2/3.

Property Management System

FIDELIO

Fidelio is a complete integrated system package designed to achieve maximum efficiency of the hotel.
This PMS is produced in Munich, Germany, advanced version 6.20. The demo version enables the
employees to practice and learn in a real life environment. Its main features are:

a) It is DOS-based and the newer version- OPERA- is Oracle- based.

b) It can protect its software from all sorts of virus. If a virus enters the system, it is transferred to
a non-usable file from a database file in order to save the other files.
c) The red alert software can be used for extra protection of files from virus.
d) It is an eco-friendly system.
e) It is flexible and easy to use software.
f) It can be easily operated with a minimum of training inputs.
g) It is one of the most popular PMS of hotels.
h) It is slightly more expensive than other software.

Key Features of FIDELIO:

 Reservations: FIDELIO Reservation features are integrated with other functionality such as
profiles, cashiering, and deposits. This module offers a complete set of features for making
and updating individual, group, and business block reservations, including deposit handling,
cancellations, confirmations, wait-listing, room blocking, and sharing.
 Rate Management: An extensive set of features for setting and automatically controlling rates,
for rate quotation, and for revenue forecasting and analysis are integrated into FIDELIO to
create the most comprehensive rate management system in the industry. FIDELIO interfaces
with the FIDELIO Revenue Management Systems and other major yield management
applications.
 Profiles: FIDELIO profiles are complete demographic records for guests, business accounts,
contacts, groups, agents, and sources. Profiles include addresses, phone numbers,
membership enrollments, stay and revenue details, guest preferences, and additional data
that make reservations handling and many other activities faster and more accurate.
 Front Desk: Arrivals and in-house guests are served using the Front Desk features This module
handles individual guests, groups, and walk-ins, and has features for room blocking, managing
guest messages and wakeup calls, and creating and following up on inter-department
advisories, or traces.
 Back Office Interface: Revenue transfers, market statistics transfers, daily statistics transfers, and
city ledger transfers can be easily made from FIDELIO to a back office system.
 Rooms Management: FIDELIO’s Rooms Management features handle all facets of room
supervision including availability, housekeeping, maintenance, and facility management. The
Queue Rooms feature coordinates Front Office and Housekeeping efforts when guests are
waiting for rooms which are not immediately available for assignment.
 Cashiering: Posting guest and passer-by charges (including taxes and other generates), making
posting adjustments, managing advance deposits, settlements, checkout and folio printing
are a few of the many activities handled by FIDELIO Cashiering. Cashiering accommodates
multiple payment methods per reservation including cash, check, credit cards, and direct bill.
In multi-property environments, guest charges can be cross-posted from any property in the
hotel complex.
  Accounts Receivable: AR is fully integrated with the FIDELIO database and includes direct billing,
invoicing, account aging, bill payments, reminder and statement generation, and account
research. Old balances from external accounting systems may be entered.
 Commissions: FIDELIO PMS offers integrated features for calculating, processing, and following
up on travel agent and other types of commission payments, either by check or via EFT
(Eectronic Fund Transfer).
 Reporting: FIDELIO offers over 360 separate standard reports. Reports can be customized for
each hotel and new reports may be created as needed using FIDELIO’s built-in Report Writer.
 Fully Configurable: Choice of FIDELIO features, system behaviours and priorities, and system-
wide defaults are controlled by the property. User permissions determine which features may
be accessed by each user and user group. Many FIDELIO screens may be customized by the
property.
 Global Perspective: FIDELIO PMS supports multi-currency and multi-language features to meet
the requirements of global FIDELIO expectations. Rates and revenues can be dynamically
converted from the local currency to any other currency. The appropriate language for guest
correspondence can be automatically determined by the guest’s profile language; country-
specific address formats are supported.
 Hospitality System Interfaces: FIDELIO PMS includes interfaces to hundreds of third-party
hospitality systems including yield management, telephone and electronic switching, TV and
video entertainment, key lock, restaurant POS, activities scheduling, minibar, and wakeup call
systems.

