CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

According to Butler (2008), 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.

Durodola and Oloyede (2011) stated that 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.

Manaktola and auhari (2007) observed that 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.

Zengeni, Zengeni and Muzambi (2013) suggested that the management of the hotel system was

virtually left in the hand of the front offices. The front office in a hotel is the department responsible

for sales of hotel rooms, through systematic method of reservation followed by registration and

1
assurance of the rooms to the customers, this was done manually. This has been observed to be

boring and cumbersome, and has remained so in hotels that still operate manually today.

The development in hotel 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.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Sales, services and proper management are the fundamental tools in any business organization, the

profit and loss of any business depends on adequate management, detailed information on sales and

services made to aid in decision making and implementation. Modern businesses also need to

integrate electronic payment in their operations for proper accountability check and profit

maximization. As a result in an any retail and hospitality business there is a need for a

computerized management system that gives feedback to the business owners and managers to

aid decision making and also allow customers to make payment/reservations online without going

through the stress of manual operations, this is where computerized hotel management system

comes handy. We have too many problems associated with the manual system used which include:

 It takes more time to reserve room as one has to be physically present at the hotel to make

reservations.

 Payments are made in cash which is not only hectic but also insecure.

 Difficulty in handling data accurately, security of data, data lost and viewing by

unauthorized person.

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  Retrieving information like reports and queries is very time consuming and almost

impossible practicably if time is considered, thereby making hotel management rigorous.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Project

The broad aim of this project is design and development of a hotel management system integrated

with payment platform consequent upon numerous problem faced by manual handling of hotel

information.

1.3.1 Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of this study include:

i. To employ the use of web development technologies such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript to

design and beautify a web based user interface for the general management of hotel

activities.

ii. To adopt the use of MySQL to create and manage a robust database that stores all the

information of hotel activities.

iii. To inculcate electronic payment in hotel management through the help of payment gateways

such as paypal, interswitch, etc.

1.4 Scope of the Study

This project work borders around the field of hotel management. A reservation system will be

developed using web technologies such as PHP for data manipulations and processing at the

backend, HTML will be adopted for UI framework design, styling will be done using CSS, database

management will be achieved using MySQL and some animation effects will be done using

Javascript. The system functionalities are limited to only hotel room reservations only, no attempt is

made to include other hotel services such as food and drinks ordering.
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1.5 Justification of the Study

The accomplishment and adoption of this project will be of immense benefit to hotel owners,

managers and stakeholders as they can now enjoy the flexibility in managing hotel activities as

offered by the proposed system. The new system will offer customers the benefit of being able to

reserve suitable room from the comfort of their homes as well as make payment online for the

reservation.

In the academic world, the findings and literatures gathered in this study will serve as a useful

resource/reference material to students and researchers who intend to carry out further research or

development in this domain.

1.6 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.

Online: while connected to a computer or under computer control.

Tourism: the commercial organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest.

Paperwork: routine work involving written documents such as reports or letters.

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Reception: The action of admitting someone to a place, group, or institution or the process of being

admitted.

Reports: an account given of a particular matter, especially in the form of an official document,

after thorough. Investigation or consideration by an appointed person or body.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of Relevant Literature

Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have explored while

researching a particular topic and to demonstrate how research fits within a larger field of study.

2.1.1 Conceptualizing the Hotel Industry

As mentioned earlier, the hotel industry is one of the most important sectors in the tourism and

hospitality industry. The World Tourism organization (UNWTO) stated that the global number of

hotel rooms has grown from 14 million to 17 million between 1997 to 2005 and the figure is

expected to increase astronomically by the end of 2020. Mensah (2006) in his work “environmental

management practices” stated that the growth in the hotel industry has been identified as one of the

major facilitators in the development of Tourism and hospitality industry as a whole. No wonder the

governments of some countries give incentives to hotel developers and owners in order to further

enhance their country’s tourism sector. Of all the various types of accommodation available to the

tourist, the hotel is the biggest and most visible sub-sector. It is usually viewed traditionally as an

establishment which provides accommodation, food and beverage services on a pay basis to guests

who are only for a short stay. However, Embola (2019) opined that the modern perception of a hotel

is more complex than this due to the fact that not all of the hotels provide services such as food and

beverages, at the same time, some hotels even offer additional services such as conference rooms to

their guests.

