MODULE 3
I. Operate a Computerized Reservation System
II. Content Summary:
This module will help the students acquire the knowledge and skills required to
operate a computerized reservations system. The features offered by a reservation system
and its barriers will also be discussed.
III. Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the module the student should be able to:
1. Access, create, download and retrieve bookings for reservation status.
2. Prepare accurate reservation reports
3. Send and receive reservation communications according to established standards
4. Print data of guest reservation and guest folio.
IV. Lecture Notes
Introduction
Computerized reservation systems have become an essential
part of any hospitality and tourism organization. It is a necessary tool
to store and access a wide range of information that can be easily
accessed by a range of people in any location.
The use of computerized reservation system describes a key
sales and operational function for a diverse range of domestic and
international tourism and hospitality products and services and applies
to the full range of industry sectors.
These industry sectors use a diverse range of computerised
systems to manage reservations, operations and sales administration
functions, so the system will vary depending upon the organization and industry sector.
This manual covers the use of the industry-wide systems known as computerised or
centralised reservations system (CRS) and global distribution system (GDS) commonly used
by retail travel agencies when booking a supplier’s service.
It covers systems used by accommodation providers and tour operators when receiving
and processing reservations for the supply of their product or service.
It also covers other industry-wide systems used by inbound tour operators, outbound tour
wholesalers and meetings and events management organisations.
It can equally apply to any organization-based
computerized reservations or operations system.
The range and complexity of products and services and
the particular reservations or operations system will vary
according to the industry sector.
Hospitality systems
A hotel reservation system, also known as a central reservation system (CRS) is a
computerized system that stores and distributes information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging
facilities.
Hotel software is designed for all areas of hotel operation including:
• Property management
• Accounting
• Internet / GDS reservations
• Central reservations
• Reception
• Point of Sale (POS)
• Spa, club and golf management
• Guest management
• Inventory management
• Yield / revenue management.
Small hotel software is available for properties with less than 100 rooms and focuses on
basic front and back office functions or reservations and guest management.
One of the major types of hotel software used by the hotel industry is hotel property
management software (PMS). PMS is a comprehensive software package that manages all
aspects of hotel operations, which has front desk, and back office modules that handle
reservations, guest profile/folio, reporting, night auditing, and housekeeping, accounting,
payroll and asset and inventory management.
Common CRS information
Information commonly stored in a CRS includes
➢ Room types
➢ Room rates and conditions - guarantee, deposit, customized cancellation rules,
minimum length of stay, maximum length of stay, closed to arrival, arrival not allowed,
departure not allowed
➢ Room inventories
➢ Generic hotel information - address, phone
number, fax number
➢ Distribution content - descriptions, amenities,
pictures, videos and local attractions are stored in
the CRS or in a content management system
➢ Reservation information
Benefits of a Computerized Reservation
System
Benefits of using a CRS include:
➢ Speedier processing of requests and bookings, ticketing and quotations
➢ Central location of information, after data has been initially loaded onto the system,
immediate access to comprehensive information on clients and allied reservation
details are available through links via one screen; examples include:
• destination information, currency, weather, attractions, transport options,
languages, time zone
• costs of any product/service, including options,
packages, deals, special offers and conditions
• airfares, including full flight details such as departure
times, flight times, aircraft configuration, aircraft
type/details
• airport taxes, application, amount/s and whether
included or additional
• availability of products or services, including
information such as minimum stay/quantities, seasonal
price fluctuations, peak and low times
• vehicle details, including details about engine capacity,
seating, options, rear or front wheel drivetouring
inclusions, describing the ‘side’ trips, cruises, transfers, meals, upgrades, visits
and experiences included in the price
• product information, providing extensive detail about a wide range of products and
services such as brand names, styles, colour, dimensions, weight, options
• payment requirements, explaining the deposit and full amount, payment options,
due date and refund conditions
• health recommendations/pre-requisites, bookings such as action holidays, require
a certain level of health/fitness of participants
• customs and immigrations, detailing the items that must be declared, the legal
movement of items between countries and the requirements and limitations that
apply to passports, visas and permits
➢ Integration with web-based/online booking systems
➢ Allowing multiple uses and multiple sites
➢ Preserving privacy and confidentiality through passwords, operator only designations
and system administrator status
➢ Allowing pre-set limits/allocations/changes, such as dates, times, maximum room
numbers, maximum bookings to be programmed into the system.
Barriers of a Computerized Reservation System
Barriers of a CRS include:
➢ Cost of initial establishment
➢ Training of staff
➢ System breakdowns and malfunctions
➢ Need for system back-ups, system maintenance
and system updates
➢ Discrepancies occurring between properties
operating a manual reservation system and the
computerized reservations system
➢ Operational staff tend to focus on the
screen/system as opposed to being customer-focused.
It is quite clear to see that there are many reasons why many hospitality and tourism
organizations will use a CRS system to help them manage their businesses.
