Property Management System (PMS) for Hotels

Having a property management system at your hotel is extremely important, regardless of the size of the hotel or motel. There are systems designed to handle the upscale resorts consisting of 250+ rooms, systems that are designed for mid-size 100 room hotels, down to 30 room motels and boutique hotels. The number of property management systems available is almost as numerous as the type of hotels in the world. Their backend structures are all different, there are PMS systems that put more emphasis on reservations or revenue management, or there are PMS that are available only through the web.

The list below is not a comprehensive list of all the property manage systems available, but I am going to highlight some of the more popular solutions, as well as some of my preferred systems, based on the size of the property and budget.

InnQuest's roomMaster 2000 is a fully featured PMS which has the power features for users that require a lot of control, and is simple enough for new users to learn right away. If you have a property with a lot of turnover with the staff, you will enjoy being able to show new staff members this system and have them learn it within a day.

The number of features available are numerous. Fully featured for group reservations, yield management, maintenance and housekeeping systems, guest profiles, full history of guest reservations, and so forth. The reporting feature in roomMaster is great, as they have plenty of pre made reports that can be run right away, or it provides a SQL report builder to do custom reports to get the information you require right away.

The accounting system is secured, and you can limit user access on any major area of the system and certain major commands. There is also a built in mail system for staff members to communicate with each other (no more sticky notes on monitors), and the system can be setup to send email (reservation confirmation emails, post-stay emails, cancellation letters, etc). With the letter editor, you can design full group contracts that pulls in the group information automatically - a huge time saver.

roomMaster 2000 is ideal for boutique hotels from 20 rooms up to 150 room hotels with no more than 12 room types. The system also ties well into different CRS systems, like InnLink, SynXis, TravelClick, etc.

For the full list of features, visit their website here: InnQuest roomMaster 2000

Version 15 of roomMaster is going to be released this summer. For a sneak peek of the new features, visit here: InnQuest roomMaster 2000 v15

While roomMaster 2000 is ideal for larger properties with larger budgets, Reservation Master is the perfect solution for those smaller motels that want a simple system to use without any larger headaches involved. The system is compact, quick to setup and learn, but with features designed to help take motels and B&Bs from the paper world to the computer world.

The availability screen allows you to double-click to quickly make a reservation, you can see the overall availability for the full calendar year, full travel agency commission support, and more. The Pro version allows you to create a layout of your rooms (useful if you have lodges spread out across a property), user control access, and the advanced SQL reports that roomMaster is capable of. Essentially, Reservation Master is a scaled down version of roomMaster that can be operated on any desktop or laptop computer right away.

For a full list of features, visit their website: Reservation Master

Regular version is: $199.95

Pro Version is: $349.95

Both prices are one-time fees, with no annual fee and with free email support year-round.

MSI Solutions provides multiple property management systems, so I am grouping them all together. Their support team is amazing, which makes it one of my preferred vendors since there are always minor issues coming up with these complex systems. MSI Solutions main PMS systems are:

• WinPM
• NiteVision
• NovaPlus

Northwind Solutions develops a great PMS called Maestro. It is by far one of the more powerful systems available and is ideal for the hotel operator that loves to have full control over their system.

RoomKey is one of the easier systems to use, and is fully cloud-based, meaning you can easily access it from anywhere in the world through an internet connection.