RESERVATION

FRONT OFFICE OPERATIONS

DEFINITION
 "Reservation is the process of booking rooms before the arrival of the guests in order to ensure their availability
at the time the guests check in."
 Reservation involves:
 matching a guest’s precise request for a room at a certain price with room availability
 recording such requests
 confirming the reservation.

 The reservation agent could advise the Sales Department when room occupancies were likely to be low during a
week, month or year. They know the pattern of guest flow and play a more proactive role than just as booking
clerks.
 Therefore, the reservations department is the nerve center for room revenues and profitability.
HOTEL RESERVATION

When a hotel reservation is made and confirmed, the hotel is expected to honor the
reservation and guarantee that the room will be available upon the guest arrival.
The importance of the hotel reservation comes from:
1. selling the primary product of the hotel
2. building a good first impression
3. generating customers for the other departments of the hotel
4. generating and providing information to the other departments of the hotel
RESERVATION INFORMATION

The reservation provide information for the hotel

departments in order to operate efficiently and effectively.
These information could be:
 Occupancy levels for any selected period.
 Number of guests in house or arriving,
 Average daily rate
 Guests' profile and nationalities
 The previous information can be used by other
departments to:
 Prepare sales forecast
RESERVATION  Relate weekly or monthly staff schedules,
menus, and purchase requirements
INFORMATION
 Relate sales forecasts to expenditure budget.
 Control costs including materials, labor and
overheads
 Carry out long-term planning
RESERVATION REPORTS
 Room Availability Report: A list showing the number of rooms sold/available. It can be prepared on the daily or
weekly basis
 Expected Arrivals and Departure Lists: A list of guests who are due to arrive or to depart on a particular day.
 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.
 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.
 Turn Away Report: A report on number of reservation requests denied and if possible, some information
about the one asking for reservation
 Revenue Forecast Report: A report on the projected revenue from the future room sales along with or regular
up to date report
THE LAW AND THE RESERVATIONS

The one who handle hotel reservation must be familiar with the different laws that hotel must
follow. The guests must know their rights and obligations towards their reservation and the hotel.
The Hotel accommodate any traveler if:
 There are rooms available
 Travelers appear to be properly dressed
 Travelers can pay their bills
 Travelers are unlikely to upset other guests
 Travelers are in a good mental status
 The one who make the reservation are over 18 years old.
THE LAW AND THE RESERVATIONS
By the law, the hotel can refuse to accommodate if:
 The hotel cannot provide the accommodation requested.
 The traveler cannot pay for the room.
 The traveler is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
 The traveler is underage.
 The traveler appear to have mental health issues.
 THE LAW AND THE RESERVATIONS

When the guests make a reservation, they should also understand and be informed of the
hotel rules and policies:
 Check in / out time
 If drinks and food are allowed inside the hotel
 The cancellation procedures
 The rate of the room
 Security and safety procedures
 Corporate Group
clients travelers
SOURCE OF
RESERVATION
Pleasure Current
"GUESTS" travelers guests
 CORPORATE
GUESTS
Corporate guests
usually stay in hotels for
business purposes. Their
reservations are usually
made by the company
they represent or work
for. Hotels tries to keep
good relationship with
different corporation in
order to keep this line of
reservation.
 GROUP TRAVELERS
Group travelers are persons
who are travelling as a group
either on business or for
pleasure. Convention guests
and seminar attendees are
examples of groups that travel
on business. Participants in
organized tours tend to pursue
recreation, education, and
hobbies, and special interests
constitute some of the
pleasure segment.
PLEASURE
TRAVELERS
Pleasure travelers are
people who travel alone
or with others to visit
points of interest or
relatives, or for other
personal reasons. These
travelers, who are often
unrestricted by deadlines
or schedules, are more
flexible in their travel
plans than corporate
clients and group
travelers.
CURRENT GUESTS
One of the often-overlooked areas for
attracting room reservations is through
current guests, guests who are
registered in the hotel. This potential
market is a promising source of repeat
business. The people in this group have
already experienced the services and
facilities of a lodging property and
may be quite willing to make an
immediate commitment to more
hospitality from the same hotel or
another hotel in the same chain or
referral group
RESERVATION TERMINOLOGY
 Cancellation: A confirmed booking that has been withdrawn by the guest.
 Amendments: Changes made of records concerning the guest's stay.
 Confirmation: A room reservation that has been confirmed in writing by a guest.
 Double Occupancy: Two guests staying in a same room.
 Guaranteed Booking: A room booking that is confirmed in writing by a guest,
and the guest has made the payment for the room.
 FIT: Stands for “Free Individual Traveler” who is an independent guest who
does not use the services of middlemen for booking his or her room.
RESERVATION TERMINOLOGY

