Hotels are a 24-hour business, hence require hands-on attention and control over every aspect of service delivery by professionals. The back office is such an area of concern for every hotel that requires timely decision making and prompt action from administrators.
The primary tasks of a hotel back office include monitoring a property as a whole observing its financial, administrative, technical, and service delivery issues. These back offices are usually led by senior management or a professional outsourced team that deals with the issues remotely.
Large franchises and smaller hotels both have certain functions sourced directly to the back office. Today, hundreds of hospitality technology & management companies offer professional back office management services for hotels allowing them to easily control finances, maintain employee schedules, technical problems, administrative issues, and make other high-level decisions.
Here are 5 reasons back office support is essential for any hotel around the world today.
Simpler & Cheaper
Back office in hotels can become more expensive as a hotel grows, especially if multiple franchise properties are being managed through one location. A hospitality management company offers vast experience managing the back offices in various hotels, and all that for a cheaper price.
Back office management also becomes simpler with a single point of control and less hardware to monitor all activities. Comparatively, an in-house back office team will accompany salaries, days off, bonuses, and other miscellaneous expenses. A remote back office support team will only need authorized access and a point of contact at the property.
A back office management company carries its own hardware, software, and personnel to ensure your hotel services are managed without the additional expense. This is compounded with the simplicity of keeping downtime’s minimal through expertise and issue resolution faster through experience.
Expert Integration and Software Management
Hospitality management companies also offer both full-featured and customized software integrations for hotels. For instance, the back office requires leading-edge software like revenue management, technology monitoring, customer service and access to hotel databases.
Every hotel staff may it be manager, concierge, cook, housekeeping or security needs access to the hotel PMS and its mobile systems. To maintain great guest experiences it is essential that every staff member can easily access hotel software and databases to make informed decisions.
A hotel technology management company will usually offer all relevant tools, integrate them with the hotel PMS, and sync all other software to ensure management from a single console. In the case of migrations, a hospitality management company can also offer PMS integration at both new and existing properties.
Remote Management & Control
While an in-house team requires an always present manager to control the back office, remote management can be an excellent option for popular hotels. Thanks to modern technology hotel staff don’t have to be present at the back office for high priority decisions.
Web-based software and mobile PMS integration allow hotel employees to access software and desktops from anywhere with internet access. These amazing tools pave the way for hotels to centralize the management of their properties reducing expenses and cutting down on human resource costs.
A managed back-office provider can immensely benefit your hotel, allowing your staff some space with 24-hour monitoring throughout the year. A remote software engineer constantly supervises back office to keep all financial and administrative technologies functional.
Enhanced Hotel Efficiency
Both franchise hotels and single property hotels can benefit from a managed back office. A simple error in hotel back-office systems can lead to issues with an even bigger magnitude, like pricing, inventory, billing, etc. Managed back offices tend to be more efficient, compliant, and benefits the entire asset.
One of the best benefits of a back office managed by a hospitality technology provider is the versatility and peace of mind for hotel management. Constant monitoring keeps systems compliant and protected allowing hotel staff to stay connected to databases, systems, and software throughout the day.
Consider the convenience for staff to access their rosters, accountants who can process invoices from home, and marketers who can access & analyze data instantly. Well managed software can also deliver alerts, send tasks to staff, and deliver messages to personnel across the property.
Compliance & Security
Security is the most critical issue that all hotels of the world must plan for. The hotel industry is the second most compromised businesses by cyber attacks, and requires a professional electronic management policy to counter. Due to the vast amount of financial data and personal information at stake hotel technology must be secured and monitored by a professional network engineer.
The radical increase in cybercrime in hospitality requires that hotels have a sound cyber-security framework defined. Authorization for databases, firewall security, threat detection & protection, staff training, etc. are now essentials that every technology policy must address.
Compliance is a major issue in most hotels around the world with outdated hardware and buggy software found in hotels. Hardware is the most pivotal case in the industry, as (single & small) hotel owners usually seem uninterested in upgrading their technology infrastructures.
A highly compliant back-office infrastructure will ensure your hotel has close to no service delivery issues. Compliant hardware is necessary to efficiently execute, manage, and control hotel PMS and other software. Since payment systems and guest databases require constant oversight for performance it is essential to have professionals monitor the hotel technology infrastructure.
A managed back office can thus benefit from constant security upgrades as well as technical compliance to ensure the property is adequately secured from cybercrimes.
Conclusion
Having a back office management company radically improves the service delivery process at hotels. This is further complemented by reduced costs, enhanced efficiency, improved security, and convenience for hotel managers.
For more information about having your back office outsourced contact one of our professional technology consultants today. Discover amazing services that deliver better operational efficiencies, hardware compliance checks, cyber security infrastructures, and much more from our world-class hotel technology management team.
Advanced Hospitality Technologies is a leader in Hospitality Technologies. We have an award winning benchmark for providing affordable, reliable and most advanced hospitality Technology Solutions.
