The Hilton Hotel Group (UK)

At the time I worked for the Hilton Hotel Group in the UK it was owned by the William Hill Group. I actually worked on contract for the firm that was responsible for the hardware maintainenance of their DEC computer systems throughout the UK.

Each of the hotels used a specialised software package for reservations etc. that was written in a relatively unknown programming language called MUMPS.

I was initailly employed as a contractor for two weeks to invstigate and 'repair' part of the reservations system that needed attention. In the event I actually worked for the company for nearly four years.

During this time as well as sorting out any problems that occured with the software I also wrote several additional modules. These included interfaces to a 'room key' external device that was used to program the now familiar 'credit card' type hotel room key; a TV interface that allowed visitors to select movies to play in their room; and a 'smart card' interface that could automatically detect and read in information from any VIP that approached the reservation desk with their Hilton VIP card on their person.

I was also on call on a rota basis with two other people, to provide out of hours support to any hotel. I was provided with a DEC system of my own via which I could log on from home to investigate and fix any problem.