TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page -

Declaration CertificationDedication Abstract -

Acknowledgement Table of Content CHAPTER ONE 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

Background of Study Objective of the Study Scope of the Study -

Significance of the Study Limitations of the Study -

CHAPTER TWO 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Review of Literature Analysis of the Present Study

Advantage of the Present Study System Methodology -

2.2.1 Disadvantage of the Present Study Analysis of the Proposed System

2.4.1 Advantage of the Proposed System2.4.4 Justification of the Proposed Studyi

2.4.2 Disadvantage of the Proposed System -

CHAPTER THREE 3.0 3.1 3.2 System Design Objective Design Main Interference -

3.2.1 Design Construction 3.2.2 Design Components 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Input design Output design -

Overall dataflow dynamics diagram Choice of Programming Language

3.5.1 System Flowchart -

CHAPTER FOUR 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Hardware and Operating System requirement Procedure for System Installation Detailed Implementation Plan Training of the OperatorsSystem Documentation Maintenance Details -

CHAPTER FIVE 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Summary ii

Problem Encountered during the research Recommendation Conclusion References -

Appendix

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CHAPTER ONE 1.1 Background of Study Hotels are commercial establishments that provide lodging, food, and other services to the public. The hotel business is an important industry in many countries, especially in those attracting a large tourist trade. Hotels can be classified according to location, facilities and services offered, and clientele served. Inns have served travellers since ancient times. The emergence of the hotel as a significant commercial institution, however, is a development of the past few centuries and may be traced by example in the U.S. The location of hotels has always been related to the transportation available. During colonial times hotels were usually situated in seaport towns, but by the end of the 18th century, when the stagecoach had increased travel within the U.S., many inns and taverns were constructed to offer lodgings along highway routes. After the construction of railroads in the 19th century, larger hotels were built near railroad stations to accommodate railway travellers. Standards of service and comfort rose appreciably and in the larger cities the types of lodging offered by certain hotels became luxurious. Shortly before World War I large hotels offering many services at prices within the reach of middle-income groups were constructed. The first such institution was the Statler Hotel in Buffalo, New York, which opened in 1908. The general prosperity following World War I made travel possible for more people, and the volume of hotel construction increased greatly. In the 1920s, professional schools of hotel management were created to prepare Americans for positions in the industry. Technical schools were also established to train skilled employees such as chefs. Today many colleges and universities offer a degree in hotel administration, and trade schools provide courses in both hotel and

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restaurant work. European-trained personnel also go to the U.S. to work in the hotel industry, where their skills are welcomed. Another significant trend begun in the 1920s was toward corporate rather than individual ownership of hotels. This was the result of the steadily increasing costs of building and operating hotels. Chain operation in the hotel and motel industry is a continuing trend in the U.S. and abroad. It allows for efficient management through the use of mass purchasing, central reservations and billings, and extensive advertising and promotion campaigns. Today about 30 percent of all American hotels and motels are affiliated with chains or franchised groups. 1.2

Objective of the Study The objective of this study is to make certain the following; To efficiently manage reservations, customers, rooms details, audits, cashiers and lots more To design an application software that will meet the needs of hotel management

To periodically auto-generate significant reports Make a significant contribution to high quality professionals for the hotel industry in Nigeria.

1.3

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is targeted at unveiling the potentials of hotel management systems (HMS), in order to broaden access to learning, exploring its existing barriers and proposing possible solutions. The project also intends to raise the profile of hotel management, especially in Nigeria. In addition, I am sure that this system will not only reduce cost for hotels but it will also increase their productivity and overall efficiency.
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1.4

Scope of the Study

This study is scoped to be a web based solution that will have an easy-to-use friendly interface, with robust solutions for reservations, front-desk, unlimited guest history, managerial activities, facility check, housekeeping, easy auditing and accounting, high-level security and great reporting features. 1.4 Limitations of the Study

The limited time and resources have restricted me to incorporate, in this project, only the main activities that are performed in a HOTEL Management System, but utmost care has been taken to make the system efficient and user friendly. One of the areas that were not considered is;

Live Help When you book online, you usually can't ask a live person questions about hotel rooms, flight routes, visa requirements or anything else you're concerned about. An alternative to this is a live chat mechanism which is not included on the software because of the short time frame.

CHAPTER TWO
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2.0

Review of Literature

During World War II the hotel business flourished. No new hotels were built, but existing establishments were occupied nearly to capacity at all times. Because of the growing importance of automobile travel soon after World War II, almost all the new hotels built then were located near highways. By the late 1950s motels began to rival hotels by offering a broader range of services and facilities. Motels have increased greatly in number during the last 30 years, and the number of hotels has decreased somewhat. Today the motor hotel, offering the convenience of the motel and the service of the hotel, is becoming popular. More efficient transportation and the growing importance of air travel have reduced the need for accommodations along highways. Motor hotels are now being built within the boundaries of large cities and near airports. To deal with stiffer competition, a growing trend has been for hotels and motels to offer greater conveniences, such as faxing and photocopying for business travellers. Low hotel occupancy rates in the 1970s led to the development of budget motels, with cheaper lodging and fewer amenities. 2.1 Analysis of the Present Study

The existing system used by the hotel is an automated stand-alone windows-based software. Though having its own shortfalls, the system is able to manage bookings and reservations, customers, facilities, accounting and produce reports for management use. Microsoft Excel is the application software used to carry out their financial computations, while Microsoft Word is used to type the reports for management. 2.2 Advantage of the Present Study

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Since a software is been used by the hotel, at least it relieves management of so many burdens as against manually sorting for customer records, inventory list, maintenance schedules and so on. With this system, adequate reports are generated in accordance to specific needs. 2.2.1 Disadvantage of the Present Study The major setback of the existing system is that its not web based, and as a result information cannot be accessed elsewhere other than the system in the hotel, thereby increasing rigidity. The existing system is not customized to meet the hotels needs. Other silent features such as internal messaging, sending text messages to customers/clients, notifications etc were not in the system. 2.3 System Methodology

For this project, Rapid Application Development Methodology was used. RAD (rapid application development) proposes that products can be developed faster and of higher quality by:

Using workshops or focus groups to gather requirements. Prototyping and user testing of designs. Re-using software components. Following a schedule that defers design improvements to the next product version. Keeping review meetings and other team communication informal.

There are commercial products that include requirements gathering tools, prototyping tools, software development environments such as those for the Java platform, groupware for communication among development members, and testing tools. RAD usually embraces object-oriented programming methodology, which inherently fosters software re-use. The most popular object-oriented programming languages, C++ and Java, are offered in visual programming packages often described as providing rapid application development.

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2.4

Analysis of the Proposed System

The proposed system is also a hotel management system (HMS) that administrates the basic overall activities of the hotel. The system will be web based involving the use of client and server side technologies, it will interact with a variety of devices and it is very easy to use. It will be customized software for the hotels usage only. 2.4.1 Advantage of the Proposed System The advantages of the proposed system are as follows; Highly graphical user-friendly, easy-to-use interface

Its a web based software and can be accessed using a variety of devices It has text messaging, chatting and other social features Its quicker to organize information

2.4.2 Disadvantage of the Proposed System The disadvantages of the proposed system are as follows; It is expensive to implement and maintain. It may look to difficult to master for someone who is not computer literate. Network problem and poor bandwidth related issues 2.4.4 Justification of the Proposed Study Sequel to the fact that the proposed system is fully customized to meet the needs of the hotels activities by taking into considerations all necessary features, it will definitely out-work the existing system. Thus making the hotel administration relatively easier to operate, simply because everything is automated with just a click of the mouse.

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