Operate the Computerized Reservation System
Obtaining the basic reservation information
In order to check room availability ,you must determine:
➢ Date of the first night – preferably confirmed by
reference to the day of the week
➢ Date of the last night – also confirmed by
reference to the day of the week
➢ Confirmation of the number of nights the booking
is for by using the two dates above
➢ Type of room sought – double, twin, suite, family
room, executive etc
➢ Name of guest or business seeking accommodation – in some cases such as
where a ‘Stop’ has been put on selling rooms for a certain night, knowing the
name of the guest can be useful
➢ If they are a regular guest the property may have a policy of rooming these people
‘at all costs’. They may reserve a number of rooms especially for these people, or
other guests, (even those with confirmed reservations, may be bumped
➢ In other cases, the system may reveal that this
person has been ‘blocked’ or ‘black listed’ and
must be refused accommodation because of
some previous event such as unacceptable
behaviour, bad language or failure to pay
➢ Identification of any other potentially limiting
factors – such as smoking or non-smoking,
female only floor, internet access, facing east,
overlooking the harbour, on the top floor, not near
lifts, quiet room.
➢ In some cases, such as bookings via fax, mail or the internet, you may have to
contact the person seeking to make the booking to obtain all the necessary
information.
Creating new reservations
To make a new reservation you will need to enter or confirm certain information that
will vary depending on the type of reservation being process. The information that may be
required by the system can include:
Date of arrival – this can usually be manually entered (DDMMYYY format), or selected
from a drop-down calendar where relevant days, months and years are highlighted
and clicked
➢ Date of departure – see immediately above
➢ Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) – where applicable
you may enter the guest’s ETA. This can be useful
where they are expected late or are arriving by air,
which is frequently unreliable. Some systems will
insert an automatic default time
➢ Manual times will be in either a 24 hour clock format
(such as 22.30 for 10.30pm) or in the AM/PM
format (such as 02:00PM for 2 o’clock in the
afternoon)
➢ Estimated Time of Departure (ETD) – this may be a default setting (such as
10:00AM) but can also be manually over-ridden where the guest asks for a late
check-out, is a regular guest or where management wishes to extend some
privilege
➢ Number of nights – some systems will automatically generate this calculating it
from the arrival and departure dates already entered. Alternatively, entering the
arrival date and the number of nights will auto generate the date of departure.
Receptionists tend to have their own unique way of sequencing these items and it
is really a matter of pure preference
➢ Room type – a selection may be made from a pick-list or can be manually entered
via abbreviation or code
➢ Number of adults and children – these fields can be entered manually or from a
drop box pick-list and some systems will default to 0 childrenSome systems will
allow for a ‘Baby/Infant’ field which can be useful in reminding to ask if a cot is
needed. It is usually mandatory to enter a figure in every one of these fields
(where no children or babies will be staying, a 0 may be required) before the
system will allow you to save or continue, however some systems will let you
<Tab> past these fields
➢ Package type – where the booking is part of a
package, either sold by property reception staff or
sold by other agents, you will need to enter the
appropriate package description from a drop-box,
code or abbreviation. This is vital as it will impact
on the room rate charged to the folio and possibly
other charges such as breakfast, other meals,
equipment hire and various nominated services.
➢ Room rate – the system will populate this field automatically, based on previous
information such as number of people, package type, dates and even room
number, but again you can manually override the auto rate and insert another rate.
This allows you to take the above reservation with the baby by charging an extra
tariff. Rates shown traditionally include GST.
➢ Booking taken by – the person making the booking
must enter their name, operator ID, initials or code
so that, if there is a query or problem with the
booking, people know who to contact
➢ Notes/Comments – the screen will probably
contain a space for you to record personal
comments, thoughts or suspicions about the
booking, to note guest preferences or to capture
guest requests.
These notes or comments can be combined into
‘Notes/Comments Report’ and be incorporated into the Housekeeping report,
aligned against the appropriate room number, so that guest needs are catered for.
➢ Room number – allows you to allocate a specific room
number for the booking. The system may auto select a
suitable room number from those available at the time of
booking or you can override it manually or from a drop-
box.
Rooms shown as O-O-O for those dates will be barred
and many systems will display available room numbers
within this section to assist in this.
➢ Marketing information – your CRS will also provide space for you to enter various
guest related information. Where this option exists, you will not always have all the
necessary accurate information that the system asks for, so often a ‘best guess’
will have to suffice to allow you to move on.
The marketing information may relate to:
The source of the booking - travel agent, chain referral,
walk-in
Their home location - overseas, state, town or post code
Market segment - such as tourist, leisure, business,
family, government, lay-over, group.
In cases where a booking confirmation has been requested or where it is house policy to
send one, completion of the reservation details will enable a system generated
confirmation slip to be printed.