At this point, due to the variations in what is considered to be a hotel in different countries, it is

necessary to give a simple definition of a hotel in this research work. Perhaps, the definition

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proposed by Agu is suitable for this study. According to Agu (2018) a hotel is a unit which provides

stays for visitors, typically on a daily or weekly basis, principally for short stays. Furthermore, he

gives details of services provided by such units to include daily cleaning and bed-making as well as

offering food and beverages, parking, laundry services, recreational services to the guests. It is also

good to state here that some of the hotels offer amenities such as conference and convention

facilities. Having given a glimpse of a hotel, the reason for variations in what constitute a hotel in

different countries can better be explained by taking a closer look into how hotels came into

existence and the origin of the industry.

2.1.2 Origin of hotel industry in brief

The history of hotel industry is as old as man himself. According to Levy-Bonvin (2013), the history

can be traced back to the biblical times when records were made about numerous facilities offering

guests a resting place. One notable thing about the hotel in those days was that they were private

homes that were made open to the public. They were not known as hotels at the beginning, rather

they were called “Inns” and later known as “taverns”. It is also good to point out that important

developments in commercial accommodation or hotels took place in different periods of time.

In the Middle Ages, the Greeks were the first to build small resting places in villages for visitors.

Later on, the Romans took the idea a step forward by building mansions for the same purpose.

Despite this achievement, meals were not offered in these accommodations during those time. The

fifteenth century marked the beginning of the hotel as an industry, laws were made by countries to

regulate the activities in the industry, particularly in France and England. During those time periods,

the industry flourished due to the fact that more people are travelling for religious pilgrimage and

other purposes. However, the boom in the INN businesses was short-lived as soon as the railway

was invented: the travelling time reduced and travelers did not have the need to stay overnight in

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INNs. The name INN was subsequently changed to taverns and it instantly became a meeting place

for people to have food and entertainment (Sheela 2012).

The industrial revolution which begins in the 1760s was one of the major facilitators for building of

hotels throughout Europe. This also influenced the hotel industry in America and other parts of the

world. At this time, hotels can be seen in every major city and town. An example is the City Hotel

which was the first publicly held hotel in New York, opened in 1792. The nineteenth century

marked a new era in the hotel industry. This was the time when the industry recorded great

prosperity which concomitantly gave opportunities for many entrepreneurs to invest in the sector.

Many famous hotel chains in the world such as Radisson Hotel and Hilton Hotel were established at

this period. (Cooper et al., 2018)

2.1.3 Types of hotel

The hotel provides home away from home to millions of travelers and tourists. The purpose of their

visit is different, so is their need and expectation of services rendered by the hotel. Hotels can be

classified based on the room charges, facilities available, lent of stays of guests, location of the

hotel, ownership and management and many more (Eze-Uzomaka, 2016). Some of the most famous

classifications will be explained below (Walker, 2016).

Residential hotel

The residential hotels are apartment houses which are usually located in big cities and provide hotel

services to guests who stay on a long term basis. It is also possible for guests to stay at residential

hotels for a shorter period of time.

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Transit hotels

Transit hotel are located close to airports and motor-ways, they cater for guests who are on transit

and need a temporary place to stay for a shorter period of time which may vary from one hour to

few days. A distinctive characteristic of transit hotels is their design which mainly focuses on

providing comfort and convenience.

Resort hotels

The resort hotels are located in special places close to scenic beauty such as lakes, mountains, seas

and beaches. Since the emphasis of a resort hotel is usually on relaxation, it is not uncommon to find

recreational amenities such as golf course, swimming pool, skiing, tennis courts and some other

indoor sport facilities in the hotel. The main target group for this type of hotels are people with

income that is above average who are looking for a place to relax and stay away from their daily

routine. Resort hotels are mostly seasonal establishments. However, in the recently, the trends have

changed a little and some resort hotels are operating throughout the year. Resort hotels can also be

sub-divided into summer resorts, winter resorts, health resorts, all season resorts, and hill resorts

(Raju, 2019).

