User Interface

Front Desk Main Screen -Searching

This is the screen from which rooms are searched for, and ultimately, reservations are made. The room search screen is the main screen for the front desk and will always be open when the user is logged in.

Reservations are made by first searching for available rooms. This is done by entering in the following data into the appropriate entry boxes: check-in date, number of nights in the stay and the number of rooms required. The user must also select the room list from the radio buttons, which defaults to 'Single'. If a handicapped room and/or a smoking room is desired the user must select the appropriate radio button. The Available Rooms report box is a dynamic list box, that is, as data is entered in the entry boxes and check boxes, the entries in the report box change to reflect the room criteria desired.

When an available room is selected (by double clicking the mouse button) from the Available Rooms report box or the Reserve button is pressed, the right half of the screen expands and displays the Customer Reservation part of the screen. This is where all of the customer information, available at the time, is entered. Once users are satisfied with the information, they simply click on the Accept Entry button and the reservation is made. If they wish to start over completely, clicking the Clear button will clear all the entry boxes. If the user selects the Exit button, they will be returned to the login screen, as this is the main screen for the front desk, that is, it is the screen that will always be open at all times.

If, once the room criteria is entered, there are no available rooms, the right half of the screen displays a graph of all the rooms in the hotel and when they booked. This allows the user to easily determine the maximum length stay that can be offered in a room matching the specified, or any other, criteria. The user can then modify the search criteria to reflect a room that is close to what they are searching for.

All entry boxes require error checking of some form. The check in date must be a valid date. The number of nights and the number of rooms required must both be valid whole numbers greater than zero.

Front Desk Main Screen -Reservation

Reserve:

The right part of the screen will blank during searching, once search is successful, the list of available rooms will show up. The reserve button becomes degreyed so that user can select a room(s) and click the button to reserve the room(s). The form on the right side comes up for confirmation of the guest's reservation.

Accept Entry:

Once all valid data has been input, the button will degrey. This means that the user can click on the button. When the button is selected, the data will be stored in the database and the screen will be cleared.

Exit:

Click on this button to return to main screen.

Leave Message Screen

At top left, the user can input a room number for leaving message. Once the user enters the room number and name of the receiver, and the input data is valid, the user can enter the message in the message field. It is on right side of the screen.

To record a message for a client, the clerk would select Take Message from the Messages menu. The date and time are automatically filled in and the clerk is left to supply name or room information. The Name and Room fields are actually drop down list boxes. If the person leaving a message knew the last name of the receiver, the First Name and Rooms boxes would be filled in with clients having the correct last name. Similarly if the person knew the room or first name.

Once the correct client is found, the clerk fills in the rest of the form and presses Accept Message to commit the information. Again, Exit dismisses the form with a warning message if data was not saved.

View Message Screen

User can enter a room number for viewing a message at top left side of the screen. Once the user enters a room number, the list of the messages for the room will show up at bottom left side of the screen(which contain name of the reciever and the time the message recieved) . By selecting a message from the left side of the screen a message with the name of caller and the contents of the message will be displayed to the right. Press the Print button to print the message or press the Exit button to go back to the main screen.

Check In/Out Information Screen

A variety of useful reports are available under the Reports menu. All behave similarly.

Selecting Check In/Out will bring up a report displaying the room numbers which are checking in or out during a period of days. The user fills in the starting and ending dates of the period needed and a report is displayed on screen. To print a report, press the corresponding Print button.

Selecting Rooms will bring up a report that allows the user to obtain reports about the status of rooms. A time period is entered as in the previous report to select the period of interest. Radio buttons can be selected at any time to display reports about available rooms, occupied room and reserved rooms. Relevant information is displayed in the large list box. The relevant fields change from report to report. The report can be printed in the usual way.

Selecting Guests will display a list of current guests and relevant information such as room number, names, addresses, etc. The list can be sorted on a particular field by selecting the desired heading at the top of the list box. Again, the Print button sends the report to the printer.

Available/Occupied/Reserved Rooms

A variety of reports about the status of the rooms are also available under the Reports menu. All behave similarly.

The type of report that is preformed depends on the selection of the type of room. The time frame can be established using the fields From Date and To Date. The default setting will be for the current day.

The fields From Date and To Date require error checking since they must represent a valid period. The default will show the user the correct form of the input.

List of Occupants

Another report that can be done is a current customer list. This refers to the customers that are currently staying in the hotel.

This screen displays the current occupants in the hotel. To obtain a listing of the status of the rooms and guest information the user would select the Print button.

Check In

Selecting Check In from the options menu displays a dialog that allows the clerk to search for a reservation and check the guest in. First, the clerk fills in the Name and/or Representing fields to identify the reservation. Once the reservation is found, the rooms attached are shown in the list. The user will select the room to be checked in (especially important for group reservations) and then fill in the check in form on the right. Note that the Name of Occupants is a pull down list box to allow more than one occupant name staying in the same room. When all information is entered, pressing check in will commit the data to the database.

