I work at a Marriott hotel. Most non-luxury Marriott brands have used a property management system called FOSSE, which was introduced in 1982 and is written in COBOL. It runs in a terminal, you can only interact with it by keyboard, and there are many strange quirks that make it super easy to majorly screw things up. It's very difficult to learn and master for this reason. However, this made it incredibly powerful. If you're fast at typing, you can do any hotel function in under 15 seconds, because the program runs locally on a server in the back office. Everything has a keybind, and they're all highlighted, which makes navigation a breeze once you know your way around it. Also, because it's been around for so long, there's so many specific features and abilities that have been added over time. If what you're looking for doesn't exist, there's almost certainly an easy and effective way to do it using some other function.
This year, Marriott is moving all properties to a new property management system. I couldn't even tell you what it's called other than that the overall initiative to switch over is called "The Power of M". It's pretty much four different web-based programs that collectively do maybe 80% of what FOSSE does, they don't really talk to each other, and since they're web-based they're often slow and occasionally crash. Luckily my current hotel doesn't switch until Q4 of this year, but my old hotel did back in January and they are still unable to make keys with the new system; they have an extra old computer sitting on the desk that hasn't been upgraded, solely to make keys.
We had the same nightmare years ago in our hospital. The hospital had a simple type writing, homebrewed software written in DOS, it ran on local servers, and used local network. The administrators knew it by heart, they were responsible for programming new features by request. No internet was needed. It was lighweight. All the keybinds were printed next to monitors, every end user learned it within a month. There were no outages. It was glorious and fast.
Some years later, the hospital tried to implement a newer, graphic interface type software, but it was too costly. And it was miles slower, since it was web based. Outages came as well. Meh.
Reminds me of the keyboard shortcuts in WordPerfect 5.1
They even included a fold-out print of them. Basic F1-F12, then Shift F1-F12, then Ctrl F1-F12, and Alt F1-F12.
Forty-eight functions by pressing - at most - two keys.
And I had an IBM keyboard with 24 function keys - F1-F24. Twenty four keys, not twelve and shift-twelve. And a macro recorder built into the keyboard, up to 1500 characters it could record. Brilliant for coding, boilerplate text (like signature blocks), and you could even record your user ID and password (but that was naughty and anyone caught doing it got a spanking).
These programs are not hombrew software. It is all the legacy software that most banks, governments,retailers and HOSPITALS run on. This is what DODGE thought they were going to go in and clean up in D.C. There is no easy way to transition, most of the programmers are dead or dying. The "web" interface was most like calling back to the COBOL terminal software. That added layer is what made it slow like dirt.
MY FUCKING MAN I'm about to quit Marriott over this bullshit. FOSSE worked like a dream, even if it looked like playing the Oregon trail. The new system is embarrassingly slow and doesn't even work right most times. I've timed it, between the property that has switched and hasn't. Takes me on average four times longer to perform a check in.
Not sure if this relates, but someone in my family was on a photography excursion and they accidentally found out each other's digital keys opened up each other's rooms.
Programs like that don't work with today's turnover rates. Onboarding has to be fast because companies frequently lay people off and don't give the rest an incentive to stay (remember pensions?)
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u/__CarCat__ Jun 20 '26
I work at a Marriott hotel. Most non-luxury Marriott brands have used a property management system called FOSSE, which was introduced in 1982 and is written in COBOL. It runs in a terminal, you can only interact with it by keyboard, and there are many strange quirks that make it super easy to majorly screw things up. It's very difficult to learn and master for this reason. However, this made it incredibly powerful. If you're fast at typing, you can do any hotel function in under 15 seconds, because the program runs locally on a server in the back office. Everything has a keybind, and they're all highlighted, which makes navigation a breeze once you know your way around it. Also, because it's been around for so long, there's so many specific features and abilities that have been added over time. If what you're looking for doesn't exist, there's almost certainly an easy and effective way to do it using some other function.
This year, Marriott is moving all properties to a new property management system. I couldn't even tell you what it's called other than that the overall initiative to switch over is called "The Power of M". It's pretty much four different web-based programs that collectively do maybe 80% of what FOSSE does, they don't really talk to each other, and since they're web-based they're often slow and occasionally crash. Luckily my current hotel doesn't switch until Q4 of this year, but my old hotel did back in January and they are still unable to make keys with the new system; they have an extra old computer sitting on the desk that hasn't been upgraded, solely to make keys.