Heritage hotels

Heritage hotels are old properties of aristocratic and royal families which are renovated to provide

special experience to tourists. This type of hotels give guests special treatment like nobles. Heritage

hotels are not as common as the commercial or residential hotels.

Commercial hotels

Commercial hotels as the name suggests are usually located in city center and draw their guests

from everywhere. The hotel’s main focus is usually on the busy commercial center and they provide

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services such as business center facilities and parking space. The idea of the hotel being in the city

centers may cause someone to think that the hotels’ customers are only business travelers. However,

the numbers of leisure travelers lodging in the hotel is increasing yearly. Moreover, the commercial

hotels even have guests who lodge in the hotel on a permanent bases (Kumar & Narayan, 2018)

2.2 Theoretical Framework

There is a high demand of information technology for hotel development since information rules the

world. Hotels information technology has progressed, and today several efficient systems are fast

becoming in use to meet the 21st century hotel expectations to understand this sudden shift, some

theories that support this fact includes diffusion of innovation theory, functionalism and

modernization theories respectively.

Theories occupy a significant position in information technology since the world has witnessed an

information revolution, a combination of massive increases in the world’s inventory of information

and the technical development of the means to cope with it (Okpoko and Okpoko, 2012). Science

has two functions;

(i) to enable humans to know things and

(ii) to enable human to do things.

According to Bilgihan et al, (2011) our ability to do things is what we herein refer to as technology.

Computers are at the centre of information technology. Knowledge about information technology

will lead to a better judgment about findings that will generate useful facts and figures that will

speed up problem solving and increase tourism development.

Theories about information technology are thoroughly subjective. It forms important issues on how

we go about testing out ideas, debate over why we should employ the use of information technology

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in hotels in Nigeria. This means that ideas about information facilities in this area can be argued to

explain the present state of these facilities whether they are over used or under utilize considering

the extent in which information technology has gone globally.

Information technology is a synthesis of electronics, computing and telecommunications

technologies which enables effective data processing and communication (Eze-Uzomaka, 2016). It

has become obvious that hoteliers employs the use of computers system to create, manipulate, and

manage information faster and more easily than with any system previously devised like cards.

Tourists in the information age are no longer satisfied with requesting for information through the

postal system. They now go online and receive instant information for their holidays, hotels, travel

arrangement and bookings (EzeUzomaka, 2016). Before this can take place their must be a channel.

A channel is the logical connection between the sender and the receiver. Information that is

available and is not accessible has no impact on tourism development. A channel is the path over

which data and information travel, it may use telephone wires, satellite or microwave towers, and all

the whole system is aimed at providing communication between the sender and destination.

Information technology has high-speed shared-medium especially MANs-Metropolitan area

network covering a city provide the required capacity at lower cost and greater efficiency than

would be possible with an equivalent service from the local telephone company, this is because a

hotel product that is packaged via internet automatically sales itself to the people that browse the

web. This brings us to a position where we can examine theories that have affected information

technology positively and such theories include: Diffusion of innovation theory, functionalism

theory and modernization theory.

2.2.1 Diffusion of innovation theory

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Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time

among the members of social system. Diffusion is a special type of communication concerned with

the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideas (Anckar and Walden, 2011). Information

technology has helped hotels reach one of the main goals of a hotel: to deliver exceptional guest

satisfaction. Some hotels have utilized technology for many years. The first hotel to use a computer

was the New York Hilton in 1963. This was the first computer automated guest room management

system, but it was very inefficient because front-desk clerk is hard to use pinch cards to record

information and then process these cards in a batch at a later time (Buhalis and Law, 2018).

Fortunately, hospitality information has progressed and today several efficient systems are fast

becoming industry standard as a result of diffusion of innovation.

