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HOTEL & FOOD SERVICE REVIEW � APRIL-MAY 2007 67

Reflecting on the increasing impor-

tance of Information Technology,

Harish Chandra, Information Sys-

tems Manager, Hyatt Regency

Mumbai, explains how hotels that

provide personalised service have an

edge over others in earning more rev-

enue. According to him, Information

Technology enables hotels and res-

taurants to reap maximum rewards

from minimum investment.

Penning this article “more as a hotelier

and business manager than as an IT

manager,” Chandra is optimistic that

the hotel industry in India has

recognised the importance of Informa-

tion Technology and are in the process

of implementing solutions that are help-

ing hotel operations, reducing cost

and enhancing guest experiences.

With the increase in the number of

private airlines and improvement

of India’s tourism infrastructure, more

and more hotels are opening up. And

one of the main concerns of all hotels

is to provide the best possible cus-

tomer service and experience, which

can be primarily achieved by aligning

the hotel business plan with the right

type of technology.

In terms of PMS –‘Property Manage-

ment System’, hotels are migrating

from DOS/Clipper-based ‘Fidelio’ to

robust Oracle-based software –‘Op-

era’. Most of the hotels have either

migrated from Fidelio version 6.x to

Opera or have scheduled to upgrade it.

In fact, Micros-Fidelio will be putting a

stop to any further enhancement and

development of their DOS-based Hos-

pitality Solutions.

Opera doesn’t crash like Fidelio version

6.x. In the older version, the major issue

was database maintenance. It required

frequent maintenance (regular data-

base indexing). System shutdown be-

comes the need of the hour even during

peak operational hours if Fidelio hangs.

Such system maintenance issues are

reduced to a greater extent in Opera

due to the robust oracle database.

Again, unlike Fidelio at night during

‘Night Audit’ operations, in Opera, ap-

plication doesn’t require the system

operations to be called to a halt.

MICROS Systems’ Opera Hotel Edi-

tion is a very strong and stable PMS.

It is a full-featured, Oracle-based, inte-

grated, web-enabled, scalable suite of

products. Developed around the in-

dustry acclaimed Oracle relational

database management system,

speed, reliability, functionality and

ease of use are built into Opera’s

design. Oracle is the versatile data

management platform which can sup-

port customers with very large data-

base requirements and high transac-

tion volumes. Hotel Management soft-

ware companies take advantage of the

features of Microsoft Windows, Oracle,

and Internet technologies, in the pass-

ing of information or the centralisation

of the platform solutions.

Where earlier the focus was on selling

rooms, the same has now shifted to

maximization of room yield. Guest room

is a perishable commodity. Arriving at a

potential value of room when in demand

is an art. Most deluxe hotels deploy

‘Revenue enhancement\Yield manage-

ment’ application. Keeping the manual

track of a bulk room inventory, looking at

the future booking trends and calculat-

ing the potential room rate manually is

too tedious a task. This job is eased by

‘Revenue enhancement \Yield manage-

ment’ application as systems look into

current bookings, past history, future

booking trends and various events (re-

petitive and non repetitive in nature) to

calculate the best possible rate at which

a guest room can be sold. It also prompts

the best choice to be picked up from the

bucket of market segments to maximiz-

ing revenue , i.e.whether to accept a

group reservation or accept ‘FIT’-‘Free

Individual Traveller’ booking in a given

scenario.

Few years ago air travel was a luxury.

Today with the application of yield

management, various airlines in India

are able to offer best rates to passen-

gers depending on the current load

and increase their PLF (Passenger

Load Factor) creating a win-win situa-

tion for both the airline and the cus-

tomer. Many private airlines have

TechTalk

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HOTEL & FOOD SERVICE REVIEW � APRIL-MAY 200768

started the concept of e-ticketing and

advance seat booking.

Websites like www.expedia.com,

www.makemytrip.com, www.yatra.com

and www.travelguru.com have helped

customers plan holiday/business trips

within a set budget as they can take

advantage of buying tickets available

at the lowest fare directly without the

involvement of an agent. Similarly, hotel

room bookings and various other travel-

tourism related services can be booked

by a customer on-line at the best

available rate. Advanced IT software

and systems make it possible for many

agents and operators to provide a bou-

quet of complete services, i.e. from

airline ticket booking, airport pick-up

and drop to hotel room booking along

with sightseeing at very nominal rates

due to consolidation and integration of

all travel and tourism related services

using various softwares and booking

engines interface. Due to this integra-

tion, booking engines are empowered

to offer great deals to customers online.

This has resulted in the increase of

Indians travelling abroad. Surprisingly,

statistics show that more Indians are

travelling abroad than the number of

foreigners visiting our country.

Advanced reservations systems like

CRS (Worldspan, Amadeus, Galileo

and Sabre) have helped guests to

book hotels and other services directly

at appropriate rates. GDS connectivity

has helped hotel companies to display

the true rate and availability of a hotel on

the initial hotel availability screen (the

shopping display when more than one

hotel is available in the requested des-

tination). Competitive feedback has

shown that hotel brands have benefited

from incremental revenue, supported

by industry feedback that agents prefer

to book hotel chains that comply with

this enhanced Seamless Next Genera-

tion of technical connectivity.

