Going live with a new property management system (PMS) is a big deal. If you’ve recently made the switch, congratulations! It takes a lot of time, effort, and trust to migrate a core operating system.
While today’s hotel technology empowers operators to streamline workflows, improve guest service, and boost revenue with intuitive features, we know there’s still a lot to learn during the adoption phase.
Modern PMS solutions are powerful, feature-rich programs that go far beyond standard functions. To make the most of your new system and maximize ROI, you need to dig deeper. Use this checklist as a starting point for harnessing your system’s full potential—and inspiring new ways to enhance operations.
Online Booking Engine (OBE)
Your website booking engine is key to maximizing revenue and saving time at the front desk. Make sure you’re leveraging its conversion-driving features to grow direct bookings and profit.
- Branding & Customization
Maintaining a seamless flow between your website and booking engine is essential for building customer trust. Deliver an on-brand booking experience by customizing its appearance with your property’s logo, background and feature images, special messaging, and a color scheme that matches your website. - Unit Slideshows
To boost conversions, add at least two or three high-quality photos for each unit type, portraying the room’s main features, including the bathroom. WebRezPro allows up to 16 images per room type. For professional presentation, we recommend making all images the same size. - Amenity Lists & Filters
Activate amenity lists to help guests compare room types and use amenity filters so users can find specific features (like “pet-friendly” or “ocean view” rooms) quickly. WebRezPro allows you to create custom amenities in addition to standard facilities to highlight your property’s unique features. - Booking Options (Add-ons)
Drive ancillary revenue and allow guests to personalize their stay by offering relevant add-ons at the time of booking. Attach specific offers to applicable room and/or rate types—for example, zoo passes for family suites or champagne for honeymoon packages. WebRezPro enables you to set up reservation add-ons with images to boost conversion rates. - Guest Login
Configure your OBE so that repeat guests can log in and use their existing profile. They can also view and modify existing bookings, access their booking history, and track reward points. WebRezPro’s My Reservations guest portal can also be activated for group booking organizers, corporate accounts, and unit owners to drive repeat business. - Payment Gateway Integration
Take advantage of your system’s integrated payment processing solution to allow customers to pay securely online. This provides the convenience shoppers expect while ensuring your business stays PCI compliant. - Conversion Tracking
Use your system’s booking reports and source codes to automatically track reservations and revenue coming through your OBE. These stats provide clues on how to tweak offers and improve the booking process.
Guest Profiles
A clean, well-managed guest database empowers you to deliver a standout experience. Your system should automatically create a profile for every new booking—here’s how to maximize that data.
- Maintain Data Consistency
Capture critical information for every guest by setting your booking engine to require specific details. For example, you can configure mandatory contact fields such as email address and phone number. WebRezPro allows you to create custom guest profile fields, which can be included on the booking form (for both guests booking online and front desk staff), and record data on profiles and reservations. This is useful for collecting non-standard information—like a guest’s favorite drink or pillow preference—to support unique stay experiences. - Use Existing Profiles
Train front desk staff to use existing guest profiles when making reservations for repeat guests to avoid duplicate profiles, track rewards points, and build a record of stay history. Don’t forget to allow guests to log in to your online booking engine to use their existing profile when making new bookings. - Merge Duplicate Profiles
When duplicates inevitably appear, use the merge option to consolidate them into a single master profile to keep your database clean. - Record Additional Information
Manually add notes to guest profiles regarding preferences, special requests, anniversaries, and dietary requirements to help staff personalize future stays.
Email Templates
Use email templates to personalize and automate routine guest communications to increase satisfaction and loyalty without adding to the front-desk workload.
- Default Templates
With WebRezPro, you can set up default templates that can be automatically triggered based on reservation status and other criteria. The most important routine emails every hotel should send are:- Booking Confirmation: Sent immediately upon confirmation of bookings made through your online booking engine and the front desk.
- Pre-arrival: Sent a few days prior to check-in to share arrival instructions and relevant upsell offers.
- Check-out/Post-stay: Sent upon check-out or after departure to thank the guest for their stay, provide a receipt, and ask for a review.
- Customization
Customize email templates to align with your branding to earn guests’ trust. Even default templates offer various customization options, including adding images, special messaging, and color palette selections.
WebRezPro also allows you to create email templates for reservation cancellations and modifications, waitlist reservations, guest agreements (online registration), gift certificate purchases, and more. Preview any new email templates you set up to make sure everything looks as it should.
Guest Self Check-in
Self check-in is not only fast becoming a guest expectation, it relieves strain on the front desk. Take advantage of your PMS’s automated features to deliver a smooth online check-in experience and save time for guests and staff.
