HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Property Management System

The Management Information System of Agoda
GROUP 08 - CC02

Lecture: Prof. Pham Quoc Trung

Member List:

Student Name Student ID

Trương Cao Thiện 2053456

Nguyễn Tấn Quỳnh Như 2052203

Trần Lê Như Tuấn 2052775

OFFICE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDY PROGRAMS

Date: 08.12.2022
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 4

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 5

A. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 6

1. Online Travel Agency (OTA) ....................................................................................... 6

2. Channel Manager.......................................................................................................... 6

3. Property Management System (PMS) ........................................................................ 6

3.1. Reservation module .................................................................................................. 7

3.2. Guest account module .............................................................................................. 8

3.3. General module ........................................................................................................ 8

A. THE CASE STUDY ...................................................................................................... 11

1. Brief Introduction about AGODA ............................................................................ 11

2. AGODA Problem Statement ...................................................................................... 11

3. Analysis and Design of the AGODA modules ............................................................. 12

3.1. The Context Diagram............................................................................................. 13

3.2. User Flow Chart ..................................................................................................... 15

3.3. Host Sequence Diagram ......................................................................................... 16

3.4 Customer’s Data Flow Diagram ............................................................................ 18

3.5. Reservation Data Flow diagram ........................................................................... 19

4. Evaluate the Agoda model ........................................................................................... 21

4.1. The motivation for evaluation ............................................................................... 21

4.2. Evaluation of Studied Models ............................................................................... 24

5. Solutions ......................................................................................................................... 30

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 33

REFERENCES....................................................................................................................... 34

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 ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of the hotel industry has led to the need of managing and
transferring data with the aid of the Property Management System (PMS). It deals with
sharing information in a systematic procedure. Today PMS capabilities have expanded
beyond core functions like room inventory, reservations, housekeeping, and room
assignments, to include all areas of hotel operations. PMS is one of the best data
management software that helps in recognizing the knowledge of the employee and
being a source of information on the hotel industry to increase the business and its
features help in managing the property effectively. Data management with PMS helps
in storing the data for the handling plan and on methods of executing and developing
policies for various situations in the hotel, which includes understanding the utilizing
data in learning and implementing policies of an organization. The paper describes how
data works with the Property Management System (PMS) and the advantages of having
PMS in the hotel industry. This study also focuses on the case of how Agoda applies
the Property Management System model in establishing the process within the
enterprise either with third parties.

The outcome of this research is the analysis of the existing PMS model of Agoda
from the aspects either from the side of B2B or B2C, however, the focus on the B2C
side may outweigh the remaining side. The implicit data management of the system
would be clarified. Furthermore, the suggestion for re-design the system for minimizing
the current errors from the system is also presented. All the work of the study is based
on the research of the study group due to there being no public and authorized data
source from Agoda or related sites, thus, the subjective evaluations cannot be
eliminated.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The method of writing this article is a descriptive qualitative method and library
research, which the author obtained from modules, texts, or the internet, aside from that
based on empirical experience and direct research on research objects in Agoda
companies to figure out what exactly their system is. This paper also used the data
collected from various sources to clarify the problem. In the meantime, the study
adopted a case study methodology to meet the research objectives. Besides that, the
author also employs a descriptive method. It just focuses on finding out the
characteristics and phenomena of Agoda and investigating the satisfaction level of
customers when using the Agoda systems.

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 INTRODUCTION
The hotel industry's business requirements are rapidly evolving, and the climate
is getting more competitive with unpredictable competitors' strategies. After COVID -
19 pandemic, the uptrend in the tourism industry has raised the need for booking online
to satisfy the demand from users. After witnessing the fluctuation in the market and also
the change in the customer journey, room for optimizing the PMS system for the hotels
is significant. Therefore, positioning studies in hospitality and tourism should be
emphasized. Despite the importance of the positioning study for online travel agencies,
little research has been reported to examine customers’ perceptions of online travel
agencies. This lack of research may be partly attributed to the relatively short history of
online travel agencies. This paper asks two research questions:
Research Question 1: What important attributes do customers affect the
Management Information System?
Research Question 2: What is the most common error when using the two -
integration Management Information System?
From the aspect of system users or customers, the study means the B2C aspects,
the booking app is the representative of the whole booking process. Being the only entry
that users interact with, a booking system is one of the most important nodes in the PMS
system as it is a core information provider for the whole following steps. Online booking
makes it easy for the hotels to expose the property and indirectly, it will bring more
inquiries that will generate more bookings.

