. E-Hospitality
e-hospitality is beyond just distributing, servicing, as it offers more than that
by supporting proven hospitality and technology products for the Hospitality Industry.
Additionally, e -Hospitality offer support and services beyond just that of a front desk
system vendor, therefore it is postured to assist properties with all aspects of the front desk
and associated guest amenities from the phone system and voice mail to Pay per View
(PPV) movies, secure high speed in rooms, lobby kiosks, and even guest printing/faxing
from the guest rooms.
The Web screen shot displayed below (Figure) is a model of e-hospitality system
offered by CAPA e-hospitality Inc.
Hotels use information and communication technology in order to improve
their operations, manage their inventory and maximise their profitability. Their systems
facilitate both in-house management and distribution through electronic media. ‘Property
management systems (PMSs)’
coordinate front office, sales, planning and operational
functions by administrating reservations and managing the hotel inventory. Moreover,
PMSs integrate the “back” and “front” of the house management and improve general
administration functions such as accounting and finance; marketing research and planning;
forecasting and yield management; payroll and personnel; and purchasing. Understandably,
hotel chains gain more benefits from PMSs, as they can introduce a unified system for
planning, budgeting and controlling and coordinating their properties centrally.
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Example - E-hospitality solution
Source:
http://www.ehospitalitysystems.com/
Hotels also utilise ICTs and the Internet extensively for their distribution and
marketing functions. Global presence is essential in order to enable both individual
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customers and the travel trade to access accurate information on availability and to provide
easy, efficient, inexpensive and reliable ways of making and confirming reservations.
One of the most promising developments in hospitality is ‘application service
providers (ASPs)’. ASPs will be increasingly more involved in hosting a number of business
applications for hospitality organisations. ASPs are ideal for hotels, especially for smaller- to
mid-sized ones, that want to leverage the best vertical and enterprise support applications
on the market without having to deal with the technology or pay for more functionality
than needed. As they do not have extensive ICT departments and expertise,
they can easily
access up-to-date applications and benefit from the collective knowledge accumulated by
ASP providers without having to invest extensively in technology or expertise building.
The development of the Internet has provided more benefits as it reduces the capital
and operational costs required for the representation and promotion of hotels. Hotel websites
are a basic requirement to an increasing number of communication and business strategies.
The usability of a website, effectiveness of its interface, as well as its amount of information,
ease of navigation, and user friendliness of its functions, are central to the success of these
strategies and an Automatic Website Evaluation System (AWES) can provide objective and
quantitative guidance to website design.
However, many small and medium sized, independent, seasonal and family hotels,
find it extremely difficult to utilise communication technology due to financial constraint
and lack technological expertise.
