Tout celui qui travaille dans l'hôtellerie et qui connait Opera connait l'horreur des Traces.
C'est bizzare comme nom, les Traces, surtout dans la propreté... mais bon
Les traces contiennent des informations sur la réservation. Quand je dis des informations, c'est du pot pourri.
Les solutions dans les PMS
A quoi ça sert et qu'est qu'on veut en faire?
A l'origine, je voulais (et j'ai fini par réussir) implanter une nouvelle fonctionnalité dans hopr, notre solution de housekeeping.
L'idée est de lire les traces
Pas si simple pour nous...
Et comme Oracle a eu la bonne idée de ne l'intégrer dans AUCUNES de ses interfaces, alors on le reçoit pas mails et oh suprise, tout vient en un bloc :
un autre exemple :
Le travail d'ingénieur en informatique
Cela va vous faire rire, mais le fait qu'il n'y ai pas d'espace entre les blocs nous pose problème à nous les informaticiens.
Il y a peine 2 ans, on n'entendait que ça dans les couloirs des salons sur l'innovation hôtelière aux Etats-Unis : la commande vocale arrive dans la chambre ! Cela me paraissait lointain à vrai dire. Et puis j'ai attendu la déferlante en Europe .... mais elle n'est pas arrivée (du moins pas à mes oreilles).
Jusqu'à ce que le hasard frappe à la porte et qu'Amazon nous propose de développer une expérience vocale hôtelière sur Alexa. C'est un partenariat avec Legrand qui a fait la rencontre. J'en parlerai dans un prochain article. Mais nous avons chez Roomchecking une expérience vécue de près de 100 interfaces PMS (acquise dans douleur) et cela rend bien sûr l'expérience vocale "guest aware".
Je connaissais Alexa bien sûr mais ne connaissais ni Alexa for Hospitality (qui fait partie d'Alexa Smart Properties) ni ce que cette implémentation verticale de la fameuse boule Amazon pouvait apporter.
Le pilote : le Pullman Tour Eiffel
A l'époque le GM (Andrès Lopez-Dafonte), early adopter, était déjà dans le sujet et quand on a proposé de mettre des Alexa dans les chambres avec notre solution de Housekeeping, Maintenance et Tâches...il n'a pas hésité. D'ailleurs je le remercie ici vivement. Le projet est maintenant sous la houlette du nouveau GM Benoit Stoltz qui va continuer à faire de cet hôtel situé au pied de la tour Eiffel avec vue plongeante (pour avoir une idée rappelez vous la première scène du film le Sens de la fête avec feu Jean Pierre Bacri) un bijou d'expérience client.
Alors avant de se lancer dans les développements de ce qui s'appelle une Skill Alexa, il a fallu déterminer ce qu'on allait proposer au client. Il fallait absolument que l'expérience ne soit pas gadget.
Développer une Skill signifie baliser les parcours clients vocaux pour que les réponses soient validées par l'hotel. Pas question de répondre avec des promesses que l'hotel ne peux pas tenir comme un Check Out à n'importe quelle heure de la journée.
Je vous livre ici quelques enseignements après 1 an de mise en service !
En quoi la voix est-elle une avancée ? Et quels sont les usages?
Alexa est d'abord une super enceinte/horloge et 40% des usages consistent à brancher son téléphone en Bluetooth sur Alexa pour écouter de la musique.
Mais surtout et c'est là la clé : il est vraiment plus naturel pour une personne de poser une question à l'oral plutôt que de taper ou chercher sur une page web. C'est de la bande passante mentale en plus dans le havre de repos que représente la chambre d'hôtel.
Et les résultats sont clairs et constants :
On a entre 10 et 15% des guests de l'hôtel qui font au moins une requête par jour
Regardez cette vidéo pour le/la voir en action (je ne suis pas sûr du genre d'Alexa ;=)) :
Que demandent les clients ?
La liste des courses est longue comme dans la fin de la chanson de Nino Ferrer, je vends des robes :
Des kits dentaires (bah oui ça pèse trop lourd dans la valise), des kits de rasage, Adaptateur Electrique, alèse, gel douche mais aussi signalement de problèmes de téléphone, de télévision, d'eau chaude, de climatiseur, de wifi, de miroirs grossissants (!).
D'ailleurs Alexa sait déjà allumer une télévision et changer de chaine mais bon il faut une télévision compatible. Alors dans ce graphe on parle de problèmes de télévision. Pour le téléphone il faudra attendre un peu (même si Alexa sait appeler d'autres enceintes Alexa...)
Voici un petit graphique des problèmes les plus souvent singnalés à Alexa :
Ce n'est pas tout : ils demandent aussi des informations sur l'hôtel, les environs et leurs séjours
Bien sûr ils peuvent appeler la réception, mais là à n'importe quel moment du jour et de la nuit et autant de fois qu'ils le veulent ils peuvent demander : est ce que la piscine est ouverte? Puis je faire mes exercices de sport?
Au Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel, l'hôtel est capable d'enregistrer une annonce de bienvenue personnalisée (on est branché au PMS), mais aussi de proposer des cours de Français ou de gym et d'adapter le message en fonction du séjour (je me répète mais on est connecté au PMS ;=)).
Alors bien sûr pour une intégration complète on a dû aller très loin dans nos API. Imaginez qu'une femme de chambre peut maintenant valider la chambre par la voix et tout cela met à jour le PMS et informe la gouvernante en temps réel... Alexa, je suis Martine, la chambre est propre! (elle n'a pas donner son numéro de chambre, parce que chaque Alexa sait dans quelle chambre il/elle se trouve).
Tout cela est complétement intégré à notre système de Housekeeping, de Maintenance et de demandes clients (les tâches).
On développe en ce moment des expériences du type : Alexa, je suis le GM dis moi tous les problèmes de cette chambre! Et Alexa va répondre : en ce moment il y a un problème de douche et de moquette.