From the aspect of the service provider, which means the relationship between
the hotels and the app provider like Agoda, PMS plays a crucial role in this B2B side.
Property management is important in the building and hospitality sector, especially in
the real estate and restaurant business. The customer experience is enhanced when using
PMS software to handle simple digital tasks. The hotel sector is characterized by an
information-intensive area. The key role of PMS is to prevent the loss of focus and to
create a balance between the amount of information and operational functions at the
hotel.

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 A. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Online Travel Agency (OTA)

An online travel agency (OTA) is a website where users can compare and book
hotels and other travel services all in one place. OTAs provide guests with a larger range
of alternatives, as well as convenience in search, payment, and customer service. There
is no price to list with an OTA, and they operate on a performance-based model,
collecting a commission solely for booked rooms.

An OTA connects a hotel with potential customers from all over the world, which
is tough for a single property to reach through its own marketing efforts. Furthermore,
OTA offers market information and tools for targeting potential visitors based on
constantly changing online customer behavior. An OTA listing may dramatically
increase your web presence.

2. Channel Manager
A channel manager is utility software that connects hotels to all online
distribution channels and manages bookings from these channels. Channel managers
can connect to hundreds of sales channels and global OTAs like Agoda, Booking.com,
and Expedia. Hoteliers are often confused as to which channel manager they should use,
or whether it makes sense to use a channel manager at all. Their choice is mostly driven
by the commission rates offered by online travel agencies (OTAs), which they want to
be higher than what's offered if they don't use a channel manager. Many property owners
use a single channel manager for all sales channels; others choose to use a different one
for each channel. Though channel managers provide a platform for sales channels, they
often don't protect hotels from the policies and pricing schemes of those same channels

3. Property Management System (PMS)

A property management system or a Hotel Operating System is software that

facilitates all hotel operations in one place by integrating all the different aspects such
as reservations, housekeeping, rate and occupancy management, payment processing,
and channel management. Some property management software can integrate with

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hospitality applications already running, such as revenue and yield management
programs, front/back office systems, and point of sale systems, while other property
management systems offer complete solutions by including all of these functions in
their package.

The PMS is utilized by hotels of all sizes, resorts, casinos, and even conference
centers and multi-property organizations. They can be based online with an application
service provider (ASP), or hosted internally on the current computer systems of the
business. Property management systems can be used to manage single or multiple
properties, and basic functions might include features like these: guest check-in and
check-out, guest profiles, tracking services, report generation, auditing, front and back
office services, and security systems.

The Property Management System has significantly advanced in the area of

integration. Open APIs have made it possible for tech startups, software developers, and
even well-established behemoths to build useful and innovative technology that hotels
can access with the click of a button. Integrations with third-party technologies, like
channel managers, point-of-sale systems, and payment gateways, help you choose the
right technology to suit your hotel business needs.

A property management system is a collection of automated software modules

that may handle a wide range of front-office functions. The key front office modules
are meant to assist personnel in performing the following functions:
• Reservation module
• Room module
• Guest accounting module
• General Module

3.1. Reservation module

The reservation management module offers room status information about the
time and date of the visitor's check-in and check-out, as well as the kind of room and
plan selected by the guest. The reservation module enables a hotel to expedite the

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processing of room requests and deliver the appropriate accommodation to the visitor
on time, revenue, and forecasting data. This is useful for understanding accommodation
availability and reservation status, and it immediately sends a reservation confirmation
through email, fax, or other Internet media. Remote reservation networks, also known
as global distribution systems (GDSs), Internet distribution systems (IDSs), and central
reservation systems, are used by most worldwide hotels (CRSs). IDSs collect guest
reservation data and connect to the hotel property management system via GDSs or
CRSs.

