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Proposal of expert system for hotel booking system

Conference Paper · May 2016

DOI: 10.1109/CarpathianCC.2016.7501206

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Bogdan Walek Radim Farana

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Proposal of Expert System for Hotel Booking System

Bogdan Walek Radim Farana

Department of Informatics and Computers Department of Informatics and Computers
University of Ostrava University of Ostrava
Ostrava, Czech Republic Ostrava, Czech Republic
bogdan.walek@osu.cz radim.farana@osu.cz

Oldrich Hosek
Department of Informatics and Computers
University of Ostrava
Ostrava, Czech Republic
P15182@student.osu.cz

Abstract— Currently, there are a lot of hotel booking systems.  Orbitz.com

However, the quality of the systems and interconnection with
another system is very different. In this article, the fuzzy  Agoda.com
approach and expert system for hotel booking system is
 Hotel Reservations.com
proposed. The proposed approach is based on evaluating hotel
services for different kinds of hotel guests. The output of the If a user searches a suitable hotel for his business trip or
expert system is a proposal of suitable hotel services for hotel holidays and he does not know any proven or recommended
guests during the process of hotel booking. hotel, he often uses a hotel booking website to find the most
suitable hotel. Using a hotel booking website, the user can
Keywords— hotel booking; hotel booking system; fuzzy; expert compare hotels and their level of hotel services, price per night,
system; hotel service
availability of urban public transport, hotel location, etc. Most
hotel booking websites have reviews and rating of hotels based
I. INTRODUCTION on guests experience.
Nowadays, they are many hotels which offer their The most used hotel booking websites are shown in the
accommodation and other services using hotel booking graph below [4]:
systems. Generally, each hotel has its own website with a
registration form or booking system for guests to provide
reservation of accommodation. They might use some of
professional systems, for example [1] [2].
Many hotels also use one of the most popular hotel booking
websites. Using this websites, the hotel should present
accommodation services for more possible guests and thus
attract more guests. A disadvantage is that the hotel must pay
for using a hotel booking website. To introduce the topic, we
would like to show the most popular hotel booking websites.
Here are top ten hotel booking websites based on a user survey
published in [3] for year 2016 :
 Hotels.com
 Travelocity.com
Fig. 1. Most used hotel booking websites [2]
 Expedia.com
 Hotwire.com
II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
 Priceline.com Hotel booking websites or own booking systems on
 Booking.com websites of hotels often provide the following services for
guests:
 MoreHotels4Less.com
  Room reservation in required days (including As we can see in Fig. 2, there are two databases which are
verifying the availability of rooms at the desired connected to the expert system:
time)
 Database of hotel services
 Food reservation (mostly only breakfast)
 Database of POI (points of interest), activities and
Moreover, potential guests also decide which hotel services events
to use, which interesting places and ventures close to the hotel
to visit during their stay. They also plan one-day trips and The database of hotel services contains well-known
decide which possible activities are interesting. The importance services like:
of this issue is highlighted by a number of realized analyses  Wellness
and proposed prediction systems, for example [5] [6] [7].
 Sauna
Current booking systems often lack the possibility to book
hotel services. In addition, booking systems do not have a tool  Swimming pool
for planning suitable activities around the hotel or in nearby
 Massages
cities or places intended for hotel guests. More different
solutions have been presented in previous works, also based on  Rental of tennis courts or any playground
expert systems [8] [9] [10] [11].
 Rental of car, motorcycle or bike
III. PROBLEM SOLUTION  etc.
Based on the above-mentioned reasons, we propose an the database of POI, activities and events contains
expert system for a hotel booking system. The main idea of the recommended places to visit, current events around the hotel or
proposed expert system is to interconnect the hotel with places, in nearby city and possible interesting activities. Parts of the
activities and interesting events around, and based on user database are graphically shown in the following figure:
preferences to suggest suitable hotel services and suitable
activities for the hotel guest. The proposed expert system will
be connected to a simple questionnaire to detect guest
preferences [12]. The expert system consists of a knowledge
base which contains IF-THEN rules for determining which
hotel services and activities around the hotel are more or less
suitable for the hotel guest.
The proposed expert system, developed using the
knowledge obtained by authors in previous work [13] [14], is
shown in the following figure:

Fig. 3. Database of POI, activities and events

As we can see in Fig. 3, events and activities should be

connected to points of interests (and they usually are),
otherwise they should be stored as separate units.
The main parts of the proposed expert system are described
in the following subchapters.

A. Definition of the questionnaire for hotel guest

In the first step, the questionnaire for hotel guest is defined.
The main aim of the questionnaire is to determine hotel guest
preferences. Results from a filled-in questionnaire will be used
for evaluation of suitable hotel services by the first expert
system (EXS1) and evaluation of suitable activities and events
by the second expert system (EXS2).
An example of questionnaire questions and a few possible
answers are shown below:
1. Type of stay (business, relax, etc.)

