Module - 03

Concierge and Bell desk

Points to be discussed
1) The concept and History of concierge
2) The equipment used by the concierge.
3) The functions of the concierge
4) The forms and records prepared by the concierge.
5) The location and coordination of the bell desk
6) The procedures for luggage handling, escorting guests, and
reporting room discrepancies
 ❑ The concept of Concierge

The Concierge is an integral part of high-end, full-service hotels whereas mid-

level hotels are outsourcing concierge services.

It is a section of the front office department or part of the uniformed department of a hotel that
helps guests at the time of their arrival, during their stay in a hotel and at the time of departure of
guests by providing various services such as luggage handling, message & mail, fetching
errands from outside for the guests etc.

Though hotels use bell desks and concierge interchangeably; the basic aim
remains the same i.e. providing services to the guests and maximizing profits.

[Link]
Interview video of Chief Concierge of Hotel
Ritz Madrid
 History of concierge
• The word ‘concierge’ has a history of its own. Few argued that the term has its origin in
the French word “Comte des Cierges” meaning "keeper of the candles.

• " These are the persons who helped nobles in medieval France. Others opined that the
word means doorkeeper-porter.

• The word also refers to hospitality. In India, it is used in a broader sense and refers to a
person who has a desk called 'The desk of concierge’.

• A concierge was not an employee of the hotel until 1936 but an independent
entrepreneur who purchased a position from the hotel and paid the salaries, if any, of
his or her uniformed subordinates.
• The first modern hotel concierge emerged in the late 19th
century in Europe, especially in Switzerland and France,
where they helped wealthy travelers who came for leisure
tourism and the Grand Tour.

• They acted as multilingual personal secretaries who could

arrange visits, tickets, transportation, and local connections
• The first professional society of hotel
concierges was formed in 1929 in
Paris by Pierre Quentin, a concierge at
the Hotel Ambassador.

• The society was called Union

Professionnelle des Concierges des
Grands Hotels and aimed to share
resources and best practices among its
members.

• The first hotel concierge in the

United States was Tom Wolfe, who
worked at the Fairmont Hotel in San
Francisco from 1974 to 1981.
• He had trained in Europe and brought his skills
and knowledge to the American hospitality
industry.
• Today, hotel concierges are still highly respected
and valued professionals who can provide a wide
range of services and solutions to their guests.
• They are also part of a global network of
concierges who can collaborate and communicate
with each other to meet the needs of their clients
Video on How concierge services can hotel’s productivity.
Questions for the day.
1. What are the different types of concierge services and what
do they offer?
2. How would you handle a situation where a guest was upset
about something?
3. What are some of the skills and qualities that a good
concierge should have?
4. How do you prioritize and manage multiple tasks at once?
5. How do you keep yourself updated on the local area
information and events?
•Understand the Functions
of the concierge and the
hierarchy of the concierge.
 ❑ Functions of the concierge

A. Greeting and receiving the guest As we

know that this is the first department that
comes in the guests’ contact at their
arrival in the hotel. It is the duty of this B. Guest luggage handling at the
section to greet and receive the guests time of check-in: The bell desk
on their arrival. They are the one who has employee helps in unloading the
to create a good first impression. guest’s luggage from the vehicles
escorts the guest to the lobby for
registration and finally transports
the luggage to the guestroom.
C. Introducing hotel facilities to the guests The bell desk employee,
while escorting the guests to his room, will explain various hotel
facilities to the guests e. g. various food and beverage outlets,
shopping arcade, gym etc. He will, in brief, explain the useful
information e.g. timing, facilities etc

D. Explaining various room amenities to the guest After reaching at

the room the employee will explain various in-room amenities to the
guests. This will include air-conditioning, switches, T.V, phone
numbers etc.
E. Explaining the fire exit plan to guests This is one of the most important functions
of the employee. Each room has a fire exit plan pasted on the back of its main door.
The bellboys or the attendant explain the fire exit plan to the guests.

