A Hotel Point of Sale (Hotel POS) is a technology solution comprising hardware and software components that record and process transactions between a hotel and its customers. It helps hoteliers manage everything, especially various service areas like restaurants, bars, spas, or gift shops within their properties. It differs from a Property Management System (PMS), which focuses on hotel operations like room bookings, guest check-ins/outs, and housekeeping management. Here's a breakdown of what a Hotel POS system is and how it works:
Point of Sale systems allow collecting guest purchases from different points of sale directly charging to their respective rooms. If a guest opts for a massage at your hotel's spa or eats at your restaurant, the charges for the same will be added to his room charges, and he can pay all at once.
Features of Hotel POS System
The following features of the Hotel POS system enhance your hotel's operational efficiencies.
Let's know them in detail!
Payment processing: The POS system can accept, process, and verify different payment methods, including cash, cards, and cheques, at multiple sales outlets. Advanced features enable efficient bill management, including bill splitting, thus allowing seamless bill management.
Customer management: The POS system collects guest data and transaction details to help build strong customer relationships, influence marketing strategies, and personalize guest experiences.
Inventory management: It helps track stock levels, sends alerts whenever it goes below a set level, and reorders automatically. This greatly helps in the uninterrupted supply of essential items that are key to serving guests.
Reporting: POS systems offer reporting functionality and can assess inventory, employee performance, sales, etc. It further aids in tracking revenue points as it gives a complete picture of sales from various revenue sources.
Integration: Hotel POS systems can be linked with other business management software such as CRM, channel manager, etc, thus leading to a smooth flow of information and data sharing.
Integration of PMS system with POS system
A Hotel PMS (Property Management System) is used to automate end-to-end daily processes across departments in a hotel. Let's see how the integration between a Hotel PMS and a Hotel PMS works.
When customers purchase from various sales outlets during their stay, whether a spa, boutique, travel desk, gift shop, etc, the integration of PMS and POS systems through APIs allows the addition of such ancillary charges directly to the guest's bill. This greatly reduces the chances of discrepancies and manual errors. It further ensures bill accuracy, faster operations, and enhanced guest experience.
Integration of CRM and POS system
A hotel CRM system collects and stores guest data for further analysis and helps strategize marketing campaigns. As the hotel POS system contains customer information during the payment procedure, connecting it with the CRM system helps track customers' purchase history, manage the customer database, plan loyalty programs, and gain meaningful insights about your potential customers. You can use the POS system to send information regarding sales to the CRM software and attain special offers, and membership discount offers from the CRM to adjust with the main bill.
For example, if a regular guest checks in and the front desk executive gets his details from the CRM software, he will get to know that he uses the gym due to his previous POS transactions. This empowers hotels to offer him a specially discounted rate for the gym, thus improving his experience.
Integration of payment gateways with POS system
With the popularity of digital payment methods, you must use a payment processor to accept online payments via UPI, digital wallets, and credit cards. Each of these has different pricing terms and supports different payment methods. It is best to opt for a processor that can handle various currencies while offering high security and covering all payment methods.
If your website has a booking engine, you can easily accept online payments and opt for a POS system to make things easier. Proper integration will automatically transfer all transaction data from your online streams and hotel POS system to your Property Management System.
In essence, the Hotel POS system is not just a tool for transaction processing. It's a comprehensive hospitality technology solution that enhances a hotel's operational efficiency, improves customer service, and drives business growth.
