Right Hospitality Technology – The Way Forward For Luxury Hotels In India

By Author: Debi Prasad Sarangi
Total Articles: 4
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Hotel industry in India is expected to a see a good time in terms of overall growth in next few years. The foundation of such growth could be attributed to the number of international tourists that is set to increase due to many reasons.

Here is what facts and figures say about the outlook of the industry

India has received over 7.757 million foreign tourists by August 2015. According to the World Tourism Organization, the country will welcome over 15.3 million foreign tourists by 2025. Now let us take a look at the accommodation sector, often termed as the hotel industry. Do we have enough high-end hotel rooms offer to such a growing number of foreign nationals? The answer is a big ‘Yes’ and here is why –

Around 29, 000 luxury hotel rooms are under development and they will be added to the existing nation-wide inventory over next 6 years. Metro and tier 1 cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune and Gurgaon will have over 6,500 hotel rooms by 2016.

What is next after the growth?

So, it is quite oblivious that luxury hotels operating across India will have to have all necessary ...
... infrastructures to offer their guests the ultimate stay and service. But looking at their hotels’ huge amount of complex and diverse operations, how the hoteliers would manage all these? Thousands of hotel staff would be working on different aspect of the operation and at the same time, the definitive goal for them is to serve guests efficiently to witness enhanced revenues.

Hospitality technology is the way forward

Here is why hospitality technology has gained so much of importance in today’s hotel business. Hospitality technology solutions have changed the way hoteliers used to look at IT implementation into their work process.

In order to make sure that the entire cycle of multifaceted and taxing operation is done with maximum ease, owners of luxury hotels need to adopt integrated hotel property management system (Hotel PMS). The Hotel PMS should be a single yet robust software with maximum number of modules in it. The software should run on single data base. It must help users address all aspects of a hotel operation from reservation, banqueting, inventory management, maintenance management, restaurant management and complete back office capability as well. Most importantly, through extensive automation, the hotel software should free up staff from doing many unproductive jobs. Thus the hotel staff can now pay extra attention towards their guests needs.

What more?

Yes, there is always more to everything. Smart hotel management software should allow users leverage the power of technology to the fullest. It should enable hoteliers have easy access to a host of value added hospitality technology solutions. A luxury hotel needs to have a strong brand value in order to attract more guests. So, it is imperative for the management to ensure that the hotel’s online reputation is doing well. The Hotel PMS should help hoteliers to garner guest reviews and this would in turn boost the hotel’s brand value.
A hotel needs to maximum number of bookings to ensure a higher occupancy rate which is core the business. This is why the Hotel PMS needs to be integrated to smart global distribution platform. Web booking engine integration would assist the hotel receive maximum number of direct bookings, too.

Additionally, it is the responsibility of the hotel to offer its guests a hassle-free check-in facility. The hotel should adopt mobile check-in app to walk their guests directly to their rooms while bypassing the time consuming front desk formalities. In this context, a smart restaurant e-menu app can be very useful in order offer an excellent dining experience to guests.

Review IDS Next for all your needs

Due to extensive feature set and robustness, IDS Next’s Hotel PMS is known as Hotel ERP. This comprehensive and integrated hotel software has 12 modules. The software is PCI DSS certified and thus protects guests’ payment card details from being hacked. Besides, through Hotel 360 Hospitality Solutions offerings, users of FortuneNEXT 6i Suite of Hotel ERP can access other solutions including business analytics, revenue management, online reputation management, channel manager, web booking engine, central reservation system, mobile apps and more.