This document discusses technology used in the hotel and restaurant industries. It begins by explaining how property management systems (PMS) emerged to handle core functions for hotels like reservations, front office/back office operations, and management. PMS provides benefits such as improved efficiency, inventory control, and marketing/sales reports. It then discusses how restaurants divide technology between back-of-house systems for inventory, ordering, and labor management, and front-of-house point-of-sale systems.

2.  While hotels have been in existence since
ancient times, the modern hotel traces back
to the advent of railroad travel.
 Chain hotels became prevalent in the
decades followingWorldWar II.With the
advent of chain hotels, travelers came to
expect a certain level of consistency within a
hotel chain’s properties.

3. Hilton results:
 In a two year period, spending by its “most-
valued guests” grew by from 40% to 61%.
 Increased use of online account management,
by customers, has reduced the number call
centers from six to four.
 In 2004, the 20 largest hotels – out of over 2000 -
had $4 million annual savings due to improved
operating efficiencies.
 In addition to these quantifiable results, there
are the more qualitative measures of increased
guest satisfaction and loyalty.

4.  Hotels are under such pressure to keep up with expectations
of guests that they are implementing new technologies to
regain their edge.

7. PMS is the central computer system which
handles the core functions of the properties
and its information processing in hospitality
industry such as hotels, motels, guest house,
campsite, condominium and so forth.
The functioning of PMS includes reservation,
front-back office operation, and managerial
functions

8.  improving capacity management along with operation
efficiency,
 facilitating central room inventory control,
 providing last room availability information,
 offering yield management capability,
 providing better database access for management proposes,
 supporting extensive marketing, sales and operational
reports,
 providing travel agency tracking and commission payment,
 tracking frequent flyers and repeat hotel guests,
 direct marketing and personalized service for repeat hotel
guests establishing customer relation-ship management,
and
 reducing operational costs with the aid of technology.

9.  The reservation is handled by the PMS at property level.
The reservations are received in the form of email, phone
calls, faxes, letters, from hotel‟s website, bookings from
GDS.
 All the reservation received is the subject to be entered
into the PMS.
 If the hotel is a part of a hotel chain or other CRS the
reservation are directly entered into the interfaced PMS
from the CRS via internet.
 The reservation module of a PMS keeps the record of the
guest‟s preferences such as room type, special request,
dates of stay, deposit information, details about their
booking agent and generates confirmation notices.
Reservation module can facilitate single and group reser-
vation based on request and requirement of the guest

10.  PMS facilitates with C-IC-O.The facility differs on the basis of use of
level of technology.The C-I process brings the guest‟s reservation
file into an active in-house file and a guest folio is opened.
 Check out procedure is related to cash payment. Most of the hotels
have check out at front desk as check in. But in the hotels
automated with self check out machines the guest does not need to
visit front desk for check out. Guest can view the total bill and make
a payment through the machine and receives a receipt.
 In many hotels the check out is facilitated throughTV.The guest
can use remote and check the bill and pay them online. SuchTV is
often has a printer which can deliver a receipt of the payment

11.  Guest history is an important part of PMS which can
be used as a powerful marketing tool.
 The PMS facilitate to create such history databases
after the guest is checked out.These databases are
used for research and marketing purposes.
 Guest history helps in understanding the nature and
manner of guest in using services of the properties
and provides background for improvements.
 This database also facilitate the future transaction of
the guest the address, credit card number and other
data entry is not required to be fed again.

12.  This module of PMS helps in tracking the status of room and
provides information for housekeeping department in order
to support their work.
 This module of PMS contains the information regarding
room type, its number, and amenities in room, room rates,
location, and the status of each room.
 The status can be vacant, occupied, dirty, clean, inspected
and uninspected.The room status gets changed after each
C-IC-O.
 Another important function of this module is to provide all
the updates regarding the status of the room in order to
increase occupancy rate of the room.

13.  The database of PMS provides management with real-
time information in order to understand the operation
of the property.
 It provides online statistics of different operations such
as occupancy percentage, average room rate, gross
operating profit, room sales and so forth.
 PMS supports in generating marketing report, arrivals
and departure reports, guest behaviour report,
feedback report, complaint report, night audit report
and so forth
 It supports Revenue management or yield
Management programs

14. PMS carries out all the back office functions such
as processing of
 payroll,
 employee information,
 accounts payable and receivable,
 inventory, and purchasing.
Providing reports on revenues, sales, customer
relations and commissions paid etc.

