Motel Management Software for The Ultimate Tech Stack
Running a motel business involves dozens of tasks every day, but traditional management practices can be slow and leave guests feeling unwelcome, resulting in bad reviews and stress for your team.
Think about a typical Friday evening when all your guests arrive at the same time. Obviously, you want to set a great tone for their stay, but in reality, you end up rushing through check-ins to free up the bottleneck.
Motel management software can automate many processes like checking in guests and organizing housekeeping schedules. It helps you run your business more efficiently and gives you back time to focus on creating a great guest experience.
In this article, we recommend tools for the ultimate motel management software tech stack that will help you:
- Streamline management processes as you grow your business
- Make you less dependent on staff
- Reduce costs
- Improve cleaning and maintenance ops
- Give guests better stays
We’ll talk you through the tools for each aspect of your business and show you how they can help you become more efficient.
Looking for a software solution to help manage your motel business?
Management software for motels: The ultimate motel management tech stack
Nowadays, there are software solutions available for every aspect of motel management, from keyless access systems to digital guides with essential information on motel services and the local area.
But using a different product for each area of your business can lead to technology overwhelm, and you might end up managing your daily operations across multiple tabs.
Having an all-in-one system that brings together every part of your operations will give you a birds-eye view of your motel business, and save you valuable time copying information between systems.
The areas we cover are:
- Centralized operation system for your tech stack Operto
- Property management system See our recommendations here
- Keyless access software Operto Tech
- Check-in/out and guest experience Operto Guest
- Smart thermostat software Operto Tech
- Noise monitoring Operto Tech
- Bookkeeping Quickbooks
- Staff scheduling and ops Operto Teams
1. Centralized operating system for your tech stack: Operto Connect
Motels when they first start to digitize often end up combining a state-of-the-art booking system with a paper calendar and text messaging to organize housekeeping.
By bringing everything into one system managed through a central dashboard, you’ll be able to digitize all your systems at the same time.
Using an operating system like Operto allows you to pick and choose your favorite software and manage them from a single dashboard, saving you hours in daily operations and months in team onboarding.
For example, you can integrate your existing property management system (PMS), while using other tools from Operto for solutions like keyless access and noise monitoring.
2. Property management system (PMS)
Integrating your PMS into your centralized operating system will help you manage other areas of your motel and maximize profitability. One area where you can transform your motel’s operations management is by offering your guests a 100% contactless experience with online check-in and keyless access.
Here are some of the key features you should look for in a PMS:
- Direct online bookings and integrated channel management. As well as processing direct bookings through your own website, your PMS should integrate with the main Online Travel Agents (OTAs).
- Booking confirmation and automated guest emails. The ability to send automated guest emails to confirm bookings and send pre-stay information will save valuable time.
- Availability calendar to be able to view real-time bookings, availability, and occupancy.
- Guest profiles. Saving guest information will save them reentering it each time they book and help you get to know their preferences.
- Flexible pricing. The ability to easily change rates and offer discounts for longer stays or off-peak bookings.
- Payment processing and invoicing. Automatic invoicing and processing of online guest payments.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.
- Reporting. Easy to generate reports on occupancy, sales, and revenue management.
Operto works with a range of PMS partners so book a demo to see how it will work for you in practice.
3. Keyless access software: Operto Tech
Giving your guests keyless access will give them more control over their own stay and form an essential step in their contactless experience.Operto tech offers an app-free, modern check-in experience. Fully automated, it generates unique access codes that are activated and deactivated via the integration with your existing PMS. This gives motel operators more visibility of room occupancy and guest movements, which can be hard to track in motels. The ability to see when your guests come and go will help you coordinate housekeeping services and schedule cleaning staff.
Keyless access will also cut down on long lines at the front desk and take away your reliance on key card technology, which can be unreliable, and physical keys that often get lost.
4. Check-in/out and guest experience: Operto Guest web app
It’s still very common for motels to follow up a streamlined online booking experience with a slow front office check-in.With a guest app, you can give your guests the chance to check in ahead of arrival. Plus, you can give them all the information they need for their stay like keycodes, WiFi passwords, and tips on making the most of the local area.
For motels, this means reducing the number of calls and messages from guests to the front office, freeing up your staff to focus on adding value in other areas.
Operto Guest is a web-based app (no download required) that includes:
- Online check-in and check-out. Guests can check in online before arrival and receive the codes for their mobile key
- Custom branding with your motel’s logo and brand colors.