3.2. Guest account module

The Guest account module saves hotel visitors' payment and transaction data
during their stay, increasing the visibility of guest accounts to the hotel. The guest
accounting module monitors predefined guest credit limits and increases resilience
through a split, multiple folio structure, eliminating the need for a manual folio,
vouchers, reports, and registers. At the time of checkout, previously permitted
outstanding account balances are immediately moved to an appropriate file for future
reference.

3.3. General module

General module applications are used to create reports for various modules, such
as guest transactions on accounts receivable and account payable applications, which
check the limitations of visitor billing and accounts. This is also connected to the human
resources module, which covers payroll accounting, personal records of employees,
performance evaluation of employees, pay distribution and tax withholdings and
deductions, training and development, and tasks and obligations based on the
employee's position. Other individual modules in the property management system
include an energy management system, a call accounting system, a capacity
management point of sale, and an electronic door-locking system. As a result, property
management systems are currently among the most useful applications in hotels.

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 Diagram 1. The PMS system
Source: Module of PMS
The process of developing the Property Management System:
● Assessment of your company's demands, specification of technical requirements,
and budgeting. As you specify which hotel duties the system will cover, this first
stage serves as a framework for your future custom software. As a result, you
must know the technological scope and budget for the system to perform
successfully.
● Designing a user-friendly interface and an intuitive system (building MVP). The
real test for your future PMS and its acceptance by your people will be a
minimum viable product. Because all of your departments and visitors will be
utilizing the system regularly, a user-friendly interface should be a top priority.
● The time of the coding step will be determined by the project's complexity. The
more modules your PMS has and the more duties it must complete, the longer it
will take to design and test each feature.
● Testing and collecting feedback. Many software organizations now utilize an
agile style that requires constant testing of new system features. This stage will

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 also include field testing, which will include presenting the PMS to a test group
of users and determining what needs to be changed.
● System release. The hotel property management system is now ready for public
exhibition after being fine-tuned in response to user comments.
● Ongoing PMS updates, support, and maintenance. A reputed software provider
will assure the final stage of PMS development, which is critical for remaining
competitive. Changing market trends and consumer expectations may
necessitate some particular upgrades, features, and improvements, and it is the
provider's responsibility to ensure that your PMS remains relevant.

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 A. THE CASE STUDY
1. Brief Introduction about AGODA
Agoda is one of the world’s fastest-growing online travel booking platforms.
Headquartered in Singapore, Agoda is part of Booking Holdings (Nasdaq: BKNG).
From its beginnings as an e-commerce start-up based in Singapore in 2005, Agoda has
grown to offer a global network of 2 million properties in more than 200 countries and
territories worldwide. It provides travelers with easy access to a wide choice of luxury
and budget hotels, apartments, homes, and villas to suit all budgets and travel occasions.
The mission of Agoda is to make affordable travel accessible to more people and
to deliver affordable and enjoyable travel experiences that are seamless from end to end.
By seamless, Agoda means hassle-free from the moment you start planning your trip.
To get to our goal, the Agoda team has spent the last 16 years building agoda.com and
the Agoda app to make searching and booking travel as easy and stress-free as they
ought to be.
YCS is a tool for Agoda's accommodation partners to manage their properties on
our platform. YCS is an enterprise tool where hotels can manage rates and allotment,
bookings, promotions, and much more. It goes beyond showing availability and
booking confirmation to providing relevant performance data and insights. With various
functions such as View production reports, industry news, and market trend insight on
Dashboard; Managing your listing rates and availability on Allotment; Finding and
managing all your bookings on Bookings; Creating, editing, and canceling promotions
– wherever you are on Promotions.

2. Agoda Problem Statement

Agoda’s Information Management System is not a direct interaction between the
participants in the systems. Agoda chooses to use a two-way integration Channel
Manager which involves PMS. After conducting research about the Agoda case on
managing the data flow between customers, Agoda, and hotels owner, the study group
recognized the problem almost places on the side of B2C, which means the error in the
way Agoda uses users' information to communicate with the third-party, for instance,
the hotel or the payment service provider.

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 This problem draws potential systematic errors for both users and hotel owners.