15. The PMS can be featured as required by the
properties. New facilities and features can be
added in order to provide tech savvy services
to the modern guest.The list of such facilities
is given below.
 Electronic lock
 Guest information and entertainment services
 Call accounting system
 Internet facilities

16.  The food service sector of a hotel has a Point
of sales which is connected to PMS and all the
purchases either can be paid at the POS or
entered in to the guests’ folio for final billing.
 These terminals can be single or multiple and
self ordering where guest can place an order
pay bill or place an order and transfer the bill
to the folio.

17. Using the restaurant management system, the
hotel can manage the
 purchasing and inventory control of food
items,
 menu and recipe control items on order,
 details of suppliers,
 inventory control systems tracks the par level
so that ordering can be automated

18.  Keeping the record of commissions of the
travel agents through whom the rooms are
booked is done by PMS.
 The commission are tracked at the time of
reservation and calculated in individual
account of travel agents.
 The cheque for such commissions is
generated automatically by PMS on weekly
or monthly basis

19. The numerous function rooms can be banquet
rooms are used for convention, meeting,
seminars and other social event and gathering.
PMS manages the upcoming events and stores
information regarding setting of the room,
decoration, equipment required for event, man
power requirement, food and beverage and
other requested entities are recorded in PMS in
order to manage a successful event hall

20.  Managing the record of the sport entities,
renting them, scheduling time for the court
booking court for guest and their
management are scheduled in the PMS

21.  It is a different module in PMS which
manages accommodation units owned by
different par-ties.
 This module kept detail information of the
owner of the properties, track the payments
and provides facilities for overall
management of the properties

23.  Most restaurants divide their technology into
two parts: back and front of the house.
 Many systems integrate these so that
operators can input and draw on the
information from both programs.

24. BACK-OF-THE-HOUSE
TECHNOLOGY

25.  track product through each stage of the inventory
cycle and to automatically reorder
 when an item falls below the par stock level.The
ingredients for recipes are costed to calculate cost and
selling prices.
 If the purchase price of an item increases, it is easy to
enter this information and get the new selling price.
 Software solutions like ChefTec and ChefTec Plus
include options such as importing purchases from
vendors’ online ordering systems and comparing
vendors’ pricing from purchases or bills.
 Additionally, the software allows restaurants to
automate ordering with user-set par levels and
generate customized reports detailing purchases,
bids, and credits

26.  Back-office systems aid inventory control by
quickly recording the inventory and easily
allowing new stock to be added.
 Calculations are done rapidly and monetary
tools are given for each item, plus a cumulative
total.
 The software programs prompt when inventory
falls below the reorder point.
 When new menu items are added to the
system, they are costed and priced according to
the mark-up.

27.  When calculating the food (and beverage) cost
percentage, a handheld device (PDA) can enter
the inventory amounts into the system.
 Laser bar-code scanning technology is
speeding up the inventory-taking process and
making it more accurate.
 When the data are entered into the system, a
variance report is generated and any significant
variances are investigated.

29.  Improve food quality, save on labor, and shorten table turns by
automating the most critical area of your restaurant—the kitchen.

30.  The menu management function is used to
determine what offers work best, so that
menu building may be directed toward those
items.

31.  Labor management systems interface with both
front- and back-of-the-house employee working
hours, plus they handle human resources information.
 Labor management systems include a module to
monitor applications, recruitment, personnel
information, tax status, availability, vacation, and
benefit information.
 Labor management systems also do the scheduling
based on the forecasted volume of business for each
meal period, and managers monitor the schedules to
control costs.
 The actual time worked is recorded, the data on tips
are entered and later reported, the pay scale and the
calculation of paychecks are made, and the check is in
the mail

32.  Back- and front-of-the-house systems may
interface by transferring data to and from the
central server.
 Profit (or loss) statements, budgets and
variances, daily reports, and balance sheets
are prepared with the aid of software
programs.

33. FRONT-OF-THE-HOUSE
TECHNOLOGY

39.  Aloha: Full range of
restaurant products
includingTable Service &
Virtual Order Processing.
 ASI: Popular Restaurant
Manager POS &Write-On
Handheld.