Hence, an innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by individual or other

units of adoption. An innovation in the use of computer system may have a positive or negative

impact in case of information technology but venturesomeness is almost an obsession with

innovators. The interest in new ideas leads them out of a social circle of peer networks and into

more cosmopolite social relationships. Besides the characteristics of an innovation, as perceived by

the members of a social system determine its rate of adoption (Burgess, 2010). This includes relative

advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observationability to these people within the

social system.

This new technological innovation available for hotels consumption need to be questioned to prove

its reliability in meeting guest needs and administrative expectation in doing this we have to look at

each one of their feature to know if their innovation is relevant and why it should be adopted in

hotels in Nigeria.

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a. Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it

supersedes. The degree of relative advantage may be measured in economic terms, but social

prestige, convenience, and satisfaction are also important factors. It does not matter so much

if an innovation has a great deal of objective advantage, what does matter is whether an

individual perceives the innovation as advantageous. The greater the perceived relative

advantage of an innovation, the more rapid its rate of adoption will be.

b. Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the

existing values, past experience, and needs of potential adopters. An idea that is

incompatible with the values and norms of a social system will not be adopted as rapidly as

an innovation that is compatible. The adoption of an incompatible innovation often requires

the prior adoption of a new value system which is a relatively slow process.

c. Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and

use. Some innovations are readily understood by most members of a social system; others

are more complicated and will be adopted more slowly. New ideas that are simpler to

understand are adopted more rapidly than innovations that require the adopter to develop

new skills and understandings.

d. Triaiability is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited

basis. New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan will generally be adopted more

quickly than innovations that are not divisible. An innovation that is trialable represents less

uncertainty to the individual who is considering it for adoption who can learn by doing.

e. Observerability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others. The

easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation, the more likely they are to adopt

it. Such visibility stimulates peer discussion of a new idea, as friends and neighbours of an

13
adopter often request innovation. In the same view, the researcher encourages the adoption

of information technology especially in hotels in Nigeria.

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2.2.2 Functionalism

The term functionalism was developed in the nineteenth century with the rise of the human sciences

as a whole. Different version were expounded by Cho and Olsen (2018). According to Emile

Durkhiem (1895) stated that the action of an individual should be explained from the influence or

pulls or pressures of social factors or structure on him. It was as a result of this demand for

information that computers were invented. The computer as an electronic device contains many

components that contribute to its functions. These components can be classified as hardware or

software. The hardware is the part of the computer that we can touch, feel and move from one place

to another. It is the physical part of the computer. On the other hand, the software is the part of the

computer that we cannot touch, feel or move, but it controls and dictates the actions of the hardware.

It existence can be seen as it controls the hardware, rather than its physical presence. The advance in

information technology with the aid of computer high speed, reliability, accuracy, ease of use,

efficiency, versatility and compatibility has lead to quick assessment of information by tourist at all

destination.

Functionalism sees society as a system of interrelated and interdependent parts, which functions for

the maintenance of the whole. It refers to the contribution that an institution or item or any partial

activity makes to the maintenance of the whole system. To the functionalist, everything in our

society performs very useful function (Igbo and Okpoko, 2006).

In the same vein hoteliers‟ uses information technology such as security cameras to dictate irregular

movement, door locks to alert them whenever suspicious activity occurs. All these services are

obtainable provided that a wireless router is networked into the various computer systems in use.

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2.2.3 Modernization Theory

Modernization theory presumed that the transfer of capital goods, technologies, industries and

western norms to the developing countries would bring rapid economic productivity and social

development in the developing countries, which were considered to be ancient and primitive (Cline,

2019). Through exposure to western values, traditional societies would become civilized and active

participants like people in modern western society. They would also develop a psychological

pattern, which according to Connolly and Olsen (2010) they called empathy.

Empathy, as Fjes (2016) defines it “allow the individual to internalize the process of modernization

by not only being able to cope with change, but expecting and demanding it. It is the psychic nexus

of all the attitudes and behaviour necessary in a modern society (Melkote and Steevs, 2011). With

higher empathy, people would be able to move out their traditional setting and expand their horizon.