- Operto messenger with smart buttons that let guests contact the front office and access customer support
- Smart upsells via messenger and smart buttons
- Digital guides. You can create unlimited minisites about room amenities and local attractions, and send them to your guests ahead of time so they can get excited about their visit.
- Near me, a toggle with local information so you can promote small businesses and give your guests personalized recommendations
Smart thermostat software: Operto Tech
Guest comfort is essential for meeting guest expectations and getting five-star reviews and repeat business. A smart thermostat will let you cool down the room before each guest’s arrival, or warm it up in winter. This is even more important in motels as they have their own external doors and are more susceptible to temperature fluctuations from the outside world.
You won’t need to worry about guests forgetting to turn off the heating or lights when they check out, as the software takes care of it for you.
Operto’s provides intelligent control of thermostats, which motel staff manage remotely from the dashboard. They can use information about guest arrival times to get the room to just the right temperature to create a welcome arrival experience.
Operto Tech integrates with your PMS, if necessary.
Noise monitoring: Operto Tech
Noisy neighbors are the worst! Both for guests trying to get a good night’s sleep and for motel managers who want to keep everyone happy and avoid confrontation.With their separate entrances, motels can suffer more than other types of accommodation from noise and occupancy breaches.
But, through a user-friendly manager’s dashboard, you can monitor guest noise levels and receive automated alerts when they exceed your customized thresholds. Then, you can gently make a request for your guests to keep it down with a message via the guest app.
Operto tech lets you monitor noise levels in each room. Source: Operto
5. Bookkeeping: Quickbooks
Look to automate your bookkeeping tasks and optimize how efficiently you run this essential part of your business.
The best motel accounting software solutions include:
- Integration with your online booking channels and payments platform
- Revenue management
- The ability to issue invoices
- Preparation of financial reports
- A user-friendly interface for non-technical staff
- Expense and pricing tracking
- Payroll functionality
- Integration with your PMS
- Integration with your bank account
A cloud-based accounting system for small to medium-sized businesses, customers praise the Quickbooks user-friendly interface and powerful tools for analyzing profit and loss. Quickbooks seamlessly integrates with Operto Teams for team management, invoicing, and payroll.
6. Staff scheduling and ops: Operto Teams
Operto Team’s scheduling tool was created to solve a common problem faced by housekeeping managers: How to coordinate room cleaning with guest check-in and check-out, particularly given the high number of late arrivals and cancellations that can make the most meticulously planned housekeeping schedule redundant.When you connect your motel’s PMS to Operto Teams, each new booking will generate an automated cleaning schedule that applies your customized rules by unit.
Through the drag-and-drop scheduling calendar, you’ll have complete oversight of who’s working where, while staff know exactly what’s expected of them. It’s also easy to track hours and tasks completed and assess team members’ productivity.
Also, staff can communicate on their smartphones and update each other on urgent tasks, sending photos and videos to give further context about issues that need attention.
Automating your motel business
Automating the main areas of your motel business enables efficiency and minimizes the instances of human error. The result is a better experience for your guests and less workload for your team.
The main areas where you can use motel management software to streamline your business are:
- Property management (PMS)
- Keyless access
- Check-in/Check-out
- Guest experience
- Smart thermostat and noise technology
- Bookkeeping
- Staff scheduling
Choosing different providers for these systems can bring about tech overwhelm, where you struggle to keep on top of the solutions that are there to make your life easier.
But by bringing all those solutions into a single source of truth where you can manage check-ins and guest communications, staff scheduling, and in-room smart devices, you’ll have a scalable business and a sustainable workload.
Frequently asked questions about motel management software
What software is best for motel management?
The best software for motel management is an all-in-one system that improves the staff and guest experience. It should automate operations and provide real-time information about reservations, check-in, guest communication, CRM tools, staff scheduling, and noise monitoring.What type of software does a motel need for its front desk?
Motels need front office software that can organize your operations and guest management in one place. This includes processing check-in and check-out, guest communication, and a concierge service to enhance the guest experience.What is the most popular type of software for motel management?
The most popular type of software for motel management helps motel operators have visibility over units and bookings on a single platform. It should integrate with the motel’s PMS, provide front office operations, such as check-in and concierge services, and help managers coordinate cleaning and maintenance with real-time information about the status of rooms.
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