COMPUTERS IN HOTELS

Application of computers in clerical and administrative functions (tactical and strategic hotel computers)

 

The application of computers to accommodation management is of great interest because this is generally the area that offers the greatest potential for improvement. Cost reduction, better management information, de-skilling, reduced training and the prospect of more interesting and worthwhile work are the areas of application.

 

INTEGRATED HOTEL SYSTEM

 

Very often the same piece of information is used more than once in a hotel by one department on one or more occasions, and also by several departments. The repetitive types of jobs are done on computers very efficiently without boredom. For example, the tasks like pay roll processing or accounting, used on number of occasions for various purposes such as at reservation enquiry for check of status on guest history, reservation confirmation for address, reservation amendment for locating record on file, arrival list for identification, registration card for legal requirement, telephone for identification, bill folio and watch list for credit control, departure list for identification, guest history for marketing analysis and sales promotion, and mailing list for sales etc. This needs copying of information from one document to another. Multi-part forms may be designed, for example, G.R, card, 'C' form, arrival notification slips and folio may all be performed by one set of entry. In a computer system it is possible to takes advantage of these constant references to the same sets of data by integrated data processing. In this technique, the attempt is made to correctly record each data once and then to utilize it in that same form in every possible way to elicit information for planning and control purpose of the operation.

 

The following examples show application of computers for clerical and administrative functions of a hotel.

 

The Tactical Hotel Computer

 

In this case one or more computer work stations are available to each department of the hotel, providing middle managers with a list to assess the nature of decisions as they are encountered. At this point, the computer moves beyond the stage of simply facilitating the ordinary business functions of the hotel. It will be using some data which is external to the hotel to influence tactical decisions. Thus corporate success is beginning to depend on the design and application of the hotel's computer based information-systems. Managers need to know which data to use for problem solving and which technique to apply to those data sets. The availability of machines performing various types of functions has removed constraints which had previously limited, owing to its complexity, the processing of data. Computer-based information system is very valuable to middle managers for tactical planning.

 

The Strategic Hotel Computer

 

As computer technology diffuses through society, soon a totally new kind of business structure may emerge. This will affect other types of commercial and non-commercial organization. At this point, all levels of management will be involved in decision making. But the direction which the hotel will take, in a competitive sense, will be selected on the basis of the output from the information system. Thus, flexibility will be possible by the application of many automated functions, most of which will be supported by the computers.

The computer will be serving top management more directly and it will, therefore, be used to formulate strategic decisions. The differences between the strategic and tactical levels will be noticed in many ways. Firstly, there will be a great expansion in the use of external data sources. An outer circle of activities might be added to the network of information processing facilities that will underpin society and business as a whole. There will be much more integration between these and between the information services of the hotel itself. And finally, most of these procedures will be completely automatic, using many self-regulating control functions.

 

Some Worldwide Reservation Systems of Various Chains of Hotel and Marketing Consortium are:

 

OMAHA: Worldwide reservation centre for all Hyatt hotels located at Nebraska.

HOLIUDEX: Holiday Inn hotels reservations are made through this computerized system and main-frame is located at Memphis.

FORTRES: It is a system of Trust House Forte, another chain of hotels.

BEST WESTERN CONSORTIUM: Marketing organization covering over HOC Independent hotels round the world has central computer data base at Arizona.

MARSHA: (Marriott Advanced Reservation System of Hotel Administration) It is System of Marriott Hotel and is located at Omaha.

 

THE TOTAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT SOLUTION SYSTEM

 

People may be comfortable with technology that allows them to depend upon when and where they still want the option to deal with human beings on occasions. Any technological enhancement that impedes guest comfort - no matter how much money it saves - is not profitable solution for hotels. Thus the technology should be so developed so as to improve efficiency and provide the guests with a unique hotel experience.

 

A total hotel management operation system should normally include:

 

1. FRONT OFFICE

 

Banquet: The banquet system is a unique system that caters to banquet reservations. The extensive inquiry capability of the banquet system gives information on booking positions for any particular hall, function, day or time. Billing and posting of transactions to the sales ledger also should be handled by this module.

 

Points-of-sale: The points-of-sale system is designed for the complete order-taking and cashiering functions, at any outlet. In-house guest information is available to the cashier, enabling personalized attention as well as timely, accurate posting to the guest ledger. The system incorporates all the functions of a cash register and is particularly effective in room service.

 

Night Auditing: The night auditing system is the most important function in the daily operation of the hotel. It posts room tariff automatically, performs the final balance of the entire day's transactions and closes the day's business. A comprehensive audit trail and accounting reports help reconcile all transactions in a short span of time.

 

Electronic Cash Register: It handles automatic pricing, display and keyboard change control, sales analysis, time clocks, etc.

 

2. THE BACK OFFICE SYSTEM: The Back office system should include the following aspects:

 

Material Management System (MMS): It covers the entire material management function such as requirement, planning, purchase, receipt, stock accounting. Issues are viewed as an integrated activity. The system should provide information for effective decision making and book-keeping.

 

ü  Purchase requirements reporting aids better order decisions.

ü  Historical purchase vendor/cost analysis for lower purchase costs.

ü  Automatic reminders on pending purchase orders ensure timely supplies.

ü  Easy monitoring of stock especially for perishable/limited shelf-life items.

ü  Assists administration of purchase and stores department.

ü  Provides automatic stock accounting.

ü  Aids spot stock-taking.

ü  Provides data for general ledger and department costing.

ü  Comparison of historical information for trend analysis.

Management Information System: It should provide statistical information to the management to assist in decision making and control. Comparison of budgets with actual by responsibility centre supports management centre systems. Automatic MIS data collection should provide comprehensive business and sales analysis. The timely accurate information provided would ensure increased revenues, higher occupancy and cost savings.

 

Financial Accounting System: Information required for basic accounting functions and financial management of a hotel should be incorporated in a comprehensive set of integrated modules.

 

ü  Integration of accounts receivable, accounts payable, stores accounting and payroll with general ledger.

ü  Significant aid to accounts administration and audit/reconciliation.

ü  Monthly trial balance and profit and loss statement prepared.

ü  Timely, updated, accurate financial information for financial control.

ü  Faster collections and better information on account receivables.

ü  Forecasts of cash flows for better cash management.

ü  Timely statement of accounts for debtors/creditors.

ü  Comparison of budgeted and actual revenue/expenditure.

 

Food and Beverage Cost Control System: This module is the most important area of concern in hotel operations-the sayings possible through control of food and beverage material usage.

 

ü  Should establish standards for raw material usage through recipe explosion.

ü  Should highlight raw materials where variance is exceptionally high.

ü  Should automatically pick up issues and costing from materials management system.

ü  Should automatically pick up sales detail from point-of-sale system, daily meal order.

ü  Beverage control and electronic bar, bar control system.

 

Personnel Management System: The most important asset in a hotel is its people. The personal management system should integrate the requirements for effective career planning, personnel administration and payroll.

 

ü  Comprehensive data aids personnel career planning and manpower development.

ü  Extensive reporting capabilities on employment profiles.

ü  Should help aids personnel administration.

ü  Comprehensive payroll system with automatic calculations and printing of payslips.

 

MANAGEMENT REPORTS

 

1. Telephone Monitoring and Charging - Telephone service, alarm and wake calls.

2. Hotel Security - Electronic locks, digital pad system, card system, magnetic system, others (recording signatures, voice recognition) guest room vending and video.