 Overbooking: Booking rooms that are beyond the hotel room capacity
 Pax: Person
 Room Availability: The room position when rooms are available for sale.
 Room Night: A charge for a one-night occupation, spanning two days from
noon to noon.
 Sold Out / Fully booked: A status in which all the rooms in the hotel are sold.
 Single Occupancy: One guest staying in a room.
 Waitlist: A guest awaiting a confirmation of the room booking.
BASIC RESERVATION ACTIVITIES
How to receive a reservation and what processes
are involved in receiving one differs from one hotel to the other.
However, there are certain procedures that are similar for all hotels:
 Receiving enquiries:
 Determining room availability
 Accepting or denning requests for reservations
 Documenting reservation details
 Confirming reservations
 Maintaining reservation records
 Compiling reservation reports
 RESERVATION ENQUIRY
Reservation could be received in many ways:
 Phone: The guests or the agency call the hotel directly for reservation.
 Fax: usually this methods are used by companies or travel agency that has an established contract
with the hotel.
 Email: Most likely it is used by companies or travel agencies to book a group or individual in the
hotel.
 OTAs: Online travel agencies, they are one of the most popular source of booking for individual
type of travelers. Usually they can access the hotel reservation system on a computer or a mobile.
 Hotel Website: Today most hotels have an online reservation system that allow the guest to make a
reservation through the hotel website.
 In Person: guests can come to the hotel directly and book a room either for the same day " Walk
in" or for advanced booking.
 RECEIVING ENQUIRIES
Receiving reservation enquiries: The first step in the reservation
process is to obtain information about a guest’s proposed stay, to
check whether a room is available. In information a reservations
clerk needs to obtain from the guest in order to give a speedy
response is as follows:
 Date of arrival
 Length of proposed stay
 Type and number of rooms required
 Number of persons
Although this is the standard information to ask from the guests, but
in high quality service and 5 stars we start by asking the name of our
guests.
RESERVATION ENQUIRY
When the guest or a group make a reservation there are certain information the reservation
clerk need to take:
 Guest’s name, address and telephone number.
 Company or travel agency name, where possible.
 Date of arrival and departure
 Type and number of rooms requested
 Desired room rate and type of room
 Number of people in the group, if applicable
 Method of payment and / or guarantee
 Any other special requests.
 DETERMINING ROOM AVAILABILITY

After obtaining the information about the proposed stay from the customer, the next step in the reservation process is to
check whether the type of accommodation asked for is available for the requested dates.The reservation system should
be able to support the ability to keep a close check on the number of reservations taken in order to avoid overbooking.
The ability to keep the overbooking in order can be accomplished through the use of:
 Forecast boards
 Reservation charts
 Computerized systems
DOCUMENTING RESERVATION DETAILS

If the request for a reservation is accepted, the reservations clerk will then
complete a reservation form, recording all the necessary details concerning the
guest and their stay.

The reservation form is the only document which contains all the
relevant information about the prospective guest and their accommodation
request. It is therefore important that the form is fully accurately completed.

The importance of this step is that it ensures that the room availability is
recorded accurately and thereby helps to avoid overbookings.
  Confirmation of a reservation is a written
acknowledgement sent by the hotel usually It confirms
that a request for a room or rooms has been made
BASIC with the hotel. It is the document that protect both
the guest and the hotel.
RESERVATIONS  The maintenance of reservation records consists of
two main types of activity: the filing of the original
ACTIVITIES booking and the modification of the bookings because
of changes to reservation details.
 Compiling reservation reports
RESERVATION FORM

 Full name  Caller, only if the one making the reservation is not the same
one who is going to use it.
 Date of arrival
 Company name
 Date of departure
 Company Adress
 Estimated time of arrival
 Telephone, fax number and email.
 Number of nights
 Method of payment
 Room type
 Guaranteed or non-guaranteed booking
 Number of rooms
 Card number
 Number of persons
 Confirmation
 Rate of the room
 Taken by, Date
 Home address
 Remarks
 TYPES OF GUEST ROOMS
A hotel sells a combination of accommodation, food, drinks and other services and facilities to its
guests. The main accommodation product is the room, which is among the principal sources of revenue
for the hotel. The rooms can be categorized based on the room size, layout, view, interior decoration,
and services offered.The various types of rooms offered by a hotel are as follows:

Double – double room

 Single room
 Twin room King room
 Double room Queen room
 Triple Connecting room
 Quad “rare” Adjoining room
 Adjacent room
 Suite