From the side of the users, the problem exists mostly in the payment section.
Having had my own customer journey when using the app, and the reviews from the
other users posted on both the App Store and Facebook page, the most common error
is charging the booking fee and then subtracting the money from the banking account
without confirmation about the booking, however, the hotel still does not receive the
money transferred. Agoda is noted to not have taken any actions to solve this problem
up to now.

From the side of the hoteliers, the problem is parallelly posed by the error with
the users. The problem does fall on the payment stage. The situation now is not just that
they cannot keep track of the customers' payment records if paying in advance. Another
issue is raised due to the implicit data transmission between hotels and Agoda.
Automatically applying for the discount and promotion without confirming with the
hotel makes the participants of Agoda in the dilemma of losing money plus losing
customer satisfaction.

3. Analysis and Design of the AGODA modules

The parts on analysis and design go into the data analysis and design processes
for the Agoda Reservation Management System. Each development system needs study
and design to ensure data preservation and methodical deployment. Because the form
data and types of data required are clearly stated, a complete analysis will aid in the
system development process. The structural approach is used to analyze this system by
using the Context Diagram, Data Flow Diagram, Sequence Diagram, and User Flow
Chart to comprehend the Agoda system's process. This section would aid in the analysis
of the problem and would give an appropriate solution and concept for redesigning the
Agoda management information system by way of reengineering the system so as to
improve its productivity and reduce development time and resources.

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 3.1. The Context Diagram
A context diagram is a diagram that defines part of a system and shows entities
that interact with it. There are two entities in the system which are the customer and
hotel systems. It can be clearly seen that Agoda plays a role as an intermediary in the
diagram when providing the service both for “the consumers” and “the suppliers”.

The data flow is not directly from the customers to the hotelier, it needs Agoda
to store, manage and transmit to each other side.

When all of the customer's data is input into the Agoda app like the login
information, the account, the reservation, and even the payment details would be
immediately processed at the Agoda node. In this first cycle, Agoda inputs the data and
then returns it to the business side in the form of a report and confirmation.

After finishing the first cycle of the data flow, the flow continues but in the
opposite direction. In this second cycle, Agoda receives data from the hoteliers, such as
the request for payment or updating the property status. Then, Agoda will notify the app
users about reservation records or receipts for booking and payment.

The process of management of the information is not solely the ICT application,
human resources are also involved in it. According to practical research, most users and
business counterparts would seek for Agoda hotline to directly work with the staff, but
the automatic reply systems cannot solve the problems that arise. Thus, Agoda
employee is also a vital node in the diagram.

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Diagram 2. Context diagram of AGODA

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3.2. User Flow Chart

Diagram 3. User flow chart

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 The User Flow Chart is illustrated in order to clarify the customer's journey on
the Agoda app, this data would be the foundation to study the following part and make
suggestions for redesigning the system.

The action of the customers is in a queue of sequence, step by step through the
screens of the app to fill in the data for reaching the step of searching the location and
date needed.

From this step, the customers' journey is necessary to be paid more focus on. If
the results of the room validity are not as expected, the percentage of not dropping the
screen is still in control. The process would be repeated at least one more time.
However, the next two steps unfortunately no longer have the same trend of the
customer journey. The percentage of “Drop screen” is higher which means the issues in
UI/UX must be considered.
And after the following steps, the process will end when the receipt of the
reservation is confirmed.

3.3. Host Sequence Diagram

Diagram 5. Host's Sequence diagram

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 The Host’s Consequence Diagram figures out the relationship between Agoda
and the hoteliers. As aforementioned, for the B2B aspect, Agoda is not working directly,
YCS (Agoda Homes), which is the mainstream for the data to be transferred from hotels
to Agoda and vice versa.

Every information update from the hotels to the Agoda app must go through
YCS. It means that the hoteliers seem to be passive in updating and receiving
information.

From the first phase of creating the profile on the Agoda app, there were a lot of
procedures to post on YCS, however, there still be cases of wrong images, and wrong
profiles even though the profile has been approved and sent the success confirmation to
the hotel owners. Even when the account of the hotel's owner has been activated to use,
the information still totally depends on Agoda to YCS data flow, what the hoteliers got
to have to go through an intermediary, which leads to the sometimes missing
information, due to the fact that, every transformation is performed on the ICT system,
the systematic errors or technical cannot be predicted.

