PART FOUR MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Hotel Computer Applications

It was stated in the chapter introduction that an airline reservation system had spin-off applications for hotel reservations. Hotels also use computers for applications such as accounting, inventory, and payroll.These applications will now be discussed in the context of an actual case study.The hotel chosen for the study, Hotel West（a fictitious name）is a private business, though part of a chain, in a town of 50,000.It has 200 rooms,175 employees, and a variety of facilities, including an indoor pool, conference rooms, banquet halls, shops, bars, and a restaurant servicing primarily upper-middle class families and traveling businesspeople.

Hotel Reservation

The input required from hotel reservations is name, address, phone, date and time of arrival, length of stay, number in party, room preference（size, price, locations; e.g.poolside, quiet wing,）and special services requested （crib, wheelchair）. Because desk clerks and receptionists are generally unskilled and not permanent staff, reservation equipment is designed to be simple to operate.In Hotel West, a terminal with a standard typewriter keyboard is used for entering name, address, and phone number of the client, and a special-purpose terminal with 76 keys and 16 lights is used to input other reservation data.Though this latter terminal appears confusing at first glance, it is actually easier and faster to operate than airline reservation systems.For example, when an October booking is requested, the clerk need not remember a month code（such as 10）but merely presses the key marked Oct.in a group of 12 keys for months set in a row.Additional keys represent other crucial data, such as code keys for hotel identification, date, number and type of rooms required, or action requested（cancel, reserve）, and all related keys are grouped together.The lights identify the status of the equipment（ready, in use）, availability of different types of rooms（single, double）, and room availability in nearby hotels.Equipment so specialized is expensive and can only be justified if the number of reservations and hotel size are sufficiently large to permit it to be cost-effective.

Reservations for a room at Hotel West can be made by another hotel in the chain or reservations can be made by the client calling a reservation center. When Hotel West initiates a room request on behalf of a customer for a room at another hotel in the chain, a computer tie-in with central reservations checks availability.Confirmation of the reservation and a copy of notification to the hotel in question are messages that the operator in Hotel West receives as printout, and which the client can use as a reservation confirmation.Table 4-1 shows how such a request is coded.

If the requested hotel has no bookings available, central reservations will supply data on room options at the nearest hotel in the chain.

The tie-in to central reservations costs Hotel West $8,000 per year with$1 charged for each reservation made by the system.Line charges vary from one chain to another, some underwriting the expense as part of their service to member hotels.One can measure the gain from a centralized reservation system since many of the figures are available for a cost-benefit analysis; cost of reservation service, number of rooms reserved through the system, income from reservations, income otherwise lost from unoccupied rooms.However, intangible benefits, such as convenience to customers, should also be recognized.

The central reservations network can also be programmed to provide other information services as well.In 1979, when gas shortages discouraged travelers, one hotel chain relayed information on filling-station hours, and dollar and volume limits per vehicle of stations within a five-mile radius of each hotel in the 1,500-member chain. Travelers or hotels could phone to obtain the information.The purpose was to prevent cancellations or empty rooms by providing information on gas availability to clientele.

Other Business Applications

Hotel West also has a minicomputer for other business applications that is independent of the reservation system.This minicomputer has five CRTs, a main office terminal, three at points of sale（restaurant and bars）, and one at the housekeeper's station. These terminals are used for room assignments, registrations, and billing（front desk activities）, and for processing payroll, accounts receivable, general ledger, cash posting, printing of statements, and management reporting, as well as energy and inventory control（backroom accounting）.Large hotels often have two computer systems for these functions, separating front desk and backroom accounting, and also providing backup in the backroom computer should the frontroom system fail at the check-in counter.

Hotel West's minicomputer is located in an alcove of the front office. Maintenance and training are provided by the small out-of-state firm that installed the equipment and developed the software, Communications Diversified, Inc.This firm, with only 45 professionals, can compete with large conglomerates like IT&T because it specializes, providing software packages that apply to only few industries.The hotel management software, for example, required little modification to fit Hotel West's needs, whereas the purchase of a general business application package would have required Hotel West to hire a programmer or system analyst to adapt the package to local conditions. This specialization of software entrepreneurs, coupled with the drop in the price of minis, is what has made computer applications costeffective for small businesses.

In the following sections, several of Hotel West's specialized business applications will be described.

Room Status In order for desk clerk to assign rooms to clients, the status of hotel rooms（occupied or empty）must be known.At Hotel West, room status is one report provided by the minicomputer. To obtain room status information, the clerk first requests the display of a menu of reports or programs on the CRT of the front desk terminal by pressing a key code to this effect.From this list, the code for room status report is determined.This code is keyed and the RETURN key pressed to indicate end of choice of report.The terminal will then display the number of rooms available on any given date（up to 20 years in the future）and rooms currently ready for occupancy by room number and type（single, double）.Occupancy status is updated in real-time mode from the housekeeper's terminal as maids complete cleaning.This information not only serves the front desk for registrations, but pinpoints the location and progress of each maid, and identifies rooms ready for inspections.

Registration and Check-out Registration is done on the CRT by the front desk clerk.The input required is keyed line by line from top to bottom, the terminal validating each entry by character and range validity checks. When a required field is not provided, the system locks（does not proceed）until all required information is entered.In processing registrations, the computer updates the room inventory, informs the housekeeper（on a terminal）of the room assignment, and generates a guest folio of all registration information keyed by room number.Included is such data as time and date of check-in which the computer automatically records.A guest account is also created（room rent and tax）to be updated in real time for charges, for example, telephone calls or restaurant bills.

At check-out, the computer will print an itemized customer bill upon a simple keyed command by the desk clerk.When payment is received, the clerk enters the method of payment（cash, check, credit card）and amount into the system for auditing purposes.The computer automatically updates the room inventory and signals the housekeeper that the vacated room is ready for cleaning.

Check-out using the computer system is fast and accurate, saving the client time since the system instantly generates the bill. But registration by computer takes longer than traditional manual registrations primarily because more information is requested, information that the desk clerk manually keys into the system.

Control Applications Stock inventory, especially food and beverages, is one important control function performed by computer at Hotel West.Another is auditing:shift audits（done three times a day）and the night audit（an audit summary of all three shifts）.The audits list all transactions, amounts, mode of payment, transaction clerk, and shift supervisor. These computer audits eliminate the need for daily bookkeeping by an accountant.In addition, the audits serve as financial reports to management.

In addition, the computer regulates energy consumption at Hotel West. Upon registration of a client, room heat（or air conditioning）is automatically turned on; at check-out, the system turns heat off.Air circulation in unoccupied rooms is also maintained by automatically switching on heat or cooling periodically.At Hotel West, the computer is programmed to control energy demand during peak periods.To reduce energy surcharges, heat is switched off for short time spans when energy demand reaches a predetermined level.The computer also regulates power-consuming devices, such as pumps, lights, and signs.This automation and control reduces energy consumption at Hotel West, saving an estimated 15-30 percent on the hotel's energy bill.

Wake-up Service Wake-up is automated, the computer telephoning clients at the time requested.

By K.M.Hussain

KeyTerms and Concepts

poolside along the side of a pool.

quiet wing the section of a hotel building where it is quiet.

hotel identification the code representing a hotel and used to distinguish it from others in the chain of hotels.

CRT cathode ray tube terminal.A display device on which images are produced on a cathode ray tube.

line charges a per use fee.

cash posting to write daily transactions into general ledger.

room inventory status of hotel rooms, which tells if a room is occupied or empty.

mode of payment way of payment, such as cash, check, or credit card.

transaction clerk the clerk who is responsible for a specified transaction.