Integration of core hotel systems is key to streamlining daily operations and enhancing the guest experience. Thanks to cloud technology, system integration is easier, faster and more effective than ever, empowering hotels to automate processes for improved efficiency, better customer service, and a deeper understanding of guests.
Two important hotel systems that work better together are the property management system (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) system. While an onsite restaurant, spa or gift shop is great for guests, it adds another layer of complexity to daily hotel operations. But not to worry—a simple automated interface between the PMS and POS system saves hoteliers time and improves billing accuracy to enhance the guest experience and prevent lost revenue.
How does PMS + POS Integration Work?
First, let’s clarify the difference between a PMS and a POS system.
Your PMS is the center of control for your property’s front-desk and back-office operations, including reservation and inventory management, housekeeping management, check-in and check-out, guest profiles, invoicing, and reporting. Basically, your PMS takes care of everything to do with selling rooms.
The POS system helps manage sales outside of room sales, like restaurant, spa or gift shop purchases.
A data integration can be established between your PMS and POS system, and together, they are perfect partners.
A PMS + POS integration streamlines the process of charging restaurant sales and other ancillary charges to a guest’s room via an automated interface, eliminating billing inaccuracies due to manual error, and giving staff more time to focus on guest service.
We’ll spare you from getting too technical, but, in a nutshell, it works like this: when a guest wants to charge a restaurant meal to their room, for example, and the transaction is entered into the POS system, an interface between the two systems allows the POS system to query the PMS directly to verify guest status, room number and credit authorization limit. If the charge is approved, the POS system automatically posts the charge to the guest’s folio within the PMS in real time.
If a charge exceeds the guest’s authorization limit, the PMS will alert the POS system that the charge is denied so that another form of payment can be requested from the guest.
Better Billing Management
When PMS and POS systems are not integrated, restaurant charges and other add-on products and services charged to a guest’s room must be communicated to the front desk and added to the folio manually. Susceptible to human error due to shift changes, unclear communication, typos, or misplaced tickets, this manual process is prone to billing discrepancies that can result in dissatisfied guests and lost revenue.
Automating the process of posting incidental charges to guest folios through PMS + POS integration ensures billing accuracy, saves hotel staff time, reduces customer complaints, and prevents lost revenue by ensuring charges are never missed.
Better Guest Service
It goes without saying that billing mistakes are a source of frustration for guests. By eliminating manual errors via automation, hoteliers can help to ensure a pleasant and quick check-out experience.
In fact, a PMS + POS integration improves the guest experience throughout the stay. The convenience of charging a guest’s purchases to their room results in the kind of seamless and personalized experience that guests expect from today’s hotels, and supports the shift to contactless service, reducing physical touchpoints at POS stations during a guest’s stay. An automated PMS + POS integration ensures that the process of charging to rooms is accurate, reducing unpleasant billing disputes and increasing guest satisfaction. Make it effortless for your guests to spend, and they will probably spend more!
PMS + POS integration benefits both your business and your guests. WebRezPro PMS integrates with a number of leading POS systems. If you don’t see your POS provider on the list, contact us to request an integration—we might already be working on it!
Want to learn how integrating your PMS with other hotel systems—such as GDS and OTA platforms, payment gateways, CRM systems, keyless entry solutions, guest messaging platforms and more—can help you improve efficiency and guest service? Check out our Guide to PMS Integration.
This post was originally published on September 3, 2015 and updated on Mar 25, 2021.
