Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 1 Reservation, Reception, and Room Assignment Management

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 2 Managing Guest Reservations Arrival: An arriving guest; arrivals are typically counted by the number of individuals (e.g., “There will be 300 arrivals tonight, including 150 children.”)

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 3 Individual Reservations Pre-paid (Reservation): A room reservation in which guests, prior to their arrival, provide payment for their rooms. Sometimes referred to as an “advanced deposit” reservation. Non-guaranteed (Reservation): A room reservation for which guests do not provide payment at the time the reservation is made. Walk-in guests

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 4 Group Reservations Group folios: –Master Bill: A single folio (bill) established for a group that includes specifically agreed-upon group charges. Room block management Individual Call-in (Reservation): A type of reservation in which guests who are part of a group contact a hotel and reserve their own rooms from within that block. Rooming list reservations

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 5 Reservation Cancellations Unique Cancellation Number: A number or series of numbers and letters used to identify the cancellation of a single reservation. A unique cancellation number will be used only one time and to identify the cancellation of only one reservation.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 6 Managing Guest Reception Arrival List: A PMS report that details the number and names of guests arriving at the hotel during the report period. The arrival list often contains additional information such as each guest’s departure date, room type requests, and the room rate.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 7 Arrival List Pre-blocked (Room): A specific room number that has been assigned to an arriving guest prior to arrival. Direct Bill: A special arrangement that allows a guest to purchase hotel services and products on credit terms because the guest’s credit worthiness has been pre-approved by the hotel. In-house List: A printed record of all guests, by name and room number, who are checked into the hotel.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 8 Up-selling Properly implemented, an effective up- selling program can increase ADRs 1-10% (or more) above those of similar hotels that do not implement such programs.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 9 Registration Information accuracy Departure date confirmation Rate agreement: –Split Rate: A room rate that changes during a guest’s stay based upon room demand. Methods of payment: Payment cardDirect bill CashPre-paid deposit Complimentary (Comp)

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 10 Managing Room Assignments Difficult when the hotel: –Cannot accommodate the guest’s request for a specific room type or location –Can accommodate the guest’s request but not at the time the guest wants to check-in –Cannot accommodate the guest’s room request on the day the guest is to arrive –Can accommodate the guest, but the guest does not arrive

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 11 Room Selection Room Status Report: A listing of the current housekeeping status of each available room. HVAC: Short for heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 12 Issuing Room Keys Timing concerns: –Early Check-in: A request by a guest to take possession of a room prior to the hotel’s normally established check-in time. –Delayed Check-in: A procedure by which guests are assigned a room, but the issuing of a key is delayed. Security-related concerns

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 13 Walking Arriving Guests “Room” versus “room type” guarantees Pull-out: Industry slang for an in-room sofa that converts to a bed.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 14 Recording No-Shows Entering a guest in the PMS as a no-show will: –Cancel their reservation for their day of arrival –Cancel that specific room reservation for all future nights if it included nights beyond the original arrival date –Remove the guest from the occupancy forecast for any future reserved nights associated with that reservation –Identify the reservation as a potential “no-show” for billing purposes

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 15 Self Check-In Innovations and Challenges The hardware necessary for a self check-in kiosk would include: –A credit card reader –A physical, real-time interface to the hotel’s merchant service provider –A printer –A blank key dispenser and key encoder –Networking equipment required to interface to the hotel’s PMS Challenges