RESERVATION

RESERVATION

 Introduction

Reservation in the hotel industry is defined as ‘blocking a particular type of guest room (e.g., single room, double room, deluxe room, executive room, suite, etc.), for a definite duration of time (i.e.,number of days of stay), for a particular guest’.

The reservation section of the front office department of a hotel is responsible for receiving and processing reservation queries.

Layout of the Reservation Section:  The location of the reservation section depends upon the size of hotel and the volume of business of the hotel.

 

 Importance of reservation

  

Advance booking of rooms is known as room reservation. Its importance for the guest and for the hotel is discussed as below:

 

For the guest

1. Guarantees availability of accommodation
2. Saves time in search and in check-in
3. Helps in budgeting for the travel
4. Removes anxiety and gives a feeling of safety

 

For the Hotel

n  Helps in planning

n  Useful in yield management

n  Important for duty- rosters and staff leave scheduling

n  Improves service and enhances guest satisfaction

 Modes and sources of reservation

In common language mode refers to ‘how’ the reservation is received and source refers to ‘from whom’ the reservation is received.

Modes of reservation

Ø  Telephone                         

Ø  Fax

Ø  Telex

Ø  Internet

Ø  E.Mail

Ø  Letter

Ø  Telegram

Ø  In-person 

•          The process of reservation begins with an inquiry. A guest may contact a hotel for reservation either through:

–        Written Mode

–        Verbal Mode

–        Reservation requests may also be made through oral communication known as verbal mode of reservation request

–        The advantage of oral communication is that it is fast, convenient, and generates immediate response or feedback; and one can get the complete information and clear any doubts through oral communication.

–        The disadvantage is that it does not provide a permanent record.

–        The various modes of verbal reservation request are as under:

–        Telephone

–        In person

–         

Written Mode

•          When a reservation request reaches the hotel in writing, the mode is classified as a written mode of reservation.

•          The advantages of the written mode of reservations are that they are clear, unambiguous, and provide a written record for the hotel, which can be referred to in case of any miscommunication or confusion. The correspondence with the guest is filed for future reference.

•          The various written mode for reservation request are as under:

–        Letter

–        Fax

–        Telex

–        E-mail

Sources of room reservation

·         Direct                  

·         Travel Agents

·         Corporates

·         Airlines

·         Embassies

·         GDS

·         CRS

·         RSO

·         Inter-sell Agencies

·         Referral Hotels

 

• Direct: Reservation is given to the hotel directly by the guest

• Travel Agent : Travel agents give room bookings to the hotel on a commission basis

• Corporate: Corporate or companies are a major source of business in the form of their executives travelling as business travellers and also the substantial conference business given by them.

• Airlines: Airlines give room business to hotels in the form of their crews and layover passengers. Specifically applicable for airport hotels.

• Embassies: Embassies are a source of business for hotels as they host cultural shows, business delegations, festivals, etc.
• GDS: Global Distribution system or GDS is a software system which brings together the room inventories of different hotels and other travel services together on one platform. Reservations booked by GDS have a direct interface with hotel’s PMS (Property Management Software) to provide real-time room inventory, rates and availability.

Major Global Distribution System companies are as follows:

Ø  Galileo Central Reservation Systems

Ø  Amadeus Computer Systems

Ø  Sabre Computer Systems

Ø  Trust International

Ø  SMART - Scandinavian Multi Access Reservation for Travel Agents

        CRS: Central Reservation System (CRS) is the internal reservation network of chain hotels and their franchised hotels. Eg.TRN or Taj Reservation Network.

• RSO: Regional Sales Offices (RSO) are responsible for sales and marketing of chain/individual hotel in a specific region. They are also a source of reservation for the hotel.
• Inter-sell agencies: They are two or more business organizations, like Airline and Hotels, promoting each other’s business for mutual gain. Hotels and car rental companies may also be inter-sell partners.
• Referral groups: They are an informal or sometimes formal association of hotels who refer guests to each other in case of sold-out status or if a guest is travelling to another city where the hotel does not have a branch.

 Types of reservation

 Reservations can be categorised as per the following two criteria:

·         Nature or the number of people travelling together

·         Status of the reservation

 

Nature or the number of people travelling together

 ·    Individual reservations - Bookings for FIT’s for one or more rooms

·    Groups - Bookings for a group of persons travelling with the same itinerary

 

·    Conference - Room bookings for guests using the hotel’s conference facilities (guests may or may not be travelling together).

Status of the reservation

Confirmed reservation - A booking in which a guest is committed a room and a confirmation number and letter has been sent.

