Still setting rates manually? Find out how much you could save by kicking it into autopilot
The days of continually setting rates manually are over. Both costly and time consuming, setting rates by hand is not only outdated, but prone to human error. Imagine the savings you can create by eliminating all those people hours changing rates up and down across myriad channels. Plus, automatic rate [...]
A few missed dollars of ADR can leave money on the table
Hoteliers looking to push average daily rate (ADR) might not realize there is opportunity to ratchet it up even more. It’s not an indication of skill set or effort, but more about not knowing what they don’t know. But you can find out just how much by yourself. SkyTouch has [...]
Falling worker productivity affecting hotel revenues
Overall U.S. worker productivity is falling. A new Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article says employers are paying their staff more and getting less in return. The WSJ article cites an August 9th U.S. Labor Department report, which found that worker productivity is down for the 12th month in a row! Read the [...]
How the Micros data breach shows how a cloud based PMS may help
This week, Oracle notified its customers that it had detected malicious code in certain legacy MICROS systems. With data breaches making big headlines over the past several years, the threat of stolen data remains real for individuals and the hotels they share their consumer information with. In fact, 42% of hoteliers identified [...]
How Millennials are Embracing the Next Generation of Hotel Technology
The millennial generation is set to take over as the most influential generation in American history. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more millennials than there were Baby Boomers. With such high numbers, it’s inevitable society will bend to meet the needs and desires of such a large [...]
5 Ways the Best Available Rate (BAR) Pricing Strategy Can Help Improve Hotel Revenues
Before meaningful hospitality software, property owners would rarely reset rates. The common approach of set it and forget was dominant. That meant a guestroom was generally priced the same for an extended period of time, such as the entire season or year, with little consideration given to demand trends. For [...]
How Employee Turnover May Be Affecting your Profits and What to do About it
Employees are your most valuable asset and should be treated accordingly. Yet employee turnover is still a pervasive industry issue that’s costly and time-consuming. Did you know that according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the turnover rate in the U.S. hospitality segment rose from 66.7% in 2014 to 72.1% in 2015? That’s [...]
4 Ways Technology Can Improve Relationships with your Customers
In today’s complex hospitality marketplace, making personal connections with guests is critical. Not only do customers have more choices than ever, they’re significantly more sophisticated than even 10 years ago and expect more. Much more. They’re also increasingly well-traveled and more frequently looking for personalized experiences. Practically, that means hoteliers [...]
Brand Boosting and Booking Using Today’s PMS Software
Deciding which hotel rooms are allocated to guests upon check-in can be a delicate and demanding juggling act. After all, the hotel’s primary job is to ensure complete satisfaction, regardless of varying guest demands and outside influences. Yet with with the right cloud-based hotel property management systems (PMS) software, hotel staff [...]
Help Improve Guest Security with Cloud-Based PMS Software
We all remember the massive credit card breaches at well-known national retailers over the last few years. These breaches were a public relations, financial, and legal nightmare, resulting in millions of dollars in lost sales and possible long-term brand damage. From a hospitality point of view, simply hoping that your [...]
Customer Service in 2016
We’re not competitor-obsessed, we’re customer-obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.—Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com Bezos got it right. Corporations have an obligation to invest substantial resources not simply for their own benefit, but for the benefit of their customers. In this way, they are always working [...]
Employee Retention: Using Active Planning to Boost Staff Success
Diane Bowen, Director of Services, SkyTouch Technology Let me start out with what I find to be a startling fact: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average turnover rate for the hospitality industry in 2014 was 66.3%. Considering that the national average for all other private industries was [...]
Customer Surveys: The Value of Finding a PMS Provider that Listens
How often in the business world do we have the opportunity to receive honest feedback from others—feedback that might prompt us to make the necessary changes to improve our businesses? For the hotelier, guests, staff, and peers are often crucial to providing useful input that can point to where things are [...]
Call Me: 24-Hour Support for Your 24-Hour Hotel
In today’s ultra-competitive hotel market, it has become more important than ever to get the help you need right when you need it. If something goes wrong, you need to know that you can get in touch with someone quickly. Questions arise from time to time, and you may have [...]
Between Shifts: Using Your PMS to Help Smooth Communications
Your hotel business runs non-stop on a 24/7, 365-day schedule. Round-the-clock operations often add a layer of complication to working in teams. Therefore, communication failures between the teams that provide coverage on different shifts can be problematic, and it can be common to run into problems between shifts. Hearing comments from [...]