FRONT OFFICE MODULE:

The whole operating system can be operated by using the Function keys (F keys/ Hot keys).
 These keys help access information which is commonly required and is general in nature.
 These Function keys can be accessed at any time and can be opened simultaneously when
working in any part of the various modules.
 There are a total of 30 functions available including a combination of an F- key and Shift or
Control functions.
 Shift F10 key helps provide the entire menu -which F key provides what type of information.
 A maximum of 3-4 F key functions can be opened simultaneously on the screen.

The main modules of Fidelio used are:

I. RESERVATION II. FRONT DESK

III. CASHIER IV. ROOMS MANAGEMENT
V. OPTIONS VI. MENU

1. RESERVATIONS MODULE:
 Room reservation is made easy for FITs and Groups
 Prepares expected arrivals list for reception
 Makes the Whitney rack- to know availability of rooms or the overbooking levels
simultaneously
 Room reservation status for the next 365 days can be viewed along with details such as the
exact number of rooms, types of rooms and their room availability
 Easy to retrieve any information regarding existing reservation references/filters- first
name, middle name, date of arrival, name of company, etc.
 On confirming the reservation, the system can print out the confirmation letters and these
can be sent by e-mail or by fax also.
  It can segregate all reservations under various heads like- FITs, Groups, and Source, Travel
Agent and Company depending on the source of the reservation.
 Once a reservation is made it can be simultaneously viewed by the receptionist as today’s
arrival list
 The moment the guest checks in his name is shifted from expected arrival list to the in-
house list and the GRC is printed with the relevant information.
 The system also assists the receptionist in selecting the type of room required by the guest-
special remarks- corner room, non-smoking, north-facing, etc can be used /viewed when
blocking rooms
 The system also assists the receptionist in knowing that a particular type of room requested
is available or not and what other options can be offered to the guest
 If the room is to be shared by two persons, then the system can show two separate persons
in the room with two separate folios per person
 There is a feature of “Accompanying” for recording the details of the persons staying with
the guest (as required by law); there is no need for a separate folio but just the details are
required
 If a guest, who reserves a room for himself or who checks in at the desk requires another
reservation for a different date, etc.
 There is the feature of “Add On’ wherein another reservation can be made for this guest
containing the same details of address, mode of payment, etc. without bothering the guest
for the repetition of such information.
 Reservations can also be classified on the basis of guaranteed or non-guaranteed
reservations and the mode of guarantee provided- by company, travel agent, etc.
 Advance deposits for reservations can also be requested and received here.

The RESERVATION MODULE further contains:

i. Reservation ii. Room Assignment
iii. Groups v. Events
v. Confirmation vi. Waitlist

i) Reservations section is divided into two functions:

a. NEW RESERVATION- used for FITs (especially those not coming through any TA, Source
or any Company)
b. THROUGH AGENT: here , if the reservation is being made by a third party- a source, a
travel agent or a company, the name is linked to this reservation to help avoid any
duplication while ensuring that the correct rates are offered to the guest and that correct
procedures are followed.

(Source= an individual, usually a local businessman, etc. who gives good custom to the hotel
and so, enters into a contract with the hotel for credit payment of his bills- dining or room
stays. Usually such a guest does not guarantee a minimum amount of room nights, so the
facility of deferred payment only is extended to him, not a specific room rate.)

The actual guest reservation consists of three stages, each signified by a page-
 The first page of GUEST PROFILE contains the personal details of the guest- address, etc and is
important for maintaining the history of the guest.
 The second page of RESERVATION contains the details of the actual stay of the guest- dates of
arrival n departure, the type of room, the room rate, package details, mode of payment, etc.
  The third page of RESERVATION OPTIONS consists of details required by the cashier so as to
ensure correct postings and to present an accurate bill for the guest at checkout. So this
contains information about extra beds, cribs, meal plans, etc. if applicable to the reservation.
This also has details of any reservation deposit required to be paid by the guest, and the details
of any such deposit made to the hotel. This page also contains accounting information that is
important for the functions of a cashier- No post status, type of meal plan applicable, any extra
bed or cribs provided and to be charged for, etc.
 Also it shows if the confirmation letter was sent and the date of dispatch.

