Something that you will need to check when looking at hotel management software is the scalability of the system. The reason for this is that most people will want to expand their hotel business and not have to buy a new system every time. Having a software system that can expand and adapt to your needs is very important as it will save you money and time.
Expanding and improving your hotel PMS
Having a hotel PMS that is very limited can be disastrous if you are thinking about expanding your business. This expansion can be anything from adding on more rooms to acquiring another hotel to form a chain. If your system has a limit on the number of rooms it can handle then you will find a huge problem when trying to expanding. For this reason it is best that you look for property management software that is modular and expandable. Modular systems will allow you to later add on more features so that you can expand your business. You should also check that the system can deal with more than one property. There are some software programs that are created solely for people who are going to have only one hotel and this can be bad for you if you find that you can expand to have more than one hotel.
The database your hotel management software uses
The type of database that your hotel management software is using is very important. Some of these programs will use older databases such as Access but these are the ones that you should avoid. The reason for this is that if you have an older database you will not be able to upgrade and expand it as easily as a newer one. One type of newer database that you should look at having is SQL based databases. This type of database is also much easier to use than older database types. This is due to the SQL language that makes up the database which has been created to help people manage their databases more effectively. One of the SQL databases that you may use is Microsoft SQL server.
Hotel management system that can support multiple databases
Being able to support multiple databases is another thing that your hotel management system should be able to do. If you have a large hotel business that has over 1000 rooms then it is recommended that you use Oracle databases. This of course does not mean that you cannot use a Microsoft database if you have a large chain or hotel. Your hotel management system should be able to handle a range of different databases as everyone will want to use what they are comfortable with. Additionally if your hotel business grows then you might want to change databases from Microsoft to Oracle without having to get new software. This is why you should always check to see what the software you want to buy will support.
Scalability of hotel management software is very important for you if you think that you may want to expand your business in the future. Having software that can change with you will save you money and time as you do not have to buy new software and have it installed.