Identifying the right point-of-sale solution for your property in 2023
By Louise Thuehøj Hansen, System Specialist at Comwell Hotels
Having worked as a Conference Coordinator, Booking Manager and, most recently, a System Specialist, I’d say I have valuable experience when it comes to understanding the needs of the business, which helped immeasurably when working with a new Point-of-Sale (POS) system. From an operational perspective, the key determining factor of any POS solution hinges on how it can be adapted specifically to your business.
At Comwell, for example, a lot of our focus before identifying a viable POS solution centred around how it would impact our staff. While guest experience is important, staff experiences are the ones that ensure we retain the best in the business to ensure guests have the best possible stay at our hotels. So, it was paramount that we implemented a system that automated tedious tasks and promoted efficiency and productivity throughout the business.
From a sales perspective, this can only positively influence purchases as staff are able to take more orders per hour, especially when there’s a bigger group at the restaurant or bar and you’re trying to serve as many people in that space of time.
In my early years of breaking into the sector, your POS system had to be flexible enough to accommodate your business in an increasingly volatile sector, while reliable enough to never get in the way of serving your guests. However, this has rapidly changed and it’s practically impossible to find a hospitality business that doesn’t use some kind of management software.
Naturally, this was precisely what Comwell were tasked with when finding a solution for its 16 hotels across Denmark – identifying the appropriate POS system that helped support and enhance guest experience and sales on all fronts of the business. The transition required careful planning and buy-in for all those involved, so it’s not a knee-jerk decision to be taken lightly.
Also, when identifying a suitable POS software that could run throughout each hotel, it was essential our bar and restaurants were able to help them feel supported – not only from a staff retention standpoint but guest satisfaction, too. And it was this capability that saw us choose Agilysys.
Moreover, by implementing a solution that helps automate tedious, manual tasks, we are contributing towards lower stress levels while ensuring that our staff feel they have the tools to do their job adequately and emphatically. Also, not only does a POS system streamline labour, but enables new staff to be trained faster and more effectively.
By accessing these core benefits of a restaurant POS, we’re able to ensure our hotel operation runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Amongst many key features, Agilysys InfoGenesis also tracks floor management, which enables the majority of focus from our staff to be utilised on other key business components, such as development. On top of this, we’re giving them the tools they need to avoid mistakes and increase productivity.
In terms of menu options, Agilysys’ InfoGenesis gives us complete control over our menu from an offsite computer, which means we never have to leave the office to synchronise our menus across multiple terminals or locations.
Since integrating Agilysys’ InfoGenesis, we’ve been able to serve our guests over a wider area, with the technology seamlessly communicating with other systems throughout our hotels to improve operational efficiency across the property. This ensured more time was spent with guests and less time on back-and-forth trips to a fixed terminal, while accuracy has improved as orders run straight to the kitchen from our mobile devices.
Another key benefit is helping to streamline our daily operations to enable better business decisions. We’ve been able to use the data generated by Agilysys’ software to make smarter choices and streamline our restaurant revenue dispersion, which saw record-breaking figures in 2022.
Furthermore, from our experience with Agilysys, we’ve been able to deliver an array of functions across the guest journey. The true effectiveness of the right POS software comes down to how well it connects all these systems together throughout a hotel’s portfolio while allowing data to be shared efficiently and systematically.
Overall, as a business, we’ve capitalised on the investment by introducing systems that are quick, efficient, informative and seamless – while still offering that crucial element of choice. The implementation of InfoGenesis has enabled each of our venues to drive an efficient operation while collecting crucial data that enables us to constantly improve, in particular, from a customer perspective. All in all, Agilysys has provided us with the tools to rule out complacency throughout our operation and this has positioned us on a fast track for continued success – and for that, we are forever grateful.
Louise Thuehøj Hansen is the System Specialist at Comwell Hotels, a hotel chain of 16 hotels in Denmark.