They would be able to adapt to western ways of life and culture faster, especially with the

continuous spread of ideas of social mobility and changes such as urbanization, literacy, and other

western belief system in this information age.

According to Lerner (2018) he rightly said that once this happened that those institutional

developments which had already occurred in western nations would lead to a take-off towards

modernization. A nation is developed and modernized when it perfectly resembles industrialized,

cultural behaviour and socio-cultural attitudes to science and technology. The essential point was

that growth in one of these spheres stimulates growth in others, and all spheres of society moved

forward together towards modernization (Scharamm, 1976 as cited in Melkote and Steeves, 2011).

Hence, if the third world countries desire technological development, they must consult the west,

which are already familiar with it and proceed according to their advice and direction in order for

them to develop (Cox, 2013). Besides, in as much as modernization theory betrays an ethnocentric

16
bias by presenting the west as the standard for development and “blaming the victim”. The Third

World for being responsible for their poverty and underdevelopment (Emmer et al., 2013). It is

pertinent to emulate good things such as information technology and incorporate it since it enhances

our global strength of broking accommodation and making reservation especially in the hotel sector

via the internet.

2.3 Summary of Literature Review

The hospitality industry plays a vital role in the economy of local communities throughout the

world. Travel and tourism is one of the world’s largest industries, generating US$6 trillion or 9% of

global GDP and supporting 260 million jobs, (WTO, 2014). Many of those jobs are created by the

hotel sector, giving the industry a tremendous opportunity to help local communities prosper (Hoof,

2015).

Tourism is ideally known to generate revenue and wealth to the investors of different nations all

over the globe today, and Nigeria is endowed with so many tourist attractions as well as several

tourism resources that can provide abundant business opportunities to local and foreign tourism and

prospective investors, while increasing government’s earnings. Furthermore, Nigeria is blessed with

the Savannah-Sahel in the North, the Hills and Mountains in the East and the Lagoons and Forests in

the West and other attractions that can adequately enhance the revenue portfolio of the nation.

However, tourism will not receive the desired attention if the accommodation aspect which attracts

fifty percent of the tourist expenditure at an average, at any point in time is not discussed (Law and

Lau, 2010).

Hotel, Motel and Catering are integral parts of tourism and any consideration of the hotel industry as

an engine of growth needs to take into account the multiplier effect which it also possess (Lee,

2013). Hotels are classified according to size, location, target markets, levels of service, facilities,

17
number of rooms, ownership and affiliation etc. In most developed countries of the world, the

impacts of hotels go well beyond providing rooms and jobs, as their economic reach extends far

beyond its direct contributions to taxes, employment, income and GDP. The supply chain of the

industry has a knock-on effect, creating business activity in nearly all other economic sectors

(Mensah, 2016). Hotel guests spend money in the retail, recreation, transportation and restaurant

sectors. And hotels provide a forum for business meetings, trade shows and conventions which in

turn generate economic growth (Zengeni et al., 2013).

It is widely recognized that tourism is an important factor that can contribute to the development of

market-oriented economy. It can be stated that tourism is directly linked with the cultural, economic

and intellectual potential of a country and the current statistical data show that tourism is seen as one

of the most profitable and rapidly developing industries in the world. It is expected that in the early

21st century the number of tourists will increase dramatically and consequently the revenues from

tourism will increase considerably. In recent times, economists have observed that diversification in

an economy is a sign and powerful factor of health and true and sustainable source of wealth. This is

to say that if a country or region’s hope of economic survival is dependent on an industry, then such

industry is bound to experience pressure on its facilities and resources, giving rise to economic

recession and ultimately, poverty and starvation among the people and a breakdown of economic

activities. Following the recent economic recession around the world, most developed and

developing countries are embracing tourism as a major option of diversifying their economy and this

has helped to boost their economy. This recent increase in tourism activities around the world has

also in recent times been reported to be accompanied by negative impacts especially where it is 108

Journal of Tourism and Heritage Studies not practiced responsibly. In most of the countries

where tourism have really propelled the economy to greater heights, it has been discovered that the

hospitality industry especially the hotels are seen as the main nucleus of its positive impacts through

18
job creation, foreign exchange generation, income generation, incentive for elongated duration of

tourists stay and image promotion (Paraskevas and Buhalis, 2012).