40.  IBM: Linux servers &
Sure POS 700 series.
 Sharp: UP-5900 system
combined with
Maitre’D.
 NCR: 7454 POS
Workstation- MS DOS &
Windows certified.
 Micros: Eclipse PC
Workstation.

41.  Tables may be booked over the Internet at any
time by leaving a credit card as a form of deposit
to secure the table, especially in the large cities
at convention times.
 Hosts can use programs to allocate tables,
allowing a certain time, say one and a half hours,
before that table is booked again.
 Guest checks can be split for payment by several
people, if need be.
 Guest bills even come with suggested tip
amounts calculated.

42.  Another form of guest services is offered by
some coffeehouses, which provide high-speed
Internet access for guests.
 Wireless surveys allow guests to give feedback
before they leave the restaurant, and tabletop
pagers let guests page their server when they
need something

44.  As personal devices become better able to
enhance the guest’s experiences using RFID
technology, systems Keyless Door Entry
allow guests to skip long lines at check-in and
head straight to their room, using their cell
phone as a key.
 For many, the guestroom is an office away
from the office.

45.  As the center of any guestroom, the bed is an
important feature.
 Designed to support the body in the correct position
for sleep, the bed has 20,000 components that move
interdependently to contour inch by inch in the
natural curves of the moving body.
 It also factors hygiene, airflow and adaptability into
the design.
 Because the bed lacks a traditional mattress, it lasts
many times longer than today’s bed does, and is
environmentally friendly because after its useful life it
does not fill up our landfills.

46. Bath uses sound waves to provide a relaxing bath
for guests.
Four vibro-acoustic experiences envelop the
bather in a multi-sensory environment that
synchronizes music, vibration and light with
water.
This fully integrated shower incorporates a
rejuvenating water stream, music from a
personal play list, and lights that move and
change colors to help guests improve their
mood.
Guests can chose personalized temperature and
water delivery options from up to eight shower
components.

48. "'Active' walls and floors will show changeable
images, enabling guests to set whatever
mood they wish...All waste produced by the
hotel will go into a unit at the base...so no
blemish will be left on the environment after
it has moved on."

49. Biometrics, a security technology that
identifies individuals by retina scans,
fingerprints or voice prints, is already in use at
government and private industry
installations.
The lock on your hotel room's safe may soon be
triggered by a retina scan.
Guests of future hotels might also forget about
room keys and check in to hotels with just a
glance.

50. Food and drinks could be dispensed by
machines or robots, rooms could be cleaned
by built-in vacuum and disinfecting systems,
and a quick back-and-foot massage could be
provided by a robotic apparatus.

51. Hotel rooms equipped with molecular
nanotechnology will deliver. On the more
immediate horizon, the technology promises
scratch-resistant furniture, self-cleaning
coated glass, upholstery that stays clean, and
windows that filter UV/IR light.

52. Business travelers will be able to use 3-D
holographic teleconferencing to include far-
off members in a meeting, without the use of
special glasses. Prototypes have already been
developed at NYU and MIT.

53. Systems that track a hotel's inventory and add
information about what is in each room can
be made available to guests wishing to
choose just the right location and
configuration.
Taken a step farther, guests would be able to
specify what they want in a room (i.e., a copy
machine), and what they don't want (feather
pillows, if the guest has allergies).

54. In Dubai, the Hydropolis opened at the end of
2006; this massive (250,000 square feet)
underwater hotel complex encompasses
three restaurants, a ballroom for indoor
concerts, a Roman-inspired spa, and guest
suites with "ocean-view" windows.

55. On top of the water, floating hotels are being
envisioned. A project byWestin Hotels &
Resorts, "AmericaWorld City," calls for a
250,000-ton ship with three high-rise, 21-story
hotels atop it.The "floating city" could
accommodate 6,200 passengers and require a
crew of 2,400.
On-board amenities planned include virtual reality
gaming rooms, multi-story shopping centers,
and ice-skating rinks.

56. On the horizon: a resort in outer space, and an
airship hotel.

57.  Perhaps the technology closest to becoming
a part of our lives, smart cards are credit
cards (or similar pieces of plastic) embedded
with microchips.
 Smart cards can be used by hotels to
personalize the guest experience, from
checking you into your hotel automatically to
remembering your preferences (you always
want a king-sized bed, and fresh fruit in your
room when you check in).

