The modern hotel PMS is helping guests stay organized and hotels remain profitable
By Warren Dehan
Technology was supposed to make everything so easy. Instead, travelers are more overwhelmed than ever by their devices, each vying for attention every second of every day. Not only are travelers focused on getting from point A to point B, but they likely are managing work emails, speaking with family members, or are distracted by whatever book or video series currently has their attention. Therefore, travelers love it when hotels make things easy. That includes having a single itinerary with all purchase, experience, and reservation information collected and accessible in one place.
Single Guest Itineraries (SGI) are pushed directly from a hotel’s property-management system (PMS) to guests, giving hoteliers more control over a traveler’s stay experience. Hotel guests remain informed on their stay’s activities by quickly checking their SGI, which includes all booked activities or reservations, live modifications and financial information for their stay if the property desires. Offering SGI capabilities is more than a nice-to-have feature, as it helps guests know where they are supposed to be and when while on property.
Full-service resorts and independent hotels benefit from SGI by leveraging increased attendance at their unique experiences or amenities. The more guests are aware of where they should be and when, the fewer cancellations and no-shows your hotel will incur and, therefore, the more opportunities to capture revenue. These tools also become part of a larger initiative in property ratings and associative accolades that require a comprehensive SGI as a guest offering.
Here are a few ways SGIs help hotels improve attendance across the board.
Busy Schedule
Collecting your hotel’s amenities and services into one location and delivering them to guests in a tight package is no small feat. Doing so requires a proper all-in-one PMS to manage every end of the guest journey and keep them updated on new developments. Typically, that means a thoughtfully designed tech stack that may require multiple partnerships and the right PMS that supports the needed integrations. For example, hotels may be able to send full schedules with restaurant reservations and confirmations for transportation, but golf resorts may require integrations to attach associated guest tee times.
Hoteliers must also consider the delivery method when reaching guests with SGI. What good is an accurate schedule if the guest never sees it? That’s why today’s PMS partnerships require integrations to deliver email and SMS-based messages with guest schedules attached. Additionally, there should be some way to push reminders and other messages to guests and update the SGI multiple times if needed.
Operators should consider the guests’ perspective when imagining the usefulness of SGI. Rather than thinking about business or leisure travelers, limited service, or resort properties, the main factor operators should consider is the length of stay. The longer a guest is on the property, the more they will need to keep track of where they need to be and when they are in an unfamiliar place. In these situations, an SGI can mean the difference between a stay full of missed opportunities and a fulfilling experience.
Delivering the Message
Implementing SGI doesn’t require a significant investment, but it does require operational commitments. Adopters of SGI should expect to be “all in” on the concept, as providing accurate itineraries requires involving essentially all hotel departments and integrating their data sets into the PMS. This is a healthy long-term strategy for hotel operations as more technology requires such a setup, but hoteliers should be prepared going in.
Accuracy is the most critical factor when implementing SGI. Guests will rely on information pushed to them from the hotel. If updates are inaccurate or take too long to be pushed to guests, the tool will instead create anxiety. This is not only counterintuitive to the tool’s purpose, but it is also deleterious to hotel operations in all forms.
Additionally, SGI provides innumerable benefits to operators. In particular, SGI helps inform operators of seasonality associated with bookings and can inform them of everything from purchasing to rates and even scheduling. These capabilities are also helpful for tracking the increases in dinner reservations or other purchases during specific promotions, or the times of year to push or relax on rates. The data housed in the PMS to produce the SGI details is invaluable to understand guest behavior, preferences and untapped revenue streams, all offering ways to increase profitability, guest loyalty and experiences.
Ultimately, SGI assists hotel revenue, but it is in place to provide a new service layer. Hotels that adopt SGI will provide a level of interaction prior to arrival that most operators dream of. It creates a digital front desk for the smartphone era. It’s the type of tool that promotes word-of-mouth business and a positive experience. In an age where we are disconnected, SGI shows guests that someone on property is considering their needs before they even arrive.
