Want to know how Marriott, Hilton or Intercontinental successfully automated their Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Front Desk, HR and other processes?
No, it’s not just because they are huge companies that can invest large amounts into enterprise ERP systems. It’s because they find a system that’s adapted to the hospitality industry specificities.
Size doesn’t matter!
The hospitality industry is in fact quite fragmented. Even if large groups like Marriott or Hilton have a coherent international branding, often times the actual properties are owned by local companies, and potentially operated by yet different companies. This means that they often act as small-scale businesses.
Therefore each hotel is run slightly differently – for better or for worse. It may seem that in this reduced scale, there is no space for IT investments and automation. However, it’s all about finding the right product and team, flexible enough to adapt to all the local processes of each hotel.
Pick simple and affordable systems
As a result of this fragmentation, investment decisions are often taken by individual properties, aiming for a budget proportionate to their size. Moreover, each hotel may not have a huge IT team and expertise to manage large-scale implementations.
That is why it is important to find a system that will be affordable, both in terms of time and money:
- Flexible and able to cover all business needs and areas: to avoid any need for additional/different systems down the line.
- Simple to implement: the IT team and management don’t have time for 12-month long, large-scale IT implementations that would drain all the resources.
- In the Cloud, software as a service: SaaS software is great for hospitality, as it means no big upfront investment and no additional responsibility for the IT team.
- User-friendly: make sure that all the staff can quickly pick up and use the system, to ensure uptake and avoid extensive training
Work with people who understand hospitality
It’s not just about systems… a system will never resolve problems arising from flawed processes. Therefore you need to work with people who can also proactively advise you.
At DocMX, we keep hearing from our clients how much they appreciate our detailed understanding of hotel operations, and proactive suggestions for improvements – as well as our system which is specifically tailored for hospitality.
Before we built our system, we literally lived in a hotel for a year, sitting with people at Reservations, Front Desk, Accounting, Sales & Events, HR etc. We saw the key challenges in the processes, then spotted, suggested and tested process improvements.
Our clients ended up saving thousands of dollars monthly, by reducing paperwork printing, enabling staff to work more efficiently, and spending more time with guests, rather than managing admin work.
Find out more about the different hotel operations we can help you with!
