Mail and message handling

BELL DESK SERVICES

GUEST PAGING

Paging is a process of locating a guest in the hotel, when he/she is not in room (though present in hotel premises) and is expecting a visitor. The guest may have filled location form and left at front desk. When the visitor arrives, the front desk personnel write the name and room number of the guest on a page board and sends a bell boy to locate in the area mentioned. The bell boy shakes the board while carrying it above his head. The bells attached rings and attract guest’s attention. The concerned guest contacts the bell boy and is escorted to meet the visitor.

Mail and Message handling

Mail handling is a very important activity of the front office department of the hotel. When guests are away from their homes because of any reason may be business, official, personal or any they need a contact address where they can receive their urgent mails, couriers, fax, parcels etc. Very often guests travelling and staying at hotels need to be contacted by their family or their colleagues of their office. Thus, they may receive letters, parcels and packets at the hotel address. The guest might also want to communicate with them. The hotel in such cases acts as an agent for receiving or forwarding such mail or messages. All the mails addressed to the hotel are received by the front office and depending upon the hotel customs handled by the front desk, bell desk or information desk. The way the mail is handled by the front office shows the efficiency and attitude of the hotel staff. It is a vital duty of the front office department to hand over all mails to the respective guest without any delay. Any delay and carelessness shown by the staff may result in great dissatisfaction.

Following are some of the sources of mails and messages

·         Fax

·         Emails

·         Telegrams

·         Telex

·         Letters and Parcels

Mail Handling

The term “mail handling” covers up both incoming and outgoing mail. The mails received at the bell desk counter are date and time stamped and then these are sorted out at the counter itself. The mails are sorted as guest mails or hotel mails and then they are arranged in an alphabetical order. The hotel mails are further divided into official mails and employee mails.

1)  Incoming mail: Mail that is coming from various destinations to the hotel is called “Incoming Mail”. Incoming mail is stamped with the date and time of receipt and details like senders name, date of receipt, time of receipt, receivers name etc. are entered in a register called the “Mail and Message Register” for future record. The mail is then sorted and arranged alphabetically

Sorting Incoming mail: Incoming mail is sorted into “Guest Mail and Hotel Mail”. The “Hotel Mail” is again divided into “Official Mails” and “Employee Mails”.

     i.        Guest mail: The incoming guest mail is sorted in three categories i.e. mail for the

a)    In-house guests or Present guests

b)    Checked-out guests or Departure/Past guests

c)    Expected arrival guests or Future guests

a)    In-house guests: The guest mail is first arranged in ALPHABETICAL ORDER and then checked against the INFORMATION RACK to identify the present guests. Wherever applicable the room no is entered with the help of pencil on the letters and the guest mails are delivered in the guest rooms by the bell boy. If a guest is not in his room, in that case the mail is placed in the appropriate room no pigeon hole in the mail and message rack and is handed over to him when he comes to the bell desk/information counter to deposit or collect his keys.

Mail and Message Rack

(a)  Checked-out guests: Sometime the hotel receives mail for the guests who have already departed from the hotel after having stayed for some period. If a guest is expecting mail or parcels to arrive at the hotel post his departure, the hotel to avoid any embarrassment as to what to do with such mail and how to hand it over to the guest quickly, ask the departing guests to leave their contact details or forwarding address and for how long they would want their mail to be redirected to that address at the time of leaving. In other situations when there is no forwarding address mentioned the contact details on the Registration card are used to forward guest mails.

A mail is forwarded to the past guest with the help of a special card called “Mail Forwarding Card”. Many hotels keep these cards in the stationery folder in the room while others keep these cards at the Front Desk and give them to the guest at the time of departure. This card contains the address to which and the dates/period till by which the guest would like all the mails received by the hotel after his departure to be forwarded. Employee who is forwarding the mail makes sure an appropriate entry is made in the Mail Forwarding Card. These cards are filed alphabetically and when the expiry date is reached they are cleared out systematically. Any letter received after the expiry date is either returned back to the sender or in case the permanent address of the guest is available, is redirected to him at his permanent address. The remaining mail is still in alphabetical order and checked against the Mail Forwarding Cards and where applicable they are redirected. Details of mail redirected are entered on the reverse of the Mail Forwarding Card.

b)   Expected arrival guests: Before receiving mails of these guests it must be verified thoroughly that they have a guaranteed reservation with the hotel. General mail for guests yet to arrive is marked with the date of arrival and kept in the back office in the alphabetically marked pigeon holes of “hold mail” rack. An indication is made in the reservation record about this awaited mail i.e., in case of Whitney system the words “Awaited Mail” is written on the Whitney slip. In case of diary system it is recorded in the diary against his name in remarks column and in case of Computer system it is updated in the computer. The information is then marked on advance reservation slip/movement list. On the night before the arrival date, the expected arrival guest mail along with the reservation record is sent to the front desk and is kept with the receptionist in special slot on the day of arrival of the guest and when the guest arrives, the receptionist hands over the mail to the guest at the time of registration.

