Reservation

1. Room Availability

Each morning, the hotel reservationist will update her files, so that an accurate count of the rooms available is known. This is vital information to know before proceeding with the reservation of a guest.

2. Receiving the Call

When a guest decides to stay at a hotel, he will place a call to the reservationist. It is the reservationist's job to quickly and accurately search for an available room for the length of stay the guest desires. It is important for the reservationist to speak in a friendly, knowledgeable manner, as she is the first contact the guest will speak to; therefore, it is her job to make a good first impression.

3. Accommodations

Record and execute the accommodations each individual guest requests. Different hotels offer different accommodations, but bed size, smoking preference and time of arrival and departure are a few of the main accommodations that most hotels will offer their guests. Making sure to deliver the accommodations that the guest prefers is a key point in assuring the guests' happiness.

4. Verify Payment

Verify the method that the guest will use to pay for his room. Some hotels require a deposit, and a credit card will be needed to secure the room. Run the credit card to make sure that the transaction is approved before ending the conversation. The guest must present the credit card to the reservationist upon arrival to verify his identity.

5. Reservation Complete

o Conclude the reservation. After the reservationist has collected all necessary information, she can officially book the hotel reservation. Ask the guest if there is anything else he needs, thank him for calling and assure him that his stay here will be as pleasant as possible. Once the call has ended, send out a confirmation email, if the guest has provided his email address, along with a link to the hotel's website. Invite the guest to browse the website to look at pictures of the hotel, and to see a list of activities there are to do around the hotel complex.

Types of Reservation System

The reservation system comes into action once a request for reservation comes to the hotel. It can be a direct query from the guest, or from a travel agent or tour operator among others sources. An effective and efficient reservation system is essential for maximising a hotel’s profitability. Reference has already been made to the reservation systems of a hotel in MTM-4. The type of reservation system depends on the type and size of hotel. Many small hotels and motels use a booking dairy to keep track of reservation and resident guests. The front desk manager can double up as the reservation supervisor and the front desk clerk as reservation clerk. In a very small establishment (as in case of Bed and Breakfast lodges) you may see owners performing the task of reservation supervisor.

The most common manual system used by hotels of any type or size is known as Whitney System, devised by Whitney Paper Corporation of New York in the 1940s. In this system each reservation is recorded on a small, multipart piece of paper mounted in a metal frame, which, in turn, is filled in date and alphabetical order on a metal rack. The slips are usually colour coded to denote the type of guest. Usually there is one rack for every day over say, the next three months, and fewer racks for future

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periods. Copies of the slip, also on racks, may be sent to other departments such as reception or telephones when the guest arrives. This system gave rise to the expression “rack rate”, which is how hoteliers often refer to the price for rooms (Source: Paul R. Gamble, VNRs Encyclopaedia).

Whitney System, though very efficient, generates lots of paperwork. This problem, however, is solved by computerised reservation system. The computerised system can perform all the tasks of Whitney System and organises the guest data more efficiently. The guest’s record is maintained in the hard disk of the computer. This not only helps in matching the guest information, but also provides information about the importance of the guest which can be judged from the data available on computer. This kind of information compiled on computer based reservation systems not only provides their credit standing and the reliability of the booking done through the agent but it also makes searching for data very easy.

The large group/chain of hotels have Central Reservation Systems which handle the reservation of the various properties of a single group atoned to centralised reservation office. For example, a hotel may have central reservation number, i.e., 24-7-365- symbolising availability 24 hours a day 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Nowadays, many single hotels have come together to form their own Central Reservation System serving these individually owned establishments. The use of computers in reservations has simplified check-in and checkout process. The hotel does not need much information during these operations as data is fed simultaneously. Though computerised reservation systems are proved to be of a great help to hoteliers, it is up to a particular hotel to choose and use a system most suitable to their requirements. The most recent and most used way of making reservations accessible at far-flung locations is via internet. In such operations direct bookings and reservations requests can be made over the internet by just a click on the website of the hotels concerned. In some cases the reservation is directly upgraded but mostly the reservation staff reconfirms the request via e-mail or telephone before making official reservations.

12.4.2 Accepting or Denying Reservation

The procedure of accepting a reservation request involves, checking the availability of the requested type of room for the stated period of time as is mentioned in the request. This can be confirmed or checked through the reservation charts, forecast boards or computerised systems. If the room is available the reservation request is accepted of else shall be denied immediately.

