Hospitality Management

Birth of a B&B: My Mom vs Hospitality Software Part Two

ICYMI: Yesterday was Day One of Hospitality Software Week and the beginning of this three-part Business-Software.com exclusive series. If you want to go back and get the full story (and I suggest you do), you can find it here. But in case you’ve read it and just need a quick refresher, here’s what we covered:

My mom retired
She wants to open a B&B
You should really consider using an Internet Booking Engine and Housekeeping and Maintenance Software if you’re thinking of doing the same thing

All caught up? Perfect, because we continue right now with –

Part Two: How To Manage All Those Dollah-Dollah Bills (And Properly Keep Track Of Them)

It might seem unnecessary to mention how important finances are to the success of a business, but discovering and utilizing smart and efficient ways to stay on top of your bank account are invaluable. As someone who easily gets confused and frustrated when asked to deal with anything a.) math-adjacent and b.) important, I appreciate software that will take care of the scary money-related parts of my life.

And that’s just me trying to live. The idea of managing the financial health of an entire business makes me want to nap until the responsibility goes away. The idea that someone would voluntarily invite that into their lives is beyond me.

And yet, some do. My Mom is about to become one of them.

Accounting and Billing

Regardless of industry, all businesses deal with money, so of course hospitality management software comes equipped with tools and applications designed to handle it. While you (as the human in the relationship) will always have some level of responsibility to make sure numbers are added in the appropriate places, the crunching of said numbers can be left to the robots; I personally have a fear of a robot-based apocalypse, but I’ll always be okay with letting them do my math. Oftentimes, balances only need to be added in one place, and the accounting tools will affect the change across the board, saving you from having to enter the same amounts over and over again.

The robots can also collect your money for you too (sort of). The billing aspect of hospitality management software is a quick and painless way to make sure your customers are charged the right amounts at the right time. While this is something you can techincally handle on your own with a pen and a Steno Notepad, having a system like Cloudbeds that calculates how much is owed and processes that payment for you makes your billing system infinitely easier than if you did it by hand.

Reporting

Similar to how accounting and billing features are present in a lot (if not all) business process software, reporting tools are also frequent flyers. General analytic reports are how business owners gauge the health of their livelihood and the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, but these reports can go much deeper than that.

For B&B owners, these reports can show them when their busiest season occurred, allowing them to stock up on toilet paper before that season rolls around again. Reporting tools show slower periods of time as well, a feature that is equally helpful. Staying booked is every innkeeper’s goal, so if your reports show that you’re not booking many rooms on weekdays, you can leverage that information into deal and discount campaigns in order to turn that trend around. Knowing where you’re flourishing tells you what you’re doing right and knowing where you’re floundering tells you where you should focus your energy, so having a platform like Elina there to show you both sides of your business is incredibly valuable.

And there you have it; two more important aspects of hospitality management software. Hang in there, we’ve got one part left, and I promise that it’s not as dry as this one.

Tomorrow, we head into the final stretch –

Social Integration and Front Desk Systems

If you seriously can’t wait to start shopping around, check out our report on Top 15 Accounting Software and find your new best (software) friend.

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