| name | hospitality-management-domain-expertise |
| description | Use this skill when making product, domain, data model, workflow, or business-rule decisions for hotel and hostel management software. |
Purpose of this Skill
This Agent Skill provides deep domain context for the hospitality industry (hotels, hostels, boutique stays, and small accommodations).
Its goal is to ensure an AI agent can make correct architectural, functional, and business decisions when designing or implementing a Hotel / Hostel Management System (HMS / PMS).
This is not a UI skill or a technical framework skill.
It is a business-domain intelligence layer.
Core Hospitality Concepts (Must Be Understood)
Property Types
- Hotel (full-service, limited-service, boutique)
- Hostel (shared rooms, dorms, mixed/private)
- Guesthouse / B&B
- Aparthotel
Key implication: room logic, pricing, and guest handling differ by property type.
Rooms, Beds, and Inventory
Hospitality inventory is perishable and time-bound.
Room Concepts
- Room Type (e.g. Standard, Deluxe, Dorm)
- Physical Room (Room 101, Room 102)
- Bed (critical for hostels)
Inventory Rules
-
A room can be:
- Available
- Occupied
- Out of Order (maintenance)
- Blocked (owner use, group hold)
-
Hostels often sell:
- Beds within a room
- Entire private rooms
- Mixed availability (beds + private)
Inventory must always be date-based.
Reservations & Booking Logic
Reservation Lifecycle
- Inquiry
- Tentative / On-hold
- Confirmed
- Checked-in
- Checked-out
- Cancelled
- No-show
Each state change impacts:
- Inventory
- Housekeeping
- Billing
- Reporting
Booking Attributes
- Check-in date
- Check-out date
- Number of guests
- Room(s) or bed(s)
- Rate plan
- Source channel
Never assume:
- One room = one guest
- One reservation = one room
Group Bookings
- Multiple rooms or beds under one reservation
- Split payments
- Rooming lists
- Shared invoices
Pricing & Rate Management
Rate Types
- Standard rate
- Non-refundable
- Seasonal rates
- Weekend rates
- Long-stay discounts
- Promotional codes
Rates are usually:
- Per night
- Per room or per bed
- Per occupancy level
Key Rule
Pricing logic must be decoupled from room availability logic.
Guests & Profiles
Guest vs Reservation
- A guest is a person
- A reservation is a booking container
A single guest can:
- Have multiple reservations
- Be part of group reservations
Guest profiles include:
- Identification (passport, ID)
- Contact info
- Preferences
- Stay history
Legal requirements vary by country (especially ID storage).
Check-in / Check-out Operations
Check-in
- Identity verification
- Room assignment (manual or automatic)
- Deposit handling
- Key issuance
Check-out
- Final billing
- Extras posting
- Room status update
- Housekeeping trigger
Late check-outs and early arrivals affect availability.
Housekeeping & Maintenance
Housekeeping States
- Clean
- Dirty
- Inspected
- Out of Service
Housekeeping is tightly coupled to:
- Check-outs
- Room moves
- Maintenance events
Maintenance
- Preventive
- Corrective
- Room blocking logic
A room under maintenance must be unavailable for sale.
Billing, Payments & Accounting
Charges
- Room charges (per night)
- Extras (minibar, laundry, tours)
- Taxes (local, city, VAT)
- Fees (cleaning, service)
Payments
- Cash
- Credit/Debit
- Online prepayment
- Partial payments
- Deposits
Important:
- Invoices ≠ Payments
- One reservation can have multiple payments
- One payment can cover multiple reservations (groups)
Channel Management (Distribution)
Channels
- Direct booking (website, walk-in)
- OTAs (Booking.com, Hostelworld, Airbnb)
- Corporate contracts
- Travel agents
Key challenges:
- Overbooking prevention
- Rate parity
- Inventory synchronization
Channel logic must be loosely coupled and event-driven.
Reporting & KPIs
Common hospitality metrics:
- Occupancy Rate
- ADR (Average Daily Rate)
- RevPAR
- Length of Stay
- Cancellation rate
- No-show rate
Reports are:
- Daily
- Monthly
- By channel
- By room type
Reporting logic must rely on historical immutable data, not current state.
Legal & Operational Constraints
- Guest registration laws
- Tax reporting
- Data privacy (GDPR, etc.)
- Fiscal invoices (country-specific)
Never assume:
- Same tax rules
- Same guest ID rules
- Same invoice requirements
Design Principles This Skill Enforces
When building an application:
- Always think in date ranges
- Treat inventory as time-sliced
- Separate:
- Availability
- Pricing
- Billing
- Operations
- Prefer state machines for reservations and rooms
- Avoid hardcoding hotel assumptions (hostels differ)
Red Flags (Domain Bugs)
- Assuming one guest per room
- Ignoring no-shows
- Mixing payments with invoices
- Not tracking room state history
- Treating availability as a boolean instead of date-based
These are domain-critical errors, not minor issues.
How an AI Agent Should Use This Skill
Use this skill:
- When defining data models
- When deciding workflows
- When naming entities and aggregates
- When prioritizing features
- When resolving ambiguities in requirements
If a technical decision contradicts hospitality domain rules,
the domain rules win.