Et la confidentialité dans tout ça?
La sécurité et la confidentialité sont au cœur des enjeux : on ne va pas se le cacher, nous les Français sommes un peu suspicieux . Alors une très forte majorité de clients internationaux (Nord Américains en tête) sont les premiers utilisateurs d'Alexa dans les chambres. Alexa for Hospitality est bilingue cela dit et peut parler aussi bien français qu'anglais.
Côté développeur, je témoigne qu'Amazon ne rigole pas avec la confidentialité. On ne peut pas faire plein de chose juste à cause de leur obsession de la vie privée !
Alexa for Hospitality ? Mais je peux en acheter un sur Amazon ?!
Quelle différence y a-t-il entre un appareil Alexa acheté sur Amazon et un Alexa enrôlé dans Alexa for Hospitality ?
Gérer un Alexa ou deux c'est facile, mais 20 ou même 200 c'est une autre affaire. C'est tout l'intérêt de la déclinaison Alexa for Hospitality : mise à jour en masse, appareil obsolète en dehors du wifi de l'hôtel (pour calmer toute velléité d'emprunter un appareil pour la maison).
L'autre aspect fondamental et le plus magique c'est qu'Alexa for Hospitality est dès l'allumage en mode "hôtel first" : l'appareil sait dans quel hôtel il se trouve , dans quelle chambre il est et à quelles questions il doit répondre AVANT Alexa !
Qu'est ce que cela signifie ? Chaque interaction vocale sera d'abord traitée par Roomchecking avant Alexa. A la question où puis je manger ce soir, la Skill Roomchecking va d'abord vérifier si l'hôtel n'a pas prévu une réponse et seulement dans la négative va-t-il demander à l'univers Alexa qui va donner une réponse basée sur ses propres critères.
Et la monétisation, allez vous me dire ...
La guest expérience, c'est fondamental mais c'est vrai qu'Alexa for Hospitality à un coût (appareil, abonnement...) alors il faut penser à la monétisation.
C'est pourquoi avec l'émergence des Alexa avec écran, un nouveau monde de monétisation apparait. C'est notre prochaine grosse mise à jour.
Imaginez le client pouvant parler à Alexa et en même temps, cliquer sur l'écran pour sélectionner dans un menu ce qu'il veut manger : un hamburger, bien saignant avec des frites et un coca !
Je vous parlerai de la fonction Roomservice et F&B lors d'un prochain article dédié à cette nouveauté.
En tout cas, si la cliente ne s'appelle pas Alexa auquel cas elle aura une concurrente, et si pour être plus sérieux vous recevez beaucoup de client internationaux, tentez l'expérience, vous ne serez pas déçus! Contactez nous pour une démonstration.
Bon, mon titre est un peu tapageur, mais il cache une expérience fascinante que j'ai mené à Singapour cette année (je suis la première personne en partant de la droite pour ceux qui me connaissent ;=)).
Sous l'égide du Singapour Tourism Board, nous avons été sélectionné pour mener une expérience sur l'avenir des ménages dans les chambres d'hotels.
Pourquoi?
Post Covid, la Suisse de l'Asie comme on l'appel, a du faire face à une pénurie sévère de personnel. Contraints de rentrer chez eux durant le Covid les travailleurs du domaine, souvent venus des pays d'Asie du Sud Est , beaucoup ne sont pas revenus. Alors le gouvernement très en pointe sur la technologie a fait appel à des startup pouvant proposer des solutions.
Le challenge
Comment nettoyer autant sinon plus de chambres avec moins de personnel?
Les solutions sont simples logiquement : faire travailler plus longtemps en faisant nettoyer plus de chambres ou faire travailler plus vite le personnel pour encore une fois nettoyer plus de chambres.
Le stakhanovisme est révolu (du moins je l'espère) alors il faut innover...
On a été retenu parmi des dizaines de solutions et le gouvernement à financé ce travail (à hauteur de 50k). Il est donc très sérieux et n'a aucune couleur commerciale (à part la notre bien sur)
Notre Solution
Et bien au risque de se faire lyncher, nous avons proposé 2 axes :
Faire du progressive cleaning : nettoyer chaque jour rapidement en s'attardant un peu plus sur une zone chaque jour.
Faire moins de cleaning par séjours
Une fois donc sélectionné parmi des dizaines d'autres startup, me voilà parti pour Singapour...Ville fascinante de propreté dans la rue comme dans le métro...où la seule chose qu'on peut attraper en tombant est un médicament et pas une bactérie (je suis parisien...)
Le pilote : Ibis On Bencoolen
Après avoir convaincu un client Roomchecking, le Ibis On Bencoolen, un hôtel de 536 chambres de catégorie Eco budget de participer à l'expérience, nous avons commencé à développer l'environnement pour permettre cette expérimentation.
S'il fallait le rappeler, le projet ne serait allé nulle part sans la collaboration intelligente de Jimmy Guang et David Lane, ainsi que de leurs équipes.
La Proposition client
Via une application on demande au client ce qu'il veut:
3 options sont proposées:
Chaque jour un petit peu
Chaque jour un ménage classique
Ménage à la demande
Je passe sur le parcours clients et le nombre incalculable d'essais sur la bonne façon de présenter les choses mais après 6 mois les résultats sont ETONNANTS !
Résultats et leçons
Vous serez surpris de voir que seuls 50% des clients demandent un ménage quotidien !
Bien sur il y a énormément de subtilités MAIS :
Le pilote est passé en production
Les résultats sont constants
De plus en plus d'hôtels de luxe vont passer sur notre solution pour implémenter cette philosophie.
Bon je sais déjà qu'en France, c'est pas gagné, mais en Angleterre et aux Pays Bas, on avance en force !
Si cela intéresse des hôtels je suis prêt à partager les données.
