What is a PMS?
PMS stands for Property Management Systems. These systems solve everything related to the management of temporary rental properties in one place, facilitating administrative tasks related to reservations, such as managing the calendar, scheduling rates, sending messages, etc.
Originally, these systems emerged with the purpose of managing hotels, but they have now diversified and there are specific PMS for the short-term rental of apartments and houses.
What are the advantages of having a Property Management System?
1. Channel Managers
The PMS is connected to the OTAs (online travel agencies) through a Channel Manager. Thanks to the connection made between both parties, Channel Managers allow you to work with a single or several properties at the same time, automatically updating rates, availability and reservations in several agencies simultaneously.
This makes calendar management easier and avoids duplicate bookings for the same property at the same time, which would happen if two guests chose to book the same apartment through two different agencies, such as Booking and Airbnb.
Additionally, Channel Managers provide performance reports that facilitate decision making on marketing and sales strategies.
2. Single Calendar
Having a single calendar that centralizes the reservations that are made through different OTAs is an undoubted advantage that facilitates organization, since it allows you to see and manage all the information in a single place without having to go from one calendar to the other to match reservations, close days, modify prices, etc.
On the other hand, OTAs instantly update the internal calendar of their platform based on what happens on the other platforms, thus achieving a centralized global calendar and avoiding what was mentioned in the first point: receiving duplicate reservations for the same property (which is known as overbooking).
This convenience for administrators also results in an advantage for guests, who can make the choice of location and dates in a single online travel agency (OTA) with the guarantee that availability and price information is updated and synchronized. on all platforms and that once they have reserved a place on a date it will be blocked for other potential interested guests.
3. Several users at the same time
Property Management Systems can be managed by several users at the same time, as these systems allow several user accounts to be accessed at the same time.
In the case of people or companies that deal with the administration of a few properties, generally there are only one or two managers who enter the system to carry out the administration. But when it comes to managing multiple properties at once, the option of having many user accounts with simultaneous access enables teams with different roles, schedules, and spatial locations to work.
4. All messages in one place
Responding to queries, communicating with potential and current guests of each property and resolving situations during stays, are daily activities that take a long time and require organization and control to do so quickly and clearly and not leave messages without responding.
That is why the use of a Property Management Systems offers a great advantage in this task, as it centralizes in the same interface the messages received and sent from all managed properties.
Each PMS user can choose to see the messages of a single property, of all the properties of an administrator, or of all the properties managed by the company, being able to filter in each case by pending messages, sent, received, etc.
5. The Cloud
The Property Management Systems software is hosted in the cloud. This allows it to be accessed at any time and from anywhere, whether with a mobile phone, tablet or computer. Additionally, there is no need to install programs or applications. Simply log in to an Internet browser.
6. Accounting, billing, reporting and customizable Services
In addition to facilitating and optimizing daily tasks related to the management of each property, Property Management Systems offer accounting, billing, reporting and customizable services, which can be useful to save time in daily work and make projections.
The accounting and finance modules, for example, allow you to make receipts and settlements and efficiently track payments received and sent, as well as accounts in general.
7. Task Scheduling
Another benefit that favors the organization and supervision of the team is the option that Property Management Systems provide to schedule tasks for each person or work group, with the possibility of assigning different roles, such as the administration of reservations, checkin and checkout, cleaning and control functions of the elements and the state of the property, responding to messages and creating automatic messages, marketing, etc.
One thing to keep in mind is that PMS software is not always listed as Property Management System. It is also known as "Vacation Rental Software" or "Property Management Software".
