Component I Role Name Affiliationepgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/... · for a guest or a group of guests for a certain period of time. Guest cycle at a hotel comprises

Paper- H04 Front Office and House Keeping Module – H04FO04 - Basic Reservation Systems Content Writer: Dr. S. Thilagamani

Component – I Role Name Affiliation

Principal Investigator

Dr. N. Vasugi Raaja Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore

Co-Principal Investigators Dr. G. Bagyalakshmi Mrs. E. Indira Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Dr. G. Baradha

Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore

Paper Coordinator Dr. PL. Sridevi Sivakami Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore

Content Writer Dr. S. Thilagamani


Content Reviewer Dr. G. Vasanthamani


Language Editor Dr. S. Thilagamani


Component-I (B) Description of Module Items Description of Module

Subject Name Home Science

Paper Name Front Office and House Keeping Management

Module Name Basic Reservation Systems

Module ID H04F04

Pre-requisites Front office overview

Objectives • Understand the various procedures adopted in handling reservations in a

hotel

• Describe the role of front desk staff in the process of reservation

Keywords Sales, forecast, guaranteed, walk in, skipper, scanty baggage

H04FO04 - BASIC RESERVATION SYSTEMS


Items Description of Module

Subject Name Home Science

Paper Name Front Office and House Keeping Management

Module Name Basic Reservation Systems

Module ID H04FO04

Pre-requisites Front office overview

Objectives • Understand the various procedures adopted in handling reservations in a

hotel


Keywords Sales, forecast, guaranteed, walk in, skipper, scanty baggage

Introduction A reservation in the context of the front office of a hotel means the booking or

reserving of a room by a guest. It involves a particular type of guest room being reserved

for a guest or a group of guests for a certain period of time. Guest cycle at a hotel

comprises four phases namely pre arrival, arrival, stay and departure. Reservation is the

major activity at the pre-arrival phase and is usually the first occasion when the guest and

the hotel interact.

All hotels accept reservations or advance bookings for their rooms, in order to

achieve high occupancy and maximise their revenue. The proportion of bookings that are

made in advance will vary from 100 per cent in a resort hotel to perhaps 10 per cent in a

transient hotel. The reservation staffs needs a system that will enable them to

• Check whether a reservation request is possible

• Record the booking

• Retrieve the booking at the appropriate time

Objectives This module will enable the learner to

• Understand the various procedures adopted in handling reservations in a hotel


1. IMPORTANCE OF THE RESERVATION PROCESS


It is of vital importance because it

1. Gives the first impression of the hotel to guest

2. Sells the main accommodation products of a hotel

3. Provides important management information to other departments

Reservation information will help the individual departments to

• Prepare sales forecasts

• Prepare weekly or monthly staff schedules, menus and purchase requirements

• Relate sales forecasts to expenditure budgets

• Control costs including materials, labour and over heads

2. MODES OF RESERVATION REQUEST Reservation requests are made by various modes. They are

• Letter

• Telex

• Cables

• Telegrams

• Phones

• Fax

• In-person

3. SOURCES OF RESERVATION

• Direct reservation

• Reservation network system

• Agencies

3.1 DIRECT RESERVATIONS: These direct reservations are handled directly by the hotel. These may happen in a

number of ways such as ü by an independent traveller making a reservation on telephone, mail or in person

ü by individual or group making reservation in writing

ü by Telex or Fax

3.2 RESERVATION NETWORK SYSTEM


This is otherwise termed as affiliate or non-affiliate reservation network systems.

Many guests make their reservations through the central reservations offices (CRO).

Many guests are referred to the hotel by another hotel in the same group or marketing

group. An affiliate reservation system is a hotel reservation system in which all hotel

chain participates such as Taj group of hotels, Le Meredian and so on.

When a guest contacts the CRO with specific details of their proposed stay, the

CRO will check the room availability and then will be interfaced to the hotel reservation

department.

3.3 AGENCIES Reservation request may also be made through a travel agent on a prepayment

basis by sending the confirmation to the hotel and issuing an accommodation voucher on

its behalf. This is done on commission basis. Many airlines also offer a hotel booking

service for their passengers, often booking is done whilst in flight

The usual sources are

• Airline

• Wholesale tour operators

• Companies and commercial business houses

• Embassies /consulates and institutions

4. TYPES OF RESERVATION

4.1 GUARANTEED RESERVATION When a guest guarantees to pay for the room even if it is not used, the hotel

promises to hold the room until the check-out time. Guaranteed reservations protect the

hotel from “no-shows”. Hotel does not lose the revenue from “room sale” when the guest

not turn up.

4.2 RESERVATIONS MAY BE GUARANTEED IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING

WAYS:

A.PRE-PAYMENT The guest send full payment for the rooms booked in advance

B.CREDIT CARD


The credit card number of the guest is recorded and if the guest fails to turn up, the

hotel will bill the card holder in the normal way.

C.ADVANCE-DEPOSIT The guest sends a specified amount of money in advance

D.CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT

This normally involves a corporation where the company has agreed with the hotel

to pay for an agreed number of rooms regardless of whether or not the rooms are used.

