IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN HOTEL MANAGEMENTCase study: Merit Hotel, Golden Tulip and City Royal Hotel in North

Cyprus.

Tunde Ewuola

skillstech@consultant.com

Abstract –This research project assessed theimpact of ICT in Hotel Management utilizing

three significant hotels from North Cyprus

namely Merit Hotel, Golden Tulip and City

Royal Hotel as a case study. This study

conducted both open end and closed end

questions which were developed and sent to the

front desk personnel in the hotels three

hotels mentioned above. The Results identified

a number of positive and negative impacts of

ICT in hotel management and also the number of

responded and non-responded questions in the

questionnaires that were shared. This research

also shows a sample of front desk software and

how it is used in these hotels. Information

Systems are widely used in front office in most hotels

these days because of its efficiency and effectiveness

in the data manipulation and calculations. ICT is used

in all hospitality industry. The findings indicate

that the improvement in customer’s

satisfaction and profit maximization can be

actualized by the use of ICT in Hotel

Management.

Keywords: ICT, Information Systems, Hotel

Management systems.

I. INTRODUCTION ICT has become an integral part of

human daily activities and it has major impact

on people’s way of life and how daily

activities are been carried out. Modern hotel

management has implemented the use of ICT in

various departments, in other to improve their

efficiency.ICT investments play a critical

role in managing hotels strategically.

Efficient and timely deployment of new IT

applications may offer Opportunities that will

enhanced guest services to meet increasing

customer expectations, improved cost control,

more effective marketing strategies, and

expanded opportunities for hotels.

The systems are also linked to airline Websites that

enables it to form a global reservation systems that

will enable the traveling agents to make a direct

reservation..

Slow moving business is pushed forward with

the use of ICT to provide better services,

improve decision making and to boost revenue.

Hotel operators are now realizing that a brand

of its self is not enough .computers, storage

devices, printers, telephone and other

electronic devices are linked together by

network. The hotel systems could be networked

to share resources via LAN or WAN. The link to

a centralized reservation system is considered

one of the most important benefits of joiningany hotel franchise.

2.1 Literature review

The provision of quality services to theguests has been a major emphases placed by thetraditional hotel industries. Hotels hasdecided to be using computer based ITfacilities due to the rise in demand foradequate information from the customers andthe hotel practitioners, this will lead to theimprovement in efficiency of operation,minimize costs and promotes the quality ofservices (Camison,2000; Cobanoglu et al.,2001; Siguaw and Enz, 1999; van Hoof et al.,1996). Businesses that are moving at a slowrate are being pushed forward with the use ofthese technologies to provide better servicesand improve their decision making processes.Hotel operators now knows that a specificbrand is not enough in its self (1).Hotelmanagers expects an increase in their profitmargins and their financial returns with theuse of IT in their businesses. IT begins andends with customers within the hotel(watkins1995), implying that the investment inIT can only benefit the hotel when it enablesthe customer to have a good experience andenable the staffs of the hotel to workefficiently in providing better assistant tothe customers. Also Olsen and Connoly (2000)presented an argument stating that the use ofIT can keep knowledge and information at theessential part of organization`s competitiveprofile. Generally hotel industries can nowbe regarded as IT intensive; IT is reshapingthe entire structure of the industry and the

society at large due to the consumers demandfor high accurate and faster information, therate of the use of technology in a hotel willkeep increasing at a unprecedented rate(Davisand Davidson (1991) .Similarly, Cho andOlsen(1998) also emphasized that IT canchange the nature of a products, theprocesses, industries, companies andcompetitions in hospitality industries.Further emphasis from Frew (2000a,b) satesthat technology will lead to a majorrevolution in hospitality industries.Computers, printers, telephony, storagedevices and other electronic devices arelinked together by the use of networks,(odom,2007). Hotel systems can either benetworked to share resources through LocalArea Network (LAN) or through Wide AreaNetwork (WAN). Information within the hotelscan be shared with the help of LAN, such assharing information from restaurant to thefront office and the WAN helps in sharinginformation from one branch of the hotel toanother within the same management andoperation across various geographical areas(2). There can be a connection to the networksto use facilities from another hotel orlocation. The centralized reservation systems(CRS) could be used to harness informationresources. One of the important benefits ofjoining any hotel franchise is the link sharedwith the centralized reservation system(Knowles, 1998). The centralized reservationsystem networking ensures cost effectiveness,easy communications and effective informationexchange and proper management of data (lucey,2005). A hotel chain can provide differenthotels and the managers within the chain withtools that will enable them to increasereservations, maximize sales, increase marketcapabilities, implement management yield,enhance quest services through the use ofsophisticated central reservation systems(3).In order to allow travel agents to makereservations for their clients directly, thesystems should be linked to airline CRSs inorder to form a Global Reservation System. CRSdo experience an unprecedented operational andsome guest services challenges like a systemdowntime, though it is still essential tosurvival(Knowles,1998). It is difficult toimagine a business functions without theadoption of ICT, due to the many positive