Il suffit juste de booker avec moi 30 min (ne vous inquiétez pas, ce n'est pas de la vente forcée).
Cela fait bien 3 ans que je passe la moitié de mon temps à créer des algorithmes pour automatiser l’ouverture le matin dans les hôtels. Venu fraichement du monde de la R&D je pensais le problème facile à résoudre…jusqu’à que je comprenne que le problème est bien plus complexe qu’il n’en a l’air….
Alors c’est vrai que quand le génie ChatGPT a pointé du nez je me suis rué pour voir s’il faisait mieux que moi. Je ne dis pas mieux que les gouvernant.e.s car ça c’est impossible (😉) mais au moins plus vite !
Le PMS Opera (et d'autres bien sur) sait faire une ouverture me direz vous… je répondrais que c’est en dessous de tout : une répartition linéaire bête et méchante.
J’en sais quelque chose : mon algorithme s’est fait insulté tellement de fois que j’ai commencé à comprendre qu’il y avait d’abord un problème de définition.
Pas si simple
Au début ça commence par : bah c’est simple il faut juste donner 12 chambres par femme de chambre.
Et puis ça se complique : ah, mais il faut respecter sa section et aussi ses crédits. Très bien… Mais il faut maximum 2 étages sinon il faut retirer des crédits…ok…et puis aussi si jamais il n’y a pas assez de crédits/chambres dans la section il faut puiser dans la section adjacente…qui d’ailleurs pas toujours la plus logique.
A chaque fois, je rajoute des contraintes à mon Solver…et ce n’est jamais assez : ah mais il faut équilibrer les départs (plus longs) avec les arrivées. J’avais oublié qu’il faut donner les chambres propres mais ne pas les compter tout de même ! et la liste s’allonge
Un jour je publierais une liste des contraintes par pays... personne n’est d’accord ! J'ai compilé une liste de 200 contraintes...
J’ai fini par mettre en place un algorithme de type gestion de contraintes linéaire. Donner un poids à chaque contrainte qui peuvent être mutuellement exclusive : changer d'étage ne vaut le coup que si on a au moins 2 chambres, si pas assez de crédit alors rajouter un étage mais retirer des crédits...
La métaphore des taches
C’est un peu comme la métaphore des taches : si tu commences par les petites taches, il ne restera pas de place pour les grosses tâches :
Il était une fois… un expert renommé qui tenait une conférence sur la meilleure façon de planifier son temps. « Je vous propose une expérience » dit-il à son public attentif. Il prit un grand bocal de verre et le remplit à ras bord de gros cailloux de la taille d’une balle de tennis. Puis il demanda à son public : « Est-ce que ce bocal est plein ? » Tout le monde répondit : « Oui ». « Bien », répondit-il « nous allons voir. » C’est alors qu’il sortit un sac contenant des graviers et le versa dans le bocal. Les graviers se faufilèrent entre les cailloux et remplirent le bocal. À nouveau, il posa la question : « Est-ce que le bocal est plein ? ». Le public, commençant à comprendre, répondit : « Non. » Il prit ensuite un sac de sable qu’il versa dans le bocal. Le sable, à son tour, se faufila entre les cailloux et les graviers jusqu’à remplir le bocal. Il fit de même avec la bouteille d’eau qui était posée sur sa table et remplit à nouveau le bocal. « Quel enseignement pouvons-nous tirer de cette expérience ? » demanda-t-il à son public. « Cette expérience montre que si l’on ne met pas les gros cailloux en premier dans le bocal, on ne pourra jamais les mettre tous. Il faut donc commencer par les gros cailloux avant de s’attaquer aux petits. » (Les gros cailloux sont nos priorités, les graviers, le sable et l’eau sont les tâches de moindre importance que nous avons tendance à faire passer en premier. Une fois la journée bien remplie de graviers, de sable et d’eau, impossible de faire rentrer nos gros cailloux.)
Cette expérience ne peut pas marcher pour l’ouverture : on arrive vite à une impasse ! Si on commence par assigner les chambres par celles qui sont évidente, dans l’ordre des contraintes on arrive vite à une impasse. Il faut faire du Sudoku pour arriver à une solution viable
L’expérience
J’ai donné à ChatGPT une liste de 70 chambres dans un tableau qui ressemble à ça :
C'est parti :
il beug, un peu, se reprend (la classe tout de même) puis:
Mais il ne respecte pas les crédits ! il en donne 600 ! Impossible car derrière ce calcul informatique il y a des être humains qui travaillent.
Et plus je lui demande d'avancer plus il échoue.
Pour information, mon algorithme de calcul s'en sort beaucoup mieux. Si cela intéresse quelqu'un je pourrais en dire plus dans un prochain article. :
Il donne bien 400 crédits tout en respectant les contraintes !
Le mot de la fin
Bon, l'honneur est sauf et ChatGPT ne sait pas encore faire mieux que l'humain. L'algorithme utilisé par Roomchecking est très "métier" donc il est normal qu'il fasse mieux... mais cela me rassure.
Pour être fair j'ai demandé à ChatGPT et franchement il a le mérite de l'humilité ;=)
J'ai d'autres expériences que je voudrais partager. N'hésitez pas à me dire si vous voulez que je teste d'autres choses jweizman@roomchecking.com
Introduction
The housekeeping department is the backbone of any successful hotel, resort, or hospitality business. Ensuring that rooms are clean, amenities are stocked, and guests are happy is a monumental task. For years, many hotels have relied on the venerable Excel spreadsheet to manage these complex operations. While Excel is a powerful tool, there are limitations to its capabilities in terms of real-time updates, easy sharing, and automation. Today, more and more businesses are shifting towards specialized software solutions like Roomchecking to supercharge their housekeeping operations. So, what does this transition mean for a housekeeping team?
A Look at the Old Guard: Excel
Pros
Familiarity: Most people are familiar with Excel, and it doesn’t require a lot of training to get started.
