IT And The Indian Hospitality Industry

Albert Raj

Technology, which was formerly not considered as an important factor, has already become one of the most important assets of the hospitality industry. In order to provide 100 per cent guest satisfaction the use of the right technology is very important.

Basically, technology plays a pivotal role in all the sections of the hospitality industry starting from reservations, lodging, food and beverage, communication, human resources and finance. The hospitality industry in India is now looking to technology to reduce cost and manpower and maximise its profits while providing better guest services. Hotels are now willing to invest huge amounts of money in different types of technology to keep ahead of the competition added to which prices of hardware and software have come down in the recent years making it more affordable. Better technology ensures better performance, which in return would result in a larger and more loyal client base.

The demands for better service is an integral part of any industry's survival and the basis of hospitality industry is better service or we can say 'best services'. The investments in technology are in the initial stage of set-up and the correct mix of software and hardware would ensure that the internal and external customers are kept satisfied.

Hospitality information system applications makes use of real interfaces used in today's hotels and restaurants, including the Property Management System (PMS), Global Distribution System (GDS), Point of Sale System (POS), Restaurant Management System (RMS), Catering Management Software, Back Office and Enterprise systems, databases, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) etc.

Take the case of a reservation, booked through an agent. The agent takes the reservation; uploads it into the central reservation system, which in turn flows down to the PMS software of the specific hotel. The proper integration of the software with each other through interfaces reduces lot of workload and manual transactions. For example integration of PMS with the door locking system would only allow genuine guest to access the rooms for the specified number of days and would automatically disable the locks after the guest have checked out.

Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi):

The role that the internet plays in Indian hospitality has taken a quantum leap with many hotels installing broadband internet access. With the rates of broadband going down the average bandwidth speed has increased from 256 kbps to two mbps or more for hotels depending upon the usage and with Wi-Fi enabled laptops, business travellers prefer to stay connected through out their stay. Hotels are now converting most available areas of a hotel into 'hotspots'. Internet facilities are now available in the lobby, restaurants, swimming pools, business centres, ballrooms and other public areas and some hotels in India have even gone so far as to make all rooms Wi-Fi enabled.

What business travellers and most hotel guests look for is technology, which makes accessing mails or information pertaining to his business easy and gives him mobility, freedom and flexibility.

Data Centres

Major hotel chains are now setting up shared services or data centres, which provide the basis for reservations, queries and other related aspects. The concept of data centres or reservations centres is not a new one. The centralised reservations centres are connected to the other hotels of the group through Wide Area Network (WAN). The servers are connected through WAN and the connectivity is always monitored by the technical department throughout, so that there is no breakage of link. This is an effective way to do away with having reservation offices in each unit thereby reducing the cost involved in setting up reservations office in the unit and employing reservations staff. This also acts as a single point junction where all the reservations of the hotel are accumulated with reservations agents taking reservations for each unit.

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce)

E-Commerce means transaction occurring through the combination of computer technology and communication. This combination is termed as electronic commerce. Any transaction, which is processed electronically, is e-commerce. In the Indian context E-commerce involves both B2B and B2C transactions. B2B means Business to Business transactions and B2C means business to consumer transactions. An internet reservation for a hotel room is a B2C transaction while a travel agent booking hotel rooms is a B2B transaction. In India e-commerce transactions through the internet has gained popularity and we have hotel bookings through the internet being done frequently. All major hotels have their own web sites, which are designed to allows customers to view select parts the hotel including guest rooms, restaurants, banquets and other facilities on offer. Some hotels have invested heavily in these web sites and update them regularly with additional facilities.

All the major hotel sites provide the reservations on line with secure billing with the use online credit card payment. Other source of reservation is through email to the hotel reservations regarding the booking or making any additional enquiries. The hotel web sites provide a wide range of information like the number of restaurants, the types of cuisines, banqueting facilities, spa etc.

Management Information System (MIS)

MIS involves conversion of data into usable information combining the hardware, software, database and application. Almost all the major hotels in India use this data or information to increase the customer base. It is not only used for increasing the customer base but also to analyse market trends and company profiles. If used effectively it could be a boon for the hotels in increasing market share and revenue.

Accounting

Accounting is one of the major areas in any hospitality industry. All the accounting functions like accounts payable, accounts receivable, cashiering, auditing, computer networks are inter-linked with the other operating departments. This eases the operations and ensures the proper control of finance. Accounting software is always interfaced with the PMS software so that relevant data flows in automatically instead of manual entry.

Human Resources

The Human Resources (HR) department is responsible for the recruitment, selection, development and retention of the employees. Job openings are announced through the hotel web site or other relevant employment sites. In the Indian context almost all major hotels use their web sites to announce job openings. Certain hotels even allow online applications to be posted thus making the process easy.

Thus, although technology is still in its nascent stage it is definitely here to stay and will revolutionise the face of hospitality industry in the years to come.

(The author is information systems manager, Hyatt Regency, Kolkata)