3. Tourist and Travel Information System - Tour operation and travel system.

 

APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN HOTEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA

 

Hotel industry in India felt the need of computerization way back in 1982 when Asian Games (Asiad 82) was held in India with an underlying idea of providing more personalized service to the guest. If you have to be on the top in this line you have to offer more to your guest than any other hotel i.e. ultimate in service i.e. personalization. Fortunately we have today a willing slave called 'computer' as a means of providing a more complete personal service, which is prepared to work endlessly at very little cost on the most mundane, tedious, boring and repetitive tasks A computer will change the efficiency of a procedure but will not fundamentally affect its value to the guest. Rather, it would make it more reliable, economical and faster. As a part of effective services, guests are pre-registered to save time, and individual attention can be given to them. Advance information, especially about VIP's, help in providing exactly what they need without their asking for it More personalized touch can be given as the operator identifies the guest by name and his/her room number and their needs are attended to immediately. Information is dispatched more effectively, interdepartmental communication is quick and information can be transmitted from one terminal to another terminal. Also, the guest accounting is accurate. The guest does not have to wait for the bill to be produced. Last minute meal charges, mini bar charges or telephone call bills are updated immediately and have no late charges. Pneumatic tubes used for transmission of information are no more used. At any given moment the status of room can be verified and a report can be prepared. The back office can be used for all the accounting, cash trial balance, payroll, stock control, etc. Another important function, forecasting, leading to better planning and accurate room availability for maximizing room sales can be done.

 

SOME COMPUTER COMPANIES AND THEIR SYSTEMS USED IN INDIA

 

1. Hoskyns System: One of the first companies to market a micro-computer based front office system in U.K.

2. ICIM-101: System uses HAGAS software package (Hotel Administration & Guest Account System) (ICIM stands for International Computer Indian Manufactures.)

3. ITEKIRA Data Marketed Host: A front desk software system for small hotels up to 100 rooms.

4. HOLTECH: designed a comprehensive fully integrated front and back office accounting and financing system called CASH.

5. ICIM HAGAS: also offered a system called Superstar for back office operation (an interface of front office to a general accounting system).

6. HAL: Hospitality and Leisure system form NELCO.

7. Opera: Open system

8. HMS: Slave System

9. Integrated Property Mgt. System: FIDELIO System

10. HIS: Hotel Information System           MICROS (POS).    ; —-

11. Back Office System: HOST, MAXEL

12. Personnel/Finance/& Inventory System: APCL, OASIS, APGL, ICOMMS, FACT, ICOBCMS.

13. Central Reservation Systems: NORTH, CDS, SABRE, ITT, SHERATON, GALLILEO, SPIRIT, AMADEUS.

14. IDS—Fortune Enterprise. The complete hotel Management system

 

FIDELIO HOTEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: It is a completely integrated system package designed to maximize the efficiency of the hotel. It is a highly flexible system. Its uniform and user-friendly interface means that hotel employees can learn this system quickly. It is a completely integrated package designed to manage and maximize the efficiency of hotel operation. It has a special training module which enables the user to work and learn in a real-like environment. Fidelio is highly user-friendly software with pull down menus which help and assist the user at every step and only short term training to staff is required. Fidelio software is one of the most advanced hotel management software. It is a Munich based software company. To save the Fidelio from any virus, Fidelio has its own special file and in case a virus gets into it, Fidelio catches it and leads it into a non-usable file from a data base file 'and locks it. Additional software called 'Red Alert Software' for extra protection is used. Total hardware i.e. net server, vectra nodes and printer are provided by Hewlett and Packard. Servers are Pentium based.

 

The following functions provide assistance during operation.

 

-              Integrated, configurable, context sensitive help system.

-              Pull down menus.

-              Function keys with windows.

-              Customizable colors.

-              User-definable screens.

 

Some points to prove its flexibility are

 

-              Screen painter

 -             Report generator

-              User-definable report menus

-              User-definable night audit

-              User-definable pick boxes

-              Multiple installation parameters

-              Unlimited security levels

 

Fidelio and its Importance in Interdepartmental Coordination and Communication

 

ü  Promotes smooth functioning of all the departments wherever it is installed.

ü  Reduces paperwork and helps in saving money on extra stationery.

ü  Eliminates communication gap between departments and helps in providing quality service to the guest.

ü  Helps in up keeping of the hotel's goodwill with the guest.

 

The interdepartmental coordination leads to an attitudinal development hi the staff. The lax attitude is replaced with more conscious behavior as they realize that they are equally responsible for their own actions. It helps save time and reduces work load and increases productivity. Accommodation operation include two basic and important departments — front office and housekeeping. Fidelio helps in interdepartmental and intradepartmental coordination, cooperation and communication in both i.e. front office and housekeeping. Fidelio as a package is an enhancement to interdepartmental coordination. The underutilization of Fidelio shall not give maximum benefit which can be derived from this software.

 

Advantages of Fidelio Hotel Management Software Packages

 

Fidelio is an eco-friendly package as it makes the paper work redundant and eliminates filing and storage cost. Fidelio has integrated, configurable, context sensitive help system and is in the form of pull down menus with windows and function keys. It has user-definable and friendly screen with color coding by using a set of 12 codes to indicate the status of each room by a 12-colour code. It is a highly flexible programme unlike other software management systems and has facilities like screen painter, report generator, user-definable report menus and night audit, etc. It has the ability to create extensive guest history which can record guest stay, behaviors, preferences etc. for unlimited years. Complete graphical plan illustrations of each floor allow the front office staff to monitor and control the occupancy of every room in the hotel.

 

Disadvantages and Problems

 

Since it is very expensive, an underutilization will be very expensive. Its maintenance is also expensive as compared to other systems and if proper locking is not done, anybody can access guest profile in front office and hence guest information can be easily altered or erased. User ID should be kept. It is possible that there is no provision to block anyone from reading valuable information hence such provision should be made. Locator information of the guest gets deleted automatically after a particular time. During night auditing, for 2 hours the terminals are shut down; thus check-ins and check-outs during the period can't be taken through computer. The colour coding in floor plan is not prominent enough as shading causes confusion.

 

Reservation Module: This module includes the various types of reservations. For example individual, company, group, airlines, travel agents, etc. and also by any combination and also wait-list reservation. User-definable addresses, reservation, check in and reservation history screen address file for guests, companies, travel agencies, sources and group. Availability displayed by room type, (this can be made on the basis of yield management principles also), suites availability, several fixed charges hi addition to room rate, unlimited reservation availability period. Availability by room number, room rack and rate information and package information availability on function key. Manual or automatic rate assignment. Ability to enter time of arrival. Ability to form a standard / modified confirmation letters and automatic printing of the same for companies or agent. Allotments multiple folios and reservation per room. Ability to combine two separate reservations into one and vice versa. Automatic transfer of charges to another room or account. Billing address for split folio etc. The module covers reservation query by:

 

Name (First Name,                     Room Type            Country

Surname or Partial Name)          Reservation Type        City

Arrival Date and Time                No Shows                Market Code

Company                                    Cancellations          Source of business

Agent                                          Departures              Deposit & Deposit Limit Date

Service                                        Allotment               VIP Code Number

Group                                         CRS Number            Room Number

Confirmation Number                Day Use                 Date of Reservation etc.

Rate Code: Other aspects of reservation such as search of guest by membership code, by corporate ID etc. Individual, en bloc, mass cancellation and reason for cancellation, modification of reservation (date of arrival and departure, room rate and type etc.). Multiple reservations for the same guests, Guest history card reservation, assign and unassigned rooms quickly. Ability to print messages in multiple languages, rate projection in different currencies showing separation between charges and taxes etc., generate market code statistics and source code statistics, ability to enter important events which are shown in the availability display, create multiple traces for a guest. (A trace is a remark about a reservation which requires action at a specified date by the staff e.g. a specified department—Housekeeping, etc.)

 

Group Allotment Management: Create rooms block, search view and modify a block, create a block header. After changing the status of a block to open for pick up rooms, the rooms can be picked up from group reservation or individually. Block can be rigid or elastic (overbooking possible/not possible). Block any combination of rooms type with various rate codes or rates. Enter a cut off date; create a group master and multiple paymaster. Series group apply changes to all group guest, one guest only or all guests (same arrival date). Pick up room from an existing block, create a rooming list. The group module also includes, creation of a rooming list, fixed or flexible number of persons sharing a room, rate showing option, different length of stay for each member individually, cancel and modify reservation for one or all members of the group, perform automatic room assignment and viewing of group statistics etc. Further functions such as check-in of whole group automatically, individual billing for all group members or consolidated billing in master folio and group check or individual check out etc. are also included in the module. Handles all reservations from a complex convention to airlines allotments.