The hotel industry has been reported to have overbearing direct impacts on the economy of its host

community through the provisions of employment (although in some cases temporary and insecure),

structural development, exposure, income generation and foreign exchange generation. It also has

indirect impacts on the economy of its host community through its boost on the existence and

survival of tourists’ support facilities such as the transport sector, tour guides, arts and crafts, food

and beverages sector, security, restaurants, drinking spots, club houses and the local market men and

women all of who benefit from the trickle-down or multiplier effect of the tourists’ presence, and

whose duration of stay is often determined by the satisfaction derived from the services and facilities

rendered by the hotel industry (Reid and Sandler, 2014). In the Gambia, for instance, 30% of the

workforce depends directly or indirectly on tourism. In small island developing states, percentages

can range from 83% in the Maldives to 21% in the Seychelles and 34% in Jamaica while Malta has

only 380,000 residents, but received 1.2 million tourists in 2009. As 25% of GDP (and indirectly

40%), tourism generated more than $650 million in foreign exchange earnings. Malta's high

dependence on tourism and a limited number of export products makes its trade performance

vulnerable to shifts in international demand (WTO, 2014).

Nigeria cannot be left out in this strive towards economic growth through hotel development. Its

hospitality industry has shown tremendous strength in the aspect of human resources and structural

development, especially now that the dependence of the country’s economy is gradually shifting

from the oil sector to the tourism sector.

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 CHAPTER THREE

MATERIALS AND METHOD

This is a description of methods chosen to achieve the objectives of the proposed system. It will go

on to describe the techniques of data collection that will be employed in the research study of the

proposed systems.

3.1 Materials

Novi Builder: Novi Builder is an HTML drag and drop builder that offers free customizable UI

templates and plugins. It provides access to the source code of the elements and allows developers to

make several changes in the website design at any point in time. Novi Builder comes as a built-in

feature for many widely used browsers like Google Chrome and Opera. But it can work as a browser

add-on.

Creative Tim: Creative Tim is a BootStrap-based front-end web development tool that provides UI

components and dashboards built on JavaScript frameworks- Vue, Angular and React. It enables

both mobile and web application development. You can create elegant, responsive websites using

Creative Tim.

Visual Studio Code: Visual Studio Code is a free open source code editor created by Microsoft for

Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. It is an intelligent code editor that has a large

number of features like code completion, code refactoring, syntax highlighting, embedded Git, and

testing support.

MongoDB: MongoDB is a NoSQL database that can store and return vast volumes of unstructured

data. It does this by sorting data into documents rather than tables. This allows you to create more

complex structures, build hierarchies, define relationships, and store arrays.

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Apache: Apache is free, open-source web server software that establishes the connection between

your client-side and server-side and delivers files between them. Apache also offers customization,

with modules that administrators can turn on and off as needed.

3.2 Methods

To achieve the development of the proposed system the prototype methodology adopted for the

software development. The prototype methodology is the software development process which

allows developers to create only the prototype of the solution to demonstrate its functionality to the

clients and make necessary, modifications before developing the actual application.

3.2.1 List of Methods

Prototyping Model has six SDLC phases as follow:

Step 1: Requirements gathering and analysis

In this phase, the requirements of the system are defined in detail. The users of the system were

interviewed to know what they expect from the system.

Step 2: Quick design

The second phase is a preliminary design or a quick design. In this stage, a simple design of the

system was created. The quick design helps in developing the prototype.

Step 3: Build a Prototype

In this phase, an actual prototype was designed based on the information gathered from quick

design.

