The Real Techie Bits
Overview | Security | Working with Slow or Unreliable Internet Connections
The Elina Hospitality PMS is built on the latest Microsoft .NET technology, using industry leading standards to both assure absolute data security and unquestionable performance.
The Overview
The Elina Hospitality PMS is provided primarily as a serviced
application which means that there is no requirement on you to
operate your own server or to have independent IT support.
All you need to benefit from the performance and functionality of
Elina is a local internet connection and a
computer using PC, MAC, Unix or Linux!
The Elina Hospitality PMS is accessed through:
- any standard web browser (Firefox 3.5+, IE 8+, Opera V5+, Safari or comparable browser) as well as;
- most mobile devices (such as iPhone, iPad, Windows mobile phones, Android, etc.)
With secure access credentials to your Elina
account, you can manage your hotel, resort, apartments, holiday
rentals, B&B or destination lodging cluster from anywhere in
the world. You can also grant managed access to specific reports
and operational details to your management board or other off-site
colleagues. Monthly and year-end reporting has
never been simpler.
Your guests and visitors will also benefit from our high speed,
easy-to-use Elina-managed booking engine through which they can
make bookings and manage their stays. You do not
need to worry about the speed of your local connection affecting
your guests' ability to make an online booking since the Elina
Hospitality PMS provides dedicated lines to assure that guests are
always served with the same high-speed quality.
While your customer website must be rich in picture and colour content to entice guests, Elina's BOH interface has been built for speed. With highly efficient, user friendly, quick loading screens, your staff will fly through the reservations, check-in and out processes at the busiest of times. Since Elina works through a web browser, you do not need the latest computer hardware to get the speed you need to provide top service for your guests or visitors.
Vestibule Solutions is of course happy to assess your local IT infrastructure prior to setting up Elina.
Security
All connections to the Elina system are over encrypted browser sessions, using industry leading 256bit SSL encryption. This means that there is no information left on your computer for local hackers to steal, and the communication that is transmitted over the internet between you and the secure Elina servers is heavily encrypted to the same standards as most banks use.
Further, all your data on the Elina servers is access restricted. This means that the physical servers can only be accessed by a select few of our trusted operations team, they are monitored for integrity and key elements of the data, such as passwords, card details and other personal details are fully encrypted within the database, meaning that even our operations team with server-access cannot see its content.
What if my internet is slow / is down?
Elina is used world-wide in remote locations as well as big cities. The key to a good service is that it is always available and does not go down. By having us manage your server and operations through a web-based system, you know that there is always someone watching and making sure you are operational. Unlike systems that are installed on local servers or PCs, the Elina servers have a team of technicians who make sure that systems are running and that any unexpected issues are solved quickly - day and night.
While the Elina server will "always" be up, your local internet connection might not, or it might be slow. The first thing to remember is that, typically, the amount of time your internet connection is down is a lot less than the average time local servers are down due to viruses, human error, upgrade problems, and the like. However, there are things that can make your internet connection even more reliable, which further will add to the unbeatable reliability of a hosted solution!
- You can purchase a simple "dual channel failover router" - this is a device that connects to your normal internet connection and supports you using a mobile phone-based internet connection in the other (using a USB dongle, or just a SIM card). This device will automatically switch your internet traffic from your regular line to mobile in the event of an outage, and back again once your line it back. This way you are "never" actually down. The cost for this is typically quite low, and since Elina uses minimal data, you will not have to worry about the speed either.
- You can also fail over to a dial-up connection if you needed to if your broadband is down. Elina is built for speed, so you will still be able to use the rich features over a slower line.
- If your internet connection is just slow, you can easily get a second or third connection and "pool" them using a simple "connection pooling router" - as the router mentioned above, this will allow you to connect two lines and give you twice the speed.
Our experience - from windy coastal regions to the deep jungle - is that unstable or slow internet conenctions are not a real hinder to using Elina. The net experience using Elina exceeds the actual operations performance of a "local" system in most cases.
If you have questions about using a web-based software, please let us know, and we would be happy to assess your specific requirements.
Contact us today for a demo or to receive more information click here. Or call our dedicated sales team on +44 (0) 20 305 17 305.