Rooms Division

HA100 : The Class : Lodging : Rooms : Rooms Division

Rooms Division

Every hotel or motel or resort has a rooms division, so you must understand that it is the lifeline of hotel operations. What do we mean by "lifeline"? It is the

a. economic center of the hotel,

b. customer service center

c. department forecasting center

Lets take a closer look at these three points.

a. Economic Center

1. The rooms division is responsible for most, or all, of the property’s revenue:

economy or budget hotels: 100% of their revenues comes from roomsfull-service hotel: at least 50% comes from rooms

The exception to the rule:

gaming hotels: 20% from rooms and 66% from gaming

See exhibit 7-1 (page 206)

b. Customer Service

The rooms division has the most guest contacts.

It represents the customer’s first and last impressions of the hotel.

And we know that the quality of service and guest contact is critical to the
overall guest experience.

c. Departmental Forecasting

Accurate knowledge of upcoming business is critical to adequate scheduling.

This is the primary responsibility of the Reservations Department

The number of reservations effects every department: housekeeping, food and
beverage, banquets, etc.

Open the link below to see an example of the a Daily Forecast Worksheet for a restaurant in a resort.

The Rooms Division houses three separate departments:

1. Reservations

2. Front Office

3. Uniformed Services

1. Reservations

This is the first contact with the guest.

1. The reservation may be made directly with the property.

2. Or made through a Central Reservations System.

3. Or made through the Internet .

Click below to explore how a reservation is made at The DoubleTree Hotel in Anheim, CA

The Doubletree Hotel (click on the little telephone icon to see how a reservation is made.)

2. Front Office

1. The front desk greets guests, registers them, assigns rooms, etc.

2. The front desk clerk takes care of monetary tasks.

3. A night auditor performs the night audit

It is called "Graveyard shift" (11pm - 7 am).
The night auditor posts charges to the guest folios.
He/she prepares a summary of all department revenues.
He/she handles all guest needs through the evening.
The night auditor is often the highest paid hourly employee.

I hope you understand that the tasks and duties of a front desk clerk are not easy. Take a look at this (funny) job description to comprehend what that job really entails.

3. Uniformed Services

1. Those who wear distinct uniforms: bell staff, concierge, valet, and doorpersons.

2. Uniformed services is also critical to guest service:

Bell staff: helps and informs.

Concierge: the hotel’s expert on local activities and events.

Concierge floors:

Rooms more upscale and more expensive

Lounge provided with complimentary F&B

Accessibility to the concierge

See what the concierge floor of this Hilton has to offer: Holiday Inn Bordeaux

The latter part of this chapter discusses the guest cycle (pp. 220-231).

It looks as follows:

Reservations	-->	Arrival and check in	-->	Visit	-->	Check out and billing

The above exhibit of the guest cycle should make a lot of sense to you. There are however a couple of terms/issues that you should know about.

Yield Management:

Definition: the process of controlling rates and occupancy in order to maximize gross room revenue.

How do you do it?

You use a combination of data:

Past years’ history
The type of rooms and guests currently being booked
Group historical pick-up rates
How far in advance are we of the date in question?

The goal?

To accurately predict demand for a given date to sell the most possible rooms for the highest possible rate.

Overbooking:

Definition: taking more reservations than rooms available.

(Make sure that you know the difference between "walking a guest" and "walk-in guests.")

Average Daily Rate (A.D.R.):

Definition: calculated by taking the total rooms revenue for the day divided by the actual number of rooms sold.

Meal plans:

a. American Plan: 3 meals a day

b. Modified American Plan: 2 meals a day

c. European Plan: room only

d. Continental Plan: a simple continental breakfast

e. Bermuda Plan: a full breakfast meal

Guest Complaints:

a. View complaints as an opportunity to IMPROVE SERVICE.

b. Consider empowering employees to act in the best interest of the guest.

Once you have finished, you should:

Go on to Assignment 1: How Hotels Calculate their Overbooking
or
Go back to Rooms Division

E-mail Lenka Hospodka or call (928) 523-2845 (Lenka Hospodka)