Performance enhancement of the cateringinformation systems in e-hotels, through ICT Interventions

Abstract

Prevailing trends of globalising world markets, along with their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) anchor, pose a critical challenge to the local hotel industry. In order to maintain competitiveness in the world scene, this industry urgently needs to adopt e-commerce, in its basic unit of function, the hotel into e-hotels. Good business sense though demands controlled change whose elements are clearly understood, in order to optimise resources, and maximise the desired positive results. It is crucial therefore to fully understand the relationship of hotel activities and the related use of ICT. For this reason, attention is spotlighted upon the Catering Information System (CIS) for food, beverages, conferencing, banqueting, and rooming, products and services. A descriptive field-setting inquiry that relies on the sample cross-sectional survey research design is used in this study. Cluster, stratified, and simple random sampling procedures are assembled into a complex random sampling design, through the use of the proportional allocation method. The broad spectrum of hotel strata by star rating and therefore scale and quality of operation is probed to attain a full understanding of the industry. Credible generalisable scientific theory regarding the use of ICT in e-hotels, results. The CIS, though seemingly heavily loaded on localised physical operations, is found to be quite dependent on information flows. It is seen to be distinctly responsive to the use of ICT, which impulse compels variable improvement of performance along the elements of this CIS. Recipe costing systems, and stock control systems are the recommended most responsive points of intervention. They are followed by rooming, and then sequentially: conferencing and banqueting, followed by electric points of sale, with automated mini-bars coming in last