Under this very stage, guest purchases at different revenue outlets are electronically transferred and posted to appropriate guest accounts. Moreover, the front office department can run and process continuous trial balances and, therefore, eliminate the tedious work for the Night Auditor.
D- Departure activities:
At this very stage, cashiers can automatically produce bills to be sent to various guests with direct billing privileges and create electronic guest history records.
IV- Front Office Forms:
At different stages of the guest cycle different forms are used depending on which operating system a hotel chooses. Below are some of the common forms used:
1. Pre-arrival activities:
a) Reservation record or a reservation file b) Letter of confirmation
c) Reservation rack and reservation rack slips
2. Arrival activities:
a) Registration card (or record) or registration file b) Room rack and room rack slips
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3. Occupancy activities:
a) Guest folio: shall be of duplicate forms and pre-numbered for cross-indexing control purposes
b) Vouchers: support documents detailing facts of a transaction, but does not replace the source document (i.e. the invoice). Examples of vouchers might include charge vouchers, allowance vouchers, paid-out voucher, and correction vouchers… equipment, forms, and supplies necessary. Moreover, the setting shall reflect position flexibility.
Moreover, nowadays trend shows that traditional mail, message, and key racks are unnecessary at the Front Desk. Rather, they shall be stored in drawers or slots located under or away from the Front Desk. For, this would ensure security and safety of guests.
1. Front Desk designed alternatives:
a) Circular or semi-circular structure: this very structure provides an effective service to more guests and appears more modern and innovative but since guests will approach the Front Desk from all angles, more staff is needed.
b) Traditional straight desk: Under this very design, fewer staff is needed, but fewer guests can be served at the same time.
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c) Deskless environment: Under this design, there is no Front Desk at all. This is usually replaced by a hostess, or steward welcoming the guest, seating him or her on a chair/sofa, and conduct registration activities there while, for example, having a cocktail or a drink.
VI- Front Office Equipment:
1. Room rack
2. Mail, message, and key racks 3. Reservation racks
4. Information racks
5. Folio trays or folio buckets 6. Account posting machine 7. Voucher racks
8. Cash registers
9. Telephone equipment
b) Reservation:
Receive and process reservation requests for future overnight accommodations.
With technology development, the Reservation Department can, on real time, access the number and types of rooms available, various room rates, and furnishings, along with the various facilities existing in the hotel
There should be close relation-ships with Sales and Marketing Division concerning Large Group Reservations
c) Housekeeping:
Inspects rooms before they are available for sale
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Cleans occupied and vacant rooms
Communicates the status of guestrooms to the Front Office Department
Cleans and presses the property‘s linens, towels, and guest clothing (if equipped to do so, free of charge or for a pre-determined fee)
Maintains recycled and non-recycled inventory items
The housekeeping department makes up the important part of different industries; however it is of primary importance in the hospitality Industry. One of the major priorities of housekeeping in hotel is to maintain the hygiene and appearance of public areas and guest rooms. As hotels are sought after places for providing accommodations,
the housekeeping department makes up the largest department in a hotel that is responsible for creating reputation and favorable impression of the hotel in front of guests.
Guest Rooms:
After the guest check outs from a hotel room, it should thoroughly cleaned for the preparation of arrival of the next guest. The cleaning includes removal of all bed and bathroom linens and their subsequent laundry. Some hotels may outsource the laundry job while others have in-house laundry services that are managed by the housekeeping department. The towels and other amenities are replenished while guest bathroom should be completely sanitized. The housekeeping staff should do dusting and apply vacuum cleaning to the floors.
Apart from cleaning the floor and carpets, the housekeeping department should also take care of the appliances in the guest rooms including maintenance of telephones, television, hair dryers, refrigerators, etc. The housekeeping staff should also report any defects in the proper functioning of the appliances to the front desk or the maintenance department. Moreover, it‘s the duty of the housekeeping staff to report any stains or defects in curtains, carpeting, bed linens, or other room furnishings.
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The hotel housekeeping department is also assigned the task of maintaining the hygiene and pleasant appearance of public areas. The public areas include ballrooms, gyms, Lobbies, restrooms, and other common rooms utilized by guests. All these public areas are cleaned on a regular basis. The carpets and rugs are cleaned by vacuum cleaner and commercial shampooer is applied as needed. The windows are kept clean and without any stains. The floors are waxed and mopped. Moreover, the housekeeping department also perform various activities to re-organize public areas such as straightening and plumping decorative pillows, piling magazines and brochures, retrieving dishes and glasses left in hallways and putting furniture back in its proper place.
