Guest Cycle System In Hotel Tourism Essay

1. Until the 1960’s, nearly all hotels were using a manual system. In the late 70’s, with the introduction of computers, hotels shifted to semi-automated systems. Nowadays, most of the five-star hotels use a fully automated system.

Explain how each of the three different types of systems can be used as far as the pre-arrival stage of the guest cycle is concerned.

What type of hotel would use each system?

Non-automated (manual) system usually means done by hand. All procedures and the different kind of calculations are done manually which means that all the information is typed into notepad. As for the pre-arrival stage the reservation requirements should be written in a notebook and only reservations up to 6 months shall be kept. It is difficult under this system, to issue reservation confirmation numbers, to complete the pre-registration activities and to prepare occupancy forecasts because you need a lot of time and money (more labor) to manually carry out all these activities. The type of hotel that could use this system is a small size hotel with no more than 150 rooms.

Semi-automated system usually uses Electro-mechanical equipment which means that each department should have its own computer system. Under this system the several departments can handle all their operations, for example prepare the different reports automatically, print the bills etc. and this is an advantage over the manual systems. Despite all these, this system has its disadvantages because it’s very complicated to operate and control the devices for the reason that the equipment is not incorporated with other systems and that creates problems with its maintenance. As for the pre-arrival stage guests can immediately contact the hotel or they can call a national reservation network. Furthermore, the reservation agents with the help of this system can prepare easier pre-registration records, guest folios and other reservation activities. The type of hotel that could make a use of this system is a medium size city hotel or a suite hotel with no more than 300 rooms.

Fully automated system is the best computer based system used in the hotels. The main characteristic of this system is the widespread use of the different departmental software package programs incorporated and connected to the main terminal that is located in the front office department. All the charges or any changes to a guest’s bill from any department pass immediately in the reception’s computer. As for the pre-arrival stage, the reservation department uses a software package which is interfaced and connected with one or more central reservation offices. For example, a company with many hotels has a central reservation system, under this system can check the reservations from all its hotels, can make a reservation and check the room availability. Furthermore, the reservation agents can automatically produce requests for guests deposit; produce confirmation letters, produce occupancy and forecast lists, finger out pre-registration activities for all types of guests etc. All the types of hotel could use this system in case that they can afford its expenses. This system usually used by resort hotels, convention hotels etc. with more than 300 rooms.

2. What is a central reservation system? Give details of a system of your choice.

A central reservation system is a network for communicating reservations in which each participating property is represented in an automated database and is required to provide room availability data to the central reservations center on a timely basis. Almost all the hotels belong to one or more reservation systems. This system is composed of a central reservation office which deals directly with the public in several ways: by toll-free telephone number, by on-line web address and operates 24 hours a day. Central reservation offices and member hotels can communicate any reservation transaction if the hotels are equipped with the appropriate equipment. Such equipment includes: internet connections, telex, teletype, fax, personal computers etc. Central reservation offices are divided into an affiliate reservations network and a non affiliate reservations network. An affiliate reservation network is a hotel chain’s reservation system where all participating properties are contractually related. The advantages of this reservation network are: make the process of reservation more easier, reduce costs and reservations are pat from one hotel to the other. A non-affiliate reservation network is a subscription system designed to connect independent or non-chain properties.

PROTEL Central Reservation System is the best tool for the central reservation office of hotels and is based on the Multi Property Edition and Web Booking Engine modules. Through the configuration of multi property edition dashboard all the features of all the hotels can be configured in the centralized database, for example: location and type of structure, room types and room features per room, seasonality, rates and commercial strategies per each property, negotiated rates for particular guests (groups, companies, tour operators, travel agencies), guest segmentation and marketing segments, id and password for VIPs to permit them direct web reservations etc. As well the user profiles can be defined centrally as the guests profiles entered in the central database. Every guest’s profile contains all the historical information on the stays, the payments and the reservations in all the hotels of the property. Each property can connect to the central reservation system through a web interface and update on-line if there are rooms available for reservations, the relative rates and limits. Protel operates on the centralized database and the users know at every time how the occupancy is in each hotel. If there are rooms available can be checked by the use of filters such as, period, room types, hotel features, location, geographical area etc. After that the reservations are notified to the hotel by e-mail.

3. How are rooms allocated under:

• A manual system
• A computerized system

The room rack or its computerised equal is the starting point for room allocation. It shows if there are rooms available and if they are ready for occupation.

a.) The rooms are allocated under a manual system as follows:

• The room rack is a way of displaying the current position of every room in the hotel. The room rack acts as the basis for preparing reports on occupancy and letting revenue that’s why it must be always up to date and completely accurate.
• There is a slot for each room into which is placed a card showing present occupation condition. Every slot is marked with the room number and could contain information such as current rack rate.
• It is separated into floors with adjoining rooms side by side.
• It should be located somewhere where only the receptionists can see it and not guests.
• The guest card was completed with basic details of the booking. There are other cards in different colours which show the room condition, if it is cleaned or out of order.

b.) The rooms are allocated under a computerized system as follows:

• A computerised system does the same job as the rack rate but all the information stored in an electronic memory.
• Computer keeps track of rooms during the registration process and remarks which rooms are allocated and removes those which are available for letting.
• When a guest checks out the room is added to a list of those to be cleaned. When the housekeeping clean the room, the executive housekeeper informs the system and the computer right away adds that room to the list of those available for letting.
• The computer combines current room availability with an advance booking display so that help you know if a particular room is possible to be needed over the next few days.

4. How is guests bill compiled using:

• A manual system
• A computerized system

a.) A guest’s bill is compiled under a manual system with the help of the manual tabulation which keeps details of the guests account and the different departments. Any guest’s transactions in the different departments must are backed up by a voucher. These vouchers (restaurant bills, bar bills, laundry slips) must be forwarded to the front office cashier as soon as possible.At the end of the day and when all the vouchers has arrived at the reception the night auditor should post all the charges to the guests room, close the day manually and prepare the revenue figures even if the guest don’t ask for his bill in a daily basis, but in case that the guest ask for his bill it should be ready. This is succeeded with the help of the brought forward (shows the charges from the previous day) and the carry forward (shows the charges of the day plus the previous days) which keeps up to date all the guests bills and when a guest come to the reception to settle his bill it’s almost ready.

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b.) With a computerized system all the guests’ transactions in the different departments pass automatically in the reception’s computer and any mistakes in the bills could be corrected immediately from the specific department that charged the wrong amount. At the end of the day each department closes each day and sends the reports and the vouchers to the reception even though they are already in the system. So, any time that a guest asks for his bill the front desk agents is ready for printout at any time.