Front Office Department

The "Front Office Department" is the major department in a hotel which is situated at the front part of the hotel and it's duty is to sale the rooms of the hotels after registration and hand over key to the guest.

In other word, it is "Show Case Window" of the hotel which reflects the image of a hotel. It is the back bone as well as the "Nerve Center" of a hotel from where all the information and messages are communicated to the different department or personnel. The front office department of a hotel holds first important in view of the nature of a business in a hotel. Revenue collected from the selling of rooms contributes more than 50% of the hotel total sale. Thus, the functions of the front office department is to allocate rooms to the guest and acts as a continuous source of information to the guest staying at the hotel. Other major functions of this department includes settlement of guest account, providing guest service, preparation of guest history card, luggage handling, airport pick-up etc.

The front office department develops and maintains up to date record on guest information, guest service and ensure guest's satisfaction. The front office is also responsible for welcoming the guests, greeting the guest and handling the guest complaints. Hence, the staffs working in the department performs as an actor on the stage. The front office may be divided into more than one section, each of which carry out one or more duties. Basically front office department is divided into Reception, Information, Cashier, Reservation, Telephone operation and Bell desk sections department upon the size, capacity and standard of the hotel establishment.

Housekeeping Department

House-keeping is one of the largest departments of the hotel. which is responsible for creating cleanliness, maintenance and safe environment. By providing the maximum comforts to the guest, it maintains the standard of the hotel which contributes the hotel in achieving maximum profit by selling the rooms. It is also regarded as the Eye and Ear of the management from where the main revenue income is generated.The House-keeping department in a hotel is responsible for creating a "Home away from Home" environment for the guest. The facilities provided by house-keeping department turn an ordinary hotel to a tourism establishment. Among the various revenues, the sale of rooms constitute a minimum of 50%. The house-keeping department creates the facilities, services in the room and that is what a tourist hotel is selling. House-keeping department deals with providing cleanliness, comfort and aesthetic value of any place is the cleaning of the guest room, corridors and public areas in a hotel to ensure that the standard of the hotel is maintained. This unit does decor and design, room layout, selecting proper linen, curtains, carpets, flower arrangement etc.

The management of House-keeping is influenced by factors like size, type, standard and location of the hotel. Since a reasonable standard of cleanliness, comfort and service is expected at the lowest possible cost, in respective of the size of the hotel, the standard of house-keeping department plays a vital role in keeping or maintaining the reputation of the hotel and in finding out if the guest are satisfied during their stay or not

What os cocktail??

Cocktail is simply an alcoholic mixed drinks prepared either by shaking or mixing or blending or direct building. The origin of the word cocktail is obscure or vague. It appears itself as a strange word and consists a lot of mystery and full of fascination. It believed that Americans are the first to innovate a habit of consuming cocktails.

Cocktails are simply an intoxicating beverage or mixed drinks, compound of different spirits mixed with some other liqueurs or bitters and artificial or nature essence to produce an outstanding drink. Normally cocktails may be of long or short and strong or weak nature. It may be very dry to sugary sweet or fizzy or frothy and can retain all colors of rainbow.

Preparing a cocktails or any mixed drinks is a skillful task to be performed by any professional bartender. While mixing a mixed drinks, two basic principle rules should be followed, which are mentioned below:

• Those mixed drinks are clean such as Manhattan Dry, Martini Dry etc. and do not contain fruit juice or cream or milk etc as modifying and flavoring agent should be stirred ice in a mixed glass or built up.

• Those mixed drinks containing additional flavoring and modifying agent like- fruit juice, egg white, cream, milk etc should be shaken or blended by using an electrical blender to acquire a correct body and perfect blend.
  

