The Hotel Reservation System

Abstract

The Riviera resort is a tourist resort. It is located in Greenwich, in the south east London of United Kingdom. This resort was established in 2000.

This resort has 38 rooms with all the facilities. There are double, single and family rooms with attached bathrooms. There are indoor and outdoor games facilities with a swimming pool. Air-conditioned rooms too are available. Within a distance of a few yards the real maritime view is attractive for the tourist for enjoyment.

As Hotel Riviera a customer based Company it is identified that providing an efficient customer service is a major factor that is considered in all customer based Companies, to remain competitive in the market. One major barrier to this is the manual system does not provide any facility for the Managers, Accountants and other employees to trace the routine details on time and provide a quality of service. Which ultimately lead to a lot of problems and inefficiencies?

In the aim of solving these problems and making the company operate efficiently, the Hotel Reservation System with online Environment to Hotel Riviera System project was undertaken. In here this system was strengthen in web base access as well as with a Visual Basic component that was used to track the reservations done by the Employees each day. In this system the Administrators get the chance to view their routine details as well as the reservation details at the company. So the managers can get a good idea what sort of things they have to do in order to improve their business activities

The benefits of the system are numerous. The system will help the company to operate efficiently by eliminating all the time consuming procedures and provide a better service to their Customers.

Introduction

Hotel Riviera Information

The Riviera resort is a tourist resort. It is located in Greenwich, in the south east London of United Kingdom. This resort was established in 2000.

To maintain the resort there are working thirty employees as Managers, Accountant, Supervisors, Cashier, Room boys, Servants, Cleaners, and Cookers. Everyday foreign and local guests visit and enjoy with the resort facilities. The resort owner is very happy about the success of his resort.

Room Information

20- A/C and 18 Non A/C rooms.

12-Rooms with single bed facility A/C, 8 non A/C single bed rooms

10-Rooms are the double bed A/C and 8-double bed non A/C.

Problem Identified

Out of survey done by me, I found the numerous problems faced by the Owner and other employees of the company. The main drawback of their currently available system is that for many processes are very time consuming. So the company required a system that will produce out puts in on time. Also the time that takes to send services to customers are quite high. Next the company does not have an easy way to trace the reservation process.

Introduction of the Current Information System

The Resort is one of the famous resorts in United Kingdom which is currently doing everything in a manual way. Although if they have a number of computers even they don’t have any computerized system. Their Guest and staff are facing lots of problems in their day today activities. So I proposed them to carry out their resort reservation system details in a computerized manner.

These are the major functions/processes occurring which is manual way.

Guest registration

Room reservation

Food order

Payment calculations

Functions of the Existing System

Hotel has four departments:

1. Front office

This department contains 2 employees: Receptionist and Front Office Manager.

Main functions:

1. Request booking information

2. Confirm booking.

3. Cancel booking.

2. Kitchen department.

This department contains 15 employees: Chief cook, Cooks, Supervisor, and Supplier for groceries

Main functions:

Prepare meals according to the guest preference.

2. Prepare food menu information.

3. Housekeeping department.

This department contains 8 employees: House keeper, Record keeper Supervisor and Cleaners.

Main function

1. Check the room availability information and pass to the front office.

2. Reservation of room.

4. Finance department.

These departments contain 5 employees: Accountant, Manager, Finance Manager, Account operators

Main Functions:

1. Calculate Guest payments.

2. Prepare invoices.

3. Salary functions.

4. Profit and loss analysis.

Purposes and Objectives of This Project

The proposed computerized system purposes and objectives are as follows.

With the earlier system the customers had to idle till the receptionist filled all data. But, with the proposed system the customer related activities will be very quick and efficient.

Less waste of resources, because only necessary data will be taken into Hard

Copy out puts.

In the manual system data duplication was happening frequently. But, with the proposed system data redundancy will be reduced to a great extent.

Security measures will be introduced; therefore data is 99% accurate and reliable.

The company can convert into new trends of technology and give a

Better competition with its competitors.

The company profitability can be increased because the cost that was incurred for maintaining the system will be cut down.

Work load of the employee is lifted off.

The proposed system requires only a computer therefore there is no need of large room space. There is no need of large storage cupboards because all data will be stored in one single database of the computer.

The manual system did not have any back-up files, but with the computerized if any files have been missed up there is a back-up procedure to fix the problem.

Issues of the Existing System

The data is not long-lasting for this hotel due to the improper system:-

The resort reservation System is maintaining their data and information in the files and some copies. So it is not secure for them. Not only that but it can destroy in a particular period. It can be misplaced somewhere. They have to buy the files and copies. So it is not proper system for them.

