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Front desk systems - PMS vs CMS

Front Desk Operations

Mark Edelston started this discussion 9 years 9 months ago

Hi all. I'm in the process of setting up a hostel and want a booking system that can interact with my website and OTAs to manage my reservations, allow me to assign beds to guests and produce management reports. I have read about the types of systems available but I dont understand the difference between Property Management Systems and Channel Management Systems? Are there any products on the market that combine the two?

From reading the forums it seems that Myallocator and bananadesk are two recommended platforms that integrate together. What does one do that the other doesn't? From reading up on them and watching the promotional videos it seems that they provide a very similar service.

Thank you but please no responses from companies trying to recommend their own product.

Thanks

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John Moriarty

9 years

PMS Options:
Loventis
Bananadesk
Hostelsystem
Siteminder
Hosteloffice
Charts

Channel Managers:
Myallocator

This are the main ones I know used by hostels
I believe Hostelsystem, siteminder, hosteloffice and charts all have their own channel managers integrated with them.

I know loventis and bananadesk connect to myallocator.

So firstly the main thing to have is a channel manager. This is what saves you have to change availability once you get a booking.

So for instance a customer books through hostelworld then the channel manager will remove that available bed or room from the other channels such as booking.com or your own website.

The channel manager will usually have its own booking widget which will let people book directly through your own website.

Now for the PMS system. The channel manager does not easily show you booking information in a calendar form such as peoples names and how long they are staying.

You can easily see this information on your PMS system including how they booked and how much they owed. Also you can easily input new arrivals via walk in or on the phone and once that data is put in through your PMS it feeds it into the channel manager which then removes availability from the different channels. You can also run repots and see how much money you have taken in or what revenue you are getting per bed. Some PMS systems are able to send auto emails to guests when they book or after check in requesting reviews. There are extra features in the bigger ones but I guess it is down to the money you want to spend.

What some people will do is manually enter the data in to an excel sheet in stead of using a PMS system.

Here is a video from Hostelmanagement that was done a while back in regards channel managers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F90k62XVs1M

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Peter K.

9 years

Hi Mark,
my impression is that John has made some effort to explain the differences you were asking about, but not really precise and easy to understand.
So i will drop in and give some explanation from my point of view. But beware!
I am a software developer who has developed a property management system! For hostels. Sorry for that! So again: Beware! My explanations might include parts that could feel like recommendations for the product i have created.
It might be the best for your personal welfare to not continue reading this post, but i will continue anyhow to explain the purpose of a PMS in general and therefor my product in special, although You are perfectly right that i am guilty of offending the innocent.

The main purpose of a Property Management System (PMS) is to help you manage your bookings of your beds in your property right in your place. Full stop.
Typically you have a calendar view showing you all your rooms and beds with their occupancy, meaning detailed booking information and some tools to view, add, cancel or edit them.

A Channel Manager (CM, not: CMS Channel Manager System) plays a completly different role. All it basically offers is setting up availability of your beds on the different OTAs you are connected to. You can do this manually through the sophisticated website of the channel manager (typically: MyAllcator.com) or automated without any effort if your PMS has a connection through the API (application programming interface) to the channel manager.
Two guys called Marc and Mo in Scotland, more precisely in Glasgow, have created the first channel manager called Myallocator and so have invented the idea of a channel manager itself and have gained a lot of popularity with it. Now it has been sold to a californian startup company, which focuses on the deep integration with the PMS run by Hostelworld, called Backpack Online, which will completely change the character of the Channel Manager. Only the future will show how far the changes will get and in which direction.

Apart from that:
A CMS is known as a Content Management System, which will help you to manage your Website, the most wellknown are wordpress, Joomla, Typo3 or Drupal.

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CraigD

9 years

Mark,

Yes - I am a software vendor.... but the easy way to define the difference between a PMS and a Channel Manager

The PMS is the software at your hostel reception desk where your staff check your guests in and out of the hostel, and you know which bed or dorm that they are in.

Your staff can see all your arrivals for the day, your departures and will be able to make new reservations directly (important for walk in guests), and will also be able to some cashiering... in other words you can take payment from your guests when they check in. Most PMS systems will also have an ability to easily allow you to sell items across the desk too - such as t-shirts or soap / shampoo's etc etc - and some allow you to put extra charges onto the guest account too - perhaps you sell walking tours to your travelers for example, and want to add that onto their bill before they pay for the accommodation.

Your PMS will also be the place where you look to see all the statistics (either on screen or on a report) about your occupancy and your revenue to tell you how much cash you are generating.

The PMS is also the place where you can see all the information about your guests... how many times they have stayed with you, what your guests like - and where your guests have come from (and some of this information is ignored by many operators). If you advertize your hostel anywhere, the information that your PMS will give you can give you a really good idea how to target your future guests!

Your Channel Manager connects your PMS to many online booking engines - such as Hostelworld, Hostelbokers and Booking.com. Most PMS systems are connected to the Channel Manager so that the PMS communicates via the internet to the online booking engines (you might hear the phrase "OTA" used here - which means "Online Travel Agent) how many beds or dorms you have to sell on any different day, and will usually also tell the online booking systems what price the beds and dorms are.

When the reservation is then made on the "OTA" website, all the details are inserted automatically into the PMS - so you don't have to manually enter the booking into your PMS.

The clever PMS systems will then let you control the Rates and Availability going up to the Channel Manager - by letting you create rules about how many beds you have left in the hostel, and give you the opportunity to increase (or decrease) the prices automatically based on how many beds you have left to sell.

Hope this helps!

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habamoda

9 years

:| :| Hi try our Cloud-based PMS - Hotelidesk.com Its simple, easy and most of all affordable! Try out the free demo on the website.

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