4.2 NON –GUARANEED RESERVATION

This is a reservation in which the guest has simply agreed and guaranteed that he

will arrive. The hotel agrees to hold a non-guaranteed room until stated cancellation time.

The purpose of stating a release time is again to avoid revenue losses for the hotel due to

guests who fail to arrive.

5. BASIC RESERVATION ACTIVITIES

This involves the different systems and documents for receiving reservations. The

basic and normal procedure in the reservation process is similar for all hotels.

Receiving reservation inquiries

1. Determining room availability

2. Accepting or denying request for reservation

3. Documenting reservation details

4. Confirming reservations

5. Maintaining reservation records

6. Compiling reservation reports

5.1 RECIEVING RESERVATION INQUIRIES The first step is to obtain information about the guests proposed stay and to check

whether the room is available. For a speedy response, the following informations are

collected.

o Date of arrival

o Length of proposed stay

o Type and number of rooms

o Number of persons


5.2 DETERMINING ROOM AVAI LABILITY The next step after obtaining the information about the proposed stay is to check

whether the type of room asked for is available for the requested date. It is essential to

keep a close check on the number of reservations taken so as to avoid excessive or

overbooking. Whether hotels intentionally overbook or not, an effective system has to be

used to check room availability. This can be accomplished through the use of

Forecast boards Reservation charts

Computerised system 5.3 ACCEPTING OR DENYING REQUEST FOR RESERVATION

Based on the availability status of the rooms in the hotel, the reservation staff may

accept if the rooms are available and proceed with the next step in the reservation

process. If the rooms requested are not available on a particular date, the staff may

suggest alternate dates and proceed if the guest accepts.

Otherwise the staffs at this stage deny the request for reservation due to non

availability of the rooms on the requested dates. The other suggestion usually given when

the rooms are not available is to suggest its franchise hotels in the area. This phase is

crucial to the reservation staff to either accept and proceed with further reservation

process or suggest an alternate accommodation or deny the reservation request.

5.4 DOCUMENTING RESERVATION DETAILS Once the reservation is accepted the recording of all the details concerning the

guest and their stay must be completed. The reservation form is the only document which

will contain all the relevant information about the guest and the accommodation request.

• Full name

• Date of Arrival ( DOA)

• Date of Departure ( DOD)

• Expected Time of Arrival (ETA)

• Number of nights

• Room type

• Number of persons


• Rate quoted

• Residential address

• Company name

• Company address

• Telephone and fax

• Mode of payment

• Guaranteed and non guaranteed booking

• Credit card number

• Confirmation

• Date of Booking

• Remarks

THE HOTEL DAIRY The next step is to update the room availability chart to ensure that over booking

or omissions are avoided. The hotel diary should include

• Guest name

• Type of accommodation requested

• length of stay

• Rate and terms quoted

• how and when booked

• Reservation clerk’s Signature

• Confirmation

• Remarks

5.5 CONFIRMING RESERVATIONS It is a written acknowledgement sent either by the hotel to the guest or vice versa.

It confirms that a contract for a room has been made between the hotel and the guest.

5.6 MAINTANING RESERVATION RECORDS


It consists of

∗ Filing of the original booking The reservation forms and relevant correspondence are usually filled in

chronological order. For example, according to the date of arrival or in alphabetical order

or according to the guest name

∗ Modification of the booking Occasionally a change or cancellation of a booking is requested. In these cases, an

amendment or cancellation form is completed by the reservation clerk and attached to the

original reservation form and correspondence. At the same time, the room availability

chart should be amended accordingly.

THE CANCELLATION DETAILS SHOULD INCLUDE

• Date of original booking

• Guest name

• Date when the booking is cancelled

• Name of person who cancelled the booking

• Cancellation number

• Name of reservation assistant who received the cancellation

5.7 COMPILING RESERVATION

The final step in the reservation process is the completion of reservation reports.

Information from these reports can help a hotel to maximise its room sales by the

accurate control of room availability and forecasting of potential room sales.

The most common type of reservation reports are

• Expected arrivals and departure lists

• Room availability report

• Group status report

• Special arrivals list

• Turn away report

• Revenue forecast report

6. KEY POINTS TO FOLLOW WHILE HANDLING A RESERVATION

REQUEST ON TELEPHONE


• The assistant in reservation should answer the call with a positive, warm tone

voice

• They should use courteous phrases e.g. “PLEASE” and “THANK YOU” and be

polite and personalise the conversation by using the sur name of the guest.

• They should speak clearly and use an appropriate manner; a brisker and more

efficient approach would be more appropriate

• They should have an opportunity to sell a more expensive type of room to the

guest by informing of an interesting and attractive alternative

• During the conversation confirmation on the number of guests who will stay

should be ensured and should ask the guest to spell their names, mobile numbers,

amount and so on and repeat back to avoid errors.

• It is essential to inform guest about the room rates and confirm with numbers

spelt out.

7. ROOM AVAILABILITY DETERMINING FROM CHARTS This is done with forecast boards, reservation charts and computerised reservation

system.