Incoming guest mails may further classified into two categories:

a)    Ordinary guest mail

b)   Registered guest mail

a)    Ordinary guest mail: The mails whose delivery record is not maintained by the delivering agency are known as ordinary mails. But, hotel still keeps a record of all received mails at the mail receiving desk in a mail log book to avoid any kind of future discrepancy.

b)   Registered guest mail: The mails whose delivery record is maintained by the delivering agency are known as registered mails. The postman maintains the record of delivery by asking the addressee to sign the delivery report as a token of receipt of the mail. It is advisable not to accept tampered registered mails. When registered mails are received, they are recorded in the mail log book and the guest’s signature is taken at the time of delivery.

           ii.        Hotel Mail: The incoming hotel mail is sorted in two categories i.e. mail for the hotel official purpose or for the employees of the hotel.

a)    Official Mails

b)    Employee Mails

a)    Official Mails: The official mails are sent to the concerned and respective departments.

b)   Employee Mails:  The Employee mails are sent to the time office to be placed in the mail display board, from where the employees may collect their mails.

2)  Outgoing mail: Outgoing mail of the hotel includes mail of the hotel and guest. It is classified as:

a)    Hotel Mail

b)    Guest Mail

a)    Hotel Mail: Outgoing hotel mail is handled by the individual departments. The various departments have their own record keeping staff who maintains record of all outgoing mails. Large hotels use Franking Machine for postage. If the volume of mail is high the use of Franking Machine saves lot of time. A record needs to be kept of the quantity and costs of the mail being sent out.

b)   Guest Mail: Besides the outgoing mail of Hotel, the hotel also provides the facility or service to the guests staying at the hotel such as posting their letters, sending parcels etc. to their desired destination. Generally the bell desk keeps stamps, envelopes, letter and parcels scale. The stamp folder is used to prevent the stamps from getting lost. The folder contains separate divisions for various denominations. The stamp folder should be kept under lock and key. Any letter or parcels posted for guests must be weighed by using the letter and parcel scale to ensure that correct amount of postage is affixed and a voucher of the charges is sent to the cahiers desk. Here the hotel needs to ensure that the correct and complete address of the receiver as well as the contact details of the sender are mentioned clearly on the mail or parcel and the required charges be paid in advance to the hotel.

Some hotels use a book called postage book to keep the record of postage used. All mail for dispatch if franked by a franking machine or if the stamps are used should be entered into postage book.

The procedure of sending ordinary mail for guest is simple. The guest leaves his mail (to be posted) at the Bell Desk where it is weighed and then the necessary stamps are affixed and posted. In case of Registered mail the mail is sent to post office, which issues a special official receipt. These receipts are retained as they are required to be produced in case a claim for clarification from the guest.

 Message Handling

Receiving messages for guests in their absence, recording them and communicating them to the guests as soon as possible is an important function of the front desk staff. A message can be received either by phone or in person. The need for receiving message for the in-house guest is when the guest is not in the room. He may be out of the hotel on work or for any reason. Very often people come over to the hotel to meet the guest in person or people related with the guests might want to leave a message or talk to the guest over the telephone. When the guest is not available in the hotel then a MESSAGE needs to be taken on his behalf and then communicated to him or her. The recording of guest messages can be done manually or by computer. In case of manual message recording system “Message Slip” needs to be filled out. Usually hotels prepare the slip in triplicate.  The top one or the original copy is placed in the key and mail rack and is delivered to the guest when he comes to collect his room key, the second is slipped under his room door, and the third remains in the message book for reference called book copy. A Message Slip should be filled out completely and the complete details, name and contact details of the visitor/caller should be noted so that the guest can be informed of the same. The message noted should be repeated and confirmed in order to ensure that the message noted is correct and complete.

            Hotels using computers have automated systems for delivering messages to guests.   The telephone in the guest room has a message indicator that can be switched on by the front desk in case any message is waiting for a guest. The message light will flash on the telephone instrument in the guest room. This prompts the guest that there is a message for him and he may call the front desk to receive it. In some hotels the message details may also be fed into computer and the guest may view it on the television screen in his room.

Sometimes hotel also receives message for the guests who are expected to arrive or have already departed. Guests who are expected to arrive in future will have their messages filed in alphabetical order and a note is attached to their reservation file to remind the receptionist on the pending message and messages received for guests who are expected to arrive at a hotel on a particular day should be attached to their registration cards at the front desk. Message for the guest who has checked out will be checked against mail forwarding record and if necessary redirected.

The accurate handling of messages and their delivery is very essential. In case a message is received, and if not promptly given to the guest concerned may cause problems or embarrassment which could result in a strong complaint.

Message Record Slip

HOTEL XYZ

To: _____________                                                        Room No: __________

Date: ____________                                          Time: _____________

During your absence
Mr. /Ms._______________________
   from__________________________

Called by telephone        Came in person

 Will call again                Please call back 

Will meet you at                        Waiting for you

                            Please meet him/her      Urgent

               Message:

________________________________________

________________________________________

_________________________________________

Information Assistant signature: _____________________

Message Slip Format