• Automation has helped businesses improve and become more profitable across many industries.
• From managing reservations and bookings to saving time on tedious data entry, automating tasks frees up your resources and helps you cut costs.
• It can also help you provide a better customer experience and gather data more efficiently.
• Keep reading to find out how to automate some of the key areas of your hospitality business to spend more time on growth.

Though the way hospitality businesses operate has changed significantly over the last year, we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Whether you still have restrictions placed on your business or you’re back to business as usual, automating certain tasks can help you spend less time on mundane tasks – and more time on growth.

We’ve seen innovation in all kinds of industries and hospitality is no exception. In order to stay ahead of the curve, it’s important to adapt to changes quickly.

So, how can businesses in the hospitality industry benefit from automation?

How Can Hospitality Businesses Benefit from Automation?

There are many benefits that your hospitality business can get from automating certain processes:

• Save time
• Reduce costs 
• Streamline customer experience 
• Collect data more efficiently 
• Use data to inform business decisions 

The two most obvious benefits are that you and your staff can save time and therefore save money. This is because you free up time to do other tasks or reduce labour costs. By streamlining processes and creating a better experience for customers, you can also increase revenue.

Another major benefit that is often overlooked is the ability to collect data more effectively and efficiently. For example, automating your bookkeeping will help you have more accurate and timely financial information, meaning you can make better decisions at any point in time. The same goes for collecting data through automation in all other areas of your business.

How to Automate Your Hospitality Business 

Let's run through how you can automate parts of your reservations and bookings, accounting, HR and marketing.

1. Automate Your Reservation and Bookings

One of the key parts of running a hospitality business is managing reservations and bookings. If you’re still doing this with pen and paper, it’s definitely time to move on! An online reservation and booking system lets you set availability and allows customers to do the process on their own, including cancelling and rescheduling.

Using a reservation and booking management system improves the efficiency and productivity of your team and minimises human errors. You won’t have to worry about sending confirmation messages or double booking. Plus, online systems work 24/7 so your customers can make reservations and bookings at any time of the day, whether your business is open or not.

Some of the most popular reservation and booking systems are:

• Resy
• OpenTable
• Yelp
• Acuity Scheduling
• Lodgify
• Booksy

2. Automate Your Accounting Processes

Automating your hospitality business’s accounting is now easier than ever. To start, you’ll need to be using a cloud-based accounting solution and a cloud-based POS system. Then, you can connect these with an accounting integration in order to automate manual tasks related to bookkeeping and accounting.

One of the key benefits of using accounting integration is that it automatically syncs sales and payments data for you on a daily basis. Everything is organised into one invoice and can be grouped by categories so that you have a better understanding of your cash flow. You don’t have to worry about human error or wasting hours every week on tedious data entry.

Another benefit is lightning-fast bank reconciliation. You can set up bank feeds in your cloud-based accounting solution to automate the process of entering bank transactions manually. Then, your accounting integration will automatically match these with transactions from your POS system. There’s no longer a need to match them up yourself.

Some of Amaka’s popular accounting integrations:

• Square + Xero/MYOB
• Vend + MYOB
• Lightspeed + Xero/QuickBooks Online
• Revel + Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks Online
• Loyverse + Xero/QuickBooks Online
• Dash + Xero/QuickBooks Online
• Impos + Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks Online

3. Automate Your HR Processes

By automating your HR processes, your HR team has more time to focus on complex tasks such as strategising and creating a better culture as opposed to tedious tasks. Plus, automation creates a better experience for staff since they no longer have to go through lengthy processes.

Examples of well-known HR systems include:

• BambooHR
• Employment Hero
• Monday.com
• Bitrix24

4. Automate Your Hospitality Business Marketing

Last but definitely not least – marketing automation! Marketing has changed significantly over the years, making it significantly easier for all kinds of businesses. Whether you’re a small or large business, you can take advantage of marketing automation technologies for email marketing, social media marketing and more.

First of all, email marketing automation is a great way to build relationships with customers. You can send confirmation emails and personalised emails for promotions, events and loyalty programs. Secondly, you can take advantage of social media automation through scheduling posts or by using Facebook messenger chatbots to cut down time spent on customer support.

Examples of well-known marketing automation tools include:

• ActiveCampaign
• Hubspot
• Zendesk
• Sprout Social
• Hootsuite

Key Takeaways on Hospitality Business Automation

Over the past year, people all over the world have realised how important technology is in keeping businesses thriving. If you’re looking to keep your hospitality business competitive, automating your booking systems, accounting, marketing and HR is an absolute must!

Are there any other areas of your hospitality business you have automated? Share your thoughts in the comments below.