The final phase is the most vital sequence to finish the process of Agoda and the
hotel owners. The hoteliers send the receipt of the online payment to the YCS to ask
Agoda for the cashback. This sequence would take a lot of confirmation between YCS
and Agoda to compare the record of data between the 2 sides. If there were no
differences, the transaction order would be made with another third - party in banking
or payment services. After being checked through Agoda, the transaction confirmation
would also be sent to the hoteliers and also cash would be added.

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 3.4 Customer’s Data Flow Diagram

Diagram 6. Reservation data flow diagram level 1.0 (DFD) of Agoda

Data flow diagram (DFD) level 1.0 of Agoda clarifies how the reservation data
would be processed. There are 3 entities in the diagram, which contribute to 4 storages.
The user database is in charge of recording and updating the information of the users’
accounts in order to use for the needed following step. This first storage directly works
with the two first entries of the users.
In the third activity, a new database Hotel Database would be involved. Hotel
database which is powered by the hotel information update action from Agoda
combined with the progress of room information checking from the hotels. It can be
seen that this storage is one of the largest and the most important ones.
After the stage of filtering the information from users is ended, the reservation
database is now activated. It is also contributed by the hotel data upgrade. As a result,
together with the new reservation orders, this storage returns the booking confirmation
to continue the final step.
The final action is the payment, as mentioned above, the data from the first
storage would be retrieved. Also, the data from the reservation database would engage

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together. The returned information of successful payment will then be updated back to
Agoda to continue the other cycle of information.

3.5. Reservation Data Flow diagram

Data flow diagram (DFD) level 2.0 describes the data flow in the Agoda
system. 2-level DFD goes a step deeper into parts of 0-level DFD. It can be used to plan
or record the specific/necessary details about the system’s functioning. After studying,
we define that DFD level 2.0 specifies the steps involved in transferring data from the
user and host to file storage and results in the output in a system. The diagram consists
of 4 processes, 2 entities, and 3 storage data. Data from users and hosts should be
converted into files in order to store, process, and retrieve them in order to process and
store the files, with one diagram showing all processes involved.

Diagram 7. Reservation data flow diagram level 2.0 (DFD) of Agoda

When the customer begins the reservation process, the user’s data is immediately
recorded in the storage database of the Agoda system to be saved for the next step. The
reservation process continues if the user chooses the room for the order. At that time,

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there are two flows of data operating in the system. The booking information is
transferred to the Agoda reservation storage to check the reservations of customers, and
the booking details are also sent for the user to check.

For the final step, the transaction data store contains the booking details from the
reservation store and the booking information of the user in order to check the validity
of the information. Agoda plays a management role in the user payment stage of the
reservation process. Almost all the checking information is checked by the Agoda
system and returned for the management transaction function. The transaction data is
extracted through the reservation database and user information storage. This led to the
problem that sometimes users do not enter the payment information but are still charged.

At present, most of the payment system is handled by third-party payment

systems. Agoda has to consider the security environment of these third-party payment
systems when a user provides their information

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 4. Evaluate the Agoda model
In this part, the evaluation of all the studied above models would be explained in
order to find out the room for optimization in the MIS model.
First and foremost, the attributes for the evaluation would be introduced. The
evaluation part would be conducted right after the analysis of the attributes.
All the research and studied work is based on an empirical study to develop the
demonstrations or conceptual diagrams. Thus, all the comments and suggestions may
be more subjectively outweighed.
4.1. The motivation for evaluation

Figure 3.4.1.1. The flow of the user's mind

Based on the research, we determined what things the user expected when using
an online travel agency, especially Agoda. In the competitive market in Vietnam, the
more businesses that appear in the market, the higher the expectations of travelers when
choosing the services. When researching with travelers, we found that booking
flexibility is a key success factor for users when they book hotels online.

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 The first thing that attracts the attention of users and keeps them engaged is
friendly UX and UI design. According to the reviews from customers, they want to use
a system with an easy-to-use interface and a simple service process to increase their
confidence in the booking service.