Check Out

The search criteria are entered in the same way as in the Checking In screen. A room is selected from the list which fills the right form with all the charges including room service, phone and room charges, and totals. The charges can be printed with the Print button. Once the bill is resolved, the Check Out button is pressed and that room is now vacant in the system. In group registrations, each room must be checked out individually.

List of Charges

The Account button brings up the details to the charges to the Room. This is depicted in the screen to the right. The information can be changed if the employee is of administrative status.

The Reservation button will bring up information about the reservation. (This screen is implemented but not shown)

Reservation Info

Selecting Registration from the Options menu will display a screen that allows checking and modification of reservations as well as account information. Searching for a reservation is identical to checking in/out. Once a room is found, pressing Reservation displays a screen exactly like the reservation screen and can be edited in the same way. Pressing Account displays account information for a room in the same way that checking out does. Account information is not editable. The user can print either display with the print button. Also, an entire reservation can be stricken from the database by pressing Delete Reservation. This deletion can only occur if the client has not yet checked in.

Edit Menu

This screen may only be accessed by the administration personal. The main purpose of "Edit Menu" is to allow the food menu to be updated and changed.

To add a new food item, the user would click on the "Add New" button. This will add an empty field in the menu. Then the user will enter the new item, press the tab button to get to the "Description" field, enter the description of the food (if any), then hit tab again. Now the user may enter the price of the food item.

To delete a food item te user will click on the item that is to be deleted. Then the user will click on the delete button. Consiquently a window will come up asking the user to confirm the deletion. If the user clicks on the confirm button then the item will be deleted. (this extra window is not included in the screen snapshots but is implemented)

When finished editing the menu, or the user just wants to exit the "Edit Menu" screen, the "Cancel" button is pushed. This will save any changes to the menu and close this window.

There are only two areas where there are error checking on this screen. The first is that a legal price has to be inputed (ie not negative), and the other is the confirmation on deletion of an item.

Employee

This screen can only be accesed by the administrator. The purpose of the screen is to allow the administrator to add, change or delete an employee from the data base.

To add a new employee, the user clicks on the "Add New" button. This motion will clear all the information fields on the right hand side of the screen. The user then starts by typing in the last name of the new employee. Once he has complete the last name, the administrator hits the tab button, moving the cursor to the next field. This process is done until the whole form is filled out. The three access fields are enabled and disabled by clicking on their respective boxes. Once the employee infromation is completely entered, the user clicks on the "Add New" button again to enter the employee into the database.

To delete an employee, the administrator clicks on the person in the "Employee Box". This will bring the persons information up in the fields on the right. Then the administrator will click on the "delete" button. This will bring up a confirmation box. If the administrator confirms the deletion, the employee is then removed from the database.

To exit the screen the administrator clicks on the "Close" button. This will then save all changes and exit the screen.

The only error checking on this screen is the confirm box that comes up during a deletion.

Login

This screen will be on any terminal that does not have a user logged on. The purpose of this screen is mainly for security purposes. There should not be any access to the system without being logged on, and this screen provides that. The location field on the login screen is of key importance. This field identifies the location that the terminal is in within the hotel (eg. "Front Desk", "Kitchen", or "Adminstration"). Only a person designated to that location may login at that location. However, the administrator can login at any location. The three buttons on the screen are greyed out until a user with the right access logs on. To log on to the system, the user will input his or her login name. Upon entering the login name, the user will hit the "tab" button to get to the password. The user will then enter his or her password. At this point one of three things will happen:

All of the error checking has indirectly been explained in the description of the screen because the whole purpose of the screen is for security and error checking.

Room Service

This screen displays an online menu on the left side and an blank order on the right. The user must first enter the room number of the customer who is calling. If the number is invalid (it is vacant or does not exist) the user will receive an error message. If the input is valid, the name of the person registered for the room will appear and should be verified. The customer may request a specific delivery time, which is entered in the top right corner. The current time is automatically stored for each order taken.

Once all the billing information has been entered, the user can fill the customer`s order. The online menu displays all of the items together with a description and price. In order to select an item it is double clicked. The item name and price will automatically appear in the scrollable order window on the right side of the screen. The subtotal, tax and total are interactive figures and so, as items are added to the bill these three figures are automatically modified by the system. If a menu item was selected in error, it can be removed from the bill by a single click. The total of bill will reflect this adjustment. When an order is complete the user can click on the button, which will cause a three copy bill to be printed and passed on to the cook. If at any time the customer decides to cancel the order, the user can do so by clicking the button on the bottom of the screen. In case this button was pressed in error, a pop up confirmation window will appear consisting of a button to proceed and a to cancel. If the button is pressed, everything stays the same. However, if the button is pressed all of the order information on the right side of the screen is cleared, and a new order can be started.

Tax Update

This screen is used to adjust the type and rate of any tax used for billing throughout the system. It has room for three types of taxes (federal GST, provincial, and hotel service), which are all followed by a percentage field. The user will click on one of the fields to change the name of the tax, or the rate. When the user has completed all the required changes, clicking on the button will save the values and return to the previous screen.

The system will not allow the user to exit if errors have been detected. All corresponding fields must be filled. For example, if a percentage field contains data then there must also be a tax name entered. Also, the system will not accept a negative number for a tax rate.