 

Yield Management/Integrated Rates: The concept of yield management i.e. the management of yield of revenue in relation with the available room and what shall be the best possible rate structure for the rate availability and charges in the strategy for selling the room of the hotel i.e. reject low price business even if not full when it can predict that the room can be sold to a higher paying customer is also included in Fidelio.

 

This module offers the following features:

 

ü  Changing the status of available rooms of a certain rate code or rate category for any chosen date range including special week day. Possible status codes are open, closed, day use, minimum length of stay etc. selling strategies and calculation of most profitable room rate.

ü  Setting a strategy for a certain rate code or a whole category.

ü  View available rate code with a function key. (Rate availability depends upon arrival date, number of nights, persons and rooms and the rate code)

ü  Negotiating strategies and selling techniques are also built in the systems.

ü  Maintains a snapshot of forecast every day of the year and can show the 'Pick up' curve per day either in numbers or multicolored graphs.

ü  Data created on current pattern of occupancy and reservations can be fed to an unlimited number of terminals as per the need.

ü  For hotel higher profits are possible as rates and occupancy are automatically optimized to the highest level dictated by company strategy.

 

Packaging: A package refers to a deal in which the guest is given other services also along with room in the rate, e.g., a trekking package, a golf package, etc. (which in addition to room includes rounds of golf), American breakfast, welcome drink, etc., for may be 3 nights and 4 days. Fidelio module offers two ways of handling packages: (a) basic package module and (b) advanced package module.

 

Basic Package Module: For basic package Fidelio module can configure (i) Print package on guest folio, (ii) Package price can be added or included to the rate, (iii) Multiple posting possibilities such as every night, certain nights of the week on first night or last night or a combination of above.

 

Advanced Package Module: The advanced package module include maximum integration between hotel POS and front office Fidelio. POS changes are always posted to Fidelio. When certain services are inclusive in rates Fidelio creates an allowance for the guest. If there are more postings, Fidelio will post them to guest folio.

 

Check-In and Ongoing: This module of Fidelio covers various aspects such as user-definable screens and fields, ability to enter, complete and modify guest data, handling of walk-ins, individual check-in of group members and permanent folio. It also includes query of arrivals by same selections as in reservations and, in addition to this, by walk-in, all arrivals already checked in and day use. The module also covers possibility to modify all reservation data, ability to enter fixed charges and billing instructions at check-in, credit card number check, automatic room assignment, display of available rooms type, room status and any combination of features, reactivate reservation after check-in, credit limit etc. Further the module includes automatic posting of reservation deposits into guest ledger, connection to guest history, room history view activity of a specific room. Two other important features of this module are:

 

1. Multiple message system in user-defined languages wherein it is possible to send messages to (i) all guests in-house, (ii) all arriving/departure guest, (iii) all VIP guests, (iv) all guests of a particular group, (v) any combination of the above

2. Direct inward dialing option.

 

Guest History: This module of Fidelio has an ability to create profiles for individuals, guests, companies, agents and sources, assign a number to the guest, enter special room features for a guest, possibility to put the guest on all payment cash basis, override the overbooking parameter for VIP, enter a special commission for a client, agent or source, on-line company statistics displays revenue for last 3 years. Statistics of past stays, future reservation and turnaways, automatic transfer of reservation data into guest history, purge guest programme hi order to remove inactive guests and statistics by revenue, number of stays, number of nights, number of no shows and number of cancellations for individuals, companies, travel agents and sources.

 

Guest Accounting: Guest accounting module has nearly 800 department codes and approx. 10,000 articles code; It also has paid out new rooms, non revenue accounts and payment (credit card, currencies, and bank transfer etc.) accounts, automatic transfer of specific posting, grouped posting or all charges to (i) Guest folio (ii) another room (iii) Company/Travel Agent account etc. The module can correct, modify or split postings, itemized, grouped or complete transfers from folio to folio, city ledger account, permanent folios, prepare folios for guests without room number, multiple posting to multiple rooms, possibility to view posting history, posting after check out if required, ability to add supplement text for every posting and interface to POS systems, telephone exchange system, video and mini bar etc.

 

Check-Out: This module covers the following functions: User-definable folio format in various languages, ability to enter individual and additional text for each folio, automatic printing of folio with department code text. In addition to ordinary and regular folio it can print advance folio, information folio and interim folio, etc., ability to consolidate folios, early departure with pre-posting of room tax, check-out time feature allows detection of late departure, folio spelling and re-grouping facility, possibility of enabling or disenabling printing of phone numbers on folio, modify any previous billing instruction at check-out, ability to post additional changes, total or partial transfer of folio to and from another room, ability to change guest data, view messages for guest, unlimited combination of payment mode such as cash, direct bill and credit card etc. and ability to preview folio on screen.

 

Cashier Function: This is an important Fidelio module and includes various cashiering functions such as user-definable cashier set up, user identification, only one user per cashier at a time, fixed starting etc. and credit card and credit check report, city ledger report, currency report, exchange from foreign to local currency and vice versa, daily modification of exchange rate, possibility to enter a buy rate, sell rate etc. for currency automatic calculation of payment balances and cash book printout, handling of paid outs, possibility to print out batch folios for guests departing tomorrow, today, for all guests (Batch folios can be printed while night audit is running).

 

Deposit Accounting: This covers accounting of reservation deposits, list of outstanding deposits, list of transfers and refunds, deposit reminder report, automatic transfer of deposit to guest folio at check-in and daily trial balance deposit ledger in the night audit, master billing, split rate, staggered arrival, package plan, room type control, block forecast and traces, etc.-All of these are taken care by group and block management functions.

 

City Ledger/Credit Card Accounting: This Fidelio module covers all die features of city ledger such as automatic transfer of city ledger bills to city ledger accounting at check out, authorization of city ledger check out can be made dependent on users special right, grouping of several folios into one, partial payment and credit card commission and various other options to enter payment, delete accounts, transfer charges, Correct amount of city ledger charges and compress charges, etc.

 

Rooms Management: This Fidelio module has the ability to change room status through telephone interface, displays room status at any time with function keys floor plan option which helps in graphically designing the layout of floor, room, or all rooms of entire property. The system displays the status of each room and guest information through a function key. It has the ability to check for clean, dirty, out of order, out of service, assigned rooms, and discrepancies by various criteria such as all rooms, all rooms of a specified section, vacant rooms, occupied rooms, arrivals expected, departure not paid, Departure paid and arrival etc. The module also has features such as room status report, linen management, and linen change cycle for every guest, various option for 'quick cleaning' room, possibility to enter an individual overbooking level for every day, week or year; room history and assign room etc.

 

Reporting System: This module covers up user-definable menus for guests in-house, reservations, guest history, financial, night audit statistics, Shift report etc. Also various other reports and statistics and comparison with last year (day, month, year) and budget.

 

Programmed Report: Fidelio system covers the following programmed reports: arrival report, arrival report with remarks from guest history and reservation, vacant rooms with selection criteria on clean, dirty or all rooms, forecast of occupancy for a given time period, type and booking type, package forecast report, market forecast with exact overview of rooms sold at which rate for the upcoming month, market segment forecast by day, departures of all regular guests and groups, week plan displays, print out of room plan for 15 days of entered date. Company statistics for sources, agents and companies with the possibility to select by name, master account, country code etc. The module also covers nationality statistics with number of guest per country per day as well as per month, outstanding debts report and commission report etc. and many others useful reports.

 

Night Audit: The night audit module of Fidelio system features user-definable night audit, handling of no shows, balance control and audit trial report for back office, automatic posting of all fixed charges and room rates, country code, control for country code statistics, transaction log for all activities, posting of telephone charges by telephone interface, rooms and room type statistics, market code statistics, allotment control, night auditor's comment for cover page. A very special feature is that during night audit, queries and reporting are possible on other workstations.

 

Concierge Programme: This programme of Fidelio module includes following, query, guest history and registration data, all standard function key available, housekeeping module with all functions as in front office, change of room status, linen change, lock room etc., house status display, ability to enter important information such as doctors, theatres, telephone number, etc., messages, information of the day: arrival, departures, stayovers, posting, wake calls, print call details and most importantly, lock/unlock telephone.

