DOS DONTS for Selecting and Implementing an Enterprise PMS

The hospitality industry finds itself at a critical point where innovation and efficiency must blend seamlessly to meet the evolving demands of guests and operational complexities. A robust PMS stands as the backbone of hotel operations, significantly influencing everything from booking management to guest satisfaction. For enterprise hotel chains, selecting the right PMS is paramount, as it can drive operational excellence and elevate the guest experience. But choosing the right PMS for hotel groups and chains is more challenging due to the complex needs of large-scale operations, which require a system capable of handling extensive integrations and diverse functionalities across multiple locations. Additionally, the high volume of data and transactions necessitates a stable and secure solution that can ensure seamless performance and compliance with industry standards. Here are the Do’s and Dont’s that we’ve observed in selecting the right Enterprise PMS.

DO’S

Define clear objectives: Establish the most important goals trying to be achieved by switching the PMS, such as improving guest experience, increasing operational efficiency, or integrating new technologies. These clear objectives will guide the selection process, ensuring the chosen PMS aligns with overall business strategies and priorities.
Assess your needs: When planning a global roll-out, conduct thorough assessments to understand the unique needs and requirements of each region. This includes legal compliance, cultural considerations, and local market demands to ensure the PMS can meet diverse as well as operational needs.
Ensure legal compliance: Verify that the PMS solution adheres to all legal and fiscal regulations across the various regions and countries where your hotels operate, ensuring compliance with local regulations, accounting systems and tax systems, some countries might be missing, check if they are on the roadmap.
Appoint a project leader: Identify an internal stakeholder who will oversee the entire project from initiation to completion, ensuring consistent progress, accountability, and effective communication among all involved parties.
Involve all departments: Engage various departments that will use the system and get their input and feedback. Frontdesk, Housekeeping, Maintenance, Reservations, Accounting and of course Management. Secure their buy-in. This collaborative approach ensures the PMS implementation aligns the needs and expectations.
Plan for change management: Develop a comprehensive plan to ensure the implementation requirements are understood and embraced by end users, incorporating extensive training programs and ongoing support. This approach facilitates smooth adoption and effective utilization of the new PMS across all levels of the organization.
Clarify responsibilities: Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of your PMS partner, how will they manage the implementation, data transfer, project management, support etc. Accountability and a streamlined implementation process will minimize confusion and enhance project output.
Review reporting and analytics capabilities: Choose a PMS that offers robust reporting and analytics features, enabling you to gain valuable insights into your operations. Comprehensive data analysis helps optimize performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions across your entire hotel chain.
Evaluate data privacy and sovereignty laws: Ensure the PMS complies with local data sovereignty laws and privacy regulations. Understand the legal landscape, storage requirements, and cross-border transfer restrictions to protect sensitive information, maintain compliance, and avoid legal repercussions.
Focus on security: Prioritize a PMS that provides robust security features to safeguard guest data and ensure operational integrity across all properties. Are they doing penetration testing? What are the stats and how do they deal with problems when they arise. Implementing strong security measures is essential for maintaining trust with your guests and compliance with data protection regulations globally.
Rapid property creation: Select a PMS that enables quick and efficient creation of new properties, facilitating seamless expansion and ensuring that new locations can be brought online rapidly without disrupting existing operations or compromising service quality.
Guest profiles and preferences: Ensure the system makes it easier to recognize guests, know their preferences, understand their lifetime value to the hotel and the group, and share those with the hotels and staff who need to use it to deliver better service.
Adaptability to regulations: Ensure the PMS can easily update rules and processes to comply with changing regulations across different properties. This flexibility is crucial for maintaining legal compliance and operational consistency throughout the entire hotel chain.
Request extensive demos: Test the PMS with real-world scenarios across multiple properties to thoroughly evaluate its performance, compatibility, and scalability with your operations. Ensure actual users are on the demos so they can evaluate and test it. This ensures the system can handle the unique demands and complexities of your hotel group.
Plan for future technological advancements: Ensure the PMS you choose is designed to accommodate future technological innovations and advancements in the hospitality industry. This requires a strong API-first foundation that will not be a blocker for future technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced data analytics tools. Futureproofing your operations is crucial to protect your investment.
Review integration capabilities: Ensure the PMS can seamlessly integrate with other existing systems and third-party applications across the entire hotel chain, maintaining operational performance and enabling comprehensive data sharing and management throughout the enterprise.

DON’TS

Avoid overcomplicating changes: Do not try to implement too many process changes or SOPs at once, as this can overwhelm staff and hinder adoption. Gradual implementation ensures a smoother transition and better acceptance of the new PMS across all departments.
Unclear project success metrics: Ensure you have clearly defined goals and success metrics to measure the effectiveness of the new PMS. Clear criteria help track progress and ensure the system meets the intended objectives across the entire operation.
Avoid random input channels: Do not allow random input to be sent to your partner without a single communication funnel to the PMS partner. A centralized communication channel ensures clarity, consistency, and effective coordination throughout the planning and implementation process.
Forget to consider end-user involvement: Early involvement of end-users ensures that the system meets practical needs and gains necessary support. Failing to involve end users and other stakeholders early in the process can lead to poor adoption and project failure.
Fail to consider support structures: Do not decide without considering the long-term support and service structure of the PMS partner, for every region where you have hotels. Adequate support and service level agreement is crucial for ongoing system maintenance, troubleshooting, and ensuring long-term success.
Ignore scalability costs per your needs: Avoid choosing a PMS that cannot scale with your enterprise's growth and future needs at a reasonable cost. Scalability is essential for accommodating expansion and adapting to evolving operational demands across the entire organization.
Leave out customization needs: Ensure the PMS offers necessary customization options to meet your enterprise's unique operational requirements, as customization is crucial for addressing specific needs and optimizing performance across various properties and departments.
Ignoring to check the roadmap: What features are on the roadmap, does the PMS partner have a vision for the coming years and decades, do they have the resources to execute on the vision?
Disregard data privacy: Do not neglect to ensure the PMS can adhere to data privacy compliance because different regions might have different laws. A disregard in one region could effect the whole enterprise's reputation and operational integrity.
Choose based on price alone: Do not select a PMS solely on cost; it is the backbone of your operation. Look at all aspects including its features, support, and how well it meets the specific needs of your properties across different regions.
Neglect training: Avoid choosing a vendor that does not offer comprehensive training programs for your staff, as thorough training is essential for successful implementation and ensures that all users can effectively utilize the new PMS.
Ignore integration limitations: Do not overlook a PMS's limitations in integrating with your current systems, as this can create operational silos, hinder seamless workflows, and prevent efficient data sharing across various departments and properties.
Disregard multi-currency support: Ensure the PMS can handle multi-currency transactions if operating in multiple countries, as this capability is essential for seamless financial operations, accurate accounting, and providing a smooth guest experience across different regions.
Downplay language and cultural differences: Do not underestimate the impact of cultural differences on system adoption and usage. Tailoring the PMS to accommodate multiple languages, local customs, preferences, and practices can enhance user acceptance and overall operational efficiency across different regions.
Underestimate the importance of local support: Avoid relying solely on centralized support. Ensure that the PMS vendor provides localized support to address region-specific issues promptly. Local support teams can offer better understanding and quicker resolution of problems unique to each market.

In summary, the multifaceted and large-scale nature of enterprise hotel chains makes the selection of the right PMS even more critical compared to individual properties. The system must support extensive integrations, scalability, data management, and regulatory compliance while ensuring consistency and efficiency across all locations.