1.1 Introduction
Hotel Management System operates a global online Hotel Booking System for business and leisure travelers. To compete with the international e-marketplace, a great deal of attention should pay towards the optimization of user requirements to generate recommended hotel alternatives. In general sense, hotel management is the way of maintaining different activities of a hotel where a number of staffs are engaged to perform a number of these activities. At first let us take a glance to an ordinary hotel. For hiring a room in this type of hotel, the client needs to meet with the receptionist to collect the information of hotel facilities. After that he is to fill up the pro forma provided by the hotel authority, then he has to pay the defined amount of money and is offered room key for his/her rented room. He/she is then finishes the formalities a reception zone through these undergoing customs. But client always wants greater privacy and reliable security.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The real growth of the modern hotel industry took place in the United State of America in 1794. The real boom in hotel building came in the early twentieth century. This period also saw the beginning of chain operations under the guidance of E.M. (European Monasteries), who started by involving in investments, big profits and trained professional to manage the business. The management of the hotel system was virtually left in the hand of the front offices. The office in a hotel is the department responsible for sales of hotel rooms, through systematic method of reservation followed by registration and assurance of the rooms to the customers, this was done manually. This was boring and cumbersome, and has remained boring and cumbersome in hotels that still operate manually today.
The hotel industry is perhaps, one of the oldest commercial endeavors in the world. The first inns have existed since ancient time (e.g. along the Roman road system during the Roman Empire) to serve merchants and other travelers. Medieval European monasteries operated inns to guarantee haven for travelers in dangerous regions. The spread of traveling by stage coach in the 18th century stimulated the development of inns, as did the industrial revolution. The modern hotel was largely the result of railroads, when traveling for pleasure became widely popular, large hotels were often built near railroads stations.
Hotel is a building that provides lodging, meal and other services to the traveling public, provided they are in a position to pay and is in a fit condition to be received. Hence, the hotel provides foods, beverages and lodging to travelers and other paying guest. The development in hotel reservation and booking management continued gradually until recently when computer was invented as an electronic device that accepts input, manipulate data and produces information which is the output as required. Therefore a hotel which operates a computerized system will ensure that the program carries provisions for different tariffs, location and individual guest reference.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Sales and services are the fundamental tools in any business organization the profit and loss of any business depends on detailed information on sales and services made to aid in decision making and implementation, if accountability is not checked, then the business is sure to collapse, as a result in an any retail and hospitality business there is a need for a system that gives feedback to the management to aid decision making, this is where computerized hotel reservation and booking management system comes handy. We have too many problems associated with the manual system used which include:
- It takes more time to reserve room. So performance of the current system is slow.
- Difficulty in handling data accurately, security of data, data lost and viewing by unauthorized person.
- Retrieving information like reports and queries is very time consuming and almost impossible practicably if time is considered.
- Searching records of individual guest or customer takes time. (Update, Delete, and Edit), these types of method are not accessible using the manual method.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to Design and Implement an Online Hotel Booking System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:
- Provide a fast and convenient way to book/reserve hotel rooms
- Provide an easy way to automate information about the day to day activities of hotel such as record of attendance, computing of bill, tariff plan, as well as online facility for checking availability of rooms, ordering of food and also booking of the room and event hall.
- Facilitate increase in productivity, decrease paperwork, and ability to analyze trouble spot.
- Maintain security and secrecy of the hotel details.
- Provide accurate data when it is required.
1.5 Scope of the study
The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of an Online Hotel Booking System using Declen Hotel, Owerri in Imo State as a case study.
1.6 Significance of Study
The study is primarily aimed at increasing efficiency in operation, reducing time and running cost, monitoring and the recording of the activities and total administration in hotel by introducing a web-based Hotel reservation and booking management system
Besides, this study is significance because its conclusions would be useful to:
- Human Resources Managers in the hotel and restaurants business
- The Federal, State and Local Government
- Scholars in the field of hotel and restaurant management
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Hotel: an establishment providing accommodation, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML.
Hospitality: The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.
