The hospitality industry is growing bigger and better. Hotels, being one of the largest industries serving many people under different categories, require simplified systems that will not only help businesses achieve their business goals but enhance overall user experience. Above all, the hotel industry is huge and highly competitive. As a result, it becomes tough for hotel owners to penetrate and maintain higher ranks in the market. But then, building custom hotel management software is one of the best solutions to beat the competitive market and customize all the services, thus enhancing the overall user experience.

So, how can you build a top notch custom hotel management software? What are the features you should integrate? Why would you need a custom hotel management software? This guide answers all these questions and other valuable insights you need to know about custom hotel management software.

Why you must have a custom hotel management software: Top Benefits

There are many advantages or benefits of a custom hotel management software to business owners and customers too. Below are some of the top reasons why your hotel business needs a custom hotel management software solution:

• Improved Communication

Communication is a key requirement in the hotel industry. Staff need to communicate with other members from different departments, and there is communication with guests, too. As a result, effective communication strategies are crucial in promoting smooth operations while ensuring customers are satisfied. Below are ways through which a custom hotel management software solution improves communication

• Sharing information– with hotel management software, it is easy to share information via a centralized database where workers can see guest details, including what they like, room assignments, and reservation details. This helps staff to deliver top-notch experience, ensuring the guests are satisfied and happy in the end.
• Real-Time Updates – Timely service and updates are one key aspect most guests look forward to in a hotel. The HMS helps staff send automated notifications to guests about local events, their check-in time, and room status, among others, ensuring there are no misunderstandings that could cause inconveniences.
• Smooth Collaboration – Collaboration enhances good teamwork and good relationships between workers, thus creating a productive working environment. With hotel management software and the use of virtual phone numbers, all departments can communicate and collaborate smoothly, thus reducing the workload and making real-time productive decisions.
• Getting Client Feedback – Client feedback and reviews are vital in enhancing service delivery in the hotel industry. With hotel management software, it becomes easy for a client to leave their reviews and overall experience with the hotel’s services. The hotel management, on the other hand, can track and review clients’ feedback, enabling them to gain valuable insights on where to improve to promote client’s maximum satisfaction.

• Better Security & Privacy Measures

A hotel, especially big ones have different people with different intentions. We have workers across different departments, and we have guests too. Therefore, data privacy and security measures are important. Besides, data loss could lead to a lot of inconveniences in a hotel setup.

With a hotel management software solution, it is easy to secure data through frequent backups, encryption techniques, and control access. This ensures guest’s information is safeguarded and all system data is secured against loss. Above all, security and privacy measures give staff and clients a secure environment where they feel comfortable.

Below are some of the ways through which hotel management software enhances privacy and security measures:

• Secure Servers – helps protect confidential information, including payment details
• Access Control — limits those who can access specific information
• Regular Backups – Keeps a copy of data in case unexpected happens.
• Encryption – safeguards data from being accessed by hackers & unauthorized people.

• Improved data analysis

It is easy and seamless to perform data analysis with a hotel management software. Through data analysis, the hotel management can review its operational performance, trends in the market, and customer behaviors. The reports gathered help identify areas that need more improvements plus how to increase sales.

Some of the features that promote seamless data analysis include scalability to adapt to industry trends, the ability to analyze huge data sets, integration with other apps, customizable dashboards, and real-time data capture and reports.

• Better financial management

Billing, invoicing, and expense tracking are some of the inevitable financial transactions in the hotel industry.

A hotel management software solution helps automate the processes of generating invoices, tracking payments, and sending payment reminders. This helps minimize errors or overcharge or undercharge and delays during billing.

What’s more, it is easy to control expenses by reviewing purchases, monitoring cash flows, and managing vendor payments. Below are some of the ways through which a HMS simplifies financial management:

Tax compliance – The software can calculate and update tax regulations, ensuring a hotel complies with the set rules and regulations. This saves time while minimizing errors.

Accurate Financial Reports – Through HMS, you can generate accurate financial reports, which play a big role in making valuable decisions and planning.