Special Accounts Receivable Programmers

 

Account receivable: Fidelio system module is built in shares files accounts and user interface, control of direct billing at reservation or check-in, creation of accounts receivable accounts in front office or A/R module (Accounts Receivable Module), unlimited number of account types, reminder cycles based on account type, ageing reports, reminder letters in different languages, ability to view and modify original front office folio from within A/R module, searches can be by account name or alphanumeric automatic reminder printing programme; reminder letter history features shows exactly what letters were sent and when; ability to search for changes by name, account number, date, amount range, payment number or front office folio number, prevention of check out unless guest is attached to a valid A/R account;', security and user setup from front office, integrated credit card facility for hotels not using electronic draft capture, similar function keys as in front office, no separate A/R night audit required and ability to use same cashier number as in front office revenue etc.

 

Function Keys: The function keys can be accessed from any part of the front office programme and work like pull down menus. This means that all the functions available on function keys can be accessed anytime from any place in the programme without having to leave the menu currently working upon. The following features are available via function keys such as help screens, global help, occupancy display, display of maximum number of rooms available. An important feature is Fidelio control panel which shows all important availability factors for six days each considering definite and tentative reservations, out of order rooms, the overbooking level etc. Further it covers features such as room plan with ability to shorten or prolong stays, move guest to other rooms, view guest information, leave a message or display two months survey, house status, graphical floor plans, various types of rate information and query. This module also covers arrivals, guest in-house, departures reservation etc., view guest information screen, create, view and print messages for expected and checked-in guests, create and view guest locator, display 100 years calendar and events and also calculator and ability to insert result of last calculation.

 

Fidelio PMS (Property Management System) also covers other functions of hotel. For example, Fidelio food and beverage management. This module covers the following: goods receiving, inventory, revenue reports, order management, cost calculation, item administration, receipes, sales mix analysis, vendor selection and evaluation, and reports.

 

Micros: Fidelio 'OPERA' enterprise' system (OES)—the OES is a multi tier application that leverages the acclaimed oracle database, speed reliability functionality and ease of use. OES design takes advantage of the latest internet technology allowing various hotel companies to host the data and application centrally.

 

Interfaces: The Fidelio system has the capability of interfacing with the following:

 

(a) Interface to Fidelio sales and catering,

(b) Back office systems such as Abacus, Dataplus, Scale, Sun, Filosof and Multisof etc. Above all, the Fidelio module has the capability of interfacing with any standard back office system which is able to read the file-structure of Fidelio. 

(c) CRS such as Global 2, North, Pierre, Red Roof, Wings and Vingersor, etc.

(d) Credit Card interface.

(e) Telephone and call accounting such as AT&T, Alcatel, Erricson, Octopus, Phillips, Siemens etc.

(f) P.O.S.

(g) Door locking system such as Besam Timelox, Marlock door locking system, Multicard, Unique, Vinguard.

(h) Mini bar such as Uniftidge, Electrolux mini bar management system etc. (i) Energy management such as Delcomme and Tel Tron etc.

(j) Voice mail such as AT&T Audix voice power lodging, I pox voice mail Centigram voice mail etc.

(k) With video system such as CIS Pay TV, Grundig and Tele Centre etc, and also Paging system such as Nira Butler Paging System and Rank O'Connor.

 

IDS-FORTUNE ENTERPRISE; THE COMPLETE HOTEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

 

IDS cover 11 main modules, each module has sub modules:-

 

(a) Front office management

(b) Point of Sale

(c) Account Receivables

(d) Sales and Marketing

(e) Banquet and Conferencing

(f) Telephone Management System

(g) Financial Management System

(h) Material Management System

(i) Food and Beverages Costing

(j) Human Resource & Payroll

(k) Engineering & Maintenance Management.

 

Front office Management: The front office management caters to operation at front office. This Comprehensive module is divided into operational sub modules for ease of use and speedy handling. The front office module is interfaced mainly to financial management and point of sale. Some of the sub modules covered under front office management is;

 

(a) Reservation: A fast reservation screen utilizing" Smart Find & Access" Screens with note-pads and calendars. Over booking controls are built in. Handles Contract Rates packages, group and travel agent allocation etc. One can reserve guest message and can block the room for future use. The modules include comprehensive reporting and forecasting facilities.

 

(b) Registration: This portion provides the facility to check in the guest who has reservation with the hotel or walk in guest. One has the facility to manage the information of the guest through: Change guest information, room transfer, amends stay etc. Group billing instruction, activate deactivate extension can be done through this option.

 

(c) Cashiering: Day to Day transaction related to check out, Settlement, link rooms, De-link rooms, Folio transfer, Advance collected, Commission to agents, foreign exchange entry can be done through this option.

(d) Day end Process- No shut down during night audit. All operation areas like front office, point of sale, telephone etc. remains functional even during the night audit process If any outlet hills are open the system prompts the auditor with the appropriate message

 

(e) Guest history: Complete guest history maintenance module with relevant information such as guest visit details, guest revenue details, personal details, company/travel agent details, likes and dislikes, guest complaints etc.

 

(f) Housekeeping: The housekeeping module caters to the managing of rooms changing (ml of orders rooms, tracking discrepancies in the room status etc. A laundry billing sub module allows billing guest laundry directly to the rooms as well as controlling laundry rates.

 

(g) Look ups and reports etc.

 

Point of sale: The software is designed to support many industry related product. Have any number of ordering terminals connected to an outlet where servers can be restricted to only ordering and billing screen. Extensive security has been provided in the system for all the order terminals where each server (Id' is required to access the system each lime. Guest history link enable in point of sale.

 

Sub modules covers under point of sale are

 

(a) Billing- This is important option of point of sale as this option after opening the shift and selecting the outlet, the option carries out the main function of KOT Preparation, Billing and Settlement at outlets. Built-in feature such as single user operating multiple outlets, Table transfer and instant data queries from within the option ensure faster operations.

 

(b) Guest history- Complete guest history maintenance module with relevant Information such as guest revenue details, personal details, likes & dislikes, guest complaints itc.

 

(c) Look-ups and Reports etc.

 

Account Receivables: Bills from front office and point of sale modules that are settled on credit will be transferred to Account Receivables module. In this module, all these credit transaction will be debited against the company from which payment has to be received. Transactions are recorded on a daily basis to keep the credit balance up to date. One can cross-refer payment against the bill and match receipts or settled to bills by their number. Year-end operation can be handled to carry over the balances and outstanding to the subsequent financial year. ACR is integrated to point of sale so online aging summarizes with option to put customer on based on outstanding.

 

Sales & Marketing:  The sales and marketing module monitor all activities related to hotel's business. It gives insight into various activities of the sales executives based on their daily or monthly sales. This module gives analytical breakup of the hotel's business in terms of room night, co-ordination with the Front Office System and Back Office system exchanging revenue, and payment information. Sales manager get a complete look at each company's performance not only in terms of room nights and Revenue but also on each company spending pattern, Payment history, frequent visit guest and more-Workflow automation for sales manager to maintain meeting schedules and follow ups. Gifts and entertainment costs on each account are maintained and monitored. Appointment can be transferred to other sales managers to handle. Performance can be monitored through reports and queries that consolidate the time and effort spent by each manager versus the revenue generated from each of their account.

 

Some of the other features and options are:

 

(a)          Company & Travel Agent 'Profile

(b)          Company Specific Rate and Amenities

(c)           Company Specific Cancellation and Retention Policy

(d)          Individual Company Budgets and Forecast

(e)          Workflow automation for sales manager

(f)           Business lost entry to record lost business

(g)          Comparative market share analysis

(h)          Company Letter and mail merge

 

Banquet and Conferencing: The banquet system handles reservations for banquet functions and meeting with all the necessary arrangements and accessories. F&B Components can be selected and include for the function. Contracts, advances and billing in user specific formats are possible.