FUNCTIONS:
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The job of a hotel housekeeper is to keep an assigned number of rooms clean. This includes a variety of services depending on the room's occupants. For a standard occupied room, this will involve basic cleaning duties. For a room where the occupants have just checked out, the job is more difficult and involves turning over nearly everything in the room. A check-out room must be so neat and clean that the new occupants cannot tell that another family may have vacated the room only a few hours earlier. Some occupants who are in the hotel room when the housekeeper arrives or are perhaps ill and spending the day in bed may prefer service known as trash and towels. This is exactly how it sounds. The housekeeper will provide fresh clean towels and toiletries and remove the trash, but otherwise leave the room alone. If a guest leaves a later service sign on the door, the room must be revisited, perhaps several times throughout the day until the sign is removed. However, some guests forget to remove this sign entirely. Depending on the hotel this may mean that they will not receive any service, or it may mean they receive a phone call offering later service. Some locations will even leave a set of clean towels and toiletries outside the door. One last consideration is rooms that have been vacant for several days. Though they have already been cleaned and turned over, these rooms must be revisited so the housekeeper can sweep and dust, ensuring that the room doesn't look dusty and abandoned when new guests arrive.
FEATURES:
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The specific duties of a housekeeper may vary from one hotel to the next, but usually include several standard jobs. The first is making the beds. A good housekeeper should be able to make each bed in about a minute. Unless there are very obvious stains, the sheets and pillowcases are rarely changed daily. The average amount of time for sheets to be left unchanged is three days.
However, this also varies from one hotel to the next. In very expensive locations the sheets are changed daily. The number of sheets and pillows on the bed can also vary. While a standard hotel bed has a bottom sheet, top sheet, blanket and comforter, nicer hotels will have a sheet both beneath and on top of the blanket. Some less-expensive hotels may not have a blanket at all.
Hotel beds are typically made with the comforter covering the entire bed and are almost always made this way when guests first check in. However, during a guest's stay, the comforter may only be folded neatly at the bottom of the bed. Next, the housekeeper must refresh any amenities in the room, such as coffee. End tables and desks may be straightened, but the guest's items are generally left as they are. Small touches such as closing the doors of a television cabinet can give a room a finished look very quickly. If there is a porch or balcony, this should be swept and any ashtrays need to be emptied. Lastly, the trashcans in the rooms will be emptied, and the carpets swept. Moving on to the bathroom, the housekeeper will wipe down the tub, toilet, sink and counter. Towels will be changed and amenities will be refreshed. In a check-out room, the bathroom is cleaned more thoroughly with a variety of cleaning agents, usually including bleach. Small touches are important here, such as carefully folding the towels.
Each hotel has its own preferred method for folding and placing the towels. The toilet paper must be folded to a neat point as well.
d) Uniformed Services:
Bell Attendants: Ensure baggage service between the lobby area and guestrooms
Door Attendants: Ensure baggage service and traffic control at hotel entrance(s)
Valet Parking Attendants: Ensure parking services for guest‘s automobiles
Transportation Personnel: Ensure transportation services for guests from and to the hotel
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Concierge: Assists guests by making restaurant reservations, arranging for transportation, and getting tickets for theater, sporting, or any other special events
5. Telephone Department:
Answers and distributes calls to the appropriate extensions, whether guest, employee, or management extensions
Places wake-up calls
Monitors automated systems
Coordinates emergency communications
‗Protects Guest Privacy‗
2. Food & Beverage Department
: According to U.S. Lodging 1995 statistics, F&B Department constitutes the second largest revenue generator of a typical hotel with an average of 23.1 for Food sales, and 8.6 % for Beverage sales. In a five-star hotel, Food and Beverage outlets might have the following forms:
Quick Service
Table Service
Specialty Restaurants
Coffee Shops
Bars
Lounges
Clubs
Banquets
Catering Functions Wedding, Birthdays…
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Hospitality is probably the most diverse but specialized industry in the world. It is certainly one of the largest, employing millions of people in a bewildering array of jobs around the globe.
Sectors range from the glamorous five-star resort to the less fashionable, but arguably more specialised, institutional areas such as hospitals, industrial outfits, schools and colleges. Yet of these many different sectors, catering has to be the most challenging. Whatever the size of the catering operation, the variety of opportunities available is endless. ―The sky is the limit with