Changing your property management system
Most properties stay on a system they have stopped liking, for longer than they meant to, because changing one is disruptive and the disruption is easier to picture than the benefit.
This page is about how that decision actually goes. It is not a sales pitch, and some of it argues for staying where you are.
How long people actually wait
Code Hotel on Koh Samui was extremely disappointed with the support on one of the three largest property management systems — and stayed on it for three years before replacing it.
That is the number worth sitting with. Not three weeks. Three years of a system they had already decided was letting them down, because the friction of changing looked worse than the friction of staying.
If you are in that position and have not moved, you are not indecisive. You are normal. But it is worth knowing that three years is what "putting up with it" costs, and that their own account of the change itself is short.
The two reasons people actually change
Almost nobody changes property management system because a competitor has a better feature list. In our experience there are two real triggers, and they are very different.
- The system is fine, the bill is not
- Staying current demands a significant spend — often on software and hardware at the same time — and buys no new capability. This is what happened to Maekok River Village: their previous system was very good, and updating it required heavy expenditure on both. You spend to stand still.
- The software works, the support does not
- Nobody notices support until the night it matters, and then nothing else matters. This is the Code Hotel case, and it is the more common of the two.
There is a third, less often named: you have outgrown spreadsheets. If room allocation, guest bills, activities and payroll live in separate files that a person has to reconcile, the system is not the spreadsheets — it is the person. That is exactly the situation Ananda Mello Costa describes in her account of running a Philippines resort, and what changed for her was not the software so much as no longer having to hold the whole picture in her head.
What a migration actually involves
Four things, and only the last is really about software.
- Data
- Guest history, forward reservations, rates and account balances have to arrive intact. Ask what comes across, what does not, and in what format you would get your data back later.
- Configuration
- Room types, rate plans, tax treatment, outlets and user permissions have to be set up to match how you actually work — which is rarely how the previous system was set up.
- Training
- The people who use it daily are usually not the people who chose it. Reception and housekeeping need to be able to work on day one, not eventually.
- Timing
- See below. This is the one people get wrong.
With us, installation, configuration and training are included with any modular package — the only charge is travel expenses actually incurred. Ask any vendor what theirs costs, and get the answer before you sign.
Do not do it in high season
It is possible. It is rarely wise.
Migration means new data, new configuration and staff learning an unfamiliar screen, and high season is the worst possible time to be doing any of the three. The quiet weeks either side of your season exist for exactly this.
If your current system is failing badly enough that waiting is the greater risk, that is a real situation and we will say so — but it should be a decision you make deliberately, not a date you drift into.
The questions that actually decide it
Ask these of your current vendor and of anyone replacing them. The answers, not the feature comparison, are what you will live with.
- Who answers when it breaks in high season, and how quickly? Is support included, or a tier that costs more precisely when you need it?
- Can the person answering fix it, or only log it?
- What does staying cost over five years — licences, hardware refresh, support — against replacing?
- What new capability does the upgrade actually deliver? If none, you are paying to stand still.
- Does the replacement need new hardware too? Ask early, and get it in writing.
- Whose is the data, and in what format can you take it away?
- Can it be adapted to how your property works, or must you adapt to it?
We have answered all seven on this site. Any vendor worth changing to will answer them without hesitating.
When we would tell you not to bother
If your current system does the job and the only complaint is that it looks dated, stay. If you are running a large branded property with a corporate technology standard, we are probably not the right fit and we would say so early. If the upgrade quote you have been given is reasonable and buys you something real, take it.
The reason we can afford to say that is the same reason the rest of this page is worth reading: some properties have been running Resort Manager for more since 2009. A business that depends on churn has to close every enquiry. One that depends on retention only has to be honest.
If you do want to talk about it
Tell us what you are running now, how many units, what mix, and what is actually going wrong. We will tell you whether changing is worth it — including when it is not.
Common questions
How long does it take to move property management system?
The work is data, configuration and training rather than software, and the honest answer depends on your unit mix and how much history moves with you. What matters more than the number is the timing: not in high season.
Can we move mid-season?
Possible, rarely wise. Migration means new data, new configuration and staff learning an unfamiliar screen, and high season is the worst time for all three. If your current system is failing badly enough that waiting is the greater risk, that is a real situation and we will say so.
Will we get our data out of our current system?
Ask your current vendor, in writing, what you can export and in what format — before you sign anything with anyone. It is the question people most often skip and most often regret. It applies to us too.
Is installation and training included?
Yes, with any modular package — the only charge is travel expenses actually incurred. What is covered.
Pricing depends on the property, so we quote it rather than list it.
Tell us which version you need, the modules you want and how many rooms you run, and we will put a proposal together. If Resort Manager is the wrong fit for the property, we will say so.