 

Some other features such as:

 

(a)          Booking Banquet space, F&B and other Accessories

(b)          Hall seating arrangements/min/max covers

(c)           Booking Chart and availability screens

(d)          Forecast and menu planning

(e)          Menu card for package rate

(f)           Option to charge hall charge or waive it

(g)          Assign managers and staff to each option

(h)          Menu card for fixed package option

(i)            Letters and contracts.

 

Telephone Management System: The telephone sub module caters to operations related to handling guest calls and telephone billing. Some basic hardware and software requirements, which are absolutely necessary for the working of Telephone Sub-Module. The software separates different types of calls like local calls, long distance calls, international calls and collect calls etc. Two-way interface provide maid status, guest name display and automatic activation/deactivation of access. It has telephone directory system or yellow pages where hotel can maintain the important telephone numbers sorted by categories with the fast and easy access to this information.

 

Financial Management System: Conforming to the Uniform System of Accounting for hotels, IDS Finance system manages the following sub modules:

 

(a) General Ledger: Extensive budgeting and audit controls the General Ledger Modules interfaces seamlessly to the front office system, point of sale, purchasing (payables), account receivables and payroll modules.

 

Some of the other features are:

 

(i)  Multi Branch accounting capabilities (ii)  Multi Currency System (iii)  Uniform System of Accounting (iv)  User defined Account Codes (v)  User defined Departments & Cost Center (vi)  User defined online voucher printing (vii)   User defined Reports (viii)  Budge* Vs Actual Comparison reports (ix)  Departmental Budgets (x)   Online Trial Balance/Daily Trial Balance (xi)  Bank Reconciliation reports etc. (xil)   Outlet wise/Department wise profit and loss report (xiii)  Automatic/manual voucher no generation, (xiv)  Flexible financials period

 

(b) Account Receivable: Integrated to Front Office, Sales and Marketing, Point of Sale and Payroll. Online aging summarizes with option to put companies on hold based on out standings.

 

(i)   Segmented Outstanding based on type of companies

(ii)   Customized Bill Covering Reminder Letter.

(iii)  Region wise outstanding Reports

(iv)   Credit Card Consolidation

(v)   Credit Card Register

(vi)   Credit Card and Travel Agent commission Reports

(vii)  Receipt Posting with direct updating hi the General Ledger

(viii)  Interactive Receipt Matching

(ix)  Batch Receipt Posting

(x)  Debtors Trial Balance Report

 

(c) Account Payable: Link to Purchase system on one hand and the General Ledger on the other, the Actual Payable module maintain all suppliers' accounts and contracts including taxes and statutory requirement for purchase. Purchase journals information is passed on to the General Manager to the account of expenses and capitalization of purchase,

 

(i)   Vendor Analysis

(ii)   Ageing Statements

(iii)   Provisional/Normal Purchase Journal

(iv)   Multi tax structure

(v)   Automatic debiting of suppliers

 

(d) Fixed Assets: Recording and maintaining all fixed assets at each location with options to add, upgrade and write off assets based on different predefined depreciations methods. Classifying assets by location or type. Has a direct interface to the General Ledger and transfers closing values at the end of the period.

 

(i)   Various methods of calculation depreciation

(ii)   Assets Registers

(iii)   Asset Valuation reports

 

MATERIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (MMS): IDS Material Management module provides the flexibility for user-defined stores for different types of items e.g., food and beverages stores, housekeeping, engineer stores etc. Each store can have its own method of stock valuation (LIFO, FIFO, weighted averages, last price method). Item stock is automatically updated on every receipt or issue of an item. Alerts are provided when stock reaches reorder levels or falls below minimum level. Several reports, queries, lookups are there to have detailed analyze about the hotel operation linked to the module. Templates for market list can be created and can be used by each department to requisition for the item they need. Vendor history and vendor analysis are maintained and can be used for vendor selection before a purchased order is issued.

 

Food and Beverages Costing: This system includes four types of costing system:

 

(a)          Food costing     

(b)          Beverages Costing          

(c)           Soft drink costing

(d)          Tobacco costing

 

Food Costing may be based on:

 

(a)          Issue and Consumption

(b)          Each Kitchen                     

(c)           Recipes                .

(d)          Beverages, Soft drink, and Tobacco costing are always based on recipes and allow for bar stock maintenance based on sales. The system has a direct interface with POS and Inventory Management System.

 

Other features of the F&B Costing module include:        

 

(a)          Inter Kitchen Transfers

(b)          Inter cost transfer.         

(c)           Item Transfer (Converting an item from one state to another)

(d)          Standard V/s Actual Consumption           

(e)          Cost and Sales Budget

(f)           Stock maintenance at Bar

 

Human Resource & Payroll Management System: The HR and Payroll is comprehensive system that handles the payroll operation of any organization effectively with efficient user defined analysis and reports about employees. The salient feature of this system is the flexibility of operating multi category pay slip processing along with MIS and statutory reports. Option to define any numbers of earning and deduction specifications. IDS has a built in loan-monitoring schedule, for loan availed by the employees.  Accurate information about the loan recovery is maintained automatically. HR and Payroll is designed to coordinate both with the financial accounting system as well as account receivable module for total data integrity.

 

Engineering and Maintenance Management: The maintenance module aims to enable IDS to cover the gamut of operations in the hotel industry. The maintenance department of a hotel is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the equipment available in the hotel, attending to complaints of malfunctioning of any type of gadgets in the room, guest area as well as other location, carrying out periodic preventive maintenance task, liasoning with statutory bodies for licenses required, carrying out/supervising any installation of new construction work, stock maintenance of consumables and spares etc.

 

IDS SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS

 

1. Front Desk Reservation

—           FIT/Group/Conference reservations

—           Reinstate No Shows/Cancellations

—           Duplicate-Bookings

—           On-line Guest History Linking

—           Credit Card Validation

—           Agent Allocation

—           On Line Room/Agent Inventory

—           Multi Level Corporate Rate Definition

—           Reinstate No Shows/Cancellations

—           Block Room Inventory

—           Assign/Pick up Rooms

—           Standard Arrival Reports

—           Daily Operational Reports (i.e. Bookings/Cancellation etc.)

—           Voucher Printing

—           User Defined Arrival Reports

—           Leisure Bookings

—           User defined Registration Card Forms Registrations:

—           Check Ins/Walk-ins

—           Rapid Check Ins/Walk-ins

—           Guest Management (Room Change, Extensions, Credit Limits)

—           Turn Away Guests

—           Guest Services (Messaging, Paging, Complaints)

—           Manual/automated Telephone Extension Management.

—           On Line Guest History Tagging

—           Room Sharing

—           Room History

—           Group Management (Billing Instructions, Link and De-link Rooms)

—           Audit Trail

—           Standard occupancy Reports

—           Registration Card Printing

—           Coupon Printing

—           Departure Slips

Billing:

—           Postings (Charges/Allowances/Deposits/Miscellaneous Sales)

—           Split Folios and Transfer Folios,

—           Paid Outs

—           City Ledger Collections

—           Check Outs and Settlements

—           On line Receipt/Voucher Printing

—           F&B and Transaction Splits

—           User defined Packages

—           Multi Mode/Multi Currency Settlements

—           Billing Alerts/Broadcasts

—           Credit Card Interface

—           Automatic Guest History Posting

—           Credit Card Encashment

—           Foreign Exchange Encashment

—           Dummy Reports

—           Transaction Search

—           Unlimited Bill Splits

—           User-defined Bill Splits

—           Guest Exemptions

—           On line Room Balance/Drill-down Bill view facility

—           All inclusive rates and taxes        

—           Audit Trail of transactions and operations

—           Bill Summary

—           Cashier Reports

—           Revenue Reports

—           User defined Bill Forms/Voucher Forms

Day End:

—           Uninterrupted Night Audit process

—           Manual Sales and Collection Entries        

—           Sales and Collection Consolidation

—           User Defined Night Reports

—           Day-end MIS consolidation

—           Automatic Purging of Data

Guest History Management

—           Exhaustive History of Room guests and Outlet guests

—           Retrieval of History on various criteria's

—           Mailing Labels and Letters

—           Standard Guest History Reports

Housekeeping

—           Room Status     

—           Lost & Found Management

—           Guest Complaint's

—           Guest Laundry Billing

Telephone Management

—           Call Accounting                

—           On line Folio posting

 