Non-guaranteed reservation - It is a confirmed reservation for which the hotel has still not received a guarantee of payment incase of a cancellation/ no-show. Internationally, the room is held till 1800 hrs on the date of arrival, after which it may be released in favour of another reservation. Therefore, these reservations are also known as 6pm confirmed reservation.

Guaranteed reservation - It is a confirmed reservation which the guest has ‘guaranteed’ by making an advance deposit or by providing a credit card authorization, ‘bill to company’ letter or travel agent voucher which clearly state the client will pay incase of a cancellation/no-show. It guarantees the hotel will recover at least one night’s room charge even if the guest does not come. The room is held till 12 noon the next day from arrival date.

 

•          A guaranteed reservation is a confirmation that the hotel will hold the reserved room for the guest and not release it to any other guest even if the guest doesn’t arrive on time.

•          This requires the guest to make an advance payment (part or full, depending on the hotel policy and the hotel occupancy for the requested stay dates), irrespective of whether the guest avails the reservation or not, unless the reservation is cancelled according to the hotel’s cancellation procedures.

•          The guaranteed reservation can be obtained through one of the following ways:

–        Pre-payment

–        Contractual agreement

–        Allotment

Pre-Payment

•          A guaranteed reservation requires the payment of the room rent or a specified amount in advance, known as pre-payment. As the hotel holds the room for the guest even after the cancellation hours, pre-payment protects the hotel from any loss of revenue in case of a last moment cancellation or a no-show.

•          Pre-payment can be made by sending demand draft or depositing cash at the hotel.

•          Cash deposit is the most preferred mode of accepting guaranteed reservation

 

 

Contractual agreement

•          A hotel may have a contract with an individual or a company for providing guaranteed reservations. According to such a contract, the hotel confirms the reservation for the individual or a person referred by the company on a guaranteed basis, and the person or the company agrees to pay for the reservation, even in the case of a no-show. Hotels may have contractual agreement with the following:

•          Travel agencies/Tour operators

•          Corporate houses

•          Travel Agencies/Tour Operators: Travel agencies and tour operators make bulk purchases of rooms at a relatively low contracted price. They guarantee the hotel a minimum number of room nights in a particular period and agree to pay the room charges even if they are unable to fill the number of rooms as per their agreement with the hotel.

•          Corporate Houses: In this case, a company or a corporate body may enter into a contract with a hotel, whereby the company guarantees payment for its employees or sponsored guests and accepts the financial responsibilities for any no-shows.

Waitlisted reservation - If rooms are not currently available the request can be put on the ‘waitlist’. It means that as soon as the rooms are available, the hotel will inform the caller of the status, in which case it may get converted into a confirmed/ guaranteed reservation. They do no impact room availability.

Tentative reservation - The booker has ‘blocked’ accommodation (usually a large number of rooms) in anticipation of a movement in future. Such reservations normally have a ‘cut-off period’ within which they have to be guaranteed failing which the hotel can release accommodation. These reservations are called ‘non-deduct’ reservations i.e. they do not deduct rooms from the availability. 

Time-limit in reservation

Time-limit is applicable in case of non-guaranteed reservation. It is usually 6 hrs from the time of check-in. As hotels generally follow a 12 noon check-in time, it is also referred as 6 pm confirmed reservation. In this case, 6 hrs is the maximum time given for check-in failing which hotel may release the room to any walk-in guest

8.5 Systems of Reservation

 

Depending on the needs of the hotel and the volume of business, a hotel may adopt either:

•          Manual System : In a manual system, all the reservation records are maintained manually. This old system of reservation is suitable for a small property, where the number of rooms is less and the volume of reservation requests is also low.

•          Automated System: Automated reservation systems are computerized reservation systems that are used to store and retrieve room status information and conduct transactions.

•          The information stored in the automatic system is the same as in a manual system. However, the processing of reservation request does not require manual study of bed room journals, density charts, or conventional charts.

•          The reservation assistant can check the availability of rooms by clicking on a link on the computer.

•          In this system, the reservation information is keyed into the electronic format of the reservation form, and this information is transferred to the central server where the room status is updated automatically.

Manual System of Reservation

The hotel may use the following in a manual reservation:

•          Diary system of reservation: As the name suggests, in this system a daily diary is kept, in which the reservation agent lists all arrivals due on a particular day.

Ø  It is usually kept on a loose-leaf basis.

Ø  The top page represents arrivals on the current date; this is removed and sent to the front desk for receiving the guests.

Ø  The hotel booking diary may be hard bound also. The diary system of reservation is only suitable for very small properties.

