A property management system (PMS) is a vital component to the smooth operation of any successful hotel. A PMS facilitates a hotel’s administrative tasks and traditionally manages front-of-house capabilities such as reservations, guest check-in and check-out, room assignment, managing room rates, and payment processing.
However, many hotels now use the PMS to manage the back-office operation of housekeeping as well, for which it was not designed. Let’s take a deep dive into why this is not an effective way to manage housekeeping operations and can lead to serious drops in hotel efficiency.
1. Inability to communicate changes and updates in real-time
A highly important component to running a smooth housekeeping operation is the ability to communicate changes and last-minute updates in real-time to the back of house. Having hotel operations software in place allows everyone in the front and back of house to be aware of tasks to be completed, unexpected changes to schedules, or any special requirements. For example, if a high-profile guest informs the front desk that they will be arriving ahead of schedule, a housekeeping technology like Optii would be able to alert the housekeeping team in real-time so that they can prepare for this and ensure that the room is ready.
This level of visibility and transparency between the front and back house is essential in today’s environment where teams are lean and occupancies are on the rise. Optii’s housekeeping software provides seamless two-way integration between housekeeping teams and a PMS to help connect essential departments. From the front desk to housekeeping, sales, or revenue management, we provide an effective integration so hoteliers can be assured that they are operating efficiently and providing the best level of service to guests.
The use of the PMS to manage housekeeping is a manual process and therefore doesn’t support this type of transparency. On top of this, it lacks automation or any kind of artificial intelligence which consequently reduces efficiency and hinders communication.
2. Lack of metrics and reporting
One of the biggest challenges of using a PMS to manage housekeeping operations is the lack of insight and control into daily operations since it leaves hotel managers with no way of monitoring the productivity of their housekeeping teams. When managing a team, data insights into how each team member is working are crucial for maintaining an efficient operation and developing talent, and retaining the right employees. Without this, hoteliers run the risk of increasing labor costs, while seeing a reduction in the quality of room cleans.
When using a solution like Optii Housekeeping, hoteliers are immediately provided with key metrics and actionable insights that help streamline housekeeping performance. Optii’s robust reporting and analytics dashboards make it easy for management to make data-driven decisions that improve housekeeping productivity, efficiency, and quality.
3. Need for support and training
The hotel industry as a whole is struggling with labor shortages, just like many other industries. As a result of this, hoteliers are being forced to run operations with lean teams and often hire people with less experience. So, now more than ever, there is a real need for support and training. Providing the right onboarding and training for your employees is an effective way to combat problems caused by labor shortages, and is vital to ensuring that high standards of cleaning are maintained.
Optii's simple and intuitive software provides the ease to train team members on evolving cleaning protocols. At Optii, we have curated a series of training videos that can be accessed by operations teams to learn how to effectively use the technology and tools that will help them to do their job to a high standard. Optii also provides the ability to include photos in the app to help with training new members of staff.
We have explored a few reasons why running housekeeping operations through a PMS can negatively impact a hotel's operation. Ultimately, housekeeping teams require an automated method to update and keep front and back of house dynamically aligned, and unfortunately, the PMS is not able to provide this. Housekeeping technology is proven effective and valuable to hotels around the world.
Interested in learning more about how you can optimize your hotel operations? Get in touch with our team today!