F. Delivering emails and messages Delivering the mails and messages is also the
duty of bell desk. They receive these from information desk and deliver these to
guests. They have stamp the date and time on these to avoid any complaint from
guests.

G. Fetching errands from outside for guests If the guest asks for something, that is
not available in the hotel, it the duty of the desk to arrange for it. The desk
employee will get it from outside, these may include medicines, tickets etc.
H. Arranges various services from outside As we have stated in
the starting of the chapter that sometimes guest may ask for
services that are not provide by the hotel. It is the duty of this
desk to arrange for these services e.g. reserving table in near by
restaurant etc.

I. Selling of postal items to the guest This desk acts as a mini

post office for the guests of the hotel and provides them with
the various types of postal services such as selling postal
stamps, postcards etc. to the guests on their requests. The bell
desk also arranges for various couriers for the guests.

J. Arranges for paging services for the guest The bell desk also
arranges for paging services for the guests in order to locate
them in the hotel in case of any message and mails to be
delivered to him. The paging activity is performed by the bell
boy with the help of a paging board
K. Delivery of newspaper and magazine to the guestroom. The bell desk also provides various
newspapers and magazines in the guestrooms, early in the morning, and to the guests asking for
these.

L. Carryout light housekeeping activity in the lobby area The bellboys also assist the housekeeping
staff in carrying out light housekeeping services in the lobby and the reception area. These services
include light dusting of the front desk, bell desk and furniture of the lobby area and wiping the
door of the entrance of the hotel.

M. Keep an eye on scanty baggage guests They help the lobby manager in keeping an eye on the
scanty baggage guests. For this purpose, they maintain a ‘Scanty Baggage Register’ which is duly
signed by the lobby manager at the time of arrival of a scanty baggage guest. And it is informed to
the front desk so that they can take appropriate measures to safeguard hotel revenue.
N. Helps in maintaining security in lobby They help the security department in
ensuring the security of guests & their belongings and also hotel assets and
hotel employees. They act in close coordination with security department to
avert any mishap.

O. Helps in fighting the emergency situation In case of any emergency, e.g.

natural or man-made, they play very important role in ensuring the safety and
security of all.

P. Physically checks the room discrepancy The employee is responsible for

physically checking any room discrepancy that arises due to the difference
between the Front Office Occupancy Report and Housekeeping Occupancy
Report. And inform the discrepancy to the front office.
Q. Handling guest luggage at the time of check-out The bell desk employees
perform the important function of transporting the luggage of the guest at the
time of department from the guestroom to the lobby. Then the bellboy finally
loads the luggage of the guest in the vehicle and wishes him a happy journey.

R. Submitting C-Form It is the duty of this desk to collect and deposit all the C-
Forms at the nearest police station. This is one of the most important legal
obligations the hotel has to perform in case of foreign guests.

S. Wake-up call In some hotels, it is the duty of bell desk employees to give
manual wake-up calls to the guests.
 T. Handling left luggage Bell desk is
responsible for handling left luggage
in hotels. They are responsible for U. Providing special facilities to the
disabled guests This desk is responsible
completing all the formalities
for providing special facilities to the
regarding left luggage i.e. filling all handicap or disabled guests i.e. they
forms and registers, storing the provide wheelchair to the guests.
luggage and handing it over to the
guest when he asks for.
 Hierarchy of concierge

Concierge
Manager

Concierge Bell
Supervisor Captain

Captain
Concierge
Questions for the day.
1. Explain any five functions of the concierge service ?
2. Draw the hierarchy of concierge section from front office.
3. Explain the history of concierge.
4. What do you understand by paging service ?
5. Explain the concept of message service and parcel handling
by concierge of a five star hotels.
6. Explain the procedure follow by the concierge for VIP, VVIP
guest arrival at hotel.
 Understand
Messages and
Parcel service
Process for Taking and Delivering Guest
Messages and Couriers:
1. As per the hotel operating standards all guest message to be
delivered to the room within 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Always answer the telephone within three rings.
3. Take down the name of the guest and room number.
4. Verify the details of the guest like name and room number.
5. Do not disclose the room number or other personal details
about the guest to the caller
6. Take down the name of the person who is
calling.
7. Take down the telephone number of the person
who is calling.
8. Take down the time the person is calling.
9. Take down the name and contact number of the
caller.
[Link] down the message on to the guest message
slip format or type directly on to the PMS message
window.
[Link] down the time the message was received.

