Pitch
Software application program for Facilitating Hotel & Restaurant Services Provision
Description
Summary
In many cities especially in densely populated cities of the world, it is very difficult for many customers to find hotels and restaurants (H&R) with services that best satisfy their interests in terms of such as type, quality and costs of foods that will be served during breakfast, lunch and dinner easily. This in turn subjects customers to drive here and there to find H& R in cities that suits them best which in turn costs them time, fuel, safety etc. In addition, fuels burned during driving here and there for searching suitable H & R in mega cities could be high enough contributing to GHG emissions. Thus, there is a need for a technology that will solve the challenges facing people currently in the world with regard to H&R services.
Aimed at contributing to solve some of the existing multiple challenges with H&R service around the world, I hereby propose a software based application program that will enable customers to find H&R with services that best satisfy their interest online without having physically searching such H & R in any city in the world. The program will enable customers to order and pay for the service they want for example food item to be served during lunch from the menus of the selected hotel or restaurant ahead of time such as at 10:30 am in the morning online to be readied on the table just at 1:00 pm. This program if applied will have several benefits such as save cost, fuel and time spent by customers, contribute to GHG emission reduction, make H&R services competent and efficient etc.
What concrete idea do you propose?
My challenge as a travel to Europe: Real life challenges for real life learning and innovations
I visited one of the European countries from 05-19 Oct. 2019 to participate in a short course related to my job. English was not national language in the country I visited though some local people were able to speak English. My challenge as foreign traveler in this country was that occasionally I and my friends were going to hotels and restaurants for lunch and dinner and all of the menus were written in local language. Thus, we were asking waiters to translate us the menus into English to know our choices and then order. In the process we used to face difficulties of understanding between us and the waiters due to the fact that neither the waiters nor we (customers) were good in our English language ability which has negatively affected the service delivery process. Moreover, imagine the time spent until we were able to understand each other and order dinner or/and lunch. Had there been digital application tool like HRServeApp, the one I proposed here, it would have been very simple that the application would have translated the contents of the menus into English or any other language we (customer) able to understand best online automatically so that we could have ordered the dinner or lunch in Hotels and Restaurants we visited without any difficulties mentioned above. Therefore, it is time for HRServeApp to be operational to make life for travelers easy and friendly.
Background and Rationale for the proposed idea (HRServeApp)
It is established fact that the world population is increasing alarmingly with time and at the same time there is increasing trend of urbanization and urban population especially in developing countries. These days, it is common to see many cities in the world with population counting one millions up to ten millions. In tandem with increasing urbanization and urban populations, service giving firms/facilities such as for example hotels and restaurants (H&R) are also increasing in cities and will continue to increase in cities in every corner of the world. In a big city, one can estimate that there could be thousands of H&R or more distributed randomly in a particular city that provide services of different types such as food, beverage etc to local residents and travelers of various types daily. The apparent high population in mega cities, large number of H&R with diverse types of services, presence of complicated infrastructure such as complex roads and high traffics are big challenges to domestic and foreign travelers seeking services of various types in such cities.
Getting services from H&R are one of the challenges confronted by travelers/customers in mega cities easily. The presence of large number of randomly distributed H&R coupled with difficulty moving from one location to another in mega cities are major constraints for customers to identify hotels and restaurants that satisfy their interest in terms of for example type of food served at breakfast, lunch or dinner, cost, quality etc in such cities. Thus, the only options available for customers currently in mega cities is either to drive around the city until they find hotel or restaurant that satisfy their interest for example food served during lunch time which will cost them money, time and fuel etc. or to get services from any hotel or restaurant available nearby to customers in question which may compromise their health, money, aesthetic satisfactions etc. Even the time elapsed between order of the services such as lunch item in hotel of interest and the lunch/food actually served to customer is sometimes too long. It may take as long as one hour ore more which is very boring to wait for customers to whom time is precious. This is the worst problem I myself usually encounter in H&R as a customers in big cities.The challenges confronted by customers seeking services in H&R in mega cities described above are happening due to absence of simple and user friendly technologies or tools (To my Knowledge) that enables customers to search and identify H&R with services that match with their interest in destination cities. Thus, in order solve the multiple challenges confronted by customers with regards to food services in H & R in cities especially in mega cities around the world, I propose internet based software application technology which I call it HRServeApp. In the subsequent, sections, I have briefly described about what it is? How it works, its benefits etc.
