The Significance of the Application of Guest Centrix PMS to the Westminster Hotel - Example

Topic: Analytical Report on the Guest Centrix PMS Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Discussion 3 The significance of the application of Guest Centrix PMS to the Westminster Hotel 3 Main theoretical concepts learnt in class and personal experience 3 How Guest Centrix PMS is applied in the Westminster Hotel 4 How the implementation of Guest Centrix PMS affects the human capital 4 How the implementation of Guest Centrix PMS affects management and the environment 4 How the implementation of Guest Centrix PMS positively or negatively affects the organization’s revenues 5 Ethical and social implications the Guest Centrix PMS on the organization Westminster Hotel 5 Westminster Hotel Company profile 5 The Segment, Structure and Objectives That the Company Has 6 How the Company applies Guest Centrix PMS 6 Guest Centrix PMS description of the features 7 How Guest Centrix PMS will impact the business logic and processes 8 Guest Centrix PMS target users 8 Who is going to use the system 8 The information required 10 Short-term investment strategy and return on investment 10 References 12 Introduction The Westminster Hotel, a subsidiary of the Vienna Group of Hotels, was exhaustively evaluated in the year 2008, with more than 10 ten suppliers, in search of the suitable next generation Property Management System. The search ended with the selection of the Guest Centrix Property Management System (PMS), which is a product of the Sydney based software developer, CMS Hospitality. This property management system is known for its maturity in operations, besides having very many diverse and useful features (Decker, Norcott and Owens, 1999). This system’s features application is well established and widely used in the hospitality sector whether internationally or domestically. Guest Centric Property Management System’s stability, design and speed is greatly accepted by many clients, who include hospitality entities such as hostels, motels, hotels boutique hotels, island and sky resorts, as well as serviced Apartments. The purpose of this report is to provide an analytical report on Guest Centrix PMS and how it is applied in Vienna Group of Hotels, the Westminster Hotel subsidiary (Buhalis, & Law, 2008). Discussion The significance of the application of Guest Centrix PMS to the Westminster Hotel As noted by the Vienna Group of Hotels’ commercial director Justin Manning, in acquiring the right software for the organization, it is squarely important to take into consideration the most important requirements for the organizations reception and the reservations staff, followed by the needs of the senior management. Therefore the choice of the Guest Centrix was due to the fact that it exhibited quality in all dimensions. The system offers a detailed guest history profiling and a statistically comprehensive reporting, all these done in a user friendly design. It is known to provide a range of hospitality modular software applications, which reasonably suit the business needs regardless of the size. It also offers properties of all sizes an ultimate solution to suit its hospitality software needs. This is a system that is known to grow with your business in the sense that it is expandable (Lucey, 2005). Main theoretical concepts learnt in class and personal experience Majority, about 67 per cent of hospitality organizations have shown either no signs, or very little integration of Guest Centrix property management systems to the applications they use in the workflow operations. This kind of low level integration is usually bound to disrupt an organisation’s the daily operations, because it because it is charged wig the guest servicing, revenue and service goals attaining and the overall running of the seamless hospitality services. In the survey undertaken by Aberdeen 2010, in 51 hospitality organizations to examine initiatives towards property management indicated that the pressures that are felt by the hospitality executives are usually economically driven. This therefore calls for the need to make sure that there is continued growth and expansion, about 45 per cent (Sharma, 2002). How Guest Centrix PMS is applied in the Westminster Hotel Westminster Hotel underwent an exhaustive evaluation of more than ten suppliers for their next-generation PMS, prior to selecting Guest Centrix from Sydney based software developer CMS Hospitality. In the choice of this system, the organization’s management had to take into consideration a number of factors, which included the reservation and reception staff as the main requirements top on the list. This would then be followed by the senior management’s needs (Law & Jogaratnam, 2005). To the commercial manager’s view and in totality, the Guest Centrix PMS had it all to offer in terms of comprehensive reporting and the guest history profiling. This, the system did in an extremely user friendly design package. Guest Centrix PMS offers a user interface that is easy to use, intuitive, and one that requires minimum staff training. It is a fully featured application enterprise, which includes reservations, groups, allotments, front desk, accounts receivable, guest history, housekeeping, night audits, corporate, lost property, travel agent and wholesale profiles, as well as concierge (Doghouse & Barkhi 2009). How the implementation of Guest Centrix PMS affects the human capital The Westminster Hotel’s addition of Guest Centrix PMS to its portfolio has ensured efficiency on the part of the human capital at the hotel. This is evident specifically in areas such as the housekeeping