[Link] out the caller name correctly and reconfirm with the
caller.

[Link] to the caller the message to check for understanding.

[Link] the guest reservation and type the message into the
respective function or fields provided entering the message.

[Link] internal Front Office messages or other notes please use

either the traces function or the 'memo' field in the reservation
window
[Link] the message to be sent up to the guest room.

[Link] the message contains sad news i.e. death or

hospitalization; notify the Duty Manager immediately before
sending the message to the room.

[Link] such cases, guest must be paged or notified immediately.

[Link] clearly the name of the guest and room number on the
message envelope.

[Link] the message to the room as per the hotels standard.

 Taking Messages for Banquet /
Conference or Event Guests:

• 1. Write down the message on to guest message slip format.

• 2. Put the message slip in the designated envelope and hand-
over to Banqueting Supervisor or Banquet manager.
• 3. Any message is to be received by the conference guest
within five minutes.
 Luggage handling, left luggage process
• The term ‘Left Luggage’ refers
to luggage left by a guest who
checks out of the hotel but
wishes to take his luggage later.
• The left luggage room has racks
along the wall where the
luggage is deposited.
The procedure for handling left luggage is:

• The Bell Captain confirms

whether the guest has settled his
hotel bill with the front office
cashier.
• The Bell Captain inspects the
baggage and brings to the notice of
the guest a pre-existing damage (if
any).
• He enters the description of the
baggage on the Baggage Tag and
strings it to the baggage. The
sticker has a number with a
counterfoil with the same number.
• The Bell Captain enters these
details in the Left Luggage
Register.
• He mentions any pre-damage
comments in the remark's column.
He also mentions the expected date
of delivery in the register.
• He tears off the counterfoil of the
Baggage Tag and hands it over to the
guest.
• He instructs a Bell Boy to deposit
the baggage in the left luggage
Questions to be prepared
• Draw and explain what is guest message slip.
• Explain the Left luggage handling process of the
guest in the hotel along with the format of the left
language register.
• Describe the process for Taking and Delivering
Guest Messages.
 Topic: Return of Baggage
1) When the guest comes to collect the luggage, the Bell Captain takes the counterfoil
from the guest.
2) The Bell Captain then cross-checks it with the Left Luggage Register.
3) The Bell Captain assigns a Bell Boy to bring the luggage from the left luggage
room to the bell desk for inspection.
4) The Bell Boy tallies the guest counterfoil number with the baggage tag on the
baggage and also confirms the description of the baggage mentioned.
5) He brings the baggage to the bell desk.
6) The Bell Captain inspects the baggage with the guest and reconfirms the numbers on
the tags.
7) The Bell Captain enters the date of delivery in the Left Luggage Register and obtains
the guest’s signature
 Understand the process of Miscellaneous
services-errand cards,

• Errand cards are used to track the guest luggage

movements in the hotel.
• A separate errand card is filled up at the time of
check-in and check-out of the guest.
• Below you can see a sample format of arrival and
departure errand cards used in hotels.
Errand cards
 Explain Scanty baggage
• Aside from marking a hotel guest as “scanty baggage,” the front
desk clerk or the hotel manager may decide to ask for the entire
payment upfront to lessen any “crash and dash” risks.
• Larger hotels often have a procedure for scanty baggage guests.
• First, a hotel porter will inform the reception staff. Then, the
receptionists will fill out a guest registration card identifying the
guest as “scanty baggage.”
• Finally, they determine one of several actions to minimize any
potential risks, such as asking for payment in full or lowering
their credit limit (on room service, for example)
Questions to be prepared
• Draw the errand card and explain the usage of it.
• List down the check-in procedure for Scanty
Baggage guests.
• List down the procedure of return of guest
baggage.
•THE END