Figure 7. Agoda Error based on customers’ journey,

Data in App store from 12/06/2022 - 03/11/2022

However, based on the customer data in the app store from 12/06/2022 to
03/11/2022, we identified that the ways Agoda display the room functional categories
and the confirmation booking process directly affected the user experience when finding
the services on Agoda, account for 10.6% of the total of 100 reviews of the user. The
Agoda development team needs to reconsider this field in order to increase the customer
experience. The picture below shows the sub-categories for the room functions are
complicated and draw confusion in price, thus, the users mostly stop at this stage or just
add the hotel to the like list. Agoda also is reported to have a systematic error with the
saved list either, there were cases of the saved results being lost when accessing the app
the next time.

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 Picture 1. Agoda’s Room Function Categories

Furthermore, a legit platform is absolutely what users care about. Travelers

always expect their choices to be the same as the images provided by the service
platform or comments that were posted in the Agoda, which are attractive to the users
because of their positive impacts. Attaching the service to the same fields as airline
tickets and restaurant vouchers is a competitive advantage for Agoda. Obviously, a
competitive price is the most important thing that users consider when choosing
agencies. The key to this segment is affordability. It means that Agoda needs to carefully
calculate a reasonable price range to boost the desired service usage. Combined with
the competence of competitors such as Traveloka, Airbnb, and Booking.com, Agoda
has to propose a strategic plan to create an advantage in the online travel agency field.
The last essential element, which impacts a lot of the final decisions of users, is reliable
reviews. They do trend research about previous reviews from other realistic experiences
through comments or feedback about apps to comprehend and have an overview of
these services.

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 With the last four elements not belonging to the information system field, the
only aspect of the user journey when using Agoda that can be fixed is the room
functional categories of the system. Our group already found out this error can be
changed when there are more rules between Agoda and the hotel for selling rooms on
Agoda, especially the room arrangement being clear so that customers can make the
choice more easily. Besides, this also makes it easier for Agoda to manage host
information on YCS.

4.2. Evaluation of Studied Models

According to the motivation mentioned above, besides having the annoying
experience due to the UI/UX, however, the group study recognized that it is not the core
error that cause the bad reputation for Agoda.
With the same data taken on the App Store comments and rating rate, we sorted
in the section of System Error to study deeper into the largest attribute in the
dissatisfaction from the users. The two dominant factors in System Error will be
explained in detail.

Data in App store from 12/06/2022 - 03/11/2022

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The first studied attribute is Functional Error, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of
total errors. Most of the complaints about these errors are going along with the UI/UX
problem. These cited complaints below in Picture 2 will show the details of what the
errors are. As the proof shows that the errors are mostly in the confirmation of booking
returns to customers and hoteliers. The unsynchronized information between the app
users and the hotels is the most significant failure which can lead to the next group of
errors in payment.

Picture 2. The check sheet of Functional error

In Picture 2, the errors in payment are also presented. The money is subtracted from
the app users when choosing to pay in advance but do not have a reservation receipt at
the hotel when check-in is the most common complaint. However, this also links with
the error the hotels also got. The users have already paid, but after finishing the checkout
procedures, the hotel's owners still do not receive the money back. Picture 3 which is

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taken from the Facebook group of hotels that use OTA like Agoda, Booking.com, or
Airbnb, proved the case of failures in payment.

Picture 3. The failure in the payment request from the hotel owner
This error even seems to be more serious with the side of users. The case of
losing a large amount of money when just choosing “Swipe to book”, even the single
notification is not confirmed before making a transaction. Agoda automatically retrieves
the data from the users database, then making the payment without asking for the
agreement to pay or using OTP for the user to confirm the booking. This experience the
member of the study group has witnessed when using the app for this work.

