Choosing a strong and diverse evaluation team to help choose the best tools to run your hotel is also the first step in gaining buy-in from your hotel team. It’s important to have everyone on board when selecting a new property management system for your hotel, resort, or inn. Everyone involved in your organization, from the owner, the hotel management company, and senior management to the front desk, reservations, sales, and housekeeping department, must invest in and commit to the project.

Before beginning the evaluation process, it is important to designate a project manager who will be responsible for and oversee the project from start to finish. The purchase of the property management system will indicate that the evaluation process has officially ended.

The Project Manager is the first person to be selected. This selection may already have been determined and a consultant may have been hired for the job, a manager at headquarters, a hotel manager, someone in operations, or someone in the information technology department.

At this point, it is important to start thinking about the next project, which will be the training and implementation of the property management system, which will likely occur several months to a year after the evaluation process begins. This timeline depends on how complex your business needs are and how much time can be devoted to the evaluation and purchase process, not to mention the property management system provider’s timeline.

Evaluation team members can consist of operational managers who can use functionality that suits their management role, as well as front-line staff who would use the property management software on a daily basis and for most of their day. Staff in various positions such as receptionist, reservations clerk, housekeeping manager/supervisor, sales staff, accounting staff, custodial staff, and information technology staff may offer different perspectives . Consider including representatives from these departments in the evaluation process. Your experience with the above systems, as well as your department’s processes and insight into the functionality they need to better serve hotel guests, will be invaluable when creating your list of requirements.

The Project Manager should set expectations and goals for what will be accomplished during the assessment process and provide this information in writing to the team. Setting expectations and goals will help keep the evaluation process on track. The team must understand that while comments and suggestions are appreciated and necessary, not everyone’s wishes will be followed. The goal is to choose the best system to meet the specific needs of your business while providing the best overall tool for all departments and the business as a whole. There will be some areas and functionality that will require commitment. Ranking the items that are needs versus those that are wants is essential during this process. The elements that are determined as needs must be qualified as such.

Now is the time to start building your team!