Front Office Reports
Introduction
There are many, many ways in which the data and statistics in a CRS can be
manipulated, configured and presented. The following is a representative list.
Most reports or the ability to generate and print reports are protected from
unauthorised access and an appropriate User ID must be entered, in addition to a
recognised password, to activate or access these reports.
Some reports require quite a deal of ‘number
crunching’ and may take quite a while to develop before
they can be displayed or printed.
Many reports are generated daily as part of the
Night audit process and are printed and distributed to
management ready for perusal at the start of the next day.
Types of reports
Depending on the system being used, it is possible that available reports may include:
➢ Accounting reports
➢ Sales reports
➢ Reservation reports.
Reports may be specific to a department or cover the whole organisation.
Sales reports may focus on the overall position for the business or refer to sales
generated by individual staff members.
These reports can help to determine the workloads for the next day and the priorities that
apply as well as provide information to help management make other operational
decisions.
Reports can be used:
For the purposes of comparing cost from various product
suppliers
Determining usage rates for various product suppliers
To help negotiate rates
To determine the currency of information held in the
system.
Examples of specific reports
As previously mentioned, the CRS reporting system provides a number of standard
reports. Additional reports can be created using the integrated report generator by your IT
Specialist. System reports may be generated automatically and may be run daily, weekly,
monthly, yearly or manually upon request. Reports include:
Expected arrivals
Reservation
Property forecast
total booking activity
Stay activity
Monthly booking activity summary
Daily booking activity summary
Property detail
Property detail - room and rate information
Agent activity
Automatic allotment release
Delivery queue purge.
Weekly summary
This report provides information on income such as:
Revenue types - cash, cheques, travellers’ cheques, credit card, overseas currency,
account, complimentary rooms
Revenue by room type
Revenue by guest type
Revenue by department
Occupancy - by bed or room.
Commonly a cumulative total option is available which gives a ‘Month To Date’ (MTD) or
‘Year To Date’ (YTD) total. Comparison between ‘this week this year and this week last
year’ are also possible.
By changing the ‘Week ending’ date for a weekly summary, a specific 7-day period other
than the current one can be accessed.
Types of internally used generic reports
Arrivals Report
This is an alphabetical listing of guests arriving on a specific
day.
Departures report
This is an alphabetical listing of guests departing on a
specific day.
No show report
This is a list of guests who have made a booking but did not show on the day, or who
cancelled.
Room status report
This is a list giving the status of every guest room – vacant, clean room ready, vacant
dirty or out of order.
Special requests report
This is a list of guests requesting something special in their room prior to their arrival –
cot, champagne, fruit basket.
The report also records the status of the request.Occupancy forecast report
This is usually printed for a month (the next 30 days).
This list is an indication of the occupancy percentage expected for the next month.
This forecast will change according to additional bookings and cancellations.
Average room rates report
This indicates total room revenue in one day divided by the
number of rooms occupied to establish the average room
rate.
Multiple or double room occupancy report
This report specifies how many rooms in the establishment
had more than one guest in the room.
Guest list by name report
This is an alphabetical list of all ‘in-house’ guests.
Guest list by room report
This is a list of all occupied rooms – starting from the lowest room number to the highest,
followed by a guest name.
Travel Agents’ Commission Report
Travel agents are usually entitled to a 10% commission (or some other negotiated
percentage) on all accommodation bookings made via their agency.
This report outlines the amounts the establishment owes to a specific travel agent.
Failure to pay the correct commission and pay it promptly may result in that agency
referring people to another property.
Special packages report
This report details how many packages – and what sort – the establishment has sold for a
specific period.
Market segment report
This report displays what market the establishment is attracting, such as corporate,
industry, family, coach, group, etc.
Rooms out of order report
This report lists all rooms that are out of order, the reason for their being ‘off the board’
and the duration the room will remain in this status.
Daily room revenue summary report
This report lists the total room revenue for a specific day.
Daily revenue summary report
This report outlines establishment revenue for a specific day broken down into
departments such as food and beverage, accommodation, functions, room service, etc.
Weekly trading summary report
This report outlines the total establishment revenue based on a weekly period, and may
compare it to the same week last year.
Monthly trading summary
This report outlines the total establishment revenue based on a monthly period, and may
compare it to the same month last year.
Year-to-date report
This report lists cumulative establishment revenue for a 12-month period.
In-house activity report
This is a comprehensive report outlining:
Rooms occupied
Expected departures
Expected stay overs
Expected arrivals
Walk ins
No shows and cancellations
Rooms available
Occupancy %
F.O.C. (Free of Charge) rooms
Out of order rooms
Single occupancy rooms
Multiple occupancy rooms.
Whilst there a various types of reports that have been identified in the last two sections ,
many of which are prepared by Night Audit of the Front Office department, it is essential
that reservations ensures that any information they compile, input into systems or
distribute is accurate.