Flexibility: Excel allows you to create customized templates, including schedules, checklists, and inventory lists.
Low Cost: It is a relatively inexpensive solution if you already have a Microsoft Office subscription.
Cons
Manual Updates: All data needs to be updated manually, increasing the risk of errors.
Limited Collaboration: While it’s possible to share Excel files, real-time collaboration is limited.
Scalability: As your business grows, the complexity of the Excel sheets can become unmanageable.
Stepping into the Future: Roomchecking Software
Pros
Real-time Updates: Room statuses can be updated in real-time, allowing for better coordination between housekeeping, front desk, and maintenance teams.
Increased Efficiency: Automate tasks like assignment distribution, quality checks, and inventory management.
Enhanced Accountability: Track the performance of individual team members with the use of analytics.
Mobile Accessibility: Housekeeping staff can update room status on-the-go using a mobile app, without having to return to the front desk.
Cons
Initial Training: Unlike Excel, the staff will need training to use the software efficiently.
Cost: Specialized software often comes with a subscription cost, which can be a significant investment.
The Transition Experience
Preparation and Training
Switching to a new software will require some initial setup and training. Roomchecking often provides detailed onboarding processes to ease this transition. It’s important that management and the housekeeping staff fully understand how to make the most out of the new software.
Typically we need to do this :
We need to define the users
We need to list the list of Assets
We need to map all the rooms, the buildings, sections and subsections.
Please consider 1 month is necessary to complete the setup.
Immediate Benefits
As soon as the system is operational, you can expect to see immediate improvements in task assignment, tracking, and completion. This increases the productivity of the housekeeping team and often results in a more pleasant guest experience.
Long-Term Impact
In the long run, the analytics capabilities of Roomchecking can provide insights into staff performance, inventory usage, and room maintenance needs. This data can be invaluable for improving operational efficiency and reducing costs.
Conclusion
The transition from Excel to Roomchecking involves an initial investment in both time and money, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs. Improved efficiency, enhanced accountability, and valuable operational insights are just a few of the advantages that specialized software brings to the housekeeping department. By embracing technology, you can ensure that your housekeeping team is well-equipped to meet the demands of the modern hospitality industry.
September 13, 2023
Display tasks per room on the cleaning calendar
Task Tags
August 8, 2023
Added Vaccant Dirty Plugin
New Round Robin Feature
More Data Sources to Dashboard : On/Off Duty, Audits
June 26, 2023
Tasks dashboard is improved - fixed durations, added few new columns. Create task is now everywhere !
Tasks history - improved history messages across the app. Tasks history - fixed tasks item sorting. Minibar consumption endpoint - now the price on the item is not multiplied by the quantity. Tasks - fixed real time updates for mass actions on both tasks and calendar. Nightly cleaning planner - now you can change cleaning time for nightly/turn down cleanings. Room instructions - reservation CICO dates and front office status is now displayed as reservation description.
June 16,2023
This important release brings back a very awaited feature : cleaner assigment in the inspector app !
Please check you have the latest version : 1.25.
You can change the Assignment by changing the cleaner.it will in real time update your cleaning planner.
Attendants are sorted, but the already cleaners in use will appear first
You can unassign by clicking again on the cleaner
Reset cleaning : you can reset a cleaning. the room will turn dirty and it will disappear fromt the list of cleaned rooms in the attendant app.
DND Filter fix : it will retain the previous HK status to appear in Dirty AND Dnd
We added the L&F Reference to the list :
We heard that you were missing some Reservation notes because it was in Room by defaut. It will now go the existing one
Dashboard: we added the group and subgroup of the task to be able to group by Maintenance for example
Create and Continue for tasks
Room's Overview: hopr gives you more information to quickly spot the situation
May 30, 2023
Automatic nightly HK updates - admin application is updated to have one global setting which can enable/disable the update and where you can choose whether
a) cleaning priority is reset,
b) turndown is reset and
c) DND is reset. This was made so you don't have to update ALL HK statuses in some way just to update those 3 which are really "separate" and global.
The job that actually does the work is changed to include those global settings and it is reworked somewhat after thorough testing.
Late check ins - There is so much there, I don't know how to explain but we implemented it across all daily cleaning plans and nightly cleaning plans, reservation sync and rooms overview. And everywhere else where the room's reservation status is calculated for today or prediction for the future. (Like cleaning calendar). Also the hotel settings are extended so you can adjust the "Late check in threshold time after midnight" per hotel.
Day use tag / detection - was fixed and modified to understand late check ins. This is primarily on the rooms overview.
External API HK endpoints - modified for quicker loads and faster execution.
Daily/Nightly cleaning planner - there was a really special edge case when the prediction of the cleanings for future plans modified reservation statuses. This was a major bug but was rarely manifested because the edge case was really and edge of edge cases.
Daily / Nightly cleaning planner - creating vacant cleanings - fixed for manually creating vacant cleanings, especially after late check in implementation.
Daily / Nightly cleaning planner - creating the plan automatically based on cleaner affinities - fixed and extended after late check in implementation.
Reservation sync - removed the room status calculation which produced weird and false logs when the room was OOO/OOS.
Reservation sync - added heuristics for resolving incoming duplicate reservations.
Reservation sync - added heuristics for resolving existing duplicate reservations because in earlier versions incoming duplicate reservations made a mess.
Hotel settings - extended with the list of properties you've asked for.
Mobile API application settings / configuration - extended with the list of added properties in the hotel settings.
Mobile API globally - removed room status calculation which was not important since the mobile app is loading room statuses from a separate endpoint.
Rooms overview - removed an icon which was imagined as a tasks for the reservation specifically but was not used.
Rooms overview - fixed the loading of the history when another room was selected while the history drawer is opened.
Rooms overview - extended the info drawer with room details, current extended information about reservations, cleanings and tasks.
