RESERVATIONS
It is the activity of booking the room in advance for a
guest on his request for future, may be a few days to months in advance. A
reservation is a bilateral contact between the hotel and the guest according to
which the hotel must provide a specific type of room to a guest and guest
should bear all relevant charges.
RESERVATION FORM
FEATURES OF
RESERVATION :-
1.
Advance reservations are orders that are
received by a hotel and are good guidelines to the front office manager of the
expected business and revenue for the future.
2.
As per the “law of contract” the hotel is bound
to provide accommodation to a guest with reservation on his arrival and the
guest has to pay for the same.
3.
If the guest wants to cancel the contract the
hotel can claim compensation in the form of “retention charges” from the guest
for not honouring the contract.
4.
If the hotel is not in a position to accommodate
the guest with reservation, it is the legal moral responsibility of the hotel
to provide accommodation in the hotel of same standard and if the hotel fails
to do so, the guest may claim compensation.
FUNCTIONS OF RESERVATION SECTION
The main function of reservation of the hotel is to help the
hotel in generating the revenue from future and prospective room sale. Its function
is to receive the reservation request from the prospective guest, check
availability of the room, to process the request and either to accept, wait
list it, or deny it, communicating it and recording it.
Hence the secondary
function also arises i.e. recieving the request made by prospective guest for
cancellation and for ammendments (of either original booking), processing them,
communicating them and then recording them. One of the important function of
reservation department is to ensure 100% or near 100% occupancy for future.
IMPORTANCE OF
RESERVATION:-
For Hotel
1.
Reservation is very important for hotel as it
gives the hotel time to plan the activity and action for a guest who would
arrive to hotel, hotel can look for a right room which matches the requirement
of the guest, which must be suitable according to guest need. Necessary
arrangements like cleaning of room, special arrangements like flowers, slippers
etc can be done in advance.
2.
Hotel can forecast future revenue that would be
generated and can take necessary action for improvement as well so as to
maximize revenue.
3.
Hotel can schedule their staff needs more
accurately to avoid any chaos due to inadequate staff availability at time.
4.
Provides customers for other department.
Approximately 70% of total room revenue comes from reservation. Thus, it shows
the importance of reservation.
For Guest
1.
When a guest books the room in advance he/she is
sure that when he/she will reach the hotel, there would be no disappointment of
not finding a room available at the hotel. Assurance of accommodation is always
there.
2.
Choice in the type of accommodation.
MODES OF
RESERVATION
The process of making a reservation or hotel booking begins
with the enquiry from prospective guest who contact the hotel to ask for
brochure or to ask specific questions about the price and availability of rooms
for the period they are in are interested in.
Such requests are an
important opportunity to give a good first impression of the hotel; a prompt, positive,
and courteous response will assure prospective guests that they will receive
good services if they book in this hotel.
HOW DO ENQUIRES COME
IN:
1.
IN
PERSONS- People may come in off the streets as walk-ins and may enquire
about the offers of the hotel as they are travelling unexpectedly without
making advance reservation. A local person may also drop in, since it is
convenient to do so to make a booking on behalf of someone, for e.g. a friend
who is located out of town, or a tour group of conference. The advantage of
this type of enquiry system is that both the hotel and the guest gather
information and get their questions answered in real time and written
confirmation of the details can also be prepared and handed over on the spot.
2.
IN
WRITING- A written request for booking or booking form from a hotel
brochure. Written enquires are useful for the hotel, as they set out clearly
the details of the guest’s requirements and other necessary information. These
can be used to confirm booking made by telephone, so that both parties have
written evidence of what was discussed and agreed.
3.
HANDLING
ENQUIRES- The advantage of email and fax is that they can be used to send
and receive booking and confirmation almost instantly from any part of the
world to another.
4.
BY
TELEPHONE- It is a fast, convenient and cost effective way of making
reservation enquiry. It involves interaction between guest and hotel and
exchange information in real time. It is generally used to make last minute
booking. The disadvantage of it is that it does not get any detail of
conversation in black and white.
5.
ONLINE-
Now days, guest and travel agencies gather information about hotel, its rate,
room, availability into the websites of individual hotel, centralized booking
sites. Booking can be made online and creating an electronic confirmation as
well without any human interaction. This
can be extremely cost effective for a hotel with the relevant system set up.
Now days nearly all the hotels offer online booking.
Waitlisted Reservation:- A reservation is waitlisted when the
requested category of the room is not available on the requested date. The
waitlisted reservation has to be confirmed when a hotel receive any
cancellation for a room of same category.