Step 4: Initial user evaluation

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In this stage, the proposed system was presented to the client for an initial evaluation. It helps to find

out the strength and weakness of the working model. Comment and suggestion were collected from

the customer and provided to the developer.

Step 5: Refining prototype

If the user is not happy with the current prototype, you need to refine the prototype according to the

user's feedback and suggestions.

This phase will not be over until all the requirements specified by the user are met. Once the user is

satisfied with the developed prototype, a final system is developed based on the approved final

prototype.

Step 6: implement Product and Maintain

Once the final system is developed based on the final prototype, it was thoroughly tested and

deployed to production. The system undergoes routine maintenance for minimizing downtime and

prevent large-scale failures.

3.3 Analysis of the Existing System

Analysis involved a defiled study of the current system leading to the specification of new system.

The existing system happens to be a non-computerized operating system were all operations are

done manually by the receptionist.

Analyzing the existing system ensures that a new software which would deliver efficiency,

effectiveness, accuracy, reliability and accuracy in the management of a hotel’s affair will be

designed and implemented. However, the aim of a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the

operation of an existing system is to get the required data that will assist tremendously in the design

of a new system.
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3.3.1 Shortfalls of the Existing System

It is important to keep pace with time with the increasing competition in the market and to stand on

the present environment of the modern world. The various drawbacks of manually handling the

operations in the hotel are:

 Slow speed of operation.

 Conflicting information

 Data redundancy

 Inaccurate information

 Insatiable customers

 Inability to analyze past data

 Day to day activities of the existing system is very costly.

It is well noted that an automated system of managing and reservation of rooms or other affairs of a

hotel is more efficient and reliable then a manual system that performs the same operations. This in

turn gave rise to a proffered solution to the underlying problems associated with managing the

affairs of a hotel manually.

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3.4 Flow Diagram of the Proposed System

The diagram below is an abstraction of the new system showing the participants and services

involved in the system. A detailed overview of the system architecture and all the components

involved are included in the next chapter when the analysis will be dealt with in depth.

Definition

Admin Staff management

Check in/out
Manage Services
Manage Staff

Activities
Process online
HMS
reservations

Book Hall

View reports
Edit profile
Reports. Logout

Figure 2.2 Block Diagram of New System

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3.4.1 Analysis of the Proposed System

The proposed system will help the Hotels to operate efficiently by eliminating all the time

consuming procedures and provide a better service to their customers as well as for the employees in

the company. It will eliminate the need for members of staff of the hotel to go about some affairs

manually and hereby reduces most problem inherent in the existing system.

It will consist of two parts mainly- Web Based Reservation System (Customer’s Perspective) and

Hotel Reservation System (Administration Perspective).

Benefits of online reservation systems

1. Convenience

One advantage of booking a hotel, flight or car rental online is the convenience. Being able to make

all your travel plans on the Internet means you can do it any time of the day or night at home, or

while you're on your lunch break at the office. Customers on the go can even make reservations on

their smartphones or tablets. There's no need for lengthy phone calls or visits to a travel agency --

with just a few minutes and a click of the mouse, you'll have all your plans finalized.

2. Prices

You can shop around when making online reservations and choose the best price. Many hotel and

airline websites boast of having the lowest prices and even offer Internet-only offers for travelers,

which are deeply discounted. You might be caught paying an extra fee to speak with customer

service representatives if you make travel arrangements over the phone, so another advantage of

booking online is saving money on all those extra hidden fees.

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 3. Changes and Cancelations

It's simple for travelers to change or cancel online reservations. Instead of calling the hotel or airline

and waiting for a customer service representative to help you through the process, booking online

means you can do it wherever you have Internet access. Hotels such as the Fairmont (fairmont.com)

and the Marriott (marriott.com) provide bookings with no cancellation fees, while Virgin America

(virginamerica.com) provides free online changes and cancellations within 24-hours of departure.

4. Customer Reviews

Making a reservation over the phone or at a travel agency doesn't allow you to check out what past

customers have thought of hotel chains or certain airlines. Another benefit of making online

reservations is being able to see these customer reviews.

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