2. Point of Sale

—           Order generation and Billing

—           Chargeable and Non chargeable orders

—           Automatic/Manual Order No. Generation with rules

—           On line Table Status

—           Multi Level Modifiers

—           Open Items

—           Audit Trail

—           Remote Order Printing

—           Group Table Orders

—           Chefs Recommendations

—           Split bill/Split Quantity

—           Selective Bill Printing

—           Multi Currency Billing and Settlement

—           Tips and Paid Outs

—           Unique Room Service Billing

—           Fast Food Billing

—           Tax Exemptions and Discounts

—           Sales Promotions

—           Happy Hours

—           Table Reservations

—           One cashier/multi-outlet handling

—           Guest History Management

—           Standard Sales/Covers Reporting

—           User defined KOT/Bill Forms

 

3.            Sales and Marketing

—           Prospecting

—           Daily Sales Calls

—           Entertainment Entry

—           Competitors Occupancy Entry

—           Business Lost entry

—           Exhaustive Company Profile

—           Allocation, Forecasts and Budgets

—           Executive Planners

—           Detailed Hotel Profile within same group as well as amongst competitor

—           Market Share Analysis

—           Sales Executive Performance

—           Company Performance (with Room Nights and F&B breakup)

—           Single page Company History

—           Standard MIS Reports (CGR, Market Segment, Business Source, Nationality etc.)

—           Watch List Companies

—           Black List/Credit Limit Companies

 

4.            Banquets

—           Trace Bookings

—           Banquet Booking

—           Menu Card Definition

—           Venue Splitting

—           Banquet Booking Chart

—           Worksheets

—           Food and Beverages and Non Food and Beverages requirements

—           Function Prospect

—           Letters

—           Billing and Settlement

 

5.            Accounts Receivable

—           Manual Sales, Receipt and Journal entries

—           Bill matching for ad hoc receipts

—           On line Account Balance

—           Credit and Consolidation

—           Agent Commission

—           Credit Card Register

—           Ageing Report (User defined ageing)

—           Invoice and Reminder Printing (User defined forms)

—           Standard Debtors Statement

—           Receipt Printing

—           Transaction Search

—           10 CCA Module

 

6.            Materials Management

—           Multi-store/Sub store Accounting

—           Weighted Average/Last purchase price/FIFO method of Valuation

—           Manual Indent Entry

—           Purchase Order Printing

—           Open Items

—           Receipts (Direct, Purchase Order or Cash)

—           Standard Document (Issues, Issue Returns, Receipt)

—           Physical Stock Updation

—           Stock Variance Report

—           ABC/FSN Analysis (Guides user on 'Just in time'

—           Cost Center-wise Consumption

—           Priced Stock Status

—           Purchase requisition

—           Item Transfers

—           Indent Management

—           Indent templates

—           Department/User wise Indents

—           Auto DPR generation

—           Vendor Analysis

—           Quotation requesting

—           Quotation updation

—           Vendor analysis by range of criteria like

—           Item rate

—           Vendor Rating

—           Brand

—           Country of origin

—           Expiry Dates

—           Delivery Dates

 

7.            Financial Accounting

—           Uniform System of accounting

—           Cost Center-wise Profit & Loss/Ledger

—           Multi-currency Handling/Daybooks

—           Provisional entries posting

—           Bank reconciliation

—           Audit block (prevents users accessing files after audit except by authorized personnel)

—           Cash flow statements

—           Budget variance

—           Voucher printing

—           On-line Trial Balance

—           Detailed Vendor Master

—           Standard Arrival Reports

—           Payment advice generation

—           Provisional PJV booking

—           Cheque printing

 

8.            Fixed Assets

—           Asset History

—           Two level of depreciation calculation against each asset

—           Location Register

 

9.            Food and Beverage Costing

—           Automatic Sales and Consumption Transfer

—           Manual Sales and Consumption Entries

—           Inter cost and Inter Kitchen Transfers

—           Sales and Cost Budgets

—           Costing Methodologies (Consumption Based, Recipe Based)

—           Kitchen/Bar Stock Analysis

 

10.          Human Resource and Payroll

—           Default Attendance Posting

—           Standard Payroll Reports

—           Interface to Attendance recording systems

—           Multi-unit/Multi Department processing with different payroll execution period

—           Flexible user definable computation

—           Personnel Database available

—           Recruitment process including  

—           job generation

—           Application details          

—           Interview details

—           Offer letter status

—           Interface to payroll master

—           Customer defined HR report

 

11. Maintenance

—           Preventive Maintenance Scheduling

—           Complaints Registering

—           Job Order Generation

—           Spares and Cost Analysis

—           Action Taken

—           Lookups/Queries

 

Hotels these days fully integrate their systems with the recent development in this information technology. Hotels utilize CRS mainly for the following reasons:

 

ü  To interface with external CDS (Global Distribution System).

ü  To reduce costs (labor etc.) and hence optimizing revenues and further to maximize the net profits, by yield management and inventory control.

ü  More efficient and prompt response and rapport with the customer.

ü  Reliable and accurate source of information.

ü  To offer easy, efficient, inexpensive and reliable ways of making and confirming reservations,

ü  To assist in control of all aspects of business.

 

USE OF PMS IN HOTELS

 

In hotels PMS are used to cover some basic objectives such as coordinating the operational functions of Front Office, sales, and planning etc. and administrating reservations and managing hotel inventory, and to unify the front and back office management and also to improve general management functions such as aecounting budgeting, finance, marketing and research and planning and also forecasting and yield management, payroll, personnel and purchasing areas. Use of internet has reduced the capital and operational cost of hotel operations drastically. It cuts down the reservation costs, and costs involved in area such as printing, stores, administration, brochures and other promotional material. Internet connectivity with GDS of the hotel such as THISCO (The Hotel Industry Switch Company) and WIZCOM systems have emerged to provide interface between the various systems and to enable a certain degree of transparency. This reduces the setup cost and reservation costs, both while facilitating reservations through several distribution channels. Unfortunately small and medium sized, independent, seasonal and family run hotels do not get the benefits such as cost reduction and competitive enhancement because of lack of capital for the purchase of hardware and software, insufficient marketing prowess, inadequate technological training and understanding, small size with no economics of scale, and the unwillingness of the owner to lose control over their property. To overcome such problems destination based collaborations that encourage small firms to pool resources together, should be established to share development and operation costs to the benefit of all providing direct access to target-markets at an affordable price.

 

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

 

The tourism and hospitality market place is a global arena where millions of buyers (travel agents, and the public) and sellers (hotels airlines, car rentals etc.) work together to exchange travel service. Global distribution systems and internet has now become a sort of super market for linking the buyer and sellers of tourism services. Online travel services such as hotel reservations and other travel booking are becoming increasingly popular in developed and developing countries. Airlines industry created the first GDS in 1960's for keeping the track of flight schedules, availability and prices. GDS's can be considered as the first e-commerce companies in the world facilitating B-2-B electronic commerce. In 1970 SABRE (owned by American Airlines) and APOLLO (United Airlines) started installing their proprietary interval reservations systems in travel agents. Various G.D.Ss are there, but out of these the most famous ones are:

 

(a) Amadeus     (b) Sabre     (c) Galileo     (d) Worldspan

 

Apart from these some smaller or regional GDSs include SAHARA (SITA's system) INFIN1 (Japan), AXESS (Japan), TAP AS (Korea) FANTASIA (South Pacific) and ABACUS (Asia/Pacific)

 

(a) Amadeus: Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS founded this GDS in 1987 but began operating in January 1992. Its data base and data network is servicing nearly 60,000 travel agency offices and approximately, 12,000 airline offices all over the world. This system can also provide access to some 60,000 hotels. Some other contraction such as Ferry Rail, Cruise, Insurance and tour operators are also linked to it. Initially all the four airlines were holding equal shares but now Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa Continental Airlines are holding 29%, 29%, 29% and 13% shares. In addition 36 national marketing companies are involved in the management and promotion of Amadeus. Amadeus in July 2001 acquired e-travel • from Oracle Corporation. Amadeus system is an European response to American GDS with its main objectives such as:

 

ü  increase the efficiency of airlines booking,

ü  to replace the existing reservation system in the market of its owner and to provide a totally neutral distribution system with leading edge technology and

ü  to give equally comprehensive access to car rentals and also hotel services to create a global system.

