Internal Hotel Use example essay topic

Activities - Case Study 1 1. Write down all the possible ways that a computer could be used to assist the running of the hotel. Give as much detail as possible. A computer could be used for: Word processing: The word processor could be used to write letters, e.g. to write to customers to confirm their booking at the hotel or to order goods from suppliers.

Notices and menus could also be produced using the word processor. Desktop Publishing: A desktop publishing package can be used to prepare a brochure for the hotel. Advertisements can also be designed for insertion into magazines and newspapers. Database: Details of the customers that visit the hotel can be kept on a database. This would enable the hotel to mail past customers with details of special hotel deals. It would also provide valuable information to the manager to help target the advertising more effectively.

A database program can also be used to hold details of the hotel's stock. Spreadsheets: Spreadsheets can be used to calculate the hotel's accounts. It can also be used as a financial model to help the manager to run the hotel efficiently. Accounts Package: This can be used to keep all the day-to-day accounts on the computer. This would include the income (money received from customers staying at the hotel) and expenditure (money spent on goods and services). The accounts package would then be able to provide all the detail to help the hotel's accountant prepare the accounts at the end of each year and provide figures for the tax office and VAT (Value Added Tax) department.

Hotel Package: A software package written for hotels which enables booking to be made, accounts kept and reports and bills to be printed. 2. Describe in detail all the input and output devices that might be used with the computer (s) for the hotel (include illustrations). Keyboard: This is the most common method of entering data into a computer. The layout of the keyboard is common across many countries and called a QWERTY keyboard. This is because these are the first few keys on the top row of the keyboard.

As well as letter and number keys there are also function keys, which can be programmed by the software in use. These keys are marked F 1 to F 12. Sometimes it is necessary to hold down more than one key at a time. One example is that you can hold the shift key down to get a capital letter. Other keys that need to be held down while others are pressed are Alt and Ctrl (Control).

A keyboard could be used in the hotel to type in details of customers and their accounts. Concept Keyboards A concept keyboard might also be used in a hotel in the restaurant for paying customers. The keyboard consists of a flat surface covered with rows of switches under a membrane. Individual switches of groups of switches can be programmed by the software in use to cause a particular input.

The tills at a McDonalds checkout use this type of keyboard. A thin card is placed over the switches with pictures or text on it to represent an item from the menu. When the item is pressed on the keyboard the item is displayed and the price of the item is added to the bill. Scanner If the hotel uses the computer to design its advertisements and brochures using a desktop publishing package it may use a scanner. Scanners enable pictures and text to be input to the computer. There are two types of scanner.

The less expensive is the hand-held and is rolled across the picture being scanned. The other is a flat bed scanner which will scan an A 4 piece of paper or larger which is laid flat on the screen in the same way a photocopier works. Both hand-held and flatbed scanners can either be colour or black and white. Once the object has been scanned into the computer it can be manipulated by the scanning software before being pasted into the document and printed. As well as inputting pictures or photographs into the computer using a scanner it is also possible to use a camera where instead of film it captures the picture onto a floppy disc. Alternatively, the image from a video camera can be input to the computer using a video board.

Screen The screen or monitor is the most common output device. It is also known as a VDU (visual display unit) and can be either mono or colour. Mono monitors display white, orange or green characters on a black screen. Mono monitors are far less common now as the price of colour monitors has dropped. Colour monitors allow areas of the screen to be highlighted making data retrieval easier, and therefore increasing productivity. Most monitors used with computers have 12' to 14' inch screens.

The size is always measured diagonally, from corner to corner. However, much larger screens can be used for desktop publishing and CAD (computer aided design). The quality or clarity of the display is determined by the resolution. The display is made up of tiny dots called pixels. Printers The printer is the second most common computer output device after the hotel will certainly have at least one. There are a range of printer types; dot-matrix, daisy wheel, ink-jet, thermal, bubble-jet, chain, drum and laser.

The most likely printers to be used in a hotel are the dot-matrix and / or laser printer. Dot-matrix The print head of a dot-matrix printer has a set of pins, which strike through the ink ribbon as the head moves across the paper. These printers have been popular for a number of years. They are very flexible as they can print graphics, different types of characters (fonts), large or small text, emboldened and underlined. Because characters are printed as a series of small dots the print quality can be poor.

They can also be quite noisy. Dot-matrix printers are reliable and relatively cheap to buy and run. This makes them popular in applications where the print quality does not have to be perfect. This type of printer could be used in the hotel for producing people's bills or for internal hotel use but might not be suitable for letters.

Laser printers These printers give excellent print quality and, as the price of laser printers has dropped slightly, they are becoming more widely used. They work in a similar way to a photocopier. Laser light draws the image onto a drum as a series of tiny dots - 300 dots to the inch (dpi) or 600 dpi on newer machines. Toner (dry powered ink) is applied to the drum which is then transferred to the paper where it is fuse through heat and pressure. Standard, low cost laser printers used in offices can produce about ten pages per minute. Where much faster printing is required, laser printers costing roughly lb 100 000 may print at speeds of 300 pages per minute.

Laser printers are almost silent in operation and are classified as non-impact printers. Colour laser printers can be purchased but are very expensive..