Simplified invoicing processes – It is easy to generate invoices from the system automatically, thus saving time and reducing errors. Again, you can customize the invoice generation processes to enhance efficiency. You can also track balances and send automatic reminders to complete payment processes.

Note: Automating invoicing services enables the hotel management to focus on improving service delivery and enhancing customer experience.

• Maximizing Revenue

The success of a hotel business depends on good revenue management processes. Through a hotel management software solution, it becomes easy to increase occupancy rates, implement reliable pricing strategies, and boost revenue generation.

You can integrate revenue management tools in your hotel management software, which helps analyze and interpret demand patterns, competitor rates, market changes, and other industry activities that will help you implement strategies and plans for satisfying customers and generating more revenue. Below are ways through which hotel management software helps increase revenue:

• Forecasting – ability to review and predict future patterns and customer behaviors
• Dynamic Pricing – adjusting rates according to market trends, seasons, and demand
• Channel Management – managing distribution channels and adjusting rates
• Rate Shopping – Reviews competitor’s pricing and adjusts the pricing models to remain on top

• Better customer service

Every hotel strives to give their customers the best services. A hotel management software solution simplifies all these through the following ways:

• Personalization – a hotel management software helps you store customer’s details, giving you an easy way to deliver personalized services. By tapping into customers’ previous history, you can define what they expect and want and tailor the services based on these insights, thus promoting customer satisfaction, which creates a good relationship and loyalty.
• Instant communication – Real-time communication is key in the hotel industry. Customers often have requests and complaints which require timely responses and updates. Hotel management software helps all parties communicate swiftly, ensuring clients are satisfied in the end, and the hotel gets a positive review from satisfied clients.
• Upselling Opportunities – It is easy and smooth to analyze customer behaviors through previous encounters, review their profiles, and understand what they love with hotel management software.

This helps service providers tailor their products and services to meet specific client’s preferences, be it dining experience, room upgrade, and spa treatment, among other services. This not only satisfies customer needs but also enhances business growth and increased revenue.

• Streamlined operations

Another reason why you need a custom hotel management software is to streamline operations. A hotel is a busy business that requires adequate planning to ensure all the tasks and processes run smoothly. One feature of custom hotel management software that helps streamline operations is check-in.

With such a feature, customers can process their details online and confirm their reservation. This eliminates inconveniences, reduces workload, and creates a smooth environment for both hotel staff and customers.

With a check-in feature of hotel management software, it is easy to automate some tasks like room assignments, checkouts, check-ins, and reservations, thus eliminating manual processes which are prone to errors, tiresome, and time-consuming.

• Promoting efficiency

Since a hotel has different departments with different procedures to follow, it can be hard to track and ensure all departments, including housekeeping and inventory management, operate seamlessly. However, with hotel management software, it is easy to automate most of the tasks and save time while delivering top-notch services to customers, which in turn increases revenue.

Must have features of custom hotel management software

Now that you know how effective hotel management software is to the business, what are the key features a reliable HMS should have? Before we explore how to create a custom hotel management software, below are the features such a solution must have:

• Guest Management

Guests are the center point of the whole hospitality industry. Therefore, building a strong and good relationship with guests is a top concern for hotel owners. A hotel management software solution should have a guest management feature with the following segments to enhance customer satisfaction:

• Guest Profiles – Has details about the guests including their names, contact information, past activities in the hotel, and what they prefer. These insights help service providers tailor their products and services to meet individual client’s preferences, especially for future visits.
• Personalized Communication – As a hotel owner, email services aren’t enough. The best way of connecting with your clients before, during, and after visiting your hotel is by reaching out to them via personalized messages to create a strong bond.
• Check-In/Out Efficiency – the hotel management software solution should have a section allowing online processing to promote guest’s convenience.

• Reporting and Analytics

How well will you manage to enhance service delivery and satisfy your client’s needs and preferences? It is only by collecting valuable insights from clients and feedback from them too.