impact of ICT in businesses.ICT drives allaspect of businesses. In order to managevarious rooms in each hotel at internationalstandard of hotel service, it is necessary forthe managers to update their management know-how and the knowledge of the latest ITsystems. In the front office of a hotel, thebills and the invoices are created bycomputers, to monitor the bookings and thereservations, for proper check-in and check-out of the guests, to take note of theexpenditures made by the guest and to exchangeinformation within and across the hotel(4).With the use of IT, guests could stay at theircomfort and their private places, have aconstant communication with front office staffthrough telephony or through mail to makereservations and confirm the reservations.Payment with credit and debit cards is now anintegral part of front office activities withthe integration of the appropriate hardwareand software. The guests pay for their onlinebookings to guarantee their reservation, thisreduce queuing for payment at the office andsaves time. Fast updates of both hotels andguests accounts after the reservation has beenmade can be guaranteed with the use ofElectronic Fund Transfer (EFT).Computermanaged learning tools(CML) and computermanaged instruction(CMI) tools are employed asthe administrative resources to organize dataof a guest, the occupancies and vacancies inthe hotel(5). There is a total change in themethod which hotel companies sell to theircustomers from few years ago. The centralreservation systems (CRS) in the hotel frontoffice operations is being used to shareinformation like communication about theavailable rooms, the cost of available roomand other activities across the hotels thatare within the chain. The Global Distributionsystems (GDS) also helps in linking thereservation system of a hotel directly, theairlines and other traveling mediums on aworldwide web, which can be connected throughthe use of internet (6). The front officeactivities are being influenced greatly bytechnological development. All front officeactivities starting from reservation,allocation of rooms, the history of the guest,the billing all accounting needed for

management information are covered bysoftware packages (7).This is the reason whymanagers in the hotels mentioned as case studyhere, make use of information andcommunication technologies in front officeoperations. The information and resourcesshared across the hotels that enable the hotelto measure the rate of check-in of guests andtransactions made by the guests and easyaccounting operations like billing the guestare among the positive impact(8). A studyindicated that most hotels do not often intendto embark on the implementation of newtechnology before others (cho and olsen). Theslow adoption of the new technology can makethe hospitality industry to be behind otherindustries in the application of IT accordingto Gamble (1988). This may cause the hotel togain less competitive advantage.Some of the hotel decision makers don`t have abasic training aboutIT, this will limit their technical knowledge(Borsenik)/The low knowledge of IT by thesehotel managers definitely makes them to bereluctant in deploying new technologies due tofear of losing their role in the hotel becauseof the existence of the technology(9). Law andLau (2000) stated that the low technicalknowledge of hotel managers and a largeinvolvement of IT in hotel operations willlead the hotel industry to be at the risk ofexperiencing IT problems often. Hotels shouldhave a budgetary allocation that will takecare of the acquirement of software, hardwareand all the networking and installationdevices, all the security facilities, stafftraining, maintenance services, and otheractivities.

Fig. 1 The hotel should also be aware of theeffect or damage the staffs can face fromsome IT hardware. Working with some devicessuch as video terminal (VDT) and keyboardsmay be productive and enjoyable butprolonged posture with a high concentration

level and seasonal frustration due tooccurrences of some abnormality may causesome physical health problems such ascomputer sight syndrome and carpet tunnelsyndrome (CTS)(10). Some activities likecontinual clicking and some movementsassociated with the use of mouse which arerepetitive, are actions which can be ahealth hazard. Extra allocation should beassigned to the disposal of unwantedhardware devices, because this can behazardous to the staffs (olifer 2006). The continuous increase in the use ofcomputers in daily activities has raisedissues concerning the possible securitythreat to the computers and data. Clientdata collected has to be protected, makingit necessary to deploy appropriate securitymeasures to ensure data integrity andconfidentiality. A huge amount of money willbe spent by these hotels in other to takecare of both the hardware and the softwaresecurity strategies like purchasing thefirewalls and make provisions for thirdparty backup software necessary for theprotection of data. There are some othernegative implications such as lose of hugeamount of money when there is systemdowntime, this will prevent the client frommaking on-line and reservation (11). Thehotels will have to spend much in trainingpersonnel to be able to gain IT knowledge(olifer, 2006). This will definitely have asignificant effect on their budget.