section, with the house keeper application that suits the hotel’s busy executive housekeeper, the supervisor or the housekeeping manager. In this case for instance, the application makes it possible for changing of rooms’ status in real time, generation of reports as well as the maintenance and repairs needed (Ham, Gon Kim and Jeong, 2005). This is very possible with the person in charge doing his job while on the move, with the aid of an Ipad. Also, the recent addition of a browser based version of the Guest Centrix system that can be used in addition the Guest Centrix PMS as well as a public cloud environment installation, enable the offsite hosting of databases. As a result, it gives us the option for running properties with Guest Centrix PMS, without necessarily managing the servers and associated infrastructure in literal sense. This is a relief of the part of the human capital in the efficient service delivery (Wan, 2002). How the implementation of Guest Centrix PMS affects management and the environment The Guest Centric PMS system has a PMS Night Audit process which has a database backup icon. The icon is a step of the PMS Night Audit process. This process performs some fairly complex calculations in the process of changing from day to night, which include the daily statistics and updating the room statuses alongside reservations statuses. In the event unfortunate happenings at the property, for instance thunder and rain storms causing a problem with the electrical supply, the system usually takes a snapshot of the property’s database immediately before the day process change was started (Sigala, 2003). On the part of the management, the system provides an interface to Microsoft office products, which provides a good platform for reports mail merging and confirmations. The system offers arrange of standard reports of up to 250 in number, which are exportable Microsoft office suits, adobe PDF and HTML among other formats. Guest Centrix PMS manages a number of properties. It also runs as a standalone application, suitable for the hotel’s application. A range of the consolidated reports that are provided by this system’s databases ensures the analysis of the hotel’s operational areas that are vital to its core business (Au, Ngai & Cheng, 2008). How the implementation of Guest Centrix PMS positively or negatively affects the organization’s revenues In essence, the introduction of the system into the organization is a step towards ensuring total quality management. The need for this influences the manner in which the organization performs. This simply because the service and quality has been proven to be the most crucial factors that determines the long term success of business (Kim, Lee & Law, 2008). At the organization, the system has ensured that total quality management is applied, for improvement and maximization of the company’s revenues, simply by cutting down on costs, time taken to perform a task, and the all round quality management. This is ensured through the emphasis organizational and social behavioural factors of improvement in quality. The system’s process improvement is seen as a technically oriented total quality management throughout the organization, providing a customer focused approach for the best interest of the hotel (Lam, Cho & Qu, 2007). Ethical and social implications the Guest Centrix PMS on the organization Westminster Hotel The Guest Centrix Property Management System is built a stable and efficient database management, on a Microsoft SQL platform. This is in compliance with the state and territorial accounting regulations. It also offers further proof of the benefit to the company in case of unit investors and owners in a secure way (Huh, Kim, & Law, 2009). The system also takes care of the top management’s significance aspect of the ethics, considers the individual’s sense of social responsibility, and respect the existence of ethical codes. It takes care of the determination of ethical perceptions’ frequencies alongside the opportunity for unethical behaviours being tested. Management information systems have been perceived to pose unethical practices. However, this is not the case most reputable systems such as the Guest Centrix PMS. This system is professional and really ethical with adherence to the company ethical codes ensuring confidentiality of the customer’s information that is collected. With this choice, the top management had the best interest in of the clients as well as the organization in terms of social and ethical standards (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007). Westminster Hotel Company profile Westminster Hotel is a subsidiary of the Vienna Group of Hotels. It is located at the heart of the city of London in the United Kingdom and offers a range of services. The hotel has a business centre, which offers a range of professional and technologically advanced services. The secretariat and information technology section offers the support that ensures that clients acquire all they need to enable the work away from office, at maximum efficiency. The hotel offers gym services for exclusive guests, and has a selection of running tracks, which were created by the one time Olympian twice London and New York marathon winner. It also offers a standard internet service free for all guests, available in standard rooms, suits, executive rooms, public areas and the business centre. Westminster also has an exceptional entertainment and recreation set of facilities (Stair, & Reynolds, 2011). The Segment, Structure and Objectives That the Company Has The hotel has a number of segments that it operates in its service delivery. The segments