Rooms overview - added tabs with specific histories - room history, reservation histories, tasks history.
Experience - extended experience CRUD with "Was client satisfied" flag
Experience dashboard - extended with "Was client satisfied" flag
Experience import/export - extended with "Was client satisfied" flag
Experience email report - extended with "Was client satisfied" flag
Room edit form - enabled changing room's PMS room name (This might have a validation issue, didn't fully test it yet)
Experiences - fix after multi-compensation implementation when there were no compensations.
Creating hotels for existing hotel group - now when you create a hotel for existing hotel group asset actions are duplicated to the new hotel based on existing data. The system detects which actions are used across all existing hotels in the group and decides which ones to duplicate to the new one.
User impersonation - Extended admin app to enable/disable user impersonation.
User impersonation - enabled user impersonation for mobile apps.
User impersonation - enabled user impersonation for web app.
CPSAT calculator and the timeline - fixed the time zone shift after accepting the CPSAT solution.
Microsoft Clarity - added clarity to the web app for improved insights into app usage.
External API - added UpdateUser endpoint to improve handling users for coloft? integration.
Assets and asset groups - improved validation to better handle possible duplicate names when inserting and importing assets and asset groups.
Daily / Nightly planner - added cleaning switch for "Not required" and newly generated cleaning when the system detects it should be done. (This is missing automatic sending the cleaning and notifications so the administrator has to manually resend the plan - for now)
Cleaning plugins - resolved the difference between the admin app and web app and fixed some bugs. (Not sure which exactly)
Found items - add/edit - focused when clicked on item in list.
Found items - add/edit - focused when clicked on item in list.
Audits - added compare feature.
Automatic scaling of the web APIs. When the system detects increased load it adds new instances. Same for decreased load it removes instances.
Improved monitoring to detect increased number of server errors. It starts sending emails to our DevOps and Nikola and me so we don't wait for users to report but we can preemptively jump on it. It is also a detection for brute force attacks on the servers.
For a hotelier, choosing a PMS can be one of the most time consuming and stressful experiences ever. Buy the wrong system and, one year from now, you will feel like that guy who chose a Zune mp3 player over an iPod. The truth is that, with the always increasing number of companies out there claiming to be the best “turnkey solution” for you, it’s easy to get lost and confused so, before you even start considering your options, let’s get back to basics.
As we deploy RoomChecking into hundreds of hotels, we sometimes encounter hotels regretting their decisions on their choice of PMS system. Lack of integrations or complex and expensive integrations processes is often the first issue we encounter. So we went out to ask some hoteliers what they most wanted to see if they could have their dream PMS system today and here is a summary of their replies.
But first, What is a PMS?
PMS is short for Property Management System, a software that facilitates the management of your property by aggregating data from different operational departments (housekeeping, management, food & beverage, accounting, etc.) and automatizing operations (invoicing, reservation management, room assignment, etc.).
On top of that, PMS plays a strategic role too, as it collects vital data such as ADR, RevPar, pickup and occupancy rate, all information that are crucial to staying competitive and profitable. To use an anatomy analogy, it is safe to say that PMS is the “heart” of your hotel and, just like a human heart, it “pumps” blood to all the 3rd party solutions integrated to it: channel manager, booking engine, CRS, Yield Management software, POS and so on.
This chart gives you an idea of how a PMS system connects to the many other systems that hotels need.
Is your current PMS the right solution?
But, how can you know if your “heart” is working properly? A lot of hotels get lost in technicalities, while the only question that matters should be “is my current PMS making my life easier?”. Often the answer we have from hotels is “I don’t know, ” and that is a scary position to be in, because it’s a “no, it’s not” with an “it’s too complicated even to understand it” attached to it. So let’s try to dig into the common problems with PMSs.
Integrations: know before you choose
That’s one of the key factors when analyzing your current PMS or thinking about getting a new one. Sure, it does the job, and it’s not very expensive, but it’s not integrated with your channel manager, so your booking department has to manually manage each reservation, an operation that is not only time consuming, but increases the risk of human error. And “human error,” when it comes to hotels is synonymous with “overbooking” and “unsold rooms.” Scary, isn’t it? So if you don’t know where to look to evaluate your PMS, start from here: make a list of all the 3rd parties you work with and check how many of them can and cannot be integrated with your PMS.
“Compatible” and “integrated” are two of the words that recurred more often in the interviews we made with hoteliers while writing this article, so it looks like there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with them. Knowing in advance that they can be a big deal when it comes to choosing a PMS will save you from bad surprises later on.
To get an idea of just the basic integrations that hotels need to have, this chart from SnapShot illustrates it quite well.
Cloud or On-Premise?
If you’ve been in this business long enough, you will surely remember those clunky systems from the 90’s. Back then all PMS were physically installed on every single computer that needed to have access to the system, with data physically stored on one or more servers in the hotel. This meant that any possible hardware issue would have to be managed directly, with little to no support from the PMS. Not to mention the costs involved with buying the hardware, having backups servers in case something went wrong or just the simple discomfort you had to deal with if one computer crashed during a busy check-out morning.
Cloud-based software, on the other hand, is deployed over the Internet and is stored and maintained by the PMS itself. You can access it from any computer without installing anything. The front-office computer gets a virus, and it’s unusable? No problem: you can keep working on your laptop or your smartphone, without losing any data. Server goes down? PMS will deal with it, and you don’t have to worry over the performances of your hardware infrastructures. That being said, a lot of hotels are still using “on-premise” (aka “server based” or “legacy”) PMS. Why? Surprisingly enough, often it’s just a question of not wanting to deal with the stress and anxiety involved in the change. Let’s get a better look at it.