ii) Room Assignment:

o Since rooms are usually not blocked at the time of taking the reservation, this feature
helps to block rooms on the day of guest arrival or a night before.
o The system helps to block rooms with special features as requested by the guest.
o Also, the GRC can be printed and kept ready for the guest (pre-registration) so that upon
guest arrival, he needs to check and reconfirm the detail on the GRC and sign it, thus
reducing the time taken for checking-in the guest.
o The F3 key function of searching for vacant rooms is automatically in effect when
assigning rooms here.
o There are certain other codes also that can be used for searching for the correct rooms
such as:
CL= CLEAN
IS = CLEAN AND INSPECTED
DI= DIRTY
OO/OS = OUT OF ORDER/ OUT OF SERVICE

iii) Groups:
 Reservations generally come from a few months to a year in advance and so the initial
enquiry is recorded in the BLOCK MAINTENANCE section in the ‘INITIAL PHASE’ stage.
Amendments regarding number of guests, rooms, type of rooms, expected date
of arrival, etc. can only be incorporated during the initial phase of the reservation.
 When it is confirmed by the TA or Company through a letter with the rooming list, etc.
before the cutoff date (COD) stated on the system, the reservation is changed to ‘OPEN
FOR PICK UP PHASE’. Now the reservation cannot be deleted or changed to another
date. Once it is open for pick up- only the rooms’ requirement can be changed
depending on the elasticity of the block.
 Once the reservation is in the “pick up” phase then the reservation can neither be
amended or cancelled (unless there is sufficient notice for cancellation). So, this group
has to either check in or shown as a no-show.
 It is also important to create a profile for this group and to link the group reservation
with the source, TA or company making the reservation request.
 For smaller groups, on the date of arrival of the group, the receptionist blocks the
required rooms.
 For larger groups rooms can be blocked 2-3 days in advance.
 As far as possible, all rooms are blocked on the same or nearby floors.
 The system can print registration cards and master bill for the whole group and separate
bill folios for individual members.
 iv) Events:
 This section refers to the events scheduled to be held in the hotel or otherwise in the
city, or even the entire country.
 The details of the events may be entered here- date of event, the period for which it will
be ongoing, etc.
 A large number of bookings are expected during the event.
 This information helps relate room occupancy to the occurrence of events in order to
analyse the impact the events have on reservation and therefore room rates and
revenue which assists management in more accurate forecasting.
 Also, due to its effect on the occupancy, room rates can also be defined- such as only
rack rate would be offered to reserving guest during that period.
 Hotels can even plan to renovate or add rooms or at least ensure that no rooms are
OOO during that period.
 Hotels may also arrange for extra staff to deal with the raised occupancy.

v) Confirmation:
 This part of the reservation module deals with the confirmations that are to be sent out
for reservations made in the system and the format defined in the guest reservation,
e.g. e-mail or fax letter, etc.
 Most hotels have a policy of dispatching confirmations within 24 hours, at least, of
making a reservation on the system.
 Confirmations to be sent in bulk at the end of the morning shift can be printed here.

vi) Waitlist:
 In case the reservation requests come after all rooms have been sold and the margin for
overbooking is also exhausted, the hotel may choose to waitlist these requests.
 This function allows the taking of the all the reservation details of the guest (even
though you cannot accept the reservation at that time) and place the reservation in a
separate database of waitlist.
 If the occupancy situation changes and you find that you can now accept the reservation
request, one can locate the reservation in the waitlist records and transfer it to the
reservation file.
 All waitlist reservations are deleted on the night audit of the arrival date.

2. FRONT DESK MODULE:

 This module gives the list of expected arrivals and in-house guests on the current day.
 These lists can be viewed by name of guests, room numbers assigned to arrivals, etc.

This module is split into:

i. Arrival ii. Inhouse iii. Profile
iv. Accounts v. Messages

i. Arrival:
 This section deals with the check in/registration of arriving guests- both reserved and
walk in guests.
 It also deals with the check in of FITs and GITs. The guests can be identified through
various filters such as name, company, part of a group name, company name, day use
guests, confirmation numbers, etc.
 Rooms can also be placed in Q (queue) for informing housekeeping of the priority of
cleaning and readying rooms for expected arrivals.
  If rooms are not already assigned to arriving guests the system automatically lists out
the vacant rooms that can be assigned to them.

