Q1 TLE 10 (FOS) PT

L3: Updating Reservation and Advising Others on Reservation Details

Handle Reservation Cancellation

When cancelling a guaranteed or credit card guaranteed reservation the reservation officer should do the following:
➔​ Explain to the guest that according to the hotel’s cancellation policy, their booking will have an additional charge aside with
the total amount paid.
➔​ The reservation officer should give the cancellation number to the guest.
➔​ Make the reservation record as cancelled, properly initiated and documented, and add the cancellation number to the
reservation record
➔​ Most credit card companies support no-show billing only if the hotel issues a cancellation number.
➔​ Reservation officer may now update the room cancelled as available

Accepting Room Reservation

➢​ In hotel is somewhat similar to buying tickets for one-night concert
➢​ On both instances, the guest and the service or product provide are entering into a contract.

Denying Reservation
➢​ A hard decision that must be politely explained to the guests to prevent the risks of conflict.

Reasons that lead to denying of reservation:

➔​ The guest is in the block list.
➔​ The requested room type is not available.
➔​ The Hotel is fully booked.

People Avail of Accommodations for Two Reasons:

Business Purposes
➢​ Guests are looking for facilities and services that will fit to their needs for work.

Leisure Purposes
➢​ Guests need facilities and amenities where they can be relaxed, enjoy moments with friends and love ones, and shortly
escape from their busy routines

Common Special Request of Guest

Housekeeping Department
➢​ Responsible for ensuring the comfort of guests in their room during their stay.
➢​ Ex: Extra towel and Laundry service

Food and Beverage Department

➢​ Food and drink requests via room service to guest rooms are forwarded to the hotel's food and beverage department
➢​ Ex: dietary meals & group meals

Sales and Marketing Department

➢​ Responsible in holding special and events of corporate establishments that require specific materials and equipment in
their activities.
➢​ Ex: audio-visual equipment & business equipment and services

Bell Desk
 ➢​ Providing assistance to guests in the bell desk department would mean carrying guests luggages and escorting guests to
their rooms
➢​ Ex: delivery and collection of luggage to guest room .& storage of luggage to the hotel storage facility

Concierge
➢​ Tasked to provide significant information about the hotel facilities and major landmarks and attraction nearby
➢​ Ex: transportation pickup services or car hires. & restaurant booking reservations, theater, concert, and other
entertainment facilities.

Reservation
➢​ Defined as an advanced request for any room accommodation in a Hotel.

Most common and important terminologies that a front office personnel need to know to record details of reservation:

Amendments- Changes made in record with reference to a guest’s stay

Cancellation- A confirmed booking that has been withdrawn by the guest
Confirmation- Available room has been reserved for the guest and information on finalizing the booking and will be given to the
guest
Group Rate- Negotiated rates for 15 person and above group travel
Guest- Client of a Hotel
Guest History- Guest hotel records that are kept and maintained for effective business references
Free Sale- Rooms available for booking
Overbooking- Accepting more reservations than there are available rooms
Pax- Person or guest
Sale- A room space sold
Fully Booked- A status wherein all the rooms have been sold

Types of Reservation

Guaranteed Reservation
➢​ Hotel assures its guest of the required room at the time of his or her arrival and the guest guarantees to pay for the room
whether he or she arrives or not

To make the guaranteed reservation possible, the hotel requires the following variations of advance payment:

Advance Deposit
➢​ Guest is required to pay the hotel the anticipated amount of money before arrival.

Prepayment
➢​ Guest is required to pay in full amount prior to his or her arrival

Credit Card
➢​ Most popular type of guaranteed reservation, a hotel asks for the credit card number at the time of booking

Travel Agents
➢​ Guest pays the travel agents in advance for his or her confirmed reservation and the travel agent guarantees the guest’s
reservation with a voucher

Corporate
➢​ Kind of guaranteed reservation that issues negotiated contracts between corporations, companies, associations and the
likes

Non-Guaranteed Reservation
➢​ Also called as “provisional reservation” that means that the guest have not secured their room booking by any other
means.

❖​ Reservation Inquiries and their Distribution Channels

Letter
➢​ Written request for reservation
➢​ Inquiry like this must have been sent through post, courier or hand delivered.
Telephone
➢​ Fast and interactive way of getting confirmation when inquiring for hotel reservations

Fax (Facsimile)
➢​ Still and currently used in the reservations department of some hotels.
➢​ Allows graphic form to be transmitted over telephone lines

E-mail
➢​ Can send their reservations and receive immediate confirmation from hotels that the booking has been received and
process

Intermediary
➢​ A link between the hotel and the customer in the mode of reservation or inquiry

Online Booking
➢​ Advance way of making a reservation using World Wide Web and the Internet through the hotel’s website.