It is time consuming :-

Very important but this manual system is very slow and extremely time consuming. So that guest time also wasting. When more than one guest arrives in to the resort for booking, Receptionist can’t manage with the short time. The checking process is very difficult in the guest departure time because, they can’t easily find needed records in this manual system.

The stationery costs are high :-

There is a lot of paperwork to be done and lots of records of guest, cash books, room details, availability details etc. that have to be maintained, which makes it a very confusing job. Due to the large amount of paperwork that needs to be kept for later reference, there is also need for large storage space. Not only should there be space to store all the records but it should be stored in easy way to find the records and very high cost.

It occupies lot of space to locate the file and difficult to search due to the different locations :-

Currently, a large number of past and present guest and recruitment related information are stored in cabinets and racks. This way, files get dust collected and confidential papers get loose from the files with time.

To maintain the paper in order, filing cabinets, stationary and employee is needed which comes with a cost. Some of these cabinets are kept inside the office congesting working areas and the others are kept in store rooms accruing valuable floor space.

Calculation Process :-

Also, the calculating process is very difficult such as customer charge calculation (food, Room, facility charges), the resort balance checking. In the manual system for every process there should be needed more workers. Not only can’t they work accurately and in the correct.

System Development Methodology

I have selected the Water fall method model for developing a system for “Riviera resort reservation” because these models demand a systematic and sequential approach to software development.

It presents a highly structured method of software development that starts at the system levels and progress.

I am going to develop a resort reservation system which is more complex. This can be handled by using this methodology. And this model decreases the gaps between users and system developers and to increasing system’s performance.

Waterfall Model

This is the most common and classic of life cycle models, also referred to as a linear-sequential life cycle model. It is very simple to understand and use. In a waterfall model, each phase must be completed in its entirety before the next phase can begin. At the end of each phase, a review takes place to determine if the project is on the right path and whether or not to continue or discard the project. Unlike what I mentioned in the general model, phases do not overlap in a waterfall model.

Waterfall Life Cycle

Figure 1.1

Reasons for selecting waterfall methodology for Hotel Riviera

Works well for smaller projects where requirements are very well understood.

Easy to manage due to the rigidity of the model – each phase has specific deliverables and a review process.

Good progress tracking due to clear development stages

Phases are processed and completed one at a time.

It is suitable for real time and critical system

Suitable for small and large size projects.

Simple and easy to use.

System Requirements

Functional Requirement

To develop a fully tested Guest update, Room update process, it is asked that the application should allow the user to add, edit & find details and handle payments. To accomplish this, it is required to create Access &VB (Visual Basic) forms. It necessary to maintain reservation file, guest file, order details files & payment file including registration fee in the database. So it is asked to design the necessary interfaces using VB to fulfill the above requirement.

To fulfill the above requirements I have created a fully tested reservation system from the knowledge that I have on VB & Access. I assumed that resort reservation system need to computerize the reservation process and I have directed my efforts and created a program which is coming out here.

Front end

Welcome Screen:

Welcome screen with user verification facility. This screen will allow the user to type user name and password. This user name will be common for Administration members and another username and password for Manager.

Registration of new users:

This system should allow registering new users from this organization.

Adding details to database:

When a Guest comes to register, the system will be added his details to database. Such as name, address, designation, passport number, age, sex and nationality etc.

Calculations:

Calculations in the system will be found out the due amount. The due amount will be calculated from the requirement the reservation form.

Rooms details:

Details of rooms can be found in their database. And the system should be able to record their information. The system should assign unique number for each room and allow the user to enter details such as room number, room type, rate and status etc.

Banquet details:

Banquet reservation also is another function of this resort. So details of banquet can be found in this system. Also the system should be able to record their information. Such as banquet no, location and charges.

Engineering details:

When customers reserve a hall for a function, they can be found what are the engineering facilities available in this resort for doing that function. Such as Sound system, Overhead Projector and Desktop computer.

Foods details:

Details of foods also can be found in this system with charges to customers to decide their favorite foods. Such as Egg w/ rice, Spaghetti, Chicken Salad, Coke (Medium) and Fried chicken w/ rice etc.

Liquor details:

Hotel Riviera has a big bar for their customers. So liquor details are very important for this system. Mainly it should be included description of liquor, price and expiry date.

Details of pools:

There are two types of pools available. One is adult pool and another one is child pool. Details of pools are most essential for this system.