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 Picture 4. The cash withdrawal problem without confirmation
These mentioned errors above trigger the study group to examine again the diagrams
that Agoda is applying.
Firstly, the functional errors occur, the reasons may be detected through the
Host sequence diagram.
The hotels do not have the allowance to work or update directly on Agoda, every
activity is performed on YCS. We did study about YCS, however, what we experience
to use is just the page to fill in and create the profile, and all the thing the business can
do when first time using is waiting for approval lot of session such as the permission to
trade, the upgrade information for the profile is also limited and sometime failure in
from the side of B2B. What the hotel's side receives at the end, just the approval or fail
notification, is the transfer process between YCS and Agoda which is implicit for the

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business partnership to understand. Therefore, the Agoda app has errors like cannot find
the room, not update the booking confirmation is explainable. Hotels are totally passive
in controlling what Agoda did with the profiles through YCS.
Additionally, the functions on the Agoda app, like the payment option allow for
Apple Wallet or “cannot find my saved list”, these errors may arise from Agoda API to
collaborate between front end and back end of the app programming, this case is not
studied and demonstrated on the listed diagram.

Host's Sequence diagram

Secondly, the payment error is traceable through Host’s Sequence diagram
and the Reservation Data Flow.
In the Sequence Diagram, the issue is obviously seen because there is a confusion
between the flow from hotels to Agoda and from Agoda to the payment third-party. The
request is from the hotels, however, the double check of the receipt does not include the
participant of the hotels, just Agoda and Agoda database only. Then, the payment is
made just through the Agoda, the hotels cannot engage in the money transfer process,
thus, when receiving the payment, hotels do not know how much Agoda ask the banks
to disburse, the amount of money added at the end has been a private deal between
Agoda and payment third-party. Therefore, there have been cases of late cashback or

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the amount of money at the end is not the same with the regulations between Agoda and
the hotels, like less money due to the commission percent, etc.

Reservation data flow diagram level 1.0 (DFD) of Agoda; Reservation data flow
diagram level 2.0 (DFD) of Agoda respectively.

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 Host's Sequence diagram
In the Reservation Data Flow Diagram at both levels, especially in the level 1.0
diagram, at the payment stage, the confirmation does not return to the customers or the
hotel, which means that the lack of communication of the data has appeared in the
process. With the flow like the existing models presented, the payment errors would
need an urgent room for optimization.

5. Solutions
Due to the limitations in the knowledge and the data approach, the re-designing
phase would be carried out deeper in the future work. The study would like to suggest
the solutions for the issues of payment on the side of customers outweigh on the side of
B2B. Additionally, some recommendations for the functional errors would also be
mentioned.
With the error of the payment, the first step must be taken is fixing the functional
errors. As mentioned before, according to the research, the APIs to communicate
between the frontend and backend of an app is important to update the information. The
frontend work also deals with the UI/UX limitations, thus, Agoda must take action in
optimizing the engineering and technical aspects.

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 With the errors in payment stage, the process of the data flow level 1.0 of the
reservation and the host sequence diagram may need adjustments.
+ The process of the data flow level 1.0 can be fixed like this
recommendation. The red arrows are the added flow to reduce the
information missing when making transactions without double checking
with the users.

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 + The Host Sequence diagram should have two more steps of checking with
the business about the booking receipt. The red arrows are the suggested
solution for the existing model.

Because the study group has no clear idea about the workflow of YCS and
Agoda, therefore, the suggested solutions are almost based on empirical and conceptual
links between the research and the experience to conduct the solution.

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 CONCLUSION
Data Management become a major task in hotel industry as the data entered on
the PMS by hotel and data entered from guests on the website will be specific, Hotel
PMS need to integrate according to the demand and requirement of the guest with their
preferences and also hoteliers must know which PMS is suitable for their property. By
having a proper PMS can make good profit and earn guest satisfaction. The PMS
vendors should identify the need for developing and enhancing their cloud-based
technology and with the ability to exchange the information by the available data in a
secure and safest way and that software will adapt the changes and amendments in all
departments of the hotel. The most familiar PMS vendors are already in the process of
making cloud based PMS software to the hotel industry with this the security level data
will be increased being as user friend and easy installation a hotel can reduce the cost
for manpower and technical support . After the implementation of new software,
training is required for the employees to make easier jobs faster on new advanced PMS.
A time period needs to be allocated to the employees to become comfortable and
familiar with this new software.

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REFERENCES
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https://ycs.agoda.com/vi-vn/kipp/public/home
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8. Channel Manager (CMS) là gì và dùng CMS sao để hiệu quả nhất?
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manager-94
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https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1431379

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