 

Whitney system of reservation: This system of room reservation, developed by the American Whitney Duplicating Check Company, is suitable for small and medium properties–with up to 150 rooms. It is based on the use of standard size slips, known as Whitney slips or Shannon slips, which can be held on a metallic carrier on Whitney racks.

•          The advantages of using Whitney system are as under:

Ø  Bookings can be kept in order of the date of arrival.

Ø  Booking records may be arranged in alphabetical order.

Ø  The racks and carriers can be used over and over again. The running expense is only of the slips.

Ø  The Whitney racks are placed vertically, saving storage space

Whitney slip

Name of guests                Number of people

Arrival date         Departure date

Room tariff         special requirements

Address               Telephone number

 Process of Reservation

Steps in handling reservation are listed as below:

• Step I. Request for advance booking is received through any mode of reservation
• Step II. Take down the details in a structured format known as Reservation Form
• Step III. Transfer the information to PMS (Property Management System) which is hotel management software. Update the relevant fields in the page ‘create new reservation’
• Step IV. Send a letter of confirmation/ waitlist/regret to guest.
• Step V. Keep all correspondence related to reservation inside the reservation form which is like an envelope.
• Step VI. File the reservation form as per date of arrival. There is one file for each future date (usually for next 90 days).Forms are filed in an alphabetical order of the guest name (last name first eg. Mr. Sharma Rajesh) in the file for that date.

Reservation Confirmation:

The hotel should communicate guests by telephone, telex, mail, or e-mail a Letter of Confirmation, which confirms the important points of the reservation agreement. This very letter might be shown at the registration process in order to accelerate the pace of registration and prove that the guest has the right to have a room at the hotel. The Hotel shall send a confirmation letter to all reserved potential guests, whether their reservations are guaranteed or non-guaranteed. Below are the main points that should be communicated in a confirmation letter:

a) Name and address of the guest

b) Date and time of arrival

c) Room type and rate

d) Length of stay

e) Number of persons in a group, if any

f) Reservation type [guaranteed or not]

g) Reservation confirmation number

h) Special requests, if any

Sample format: Reservation Form

Hotel XYZ

Name of the Guest

Designation

Company/Travel Agent

Confirmation number

Date of             Arrival

No. of Nights

Date of departure

Number of rooms/type of rooms

No. of Persons

Expected time of arrival

Airport pick up details ·         YES/NO ·         Flight number: ·         Exp.Time of Arrival

Special instructions/Remarks

Billing  Instructions

Mode of payment

Given by

Contact details

Received by

Time and date

Reservation status

How to handle a reservation call from a guest

1. Call opening

Hotel ABC International , Reservations, Greetings.

You are speaking with XYZ. How may I assist you?

 

2. Address guest concern and confirm guest name.

Eg. I will assist you with that. May I know who am I speaking with?

Confirm spelling and pronunciation if name is not understood

 

3. Confirm identity if required

Is this reservation for your self?

 

4. Take details of hotel name, dates, rooms, occupancy, and children and check availability

Advise child policy as required.

 

5. Previous stays and purpose of visit

“While I check availability may I enquire if….

a) Business or leisure”

b) If International guest, on a planned visit to India check planned destinations and offer assistance / recommend itinerary / special offer

Resort – “Is this, a leisure trip for you or are you traveling for a special occasion”

c) Previous stay in the hotel

 

6. Share availability (not category)

Situation 1: If rooms are not available

Do you have alternate dates or would you like me to process a waitlist reservation.

Or, would you like me to check the availability of any other hotel / resort?

 

Situation 2: If rooms are available proceed with the reservation

 

7. Room Category Description

Introduction of room types (dependent on previous stays)

Up selling of room types can be done here

 

8. Share Rates - All public rates with inclusions restrictions, supplements, taxes

 

9. Cancellation and Guarantee Policy

If no guaranteed “I am afraid the reservation will be on waitlist and will be confirmed on the receipt of guarantee, subject to availability at that time”

 

10. Loyalty Programme

Are you an ABC International Privilege Program Member?

If Yes – Check for membership no. and feed in system ; If No – Inform about the program

 

11. Reservation Details

“Could you please spell your name, last name first” (if not spelt earlier, verify phonetically)

“May I have your contact number and email address”. Verify all contact details

 

“May I have your credit card details?” (type, no. and expiration and verify all)Room Preference: “Would you have any preferences towards the room like a smoking or non smoking room

 

12. Arrival Assistance

Transport assistance – intercity/airport/station

Expected time of arrival and travel details

Check –in, check out time

 

13. Recap

“I would like to verify the reservation details. The reservation is for... Guest name, hotel name, dates, number of rooms and occupancy, rates, preferences. This reservation stands (Confirmed / requested) with reference number

 

14. Confirmation

I have sent you an email confirmation for the reservation which you will receive shortly

 

15. Call Closing

Mr. /Ms. XYZ, would you like me to provide you with some information about the hotel?