ii. In house:
 This element deals with the details of the guests who are presently checked in.
 There are various ways of locating the guests- name, room number, company, etc.
 For each guest checked in there are different speed keys that can assist in handling
his/her requests such as, change of room, and cancellation of check in if wrongly
executed.
 Other details of the guest can be accessed similarly as those in guest reservation-
profile, options, message, etc.

iii. Profile:
This segment deals with profiles of all guests in the system. Their profiles can be
accessed and checked and edited as needed.

iv. Accounts:
This section deals with the assigning of Pay Master (PM) account numbers (series 9000 ,
9001,etc.) to guests as per special billing instructions when applicable.

v. Messages:
 This section deals with messages and traces recorded for the guest of the hotel.
 All messages for guests and their handling- received, delivered, lamp on, etc. can be
viewed here.
 Also traces that have been made, resolved or still unresolved can be checked here too
by date and department listings.

3. CASHIER MODULE:
This module deals with the very important function of handling important tasks of the
accounting department related to guest folio handling and back office accounting and other
front office cashier tasks.
 The moment a guest checks in a folio is automatically opened by his room number.
 In an online system, the charges are directly posted to the guest folio from the POS.
 The signed vouchers of the guests are forwarded to the FO cashier for placing in the
folio as guest receipts.

This module contains:

i. BILLING ii. POSTINGS iii. PASSER BY
iv. CASHIER ` v. BATCH POST vi. RECEIVABLES
vii. QUICK CHECK OUT

i. Billing:
 This very important function deals with the handling of the guest folios of in-
house guests.
 Various tasks related to the guest accounts such as check out of folio, posting of
charges, taking deposits after check in, placing routing instructions, etc. can be
carried out in this function.
 This function keeps guest folios updated and current.
  This is also used for automatic debiting of guest folios with the room rate and
tariffs at a specific pre-decided time, usually during the night audit and by the
night auditor before changing of the date /end of day.
 The bills which are not settled in cash are automatically transferred to respective
ledgers by giving one command (receivables).

ii. Postings:
 This function will be used to post charges to guest folios in a random order as
they are received from various POS.
 Here, the cashier need not open the folio of the guest but can directly post
charges to it.
 All charges posted here will automatically be posted in the appropriate guest
folios.
 This saves time and effort of the cashier.

iii. Passer by:

 This function is used to handle charges for in-house and non-resident guests for
services of the front office for which payments are made by the guest at the
front desk cashier.
 This means that these charges are handled independently and settled at the
spot/POS and therefore will not need to be posted to any guest folio.
 For nonresident guests a profile will be created by the PMS which need only
contain the name of the guest- no other details. This profile will contain the term
‘passer by’ in the remarks section on its own.

iv. Cashier:
This function deals with cashiering tasks other than guest folios, such as:
 Closing cashier at the end of the cashiers shift giving details of the shift drop, any
shortage or overage, etc.
 Dealing with transactions, receipts and payments, made on behalf of the hotel
and not with reference to any guest in particular- providing money to hotel
departments for small purchases- stamps, bulbs, personal care items, etc.
 Checking journal entries by cashier numbers, etc.
 The status of cashiers that day- open or closed, with the timeline.
 Currency and check exchanges that can be done for guests of the hotel
 Access to various cashiers’ reports, currency reports- total currency handled
today, etc.
 Access to particular folio details for folio history

iv. Batch post: this is used to post single charges to multiple rooms- all rooms in a group or all
rooms with one travel agent.

v. Receivables: this option lets the user control the city ledger accounts and
credit card accounts, right from creation of an accounts receivable (A/R) account till
dealing with payments received from these accounts.
Separate ledgers are maintained for travel agents, companies, government
organizations, airlines, etc. and are monitored for any outstanding bills beyond a
defined time period- (account aging).
 v. Quick Checkout: this option is used to quickly check out guests without printing folios.
With this option the folios so closed are not stored in folio history.
This may be commonly used for group guests who have no individual postings in their
incidental folios since they were on no-post status.