Guaranteed Reservation:- Guaranteed
Reservation assured that hotel will hold a room for the guest until checkout
time of the day following the guests schedule arrival date. The guest in turn
guarantees to pay for room, even if it is not used, unless the reservation is
cancelled according to hotel cancellation procedure. Guaranteed reservation
protects the hotels revenue even in case of no show. There are various ways in
which booking can be guaranteed.
1.
Pre
Payment- The guest pay for the full room charges in advance whether direct
to the hotel by cheque or credit card at the time of booking or to a travel
agent.
2.
Advance/
Partial prepayment- A hotel might typically ask for a deposit of one night
for each room reserved so that the room can be hold all night in the event of
late arrival or no show without losing revenue. This deposit will be credited
to the guest account if they turn up for their stay. If a guest booking is
cancelled with in an acceptable cancellation period then the deposit would be
fully returned to guest.
3.
Credit
Card- Major credit card companies have developed systems to ensure that
participating lodging properties receive payment for no shows through credit card
guarantee reservation.
4.
Non
Guaranteed reservation- Insures that the hotel agrees to hold a room for
the guest until a stated reservation cancellation hour (Usually 6 p.m.) on the
day of arrival.
It is common for hotels planning on full occupancy or
nearing full occupancy to accept only guaranteed reservation once a specified
number of expected arrivals are achieved.
LAYOUT FURNITURE
& EQUIPMENTS OF RESERVATION SECTION (NON AUTOMATED/ AUTOMATED SYSTEM:-
1.
This section should be situated behind the
reception counter (in the back office). There should be direct access of
reception staff to this area through a door.
2.
The large hotel hierarchy of reservation section
should be-
Reservation Manager/Revenue Manager---
Reservation Supervisor---- Reservation Assistant.
3.
This section should be equipped with:
a. An office for reservation manger
b. Status board for knowing room status or
computers
c. Filing racks, cabinets for storing
reference material
d. Telephone, fax machines, scanners,
printers etc.
MANUAL SYSTEM OF RESERVATION
ADVANTAGES-
*It is visual reference of future expected business of
hotel.
*It is useful for small hotel where the guest’s length of
stay is long.
DISADVANTAGES-
*It is not easy to find out number of rooms booked/
available by looking at glane in case of large transit hotel.
*It is difficult to show overbooking.
DENSITY CONTROL CHART
ADVANTAGES:-
*No specific room is allotted to the guest prior
to his arrival , the available room is given at the time of check in.
*It is
easier to work on this chart.
DISADVANTAGES:-
*This chart works well where all
rooms are of a particular type and have same physical facilities.
SYSTEM OF
RESERVATION
1.
Cardex System (Non-Automatic)
2.
Card System (Non-Automatic)
3.
Dairy System (Non-Automatic)
4.
Whitney System ( Semi-Automatic)
5.
Computer Reservation System (Automatic)
6.
Central Reservation System (Fully Automatic)
7. Instant
Reservation System (Fully Automatic)
DAIRY SYSTEM OF RESERVATION (NON-AUTOMATIC)
SEMI AUTOMATIC RESERVATION SYSTEM (USED BY SMALL &
AVERAGE HOTELS)
WHITNEY
SYSTEM:- It was produced by “whitney duplicating and check company” of
new York from which it took its name.
·
PROCEDURE
·
COLOUR
CODE
EXAMPLES OF CRS:-
1. Opera
2. MARSHA
3. Taj Central Reservation System
4. Leading Hotels of the World
5. Utell
6. Best Western Hotels
7. Welcomnet
8. Holiday Inn Worldwide
INTER SELL AGENCY
RESERVATION:-
It is a system in
which booking of more than one product are handled at the same time. This is
also called as “one call does it all” approach. A reservation system that
handles reservation for many products such as airlines, car rentals and hotels
etc.
AIRLINES RESERVATION:- May offer
package reservation to their customers or may also need to arrange
accommodation at hotels near to airport for passengers whose flight are
cancelled or delayed.
DIRECT RESERVATION
(FIT RESERVATION):- A reservation request which is directly from an
individual to book a room in a hotel.
CANCELLATIONS
AMENDMENTS:-
In certain cases the guest may change his original booking programme and inform
the same to the hotel with a request to make amendments in hotel records.
Sometimes it may be in number or type of rooms. The reservation dept first
confirm from the record that whether the amendment request can be accepted. If
possible then necessary changes are made in record and same communicated in all
other departments.
CANCELLATION & AMENDMENT FORM
OVERBOOKING
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