Retraining your staff
PMS are complicated, period. They process a big amount of data, and even to the most advanced user, it takes some training to get into them. Now, if you have a small bed and breakfast with four employees, retraining them to use the new PMS should not be a tough task. But if you’re running a 500 room property with restaurants, meeting rooms, and wellness center, this can turn into a nightmare if you don’t choose the right system. The manager of a group of independent hotels in San Francisco, when interviewed for this article, told us that one of the most important features for a PMS is a “simple, elegant, concise user interface for hourly employees.” Another general manager from the Czech Republic used almost the same words: “Ease of use for receptionists, with a great and intuitive workflow.” If you already changed one PMS you know the amount of stress that this experience brings and, if you don’t, take this article as a warning. To paraphrase philosopher William of Ockham "If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest," that usually works out great when selecting a PMS.
Are tired of staff floor never being aware of the check out?*Give RoomChecking a try now
What now?
Answering the three points mentioned above should already give you enough information to choose your PMS, but of course, every hotel has different and specific needs, and it’s important that you write down a list of tasks that are crucial for your business and that your PMS should be able to fulfill. We spoke to several hoteliers while writing this and we came across some interesting (and sometimes unexpected) requests.
Pricing transparency is one of those: with a lot of modules and integrations available it is easy to get lost in the estimations. Make sure that you do understand all the features listed in the PMS quote before you buy.
Reporting is another: a PMS can integrate terabytes of data every minute, but if it does not provide a readable and understandable reporting system, then it’s completely useless. PMS providers tend to be “data-freak”, and often they like to store data for the only reasons for doing so but, to keep your business operational and profitable, you need to be able to extract the information you need without getting lost in millions of useless data. Make sure to check a few original reports before you choose your PMS. If you do not feel comfortable with them, then move on.
Support is another feature frequently discussed during our interviews: understand what the PMS can and can’t do for you, when it can do it (choose, if possible, a 24/7 support, especially if you’re buying a PMS from a provider not in your timezone), and if and how much it will cost you. You could need to integrate a new booking engine down the line, and you want to avoid bad surprises when it comes to hidden costs.
Some hoteliers even mentioned mobile check-in/out as a feature they would love to have, together with dedicated apps for smartphones to make employees and the guest experience better. Based on the level of technology of your property this could be a cool add on.
Final consideration
As you see, choosing a PMS is a crucial decision that may (and will) affect your business in both good or bad ways. It’s not something that can be done in a superficial manner and, most important, without having all the info to base your decision. Take the time to compare features, ask for demos and presentations and always think about where you want to be with your hotel in five years. Can the PMS help you reach your future goals, or is it just a temporary solution? And, never forget the only question that matters: “is it making your life easier?”
Attendants always know. They are the pumping heart of a hotel.
Not the General Managers, not the owners. Attendants.
They master the ancient ability to move between rooms, restaurants, meeting rooms, hallways, offices and laundries without being seen. A good attendant is like a urban myth: you sometimes hear a story of someone that actually met one but he’s always a friend of a friend of a friend.
They’re silent ninjas with a thing for cleaning other people’s mess.
So the worst thing that can happen to them is to break this cycle of invisibility. That’s like the ultimate capital sin of the profession. An attendant can be found napping exhausted by the laundry machine and it would not be a big deal. But if they open a room door while a guest is in it, well… that’s another story.
Sure, softwares help and etiquette says that a good attendant should always knock three times before opening a room door (even though that room is under renovation since 2003), but even the most experienced attendant can accidentally open an occupied room door and this is never good news.Hang-overing on a hotel bed is not the best image anyone wants to leave to the world, so when somebody violates the sanctity of a guest hotel room chances are that you will get a complaint or a pretty nasty review.
So how can you help your attendants to avoid this awful situations?
Get some “Do not disturb signs”. Oh, that simple?
Hmm, not really. Let me rephrase it: get some GREAT “do not disturb signs” and make sure your guests use them, as having them hanging out on the closet or on a drawer won’t do much good, will it?
What makes a good DNDS (Do Not Disturb Sign)?
A good sign needs encourage guests to put it up. So many time guests don’t put it up because they just can’t be bothered to go back to the door. So something fun and relevant might encourage them to do it.
A good sign should also clearly be showing if the room is occupied, some signs look the same when they’re occupied or ready to be cleaned. And we don’t want those elusive ninja attendants to not see it changed from occupied to free.
A good sign should also be in the spirit of the hotel and the guest, so formal hotels might want something really boring.
So, what would convince your guest to use a DNDS? Here are some suggestions. We’ve made a booklet of the best Do Not Disturb Signs which you can download here, there’s plenty more in there.
Suggestions for great Do Not Disturb Signs
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas
Golden Gate Hotel & Casino plays the fun card, well it’s Vegas after all, isn’t it? So what better way to let the hotel staff know that you need sleep (and probably paracetamol and a lot of water) after the historical night you had?
Pros: it’s fun and just the right amount of kitsch
Cons: does not fly for hotels with mainly corporate / MICE clientele
50 shades of DNDS
“Do not enter if anyone calls we're tied up and can't come to the phone”. Sexual suggestion on DNDS is always a safe road to take. If your DNDS is branded (and why shouldn’t it be?) chances are your guests will steal it after the stay and it will hang on some living room doorknob, giving your brand extra exposure.
Pros: Spicy and great for branding
Cons: If you’re not a romantic hotel or your average guest lacks of sense of humor, that could be a boomerang and they could be embarassed to use it
Geek is the new Jock
I know people that commit themselves to use at least a Star Wars quote every day in normal conversations. It’s true. Well, even if you’re not into that level of geekness, it’s undeniable that pop culture reshaped the way we look at things and, unless you’ve been living on the desert of Tatooine for the last 20 years (or because of it), you will probably get a nerdy reference.