From the origin of hospitality, a cus-

tomer is always considered a king.

Retaining business and loyal custom-

ers is a real challenge for the hotel and

tourism industry. Storing details of cus-

tomer preferences (likes and dislikes)

into the system enables customised

services which in turn helps hotels in

retaining guest and up-selling. PMS,

POS, data warehousing and data min-

ing tools play an important role in this

area. Most of the hotels and airlines

use these tools to provide services that

go beyond the guest expectations.

This also helps hotel sales and market-

ing/revenue managers to analyse cru-

cial business data for loss of room

nights by a particular company.

To improve operations and record guest

feedback, hotels deploy ‘hotel commu-

nication system’. In this application, all

guest calls are recorded. This helps the

hotel management to know the key

repetitive issues and challenges that are

required to be addressed. This system

also helps hotels to measure the pro-

ductivity of employees for employee

recognition programmes.

Internet facility has become a vital

factor for the guest in the selection of

hotel for his/her stay. Wi-Fi (short for

‘wireless-fidelity’) is no more a Greek

word. Wi-Fi is the popular term for a

high-frequency wireless local area

network (WLAN). Many airports, ho-

tels, and fast-food facilities now offer

public access to a Wi-Fi network;

these are known as hotspots. Although

many charge a daily or hourly rate for

access, some are free.

Most of the hotels have started provid-

ing both wireless and wired Internet

services in guest rooms and public

areas which is also known as ‘Broad-

band’ or ‘HSIA’–High-Speed Internet

Access’. With the availability of broad-

band, a guest is able to browse at a

much faster speed and download files

in a short span of time. In comparison,

broadband is definitely 4 times faster

than dial-up connection. WI-FI offers

freedom from wires. 802.11X protocol

has become a common feature. 90%

of guests carry Wi-Fi enabled latest

laptops which are also known as

‘Centrino’ laptops. Configuration of

external PCMCIA card to enable ‘Wi-

Fi ’-wireless in non-Centrino laptop is

quite a challenge for most of the IT

personnel of the hotel. Installation of

this card occasionally takes a lot of

time encroaching on guest’s privacy.

Most of the deluxe hotels in India have

512 KBPS to 4 MBPS Internet speed

connections. This overall is a good

Internet speed but falls short of satis-

fying guests from western countries

who enjoy faster speed in their coun-

tries due to cheaper cost of bandwidth

achieved by available infrastructure.

Some hotels have started offering band-

width as per guest demand at an extra

cost. This is done with the help of a

managed ‘network switch’ in which port-

based output can be defined. Like car

rental, Wi-Fi has become a major source

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of revenue for the hotels. Five years back

usage of high speed Internet (wired or

wireless) was minimal. Today, most of

the business travellers carry laptops

and the number is on the increase.

Increased usage of the Internet has its

own share of complaints like weak sig-

nal, no signal, unable to connect and

frequent disconnection. To arrest com-

plaints like these most of the hotels are

in the process of upgrading their Internet

services with respect to better speed,

coverage and connectivity.

Looking at this new source of revenue

most of the deluxe hotels have started

providing 24 x 7 ‘Technology Butler’ or

online ‘e-butler’ service to assist guest

proactively with the Internet and IT

related services along with 24x7 multi-

lingual toll free helpdesk for immediate

specialist assistance in case of any

challenge faced during usage . Service

providers such as ‘Inter-Touch’ provide

remote network operation which moni-

tors the status of all installed rooms

24x7x365; fixing problems before it

affects guests. Many business hotels

abroad have started offering Internet to

the guest, incorporating the cost in the

room tariff.

In room entertainment\hotel information

– Unlike abroad, hotels in India are

restricted by certain laws to screen

programmes that according to the In-

dian culture would be considered objec-

tionable and hence ‘video on demand’

service is not successful in India.

Plasma interactive televisions have

helped hotels market their services and

fulfill guest’s business and recreational

needs. It also offers additional services

like express check out, details about

the city, tourist spots, shopping venues

etc. Various applications loaded on a

common server which connects to ‘set-

Banquet function display screen –

Many hotels have started keeping at-

tractive screens before banquet

prefunction area, which is interfaced

with hotel sales and catering applica-

tion from which it directly picks up –

‘events-functions of the day’.

RFID – In India, hoteliers have not

adopted ‘Radio frequency identifica-

tion’ Technology. Firstly the cost of

RFID tag is expensive and further the

software that captures data (known as

middle ware) is very expensive. RFID

technology can help hotels trace VIPs

and guests who have higher spending

power. RFID tag can track the complete

guest profile provided the guest keeps

‘RFID tag’ in his wallet, which is provided

to him by the hotel for availing discounts

etc. Identifying the guest and providing

him with services in accordance with his

personal likes and dislikes can help the

hotel retain their guest. As mentioned

earlier, recording guest likes and dis-

likes is an art and different international

chains meet this is in different manners.

