Serviceing Guests with a Cocktail of Technology

A recent estimate by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) says that the demand for tourism in India is growing by 8.8%, which should place India as the second most rapidly growing tourism market in the world. As consumers, we want to get the best deals, best service and customization in whatever we pay for.

Your brand and word of mouth

In any industry, the customer has always been the king. But in the hospitality vertical the customer is a difficult-to-please king with the customers looking out for maximum value for time and money spent. A recent trend has been that consumers are hitting the Internet and checking out consumer review websites to find out consumer experiences first hand. People love to talk about their experiences and that's exactly the reason why consumer review websites are getting populated by good and bad ratings of things ranging from gadgets to hotels.

From the perspective of a person in the hospitality business, this trend is great if you provide great service to your consumers, as you'll get free word of mouth to spread across the Internet about your brand leading to more customers. But if your customers are left dissatisfied, you might land yourself in soup with your brand receiving negative publicity which might just snowball into losses. Moreover the hospitality business is a highly competitive sector as there are plenty of options for consumers and they might not think

twice before considering another hotel or another restaurant. Increase in competition is forcing companies in hospitality business to develop USPs in their offerings, provide a customized experience, excellent quality of service and methods to retain the current customer base. This is where IT comes into the picture, giving hospitality vertical ways to enhance consumer experience.

IT solutions for hospitality

IT has long been considered as an overhead cost by most industries in India. The mindset however is changing rapidly with more and more organizations taking keenly to IT and its utility. Hospitality has always been a service driven sector, with zero scope of error in delivery and quality. Today, the changing mindset is seeing IT as a strategic investment across industry, with a measurable RoI providing a significant impetus to the growth prospects of a business. Most industry players are today considering IT to be an important asset for their businesses that can lend consistency and strategic insights to carry their business across newer dimensions. IT could ensure open communication channels between different departments. It can result in a seamless flow of vital information amongst departments and sites to evolve a comprehensive business strategy that is customized according to region specific requirements.

Challenges faced

Of late there has been a mushrooming of many vendors selling IT solutions for the hospitality vertical but these are isolated solutions that offer limited front and back office integration and with only some defined functionality. The challenge that most of the hospitality industry is facing today is that each part of hotel operations uses an individual application, resulting in numerous disjointed systems which in turn require pretty complex interface in order to transfer data from one department to another. As a result the IT department of hotels get busy in resolving such interface issues and the hotel is unable to effectively serve the guest.

ERP

With tremendous growth that the hospitality vertical is going through, the market is seeing emergence of vendors with completely adaptable ERP based business solutions. The modules that such ERP solutions offer range from front office management, room management, house keeping, restaurants, kitchen, banquets and conference, back office, store management, offers and schemes, CRM etc. The immediate benefits that a hospitality organization receives are:

Unified information: Since all the information across different departments is integrated, the information flows seamlessly from one module to the other. All users can simultaneously access the system through a common visual environment. This improves the operational efficiency by reducing dependency on multiple systems and interfaces. It also enables them to keep track of customer visits, sales appointments of customers and helps in anticipating and predicting customer requirements. All this leads to enhanced customer service.

Data overview in realtime: To counter all competition in the hospitality vertical, availability of information real time has become extremely important, be it room availability status or customer requests. Top management can view the live status of their business and monitor happenings across the property. This enables strategic decision making, for example quick resource planning, that includes estimation of material and people required across the property.

Cenium

Cenium is a hotel management software based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV and a Microsoft SQL database. It is a fully integrated system of modules that can be used separately or in combination to meet the needs of a hotel or spa or a restaurant. The software covers operations that are required by the hospitality industry, which includes front desk, stock control, procurement, accounting, financial planning, housekeeping, restaurant, bars, conference, retail kiosks and also solutions that link to Internet booking, telephone etc. Because of the uniform architecture all the data is centralized within one system thus providing a single platform for functions like accounting, CRM, revenue management, BI, stock control and other ERP functions. Dynamic Vertical Solutions provides localized and customized version of this software to suit the Indian industry requirements.

Some of the modules provided under the hospitality management solution are:

Property management system: Provides managers with one user interface for various tasks ranging from booking, fianance, front desk, housekeeping, room service, food and beverage with no need for data transfer amongst different departments.

Revenue management module: Provides revenue managers as well as reservation department a tool for controlling the room inventory and rates at the hotel.

Conference system: It is designed to increase customer satisfaction through all phases of a conference, booking, scheduling, re-scheduling, execution and billing.

LS Hospitality

LS Hospitality is a solution by Dynamic Vertical Solutions for the food and beverage industry which is based on Microsoft technology and MS Dynamics NAV. It is an integrated, multilingual POS and back office solution for hospitality organization, and is designed for managing dine-in, take out delivery business and pubs/bars. It provides management and employees with necessary tools to keep customers satisfied. Benefits include increased flexibility, speed of service and improved access to vital information and streamlining operations and reducing costs. With complete localization, built in, namely sales tax, service tax, VAT, etc it makes the entire system hassle-free for users. Key highlights of this solution include:

l Continuous order tracking and monitoring through delivery order overview and order history displays ensuring a before time delivery. The POS functionality using handheld devices allows processes from taking orders to finalizing a sale at the table itself, with an easy split bill facility.

l Meal/Recipe module helps control ingredients and resources through enhanced costing function.

l It enables setting up of reservation options for different time-periods, special needs or preferences with complete tracking of arrivals, no-shows, cancelled bookings as well as an overview of all rush hour periods.