Order details:

When purchase orders are made by customers or guests, presently all of them are filed and placed into drawers. But it will be great if the hotel can save those details in the system and be able to retrieve them later if required. Order details will be included ordering meals, and ordering liquor.

Room reservation:

This requirement is the hearth of this entire system. It is for the purpose of fulfilling requirement that most of the above requirements are met. Fulfilling this requirement will be the key solution in the system to be developed. Once this requirement is successfully tackled, the older access registry room will become obsolete.

This system should be able to record details of room reservation number, guest ID, room number, reservation date, date reserved, length of stay, and status.

Banquet reservation:

This requirement also a very important function of this system. This resort is doing not only the room reservation but also the banquet reservation for their customers. This part should be included banquet reservation no, reservation date, client name, address, contact no, date reserved, starting time, finishing time and status.

Search

The ultimate purpose of any database system its functionality to support retrieval of data in a way it is expected. This is the case here also. If any reservation’s details are required, the system will be allowed to find the details from related database and make reservation using search function.

Printing facilities

Staff should be provided full functionality to printing relevant documents when they needed.

Reports

In this computerized system, reports will also be a part and parcel they are the means that help get printed outputs here. Staffs should be allowed to run reports and get prints.

Common functionality requirements

The system will be having a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) through which all the screens and reports can be reached.

Colors to be used in the screen should be consistent. Blue with black will be interesting to see. Also buttons on window should be placed in the top of the screen.

One window should be used for generating reports i.e. the user should be able to run reports one by one within one window. It can be by clicking on a button, using menus or shortcuts keys.

Calendar with one month displayed; whenever there is a need for entering dates, the user should be given facility to pick it from a calendar.

Short cut keys should be assigned to expedite the data entry work.

There user should be allowed to backup the database to a certain location. This practice ensures the safety of updated data.

Printer will be connected to one PC and others will share the printer.

Non-Functional Requirements

Although these requirements are not directly with the system to be developed, they are very important factors to take into consideration for the development and successful implementation of the system. Under this section I identify non – functional requirement within the project’s scope.

Product Requirement

Usability and Efficiency:

Since the earlier version of Visual basic (6.0) is going to be used, performance will be high and it is very fast. The system should be very much easy to handle.

Reliability:

User should easily understand about the system. And they will find it very much handy.

Portability:

Database should be maintained with much care and give the database to that system in correct format.

Operational Requirement

Security: database access should be prevented from sight. In addition it should be impossible to access certain parts of the system without the proper logon procedure. This requirement should be strictly enforced at the log on single window or feature under this section.

User Friendliness: The system should not be possible for a non- authoritative user to enter a single window or feature under this section.

Interoperability: No other system could be intercepted while this system is running on the machine.

Software Requirement for Implementation

For the development of the new system, the following software packages are recommended to be used.

Microsoft Visual basic (6.0) for the interfaces & program coding. Visual basic data project will be used for the creation of this system. Is the data Environment, Data list control, Data combo Control, Data grid control, Microsoft- Calendar control and Date time picker control, etc.

Microsoft Access 2003 as database back end.

Crystal Reports 8.5 for the creation of reports. All the reports will be called within Visual Basic using the Crystal Viewer ActiveX control.

Software Tools are Needed to Developed the New System

Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0

Microsoft Word 2007

Microsoft Visio 2003

Microsoft Access

Adobe Photoshop CS

Hardware Requirement for New System

The reservation system to computerize their reservation system, a computer system needed the following minimum requirements.

Processor : 400 MHz

RAM : 128 MB

Hard Disk : 4 GB

VGA : 32 MB

Monitor : 14″

Operating System : Windows 2000/xp

Software : Microsoft Office 2000/xp

Floppy Disk Drive : 1.44 MB 3.5″

Summary

This chapter provided a detailed description on why Hotel Riviera Needs a web and Visual Basic based System and how online room reservation and computerized reservation System solved the problems they are currently facing with the requirement analysis. Next section gives a detailed description about the system.

System Analysis

Introduction

The tools of a system analysis, which are known as fact-finding methods, are found in the scope of the business application and its end users. Therefore these methods and techniques should be applied efficiently for finer and better results. There are many reasons for fact finding during systems development life cycle, but the most important time is when its system development has begun its basic stages.

During the beginning stage the analyst must do the current system, which is being currently used. During these stages, the analyst must gather information on the requirements of the end user. Then when the system designing gets on the way, the analyst must gather, the following:-

Facts about report formats.

Input methods.

Information about the organization.

Goals and aims of the organization.