 

As an organized holding company Amadeus is based in Madrid. It has three subsidiaries:

 

—           Development, (Sophia Antipolis),

—           Marketing (Madrid/Sophia Antipolis) and

—           Operations (Munich).

 

The product of Amadeus Data Processing Corporation, Araadeus Central System is located in Munich and is connected to the world via its own high speed communication network (AMANET) operating 24 hours for the whole year. The features of this product are:

 

(i)   Immediate guaranteed confirmation of hotel reservations, car rentals and airlines,

(ii) Integrated intelligent passengers name records (PNRs) which store all customers travel data and integrate them with customer profiles stored by agency database.

(iii)   Providing on line information on destinations and its attractions,

(iv)   Offering on line training to users, and

(v)   Utilizing customized procedures to save time.

 

Amadeus is one of the 4 major CDS (Global Distribution Systems). Amadeus launched operations in India in early 90's and their main target business was Travel Agents Sector. At one time Amadeus was the only CRS of the country to be a member of IATO. Late in 1996 Amadeus launched 'Travel File' the world’s largest distribution information database. Amadeus has been instrumental in promoting both inbound and outbound tourism through CRS. 'Travel Fife' database provides information on countries, regions, events and activities, and will also provides booking of products and services offered by local providers (tour packages, special excursions, sightseeing programmes, sporting activities and other tourism related services). Travel File is offered free of cost to all subscribers to 'AMADEUS CRS'. Through this Travel File you can offer expert travel advice to your clients, give superior standards of customer services. It also provides an online directory to over 1, 00,000 recreations, and adventure and travel opportunities. Your search of activities and facilities is very easy as you simply have to type in keywords available in the menu. Amadeus Information System; provides information in various languages. Amadeus pro package (PC/ window based) travel agency management system provides an interactive and integrated management and control system and particularly integrates Front and Back Office functions. Accommodation. Apartment, bed and breakfast, hostels, hotel, resorts, ski/health/golf and motel, Tours and packages, Rafting tours, cruise tours, day tours, ski tours, event package and rail tour, Entertainment. Dinner show, gambling, horse show, performing arts, Radio and tournament, Business service, Convention, meeting services and seminar.

 

Amadeus central system products are grouped as follows

 

(i)                 Amadeus hotels, (ii)  Amadeus air (iii)  Amadeus cars (iv)  Amadeus services

 

(i) Amadeus hotels: Amadeus hotels provides accurate information on nearly 40,000 hotel properties worldwide covering hundred, of hotel chains, locations, last rooms availability, hotel features and rates all shown. Access to major hotel chains give up to date, booking information so that agencies can check availability and receive immediate guaranteed confirmation. Amadeus also offers the facility to access and sell special or promotional rates, negotiated by Travel Agencies or the clients themselves. The display and processing of these rates is guaranteed secure when a reservation is made, the negotiated or special code rate is noted and the rate automatically confirmed by hotel along with the booking. As already said Amadeus hotels are linked to the hotel switches THISCO AND WIZCOM systems.

 

(ii) Amadeus air: Incorporated the schedule of numerous airlines and displayed neutral availability and provided reservation facilities providing choice of city pairs and millions of routes. The details are sent to concerned airlines to update the status of availability and get the confirmation simultaneously. The Fare Quote System by incorporating the costs for concerned segments gives the updated price automatically. Further negotiated fares can also be incorporated in the quoted price. Seating plans of the aircrafts can also be displayed with the reserved seat number.

 

(iii) Amadeus cars: Information about several car rental countries worldwide is displayed. Information such as price, makes and models of cars and the location and terminals of their availability, such as interstate/international bus terminals, airport and railway stations etc. and the availability of vehicle, and chauffer etc. can be seen and instant booking can be done.

 

(iv) Amadeus service: It is usually a user friendly, menu driven display that covers information about various services such as itinerary planning, contacts payments, and documents etc. one of the feature is that if the traveler wants any changes during the course of his travel then that can be easily done because the PNR of the traveler has all the travel related information recorded on it and also because travel agencies connected to Amadeus have the option to authorize specified agencies using Amadeus to share central profile

Amadeus Leisure, UK travel agents network with AT & T to the tour operators and suppliers through video text links. By this the same network is used for both leisure and business travel covering the entire range of products.

 

Advantages of Amadeus:

 

(i)  Time saving as it provides all travel, client and agency information through single screen access to travelers round the clock in real terms.

(ii)   Increased productivity (information easy to find and understand).

(iii)   Efficient and hence more economical,

(iv)   Quick response terms.

(v)   Better control as the entire travel agency business can be integrated and hence increase profitability,

(vi)  Possibility of cross selling the products and larger offers to clients is possible.

 

(b) SABRE: One of the leading GDS, Sabre started in 1960 as an ordinary reservation system. By 1980s Sabre became an important travel website and an advanced Airlines Yield Management System. Sabre now is a provider of innovative products (all over the world) that helps travel business. In 1996 Sabre has become a legal entity of AMR (parent company of American Airlines). Its headquarters are in Southlake, Texas. Sabre connects numerous travel agencies, airlines and approximately 60,000 hotels in nearly 50 countries all over the world. Many car rentals, cruise lines, railroads and tour operators are connected through Sabre. One of the latest developments is Sabre virtually, an automatic website to provide travelers up to minute details about itineraries and information about destinations. TRAVELOCTTY.COM website also belongs to Sabre. This website helps the traveler to find the best airlines car rental and hotel and vacation reservations. Sabre is considered to be one of the most important and competitive GDS as it anticipates and take advantage of the changes in the information economy and develops innovative practices leveraging both human resources and technology systems.

 

(c) GALILEO: In 1993, 11 major airlines of Europe and North America (Air Lingus, Air Canada, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, KLM, Olympic Airlines, Swiss Air, TAP Air Portugal, United Airlines and US Airways) founded this GDS and named it Galileo International. All over the world this GDS covers regions such as North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia/Pacific area. Through its computerized reservation

Systems, leading edge products and innovative internet based solutions. it is a value added distributor to various of its consumers. Currently the company is represented in more than 120 countries and covers approximately 50,000 travel agency offices, 500 airlines, approximately 300 hotels, 40 car rentals and 370 tour operators. Galileo has sponsored membership to the THOR World Wide Negotiated Hotel Rates Programme and linked to Galileo data centers is operating more than 1, 78,000 computer terminals supplying information and technical support to travel agencies. Galileo has established successful relationships with entities such as GO, UK's best low cost airline subsidiaries such as High wire Inc providing internet based tools and services to the corporate travel market, and Shepherd systems, an industry leader in providing sales and marketing system and services within the travel industry.

 

(d) WORLD SPAN: In 1990, Delta Airlines Inc, Northwest Airlines and Transworld Airlines of USA founded this CDS. Later, in place of Trans World Airlines, the American Airlines was incorporated. Currently it serves more than 20,000 travel agency offices in nearly 90 countries. Through its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia it connects approximately 450 airlines, 250 hotels, 40 car rentals, 39 tour and vacation operators and 44 special travel service suppliers. It has now tied up with various travel technology companies such as Datalex, an e-business infrastructure and solutions company for global travel industry, Digital Travel, a global on line tour provider, Kinetics Inc, developer of technology and solutions for airlines industry, open table.com (restaurant system) and Viator. Later in 2001, Orbitz LLC was launched on internet using world span as its internet booking engine. In 2002 with the launch of world span, e-pricing SM made world span the first GDS to introduce a revolutionary new multiserver based technology which offered pricing options selection to its customers.