You were speaking to (Agent name) Thank you for calling  Hotel ABC International Reservations, have a nice day / afternoon.

 

Billing instructions during reserving a room

 

This is important information, which needs to be ascertained at the time of reservation and noted in the reservation form. There are various modes of payment through which a guest can settle his bill at the end of his stay with our hotel.

 

Guests can pay us in any of the following ways:-

 

Direct:

When a guest would himself settle the bill at the end of his stay for the room and the facilities of the hotel as used, it is termed as direct payment. He could settle either by cash or credit card.

·    Cash: A guest can pay in either Indian rupees or in foreign currency. The foreign currency is changed to Indian rupees before a settlement can be done. This conversion is done using an encashment form.

·    Credit Card: Hotels accept many credit cards such as Master, Visa, American Express and Diners Club. It is important to remember the cards that are not accepted by your hotel. While taking the details of the credit card one must definitely note down the credit card number and the expiry date.

 

Bill to company

Based on the volume of business and the credit worthiness of a company, a committee in the hotel decides upon a list of companies that can be given credit and for what period. On receiving a request for Bill to Company, one needs to ask for an authorization letter from the respective company, which needs to be attached to the correspondence. Always ask bookers to be specific when they ask for bills to be sent to a company. Many companies do not pay for personal expenses like liquor and tobacco. Other versions of bill to company include:

·    Travel Agent: A similar negotiation as above is done with the Travel Agents for extending them a facility of credit. In case of travel agencies, a ‘voucher’ is received from them, which authorizes the hotel to forward the bills to their office for payment of the mentioned services. Each such voucher itself carries all the information of the negotiated agreement with the hotel and also has all the details of the guest stay.

·    Redemption vouchers: Schemes are launched from time to time and the guests avail themselves of the facilities. Sometimes, a guest stay may be settled on a redemption coupon or voucher. In such cases there is a time period specified during which a guest could redeem the facility and mostly it is during the off season.

 

 Group Reservation

 

Groups constitute a substantial chunk of the hotel business. Resorts, in particular, rely heavily on this segment. Now-a-days, conference groups are an important segment for business hotels as well. Group reservation, essentially, follows the same process as in an FIT (free individual traveler) but there are some points of difference in the process which are discussed as below:

 

Steps in group reservation

 

• Step I. Generally, tour operator or group organizer visits the hotel in person as group reservation involves rate negotiations and an agreement on facilities to be offered.
• Step II. The reservation assistant checks the availability of rooms before rates are negotiated.
• Step III. Rooms are, initially, blocked on a tentative basis. It is confirmed only after a contract is signed and payment conditions are finalized.
• Step IV. A cut-off-date is decided before which organizer must make an advance payment and submits the rooming-list, failing which room block is released for other guests.
• Step V. Food and Beverage department is informed much in advance about the meal plan and number of pax to help them plan menu compilations.

 

Conducting a reservation request for a group shall be treated differently than accommodating a reservation of individual guests (i.e. Frequent Independent Traveler). The main reason is that individual reservation requests are treated by the reservation department, while group reservations are initiated by the Sales & Marketing division, and finalized through a careful coordination of the reservation from one hand and the marketing from the other.

• Below is a detailed procedure of how group reservation, in a typical hotel, is conducted:

 

1. A group representative, a member of the travel agency or the tour operator, not individuals, shall communicate group reservations' request to the hotel's marketing department

 

2. Upon availability, the hotel's reservation department shall block the requested number of rooms for this very group

 

3. The Hotel shall give a deadline for the group, in order to receive their final list. That deadline is called Cut-off Date

 

4. After receiving the final list, the reservation department shall change the desired number of rooms' status from blocked to booked (or reserved) rooms, and release the remaining rooms (if any left) as vacant

 

1. If the hotel did not receive the final list by the cut-off date, then the reservation department has all the right to cancel the group reservation and release all the initially booked rooms into vacant rooms. However, management shall use this right with precautions especially when it comes to groups reserving from travel agencies and tour operators of which the hotel is frequently operating.

Rooming-list

Rooming list is provided by group operators before group’s arrival. It has names of all the guests along with their passport details (for foreigners) and details of type of room to be allotted along with the name of the sharer. It is an important tool for blocking of rooms and saves considerable time during group check-in.

 

Blanket reservation

Blanket reservation is a block -reservation without individual names of the guests. Eg. 60 hotel rooms blocked for a marriage party.

