Self-Test: Answers to End-of-Chapter Questions

1. The three major pieces of legislation were:
   1. FCC approved (1944) payment of commissions by telephone company to hotels for interstate calls; hotel surcharges disallowed.
   2. Carterfone decision (1968) by the FCC (after prodding from the federal court) allowed the interconnect of non-Bell equipment to Bell systems.
   3. FCC ruled (1981) that hotels can add surcharges to interstate calls, reversing the 1944 ruling that disallowed surcharges.
   4. AT&T decided (1983) to stop paying hotels commissions on long-distance calls.
   5. Court breaks up the Bell System (takes a decade, circa 1975-1985) opening competition to the likes of Sprint and MCI.
   6. Hotels buy and install their owner equipment (AIOD; LCR; CAS; pay-telephones) in order to reduce costs and improve profits.
      
      
2. The benefits of purchasing software that ensures uniform connectivity are numerous. A hotel that attempts to get by with incompatible equipment will most certainly end up with problems relating not only to hardware and software, but more importantly guest and staff frustration. Conversely, some disadvantages of purchasing products from a vendor in compliance may stem from their higher initial cost. However, the immeasurable gains that should accrue from subsequent guest and staff satisfaction and enhanced service-levels will likely render the initial higher cost justifiable.
   
   
3. No one can fault hotels from charging enough of a premium to make a profit in their telephone departments. The real question is how much is too much? From a legalistic perspective, if the premium rate structure is clearly posted near the telephone, the hotel should be able to add whatever percentage it wants. However, from an ethical and realistic perspective, there is clearly a limit to the premium a hotel can charge over and above the telephone call's actual cost. Hotels which used AOS services in the late 1980's found themselves with far too many dissatisfied guests. Guests who felt they had been mislead and over charged. Some profit is fair and expected. Too much profit is unwarranted, leads to dissatisfaction, and ultimately hurts profitability. How much is too much?
   
   
4. The acronyms represent the following:
   1. HOBIC - Hotel Outward Bound Information Center: long-distance lines of the telephone company.
   2. AOS - Alternative Operator Service: companies other than AT&T from whom the hotel buys operator-assisted connections and services.
   3. WATS - Wide Area Transmission (sometimes Telephone) Service: method of buying telephone line in quantity with corresponding discount.
   4. PMS - Property Management System: a package of integrated hardware and software capable of expansion as new microprocessor capability is introduced.
   5. FCC - Federal Communication Commission: federal agency which oversees telephone industry's interstate operations.
   6. ELS - Electronic Locking System: comes in both hard-wired and micro-fitted variations.
   7. OCC - Other Common Carriers: competitors of AT&T following 1981 deregulation.
   8. AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph: the telephone company nicknamed Ma Bell.
   9. PBX - Private Branch Exchange: equipment that processes the flow of calls in and out of the hotel.
   10. AIOD - Automatic Identification of Outward Dialing: identifies the room number of outgoing calls.
   11. POS - Point-Of-Sale: terminals which function in other departments (usually food and beverage) and interface directly from that location to remote system.
   12. CAS - Call Accounting System: the in-house telephone software interfaced to the PMS.
   13. AH&MA - American Hotel and Motel Association: lobbying, educational, and networking association for hotel industry owners, operators, and auxiliary services.
   14. LCR - Least Cost Routing: software which calculates where and when guest and other in-house calls are placed and then routes those calls over least expensive common carriers.
   15. PPC - Premium Priced Calls: usually 1-900 calls cost caller (or hotel) a per-minute fee.
       
       
5. Keys, whether mechanical or electronic, are identified as follows:
   1. Room Key (sometimes change key): one or more issued to guest; opens one or few rooms.
   2. Pass Key (sometimes area or submaster key): issued and retrieved daily from floor attendants, opens a subset of rooms on a given floor.
   3. Submaster Key (sometimes section key): combines several pass keys or wings of a floor.
   4. Master Key (sometimes floor key): carried by floor supervisors, given to maintenance and service personnel doing work on the floor, opens every door on the floor (or section).
   5. Grandmaster Key (for security, sometimes eliminated in favor of several sectional keys): carried by department heads in housekeeping and engineering; opens every guest room.
   6. Great-Grandmaster Key (sometimes E-Key [emergency]): for security, kept under signature at the front office or the accounting office. Opens all doors, including those deadbolted from within.
      
      
6. No one single answer, but the student will probably detail devices that will aid the guest in operating all the electrical and electronic equipment in the room, including; operation of curtains, lights, air conditioning, heating, TV, radio, fax machine, and other devices yet to be installed. The room will duplicate the home or office away from home, right down to beds that recline. In the lobby and other public areas, modern conveniences like ATMs or even electronic "smart cards" will enable hotel guests and other customers to order and pay for food, beverages, snacks, souvenirs, or other shopping items without cash. Similarly, these "smart cards" will be able to access the reservation, replace the registration card, and even become the room key. And so on!

Go on to Chapter 14 Quiz
or
Go back to Property Management System Interfaces

E-mail Gary Vallen at Gary.Vallen@nau.edu
Call Gary Vallen at (928) 523-1702

© Copyright 2003 Northern Arizona University
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED