KB Frontdesk Manager (Hotel)

Overview

The KB Frontdesk Manager is developed by Kilobyte Sdn Bhd as a front end hotel software to assist small and medium-sized hotels to monitor their hotel front end activities such as registering guests, accepting reservations, managing payments for and charges to room accounts. Features include automatic posting of room rate between midnight and 1.00 a.m., check balance on room accounts, cash deposit refund, close shift reports, night audit reports as well as reports on revenue, current occupancy, payments and refunds, check-in and check-out reports, credit card payments, etc.

The KB Frontdesk Manager is real-time, Windows-based and is network-ready. Check-in / check-out can be carried out simultaneously on different PCs at front end counter while a backoffice PC can print out management reports, maintain user names and passwords, manage room rates, etc.

A plug-in for telephone call capturing is available to automatically charge telephone calls to the appropriate room accounts based on telephone extension number. This application, KB Call Tracking System, is designed for a standard PBX system and can function as a standalone.

Features

Room List for Front end Operations

+ Displays room no., room type, guest name, check-in date, expected check-out date
+ Check balance, change room, extend stay of guests
+ Remarks for free form text entry e.g. "guest wants English newspaper"
+ Upon guest check-out, room will be marked as "room not ready" until manually cleared
+ Guest history to facilitate check-in of return guests
+ Address list from check-in information
+ Front-end Room List window has a choice of English or Malay mouse-over hint text

Features in Room List Window

+ Link to Reservations window
+ Check-in and deposit
+ Debits to Room Account, with option to enter negative amounts for adjustments/discounts
+ Payments on Room Account
+ Change room, Extend stay
+ Check balance
+ Edit current guest info, Re-print guest registration
+ Auto extension of check-out date by one day if guest did not check-out
+ Check-out and refund / payment to settle balance
+ Print Statement (bill) with option for Split statement (bill)
+ Possibility to abort check-out
+ Print blank guest registration forms
+ Close Shift: Print reports on transactions since last close shift
+ Every transaction record has time stamp, user ID and station ID

Reservations

+ Accept and manage reservation bookings
+ Record cash deposit for confirmation of reservation
+ Transfer name and cash deposit from reservations to check-in upon registration

Reports (All reports with preview)

+ Night Audit reports for previous day's operations
+ Sales reports on revenue, occupancy, cash sales, charts
+ General reports on room types & rates, room list by type
+ Shift change reports at the end of each shift
+ Telephone reports for Admin accounts, from vacant rooms, where PBX plug-in option is included

Utilities with system configuration, table maintenance including -

+ User and password list
+ Room Type, Room Table, Room Rates
+ Charge Code table for common debits like laundry, mini bar, etc
+ System Configuration
+ Purge old records
+ Customizable footer text for Registration form and for Guest Statements
+ PBX Configuration, Call Rates Table, where PBX plug-in option is included

New Features

+ Blacklist
+ HTML User Guide
An HTML User Guide is included with comprehensive screenshots and links

System Requirements

We are constantly improving KB Frontdesk Manager to include features that match those of the more expensive hotel software, yet maintaining our prices.

With these improvements the size of our .exe file must necessarily grow. The minimum system requirements, therefore, must change. The host PC should have at least a Core 2 Duo with 4 GB RAM and display resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. Where a hotel has 100 or more rooms and management intends to have 3 ~ 4 Frontdesk workstations, a dedicated server must be considered due to higher number of transactions being processed and the need for speed.

A laser printer is recommended as hotel logo may be inserted upon printing of guest statements.

KB Frontdesk Manager hotel software operates on real-time and this has a significant impact on the PCs and local area network requirements.

The host PC (in which the database is installed) sends up to 100 system messages / instructions per second to each of its workstations. These system messages / instructions serve to transmit:-
+ lock status
+ transaction success or delay messages
+ transaction priorities
+ transaction queue status

to workstations to refresh their screens as the database in the host PC has changed. Every change to the database is announced to every workstation.

Consequently the software performance is influenced by delays, insufficient resources of the PC s and cable integrity of the local area network

In LAN environment :-
+ All PCs must be on fixed IP
+ The host PC (in which the database is installed) must have the highest resources
+ All workstation PCs must have matching Regional settings format
+ The date and time of the database engine should be set to automatically synchronise with an internet time server. This feature should be disabled in all workstation PCs
+ The date and time of all workstation PCs will be synchronised to that of the database engine in the host PC by our software
+ All firewall installed in the networked PCs (Windows Firewall, internet security/anti-virus software) must have ports 5030 and 3050 open.
+ All LAN cables must be properly terminated and have sufficient slack
+ All LAN cables should not be laid in the same conduit with electrical power cables

Time in PBX box must be correct as it is beyond our software scope to synchronize its time with the networked PCs

Windows 7 Operating System
+ We recommend Windows 7 Professional and not lower as a PC operating system.
+ After installation of Firebird 1.5.6.xxxx if Windows Explorer will not function then delete Firebird2control.cpl in Windows/System32 folder

For all Windows Versions (Win Server 2008, XP, Vista, Win 7)
Disable TCP/IP v6 protocol on LAN adapter in Device manager
Disable power saving on LAN adapter in Device manager
Open ports 5030 and 3050 in Exceptions for Win Firewall (should enable)
Open ports 5030 and 3050 in Win 7 Firewall Inbound and Outbound rules

Programme Installation

The KB Frontdesk Manager runs on the Firebird server, version 1.5. The Firebird is installed with its default settings which includes running it as a Service and starting it automatically when the PC is powered on. The Firebird installer is provided together with the KB Frontdesk Manager files.

The KB Frontdesk Manager files comprises of programme files and database starter files which are to be copied into the following folders created from the root of the host PC:-

Distribution of files are as follows:-

C:\KB\PRG comprises:-

+ Frontdesk.exe
+ Frontdesk.ini
+ Frontdesk.cfg
+ Background.jpg
+ GDS32.dll

C:\KB\FBDATA comprises:-

+ Frontdesk.fdb

After the above load the frontdesk.exe and you will be required to enter the following information:-

Screen Shots

User Access

+ Login Screen
+ User Mainteinance

Room List

+ Check In Screen
+ Check-in - From Guest History
+ Check-in - Have Reservation (1)
+ Check-in - Have Reservation (2)
+ Reservation Details
+ Reservations Grid
+ Print Reservation Details
+ Print Reservation Summary
+ Room List
+ Room List - Close Shift
+ Room List - Debit Charge
+ Room List - Extend Stay
+ Room List - Payment to Room
+ Guest Registration - Complimentary
+ Payment
+ Room List - Some Features

Reports

+ Guest Statement
+ Registration Form - Standard
+ Registration Form - Complimentary
+ Check Out Statemant - Cash
+ Check Out Statement - Credit Card
+ Check Out Statement - Corporate
+ Check Out Statement with Refund

Tutorials

All tutorials are in SWF format. This contents require flash player to view.
Get Adobe Flash Player >>>

Room list :-

+ Check-in
+ Check-out
+ Complimentary
+ Payment by Cash - from room guest
+ Payment by Card - from room guest
+ Check balance - preview interim statement
+ Cash sales - non-guest sales
+ Debit - room with other charges
+ Reservations
+ Change room
+ Refund
+ Close shift

Setup sequence :-

+ Set up room types, rates
+ Set up room numbers
+ Set up charge code
+ Set up user list