Cancellation and Revision

 Steps in cancellation/amendment of a reservation

• Step I. On receiving cancellation request, fill-in a cancellation/amendment form.
• Step II. Update the information in PMS.
• Step III. Take out the original reservation form and mark it cancelled. Keep the cancellation form inside the reservation form and file it back for reference.
• In case of a revision/amendment of  reservation the form is accordingly updated and the reservation form is kept as per the new date of arrival ( if a change in date of arrival is requested)

Selective overbooking

Overbooking or capacity management is a yield management tool which means booking more rooms than the actual capacity. Hotels overbook to off-set potential losses due to No-show, under stay and last minute cancellations.

While overbooking following points are considered by the Front office managers:

·         Past history of No-shows, Cancellations and understays

·         Ratio of Guaranteed and non-guaranteed reservation

·         Ratio of Groups and FITs

·         Status of reconfirmation of the booking

·         Difference between the date when the reservation was given and the date of arrival, known as lead time.

·         Past experience with the guest in terms of the materialisation of his reservation.

Reservation Reports

The reservation department compiles many reports for the use of all departments. Some of the most commonly used reservation reports include:

•          Reservation transaction report: The reservation transaction report is the summary of the daily activities of the reservation department.

•          Commission agent report: This report includes the amount payable by the hotel to the different commission agents

•          Turn away or refusal report: At times hotels have to ‘turn away’ guests due to unavailability of rooms.

•          Revenue forecast report: The revenue forecast report is a projection of the volume of business that the hotel will be generating in a specified duration.

•          Expected arrival list: The list of names and surnames, along with the respective room types, of the guests who are expected to arrive the next day.

•          Stayover list: The list of names and surnames, along with the respective room numbers, of the guests who are expected to continue to occupy their rooms the next day.

•          Expected departure list: The list of names and surnames, along with the respective room numbers, of the guests who are expected to depart the next day.

Let us Sum up

Advance booking of hotel rooms is known as Reservation. Front office department has a separate section for this purpose which is situated in the back office. Modes of reservation refers to the how a hotel can receive reservation such as in person, letter, telephone, etc. Sources of reservation refer to ‘from where’ hotels may receive reservations such as from corporate, airlines, travel agents, central reservation systems, etc.

Hotels follow a manual, semi automatic or fully automatic system of reservation. Manual system includes booking diary method, semi-automatic system includes whitney system, while a fully automatic system is a computerized reservation system with hotel management software, known as PMS. 

Reservations are of different types including guaranteed reservation, non-guaranteed reservation, waitlisted reservation etc. Group reservation differs from FIT reservation in the form of negotiations on rate at the time of receiving the reservation. It has a concept of cut-off date rooming list and blanket booking

MEAL PLAN AND BASIS OF CHARGING

Meal Plans and Basis of Charging

 

 Introduction

When you visit a hotel and ask for the room tariff, you may get a reply like it is Rs. 2000/. What do you understand by this information?

Actually nothing!

This information is incomplete till the time you know about the meals that are included in Rs.2000/- , the duration for which Rs. 2000/- will be charged, the type of room provided in this amount, whether the amount is inclusive of taxes or exclusive of it.

The requisite information mentioned above is recorded in a document known as ‘Hotel Tariff Card’ which tells us about the type of rooms, tariff, meal plan, basis of charging and tax structure.

 

Meal Plans:

The room tariff of a hotel may be based on the choice meal plans offered to guests. Depending on the needs of their target audience, hotels offer a variety of meal plans, they are:  

(a) European Plan (E.P.):

This plan includes only the room rent and anything that is taken from restaurant or the room service is charged to the guest.

(b) Continental Plan (C.P.):

This plan includes continental breakfast along with the room rent. Anything extra that is taken is charged to the guest.

(c) Bermuda Plan (B.P.):

This plan includes American breakfast along with the room rent.

 

(d) Modified American plan (M.A.P.):

This plan includes room rent along with breakfast and one of the major meals i.e. Lunch or Dinner. The guest has to specify his preference at the time of arrival. This plan is also known as half board plan or Demi Pension.

(e) American plan (A.P.):

This plan contains room rent and all the major meals i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is also known as all inclusive plan and in French it is known as En Pension.

 

European plan

In this case only the lodging i.e. bed is offered. Thus the charges are made for lodging only. The client is free to take or not to take teas, breakfast, and meals in the hotel. He has a choice of eating at any other good restaurant. The guest is booked to pay for lodging only and is charged separately for all other things or services he enjoys or consumes. This system is generally followed by youth hostels or hotels which are situated in metropolitan cities. European plan hotels fix the prices of rooms separately so that guest may either have their meals in the hotel dining at its regular prices or go to the other restaurant. In India most of the hotels are being run on European Plan. Almost all the public sector hotels are run on this basis.