Rooms and its Types

Generally, wedefine room as a safe place closed by walls, windows and doors to spend a day, night for sleep with proper security. In hotel, room means a lot to a guest such as comfort, clean, safe and hygiene. Hence, the guest demands the highest standard in everything that the room stand for the guest. All the rooms are numbered systematically. First digit in a room number indicates on which the floor is situated. Suppose there are 25 rooms in a floor, Room No. 625 indicates 25th room on 6th floor. Systematic numbering also indicates that all odd number rooms may be single room, even number could be double room and rooms ending with zero may be suite room and so on. This differs from hotel to hotel. Different types of rooms are:

1. Single Room: It is a room assigned for single occupancy and consists one single bed of size- 36"x75".
2. Double Room: A room assigned for two people or double occupancy and consists one Double Bed of size- 54"x75".
3. Triple Room: It is a room assigned for three people and consists of three single bed of size- 36"x75".
4. Twin Room: It is a room with two single bed of size- 36"x75" for double sharing.
5. Quard Room: It is a room assigned for four people and consists of four single bed of size- 36"x75".
6. Queen Sized Room: It is a room with Queen-sized bed i.e.- 60"x80" for single or double occupancy.
7. King Sized Room: It is a room with a King-sized bed i.e.- 60"x90" for single or double occupancy.
8. Double-Double Room: A room with two queen bed for double or more occupancy.
9. Studio Room: A room with a Couch or sofa-Cum Bed, which can be converted into a bed during a night time and can be used as a sofa during day time. It is commonly known as Studio Room.
10. Mini Suite or Junior Suite: A single room with single bed and a sitting area could have separate living room and bed room.
11. Suite Room: A parlor or living room connected to one or more bedroom.
12. Inter-Connecting Room: Room with connecting door from onside.
13. Adjacent Room: Rooms, which are opposite of each other, in the same floor.
14. Adjoining Room: A room with a common wall but no connecting door.
15. Duplex Suite: Rooms spread over twp floor with an interconnecting staircase.
16. Cabana: Rooms attached to a swimming pool with one sofa-cum bed, meant for changing purpose.
17. Penthouse Suite: Accommodation, usually suites located on the top floor of the hotel.
18. Lanai: A Hawaiian terms for veranda, a room with porch or balcony, usually overlooking garden or water. Such types of room is usually popular in sea beaches areas.
19. House Room: Guest room set aside for hotel use.
    

Telephone Exchange Machine and Networking System used in a Hotel

1. Private Branch Exchange (PBX): This system is most used in small and medium hotels or organization. This is a manually operated system which consists of a single line with few extensions. PBX is found in different capacities. For example: 2+20, means the system have 2 main lines and 20 extensions. The extension lines are fixed in the system. The charge of call made by the guest should be calculated manually and the bills should be prepared manually by the telephone operator. All the outgoing calls are made made with the help of telephone operator.
2. Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX): This system is widely used in large hotel and organizations where there is 100's of incoming and outgoing calls everyday. This is automatically operated system where there are number of extension lines. Individual meters are provided for each extension line. A guest can directly make an outgoing call from the room without going through the telephone operator. This system is comparatively expensive to PBX system.
3. Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange (EPABX): This system is the developed form of PABX where the charge is made by computerized system. Wake-up call requested by the guest are also computerized by this system. This system has reduced the size of PABX by eliminating the need of individual meters for each extension.

Mode of Reservation

These are the means by which a guest makes the reservation of rooms in a hotel. The reservation may come from the guests directly or through any other organization but the medium through which they reach the hotel are different. following are the some of the modes of reservation:

• Letter.

It is a written request for reservation, which may have been sent through post, courier or hand delivered. It is the most common method for advance booking. Reservation taken through letter, delivered through post or courier are time consuming. Now the efficiency id developed by using FAX or E-mail.

• Telephone.

This is the faster way of getting confirmation and is handled directly by the reservation staff. During the telephone conversation with the guest, the reservation assistant takes down all the necessary details on the reservation forms.

• FAX (Facsimile).

The most common method as cheaper than telephonic conversation and allows transmission in written form, better than telex; as it allows graphic form to be transmitted over telephones lines making it more authenticated and better.

• E-Mail/Internet (Computer).

With the fast advancement of the internet in the world, today most of the hotels allow reservation online on internet through their website. Even reservation sent on E-mail are accepted.