Therefore, as you build reliable hotel management software, include the reporting and analytics feature to allow make informed decisions. Among the reports you can collect for analysis include the following:

• Trends & Forecasting – Review past patterns in client’s behavior and preferences and use these insights to plan for future visits by the same clients.
• Actionable Insights – collect insights like staff performance, clients’ demographics, revenue generated, and occupancy rates to optimize and improve the overall operations of a hotel.
• Customization – the software solution should allow an easy way to customize reports to meet specific client preferences.

• Housekeeping Management

Housekeeping is another major section of a hotel. Of course, customers will want a clean, well-organized, and relaxing environment in a hotel. Therefore, the hotel management feature in HMS solution helps the housekeeping staff in the following ways:

• Inventory Tracking – As a way of ensuring housekeeping equipment and supplies don’t get out of stock, you can automate inventory tracking to enhance continuous service delivery.
• Scheduling & Task Management – Depending on the status of the rooms, the housekeeping staff can manage and schedule cleaning and organizing for each room, ensuring each room is clean and in a good state in a timely manner.
• Real-time Status Updates – This enhances a smooth collaboration between staff under different departments. For instance, the front office staff gets real-time updates on available rooms when allocating guests to their respective rooms in a seamless manner.

• Reservation Management

A hotel management software should have a feature that allows guests to book rooms using their preferred channel. It can be an online travel agency, phone call, or use the official website of the hotel. Since not all clients can use the same channel, ensure the software solution accommodates different clients with different channels of booking for reservation. Among the key considerations here include the following:

Multi-Channel Booking – accommodates different booking options for modern travelers. Therefore, include an OTAs option that allows your guests to book via mobile app or website.

Real-time Inventory – Imagine a scenario of booking many clients only for some to miss the rooms. It can cause a lot of inconveniences and time wastage. To eliminate manual updating, the hotel management software allows real-time updates, showing available rooms and their status, thus promoting client satisfaction.

Reservation Management Tools – Allow staff, especially with different shifts review the scheduling and upcoming reservations, adjust the details, and attend to customer needs in a smooth manner.

• Inventory Management

In a hotel setting, rooms play a major role in generating revenue and promoting customer experience. Therefore, a hotel management software solution should have features that show the following:

• Maintenance Management – tracking and updating rooms that require maintenance services. This prioritizes the convenience of customers and ensures all the hotel assets remain in good condition.
• Room Availability – show available rooms plus their status in terms of prices and sizes. This creates a smooth booking process and avoids confusion along the way.
• Housekeeping Integration – integrating your reservation system and the housekeeping activities ensures all the rooms are cleaned & prepared for the next clients in a timely manner.

• Point-of-Sale (POS) Integration

The hotel is a place offering a wide range of services, including spa treatments, gyms, dining, and room service, among many other services. Therefore, including a POS integration in your hotel management system enhances the following activities, which promotes client satisfaction:

• Guest Convenience – The system allows guests to settle al the bills at once instead of billing separately depending on the services received, thus a convenient way to meet customer satisfaction.
• Unified Billing – the system creates a streamlined billing process and eliminates different transactions for different services.
• Automated Revenue Tracking – Tracks the revenue streams and produces financial reports that help in making viable decisions.

How to create a custom hotel management software: Step-by-step

Below are simplified steps for creating reliable hotel management software:

• Gather the requirements

The success of your hotel management software solution depends heavily on the project requirements you highlight as the very first step. These requirements will guide you on the appropriate tools and technologies for the user and the relevant teams to work on the software solution.

Therefore, start by doing a detailed analysis using the following strategies:

Collect stakeholder overviews – Ask other hotel staff, including housekeeping and front office staff, what they think should be done. You can achieve this through surveys and interviews, prompting them to highlight the challenges they face in their respective departments.

Identifying the key features – based on the insights collected from other staff across different departments, identify key features that will help resolve existing challenges and simplify most of the manual tasks.

Prioritize Functionalities – As you highlight the features, think of their general impact. Will it enhance the guest experience? Will it simplify most of the tasks? What about revenue generation? Therefore, include only relevant features and simplify the developer’s work.