4. ROOMS MANAGEMENT MODULE (the housekeeping module):

 The housekeeping section records the change in room status from dirty with the help of
the system to clean or inspected.
 Since the room status is updated simultaneously, the front office gets a clean room to
sell without further delays.
 Housekeeping also displays the number of occupants of the rooms- the room occupancy
report.
 This room occupancy report forms the basis of the discrepancy report prepared at the
front office for further verification.
 Also rooms can be allocated section wise for cleaning and one can check each room
attendant’s workload per shift.
 Rooms can also be placed on OOO and out of service status as required and for a
specified time range.
 Room history is an option used to display the history of activity for a room, e.g. when
Mr. Sharma stayed in room 312, to locate the owner of a lost article. And to find out
which guest was responsible for the burnt carpet or broken table if room 121, etc.
 The Graphics option displays the reservations of 31 days in a graphic display.
 The Maintenance option is used to record maintenance requests for the guest rooms.
These can be anything from changing a light bulb to repairing a dripping tap. So one can
record maintenance requests, view them and resolve them.
 Overbooking levels for different days or periods can also be defined here.

5. OPTIONS MODULE:
Contains various functions of which report creation and printing is a major task. The various
functions contained here are:
i. Reports: This module contains the various reports that can be customized
according to the requirements of the management including the reports related to the
headings of reservations; guests in house; financial data, night audit, etc. most of which are
prepared and submitted by the night auditor.
Various reports included here are:
 Total revenue
 ARR and its comparison with the Potential Average Rate (PAR)
 Percentage of hotel occupancy, double occupancy, single occupancy
 Bed occupancy, foreigners occupancy
 No-show percentage, stay-overs, overstays, understays
 Walk in percentage
 Sale of food, beverage, etc.
 List of VIPs expected and in-house
 Groups expected and in-house
These reports help in preparation of forecasts and budgets.

ii. Word processing: most of the files in the PMS are prepared in MS Word and are
stored for reference.
iii. Printer: printers are attached and all reports and other data can be printed here.
iv. Users log file: the employees who are authorized to update data on the PMS
are issued an individual code. The system will only accept the command one the user’s
code is entered. All commands issued by a particular employee are recorded along with
the code of the user in chronological order. This ensures accountability for data handling
to identify errors and deletions of data, etc.
v. Batch Folios:
 This option is used to print information folios, either as interim or advance bills
for all guests in house and departing today or tomorrow.
 Also, unprinted folios can be stored in folio history or this can help print periodic
folios for long stay guests. (Otherwise, only folios settled in the check out
options are printed and stored in folio history.)
 This is useful as Express Check Out folios- where the hotel likes to give the
folios to the guests the night before check out or like to inform their guests
about their balance.
 It can make check outs on a credit card extremely speedy.
 This function can also be accessed during the night audit ( other billing functions
cannot be accessed during night audit

6. MENU MODULE: without logging off, users can operate the following:
i. Check out: current date’s expected check outs along with details of the
company which the guest represented and other details can be viewed.
ii. Check-in: the list of guests who checked in can be seen here.
iii. Cancelled: the guests whose reservations have been cancelled for the
current date can be seen under this head. Whether they have to be charged retention
charges or not will now be decided by the management.
iv. Cashier: this function displays the numbers and details of cashiers which are
currently open and functioning.
****************
2/3. Assignment:
1. What is the version of Fidelio being used in your Institute?
2. Who are the people involved in the development of the Fidelio version you are using in class?
3. How many windows can be opened simultaneously- at the same time- on your PMS?
4. What purpose do the ‘Hot’ keys serve?
5. What do you mean by’ Alpha-numeric keys’?
6. What are ‘Speed keys’ and their use?
7. What are the main features of Fidelio?
8. What do you understand by the following as related to PMS (expand and explain briefly-do
some research!):
a. MMS b. CAS c. ELS d. EMS e. RMS f. MIS
9. Explain these Fidelio functions briefly- (Some questions here can be done after completing
the billing menu in the practicals. Leave space in this assignment- at least 2 pages):
a. Passer-by b. Batch Post c. Quick check out d. Receivables
e. Hotel Cashier f. Close cashier g. Message h. Locator
i. Trace j. Actions Trace k. Accompanying guest
l. Sharer m. Routing Instructions n. Interim folio
o. Q-rooms p. Pay Only q. Information Print out
r. Pro-forma invoice s. Batch Folios
***********