include: hotel restaurants such as the Blue Boar Smokehouse. This restaurant takes and inspiration from some of the best American masters. The menu revolves around the authentic smoke house techniques and maintains its British influence all the same. The on-site charcoal and smoking ovens produces a set of rustic dishes. The serving is usually done in a modern way with classic foods using the great British produce. The restaurant is presented in two different exceptional kinds of private dining rooms, which are usually preferred for their privacy. The hotel also has a bar segment, the Blue Boar bar place, which is a beating pulse of the hotel. It offers a wide selection of cocktails, wines, fine spirits as well as local ales. Clients have wide range of selection to choose from and a stylish layout to catch up with the latest blog, just take a seat at the bar relaxing and engage in with the inspiring mix. The bar also offers a selection of exclusive bar snacks. The Lobby Lounge is another segment of the Westminster Hotel. This is a nice village activity based lounge that is truly a place to grab a morning cup of coffee, or a light plate of lunch with the quintessentially British afternoon tea. This are served against the most traditional British backdrop. How the Company applies Guest Centrix PMS The Westminster Hotel has applied Guest Centrix PMS system in its front desk operations. The system offers colour coded calendars and reservation screens, which indicate the clear levels of occupancy, the availability charts as well as guest statuses. The hotel uses the room blocking chart, which is a powerful feature of the Guest Centrix system, to graphically represent the booking statuses over a period of time, say two-week. With this feature, is only required to double click the desired booking in order to display the full and editable details. To the organisation, the system presents a powerful and straightforward type of individual reservations system. The reservation then is used to display the guest’s full history, instructions and the billing information on any kind of special requests (Wöber, 2003). With the Guest Centrix system, the organization creates attractive rates and packages rates and packages and posts the charges to a number of transaction codes. It also enables the weekly and monthly options of postings with multiple validity periods, specifying the rates by the type of room at each period. Thanks to the system, the hotel has multiple package components, which are posted to folio as a single item. Packages can now be broken down and dissected for the automatic posting in financial statistics. This way, Vienna Group of Hotels has been able to attain a broad yield management capability in its maximization of revenues (Singh & Kasavana, 2005). Westminster hotel uses the system also in the extensive profiling of guest, travel agency and company history, thus giving full statistical information on their clients. With this the hotel is able to attach the default settings of reservations, the normal contracted rates as well as the default the commission rates applicable. The front office staffs again do not have to experience difficulties in information retrieval. This is ensured by the simple to use enquiry programmes of the Guest Centrix system, which has been included to provide any information required from the database (Dibbern, Goles, and Hirschheim & Jayatilaka 2004). Courtesy of the system, customised booking confirmations can now be generated on a single mouse click, and then sent via email or fax using the Microsoft office feature of the system. It also offers a variety of comprehensive document formats, which can be can be developed to include the needed reservation information in text and graphics form. Correspondences can now be sent to guests, and then tracked by the system in a support relationship as well as marketing campaigns. The company has therefore gained total control of the guest invoicing process given the use of up to 4 ledgers per customer folio offered by the system. Each of these ledgers supports individual client profile. The hotel has gained much control on the functions of cashiers for the rapid and accurate charges’ posting. It has also gained total control of its accounts receivable statements and the management of deposits (Choi, & Kimes, 2002). Guest Centrix PMS description of the features Guest Centrix PMS is equipped with rich features that are suitable for the property management. The features are easy to configure and use with minimal staff training. The system’s features include; 1. Stable and scalable hotel and hostel management solution. This is an intuitive user’s interface that ensures the ease of use and a minimal staff training requirements. It also has a wide range of interfaces and integration options. 2. The system also has a real time web booking engine. This feature allows for the interfacing of the system to Microsoft office suits for mail merging, confirmations, and confirmation. 3. A fully featured enterprise application. This includes the aiding in reservations, groups, allotments, front desk, night audits, guest history, accounts receivable, travelling agent, corporate, and wholesale profiles among areas. 4. It has customised report writing and handling capabilities. 5. A stable and efficient database management system. This feature has been built on a Microsoft SQL platform and is scalable with the capability of growing with your business. 