If you are not satisfied with your current PMS, the off-season is the perfect time to re-evaluate your needs and find a new tool that meets them. It's essential to prepare yourself for the year ahead!
Changing your PMS is an important decision that many property managers put off for lack of time, funds and the thought of a complicated transition. However, today's technologies and expertise make the transition simple and affordable. Don't hesitate to take the plunge and replace your outdated systems!
Why change?
Your PMS is the heart of your operational activities. It allows you to manage your booking schedule, optimize it, improve your customer service and maximize your revenues. However, like any technological tool, it has a limited lifespan!
As technology evolves, so do the needs of your business and your customers. This results in the inevitable need to re-evaluate your PMS. Indeed, even a once invaluable PMS can eventually become obsolete for many reasons. So here we detail some of the different signals that should alert you that it's time for a change.
Your PMS is getting old
PMS has evolved greatly since its inception in the hotel industry. Seasonal rental is a sector that has become more professional in recent years, which has greatly changed its technological needs. PMS have had to adapt by offering dynamic pricing tools, automated email and SMS communications, and faster synchronization speeds on their channel manager to manage numerous cross-bookings on all OTAs.
On the other hand, some historical PMS are not able to follow these evolutions and do not enrich their panel of services as much as their competitors, sometimes more recent and more agile. If your current PMS does not offer certain essential features, it is a sign that it is time to change.
Your team doesn't want it anymore
Like any tool, its value lies in your team's ability to use it on a daily basis with the least amount of friction.
If your employees express frustration with a system that doesn't meet their needs, you should consider changing it. Sometimes your PMS becomes slow, or it takes a lot of time to get used to it. Still others have poor customer support.
Never hesitate to consult with other suppliers to discuss these issues and include your teams in these discussions to decide what would be best.
You need integrations
In a few years, the trend has changed from a need for "one fits all" solutions to the emergence of an ecosystem of ultra-specialized and above all interconnected tools. With the development of APIs, all software and SaaS platforms can connect. In theory.
While most modern tools are developing integrations with other platforms in their ecosystem on a daily basis, some are still very much behind.
If your third-party tools don't communicate in real time with your PMS, and data has to be entered manually, you're draining your productivity and increasing the risk of errors. Obsolete systems require costly and time-consuming development. This means you have to keep updating it whenever you add a new application to your tech stack.
Consider looking at the integrations offered by competing tools and discussing with them the costs of developing new connections that would not be offered.
What obstacles?
Property managers often fear the time and resources required to migrate to a new PMS. However, the long-term benefits and time saved by having a solution that fits your needs will always outweigh these costs.
Prepare yourself
Change management requires good preparation beforehand. Verify the integrity of your data on your current PMS and make sure you have recorded records for each of your properties before initiating the transition. Then make sure you have a holistic understanding of your properties with a detailed list of your equipment and maintenance history. This will allow you to customize your onboarding and ensure that your future provider understands your issues!
Time is a false problem
The majority of modern PMS are fully online SaaS solutions. With a cloud PMS, your teams are up and running in no time. They are designed to be easy to set up and use. Indeed, these ecosystems are optimized in their interface to be intuitive. In addition, onboarding is often automated and training is usually provided online.
Compatibility is assured
As we mentioned earlier in this article, a modern tech stack consists of a multitude of highly specialized tools. That's why you're probably worried that a change like this will bring your current tech stack down. After all, your new PMS must work with your other systems.
Fortunately, most modern PMS's offer an impressive list of native integrations! This means that you simply connect your existing tools to your new PMS.
If there are tools in your tech stack that are missing from the list, automation tools like Zapier can help.
Conclusion
As we have seen, changing your PMS requires preparation. You need to get rid of the preconceived notions of change management and get through the process. Identify as soon as possible the signals of a necessary change and decide quickly on the initiation of a transition.
Remember that investing in your productivity is a key lever for your growth.
Ready to get started? Read our white paper on vacation rental PMS ! You will find a presentation of the essential functionalities of a PMS as well as our selection of a dozen compared PMS.
