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| Hotel chains can make reservations world wide
in lightning speeds while desktop based hotel software takes much
longer and is more perceptible to errors. An example of this type of
software would be ‘hotel booking engine’ via ‘ez-reservations’.
 In the 1990’s, hotel Internet software was at its beginning stages.
Patrons had to call the hotels reservation line or call a hotel
directly in order to make and cancel reservations. Today hotels take
full advantage of hotel Internet software. Some of the popular
features of this system would be the using major credit cards to
make hotel reservations in advance. They can even view the hotel and
its amenities in advance. Hotels that are equipped with websites can
post their ratings online.
Upon receipt of patrons’ reservations, they receive a confirmation
number. Their confirmation number can be sent to their email address
and the patron can print out their reservation at their own
convenience.
If a patron needs to view their reservation, the hotel Internet
software allows them make changes to their reservation in an
instant. If a person needs to cancel their reservation they are
usually given the standard ‘6pm rule’. They can log onto the
Internet at anytime before 6 pm to cancel their reservation. They
will receive a cancellation confirmation number for future
reference. The integration of desktop hotel software and the
Internet reservation systems has proven to be more efficient
Web based hotel software allows system data to be stored at a remote
location using the Internet rather than on hotel property which
eliminates the need for servers at the hotel. Web based hotel
software is used for Internet bookings, centralized accounts
receivable, multi-property customer database, and property
management (PMS). Web based software allows for recurring daily,
weekly and monthly reservations, 24/7 scheduling and there is no
downloading and re-keying of reservations.
Features of web based software are a web based central
reservation system, GDS interfaces, IDS interface to multiple
websites, consumer booking engine, call center booking engine,
interfaces to property management systems, and web based report
generator. Content management features organize hotel property
features such as pictures, videos, marketing information, and menus
on one central location for easy access. Guests can customize
activity packages for vacation planning from the hotel’s website.
Web based software can provide hotels with a single point of control
for product offerings across multiple channels of distribution such
as the hotel’s website, GDS, and Internet travel agencies. There
will also be user access control features, which allow users to have
varying levels of access to data.
Online scheduling software allows business communication through the
Internet.
Web based hotel software can be used for web based meeting and
resource scheduling which can be shared by departments to manage
shared resources and to schedule conference rooms, personnel, and
catering. Reporting features include the ability to view
reservations in any time frame, graphical day and month summaries of
all resources for selected categories, and accounting system with
HTML and Excel formatted reports.
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