In few hotels the designation of a ‘Profile

Manager’ exists. His job role is to en-

sure that guest likes and dislikes are

properly recorded in the system to go

that extra mile in serving guests accord-

ing to their preferences. Besides the

inability of Indian hotels to move to RFID

technology, is their failure to advance

top box’ in the guest room offers addi-

tional multifunctional entertainment

functions like games, music on de-

mand and the guest can also listen to

FM radio of the country he belongs to or

to international radio channels etc.

Guests who don’t carry laptops and like

to browse Internet from their respective

rooms can browse on these interactive

TVs with the help of cordless (infrared)

keyboard. The only drawback with this

is that guest cannot download or copy

information on to his personal data de-

vice (USB drive or external pocket hard

disk). Interactive TV also offers features

like alarm clock, view bills on line,

connect laptop with the TV, check-out

from the room and others. Its film library

permits the guest to view a movie any-

time with very good picture quality and

music library allows the guest to access

most of the music tracks. ‘Digital video

recorders’ helps guests to watch their

favourite programme in case they missed

it due to any prior engagement.

Interactive TV needs infrastructure of

Cat 5/6 network cabling in the room. It

combines functions of both television

and PC to provide one solution.

‘Information Kiosk’ available in many

hotel lobbies and public areas also act

as a great marketing tool. Hotels have

started marketing various products and

services they offer via it. For example

details of various ‘multi cuisine restau-

rants’ available in the hotel, ongoing

promotions, spa facilities and other vari-

ous services, i.e. airport pick-up and

drop timings and list of functions hap-

pening in the hotel etc. Other than hotel

information, it can also be configured to

display useful city information, e.g. shop-

ping venues, distance of various land-

marks from the hotel, major events

happenings in the city, tourist spots etc.

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from non-IP based telephone/EPABX

to IP based EPABX used by hotels

abroad and telephone sets. Another

area where no advancement is seen is

in the way materials departments oper-

ate. Materials department to a greater

extent abroad uses e-procurement sys-

tems. Unfortunately e-procurement and

supply chain management concept is

not popular in our country.

Many hotels in India are concerned

about ‘energy conservation’. Hotels have

installed various ‘building management

systems’ or‘ engineering management

systems’ to conserve and save on cost

of energy. For example AC in banquet

halls switches on automatically one

hour prior to a banquet function start

time and switches off automatically at

a specified time. Automatic water sprin-

klers installed in the guest room help

hotels and safe guard property from

unlikely events like fire. Many hotels

abroad have installed systems in the

room which disconnect electricity con-

nection as most often guests forget to

switch off the television, AC and other

gadgets (even though the same has

come down with the key card activa-

tion system). In many hotels the guest

body motion sensing device controls

the HVAC in the room.

Hotels abroad have started using many

web-based ASP applications which

are accessed either by using Hotel

private secured WAN -‘Wide Area Net-

work’ or via Internet. These applica-

tions are either located centrally in

hotel HQ or maintained by third party

service provider. This central manage-

ment way of operating the PMS soft-

ware also gives the opportunity to

maintain a central reservation office.

For example, one central office can

take reservations for properties all over

the country/region with skeletal staff

at the property level. Abroad, hotels

use ‘central procurement systems’. It

gives the advantage to the unit proper-

ties to get a better bargaining power

with the volume of business that can

be generated for the properties across

the country.

Central data centre of hosting hotel

management application for PMS, res-

ervation, back office application, cen-

tral purchase etc are very common

phenomenon abroad. These concepts

are not very common among Indian

hoteliers. It is expected that this con-

cept will be surely adopted in the near

future by deluxe hotels to save on

cost though few international hotel

chains in India have taken a proactive

measure to use central shared sys-

tem concepts to overall reduce cost

of unit hotels.

Most of the deluxe chains have started

their own or outsourced reservations.

Today, guests from any where in India

can dial a common toll free number to

make bookings instead of calling re-

spective property directly. This helps

the guests in accessing the central

reservation office for room bookings.

Abroad, hotels have started using PDAs

in the restaurants, which make the

F&B order taking simpler and faster.

This speeds up restaurant operations

i.e. reduced delivery time of the ordered

food and also helps hotel management

to keep tight F&B control. PDAs are

also used for stores, mini bar inventory

stock taking and for check-in of the

guest right from the airport, etc.

The odd part of IT in hotels is that the

hotel industry worldwide uses various

applications for different operational

areas i.e. PMS, POS-‘point of sale’,

spa management, sales and catering,

yield management, back office and

materials management application,

time attendance\ payroll and data

mining\reporting tools. Most of these

applications are separate and operate

on different databases and platforms

unlike industries like production and

FMCG where they use one database

for their complete business needs.

Using different applications duplicates

the job for reconciliation as at times

figures don’t tally between different

applications. There is a need of one

application in hotel industry, which

can serve the purpose of all depart-

ments for better and faster extraction

of business information for business

intelligence and MIS purpose.

It is sure that a day will come when

hotels will swipe guest credit card for

issuance of room key and gain access

to paid services in the hotel (e.g. ac-

cess to club lounge, discotheque,

health club etc). Hotel technology com-

panies need to explore this concept.