2.2 FRONT OFFICE HOTELOPERATION The front office is normallyknown as the reception, which is main base ofmost of the activities in the hospitalityindustries, either large or small hotel, aholiday center or a resort. This is the mostnoticeable department in a hotel. The firstand last place where the guest makes directcontact with the hotel is the front office;this is also the most visible department inthe hospitality industries. The front officedepartments do have a front desk, reservationsand telephony which help in providing theguests with services and facilities needed.The major activity of the front officedepartment is supporting and smoothing theguest transaction progress and all theservices, starting from the first to thefourth stage in the guest cycle, which is pre-

arrival, arrival, occupancy and the departure.The department of front office performs allthe transaction associated with the guest likethe reservations, check-in and check-out, theregistration, mailing and information,telephone calls and text messages, the billsettlement (12). Most of hotels were operating undermanual systems, until 1990`s. The introductionof computer systems made hotels to be shiftingto automated systems. Almost all the five-starhotels operate with full automated systems (13).The automated systems are computer basedsystems. The computer based systems is thebest system that hotel industry has ever usedand it is known with excessive use ofdepartmental software program packageintegrated and connected to the main framesituated at the front office department.

Fig.2 front office operation(source.www.satm.bilkent.edu.tr) There is a reservation system which is when guests are sent from another hotel in thesame marketing chain, this can be through affiliation or by a non affiliation reservation network system (Baker et al 2000).This affiliate reservation system is a reservation system where by a hotel in the same chain participates in the business(14). Theguests can chose to make a reservation for

accommodation in any of the hotel within the chain. Non-affiliate reservation system is subscription designed to connect different hotels operating separately and gust makes reservation at any hotel within the network. When customers make contact at the front office, to make reservation, the central reservation officer (CRO) checks the availablerooms and directly makes the reservation into the systems (15).The use of computers and internet now make reservations to be easy because guest can make their booking from any location. Computer systems are mainly used in the front office these days due to its efficiency and the effectiveness in data manipulation, calculations and the speed and accuracy (16). IT deployment does not only servein the front office department, it brings a link to other departments like the housekeeping, conference, the food and beverages and other activities (17). Hotels in chain are connected by the CRS and they share information like knowing the available rooms and the rate (18). The use of CRS helps the managers have a better and smoother management, it helps in taking room inventory,provides the hotel management with a wealth ofinformation that will help to increase the occupancy level and increase revenue (19). The central reservation officers can know the room’s availability at a certain time in another hotel within the chain (baker et al 200). The customers can also check the marketing information, the availability of rooms and the rate at a particular time through the use of internet(20). The clerk in charge of the reservation will constantly update information in the internet to make therecent activities of the hotel available on the internet.

3.0 MethodologyData were collected from three significanthotels from North Cyprus namely Merit hotel,Golden Tulip and City Royal hotel. Thisincluded both open end and closed endquestions which were developed and sent to thefront desk personnel in the hotels mentionedearlier. A quantitative approach of dataanalysis was used on the data collected bymeans of questionnaires. Tables and charts

were also used to collect this data for theanalysis. Respondents were also asked to filland tick the corresponding check box asquestions like ‘How is the use of Informationtechnology in front desk operations?’ and‘What significant change has Informationtechnology brought to your hotel?’ weresimilarly used in the research. The researchwas also only limited to hotels in NorthCyprus in other to actualize more impact.

3.1 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OFFINDINGSA demographic data of the respondents areanalyzed here. Fifty Five questionnaires weregiven to Fifty Five staffs in three selectedhotels in North Cyprus. Thirty Fivequestionnaires were responded to out of theFifty Five. Out of the 35respondents, 20 werefemales representing 57% and 15 were malesrepresenting 43%. Table 1 and Figure 1 willboth be used to show the total number ofquestionnaires given to each hotel and thepercentage of responded and non-respondedquestionnaires. The questionnaires will alsobe analyzed and evaluated as results will bedisplayed according.

3.2. RESPONDENT AND NON RESPONDENT ANALYSISOF RESULTS

Table i Questionnaire Respondent Table

Column1 Responded Non Responded

Golden Tulip 16 4

City Royal 11 4

Merit 8 12

Total 35 20

Percentage 64% 36%

Fig 3 Questionnaire Respondent Chart From the above analysis in Table 1, itcan be clearly pointed towards the fact thatout of 55 Questionnaires sample, 35Questionnaires were responded representing 64%of the results while 20 were Non-respondedrepresenting 34%. In Figure 1, we could alsohave a visual representation of the results incharts.

3.3. ANALYSIS OF AGE DISTRIBUTION The analysis in Table ii shows the agedistribution of respondents within thefollowing corresponding age range, 20-25 yearsshows the total number of 14 respondentsrepresenting 40% of the results, 25-30 yearsshowing 12 respondents representing 34% of theresults and 30 and above years with only anumber of 9 respondents representing 26% ofthe results.

