Use Of It With Hotel Concept

Hospitality Resource Management

Hollow Meadows Country House & Spa is a concept designed to transform a run down hotel into a beautiful four star country house & spa. The concepts unique selling point is the two charming cottages located within the grounds of the hotel, they will be used to accommodate groups of up to eight guests offering also offering guests a private dining experience. Our natural theme will create an illusion of bringing the outside

in, offering a chance to relax and escape to the countryside all year round. There is a huge emphasis on the environment, the latest technology including solar panels will be incorporated into the hotel to limit the hotels carbon footprint.

Our aim is to incorporate a range of information technology both tangible and intangible to aid the running of day to day hotel operations. The hotel only comprises of 42 guest bedroom and an additional eight rooms in the two cottages this makes it a relatively small hotel which means financially it is not viable to incorporate every IT system around.

The hotel will require a fully integrated property management system compatible with all the hardware and software within the hotel. Although we wish to provide the most up to date technology it is important that the software is easy to update as software tends to go out of date quickly. Also we aim is to give a very personal service to our guests for this reason we will not be offering a self check-in as we feel our target market would prefer to speak to people as apposed to a computer.

Staff will be trained in house to lower costs using the �train the trainer’ concept where a few members will be trained on running the software and also how to train others. There are many benefits to this form of training including reduced learning times, improved job performance, enhance confidence and moral.

“Employees who deliver informal training and information sessions are most effective when they

know both what to teach and how to teach it.” (www.brainwavesolutions.com last accessed 12th April 2008).

Information technology will be used across the hotel primarily this will be a property management system linking all aspects of hotel operations. Secondly will be an EPOS system which will also link the different departments together, this will enable guests to pay one bill at the end of their stay. The internet will play a large part in the marketing of the hotel, by using the hotels website guests are able to access information on the services and facilities the hotel has to offer and will be able to check availability and book a room,

The processor chosen to run our IT systems from will be an IntelÐ'® PentiumÐ'® DualCore E2180 the hotel requires seven computer work stations, these will be located in the spa, reception and five to be placed back of house for use by General Manager, Head Chef and any head of departments. There will be two wireless printers costing Ð'Ј119 each (www.printerbase.co.uk) Wi-fi will be accessible throughout the hotel to suit the needs of our business guests.

“Travelers need to access information not only 24/7 but also wherever they have a need to do so. Mobility and accissibility are key in meeting the needs of the customers.” (Zhou 2004 ).

The operating system I have chosen to implement is Microsoft Windows Vista Business combined with Office small Business 2007. This package will offer the key programs such as Word, Excel and Access which can be used to create templates and documents. Windows was chosen as our operating system in view of the fact that it is compatible with most software, easy to update and most people are familiar with it, this should mean training costs are lower. Total cost of five workstations including software and a three year warranty is Ð'Ј7182 including VAT this includes a Ð'Ј70 bulk buy discount. (www.pcspecialist.co.uk) Microsoft are providing software solutions for hospitality business which should benefit our business.

Brian Scott, general manager for the Retail & Hospitality Industry Unit at Microsoft states "Our industry partners are a driving force to deliver our Smarter Hospitality vision,"

InnQuest RoomMaster 2000 specialise in hotel software they will be providing our PMS,EPOS, telephone and keycard systems. Their systems are all compatible with Windows. I feel their Enterprise edition (Ð'Ј2499) with the 51-75 bedrooms option would most suit out hotels needs, which would mean if we choose to expand the number of cottages in the future we would not need to upgrade our PMS package. There is no limit to the number of terminals the software can be run on as it is licensed on the number of bedrooms. The initial setup is free an there is a 30 day setup support service which is also free. I would recommend we set up a

maintenance agreement which would enable us to get emergency support and free upgrades.

The company also offer a training service at an additional cost. I would also recommend adding a few extra packages including Advanced two way interfaces between

RoomMaster 2000 (Ð'Ј250) this package will enable a telephone system to be implemented linking all departments together as well as guest rooms this system also has an express checkout function which would particularly suite our business guests, EPOS (Ð'Ј750) and Interfaces to Keylocks (Ð'Ј700) this package allows check-in staff to create keycards automatically this is great for security as each card is unique and only used

by one guest or member of staff.

The PMS will offer a number of management tools including front desk, back office, reports, payroll, internet bookings, reservations and marketing. By choosing to Enterprise package the system can deal with group booking which is needed as we are aiming our concept at large business groups and other groups who we intend to accommodate in our cottages.

Check-in is the guests first point of contact, it is important to make a good impression as the front offices is at the heart of the hotel where communication is paramount, staff will be fully trained on our PMS in order to check guests in quickly and efficiently. A guests account will be set up where any special requests will be noted, guests will be issued with a keycard.

“The front office is the nerve centre if a hotel property. Communicating and accounting are two

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