The procedure of accepting reservation is not that simple as it appears. This is a crucial decision that the reservation staff needs to make regarding accepting or rejecting it. To make this decision, the staff on duty uses information like the credit standing of the person/agency/company, the type of guest Whether VIP/tourist/business traveler, the purpose of visit, length of stay, etc. In case of computerized system the staff would require few minutes to come to a decision, as the required information would be within the reach of pressing the keys. But in case of manual system, the processing for information may take longer time. Of course, denying of reservation to guests means loss of business which means loss of revenue. At times the way a guest has been denied reservation may lead to a permanent loss of business from that particular client. Denying reservation is a decision taken in the following circumstances:

1) If the hotel is booked to its capacity: In case the hotel is fully booked you cannot help it but can only refuse the reservation politely or gently. In such cases, if possible, alternate hotels in the area can be suggested or a different property of the same group of hotel, if not available, any other hotel of the same level can be suggested.

2) If the requested category of accommodation is not available: In case the requested type of room is unavailable, you may suggest alternate category of room available and always try to sell upper class rooms which, however, shouldn’t seem to be unethical.

3) The guest or agent is blacklisted: At times some guests are blacklisted because of their previous record of non-payment or delayed payments of bills. The same holds true for the agents. In such a situation if any doubt or complication crops up it is always advised to ask for the reservation supervisor/manager’s help. Many a times the reception staff overbooks to cover contingencies like, guest not turning up even after having confirmed reservation or at times when tour operators make reservations for more than actual number of passengers to get greater discounts on volume. Whether it’s the season or not also plays important role in making over-bookings. During the main season reservation staff would not like to take chance with over-booking. However, decisions related to the issues of over-booking, etc. depends upon the reservation policy of the hotel, i.e., the way the management of the hotel wishes to position their hotel in the market will usually determine its reservation policy. The reservation policy of many hotels also speaks about of the mode and time of payment. Bulk booking of rooms or the booking of some special rooms or a room for a long period of time during main season would require some advance payments. The advance payment can either be full or partial room rent, partially or fully refundable or non-refundable at the time of cancellation, all depending upon the reservation policy.

The final job of the reservation section is to send the final list of reservation for a day to the reception desk of the front office along with the essential information like whether the guest is a repeat guest or guest has some particular liking related to the location of the room, décor of the living room, etc. The message is sent from there to the housekeeping so as to prepare rooms according to the guest needs for the day.

12.4.3 Generating Reservation Reports

Now as you know that reservation section has a lot of information with them which needs to be properly organised. Once the required data is gathered, guests’ folio is created which is updated from time to time. Once this is done they need to generate daily/weekly reports based on this information base. These reports may include:

1) Room Availability Report: A list showing the number of rooms sold/available. It can be prepared on the daily or weekly basis.

2) Expected Arrivals and Departure Lists: A list of guests who are due to arrive or to depart on a particular day.

3) Group Status Report: A list of groups to arrive/depart in the week or month, along with information like the group size, whether a guaranteed or non-guaranteed booking, etc.

4) Special Arrivals List: A list of special guests or VIPs arriving. This should contain their special request and additional information about the preferences of the guest.

5) Turn Away Report: A report on number of reservation requests denied and if possible, some information about the one asking for reservation.

6) Revenue Forecast Report: A report on the projected revenue from the future room sales along with or regular up to date report. In most of the hotels, the front office manager supervises the final preparation of the report before it is sent to the management team. Additional guest information, related to walk -in-guests also incorporated in the report.

12.4.4 Managing Reservations

The major decisions by the management team would be to forecast the requirement of rooms according to the reservation reports. The forecasting can be done for a period varying from over 10 days to several months, since tour groups plan their to ur schedules 12-14 months in advance. The forecasting also depends upon the available capacity of the hotel at that point of time. The forecasting is done for short terms keeping in view important functions/festivals or sporting events in the area.

Therefore, the reservation policy formulation is the most important function of management. It focuses upon the selection of the criteria for selection of sales channels, i.e., the hotel should bank upon the travel agents, corporate clients or walk-ins for their reservations. It is sometimes at the discretion of the reservation section to adopt its own policy to run the business successfully. These all factors help in managing the reservations.