While hospitality industry’s revenue is primarily derived from the sale of its rooms it has now also expanded into providing a gamut of other products such as coffee spas, restaurants, spas, bars, novelty gifts outlets, laundry service and car rentals that can generate additional revenue.
In addition to the increased number of transactions, hotels are also dealing with multiple types of transactions, going beyond cash payments and accepting cards, vouchers and even online wallets. In fact, statistics from Capgemini Financial Services states that the global volume of cashless transactions increased by 14.1% from 2018 to 2019 to reach 708.50 billion.
Due to the sheer complexity of transactions it’s vital that hoteliers have a streamlined workflow to manage the revenue flow, to ensure a smooth interaction with their guests. In this article, we will discuss the general application of POS systems and their importance in enhancing the operations in the hotel industry.
What are the Benefits of using POS systems in hotels?
A super-efficient, smooth-running Point-of-Sale (POS) system will definitely help run a hotel’s business operations faster and smoother. Hoteliers who invest the time and resources to implement such a system will undoubtedly reap the benefits.
A POS system serves as the command centre for your business. In reality, it is a one-stop shop for everything, including sales, inventory management, payment processing, and customer service. The most important features of effective POS software today are anytime access, stock management, return policy, and quick checkout.
1. Centralised operations
A centralised POS system enables hospitality businesses to connect operations across all of their outlets and venues. Hoteliers can review all important business data including real-time reports on customer purchasing trends, inventor information, and even finance and cost data like food waste.
Additionally, hoteliers can also get customer shopping preference information that can help enhance the overall customer experience through customised sales offers or loyalty programs. In other words, hospitality business can have a central database with all the data that help to strengthen future operations.
2. Guest data tracking
The POS system can save valuable personal data about guests, creating a database full of their preferences, past purchase behaviour and demographic data including age, gender and profession. When integrated with other hotel solutions like Property Management Solutions (PMS), the data collection of a POS is even more efficient, storing vital information like reservation details or room preferences from front desk solutions or tracking purchase patterns from online ordering solutions.
In today’s digital world, such data is extremely valuable because it can be used to send personalised emails and text messages about promotions and services on a regular basis, customise menus and keep guests informed and engaged with the brand.
3. Analyse sales performance
When a hotel uses a POS system, it makes it easier for the staff to keep a track of their sales and customer orders, and particularly find out from which area it generates profit centre sales.
This information can be used to further optimise the offers and sales, strategise promotions and even define profit margins. Hotels can utilise sales data to find out which items are being sold the most, which are in need of improvements, and which are seasonal.
4. Facilitate marketing operations
A POS system can assist hotel owners by providing data on what products and services sell and how frequently they sell. These types of data, in effect, can be used to plan, design, and execute strategic promotions.
A brand’s marketing campaign is as good as the accuracy of data. The knowledge and insights provided by a POS system is vital in defining when to send marketing and promo messages to their guests or even which audience segment needs to hear about what products and ultimately refine their marketing efforts for the best ROI.
5. Inventory management
A POS system’s inventory management features assist in keeping track of all products and services so that businesses can order or cancel product orders on time, manage stock levels, in different locations, and avoid wastage of overstocking.
Furthermore, with cloud POS system’s ability to manage inventory across multiple outlets of a hospitality brand, hoteliers can always know which outlet to reach out if an item is unavailable at another one of their outlets. Such a system ensures that the hotel has the adequate amount of stock at the right time and at the right place.
Types of POS systems
Contemporary POS solutions go beyond just handling the payments and involve multiple tools and integrations.
The types of POS systems commonly used in the hospitality industry are listed below.
1. On-premise POS systems
On-premise or traditional POS systems refers to legacy Point-of-Sales solutions. These are types of POS solutions that collects and store all sales data on a local database, often in the hard drive of a computer’s used by the outlet. Legacy POS solutions can only be accessed when using that computer meaning physical presence on the venue is needed to operate it.
2. Mobile POS systems
Mobile-based POS systems are mobile solutions that are available on both Android and iOS and have grown in popularity due to the cost savings and convenience they provide. Best of all, an existing on mobile devices like phones or tablets can be easily used to facilitate payments, prompting many start-ups to use these types of devices.
3. Cloud-Based SaaS POS Systems
Within the POS market, cloud-based POS systems are referred to as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) POS systems. They are relatively new to the POS market but due to their flexibility and relatively minimal maintenance, SaaS based POS systems are quickly rising to popularity within the hotel industry.
Are POS and PMS system the same?
A hotel Point-of-Sale system is different from a hotel PMS or Property Management System, although the two can be integrated to streamline operations like reservations, guest profile management and inventory management.
A PMS handles reservations, bookings and other front office operations while a POS mainly processes transaction and restaurant orders. POS integration refers to, in basic form, merging of POS technology with inventory, accounting plus additional operating systems. In effect, POS integration differs greatly between individual businesses requirements.
A PMS-POS integration empowers guest billing data from each touchpoint of a hotel—front desk, bar, spa, restaurant—to be sent to the PMS and be added to a centralised guest account enabling more synchronisation between the hotel staff and better data accessibility.
POS systems are critical to the growth of any business
A POS can improve customer interaction and reduce revenue loss. With so many POS systems on the market today, one should make sure to choose the best POS system for the business in terms of accessibility, analytics, and integration.
IDS Next’s FX Point of Sales solutions cover these needs, empowering the hotel staff to streamline its transactions and provide the most exquisite experience to guests at each touch point.
For hotels that use POS systems, it’s of vital importance that their system is embedded with features embracing the latest technology, affording superior customer service. To summarise, if a hotel owner wants to improve a hotel’s operations, a POS system may be the ideal starting point.