Pros: Politically correct, at least for Planet Earth
Cons: Unless you are very conservative with your brand or your client demographic is above 80, I don’t see any
Minimal Design
“Isolationist, very isolationist, maybe too isolationist”. That was the review my trusted record dealer did for an ambient album back in the 90’s. Well, that applies to a lot of things around us. Minimalism hype is something we’ll probably never get over with. It may be its Zen-ish connotations or just that it doesn’t look cool to say that you actually like golden tapestry and baroque opulence. Fair enough, but sometimes being minimal for just the sake of it is, well, isolationist, very isolationist, maybe too isolationist.
Pros: Looks cool and you can use the (lot) of empty space to brand it
Cons: It was out of style in 1997
Corporate
You are very proud of your brand. It spells r-e-s-p-e-c-t-a-b-i-l-i-t-y, so you don’t want to mess it up and listen to that crazy new creative marketing director you hired. Your DNDS will just be it: a DNDS. I get it. Well, look at the bright side: with this approach your brand respectability will stay intact. As will your DNDS, because they will never be put out of the closets.
Pros: Impossible to hurt anyone’s feeling. Suits every guest.
Cons: Zzzzzzzz, mh? What?
Takeaways
Choose your DNDS style according to your brand identity and your average guest;
If you’re unsure, take some calculated risks. Remember, it’s just a sign!
Do not print millions of them. A/B test with some different approach, see how guest reacts (do they mention the signs on reviews? Do they steal them?) and find what better suits your (and their) needs;
And most importantly, stop whatever you’re doing and bring a Latte Grande to your attendants right now. They do one of the hardest job in your hotel, one that hardly gets credit. And if you can’t find them anywhere, well, it just means they’re very good at what they do and you should be proud for them.
For more Inspiration on Great Do Not Disturb Signs, download our 25 Best Do Not Disturb Signs e-book.
Recently I was approached to do an interview on my background and how I came to build a hotel tech startup. It took a lot of introspection on my part to look over the years and string the pieces together how this all culminated to RoomChecking.
The truth is, building a startup in any vertical isn't easy. The hotel industry is a fantastic industry made of some of the best and most service minded people I have met. But that doesn't make building a startup any easier, maybe that is why I consider RoomChecking as one of the best startup experiences.
Now that we're growing, bigger and faster and have hundreds of hotel clients around the world things seem great. I'm hoping other entrepreneurs who read this can take some value from it and maybe avoid some of the mistakes we did.
From Lost Dreams to Success: Interview with Jonathan Weizman, RoomChecking
Jonathan Weizman is a fascinating innovator. He was part of the original tech boom before the dot-com crash and the lessons learned back then fueled his professional path from lost dreams in New York City, up to the return to France and co-founding RoomChecking, one of the very rare software solutions on the market for hotel maintenance and housekeeping – in fact, in many ways, a pioneering system that helps hotel staff work better not harder.
"I was a millionaire on paper at the time everyone believed the web will revolutionize the world," Weizman tells me with a nostalgic smile. Then he goes on talking about the odd financial machinations of the time when investors advised failed startups to wipe investments from their portfolio just to keep the investor's portfolio positive. Back then, he worked for a company that was a pioneer in GPS technology that had a good product
"But when the industry crashed all investments stopped suddenly. So, the company I worked for did not sell. I left the company. I lost my dreams," Weizman recalls. This was a valuable lesson later on. The young entrepreneur left NYC and returned to France where the overall negative environment triggered by the failure of so many startups presented a career building challenge.
He then worked in investment banking, later as CTO for Dane-Elec, till the high-tech wave started over and he returned to innovating in web technologies.
"Being innovative is not a noun but a verb," Weizman says, describing his career path. "It is a continuous movement where you are in the dark, where you don't know if you're doing right. Many people talk about successes or failure, but few describe the journey. When you discover that the path you explore won't make it, after investing so much time, energy, money, and taking the decision to move forward with a new idea, you feel your soul crushing like the waves of a tsunami. It is hard to maintain a family life because you basically get married to your project. There is no other choice than to focus totally on the project. In this context, I lead a team of ten engineers to build My Ditto, a NAS you could access remotely with literally zero configuration. I filed 5 patents and was awarded patent rights. Then things went so fast: we were awarded CES Innovation Award in Las Vegas in 2010, then Best of Macworld in 2011. But the company I worked for did not understand marketing and sales strategy. When they finally agreed to invest in marketing, it was too late, and they failed. I don't blame them, but I felt frustrated."
Are tired of staff floor never being aware of the check out?*Give RoomChecking a try now
This anecdote is one of the many Weizman has to share from his past. He finally decided to become his own boss, and, with RoomChecking, he has a successful product since 2013. RoomChecking was founded in 2013 as a project between Jonathan Weizman , Aaron Marz, and Emile Lugassy. The company is already a Microsoft Ventures Paris promising startup and has a dedicated customer base of 150+ hotels. Earlier in 2017, they got750,000 EUR late seed-funding from several hotel groups and BPI. The road was not easy, but the lessons learned from the past helped develop a product which provides hotels the tools to improve guests' experience and deliver total customer satisfaction.
Microsoft Ventures helped the project a lot, Weizman says. "At Microsoft Ventures I was the only guy who pitched with a two-pages Word document! Some other participants told me they thought I was old school and laughed at me, but it looks like I made it. Microsoft Ventures gave me so much: support, training, access to top entrepreneurs, and networking." These are the things small startups need to succeed, the CEO of RoomChecking believes, although he is aware that the "B2B hospitality market suffers from being too small or too hard to penetrate."
"It is difficult to be honest because, as in every human interaction, when you fail you tend to blame the other parties involved," he told me relating RoomChecking's quest for funding. "We met with over 30 investors and the overall feeling was that they did not buy our vision."
Surprisingly though, the funding came from the people who needed RoomChecking the most: hotel groups looking to diversify and move into the technology space. "Investment came from existing clients who understood the value of RoomChecking because they were using it for a year or so," Weizman said, and this is the takeaway of the journey: when you look for investment to develop a valuable product, ask the people who need it the most for help.
ifteen minutes for a stayover, thirty minutes for a checkout: that’s the average amount of time attendants spend to prepare a hotel room, according to industry statistics. To put things in perspective, on any given day, a fifty room hotel will only take around sixteen hours to be cleaned up completely. But does it really?