Organization structure.

Objectives and reasons of functional units.

Information about the people.

Authority and responsibility of relationship.

Job duties.

Information about the work.

Tasks and workflows.

Methods and ways for performing the work.

Work times and limits.

Information about the work environment.

Resources available.

Proposed System Descriptions

The scope of my project is only reservation. So, Room, facility, needed food booking is will be included in this project. The processes will be started from check in and finished with the check out. Between, these two actions there are some processes available. Those are selecting the wanted room with facilities and food, advance payment; store the guest details, reservation details, charge calculation, payment settlement and report creation. Sometime there maybe cancellation process includes.

In this system there will be receptionist, guest, cashier and supervisor involved. The receptionist will operate some the booking process of this application. The guest will select his needed & suitable. Cashier will handle all calculation and payment processes. The supervisor will create the reports to the management. The detail information about this computerized Resort Reservation system is included in the DFD & ER diagram.

In this system my aims is to make the resort reservation System. This is fully secure and fully computerized

Features of the New System

Handling Customer Details

Room reservations

Banquet reservations

Backup facilities

Stores data permanently

Security

Cancellations

Handling Rooms Details

Making Payments

Features like Update, Searching, Deleting, Editing Record etc…

Generating different kinds of report.

Added Solution to Implement the New System

The Data is not long-lasting due to the proper system

Even if it is an important data which is been kept in a file, which is not secured, It can be misplaced somewhere. Not only will that it destroy in a particular period. So computerizing the manual system it will be stored in the Database to the computer, so which is more secured. And also we can take the Backup for safety.

It is time consuming

When the data is in a document, which is inside a file, it is very hard to get the necessary details in that particular time. To search the file it will take some time because they have to see the file page by page. After computerizing the manual system it will be much easier to retrieve the data quickly, this will increase the productivity of Resort reservation system.

The stationary costs are very high

When the data is maintained in a file or any kind of documents the stationary cost like pen, papers, ruler and files. Deleting, updating and editing also will affect the stationary cost. So after computerizing the manual system we can bring down the cost of stationary, which will economy.

If a particular file is lost then the whole data will be loosed

If a file is lost then every data regarding that resort information will be loosed which is a big blow for the Resort reservation system. It can happen very easily in this Resort. So we can protect the data by implementing this system. Because we can store the data in a particular database which is more secure. No one can steal any record file because they will have their own login. Without knowing password no one can enter in to the computer. Even they have a back up system.

It is not possible to get the necessary Data with in a given time

As the data is maintained in a file as manual it is impossible to get the data in a given period. If they want to get particular data then they have to seek one by one page. After computerizing all the data it can be retrieved quickly with the help of Query. So it is making easy to work

Calculate the payment very

Also, the calculating process is very difficult such as Guest charge calculation (food, Room, facility charges), the resort balance checking. In the manual system for every process there should be needed more workers. Not only can’t they work accurately and in the correct time. After that computerizing make easy to work

Checking process

When more than one guest arrives in to the resort for booking receptionist can’t manage with the sort time. The checking process is very difficult in the Guest departure time because, they can’t easily find the needed records in this manual system Check Room or banquet availability .after that computerizing easily identifies the room or banquet availability

Summary

This chapter presented information about the tools of a system analysis, which are known as fact-finding methods, are found in the scope of the business application and its end users and feasibility study about this entire system whether which is accepted or not. Also discussed regard features of this system and value added solution for their earlier system’s issues.

System Design Criteria

Introduction

In this part, I have discussed why it is important to have a design method when developing systems. Name and explain some strategies for generating design solutions, simplifying design decisions, evaluating designs, and terminating the search for alternatives, the purpose of design models and the principal categories of design models and summarized some differing perspectives on the nature of design

Data Flow Diagram (DFD)

Data Flow diagrams are a network representation of a system. They are the corn store for structured system analysis and design. The diagrams use four symbols to represent any system at any level of details the four entities that must be represented are:

Data flows: movement of data in the system

Data stores: data repositories for data that is not moving

Processes: transforms of incoming data flows to outgoing data flows

External entities: sources or destinations outside the specified system boundary

The DFD shows how, through analyzing data flows, a system’s internal processes interact with each other, how the system interfaces with its environment, how the system is partitioned into interacting sub-systems, how an existing or a proposed system can be described in a top-down manner.