Actions for realizing HRServeApp
Web based application entitled www.HRSeveApp.com (HRServeApp) will be developed and launched so that H & R in cities of any country will be able to upload their details (names, emblems, Addresses, locations etc.) and menus containing lists of dishes along with price per each dish that are served during breakfast, lunch and dinner time. H& R owners enrolled in the application will upload their menus on weekly basis and they will be able to update their menus anytime they want through the Admin of the application. HRServeApp will also enable H & R owners to interact with customers online through the admin of the application so that they will receive orders for dish types of customer choices and get paid for the order online. Parallel to this, the envisaged application will enable customers to navigate through H & R found in cities of interest and identify hotel or restaurants which will fulfill their interest in terms of dish type, prices, quality, proximity etc. and go to H & R of choice physically and get the services. Or using this application, customers will be able to search and identify H & R in cities online that match their interest and order dishes of their choice by paying online to be readied any time they want in hotel or restaurant of choice and/or they can order for dishes of choice to be packed and delivered to them in locations where they are (homes, workplaces etc.).
Furthermore, with this application it will also be possible for someone who wants to invite breakfast, lunch or dinner to relatives, friends, and families etc. who are living in different cities than the city where the inviter (host) is living online.
HRServeApp will be integrated system with several components interacting between and among each other as programmed earlier (Fig.1) so that the application will effectively and efficiently deliver intended services.
Figure 1. Model representing important actors of envisaged HRSeveApp and their interactions.
In general Key actions required to be accomplished to develop and make the envisaged HRServeApp operation are listed below.
- Pilot scale development of www.HRServeApp.com
- Preparation of regulations, terms of reference, laws etc. pertaining to the application to which all parties of HRServeApp shall abide.
- Setting minimum criteria and standards that Hotels and Restaurants in a particular city should meet so that they will be able to upload their service on the application and avail themselves for customers.
- Setting minimum criteria that customers need to meet to benefit from the services of the envisaged application.
- Drafting agreements and signing of agreements that different parties of the application such as agreement between Admin/owner of the application and Banks, between Admin of the application and Google company, between Admin of the Application and Telecom companies etc.
- Full scale development and release of HRServeApp for users elsewhere in the world.
Who will take these actions?
As the call of this contest is for digital and technological solution to make travel and mobility more sustainable at Global scale, I changed my mind that the proposed HRServeApp to be a global platform for facilitating H & R services than being in decentralized form. Consequently, the likely actors of the envisaged application starting from its development until it become fully operational and their corresponding roles are described one by one as follow from global perspective:
Lufthansa, Google, Uber and e expedia group
I believe that making the envisaged HRServeApp operational at global requires huge amount of initial investment in terms of server capacity, manpower etc. Thus I propose that one or more of the above organizations to invest on the proposed application and make it operational worldwide. This is because I believe that these organizations have the technical, manpower and financial capacities to invest and run usch applications on global scale.
Software engineers
Converting the proposed idea into digital application should be done by software engineers. Thus, for pilot scale development and testing of HotSeveApp, my partner who is software engineer will handle it. But for full scale business level application of the idea, some more software engineers and related professional should involve.
It will provide location maps of Hotels and Restaurants in destinations cities with which customers will be guided to H & R of their choices.It will also provide online automatic language translation and currency converting services to users of HRServeApp online.
Governments/City administrations
They should commission preparation and approval of laws, regulations, guideline etc. by which all actors of the actors and users of the application shall abide by and subjected to.