58.  Guestroom digital door viewer
 Guestroom door keys
 Electronic door lock
 RFID door lock (Radio Frequency
Identification)
 Near Field Communication door security
 Biometrics security door lock
 “Sound” activated security door lock
 In-room safe

59.  Broadband services
 Voice over Internet Protocol Phone
 In-room entertainment
 Flat panel display (A 40-inch LCD)
 Internet protocol television
 Mirror television
 Virtual games

60. Mini-bar
 Once the items being removed from the mini-
bar, the sensor will be activated and recorded in
the system.
 This technology tracks all products and
transactions across the entire mini-bar network
within the hotel.
 The system also analyses inventory status,
consumption quantity and expiry date of all
items in the minibar.

61.  External multi snack displays in guestroom
Guests also have the options to select snacks
placed on the automated tabletop trays or
baskets outside the mini-bar.
Once the guest lifts up the snacks from the
tray, it will track the inventory levels and
automatically add consumed items to the
guest’s room bill.

62.  Body-Motion Detection Systems:
A motion detection system requires in-room
sensors, and in-hall sensors as well, since the
installation should be extended beyond the
guest rooms. When the ceiling sensor detects
no motion, lights and HVAC equipment are
shut down

63.  Empty food tray tracker
The detection system,Tray tracker installed by
some hotels to signal staff in real time the
exact location of the used food tray so that
they can be cleared in the shortest possible
time without having to locate or leaving the
smelly food unattended for hours along the
corridors.

64.  Personal valet
It enables seamless integration with air-
conditioning, lights, door security, and electronic
safe, automated curtains operation as well as
video and audio systems.
Guests are no longer afraid of getting lost on their
first visit to the hotel.The personal valet console
placed in the hotel room allows the guest to
select images of the hotel at their fingers tip. Just
by a few touches on the screen, it allows the
guest to place order on a food menu for in-room
dining, information and scheduled for a spa
service.

65.  ICETouch – In-room concierge
It allows hotel guests to arrange all services within
the hotel such as in-room dining, room make-up,
dinning reservation and valet or bell-desk
services all through a single system. Guests can
book a car rental, purchase event tickets and
local tours through this system.
All these made possible instantly via a touch
screen console, laptop or a mobile device

66.  Microsoft surface technology
Guests can reserve tickets to events, review the dinning
menu from nearby restaurants and book a luxurious
spa treatment; putting all the offerings and
experiences through the guests’ fingertips with the
interactive virtual concierge.
It also enable guests to browse and listen to music,
create their own playlists, send photos home,
download electronics books, and even order food and
drinks.
Guests can view pictures and videos previously taken
during the day and insert their own memory cards
into the system.

67.  For the next 10 years, the three generations,
baby boomers, Generation X and Generation
Y will bring three different sets of technology
requirements into the hotel.

68.  The baby boomers belong to a group that
requires something reliable and consistent.
 They are less experimental or adventurous.They
would prefer devices and technologies that
allow them to “plug and play” without going
through the process of reading the operating
manuals.
 However, they will have more income at their
disposal and will be willing to spend it on luxury
travel experiences as they enter retirement age.

69.  Generation X is now adults between the ages
of 29 and 41.
 Key characteristics of Generation X include:
quest for emotional security, independent,
informality, and entrepreneurial
 Generation X is already the most free
spending of leisure travelers.They outspend
baby boomers on trips involving a hotel stay.

70.  The up and coming of GenerationY is also a
large population and will be more dependent on
the portability and connectivity of their
technology devices in the near future.
 Gen-Y guests are an emerging market that is
unique from Gen-X and the baby boomers.
 They execute their tasks, purchase event tickets,
movie tickets and book hotel rooms through
their mobile devices and not so much through
the websites.

71.  The next generation of guests has an inherent
awareness of environmental responsibility and
expects hotels they stay will somehow engaged
in activities that will reflect social
responsibilities and have positive impact to the
environment.
 In view of this, hotels going green are no longer
a trend, but rather a necessity so as to be part
of the integrated decision made by guests to
stay in the hotel.

