When it comes to core technologies, your total property solution can be delivered via a single, web-based solutions provider, including PMS, POS, Channel Management, Booking Engine, Guest Marketing, Business Intelligence, Tour Desk and more …
[SAN DIEGO, CALIF.- April 1, 2015] – As the hospitality industry continues to migrate its mission-critical technologies above property, RMS Hospitality Solutions is encouraging owners and operators in the hotel, apartment, vacation rental, campground and RV resort markets to experience “The Hospitality Cloud” — a suite of a la carte technology solutions designed specifically to streamline and simplify operations. On The Hospitality Cloud, lodging operators can run their property management, point of sale, channel management, guest marketing, business intelligence, tour desk and other systems without any reliance on hardware or IT infrastructure. More than 4,000 properties in 25 countries currently rely on RMS for their property solutions, of which 60 percent are now fully operating via The Hospitality Cloud.
“Lodging operators are quickly learning that by leveraging the power of the cloud they can operate more efficiently and much leaner than ever before,” said David Jones, RMS Hospitality Solutions global director of sales and marketing. “Why pay multiple vendors for overlapping services if the same result can be achieved on a unified platform from a single supplier? The Hospitality Cloud is designed to enable operators to run every part of their businesses successfully without maintaining complicated networks or worrying about things like back-ups, updates and data security.”
According to the 2015 Lodging Technology Study, 21.6 percent of respondents surveyed said that migrating their on-premises technology to the cloud this year is a top priority. The study shows a dip in on-premise PMS investment (from 17.05 percent in 2014 to 14.11 percent in 2015) as “more [properties] move to a cloud-based PMS.” It is reported that PMS will see the greatest cloud adoption in the coming 18 months.
While the technology landscape continues to evolve, the level of expertise to manage complex on-property systems remains inadequate. According to the report, 17.03% of participants said the hospitality industry is lacking an ability to manage complex integrations; 16.67% said technical experience is lacking altogether, especially experience in managing out-sourced IT; 16.22% said familiarity with technology-enabled marketing solutions and strategies is missing; 13.51% said the inability to analyze and problem solve is a problem; 11.35% say the willingness to be proactive in solving problems doesn’t exist; and 10.27% site the lack of familiarity with business strategies as a top problem.
“When properties migrate to The Hospitality Cloud, the lack of IT expertise at the property level is no longer a concern,” Jones said. “Our core solutions were built upon 30 years of hospitality technology expertise. And while some providers design their systems to look pretty on the front end and then work backwards, RMS — as a database company — takes the opposite approach; we design our solutions to be robust on the back end to capture relevant, predictable and actionable data that can be used ongoing to communicate with guests throughout their travel lifecycle.”
What is The Hospitality Cloud?
The Hospitality Cloud from RMS is a group of web-based modules that can be used independently or in concert to help make any hospitality business more profitable. The following elements reside on the cloud:
Property Management System — enables operators to improve reservation management efficiencies and increase bookings via seamless, real-time online bookings and channel management integration.
Point-of-Sale System — helps improve efficiency and profitability by streamlining tasks, increasing accuracy and producing reports when needed.
Channel Management System — connects operators directly to their favorite online travel agents for easier and more efficient inventory distribution. The CMS links properties to the RMS booking engine (Book Now Button) and a range of travel websites without the requirement of a third-party channel manager. Rates and availability are automatically uploaded to all of the sites a property is affiliated with.
Booking Engine — turns website visitors into customers via the RMS Book Now Button and offers real-time, instantly-confirmed online reservations. Reservations appear on the RMS bookings screen as soon as they are made, and rates and availability are synchronized by the CMS to prevent double bookings.
Guest Marketing — generates emails and SMS/text messages for triggered campaigns based on pre-defined rules. The system provides tracking and reporting to measure the success of each campaign.
Business Intelligence — analyzes guest preferences and buying behaviors to develop predictable data
Tour Desk — facilitates partnerships with theme parks and local attractions to generate incremental revenues through ticket sales
“There’s a lot of hype among the vendor community whereby they are touting themselves to be ‘more than just a PMS company’ or ‘more than just a channel manager,'” said Todd Sabo, RMS North America president and general manager. “These providers are realizing that in today’s cloud environment, offering an operations tool alone won’t cut it. To compete effectively and support a global customer base, companies need to offer a total strategy solution that integrates with all travel technologies, including other cloud-based applications.
“Just as ‘Google’ became synonymous with ‘Search’ and ‘Cloud’ became tantamount with ‘Software,’ we believe that RMS and The Hospitality Cloud will become one,” Sabo added. “Soon the RMS Hospitality Cloud will be known as hospitality’s go-to source for all core technologies above property,” Sabo added.
