In a previous article, we discussed what RPA (robotic process automation) means in the hotel industry. In this one, we will continue to show how it specifically assists hoteliers and how this help can be quantified. We're talking about quick access to data, reduced labor costs, speedy operations, savings on hardware costs, error elimination, and availability for profit-generating projects once you've freed yourself from manual labor that doesn't add value.
To measure the benefits of RPA as a hotelier, you need to set specific goals and measure them using common parameters. Only in this way will you see how automation works and what impact it has, to make new steps and decisions and track your investment.
Here are 6 such criteria (the first 5 were presented in the previous article):
6. Access to Data
When you want to assess your hotel's situation, you need reports and financial data. Reports require employees to look through previous files and check important details. Many of these checks involve manual work. The good news is that even here, a significant proportion can be automated.
Software like Pynbooking knows who has logged in, what has been billed, how many orders were taken, etc. It can import accounting from the accounting software and continuously offers real-time, up-to-date data. Just a click away. Your accountant will no longer spend hours answering your questions.
7. Error-Free
You reduce the risk of mistakes. You know what it's like to manually input reservations. With customer identification data, card data (so many numbers!), check-in and check-out dates, etc. Pynbooking automatically captures and inputs them into the system. No wrong numbers, no corrections.
Try to see how frequent errors are without an automated system and how long it takes to correct them over a certain period.
8. Availability for New Projects and Customers
Taking the burden of manual tasks off your shoulders and automating even some of your employees' work will make them available for other tasks. More creative, more profitable.
You don't make money from your receptionist manually inputting data you already have. You don't gain anything from a booking manager inputting reservation data. But you win if they take care of customers. If they sell something extra, if they promptly meet needs and desires, not an hour after they finish filling out accommodation forms. You benefit if your employees come up with promotional ideas. With ideas for improving services.
Your business profits from this, not from robotic actions. Software like Pynbooking can handle those. Analyze how many ideas they had before and after. How much they could focus on the client.
9. Speed
Here it's straightforward. How long does it take an employee to input 100 reservations into the PM? It doesn't matter anymore since Pynbooking does it instantly.
How long does it take an employee to create a report? The same answer. How long does it take the receptionist to send an online check-in invitation? Or a payment invitation? Or confirm a reservation? To everyone who stayed at your hotel for a month? For Pynbooking, it takes 0 seconds. Zero.
When calculating, keep in mind that Pynbooking operates 24/7. Your employees don't.
10. Labor Costs
Any automation leads to reduced labor costs. You need fewer employees, fewer salaries, and less training. If your hotel is seasonal, it means there are periods with high demand and many tourists, so more employees are required.
Romania has a significant labor shortage in tourism. In recent years, hoteliers have faced increasing difficulties in finding employees. The work of a program, or software, is scalable. See how long manual, repetitive operations take during the season, compare with periods of lower occupancy, and calculate an average.
11. Savings on Software and Hardware Tools
Old, legacy software that you install, don't access, depend on a server, or a computer located in the hotel, and can only be used within the hotel, also involves investments in hardware (a computer, certain fiscal cases, section printers, etc.). Additionally, apart from hotel management software, you also need accounting software, key software, housekeeping software, etc. These software operate independently; they're not connected.
With Pynbooking, you have a central command panel where all departments are interconnected and synchronized. You will save money, noticeably improve work processes, and save time, employees will be available for customers, the software available for everyone, and employees won't be slaves to templates that must be manually modified.
Request a Pynbooking consultant here and ask for their opinion on how you can automate your work.
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