TEL AVIV, ISRAEL & LONDON, UK: Sweet Inn, the data and technology-driven hospitality start-up that offers more than 500 stylish vacation apartments in 10 major European cities, has become one of the first independent companies to develop a complete PMS (Property Management System) in-house to accommodate its rapid growth in the European market.
The development of proprietary technology to manage properties is an unusual move in the hospitality sector, where companies rely on third-party software to handle the systems that sit behind the running of the business. The investment has paid off, with the company reporting the highest yields to date in the vacation rentals market.
The year-long project was undertaken by Sweet Inn’s team of 50 developers and gives the hospitality start-up a significant edge over competitors by immediately increasing its yields - now widely considered as the highest in the industry - and offering exceptional levels of guest services thanks to the bespoke technology.
Traditionally, hotel property management systems are used to manage front-office capabilities such as; bookings, guest check-in and out, room assignment, room rates and billing. However, hoteliers are increasingly challenged with providing a personalized guest experience while operating effectively in an extremely competitive market. The Sweet Inn PMS resolves this issue completely for the start-up and the results are already visible.
“Sweet Inn’s PMS is the secret sauce for differentiation in the hospitality business,” says Rachel Benhanoch, Sweet Inn’s VP of Product. “The system brings us to a whole new level of efficiency in caring for our guests that are spread throughout 10 cities and located in hundreds of properties. It allows us to introduce unique capabilities such as a suite of home automation features that contribute to cost saving and energy optimization; features that aren’t available through a generic PMS. The combination of our hospitality expertise and the system’s capabilities has substantially increased our property yield.”
The Sweet Inn PMS has been developed to cover the entire customer journey and the day-to-day management of operations. This includes:
- Early enquiry
- Booking and reservation management
- Check-in, in-stay care and services, check-out
- Local teams day-to-day operation
- Pricing
The next additions to the PMS will include a retention and loyalty program, automated cleaning and maintenance operations and the day-to-day operations of local teams.
The development of a tailored, in-house PMS stems from Sweet Inn’s need to optimize its processes to fit its unique operational structure that sets it apart from its rivals. Its proprietary PMS removes unnecessary ‘noise’ associated with generic PMS that attempt to accommodate as many possible needs of various businesses rather than drilling down into the exact needs of individual companies. Sweet Inn’s technology achieves high efficiency by championing a lean and accurate operation of exact scenarios, property types, business personas and financial processes that are at the core of Sweet Inn’s brand.
Benhanoch concludes: “Every action and transaction is ‘fed back’ into the system so our Business Intelligence team generates actionable insights that allow us to optimize our operation and provide our guests best-in-class hospitality experience.”
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