Personal or Walk In
➢​ Direct face to face contact between the guest and the receptionist in making a reservation

Group Reservation
➢​ A group is determined when there are 15 persons or more involved
➢​ Due to the large number of rooms being booked simultaneously at the same room rate, the hotels typically recommend or
give special rates or discounts

Key Sponsor
➢​ Service providers can be travel agents, tour operators, event management companies, convention planners, business
corporation, association and the likes

Pre-Booking
➢​ Key sponsor must first conduct a familiarization tour of the hotel
➢​ Key sponsor will correspond with the hotel’s sales and marketing department about its group reservation’s request
➢​ Hotel’s sales and marketing department shall confirm the capability of the hotel to support or provide such request before
negotiating with the rates

Pre- Arrival
➢​ Number of rooms requested will have the status blocked
➢​ Department will give an option date or a deadline for the group in giving their final list.
➢​ If the department did not receive the final list on the option or deadline date then they will have the right to cancel the
group reservation

Group Reservation Issues

1.​ Number of rooms required by the group against to what is available in the hotel causes inconsistencies and problems with
availability
2.​ Some group reservations give last minute cancellations that affects the hotel’s revenue
3.​ Name of guest or rooming list are not updated.
4.​ Problems with late room service to guests.
5.​ Problems due to request of change of rooms that are not met by the hotel.
6.​ Miscommunication between the hotel staff and the guest
7.​ Problems with the reliability and performance of key service provider

To avoid any future problems, the sales and marketing department should address various questions below:
➔​ What are the terms and conditions of the contract that are agreed upon by the group with regards to reservations details?
➔​ What price quoted to be the group will not make the business suffer its standard and quality?
➔​ Are there sufficient rooms available and offered to accept group bookings?
➔​ Are there enough hotel staff to cater the needs of the group reservation?

L5: Operating Computerized Reservation System

Computerized Reservation System (CRS)

 ➢​ a software and system used by hotel establishments to manage reservations of guests, store information for future use,
monitor room availability, track financial dealings of guest to the hotel and so on.

A hotels’ front office system operation can be categorized in three setups namely:

Manual System or Non- Automated

➢​ Without the use of computers, reservation procedures are all done by hands including recording and computation

Transitions System or Semi- Automated

➢​ Individual sections of the department have its own computer unit used in their operation yet this is not capable of instantly
sharing information to other departments

State-of-the-Art System or Fully Automated

➢​ Most comprehensive computerized system of operation.
➢​ Office makes use of computer software programs capable of linking information from one department to another

RESERVATION UPDATES AND AMENDMENTS

Processing Updates on Reservation

➢​ Retrieve the original reservation from the system
➢​ Check the availability and determine the possibility to grant the requests of guest without creating conflicts on other
reservations
➢​ Advise the guest on all the charges in rates and inclusions, date, room type, conditions, among others
➢​ Note the date and time you receive amendments, as well as the name of the person amending.
➢​ Enter the amendments on the system then file and save the updated reservation.
➢​ End the conversion by courteously thanking the guest

Steps on How to Process Cancellation:

1.​ Retrieve the original reservation from the system
2.​ Note the date and time of receiving the cancellation request, as well as the person requesting for the cancellation of
booking.
3.​ Update the booking details with the cancelled status. Issue a cancellation reference number and remove the reservation
slip from the date file.
4.​ Apply and communicate the cancellation fee as per hotel policy to the guest
5.​ End the conversation and thank the guest

COMMUNICATING RESERVATION DETAILS

Process of sending and receiving details of reservations are done on two ways:

Verbal- relaying of information through Face to face conversation, telephone and other means.
Non-verbal- sending memos, reports, email, facsimiles and the likes.

Property Management System

➢​ an example of a computer database that helps in managing hotel properties and capable of interfacing with all hotel
departments for communication networks toward effective property management.

Components of PMS

Traces
➢​ A PMS feature that instantly sends message to the specific hotel department about a guest’s reservation request

Statistical Reports
➢​ Generate reports and statistics that determine the performance of the hotel venue in terms of occupancy and revenues for
a particular time

Telephone Services
➢​ PMS has a facility that helps the accounting department to monitor outgoing calls by the guest and automatically post
charges to the guest’s bills

Internet
➢​ Website is linked to the hotel’s CRS that allows potential guest to access room availability information and make
reservation online.