Continental plan

In the case of continental plan bed and breakfast are included in the charges. Thus bed is offered along with breakfast and the client is, however, free to take his meal and tea as he likes. Thus the guest tariff includes lodging and breakfast and for other he is separately billed.

American plan

Hotel where American plan is prevalent, board lodging is provided in the charge. The tariff fixed includes board and lodging. It is an all inclusive full board tariff. Accommodation and three meals daily are included in the price of the room. It includes bed, breakfast and two principal meals and evening tea. It does not include EMT nor coffee after lunch, or dinner. It is also known as 'En pension 'or full boar plan.

This means that guest’s day ends about 24 hours after his arrival that is; the guest arriving between lunch and dinner is entitled to retain his room until the next afternoon and to have dinner the first night and breakfast and lunch the following day for the fixed rate.

Modified American plan

The tourists mostly prefer this plan, as it is comparatively flexible. It is offered in most of the good hotels and is normally by arrangement. It includes hotel accommodation, breakfast and either lunch or dinner in the price of the room. Thus, in this type of accommodation bed and breakfast and along with it one principal meal, lunch or dinner, at the discretion of the client is also included. It generally includes continental breakfast and either lunch or dinner in the room rates. It is also known as ' demi-pension '.

 

 

 

 

 

 Comparing the meal plans

 

Meal Plan	Other Name	Inclusions	Preferred by
European Plan	Room only Plan	Room only	Business Hotels, Transit Hotels, Motels
Continental Plan	Bed & Breakfast Plan	Room + Continental Breakfast	Business Hotels
Bermuda Plan	Bed & Break fast Plan	Room + American Breakfast	Hotels with lot of sight seeing around such as historical/heritage destinations
American Plan	Full Board / En Pension	Room + Continental Breakfast+ Lunch+ Dinner	Resorts
Modified American Plan	Half Board/ Demi-Pension	Room + Continental Breakfast+ Lunch/ Dinner	Resorts

 

Uses of Meal Plans

Commercial hotels prefer E.P. because:-

1)      Since the commercial hotels are situated in urban areas, there are bound to be numerous restaurants in the vicinity. Hence the guest would prefer to keep his option open as far as meals are concerned. Moreover, the hotel may not have a particular cuisine, which the guest likes. Secondly, the business traveler does not want to get tied up to meal timings because of his day round business activities.

2)      On the other hand the hotel being situated in an urban area would get a plenty of chance guests in their restaurants. Thus their food and beverage income is not restricted to only hotel residents. They do offer meal inclusive plans but only to groups sent by Travelers Agents and company bookings for conventions, seminars etc.

 

 

Resort Hotels prefer MAP/AP because:

1)      These may be situated in an isolated place with hardly any restaurants in the vicinity. Guests, therefore, would prefer to have meals in the hotels. For tourist wishing to go site seeing during the day, MAP would be more appropriate.

2)      The hotel itself benefit from this plan since it relies only on resident guests for their food and beverage income. The continental Plan lies between the A.P. and E.P. thus, it may be offered by commercial hotels as well as resort hotels as an alternative to the E.P. and M.A.P.

 

 Basis of Charging of Room Tariff

There are different basis of charging room tariff which decide the duration for which a guest can stay in his room by paying one unit of the charge. Different basis of charging commonly followed are listed as below:

(I) Fixed Check Out Time Basis:

In this system a particular time of the day is fixed as check in/out time. It may be either 10.00 hrs or 12 noon. Mostly the hotels follow 1200 hours check in/out time. It is the most commonly followed basis of charging as it gives them a control of their check-in and check-out time and thereby enabling them to accept advance bookings for their rooms. This is advantage to our hotels as it earns more revenue for the hotel.

It has a major disadvantage of losing its goodwill as the customers are not satisfied with the billing. For example suppose a guest checks in at 10.00 hrs of 17th.

November and checks out at 1400 hrs of 18th November and the check-out time is 12 Noon, then he will be charged for 3 days. Thus we see that even though he is staying for just one day and 4 hours but he is charged for 3 days.

(II) Twenty Four Hours Check out Time Basis:

In this system the guest is charged according to the time of arrival that means that one day is calculated from the time he arrives in hotel till the same time next day. This is advantageous to the guest but earns less revenue to the hotel, for example let us consider same example as given above through this system he will be charged only for 2 days. In this basis hotels find it difficult to take advance bookings as they don’t know what time of the day their rooms will be available for the next guest.

