about optimising the many operations that exist within any hotel environment and they can be used to manage things like inventory procurement, to allow them to charge more for rooms and to make sure that the guest experience is the best possible.
By using automation and FutureLog Hotel Procurement Software, it helps to minimise day-to-day expenses while still offering excellent value to paying guests. Automation can be used alongside essential software to cut down on overall labour costs, to streamline many services and to improve upon the overall guest experience. There are many different processes that can be automated within any hotel and the following are just some of the benefits of hotel automation for procurement and operating procedures.
- Procurement ordering – Hotels are very busy places and it can be incredibly difficult keeping manual records of when certain items run out of stock and when they need to be replaced. People can be forgiven for making mistakes if they are operating within a busy environment and so having hotel procurement automation and software in place allows for essential items to be reordered automatically when they reach a critical level. Using technology for business can only have positive outcomes every single time.
- To optimise hotel pricing – An automated revenue management system can be used to make sure that you are optimising the rates that you charge for people staying in your hotel. The revenue management system can be used to set and are just hotel room rates when the hotel is in great demand and similarly when the demand is lower, they revenue management system will offer discounted rates.
- To issue bills automatically – By having automated billing tools and software in place, hotels can automatically take payment from credit cards once the customer arrives for the room and any other additional taxes and fees that need to be paid. If this is left up to manual processes then staff may fail to bill a customer for a room service or similar expense that they have used during their stay. Using automation, the hotel makes sure that all fees are charged and that maximum profits are achieved.
Automated systems can also be used to encourage customers to upgrade their room choices and the system will automatically try to up sell them in terms of better room types, better dining experiences and the many other amenities that the hotel offers at that time. Most hotels are now using smart phone check-in services so that guests can easily check-in by themselves thus reducing the workload on front desk staff. This helps to save on your overall labour costs and it provides the guest with a much user-friendly experience.
