This study focused on the design and development of an automated hotel management system (HMS) for Golden Heart Hotel, Matugga, Uganda. The hotel was experiencing operational inefficiencies arising from manual record- keeping, including errors in room allocation, delayed billing, loss of reservation records, and poor inventory management. The study adopted the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology encompassing requirements analysis, system design, implementation, testing, and deployment to develop a web-based HMS using PHP, MySQL, and Bootstrap frameworks. Functional requirements were identified through structured interviews with hotel staff and management. The developed system incorporated modules for room reservation and booking management, guest check-in and check-out processing, billing and invoicing, housekeeping management, staff management, and inventory control. System testing was conducted using black-box and white-box testing techniques, and performance evaluation was carried out through user acceptance testing (UAT) with hotel staff. Results indicated that the automated HMS significantly reduced reservation processing time by 74%, eliminated billing errors, improved room utilisation tracking, and enhanced overall operational efficiency. User satisfaction scores averaged 4.3 out of 5.0 (86%) during UAT. The study concluded that automation of hotel management processes substantially improves operational efficiency, accuracy, and customer service quality. Recommendations include regular system updates, staff training, data backup protocols, and future integration with online travel platforms.