Fig. 2. Proposed expert system for hotel booking system

 2. Type of hotel guest (single person, couple, etc.) IF(STAY TYPE IS RELAX) AND
3. Level of interest in sporting hotel services (low, medium, (GUEST TYPE IS COUPLE) AND
high, etc.)
(INTEREST_SPORT IS HIGH) AND
4. Level of interest in relaxation hotel services (low, (INTEREST_RELAX IS VERY HIGH) THEN
medium, high, etc.)
(MASSAGE_SUITABILITY IS VERY HIGH)
5. Required average distance of activities/events from hotel
(short, medium, long, etc.)
6. Required average time duration of activities/events IF(STAY TYPE IS BUSINESS) AND
(short, medium, long, etc.)
(GUEST TYPE IS ONE PERSON) AND
7. Required level of guest rating of activities/events (low,
(INTEREST_SPORT IS LOW) AND
medium, high, etc.)
(INTEREST_RELAX IS VERY HIGH) THEN
The first two questions from the questionnaire are intended
for EXS1 and EXS2. Questions 3 and 4 are defined for EXS1. (PLAYGROUND_SUITABILITY IS VERY LOW)
Questions 5, 6 and 7 belong to EXS2.
D. Definition of expert system for evaluating suitable
B. Filling questionnaire by hotel guest activities and events
At the end of the process of room and food reservation by a In next step, the second expert system (EXS2) is defined.
hotel guest (using a hotel website or hotel booking website), The knowledge base of the expert system consists of IF-THEN
the questionnaire defined above is shown. After completing the which are created by a hotel expert and tourism expert. Based
questionnaire, answers of hotel guest are stored into a database on answers from the questionnaire, information from the
for subsequent use. database of POI, activities and events and knowledge base, the
expert system evaluates each activity/event and determines the
C. Definition of the expert system for evaluating suitable level of suitability of activity/event. The IF-THEN rules in
hotel services EXS2 also contain information about the weather for a specific
In next step, the first expert system (EXS1) is defined. The day (the day when the activity is planned). Weather
knowledge base of the expert system consists of IF-THEN information is regularly imported from a weather web service.
which are created by a hotel expert. Based on answers from the Examples of IF-THEN are shown below:
questionnaire and knowledge base, the expert system evaluates
each hotel service and determines the level of suitability of a IF(STAY TYPE IS ADVENTURE) AND
particular hotel service. (GUEST TYPE IS ONE PERSON) AND
The expert system is created in LFLC (Linguistic Fuzzy (WEATHER TYPE IS SUNNY) AND
Logic Controller) tool [15]. This system enables to create the
knowledge base of the expert system and also performs the (TEMPERATURE IS HIGH) AND
process of decision making together with the specific output, (EVENT DISTANCE IS SHORT) AND
which is possible to use in the proposed system.
(EVENT TIME DURATION IS MEDIUM)
The LFLC tool provides several methods for
defuzzification of the output value of the output linguistic (EVENT RATING IS HIGH) AND THEN
variable. Here are possible defuzzification methods: (EVENT_SUITABILITY IS VERY HIGH)
 Simple Center of Gravity (COG)
 Modified Center of Gravity IF(STAY_TYPE IS ADVENTURE) AND
 Simple Defuzzification of Linguistic Expressions (GUEST TYPE IS ONE PERSON) AND
(DEE)
(WEATHER TYPE IS RAINY) AND
 Simple DEE using COG
(TEMPERATURE IS LOW) AND
 Defuzzification of Linguistic Expressions (EVENT DISTANCE IS SHORT) AND
 Mean of Maxima (MOM) (EVENT TIME DURATION IS MEDIUM)
 Smooth Defuzzification of Linguistic Expressions (EVENT RATING IS HIGH) AND THEN
For the proposed expert system, we used method called (EVENT_SUITABILITY IS LOW)
Simple Center of Gravity.
Part of the knowledge base created in the LFLC tool is
Examples of IF-THEN are shown below: shown in the figure below:

Fig. 4. Part of the knowledge base of the expert system
E. Evaluation and visualization of suitable hotel services
In this step, all hotel services are evaluated by the expert
system. For each hotel service, the expert system evaluates the
level of suitability. Then hotel services are sorted according to
their suitability and shown to the hotel guest.
F. Evaluation and visualization of suitable activities and
events
In this step, all appropriate activities and events are
evaluated by the expert system. For each activity or event, the
expert system evaluates the level of suitability. Then activities
and events are sorted according to their suitability and shown
to the hotel guest.
G. Selection of the most suitable hotel services
Next, the hotel quest selects the most suitable hotel
services. Evaluation by the expert system is an auxiliary
criterion for hotel guests and it may help them select
appropriate hotel services.
H. Selection of the most suitable activities and events
Finally, the hotel quest selects the most suitable activities
and events. Evaluation by the expert system is an auxiliary
criterion for hotel guests, and it may help them select
appropriate activities and events.
IV. CONCLUSION
The article proposed an expert system for a hotel booking
system. The main aim of the proposed expert system is to
evaluate and propose suitable hotel services and suitable
activities and events for hotel guests. Evaluation of hotel
services uses an expert system with a knowledge base and
information from a questionnaire filled-in by hotel guests.
Evaluation of activities and events uses an expert system with a
knowledge base, information from a questionnaire filled-in by
hotel guests and a database of points of interest, activities and
events. The main parts of the proposed expert system are
described.
In future work we will focus on verification of the expert
system and its connecting to real databases of points of interest,
activities and events around a specific hotel. Furthermore, we
will focus on implementation of a planning tool for hotel guests
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who will be able to create a schedule of their stay in a hotel,
including suitable hotel services, related activities, events, and
trips.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the project “LQ1602
IT4Innovations excellence in science” and during the
completion of a Student Grant with student participation
SGS02/UVAFM/2016, called Application of fuzzy methods for
system analysis, description, prediction and control, supported
by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
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