Hotel Computer Science

Introduction:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Supply Team;

We at the "Computer Science Hotel" require a room and reservation booking system for our eighty room, business class hotel. We provide single (one bed), double (two beds), and triple (three beds) suites as well as single suites specially appointed for physically handicapped guests. We have smoking and non-smoking suites available in all of the above classes. Click here to see the summary table of room types. These numbers are not fixed and can be changed by the management at any time. The room reservation booking system will be used by three main groups: the front desk staff, the kitchen staff, and the management staff. The requirements for each of these three groups are summarized here and will be explained in detail later in this report. The front desk staff are responsible for registering hotel guests, checking guests in and out of the hotel, taking future bookings (including group bookings and bookings of specific room types),and handling guest account payments. In addition, our front desk staff act as guide and troubleshooter for our guests. Kitchen staff are in charge of room service for the hotel. It will be important for the system to help employees to make sure orders are correctly recorded and room service is charged to the correct room. The management staff will have access to all areas of the system, and will be permitted to change bills, orders, totals, and charges. In addition, management staff must be able to generate simple revenue reports for a given time period. Because of these divisions in the staff areas; this system will need security, the staff must only be allowed access to the functions required for doing their jobs and no more.

Front Desk Requirements:

The primary responsibility of the front desk staff is to deal with customer inquiries, reservations, registration, and payments. Since these tasks are usually performed while the customer is waiting on the phone or at the desk, it is essential that the system is efficient and reliable. Our requirements for the system are outlined below.

The front desk staff spend a great deal of their time answering customer inquires about room availability. The system must search for available rooms based any combination of the following criteria:

1. arrival date

2. length of stay

3. number of rooms needed

4. number of beds per room

5. handicapped access

6. smoking/non-smoking

7. special rooms e.g. honeymoon suite or presidential suite.

Since most of these inquiries will be coming in by phone, this function must be accessible at all times, and should be independent of other system functions.

Once a suitable room has been found, a reservation will need to be made. It should be possible to go directly from an availability inquiry to a reservation, or to start from scratch with a new reservation. Click here to see sample registration form. We would still need to obtain the same information in an automated system. It must be possible to check room availability from the reservation system. Also, any reservation can be canceled or changed at any time, so it must be possible to find, view, and edit existing reservations. We want staff to be ready for guests' arrivals, so they must be able to display all reservations for a given date.

When the guests arrive at the hotel, they will want to be quickly and easily checked into their rooms. Since most information will already be present in the system from when the reservation was made, it should not be necessary for this information to be taken again. When the guest checks in, the check-in date should automatically be inserted into the guest record. If the guest is arriving by car, we need to know the make and license number of the vehicle. The following information should be confirmed with the guest:

1. number of guests

2. check-out date

3. mailing address

4. method of payment

6. names of other occupants of rooms.

While guests are registered at the hotel, they may require other services. They must be accessible to the outside world. If someone calls for a guest it must be possible for the staff to check the register for that person's name. If that person is registered at the hotel, the system should provide the person's room number and any special instructions the guest may have left at the desk (e.g., do not tell people I am staying at this hotel). If the caller wants to get in touch with the guest but the guest is not in his or her room, the caller may want to leave a message. Therefore the message system must be accessible from the occupancy inquiry function. When taking a message for a guest, the following information is required:

1. name of message recipient

2. name of message sender

3. time and date of message

4. the message body

When the message information is entered, the message indicator in the guest's room should be triggered automatically.

The final interaction with the customer will be when the customer checks out of the hotel and settles the account payment. The bill must be itemized to show all charges incurred, including room service, phone charges, taxes, basic room charge, etc. The system should print out this bill and a receipt once payment is received. (Displaying this bill on the screen should be adequate for the purposes of this assignment.) The bill should also show the total charge, amount paid, and amount still owing. It should be possible to make partial payments on accounts. When a guest checks in, they will be required to indicate their method of payment. If the customer is paying by credit card, the credit card number is needed. If payment is by cash or cheque, the payment must be made at check-in time, but the funds will not be processed until check-out. It should be possible to change method of payment at any time. For example, the guest may give a credit card number when he or she checks in, but then pay with cash.