Hotels and Restaurant owners
They will upload details of their locations, contact address, descriptions of the services (dishes/food items etc.) served during breakfast lunch and dinner time or any time in day or night for that matter on HRServeApp as guided by the admin of the application. They can also able to upload video descriptions of their services to be displayed to the customers on the applications. However, they have to meet the minimum requirements of the application in order for H&R in a particular city to be displayed on.
Banks
Regulate and ensure money transferred paid to entitled beneficiaries (H & R, Bank, telecom etc,) that will be paid by customers programmed earlier.
Telecom companies
Provide efficient call and SMS transfer services
Impact/Benefits
What impact will these actions have on sustainability within Travel & Mobility?
There will be several benefits and positive impacts of the envisaged HotSeveApp. Some of the possible benefits and positive impacts with the application include:
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It is usually difficult for customers (travelers) to find Hotels (H) & Restaurants (R) in destination cities with food or dish types that they prefer most to be served during breakfast, lunch or dinner time. However, with the help of this application, customers will be able to identify H& R with dish types of their choices online and they will know where H & R with dishes of their choice are located in destination cities exactly so that guided by Google map service, they can go to H or R of choices directly and be served without having any trouble. This in turn will save them time, money, energy etc.
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The application will also enable customers to compare similar food/dish items served by different H & R in same city in terms of prices per dish, proximity to their destinations etc. So that they will go and be served to H & R of their choices.
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Time, energy and fuel spent by customers in cities for finding H & R with dish types of interest will be saved. Decrease in fuel burning will contribute to GHG emission reduction.
- The application will enable customers to order food items or dishes in H or R their choices and the exact time that the dish has to be readied on the table or packed for take away purpose ahead of time online. This in turn will save time for the customer, enable for H & R to effectively plan for the purchase of raw material for making food etc.
- Risks of various types such as health risks that may arise from served from low quality food items etc. will be greatly decreased with the envisaged application.
- Satisfactions of customers from served with food/dish types of their choices will be maximized.
- The application will be a source of income for all actors involved such as owners of the application,H&R, banks, telecom, city administration, governments etc.
- With HRSeveApp, visibility of H & R will be tremendously increased due as they are frequently visited and used by a lot of customers and thus, the income will be enhanced.
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This application will enable anyone to invite food/dishes to friends, family etc. in H or R of choice online so that the invitees can be served with food/or dish items which were ordered by the host. The only thing invitees need is to show up unique code generated and sent to them as SMS message to their phone numbers.
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The envisage application is a business application so that It will be a source of income and employment for people or organization investing on it.
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The Application will encourage H & R to improve the quality and standards of their services.
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It contribute to improve the development of tourism industry and more and attracts tourists for countries where this digital technology is operational.
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The application will contribute to the development of tourism in the world.
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In general this application will contribute to sustainability in travel and mobility.
About the team members
My name is Wassie Haile, Ethiopian national, currently working as an Associate Professor of soils science in the college of agriculture, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia. I am engaged in teaching soil science course both at under graduate and graduate levels, conducting research experiments aimed at addressing soil fertility and soil acidity challenges in the highlands of Ethiopia and serving as theses research supervisor of students working for their MSc and PhD degrees in various fields of soil science.
Moreover, I am highly impressed by digital technology and its application. Thus, I am always thinking areas of development where digital technology continues to be applied and employed to solve problems. Consequently, similar to my idea here, I have generated an idea that can be converted to digital technology aimed at strengthen regular education being offered in the high schools of Ethiopia and elsewhere in the world, and with the help of my IT partner in my university named Tewodros Geroge , we developed and launched web based application:
www.ethioexam.com Please, I kindly invite you to visit the page.
If my Idea proposed here is applicable, my contribution will be providing further details of my idea. If piloting of my idea is required, I will do it in partnership with my IT partner. If fully implemented, I can involve as consultant and possibly as share holder (1-5%) of the envisaged application.
Tewodros George is software engineer currently working at Hawassa University as ICT officer and apart from the above web page, contracted by different organizations; he had developed several web page in Ethiopia.
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