(III) Night Basis:

In this system guest is charged according to the number of nights he spent in the hotel. This system is usually found in resort hotels. In order to calculate night basis charges the guest should have stayed for a minimum period of nights. For example suppose a guest checks in 10.00 hrs on 17th November and checks out at 14.00 hrs on 25th Nov. then he will be charged for 8 nights.

(IV) Day Rate Or Day Used Rate Basis: It is another form evolved from night basis and room rent in charged for maximum 6 hours including in the stay which is never overnight.

Let us Sum up:

Room tariff is a complex issue which does not include just the charge for a room. It has a component of the meal plan which suggests the meals included in the charged tariff. Different meal plans include European, Continental, American, Modified American and Bermuda plan. Depending upon the meal plan breakfast and main meals may or may not be included in the room tariff.

Basis of charging refers to the duration for which a single unit tariff is charged. It may be 24 hrs, Night basis or a check-out time basis.

Details of meal plan and basis of charging along with types of rooms, facilities, tax structure, child policy are specified in a document known as tariff card.

GUEST-CYCLE

Guest Cycle

Introduction

Inquiry for a room is usually the first point of contact between a hotel and a guest. This may be in the form of a query for the types of room, availability of accommodation for certain duration and the best available rate for the period. This is usually followed by the reservation of room, which is a process of advance booking of room. Reservation is considered as the starting point of what is referred as a guest cycle. The guest cycle passes through many other stages during the course of arrival, stay and departure of a guest. These stages are known as reservation stage, pre-registration stage, registration stage, post-registration stage, departure stage and post departure stage. Each stage is characterized by a set of activities which fulfil  the requirement of a guest’s overall satisfactory stay and are also necessary to comply with the hotel’s own procedural requirements and the requirements mandated by the law of the state. Different stages of guest cycle and the processes therein are illustrated as below:

Reservation Stage

This stage, as mentioned earlier, is the first point of contact between the hotel and the guest. Usually guest himself or his representative approaches the hotel for advance booking of accommodation. This stage typically includes the following:

(a)    Query about the types of rooms in the hotel

(b)   Availability check for the desired type of room for the given duration

(c)    Negotiation on the best possible rate for the period. Booking of the room by the guest.

(d)   Payment guarantee or an advance deposit may be requested by the hotel and a cut-off date may be given to the guest to make the deposit.

Reservation may be given weeks or months in advance of a guest’s arrival. Travel agents and corporate are a major source of reservation for most hotels in addition to the FITs.

Pre-registration stage

This is also known as the pre-arrival stage. Activities done on the day of arrival or the previous night come under this category. All these are preparatory activities before the physical arrival of the guest in the hotel. This helps in efficient and quick check-in when a guest physically arrives in the hotel.

(a)    Blocking of the room: clean and vacant room of the desired type is blocked in advance. Requests of a guest such as non-smoking room, a particular view, away from or near the elevators, lower floor or higher floor are considered by the receptionist while blocking the room for the guest.

(b)   Printing of the guest registration card:  Guest registration card or GRC is filled and signed by the guest at the time of his arrival in the hotel. Receptionist takes a print-out of the GRC, in advance, with all available details such as name of the guest, date of arrival, departure, type of room, room number, billing instructions etc. printed on it.

 

(c)    Preparing room keys and meal coupons: Room keys and the meal coupons are kept in a tray along with the GRC so that they are handed over to the guest without any time lapse. Meal coupons are required if guest has taken a plan in which some or all the meals are included in his room tariff.

(d)   Instructions to concerned departments: Many a times some special arrangements are required for a guest before his arrival. This may be in the form of an airport pick-up, preparing for a traditional welcome, placing special amenities in the room etc. The front office department will inform all concerned departments about such requirements so that the appropriate action is taken well in advance.

 Registration stage

These activities are carried out at a time when guest physically arrives in the hotel. This is a very important stage as it creates and a first and lasting impression about the efficiency and services of the hotel. During this phase guest is welcomed by a formal greeting and his requirement is identified. The signing of GRC by the guest is known as registration of the guest. Registration of guest is a mandatory process and it is considered to be a legally binding contract between the hotel and the guest. Registration process involves the following:

(a)    Welcome of the guest through a formal greeting, welcome drink and sometimes a traditional welcome by Aarti, Tilak and Garland.

(b)   Identifying the requirement of the guest and ascertaining his reservation status.

(c)    Registration of the guest by taking his signatures and other details in a register or in a card.

(d)   Establishing the creditability of the guest or taking an advance payment from him

(e)   Handing over the room key to the guest.

(f)     Luggage handling of the guest by the bell desk and escorting the guest to his room.