 

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SOME OTHER INTEGERATED PMS

 

MICROS: The MICROS 8700 HMS (Hospitality Management System) is the most functional, usable and attractive POS system ever.

 

-  It provides a wide range of information processing, from POS operations to back office operations.

- Open system architecture allows it to operate with any IBM compatible PC, as well as providing multi-user and multi-tasking capabilities, running under SCO-UNIX.

- The innovative touch-screen order entry terminal speeds restaurant orders quickly and accurately, bringing high efficiency to food ordering cashiers functions and management reporting.

- MICROS hand held touch-screen terminals can also be integrated into the system.

- Hoteliers can look at the day-to-day profit and if it is not going well, they can take appropriate action to control costs and opening stocks.

- The POS system provides instant information allowing the management to react quickly to market trends. It can also be used for various kinds of report generation.       

 

Hotel Sales Management: This software system maintains comprehensive files of all past and potential customers from names, address, contact, preferences, booking profiles, and patterns. This database becomes the most valuable marketing resource for the hotel.

 

-  It can be used for direct mail promotion, tactical marketing initiatives, policy making and forward planning.

- The software takes full account of the hotel capacity and occupancy levels throughout the regions so that the marketing activity can be focused wherever there is greatest potential.

- Paper work in the office becomes fully automated, bringing significant reductions in operating costs.

 

Reservation Network: An automatic reservation system that will cover up all the basic need of a reservation, equating the guest inquiry with the availability of room, confirmation or refusal. Once a confirmation is done, accurately recording transactions to ensure correct arrival and departure date, number in the party, number and type of room required, guest name and address, equated rate etc. are completed.

 

Another very popular PMS (Property Management System) developed by HISI Multi Systems Inc., Phoenix has following features and benefits. Various useful reports generated with this system are also given below.

 

1. Features

 

(i) Reservations

 

(a) Guest and folio history

(b) Rate tiering, average yield management

(c) Inventory period of up to 51 weeks

(d) Multiple room reservation

(e) Chain setting of up to 99 reservations

(f) Rate override for special rates

(g) One key availability, and room rack display

(h)  Guest and group charge routing

(i)   Room blocking functions

(j)  Extensive sorting of guest name lists

(k)  Reservation forecasting: One step release of non-guaranteed reservations

(m)  Availability to book reservations more than one year in advance

(n)  Group masters and accounts that handle group rates and inventory control

(o)  Room list input

(p)  Group pre-block with auto room assignment

 

(ii) Front office

 

(a) Registration cards printed by request or in batches for all arrivals.

(b) Auto room assign option for rapid check in

(c) Room availability at a glance

(d) Same day arrival/departure inventory accounting

(e) Rapid one step process to check-out guests and print folio

(f) One step group check-in and check-out

 

(iii) Accounting and back office

 

(a) Property defined house accounts and department codes

(b) Authorization and billing for guest accounts

(c) Flexible rate type and seasons

(d) Calculation of discounts, plan and package rates

 

3. Reports

 

(i) Systems generated reports

 

(a) Guests booked on date report

(b) All guests records for date report     

(c) Room rates audit report        

(d) Deposit activity report

(e) Daily activity report

 (f) Cashier shift report

(g) Pay in advance report

(h) Credit limit exception report

(i) Occupied rooms/room count/room rate exception report

(j) On-screen report viewing

 

(ii) End-of-day report

 

(a) Department audit report

(b) Guest house, deposit and inactive ledger balance reports

(c) Complimentary rooms report

(d) Override rates report

(e) Group master and cut-off report

(f) Posted room/tax report

(g) Cashier close out report

(h) Daily activity close out report

(i) Room count/house count report

(j) Guest file expectation report

(k) City ledger account report

(1) Source of business report

(m) Off market room report

 

(iii)  Central reservation interface: (the following reports are obtained only if Host CRS provides)

 

(a) On line auto dial communications to CR

(b) Property to property reservation

(c) Send and receive administrative messages

(d) Display seven days reservation centre status

(e) Recall and display reservation centre message logs

(f) Property control of reservation centre status in sensitive rates and inventory areas

(g) Open/close inventory by room type

(h) Open/close plans or package rates  

(i) Update reservation centre rate schedule

(j) Centralized travel agents commission report

(k) Set minimum length of stay status

(1) Set close to arrival status by room type

 

Role of Information and Technology in Hotels: Time is a very valuable resource and asset of this millennium. It is more precious than money. Hence it will be to the advantage of hotel industry to find a way to couple time with technology and make maximum utilization of it. Hence the punch line is "Make rapid change your best friend".

 

Internet: It is one of the most modern and upcoming technology of the day. Following are its features and benefits.

 

(i) Opening international market

(ii) Making business information available

(iii) Selling products and services

(iv) Business round the clock

(v) Quick information updates

(vi) Receiving feedback

(vii) Public relations and enhancing customer service

 

Internet in the Hotel Guest Room: This technology allows hotel guests to fully access the Internet on their in-room televisions. 'An innovative Infra Red wireless key board is used for this. A web-browser, E-mail connection, premier service centre and on line multilingual help are all provided to maximize the Internet experience whilst staying at the hotel.

 

TV Interactivity: Through this concept, various guests can have access to same movie at different times according to their own convenience. The movie will start from the beginning for each guest regardless of the time they switch on their TV sets. Another major use is that the guest can at any time refer to their TV sets for looking at their bills, charges, credit limits and amount spent, etc.

 

Electronic Concierge: The E-concierge redefines the concept of the concierge. Like an ever present personal assistant, this facility empowers the guest to take a "Multimedia graphic and sound assisted tour" of the hotel, the city, shopping centers etc., all at the convenience of sitting in his room. This facility is further going to include, making reservations at restaurants, buying of cinema tickets, etc.

 

New Technologies: Voice over Internet, Video conferencing, Internet TVs, Star scan.

 

The automation of hotel revenue management for transient guest demand requires systematic forecasting of unconstrained demand as input to sophisticated optimization algorithms, the output of these algorithms are the standards are given to Reservation Network and Reservation Systems for hotel so that they can turn away the lower value demand to be able to meet the higher priced guests in future. An automated revenue management system is used. Hotels commonly have rate products that may be categorized as "Retail rate and qualified or Entitlement Rates". If a hotel has five Retail Rates products each with single and double occupancy rates then TLP (Top Line Prophet-an OPUS-2 Revenue Technologies Incorporation a Hotel Revenue Management System) "forecasts the markets willingness to pay each of these products.

All hotel revenue management systems optimize based on the relationship between forecasted demand and remaining capacity. Astute hotels traditionally shop competition by making telephone enquiries in the guess of reservation requests. These days it is possible to shop competition electronically.

 

TLP provides a mechanism for adjusting rate availability based on findings of these "shopping calls" competition pricing can have an effect on both your hotels demand and on the market’s perception of the value of your rates. If available competitive rates for a specific stay pattern are higher than yours some portion of competitive demand will spill and appear as demand for your hotel. Further your rate may appear as a real bargain as prospective guest shop around and find no rates in comparable hotels for less than your rates. In TLP every rate product has an "Indifferent Rate Scheme that may vary in small and large amounts from corresponding quoted rates. This indifference rate is a measure of the real financial value of a rate for example if your hotel sells a room at 4200/- inclusive of breakfast the indifference rate night actually be Rs. 4,000/- These rate reflects the, estimated cost of Rs. 2007- for breakfast.

 

Sometimes a hotel gives an indifferent rate which is not based on any financial calculations but because it is a part of the strategy of the hotel. Suppose the hotel is situated in Chandigarh (state capital) then the rate product associated with government segment has a low rate that would often be closed during weekdays in peak demand period, since the government segment show significant demand during lower demand season you decide to intentionally give the Government rate product an inflated indifference rate hoping that by showing this loyalty you will get government guest coming when demand is low. TLP allows each rate to be designated as one of the states of yield ability.

 

ü  Fully yieldable: Rates subjected to rate hurdles, rates thresh hotels and systems generated stay of controls.

ü  Non yieldable: Rates are subjected to either rate hurdles or TLP generated stay controls. If there are available rooms then non yieldable rates can be sold.