Booking system

[Guest]

Hi All,
Ive been asked to see if I can produce a booking system for a friends small
hotel, I was wondering is there where any sites where I can gain knowledge on
the best way to do this? It would be nice if I could produce a form that
displayed the availability of each room.
Any help or advice would be welcome, by the way I am not a novice its just
that I have not been asked to do a system like this..

Thanks

Mike J. Soames
VBA rules

 

[tina]

here's a link to a data model that might help you get started:
http://www.databaseanswers.com/data_models/hotels/hotel_reservations_physical.htm

hth

 

[Guest]

Hi Tina,
Thanks for that input but it's more how I would present this to the user
than the structure of the thing, I need to find a way to show what rooms are
available etc for specific dated and at the moment im running a mind blank on
how to achieve this.

Mike J. Soames

 

[Craig Alexander Morrison]

Until you have the data correctly structured you have nothing.

Presentation of the data is another matter you need first to make sure you
have all the data and that it is fully normalised.

Presentation of data from a normalised data structure is completely
flexible.

If you do not know what normalisation is then google for it.

 

[Guest]

I am greatful for your reply but I have no problem with normalisation and the
data and database concepts, but I cannot formalise the structure until I have
an idea what I need and how I need to display it in order for it to provide
the results required.

Mike J. Soames

 

[Vincent Johns]

This isn't a complete answer, but FWIW, I assume you have a Table (or
Query) listing dates, room numbers, and reservation status.

Then you can filter this by date and reservation status to get a list of
available rooms. (Or a list of occupied rooms, etc.)

For a slightly fancier presentation, you could use a Crosstab Query to
list, say, a week of dates one day per row, and show the rooms as
columns, one column for each room. At the intersection you could list
status, "Occupied", "Reserved", "Confirmed", "Available", etc.

Or, for a given date, you might have a Crosstab Query list one room per
row and put the various status codes into the columns; the intersections
would probably then just identify "X" or blank, or something like that.

To save space, you may want the Form that displays all this to open in
Datasheet View.

And I suggest keeping an open mind about normalization. It's usually a
good idea (OK, it's almost always so while you're designing your
database), but in extreme cases it can interfere with performance.

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Vincent,
I will look into what you said, bouncing these questions about helps me
think and I have worked out a possible solution to this problem for interface
reasons I possibly will go witout datasheets but use the conditional
formating of textboxes to provide the user with a graphical display of the
results.

I will keep you posted on the progress.

Mike J. Soames

 

[Vincent Johns]

Thanks for the offer to keep us posted.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about having the whole design
perfect before starting. Access makes it fairly easy to revise your
design if you see a better way to do something. (Of course, you want to
start with a good design, but redoing it in Access is easier than
redoing the foundation of a building after the roof is on.)

If you want to be really fancy, you might consider placing the textboxes
on your Form in a pattern that mimics the physical layout of the rooms
in your building. (Just a thought.) You might be able to color-code
the textboxes according to reservation status.

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

 

[Craig Alexander Morrison]

If you are happy that you know what data you should have and that it is
properly normalised then you may be better asking this question in the
m.p.a.forms newsgroup as this is primarily for assistance in tables and
database design.

 

[Craig Alexander Morrison]

And I suggest keeping an open mind about normalization. It's usually a

good idea (OK, it's almost always so while you're designing your
database), but in extreme cases it can interfere with performance.

Perhaps if he is not using Access that could be the case. Your advice about
normalisation is unwise but all too prevalent.

--
Slainte

Craig Alexander Morrison
Crawbridge Data (Scotland) Limited

news:[email protected]...

 

[Craig Alexander Morrison]

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about having the whole design

perfect before starting. Access makes it fairly easy to revise your
design if you see a better way to do something. (Of course, you want to
start with a good design, but redoing it in Access is easier than redoing
the foundation of a building after the roof is on.)

It may be easy to change tables but if you have a complex application such
changes could have horrendous knock-on effects.

Get the design as right as you can at the outset, that is the professional
thing to do. Otherwise no project could be properly scoped and budgeted. Of
course if it is just a hobby then fine who cares how much time you spend
rooting around if you are learning how to use Access. But once you have
learned by mistakes such as the advice you just gave you will strive to
avoid it in future.

Mind you when I see how many projects go way off schedule and budget they
must be reworking the requirements throughout the development, not clever.

Access is a RAD and with any luck a strong Requirements Definition phase and
a quick development schedule should ensure that the correct requirements are
delivered before they go out of date.

--
Slainte

Craig Alexander Morrison
Crawbridge Data (Scotland) Limited

news:[email protected]...

 

[Guest]

Hi Craig
I have taken in all you say and am thankfull for the good advice I have
recieved and will head for the forms forum. I agree with the comments on
normalisation, this project has no timescales or budgets at this time so i
have the luxury of being able to play somewhat. When I come to building the
real system I will work to the correct methodologies. Thanks for your input
again.

Mike J. Soames