 Post – registration stage

 The guest proceeds for his room immediately after the registration formalities are over. However, the reception’s job in his registration process is not complete till the time certain post-registration activities are completed. The post registration activities are listed as below:

(a)   Check-in of the guest in the PMS or computer system. This enables al other departments to know about the check-in of a guest, his credit status and also to activate all guest services for his benefit. In a manual system this objective is achieved by sending arrival notification slips to different departments of the hotel. The departments where arrival is notified are housekeeping, Laundry, Food and Beverage service, Telephone operator, Cashier, Information and Bell desk.

(b)  Opening of guest folio: The guest folio is opened by the front office cashier. Any advance received from the guest is considered as the opening balance of the folio.

(c)  Preparing the arrival errand card : Bell desk prepares an arrival errand card which has the details of luggage sent to the guest room.

(d)  Updating the guest profile: The guest profile in the computer is updated on the basis of any information given by the guest in the registration card. The update may include guest address, passport details, credit card number, and date of birth etc. for future usage.

(e)  Updating the A & D register: Arrival and Departure register is updated for every arrival and departure in a hotel Therefore, as part of post-registration activity the arrival side of A&D register is updated by the receptionist.

(f)   Preparing ‘C’ form: The C- form is a mandatory document which is prepared for all foreigner guests and sent to FRRO (Foreigners regional registration office) or Police commissioner’s office within 24 hours of a guest’s check-in.

 During the stay activities

  During this stage guest gets a firsthand experience of the facilities and services offered by the hotel. The front office themselves provide many of the services during a guest’s stay and they are an interface in the services provided by some other departments of the hotel to the guest.

The functions of the front office during the stay of a guest include:

(a)     Handling guest accounts: Front office cashier handles posting of charges and maintenance of guest account. This also includes credit monitoring of the guest. All high balance accounts are requested for a part or full settlement to extend further credit facility during the stay of the guest.

(b)   Mail and message handling: All incoming and outgoing mail and messages are handled by front office department. Ensuring the timely delivery of messages is a critical component of guest services in a hotel.

(c)    Guest Paging: Locating a guest in a specific area of a hotel to deliver a message, etc is a part of front office job profile and is known as paging a guest.

(d)   Safe deposit locker: Front office department provides locker facility to guests to keep their valuables. Now-a-days, many hotels have started offering electronic lockers in guest rooms as well.

(e)   Handling guest queries and complaints:  Front office is not considered just the face of the hotel but is also the heart of the hotel.  All queries and complaints are received by the front office. They handle these issues to maximize guest’s comfort and to keep a positive image of the hotel so that they get good word of mouth publicity from the guest.

(f)     Other guest services: Other services like wake-up call, travel desk, business center, valet services etc are either directly provided by front office or coordinated by this department.

 

 

Departure stage

 During the departure stage, guest settles their account by making payment through a pre-established mode (like cash/card/travelers cheque/voucher etc). The hotel should take great care to present all unpaid bills for payment and carry out the whole procedure efficiently.

 The activities at the time of departure may be listed as below:

(a)    Taking the room key from the guest

(b)   Presenting a copy of the folio to the guest for verification and approval by the guest. This copy is known as information printout of the folio.

(c)    Checking for mini bar consumption or any last minute charges.

(d)   Processing the guest payment as per the mode of settlement desired by him.

(e)   Handing over the settlement folio, known as zero balance folio, to the guest along with vouchers and payment receipt or credit card charge slip.

(f)     Requesting the guest for a filling up feedback-form/guest comment card for the hotel to review its performance.

(g)    Luggage handling activity by bell desk

 Post – Departure stage

Even after the departure of the guest there are still some activities remain to complete the guest cycle process. These activities come under post departure stage.

(a)    Departure notification slips: In a computerized system room is released after the folio settlement and departments are informed automatically about the changed status of the room from occupied to vacant.  However, in a manual system departure notification slips are prepared and sent to all relevant departments for the purpose of information about a room departure and for relevant action.

(b)   Updating A & D Register:  Departure side of Arrival and Departure register is updated by the cashier for all departures in his shift.

(c)    Departure errand card: Bell desk prepares departure errand card and files it for the record purpose. Any record of left luggage is also handled by them separately.

 Summary

All the above stages together are known as guest cycle. Guest cycle starts with hotel’s first contact with guest that is at the stage of reservation and other stages include pre-registration, registration, post-registration, during the stay activities, departure and post departure.  Guest cycle provides a comprehensive view of the guest’s stay in the hotel right from the time of his first contact till the time he leaves the hotel. It may be noted that front office department play an important part in creating an overall positive impression on the guest about the hotel services. In all stages of a guest’s interaction with the hotel this department has a pivotal role to play.