Guest relations and operational

efficiency software

Faster guest service is what every hospitality enterprise craves to achieve. Here we talk about an interesting solution that improves guest servicing of a hospitality enterprise.

Triton, a product suite by Knowcross solutions is a guest relations and operational efficiency software that aims at automating the handling of all guest and maintenance related tasks.and improving service quality and increasing operational efficiency at hotels. It is built on Microsoft Server System integrated server software with Mictosoft SQL Server 2000 at the backend, as its centralized database.

Triton is a central system that helps the hotel to manage all guest requests, complaints, maintenance and other jobs. Requests can be entered into the Triton software using a PC, BlackBerry or iPhone (using Triton mobile) or telephone (using Triton's IVR). The system automatically assigns the most appropriate staff member to the job, informs him and then follows up to ensure that the job is completed on time. Using this system, hotels can keep a track of the staff and their tasks in real time. Some functionalities of the software are as follows :

Property Management System Alerts and Auto Calls: The software can automatically send messages to specified staff or create new jobs when guests check-in, check-out or move rooms. These alerts and jobs can be triggered on the basis of any field in the guest's profile in the PMS. For example, the software can be set to inform a front-office manager every time a VIP Level 3 guest checks in and also inform the GM every time a VIP Level 1 guest checks in. If one of the hotel's frequent guests checks in, the software can automatically create a job order for room service to deliver his favorite beverage to the room right after check-in. When guests check out, the software can automatically inform the housekeeping attendant on that floor, thus ensuring more efficient turn-around of rooms.

Automatic Escalations and Personalized Alerts: When an assigned job is not completed on time, the software can be set up to automatically alert the responsible manager on his mobile phone. In addition to being informed about delayed jobs, hotel managers can also set up alerts to automatically get informed when a specific situation occurs. For example, a club floor manager can automatically be informed when a club guest makes a complaint.

-Glitch System: This is a service recovery system that ensures that when things go wrong, the hotel is able to compensate guests quickly, alert key staff members about the problem, and investigate what went wrong. It also has a range of analysis reports so that managers can identify the underlying issues that caused the problems.

-Triton Mobile: This allows users to run Triton from their BlackBerry and iPhone. Managers can view information about their guests (in real time) from the property management system.

hotelEMS: This is a preventive maintenance system for use by the hotel's engineering division. It helps ensure that all equipment and rooms are properly maintained and serviced regularly.

The benefits of these solutions include reduction in service turnaround times, streamlined operations across departments, greater staff accountability, personalized guest service, enhanced guest loyalty, workflow automation, optimized utilization of hotel staff and extensive use of mobile technology to track guest information on the go.

Other useful solutions

We enlist some more interesting software for organizations in hospitality industry:

IDS Fortune Express

It is an integrated property management system, which has the flexibility needed to effectively manage mid segment and budget hotels. It provides a single database which keeps them apprised of all aspects of hotel management and facilitates information sharing for greater efficiency. The modules included are front office functionalities comprising of reservations, registrations, cashiering, guest history, and housekeeping. Then there are modules for billing, guest history, inventory and purchase management, general ledger, accounts payable, etc. Critical information is displayed through colourful graphics so that important facts can be absorbed at a glance. It offers a friendlier user interface, while ensuring easy maintenance, faster updates and greater security. Customer retention becomes easier due to features such as guest history and faster reservations, check-ins and check-outs. It provides comprehensive reports that assist the management in making better business decisions.

Emperium

The Emperium Hospitality Point of Sale is an application that contains two parts, one for the Point of Sale management and the other admin feature, management controls. The admin has functionalities that can help any hospitality business and catering business to manage staff, define access rights, products definitions, promotions such as happy hours and stock controls for wet and dry products. The software is compatible with touch screen systems and credit card processing.

ASI Front Desk

A property management system, it is a comprehensive software suite consisting of integrated modules for various aspects of hotel management. The modules provided by this software include hotel management software, hotel reservation software (billing software), hotel reception software and hotel accounting software. This software is a general purpose hospitality software that can be deployed at hotels, motels, inns, resorts, lodges, hostel, military guest houses, ranches, suites, apartments, and medical centers.

EnSuite

It is a hospitality reservation system that keeps track of guest reservations, guest service charges, guest payments, booking agency commissions, room management, taxes, etc. It uses a major relational database for data storage and retrieval. When existing customers book again, their previous reservation can be located instantly, and all their personal details and reservation notes can be copied to the new reservation at the click of a button, saving time it would take to retype it all again. The software can quickly find rooms for guests with amenities that they require. Guest statements can be printed in seconds and the guest account is always up-to-date.