Finally, the front desk staff need to be able to generate a list of vacated rooms so that the housekeeping staff knows which rooms to service.

Food Service Requirements:

The Food Service department is currently using a paper based system for room service ordering, food preparation and billing. Click here to see sample room service form. The guest's order is taken by phone in an area adjoining the kitchen and written on the form. The order form is passed on to the kitchen for preparation. When the order is ready, it is delivered to the appropriate room and the form is dropped off at the front desk so that the order can be charged to the guest.

We would want to continue to use this procedure except that it would be automated. There would be a computer by the order phone and another in the kitchen for the cooks. When a customer calls, their room number would be entered into the computer and an ordering screen with the guest's name and any special instructions (e.g., food allergies). The order would be entered and the cost of the order would be calculated. It would also be possible to consult the menu on-line.

When the order is confirmed the program must automatically add it to the guest's account and to display it on the cooks computer so they can preparing it. Once the order is ready for delivery it should be removed from the list of customer orders.

Management Requirements:

For bookkeeping and planning purposes, the system must be able to generate reports for room service sales for, for room rentals or for total revenue from both of these divisions for any specified time period. Management staff will enter a start date and end date, and the system will output a sales report (revenue) for that period. Management staff should also be able to access room service information and override entries if billing mistakes occurred. All system functions should be available to management level staff, but other staff should not have access to management functions.

Above all, the system must be easy for the hotel staff to use. It must be an assumption of the design team that the hotel staff using the system will have had little or no experience with computers. It must have on-line help (context sensitive help is preferred but this point is negotiable) to assist staff with any problems they may have accessing functions to properly do their jobs.

Supplementary Materials

Room Specifications:

Category	Number of rooms for smokers	Number of rooms for non-smokers
Single	10	20
Double	10	20
Triple	3	7
Single Handicapped	3	7

Sample guest registration form:
Note:Typically one registration form is required for each room leased.

Hotel Computer Science

Guest Registration Form:

Check In Date_________________    Projected Check Out Date_________________
				  Actual Check Out Date   _________________

Registered leasee:
Name________________________________________________   Room # ________________
Representing______________________________________________________
Mailing Address:
Apt_________________ Street__________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
City/Town______________________________________Province/State_________________
Country_________________________________________Postal/Zip Code_______________
Phone->Bus.________________________Res._____________________
Credit Card___________________________________ Exp._______________

Vehicle(optional-required if parking on hotel property):
Make_________________________ Model__________________________________Year_____
License Plate #___________________________________ Color_________________

Names of additional occupants(optional):
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Total number of occupants_______________________

Leasee Signature_____________________________________

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For Office Use Only:

Price per night__________________

Special Conditions:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

List of charges:
______________________________________________________________________________
| Item Description                                       |  Qty   |  Total   |
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Subtotal of charges    						:
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Tax                    						:
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Less Deposit           						: [          ]
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Amount Payable         						:
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Payment Amount                                                  : [          ]
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Account Balance  						:
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Employee Number_________   Employee Signature________________________________

Sample Room Service Form:
Note: A copy of this form is given to the guest as a transaction receipt. Another copy must be signed by the guest and returned to the room service area as confirmation of billing and receipt of order.

Hotel Computer Science

Room service Request form:

Room#___________________________________
Guest Name______________________________________________
Date____________________________ Time______________________
Requested Delivery Time (NA for immediate)_________________
Order taken by__________________________________
Order Delivered by________________________________

Order:
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| Item                                                      |        Price   |
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Subtotal
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Tax
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Subtotal
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Tip/Gratuity
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Total
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Bill to room #_____________________________


Guest Signature_________________________________________