This article will focus on the time wasting habits you and your staff probably indulge in, without even realizing it, and how you can break them with the use of technology.
It’s the end of paper as we know it (and I feel fine)
According to history books, the oldest fragment of what we today know as paper dates back to the second century BC. This means over two thousand years of documents, birth certificates, wills, mortgage applications and, of course, room attendant assignment sheets.
On an interesting article published on the official Adobe blog a few years ago, Jon Perera, VP of Product Management, wrote that “ink on paper symbolizes significance, workmanship, the culmination of a long process”
and that “as a society and a culture, we’ve agreed that these milestones of our lives deserve to be recorded on paper.”
That is true, for the most part and, on a archetypal level, we all can understand and relate to the symbolism and the emotional significance that comes with written words on a physical, tangible support (reading Hemingway in hardcover is a complete different experience from doing it on a Kindle, isn’t it?) , but is that true when it comes to managing your hotel too? Well, the short answer is “no”, but let me elaborate.
The elephant in the room
When I first joined the hospitality industry, the only experiences I had in hotels were during my summer holidays or business trips. I spent most of my adult life coding and analyzing data so I knew little to nothing about the etiquette of hotels, that (I later discovered) are made of internal hierarchies, guest relationships and, of course, paper. A lot of it.
Due to my professional and academic background, I have never completely understood the whole romanticism behind it, and I judged this almost-bureaucratic way of managing internal communications as a huge obstacle to work efficiency. So, when I joined RoomChecking in 2013, I was driven by finding a way to optimize workflows that I perceived as heavy and unscalable, slow and unorganized.
From an engineering viewpoint, the amount of paper exchange between hotel departments on any given day is just unimaginable, especially when it comes to communications between housekeeping, maintenance, front desk and management.
If you’re a hotel General Manager I am sure you already monitor and track the average amount of time your attendants spend preparing a room, but have you ever analyzed how much of that time they waste flipping through sheets to browse which rooms they need to do and in what sequence? And, eventually, even when they do have the paper in order, there’s always the early check-in or the late check-out that force them to apply changes over changes to the original sequence, causing more time wasting and confusion.
The main problems with paper based housekeeping and maintenance solutions, isn't that it is paper, but rather that it isn't quite as efficient as it could be.
Improving housekeeping and maintenance efficiency doesn't need to be through an advanced system as RoomChecking, it helps, but any hotel can begin with baby steps. Creating WhatsApp groups or other simple "hacks" can already improve things.
When implementing a solution - RoomChecking or other - here are the main issues to take into account.
The Knocking Time
So, it is pretty obvious that morning routine for attendants is already hard enough: first of all the unpredictability is an intrinsic aspect of their job and, on top of that, they never know in real time if a guest has checked out or not. They arrive to the hotel, spend a tremendous amount of time doing morning briefings and preparing daily assignment sheets and then the “knocking routine” starts. Nobody likes having a complete stranger opening your door when under the shower, but this is the only way attendants have, in order to actually start working: to knock on each door to make sure guests are not in the room. How more frustrating this can get? Well, it can, because of all the departments, probably attendants have the strictest deadline: if check in time is at 2:00 PM, rooms need to be done by then, no matter what.
Inbound communications
A few years ago I was sleeping in a hotel and the receptionist was talking to someone via a walkie talkie. I found it so completely anachronistic that it almost had some kind of vintage beauty. When I asked him what he was doing, it turned out he was trying (unsuccessfully, apparently) to get in touch with the housekeeper to inform her about a guest late check out request.
As archaic as the tool might have been, I saw it as the expression of a unsatisfied demand in the industry: the need of a inbound communication system for attendants, allowing them to receive real time alerts from the front office department about priority changes (301 asked for a late checkout), generic questions (is 402 ready?) or special requests (honeymooners in 505, put a complimentary champagne bottle).
And system like this should to be simple, effective and frictionless and, honestly, a walkie-talkie just isn't that. Here is where a WhatsApp group isn't the optimum solution, because unless you know who is cleaning or preparing room 402, 505 and 301 your communications will just arrive in a large chat-room. A proper system will bring the communication to the right person and if it isn't urgent, it wont interrupt them but show it to them when they're done with what they are working on.
Are tired of staff floor never being aware of the check out?*Give RoomChecking a try now
Outbound communications
Moreover, during the day, attendants often need to communicate with other departments or with their supervisor. They might be out of supplies, notice something wrong in a room or they can simply bump into a guest that asks them a question they don’t know how to answer. When this happens, they have to stop whatever they’re doing, go to see the General Manager, inform him about the issue and then get back to work. Not only this is time consuming, but it negatively impacts the quality of work of all the departments involved. On top of that, General Managers tend to be busy people and they’re often unreachable, slowing down the whole problem solving process even more. Attendants, more than anyone working in hotels, should be able to communicate directly (and, most importantly, without stopping what they’re doing) to virtually every department. Frictionless communication is the key factor when it comes to efficiency and, usually, non verbal exchanges between hotel departments are pretty far from being efficient.
Conclusion
Mankind's most important resource is time. As Zen-ish this may sound, it happens to be true. And when it comes to business, it happens to be even truer. So being careful with this precious resource is not only advisable, it is essential. And the best way to be careful with time is to avoid to waste it. RoomChecking vision has always been about working smarter, not harder.
And not because we are lazy engineers, but because we know that once an hour is gone, it’s gone forever and, no matter how big your hotel is or how high your ADR can go, you cannot buy it back. So establishing an efficient communication system between departments is one of the most important improvement you can make in order to develop efficiency, reduce costs and improve profit.
And, not least importantly, your attendants will be grateful.