73.  A Call Accounting System is a telecommunications
software or hardware application that captures,
records, and costs telephone usage events.
 Internationally call accounting systems may be
referred to as call logging systems.
 Call accounting systems detect outbound and
inbound calls, call ring outs, call routings,
abandoned calls, and other activities..

75. Call accounting systems may provide packaging,
pricing, provisioning, billing, and posting or
presentment of telephone services for
purposes of revenue generation.
The hospitality industry uses call accounting to
resell phone services to visiting guests and
groups.

76. The original purpose of call accounting systems
was within corporate entities for purposes of
cost allocations within the enterprise.
Enterprises use call accounting to allocate costs
back to divisions, departments, and even
individual employees. Such systems may also
provide data directly to corporate accounting
and human resource systems.

77. Call accounting software can reconcile multiple
telecom carrier's billing reports by integrating
telecom invoices, wireless billing, long
distance charges and calling cards into a
single platform, allowing your business to use
the convergent expense software to provide
management reports, analytic reports, alerts
and robust presentations

78.  Call accounting systems provide visibility into
the calling patterns and activity of employees
and can be used to minimize productivity
losses through non-business calling activity.
 They can also be used to evaluate the
effectiveness of revenue-generating staff and
sales processes, and manage the
responsiveness of customer service staff

79.  Companies also use call accounting systems to
determine whether their voice and data
networks are being utilized efficiently, in a cost
effective manner, or to capacity.
 Call accounting applications are used to monitor
network activity and bandwidth, identify over-
and under-used trunks to optimize trunking
configurations.
 Call accounting can help companies more
efficiently allocate telecom resources and make
better planning decisions affecting a
telecommunications network

80.  Call accounting applications enable IT
departments to shield companies from a
variety of internal and external security
threats by monitoring for network attacks,
intrusion attempts and telecom activity that
exceeds acceptable or established thresholds.

82.  VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a
method for taking analog audio signals, like
the kind you hear when you talk on the
phone, and turning them into digital data
that can be transmitted over the Internet.

83.  Voice over IP (VoIP) commonly refers to the
communication protocols, technologies,
methodologies, and transmission techniques
involved in the delivery of voice
communications and multimedia sessions
over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as
the Internet.

84. When you place a "regular" phone call using the
Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN),
also known as Plain OldTelephone Service
(POTS) you use what's called circuit-switched
telephony.This system works by setting up a
dedicated channel (or circuit) between two
points for the duration of the call.These
telephony systems are based on copper wires
carrying analog voice data over the dedicated
circuits.

85.  VoIP, in contrast to PSTN, uses what is called packet-
switched telephony.
 Using this system, the voice information travels to its
destination in countless individual network packets
across the Internet.This type of communication
presents specialTCP/IP challenges
 Individual packets take different paths to the same
place. It's not enough to simply getVoIP packets to
their destination.They must arrive through a fairly
narrow time window and be assembled in the correct
order to be intelligible to the recipient.

86.  It is a way of making a phone system digital in a
way to take advantage of the Internet and of
any hardware and applications attached to.
 The main aim of IPTelephony is to increase
productivity, which suggests that the
technology is better referenced in business
environments.
 On the other hand,VoIP is simply a digital
transport vehicle for phone calls.

87. The simplest and most common way is through
the use of a device called an ATA (analog
telephone adaptor).
 The ATA allows you to connect a standard phone
to your computer or your Internet connection for
use withVoIP.The ATA is an analog-to-digital
converter.
 It takes the analog signal from your traditional
phone and converts it into digital data for
transmission over the Internet.
 Providers likeVonage and AT&T CallVantage are
bundling ATAs free with their service.

88. These specialized phones look just like normal
phones with a handset, cradle and buttons.
 IP phones connect directly to your router and
have all the hardware and software necessary
right onboard to handle the IP call.
 Wi-Fi phones allow subscribing callers to
makeVoIP calls from anyWi-Fi.

89. This is certainly the easiest way to useVoIP.
There are several companies offering free or very
low-cost software that you can use for this type
ofVoIP.
All you need is the software, a microphone,
speakers, a sound card and an Internet
connection.
Except for your normal monthly ISP fee, there is
usually no charge for computer-to-computer
calls, no matter the distance