How to Reduce Costs in IT for the Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry is under pressure like never before. Hotels are seeing a an increase in costs, all while customers demand the same high level of service they have become accustomed to. In this difficult environment, hoteliers are looking for ways to reduce costs without compromising on customer service. One area where cost savings can be found is in IT. In this article, we will look at some ways that hotels can reduce their IT costs without sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction.

Hotels can also save money by renegotiating their contracts with technology providers. Another consideration to reduce IT costs is to streamline your infrastructure. Hotels can save money by consolidating servers and storage, using virtualisation where appropriate, and standardising on a few key technologies. Another cost-saving measure is to outsource certain IT functions such as help desk support or network management.

Streamline Hospitality Technology

Streamlining hospitality technology can save money by consolidating servers and storage, using virtualisation where appropriate, and standardising on a few key technologies. Hotels should first look to streamline their IT infrastructure in order to reduce operating costs. Hotels that have multiple data centres can consolidate them into one location, which saves on both real estate expenses as well as operational overhead (since there are fewer systems to maintain). Hotels with many different types of support services running at any given time should also consider converging all applications onto the same platform so they only need one type of support staff (instead of paying for separate teams). This will also help reduce downtime caused by incompatibility issues between applications from different providers.

Hospitality Admin Technology

Choosing the right Admin IT Technology can also save money by renegotiating their contracts with technology providers. One way to reduce IT costs is to choose more affordable software options. Hotels often have long-term contracts with proprietary software providers and MSPs, but in today's economy they may be able to get a better deal by switching to an agnostic and open source vendor .

Guest Experience Technology

Guest Experience is more and more important and reducing friction through functions such as help desk support or network management are integral. Hotels typically have in-house teams that manage these areas, but it may be more cost effective to outsource them to a third-party provider. By doing so, the hotel can focus on its core competencies and leave the day-to-day operations of IT to someone else.

In addition, many outsourced providers have specialised knowledge and experience in specific areas (such as networking or help desk support), which can result in better service for the guests.

At Siemlus we take care of these needs through Siemlus Connect with 24hr support, a dedicated experienced team of IT professionals and engineers, plus long-standing relationships with technology partners. We allow teams to concentrate on serving their guests and make sure they are delivering the best experience possible.

Automate your operations

Automating your operations can save money by automating as many of their back-of-house operations as possible. Automation technologies can help to reduce labour costs, improve accuracy and efficiency, and free up staff for customer service duties. There are a number of different automation technologies available, such as: - automatic check-in, RFID and mobile electronic door access control, in house apps, through to automated messaging and alerts.

This accounts for the staff as well. Offering Google Workspace and Office 365 integrations as well as PMS options and services allows staff to maintain full control and visibility of everything the hotel and their colleagues are working on, whether they are in the hotel itself on on the move.

Managing daily operations at hotels is not an easy job. Handled manually, the process can become prone to error. Plus, you will have to have your staff spending time doing huge amount of mundane and unproductive tasks. In this case, a cloud Hotel PMS can help you efficiently by bringing in higher level of automation. It helps you in automating everything including –

• Managing reservations and housekeeping

• Updating inventory on multiple OTAs

• Maintaining multiple POS outlets and handling accounting/billing process

• Significantly save on man-hour

Less cost of ownership, save on IT infrastructure

With a cloud-based Hotel PMS, you don’t have to worry about cost of ownership. Reason – the upfront investment is less and there is no ongoing maintenance cost when compared to an on-premise hotel PMS. Here are some points that helps you reduce costs and save -

• You don’t have to invest on server at your property to host your data as the cloud PMS provider does this for you

• You don’t have to spend on software upgrading costs

• You can access the PMS on your mobiles and tablets to improve efficiently and flexibility.

Conclusion

By taking these simple steps, hotels can reduce their IT expenses without sacrificing quality or customer service. In a difficult economy, every pound saved counts. Reducing costs in IT is one way that hoteliers can improve their bottom line without compromising the high standards they have set for themselves. Get in touch with Siemlus team to discuss how we could help you.