6. It is also fitted with a number of business intelligence tools, which can be accessed though mobile applications for tablets, I pads, and smart phones. How Guest Centrix PMS will impact the business logic and processes Guest Centrix PMS was chosen by the hotel as the main hotel solution, having the capability of configuring it and show the accurate hotel inventory in terms of accommodation. This is done with reference to different multi key room setups, which is an imperative, thus allowing the reservation team to be able to sell different types of rooms, for instance, a three or two or even four bedroom apartment as either a single room, or as separated rooms. The hotel has then been able to manage payments to by unit clients as well as ensuring the correct and accurate retaining of fee for property. The addition of Guest Centrix Yield Manager to the Guest Centrix PMS system by the hotel has impacted positively, as indicated in the company’s revenues (Murphy, Olaru, Schegg & Frey, 2003). The addition hereby allows for the yield levels of the hotel to be automatically set through the manual or occupancy presets to a future date. This then means that the reservations and the front office teams have to sell only the best yield rates that are based on the actually expected occupancy levels. With another addition of the Site Minder Interface, the hotel booking can now be done via the web, hence reservations can be made online and send to the PMS (O’Connor, & Frew, 2004). Guest Centrix PMS target users Who is going to use the system The users of the Guest Centrix PMS at the hotel include the: Reservations: clients as well as the front office The system offers a powerful reservation system for individual guests, and lets users create reservations from groups, allotments as well as associate reservations with companies, travel agents and wholesalers. Below is a GuestCentrix PMS reservations table. Source: The Front Desk The system has a cashier menu, which allows users to; quickly and accurately post charges, print folios as well as checking out guests at the front desk. There are four ledgers contained in each folio, allowing charges to be directed in the appropriate ledger automatically. They can also be moved manually by dragging dropping. These folio formats are user defined and offer unlimited transaction codes (Nevo & Wand, 2005). Accounts receivable. Guest Centrix PMS presents the organization with an open item debtors system, which has been integrated with the front office. Its accounts receivable module allows for users to closely control the organisation’s credit status, while at the same time providing the reservations and the front desk with an easy interface with the clients. The House Keeping section Guest Centrix PMS simplifies the record of rooms maintenance in terms of cleaning, repairs, and any change if need be. It maintains the room status through the PABX interface. Through the interface, rooms have been assigned a maid status of either clean or dirty with changes being accounted for. The housekeeper or supervisor can then be able to assign rooms to individual attendants for cleaning, and subsequently print and provide a room status report to the attendants. Below is a GuestCentrix table for room status. Source: The information required The Guest Centrix system is easy to implement. Its rules are based on the enhancement of standard functionality of the PMS application. The rate codes for the hotel or hostel charges are assigned to different yield control levels. Usually the codes are based on occupancy rates. The levels have to be and is colour coded, thus making it clear for the availability. The calendar displays the yield settings enforced for a given day. One has to filter the accessible rates accepted on low occupancy dates. The lower yielding rates also have to be made available, in order to encourage a higher percentage of occupancy (Lin & Su, 2003). Short-term investment strategy and return on investment The hotel has made physical, social and technological investment as a necessity for its economic growth, and its desired industrial progress. Quality infrastructure such as the Guest Centrix system is a sure indication of the short term as well as long term investment, for the well being of the organization (Young, Schatzmann, Weilhammer & Ye, 2007). The hotel shall have short term investment strategy that will be based on the operating and program capital. This will be invested with the objective of preserving the hotel’s assets, to cover the operating expenses, hence realize the earning earnings in a manner that allows for the immediate liquidity. This shall be done in order to meet the hotel’s ongoing daily and operational needs. The operating capital and assets could be maintained be maintained in the checking account, which the hotel uses (Jacobson & Ng, 2004). The operating capital may also be invested in some other cash equivalent short-term investments which include the money market accounts and certificates of deposits with maturity durations that are appropriate for expected organizational needs. Other easy to liquidate investments are the treasury bills as well as other investments (Liao, 2005). The hotel’s management will from time to time review investment allocations of the operating and program capital. This shall be done through the hotel’s checking account, with that of its other cash equivalent investments. The checking shall be in order for the allocation of the organization’s cash flow requirements. The hotel’s Board will be mandated with the review of any changes in case of any, for the allocations and shall also consider the hotel’s time to time operating and program capital investment (Piccoli, Connor, Capaccioli & Alvarez, 2003). References Au, N., Ngami, E. W., & Cheng, T. E. (2008). 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