Existing system data flow diagram 0th level

Figure 3.1

0th level Data Flow Diagram

Figure 3.2

1st Level Data Flow Diagram

Figure 3.3

2nd level Data Flow Diagram for Payment process

2nd level Data Flow diagram for report generation

Figure 3.5

Data dictionary for proposed Hotel reservation system

Data stores

Name

Description

Number

Owner

Customer details

Store the Customer details

Administration

Payment details

Store the Payment details

Administration

Room details

Store the Room details

Administration

Banquet details

Store the banquet details

Administration

Bar details

Store the bar details

Administration

Pool details

Store the pool details

Administration

Restaurant details

Store the restaurant details

Administration

Table3.6

External entity

Name

Description

Type

Total occurrence

Guest

Describe the customer who are booking the room and banquet

Person

Management

Describe the management of Hotel

Department

Table 3.7

Data processes

Name

Description

Input from

Output into

Logic summary

Administration process

Check the room and banquet order.

guest

hotel

When the guests come to the hotel, the administrator section receive the booking order then check whether the room are available or not, after that, reserve it for the particular guest.

Payment process

Provide the card to the management

guest

Collect the money from the guest, when they leave from the hotel.

Room process

Handle the room details.

guest

Keep the room details, bed details and other equipments details.

Check the room, if there is anything damage, collect the details, and remove from the room and replace it another.

Banquet process

Handle the banquet details

Keep the banquet details, standard equipment details and additional equipment details.

Bar process

Handle the bar details

Keep the bar details, such as drinks items, chips items. If it is finish, order them.

Pool process

Handle the pool details

Keep the pool details

Restaurant process

Handle the restaurant details

Keep the food items

Report generation

Handle all the report

All the details

Report generation

Keep whole hotel details and when the administration ask the report, get the print out and give it to them.

Table 3.8

Data flow

Name

Description

Source

Destination

guest details

Represent the guest details

Guest

administration process

payment details

Represent the payment details

Guest

Payment process

room details

Represent the room details

Guest

Room process

bar details

Represent the bar details

bar process

administration process

banquet details

Represent the banquet details

banquet process

administration process

pool details

Represent the pool details

pool process

administration process

Restaurant details

Represent the restaurant details

restaurant process

administration process

Check restaurant details

Represent the checking restaurant details

Restaurant process

administration process

Table 3.9

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Normalized ERD for the proposed system

Figure 3.10

Relational Table

Normalization

Normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two goals of the normalization process: eliminating redundant data (for example, storing the same data in more than one table) and ensuring data dependencies make sense (only storing related data in a table). Both of these are worthy goals as they reduce the amount of space a database consumes and ensure that data is logically stored.

First Normal Form (1NF)

First normal form (1NF) sets the very basic rules for an organized database:

Eliminate duplicative columns from the same table.

Create separate tables for each group of related data and identify each row with a unique column or set of columns (the primary key).

Guest: guest_id, last_name, first_name, m_name, address, age, sex, nationality, tel no, company

Room: room_ID, room_No, room_Date, reservation_Date

Banquet: banq_ID, date_reserved, time_start, time_end, time_served, function

Pool: pool_trans_no, room_trans_no, trans_date, total

Restaurant: restaurant_trans_no, food_no, quantity, amount

Bar: bar_trans_no, room_trans_no, trans_date, total

Payment: OR_no, trans_code, trans_no, date_paid, total

Second Normal Form (2NF)

Second normal form (2NF) further addresses the concept of removing duplicative data:

Meet all the requirements of the first normal form.

Remove subsets of data that apply to multiple rows of a table and place them in separate tables.

Create relationships between these new tables and their predecessors through the use of foreign keys.

Guest: guest_id, last_name, first_name, m_name, address, age, sex, nationality, tel_no, company

Room: room_ID, room_No, room_Date, reservation_Date

Banquet: banq_ID, date_reserved, time_start, time_end, time_served, function

Pool: pool_trans_no, room_trans_no, trans_date, total

Restaurant: rest_ID, food_ID, description, price, total_Amount

Bar: bar_ID, Liquor_No, description, quantity, selling_Price, expiry_date

Payment: Pay_ID, amount, date, cust_ID

RoomCustomer: room_ID, cust_ID

BanquetCustomer: banq_ID, cust_ID

Flow chart

Flow chart for room reservation

Figure3.12

Flow Char for Entire System

Figure 3.13

Summary

In this chapter, I have described the key functionalities of the old system and new system, entities found and their relationships with the help of context diagram and Entity relationship Diagrams. Next I have shown the implemented database structure and its tables, and then I have moved into the programming part, the heart of the new system, and provided images of front end user interface with reports that describe how interfaces have been design.

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