The Use Case

Now that our trusted hotel owner has his new refrigerator payment system up and running he wants to shift his attention to a different issue that has been causing him some headache. Today he uses a paper based system for tracking when and by whom each room in his hotel was cleaned and prepared for the next guest. The main problem with his paper based system is that there is a delay between the time when a room was cleaned to the time it can be made available for the next guest, depending on when the cleaning records was handed in to the receptionist. Another important aspect of these records is that they are used to identify the individual who performed the cleaning task in case of any dispute with respect to theft or the job not being properly done. These records are also used when paying his cleaning staff as each individual is payed by the number of rooms they clean each month. For this reason it is critical that the cleaning records are signed by the correct person and that they can’t be changed or tampered with later on. In addition, the fact that our hotel owner manages multiple hotels with a shared cleaning staff just adds to the complexity and makes all of this a logistical nightmare.

The first problem he faces when trying to replace his paper based system with a digital system is that there is no central network or database in place for all of his hotels. Each hotel operates individually while his cleaning staff rotates between them. The second problem is how to get the required information quickly and easily into the new system, replacing the hand written signature with a digital signature. The cleaning staff are not computer techies so it has to be simple to operate. The third problem he needs to figure out is how the receptionist can retrieve the cleaning records whenever he or she wants to check which rooms have been cleaned and made available for a new guest.

Now lets see if we can’t help him find a solution to these problems. Lets start with the first problem.

What if there was a permission less, tamper proof global database that could be used by anyone for free without the hassle of maintaining servers, network infrastructure, databases and user logins? Sounds to good to be true right? Fact is, there is such a database, and its called The Tangle.

The second problem we are going to solve using an RFID reader hooked up to an internet connected Raspberry PI placed at each floor of the hotel. Each person on the cleaning staff gets a unique ID card (RFID tag) that is used whenever the person creates a new record in the database. Replacing the manual signature with a digital signature.

The third problem we are going to solve by creating a simple report that can be run by the receptionist whenever he or she wants to check which rooms have been cleaned. The report retrieves the cleaning records from the tangle and displays it on a monitor in the reception.

So, lets get started…