Introduction

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A hotel is a hive of numerous operations such as front office, booking and reservation, banquet, finance, HR, inventory, material management, quality management, security, energy management, housekeeping, CRM and more. All these activities take place simultaneously and managing these diverse activities manually can be a difficult process. This led to the introduction of property management systems or hotel ERP that automates a host of repetitive functions. Integrated, automated software also means management can optimize hotel operations, gather business intelligence as I wrote in my last blog Technology for Better Business Intelligence and thus keep a tight control on costs.

With growing competition in the industry it’s important for a hotel to understand the needs of their guest, for example, things like what gets sold most, what guests demand for most, what food material get used least and results in loss, a good hotel management software, allows hotels to do just that.

Online hotel reservations are becoming a very popular method for booking hotel rooms. Travelers can book rooms from home by using online security to protect their privacy and financial information and by using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels.Online hotel reservations are also helpful for making last minute travel arrangements. Hotels may drop the price of a room if some rooms are still available. There are several websites that specialize in searches for deals on rooms.