Have an idea but need a look at it from different perspective

[Audrone]

After working for almost 2 years in the big chain hotels company at the front desk I found a need in the business and a solution to it.

Even if I work at the front desk I have to deal a lot with food and beverage (F&B) department and most of the time it is wasting a lot of time for me, for my colleagues from F&B and for the guests. Usually the time is wasted because of miss-communication or lack of access to the information which F&B needs but they have to go through the front desk to get that information. I can't go to much in detail how the business operates as it would be a breach of my contract but to make more clear I can give one example which even the guest staying in the hotel and being part of the situation could easily figure out.

Example: Breakfast inclusive. In the morning front desk prints breakfast inclusive report for F&B. Very often it happens that list is very long and (especially when there is a queue which puts pressure to do it faster) host can't find the name on a long list and it is faster to call front desk and ask if it inclusive or no. But it is a lot of wasted time, IMO it doesn't look professional in front of the guest who sees it happening often. Also these paper lists which are visible to guest look really terrible before the breakfast is over.

This is only one example but there are a lot more different scenarios and in some situations hotels even loose money.

My idea is to create an app for a tablet which would be specifically designed to give only the information needed by F&B and there would be no more long paper lists but easy to use search. I believe that it would help to save money for hotels, would increase productivity, and improve service.

Even if in the end there is no way to make even a single pence, I am still going to do it as a practice of finding a need, creating a solution and selling it (selling part here for me would be to find the decision maker in the company I work for and "sell" my idea to actually implement it).

So the idea is not a fastlane at all. I can't even see any money which I could make. Or I just need someone to look at it all from a different perspective and that's why I decided to come here, tell this crazy story and see if I am missing something.

It happened to be pretty long so thank you for taking your time to read it all.

 

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[tafy]

All you really need is a better list, its true right?
I dont think hotels want ipads with search facility of breakfast lists as it will probably cause more problems than a paper list.

 

[Audrone]

Breakfast was just an example. There is a lot more other information that they need access to where list is not an option.

 

[tafy]

You have a better example then?

 

[Audrone]

You are not going easy on my idea and I really thank you for that

Another example, discounts for food and drinks as part of the package. To do a discount on Micros (which is system used in F&B) is very easy and fast but to do a rebate at the front desk requires manual calculation and takes time. List is not an option because:
1. Different packages have different discounts
2. The information is very dynamic and unlike breakfast changes all the time. With breakfast it is easy: everyone checked in a night before, you printed a list in the morning and that's it. But with discounts during the day the list would need to be updated practically after every single check-in and check-out to keep the information updated. Ok, there is an option to print list with guests still due to arrive but then it still can change at any time as there are always new bookings coming and bookings being cancelled.

 

[tafy]

These problems sound easily fixable with better systems and procedures, its good your looking for needs though!

Be careful of wanting to do little software things that help little problems as its not a real business as what will happen is one day the PMS operator will update a feature that kills your business overnight.

 

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[Audrone]

As I said in my very first post, I couldn't even see a way to make a business out of it. Now I see one option but it's too niche business for me. But it was a great thing for me to hear different opinion and to see it from different angle. I felt pretty stuck with this idea for a while but now I feel that I can finally leave it and move on.
Thank you for giving your opinion.