Hospitality software makes it easy

One of the leading problems in the hospitality business is that we never have time according to requirements. It is nearly impractical to develop all the policies and measures to make our business run more smoothly. Not that it is easier in any other business, but by its very nature the hospitality business is very demanding.
Hospitality software's are extensive software packages specially designed to help you manage your hotel. They can be used in hotels, motels, inns, resorts, lodges, hostel, military guest houses, ranch, suites, apartments and bed & breakfast. This type of software is also called Property Management System in the hospitality industry. They are created specially for the hospitality industry.
Hospitality software's tend to have hotel specific spreadsheets, templates, forms, marketing promotions, training programs, menu analysis tools and financial tracking tools. They have many modules like: Hotel administrations, Hotel Front Desk Management, Hotel housekeeping, and Hotel accounting.
Hospitality software is divided into modules according to the different hotel departments.
Administration - This module allows for the set-up and customization of the hotel. Creation of room types and features, season dates for multiple years, rates by room type and season, store inventory set tax rates, add, edit and disable employees as well as assign permission status, and form of payment all come under the umbrella of the administration module.
Front Desk - The front desk module is where most of the daily operation of the application will come from. Creating reservation, accessing report of guests scheduled to arrive/depart for a specific date, print check-in cards for all/selected guest for a specific date, check-in guests as the arrive, edit reservations, add charges to the rooms gift shop, spa and restaurant charges, checkout guests including billing details, work shift opening and closing functions including accounting for financial transactions are all a part of this module.
Housekeeping - This module allows the housekeeping, maintenance and front desk staff to stay in communication with each other. Daily Housekeeping reports: Staff accesses daily check-ins, checkouts, occupancies, vacancies, and maintenance notes as well cleaning instructions.
POS-Purchase of Sale is an important module. It allows the sale total along with taxes updated as each item is added or deleted from the sale in the inventory. Payment information can either be entered to complete the transaction or assigned to a guest's room for payment at a later date. Also Purchase details are stored and saved for future reference.

Web Reservation - This module allows guests to book online and view rooms, pricing and room availability and receive a confirmation email when complete. Guests can also add specific requests.
Reports - This module provides daily reports on Reservations: check-ins and checkouts for the specified day, Close-out: Revenue by type: Cash, check, MC, Visa etc, Occupancy revenues, POS revenues, Housekeeping etc.
To run business smoothly all quality and busy hotels are to install hotel software. All of the modules work closely together pulling from the same data without latency. Maintain the website flow while maintaining the activities of the key departments by the hotel staff.

Mohammad Shahidul Islam is Faculty Member of National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute, Dhaka.