1. Front Office Operations
Strand 2

2. Guestroom Operations – 2.1
Availability, room status, and other operating guidelines that affect the assignment of guestrooms

3. Operations Housekeeping updates room status with the following:
Available - room is cleaned and ready to be occupied
Dirty - room needs to be cleaned, can not be occupied
Occupied - rooms needs its daily cleaning, already occupied
Out of Order - issue with room (maintenance needed) can not be occupied

4. Room Status Report
Reservation agents, front desk agents, and housekeeping need to know the status of each room
PMS can pull a report of the status of each room (Room Status Report)

6. Guaranteed vs Non-Guaranteed Reservations
Guest has paid in full for room
Guest has NOT paid in full for room, room may be given to another paying guest

7. Organizational Structures Strand 2.2.
Identify management styles within a variety of organizational structures

8. Yield Management
Yield Management: is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, time-limited resource (hotel room reservations)

10. No-Shows
When a guest does not show up that booked a guaranteed reservation
Usually the night auditor processes these at the beginning of their shift (11 PM)
Reservation is cancelled, money is kept by the hotel

11. Overbooking
The hotel has sold more rooms than it physically has available
Rooms are overbooked to compensate for the no-shows and cancellations that will likely occur
Larger properties with sister hotels do this regularly because they have space open at other nearby hotels

12. Walking Having a guest stay at another hotel
Due to overbooking or out of order rooms, sometimes guaranteed reservations must stay at another hotel
Usually a sister property
Room and transportation is taken care of by the hotel that made the initial reservation

13. Spoilage When a room is not sold for the night, it SPOILS.
Money is lost and that’s why Yield Management is extremely important

14. Property Computer Systems Strand 2.3
How property computer systems are used to create guest accounts

15. Property Management System (PMS)
Keeps all the information for all departments in one computer system
Allows the entire hotel access information about room status
Once a guest checks in/out, the PMS will update and each department will be able to access the information

16. Property Management System
Accessible throughout the entire hotel
Holds guest information, room status reports, room bills, etc

17. Point-of-Sales (POS)
Registers located in gift shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, etc
Prints out a receipt
Not accessible by the entire hotel

18. Check-in Procedures - Strand 2.4
Check-in procedures, registration, payments methods, pre-authorizations, key distribution

19. Guest Folio
Consists of name, contact info, room type, dates of occupation

21. Common Payment Methods
Cash - Room will be paid in full at check in
Debit/Credit - guaranteed reservations, paid in full at check out or when booking, depending on property
Direct Billing - room bill will sent to company/organization to be paid
Group Billing - rooms are billed to one account, usually 10+ rooms for businesses/organizations

22. Preauthorizations
Upon check in, hotel will hold an amount on the guest’s debit/credit card
Preauthorizations cover incidentals, room charges, etc.
Credit card holds usually release within 24 hours
Debit card holds can take up to 2 weeks, depending on bank

23. Preauthorizations
Front desk will add up the total amount due for the entire stay PLUS the predetermined preauthorization amount.
Each night, Night Auditor will check that the room charges are covered by the preauthorization. If not, they will add more to the preauthorization.
Each hotel’s preauthorization amount varies.

24. Preauthorization Example
Hotel’s Preauthorization rate is $100.
Sunday - Thursday rate is $125 (includes tax and resort fees)
Friday - Saturday rate is $150 (includes tax and resort fees)
Drew checks in Wednesday night for three nights. How much will the Front Desk Agent preauthorize on their card at check in? No payment has been made yet.

25. Preauthorization Example
Hotel’s Preauthorization rate is $100.
Sunday - Thursday rate is $125 (includes tax and resort fees)
Friday - Saturday rate is $150 (includes tax and resort fees)
Preauthorization rate + 2 weekday nights = total preauthorization
$100 + $250 = $350

26. Preauthorization Example
At checkout, Drew’s card will be charged $250, and the preauthorization of $100 will be released.
Usually, when a card is preauthorize, you can not see the charge on your account activity, but your balance is lower. It’s a ghost charge until check out.

27. Key Control Key cards are the responsibility of the Front Desk
Only registered names should receive keys
Keys are activated on day of check in, and usually deactive at time of check out
When replacing a key card, agent should get identification to issue new key and verify the guest’s name is on the hotel registration

28. Key Control
If a guest locks himself out of their room without ID, agent should open door, and then ask guest to retrieve their ID to show them

29. Check-out Procedures – Strand 2.5
Recent Charges, Late Charges, Guest Accounts, Guest Satisfaction

30. Late Charges
Night Auditor runs card transactions early morning of guest check outs
If a guest charges something, like breakfast, to their folio, it won’t show up on their final bill because it was already printed
Front Desk will need to verify any late charges with guests at check out

31. Post Outstanding Charges
If a guest leaves without verifying their final bill, Front Desk will have to charge this late charges to the guest’s card on file and an updated folio

32. Guest Satisfaction and Guest History Record
Guest feedback is extremely important for improvement
Most guests receive an electronic survey, but a survey should be available if one asks
Many hotels offer incentives to their employees if a guest mentions them by name in the survey