3.4 Respondent Marital StatusAnalysis

The analysis here shows the marital statusof respondents in Table iii and Figure iiiwith a number of 11 respondents who aremarried representing about 31% of theresults and 24 respondents who are singlerepresenting 69% of the results.

3.5 Respondent Academic qualification The analysis here shows the educationalbackground of respondents, Table iv and Figureiv shows the Diploma and Masters respondents

having a number of 8 and representing about23% of the results each and the Degreerespondents having a number of 19 andrepresenting 54%. It could be clearly picturedon the chart that respondents with Degreeeducational background are more employed andexposed to the use of ICT in these respectedHotels.

3.6 DURATION REPONDENTS BEEN WORKINGIN THE HOTELRespondents within 0-5 years show a totalnumber of 32 representing 91% whileRespondents within 5-10 years show a number of3 representing 9% of the results. Analysis inboth Table v and Figure v shows mostrespondents are newly employed.

3.7. ICT AND ITS EFFECT IN HOTELS. In Table vi and Figure vi, 32 respondentsresponded to a ‘yes’ agreeing that ICT causesan effect in the front desk operations of thehotel thereby representing 91% of the resultswhile 3 respondents ‘averagely’ accepted,representing 9% of the results. From thisanalysis it can be clearly pointed out thatICT integrated in the front desk operations ofthe hotel could definitely affect theeffectiveness and efficiency of its managerialoperations and decision makings. 3.8. In Table vii and Figure vii, 33respondents agreed the integration ofInformation technology leads to a positivechange in the Front desk operations of thehotel, representing 94% of the results whileonly 2 respondents claimed it has a negativechange representing 6% of the results. 3.9. ANALYSIS OF HOW LONG HOTELS HAVE BEENUSING ICT Here 35 respondents representing 100%show it’s often use of ICT in its dailyoperations. In Table viii and Figure viii, weunderstand how complex and complicated theoperations and functionality of the Hotels andits Managers could face if ICT is neglected.Hotels Guest are better satisfied by usingmore advance and trending technology in makingsure there are better relaxed whenever theypay a visit to these luxury Hotels

In Figure ix, 100% of the respondents whoundergo random training on the appropriate way

of using these technologies to better enhancethe mode of its Front Desk operation says ithas a Positive impact in better satisfying itsguest and better decision making by itsmanagement.

Table ii. Respondents Age Distribution Table

AgeNumber ofRespondents Percentage

20-25 14 40%

25-30 12 34%

30 and above 9 26%Total 35 100%

Fig ii Respondents Age Distribution Chart

Column1 Married Single

Marital Status 11 24

percentage 31% 69%

Table .iii, Respondents Marital Status Table

Figure iii. Respondents Marital Status Chart

Table iv. Respondent Educational Background Table

Column1 Educational Background Percentage

Diploma 8 23%

Degree 19 54%

Masters 8 23%

Table v. Working Duration Table

Column1 Working Duration Percentage

0-5 years 32 91%

5-10 years 3 9%

Table vi. Respondents Effect of Using of ICT in Hotels

Column1Effect of Using ICT in

Hotels Percentage

Yes 32 91%

No 0

Average 3 9% Table vii. Respondent Significant change of ICT in Hotels

Column1Significant change of ICT in

Hotel Percentage

Positive 33 94%

Negative 2 6%

Table viii. Respondent Duration of ICT been used by Hotel

Column1 Duration of ICT been used by Hotel Percentage

More often 35 100%

Less often 0 0%

Average 0 0%

ICT TRAINING IMPACT OF RESPONDENT ON FRONT DESK

ANALYSIS OF ICT IN FRONT DESK OPERATIONS

Figure x. Respondents use of ICT in Front Desk Operations.

Figure x shows 100% of the respondents find the use of ICT user friendly making it easier andmore interesting in attending to guest and customers who patronize these hotels. CONCLUSION The paper emphasized on the impact of Informationand Communication Technology (ICT) in hotelmanagement. From the investigation and theobservation gotten from the questionersdistributed, it proved that model hotels cannotoperate without the use of ICT. IT use has reducedthe number of queues in front offices of hotelsduring check-in and check-out because ofreservations which is possible through the use ofinternet, clients can make their reservation fromany location, their by reducing the burden fromthe front office clerks and increasing efficiencyof the services.

RECOMMENDATIONThe hotels should ensure that the front officestaffs has a proper IT knowledge so that they willbe able to make use of ICT equipments, they shouldorganize continuous training for the front officestaffs in order to prevent some incidence likevideo display terminal (VDT) and carpal tunnelsyndrome (CTS) threats.

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