PowerGuest Reservation System
Tourism is growing fast in South Africa. In 2006, a record breaking 8.5 million tourists visited South Africa, contributing 8,3% to GDP. It is no surprise then why so many small and medium establishment owners in the tourism industry have a passport to fame and fortune. Your service and professionalism should add value to what your establishment offers to the guest. Give your guest that special something that sets you apart from other guesthouses in the area.
One of the main enablers in achieving this is the use of a Property Management System (PMS) also known as a Reservation System. Over and above full-featured capabilities on the desktop, it connects you to the rest of the global community by means of an on-line reservation capability if required.
An added benefit of a PMS is the opportunity to manage your business better.
PowerGuest is such an operational tool. It is a reservation software package that helps you to save time and money.
Figure 1: Typical integrated reservation grid.
With each reservation that you enter on the electronic reservations grid (Figure 1), you can:
- Fax or e-mail quotations or confirmations while you have the client on the line.
- Print statements, invoices, receipts or pro-forma invoices either on your stationery or on PowerGuest generated stationery.
- Print a check-in note with the following details of each guest:
- Full name
- ID or Passport Number
- Residential Status in South Africa (i.e. Tourist, South African or Temporary Resident)
- Guest Signature
This information must be kept for 6 months as required by the Immigration Amendment Act.
Reporting
You should not forget to process, produce and review monthly reports. The following reports are produced on PowerGuets:
- Month end financial transaction summary
- Room and Bed Occupancy rates
- Client statistics e.g. profiles such as country of origin, nature of visit inter alia. Overseas, business or local visitor
- Arrivals and Departures
- Outstanding Amounts (Debtors)
- Indemnity report
- A report indicating efficiency of advertising channels
Guest Relationships
Great customer relationships translate into profit. The cost of retaining an existing customer is estimated to be about 10% of the cost of acquiring a new customer. Knowing your customer’s likes and dislikes, firstly gives them confidence in you as service provider. They know what to expect from your guesthouse, which reduces anxiety associated with travel. Secondly you become their friend – someone they can trust for advice because you know their preferences.
PowerGuest allows you to keep record of guest’s requirements and preferences. Special client requirements such as culinary, transport and/or accommodation is captured once and kept for future reference.
General
PowerGuest helps you to:
- Avoid double bookings
- Make reservations in the future - unlimited reservation period
- Fully configurable for your unique needs
- Define unlimited number of rooms
- Different accommodation types with adult and child rates
- Different guest types
- Different user levels
- User definable financial types such as meals, ladies bar and valet service
- Define different daily activities
- Customise and manage group bookings, accounts and payments
- Keep record of guest history and guest register
- Block rooms for maintenance
- Manage conferences and weddings
Daily Activity Reservations
Daily activities works on an hourly or fraction of hour basis. Activities are additional amenities provided by some establishments. Examples of this are balloon flights and game drives. The operation is similar to the room reservation system and integrates to the same core financial system. You can send quotations or confirmations while you have the client on the line and print statements, invoices or pro-forma invoices either on your stationery or on PowerGuest generated stationery.
Why a reservation System?
- You run your establishment more efficiently, which saves more time and money.
- It is convenient and easy to analyse your profitability. Income and expenditure or desired income can readily be tracked.
- Analyse your vital statistics such as occupancy rates.
- Your knowledge about your client is structured. Know your clients and their preferences better.
- Have access to on line bookings both locally and internationally.
- Facilitate better future planning on the basis of readily available information.
- Business integration is easy – integrate to the internet, telephone and financial systems.
How to choose a system
- The system must be affordable.
- Must have enough functionality for the particular establishment.
- Reporting must suit your needs.
- Must run on a reliable operating system and support must be available
- The system must support or interface to other systems such as financial, on-line and telephone systems.
- Although not essential, it is sometimes better to have a local company because they know the local conditions better and do not price their product in overseas currencies.
- Support and training is vital because no system is entirely self-explanatory or perfect in all respects.
- Manuals, on-line help and training CD’s is a great help to the user.
- Choose a system that can also accommodate your daily activity reservations.
General
PowerGuest is a locally developed reservation system.
Polygon provides the following excellent services:
- Client support - telephone and e-mail
- Software installation
- Training
- After sales service
- Technical support
- Annual upgrades and enhancements to incorporate client requirements and technological developments
B&B sure clients will receive a 10% discount on our PowerGuest Reservation software.
Contact Details
Contact Polygon Software Development for enquiries.
Web page: www.polygonsoftware.co.za
E-mail: info@polygonsoftware.co.za
Tel: (012) 345 2131
Fax: (012) 345 3972
Cell: 082 886 6209 |
