Introduction to property management system: Computers are used for different purposes in hotels. The first use is at the from the desk, where computers are equipped with an intricate software called the property management system (PMS) to do all check-ins, guest accounting, check-outs, etc. In a restaurant, lounge, or bar of a hotel, the second type of computer system, called a point of sale (POS) system, is used. This system collaborates with a PMS to generate bills fob meals and drinks consumed by guests, but it can also be used as a cash register. The third use of the computer is in the sales office, which has a booking terminal. A PMS is a computer-based management system. In the hospitality industry, it is a computerized system used to manage guest bookings, online reservations, points of sale, telephone, and other amenities. A hotel PMS may interface with central reservation systems (CR8) and revenue or yield management systems, front office, back office, and POS systems. There are many types of PMSs-it is up to a hotel to choose the one that best fits its needs. There are different modules of PPMS to manage individual departments of a hotel, such as front office module, housekeeping module, restaurant management system, and back-office module. These modules are supplied by a large number of vendors, who modify PMS solutions to meet the requirements of the hotel. The requirement for automation may vary for each hotel on the basis of its size, location, the volume of business, operations, etc. The PMS should be able to interface with individual interfaces such as call accounting system, energy management system, POS system, and electronic door locking system. The networking of hotel computers-which may be linked by a local area network, wide area network, or a metropolitan area network, depending upon the requirements of the hotel, is a prerequisite for the installation of the PMS. The PMS terminals are located at the front desk, housekeeping, points of sale, stores, etc. Each individual user is given access to different modules, depending upon its area of work and its level in the hierarchy of the hotel. The general manager and the system administrator have full access to all PMS modules.
PMS application for front office:
1) Reservation module
2) Registration module (front desk module)
3) Cashier module
4) Set up module
5) Generation of the report module
6) Night audit module
7) Hotel rooms module
8) Back office module.
1.Reservation Module: The reservation module is used to create and manage guest reservations, both for the individual as well as groups. The reservation module includes the following features.
- It can provide room status record when the date of arrival, date of departure, and the type of guest are entered in the system.
- It can color code the room status by using different colors, for example, sold out days, particular rooms are sold out, etc.
- It can check the reservation status of a guest quickly as it can search by guest name, company name, group id, confirmation number, or arrival and departure dates.
- It can display room availability status (Up to 14 days at a time) by simply selecting a date.
- It can attach guest messages to relevant reservations, to be delivered to the guest upon arrival.
- It can automatically calculate rates based on the room type, the rate code, arrival and departure dates, and the number of adults and children.
- It can create group blocks and rooming lists for standard groups, tour series, and allotments.
- It can create special group rates.
- It can use the rooming list features for rapid reservation pick-up.
- It can pre-assign rooms to guests when making a reservation or anytime using a graphical chart.
- It can define 'share with' reservation in a group booking.
- It can automatically transmit a confirmation of reservation through e-mail or fax.
- It can post an advance deposit in a room.
- It can reserve and track the availability of service items such as rollaway beds, cribs, and refrigerators.
2. Registration module (front desk module) : The front desk module manages the registration (of guests. The features/ functions are included in the front desk module are as follows:
- It accesses guest information easily and quickly for viewing, modification, or check-in procedures.
- It displays a graphical room layout with the room status information, which shows the exact location of rooms.
- It tracks the entire guest activity for the length of their stay.
- It prints registration cards.
- It attaches individual, group, company, or travel agent information to each guest folio.
- It automatically transfers guest accounts to the city ledger when the guest checks out.
- It creates an incidental folio.
- It updates the system in case of a guest room change.
3. Hotel Rooms Module: The rooms module allows the staff to manage the hotel's rooms and floor plans. The following are some of the functions performed by this module:
- It displays the entire layout of a hotel, showing a single floor/wing at a time. One can easily go to another floor/ wing by using the scroll buttons, and enlarge or reduce the size of floor plans by using the zoom buttons.
- It facilitates change In the display of the floor plan to show housekeeping, front desk, or specific room status.
- It provides latest room status information to both housekeeping and front office departments.
- It schedules the maintenance work for rooms.
- It automatically adjusts room inventory
- It schedules linen change in long- term stayovers. - It tracks discrepancies in the room status.
4. Cashier Module: The cashier module is used to manage guest folios, raise bills, and perform check-out procedures. The following are some of the functions that can be performed with the cashier module:
- It adds incidental folios and move charges between folios with one click.
- It locates any account by entering the room number or name.
-It manages all aspects of the guest folio, including debits, credits, adjustments, transfers, and voids.
- It allows the viewing or printing of folio details and summary information.
- It consolidates all transactions and produces an accurate bill quickly, enabling a speedy check-out. - It allows the attachment of unlimited folios to each guest account.
- It carries out the transfer of charges from folio to folio, from one room to another, in amounts or by percentage.
5. Night Audit module: The night audit module is used to balance the day's activity and complete the hotel's accounting functions for the day. The following are some of the features/ functions of night audit modules.
- It performs routine tasks of posting room charge, changing no – guaranteed room reservation to no-shows with one touch.
- It takes automatic backup of data to optical disk. - It posses the ability to rebuild room availability a fresh in case there is a system failure.
- It possesses direct access to the report module.
- It allows the auditor to view a scrolled display of various processing steps.
- It automatically posts service charges such as garage fees and crib fees.
- It automatically posts finance and recurring charges.
- It automatically change the room status to out of order if a room is scheduled for maintenance work. - It automatically sets the housekeeping status of occupied rooms to 'dirty'.
- It facilitates batch printing of registration cards. - It process no-shows with deposit payments.
- It automatically prints customized reports.
- It achieves all records.
- It has the ability to perform close-out without a system shut down, other users may perform any task while the audit is running.
6. Set-up module: The set-up module is used to define system settings. These settings allow for customization . The following are some of the key features/functions of this module:
- It specifies mandatory fields for required information and add custom information and forms.
- It customizes according to the market, source, and rate codes, and can also define text form field selections.
- It generates and customizes colour codes.
- It allows the employees to access their function areas in the system using unique user IDs and passwords.
- It specifies rate codes, room rates, and rate availability along with the restriction of rate availability by date range, days of the week, or minimum stay.
- It creates and maintains profiles of individuals, groups, companies, and travel agents.
- It defines the phone extension for each room, including multiple phone extensions for a single room.
- It displays all message prompts and screen text in the local language.
- It creates a list of all room features available throughout the hotel and generates the display of attachments to specific room types and rooms.
- It customizes the reservations calendar with user-defined text for holidays, special events, and reminders.
- It sets a time limit for retaining the guest folios and profiles.
- It assigns request codes to anticipate the special needs of guests; these requests are either chargeable or complimentary.
- It creates an inventory of service items, such as rollaway, cribs, and refrigerators. The availability of these items is also tracked.
- It uses a mix of standard and user-defined housekeeping codes.
- It configures printers and routes specific report to specific printers.
7. Reporting module: The reporting module has various reporting formats, which allow the management to retrieve operating or financial information at any point of time. With this module, the management can quickly access information such as the availability of rooms on a particular day, the number of guests arriving on a specific day, a listing of guests' folio balances, and outstanding balance reports. Access to reports can be customized through the use of filters.
8. Back Office Module: The back office module provides an integrated system for managing the hotel's financial and statistical information. It simplifies accounting processes such as posting of accounts payable, transfer of accounts receivables, a compilation of the payroll, budget preparation, and the production of the hotel's profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet. The financial information entered on a terminal in the back office updates all accounting records. The back office module is also linked with the night audit module, which helps in streamlining the accounting process.
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