• CRS (Central Reservation System).

There are many private service providers providing CRS services thus allowing direct reservation access to travel agents, clients or instant basis through their own networks. All hotels have their own CRS system.

Factors Affecting the Reservation

It is very important to ascertain the volume of business accepted on the basis of forecasting. Even the hotel believes in overbooking, the percentage of overbooking is determined through an experienced calculation. However, the factors effecting the reservation forecasting are:

• Reservation Revision and Cancellation.
  

Often a guest may change his/her programmed visit and may request for the revision or cancellation of the reservation. The following steps should be followed up during the revision or cancellation of reservation:

1. Take down the necessary details in the reservation revision/cancellation from.
2. Update the reservation chart by removing the room allocation made from the earlier dates. Allocate the rooms on the new dates in case of revision.
3. Remove the reservation slip from the reservation rack. in case of revision, make the new reservation slip in two copies. Attach one with the reservation revision/cancellation form and keep another copy in the reservation rack in alphabetical order.

• Walk-In Guest.
  

The guest who arrives in the hotel without pre-information a reservation is termed as walk-in guest. This may happen because of the goodwill of the hotel or any emergency of the guest. The guest directly contact to the reception and ask for the room. A walk-in generates extra increase in the revenue of the hotel.
In case of walk-in guest in a hotel the receptionist should be more alert and careful. When such guest asked for the room, first of all the availability of the room is checked. In case of availability,the personal details of the guest are checked first. He/she is provided with a room asking for the deposit amount of money. If the guest is found drunk, mentally hazard or misbehaved, he/she may be refused to provide an accommodation in spite of the availability of the rooms. Various alternatives can be given to the guest if the hotel is not able to provide an accommodation because of the full occupancy of the room. Alternatives can be given in various forms like changes in date, changes in the type of room, referring the guest to the near by hotel with same standard etc.

• No-Show Guest.

No-show refers to such types of guest who make the confirmed reservation but doesn't arrived in the hotel at the time of arrival date without informing to the hotel. Because of the confirmed reservation, the hotel holds the reservation request till the arrival date to the guest. When the guest doesn't contact or cancel the reservation with in the time prior to the arrival date, such situation affects the reservation system in a negative way. In case of no-show guest, the confirmation charge is returned back to the guest by the hotel after deducting the service charge. But if no-show happen due to political issues, flight delay or cancellation, environmental disturbance, strike etc. the total confirmation charge is refunded to the guest.

• Overbooking of the Rooms.

This situation takes place when there are more numbers of reservation request than the total numbers of saleable rooms in the hotel. Overbooking is a normal practice in a large hotel. Generally non-confirmed reservation request are overbooked because there is no guarantee that the guest will arrive in the hotel and there are always chances of cancellation at the last minute. Experienced reservation assistant will determine the level of occupancy and takes the overbooking accordingly. In case of overbooking of the rooms, the guest will guaranteed reservation may have to be transferred to another hotel of the same standard. all the extra cost like transportation, differences in room rate, informing the relatives or the parents of the guest about the changes in the accommodation of the guest, delivery of guest mails and messages to the new hotel etc should be borne by the hotel. This may cause the loss in the hotels profit and the business established with the agencies or any other sources may be affected.

• Reservation Confirmation.

It assures the guest that the hotel will hold a reservation request until the arrival date of the guest. It may done be done by the phone, fax, E-mail, letter etc. but should be in written form. It is a legal piece of document indicating the acceptance of the request made. The hotel normally forwards a letter in the name of the guest indicating the confirmation number. The guest confirms the reservation by paying the confirmation charge. If the guest doesn't confirm the reservation with in the specified period of time, the room is released and sold to another guest. Guest are often asked to produce the confirmation letter at the time of registration. Confirmation of reservation helps hotel to generate some revenue.

• Overstay and Under Stay Guest.

If a guest stays in a hotel more than his/her departure date, he/she is termed as overstay guest and when a guest check out earlier than his/her departure date, he/she is termed as under stay guest. These situation also affect the normal operation of the reservation system.