• UI Design

With the requirements and viable features, you can now think of designing a user interface that will help you collect feedback and make improvements. Under the user interface design phase, perform the following tasks:

• Visual Design – create an impressive interface that aligns with the brand of the hotel. Make sure you match colors, aesthetics, and typography. These elements will enhance user engagement.
• Wireframing & Prototyping – wireframes or low-fidelity mockups help you define the layout of the UI. Wireframing and prototyping help you collect feedback and make improvements in the early stages.
• UX – User Experience Design – you can create the UX design, ensuring it is easy to use and highly interactive.

• Development Process

This is now where the actual work is. The development team can now work on the hotel management software solution, of course, with the help of a clearly defined software roadmap. Under this stage, the team should perform the following tasks:

• Choosing the right tech stack – picking the appropriate frameworks and programming languages that will accelerate and enhance the success of the projects. Among the factors they should consider are ease of integration with other systems, security, and scalability.
• Coding & Development – Based on your target goals and requirements, the development team can now design and write high-quality code.
• Modular development – this is a software development strategy that accelerates the development speed while cutting down on costs and enhancing the quality of the software solution. The team, therefore, breaks down the development processes into small and manageable modules for easy development, testing, and deployment.

• Testing & Debugging

Once the system is ready, the team must perform a series of software tests to ensure the system is fully functional and free from bugs. While testing and debugging, the team performs the following tasks:

• Functional Testing – involves verifying the functionalities of software solutions in relation to the requirements in a real-world environment.
• Unit Testing – Involves testing one code module at a time to ensure they work promptly on their own.
• Usability Testing – It is all about verifying the software solution viability on how real users interact with the system.
• Integration Testing – this testing is conducted to ensure different software modules interact with each other seamlessly.

• Deployment and Maintenance

After a series of tests and verifying that everything works just perfectly, your hotel management software solution is ready. You can then perform the following tasks:

Deployment – based on your business needs, select an appropriate deployment approach. It can be a cloud-based solution, making the software accessible on any device used on the hotel computers.

User Training – Train all the staff on how to use and leverage the software to enhance task execution, create a productive working environment, and, above all, ensure customer satisfaction.

Ongoing Maintenance – The software development process is a continuous process. Bugs will arise along the way, user preferences will change, industry trends will emerge, and your competitors will implement new strategies. The only way of addressing all these issues is by ensuring continuous maintenance and updating the software system regularly using the latest industry technologies.

What is the cost of developing a custom hotel management software?

Different hotels require different software solutions based on their operations. Therefore, the features and development approaches are different, hence price variations.

For instance, a hotel management software solution with many features will require more expertise and resources, hence a higher price.

What’s more, the location of the development team matters when it comes to the overall costs of developing a hotel management software solution. Developers from Eastern Europe will be charged fairly compared to developers from Western Europe, USA, and Canada. All these variations are a result of differences in living standards.

Nonetheless, the overall cost of developing a hotel management software solution will range from $30,000 to $90,000 or even more, depending on the factors mentioned here.

Must-have tech stack for hotel management software development

Based on your requirements, the development teams should have adequate skills and knowledge in the following:

• Programming languages – PHP, Java, or Python, depending on the features and complexity of the software solution.
• Frameworks – Laravel for PHP, Spring for Java, or Django for Python
• Database – MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or MySQL, depending on data type and volume.

Custom hotel management software development team

To ensure the success of your hotel management software solution, the development team should include the following:

• Business analysts for data collection & interpretation
• Project manager to oversee the project’s progress
• UI/UX designer
• Frontend and backend developers
• QA testing team
• DevOps engineer.

Conclusion

A custom hotel management software is a must-have tool for hotel owners who want to scale and grow their business steadily.

As Aalpha Information Systems, we will analyze your business requirements and give you an overview of the best features to integrate into your system to enhance its effectiveness.

Above all, have a solid plan and involve your staff in the process to ensure you gather relevant information that will promote the success of your software solution.

Want to develop a custom hotel management software? Get in touch with our software development company – Aalpha information suystems!