7.1 FORECAST BOARDS

A forecast is similar in appearance to a calendar. It is placed on a wall near to a

reservation assistant so that they have quick access to the room status informing when

they have to check for room availability. The board generally indicates the period of two

months and the dates represent specific room status.

7.2 RESERVATION CHARTS

Many hotels use reservation charts to display and record room availability. These

are three types namely conventional charts, density charts and stop-go-charts

7.2.1 CONVENTIONAL CHARTS These display the availability of each room in the hotel by room number and on

these charts reservations are marked in pencil to allow for any necessary alterations or

cancellations. Each the advantage of this system is that it gives not only up to date room

status information but also the details concerning individual bookings in hotels

• Where the guest usually stay for a long period of time


• Which have wide variety of room types.

• Which offers highly personalised services to the guests.

The conventional chart is not suitable for large hotels because it is very time

consuming to regard all the individual details

7.2.2 DENSITY CHARTS Larger hotels use density chart to record their bookings. With the density chart,

rooms are classified into groups of a similar type and no allocation of a specific room is

made until the guest arrives at the hotel. The density chart is more useful where the guest

stay is short. Chance bookings, extension, early departures all have to be noted on the

chart to make sure it is a true picture of the reservation position. These charts show and

record the total number of reservation held for the each type of room on a specific date.

This is often checked by reservation manager who compares the number of rooms let on

the chart with actual number of guests in the hotel on the given day.

Large numbers of rooms are there with similar décor, location and rates.

The guest usually stays for a short period.

There is a need for quicker handling of large number of bookings.

7.2.3 STOP – GO CHART In large hotels, there would be bottleneck if every reservation clerk had to refer the

booking chart every time while handling a request. This is overcome by a visual stop -go-

chart which is prominently displayed at the reservation office. This chart summarises the

information on the main chart. It shows at a glance whether or not to accept a booking.

There is space for each day of the year.

8. COMPUTERIZED RESERVATION SYSTEM A computerized reservation system controls not only room availability but also the

whole process of reservations. When a request for a reservation is received the

reservations details are store in the computer.

A computerized system has the advantage that it is capable of generating all types

of the reservation reports in a short period of time. These may include

1. daily arrivals

2. stay over


3. departure list

4. projected forecast

These reports are essential to the hotel management in the planning of their entire

operations.

9. CONTROL OF RESERVATIONS 9.1CLOSE OUTS

A stop-go- chart is an ideal method for the reservation supervisor to ensure

maximum control of reservations. Some hotels will refuse booking for a certain date even

though rooms are available. This helps to ensure smooth booking pattern and high

occupancy.

9.2YIELD MANAGEMENT

Close outs are a crude example of yield management. As similar to that developed

by airlines, where the planes fly at the maximum profitability or yield. Hotel yield

management systems have developed as a separate add on to normal reservation system.

They work by calculating how full the hotel is likely to be on a given date in the future.

This is done by constantly measuring previous occupancy and booking pattern and

projecting them forward in the future. The reservationist is then advised whether or not to

take booking and what rate. This has the effect of smoothing peaks and troughs of

demand and also ensures that rooms are sold at the best possible price. If the room is not

sold on a particular night, then it is never sold. This is because there are two elements:

space (the room) and time (the date).

9.3OVER BOOKING Overbooking is the practice of accepting more reservations than rooms available.

The purpose of overbooking is to assist the hotel in obtaining maximum occupancy and

to compensate early departures, last minute cancellations and no shows. The reception

department should keep figures of non –arrivals and early departures and from these data,

they should be able to calculate percentage of overbooking. In this way, overbooking

becomes a way of controlling reservations by booking to a predetermined number of

rooms based on anticipated no shows. So the process of overbooking is to balance exactly

the extra rooms booked with no shows and cancellations.


9.4 STATUS OF RESERVATIONS

9.4.1 6:00 PM RELEASE Reservations are often taken on the basis that guest will arrive by a certain time of

the day. If the guest arrives on or before the expected time of arrival, the rooms will be

assigned. If the guest does not arrive on time, the room will be let out for sale to another

guest after few hours usually at six in the evening.

9.4.2 GUARANTEED ARRIVAL This is the reverse of six pm release. Here the guest guarantees to pay for the room

whether they arrive or not.

9.4.3 TAKE or PLACE (T or P) Regular customer s are often referred to a “take or place” booking, if they reserve

at a short notice. When they arrive at the hotel, a room will be allocated to them if there

has been any cancellation or no show. If there has not been any cancellation or no show,

the hotel will find another room in a comparable hotel. This T or P facility helps to retain

customer loyalty and also maximise occupancy for individual hotels and groups.

CONCLUSION To a hotel, the vital task of determining availability and accommodating guests is

the reservation department. Reservation department functions to boost up the revenue

with higher levels of room availability and occupancy. Therefore, it is the duty of the

front desk in customising guest requests, demands and maximise the guest occupancy and

in turn earn higher revenue to the hotel.

Documents

Component I Role Name Affiliationepgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/... · for a guest or a group of guests for a certain period of time. Guest cycle at a hotel comprises