Use of Computers in Hotels Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Use of Computers in Hotels - Essay Example One of the trends he identified was the shift from an Industrial Society to an information society. The level of change involved is so fundamental yet so subtle that we tend not to see it or if we see it, we dismiss it as overly simplistic and thus we ignore itThe problem is that our thinking our attitudes, and consequently our decision-making have not caught up with the reality of things. Naisbitt further stated that Apple Computers, a pioneer in the field of personal computers, estimated that total sale of computers would grow at least 40 percent annually. On the other hand, scientific and technical information was increase 13 percent per year at the time of this study and was expected to increase to 40 percent per year thus creating the need for more powerful information systems and increasing the population of scientists. Naisbitt added that this level of information was clearly impossible to handle by present means. Information had become very important to modern society. In most business, demographic information about client was not readily available in the hotel industry however it was very easy to track down the demographic information of client because every guest or group must register when checking in. Goffe and Parker stated that computers can greatly simplify the task of managing large masses of information. Unfortunately at the time of this study the lodging industry in the world was about a decade behind other industries in incorporating computer techniques. Even in those hotels that were using computers their use was usually limited to the front office, and marketing applications were usually an after though if they were not neglected entirely. The problem of insufficient computer use in hotel marketing was discussed by several other experts in the hospitality industry Taylor (2006) stated that the sales and marketing function have always been deemed beyond the reach of available technique. Sales people still wrote booking in diaries instead of entering information in computers. With so many variables impacting upon hundreds of bookings, it was very easy to make costly mistakes for example salesmen might forget to log their room sales in diaries causing rooms to be overbooked. Insufficient computer use can also cause problems like delays in replying to customers about the availability of rooms because data is not immediately available to Goffe and Parker (2005:110); computer if utilized properly could bring many benefits to hotel marketers. They added that computers can be used for following things very easily. In Advertising, Sales promotion and Publicity areas: Measurement of the effectiveness of different advertising and commercials. Measurement of the effectiveness of different sales promotion. Preparing past clients mailing list. Monitoring of advertising budgets. Preparing publicity budget. O'Connor (2004) elucidates the different functions of computers for marketing purposes: In Sales and Sales Management: Preparation of market share analysis. Tracking and ranking how much business each geographic market brings. Preparing potential clients list. Tracking the reasons for cancelled