Changing Hotel Property Management Systems – How to Avoid the Disruption
By Jeff Sefton
There is no doubt that changing your hotel property management system can be disruptive to your business, your team and your guests. Anyone that has been through the replacement of software that is an integral part of their business will agree.
Preparing your entire team mentally and making sure they are organized to make the change is critical to the success of your switchover to a new property management system. The time to get everyone excited about the change is during the preparation stage.
Preparation Stage
The preparation stage begins during the evaluation process and will continue into training and implementation of your new property management system. If the targeted implementation date is in the near future, the evaluation process will need to overlap with the planning of the implementation phase.
Some factors that may affect the timing or urgency of a change in your property management system are:
- Current property management system is at the end of its life cycle and needs to be replaced.
- Franchise agreement ending, the business is dropping the flag (going independent, no longer a franchise).
- Purchasing a Hotel or Resort and the existing property management system is not part of the deal.
- Opening a new Hotel or Resort and you require a property management system.
Once you have purchased a Property Management System, your Hotel PMS vendor will assist with the planning process. However, the Project Manager and hotel management team responsible for the evaluation need to step up to the plate and lay the foundation – since it all starts prior to the purchase and during the Property Management System evaluation.
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