- Mandatory Contact Fields
For guest self check-in to work, you’ll need the guest’s email address for sending the online registration form and their mobile number for delivering mobile room keys or SMS messages. Set email and mobile phone fields to mandatory in your booking engine. - Automated Communication
Automating self check-in messaging through your PMS is key to a frictionless experience. Create a check-in email template containing a link to the online registration form (in WebRezPro, it’s called a guest agreement). Schedule this email to be automatically sent on the morning of arrival or the day prior, depending on your payment policy (if the policy attached to the reservation requires payment on the day of check-in, but the guest checks in online prior to their arrival date, the system may not yet recognize a payment is due). Also create an automated check-in confirmation email that is sent to the guest upon completion of their online registration to let them know it was successful. - Verification & Security
Verifying payment information and guest identification for online check-ins protects your business and guests from fraud. Configure your online registration form to require payment card details, vehicle information, a photo of the guest’s driver’s license, and for the guest to digitally sign the form. - Payments & Mobile Keys
With integrated payment processing and mobile key technology, you can provide a contactless check-in experience that allows guests to bypass the front desk entirely. WebRezPro connects to various mobile key solutions to automate key activation and delivery for every reservation.
Rate Management
Understand your system’s rate management features to implement a dynamic strategy that drives demand and bookings, maximizing revenue throughout the year.
- Rate Types
Different rate types serve different guest and property needs. From standard rates and packages to negotiated rates and discounts, offering a variety of pricing options keeps your property competitive. - Rate Restrictions
Gain more control over how rates are sold by using restrictions like LOS (length of stay), CTA/CTD (closed-to-arrival/closed-to-departure), and booking windows—as well as online-only and password-protected rates and rate-specific cancellation and booking policies. - Overrides
Familiarize yourself with your system’s rate override features so you can quickly tweak your rate plan to maximize demand and bookings on the fly. Know how to close out rates and override pricing, inventory, LOS, and CTA/CTD without changing overall rate setup. Did you know you can override rates for individual reservations too? - Automated Yield Management
Program your PMS to change pricing or close rates (including OTA rates) in response to changes in availability. For example, you can create a rule that will automatically close out a discount rate when availability is low and demand is high to avoid selling your last rooms at a discounted price. - Performance Metrics
Your PMS automatically tracks revenue, ADR, and room nights by rate code so you can monitor how effective your rate plans are and refine your strategy.
Channel Management
Connecting your PMS to third-party online distribution channels allows you to control inventory, rates, and reservations across those channels from within your PMS, saving time, reducing rate disparity, and preventing double bookings.
- OTA / GDS / Channel Manager Integrations
If you work with one or two booking channels, a direct connection to each channel is most cost effective. In this case, your PMS acts as the channel manager. If you sell inventory on multiple channels, you may already be working with a channel manager. Connecting your PMS to your channel manager ensures you never double-handle bookings. - Track Third-Party Bookings
It’s important to monitor where bookings originate to identify your most profitable channels and enhance distribution strategy. WebRezPro automatically tracks bookings coming through channel integrations using market and source codes. Use booking reports to monitor channel performance and track agency commissions.
System Integrations
From door locks and in-room entertainment systems to revenue management platforms and POS solutions, many of your other hotel systems rely on data contained in your PMS. Break down data silos and eliminate the need to duplicate data between systems manually by integrating them with your PMS. Automating data flows through system integration saves time, improves accuracy, and opens your doors to innovation!
- Leverage Your PMS Partner Ecosystem
WebRezPro currently connects to over 150 hotel tech solutions and is continually adding more, so if we don’t yet integrate with your preferred solution, make sure you ask. - Assess Value
Before adding an integration, weigh gains in operational efficiency and guest experience against integration costs (i.e., setup and monthly fees). Understand exactly what the integration will do and what its limits are. - Work with Your Tech Partners
While vendors work together to coordinate setup and launch, most integrations require input from the operator, from mapping configuration to test data validation. Your tech partners will guide you through the process. Complete required actions promptly for smooth implementation.
Don’t Stop Learning
Your PMS is a powerful tool designed to improve operations, revenue, and guest experience. The more you know your software, the more effectively you can use it.
- Stay Updated
Regularly review announcements and release notes within your system or in vendor communications to stay informed about new features and updates. - Explore Learning Resources
Onboarding and training sessions equip you with the knowledge to use your new PMS well, but curiosity helps you unlock your system’s full potential. The user manual and tutorials are great resources for getting to know it better. Discover niche features that not all systems offer—like virtual units, hourly bookings, online gift certificates, and interactive booking maps—to inspire new processes and services. - If You Can’t Figure Something Out, Ask!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to support, whether you’re new to the system or have been using it for years. We’re rooting for your success every step of the way!
When you scratch beneath the surface of your PMS, you may find that the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. That’s the power of unlocking your system’s full potential!
