Hotel Guest Reservation Procedure

Guest Reservation is one of the important key points of the front office. All request for room reservations are received and processed in this section for a systematic arrival of guests without any confusion. Hotel Guest Reservation comes through various media, such as:

  • Website
  • Telephones
  • Letters
  • Telex (outdated)
  • Fax
  • E-mail
  • Telegrams
  • Cables
  • Personality

Reservation may come from different sources. We have a tutorial as Sources of Hotel Guest Reservation from where you should get detail idea. Here are some in short:

  • Onlinehotel guest reservation procedure
  • Airlines
  • Tour package operating Co.
  • Travel Agents (local & foreign)
  • Free Individual (FIT) a person who makes reservation personally
  • Local and foreign companies
  • UN Organizations
  • N.G.O’s (local and foreign companies)
  • Embassies/consulates/institutions
  • International Organizations like, I.J.O/I.M.F/W. Bank/W.H.O etc.
  • Corporations
  • Ministries

Many more organizations / establishments can make reservations in a hotel.

Every hotel has got its own variety/category of rooms to meet the guest requirements. All hotels try to name their room category in their own way. But in general the room categories are as follows—as per hotel terminology.

  • SINGLE: A normal sized single bedroom.
  • DOUBLE: One double bed room.
  • TWIN: Two single bed separately side by side.
  • TRIPLET: Two single bed+extra bed.
  • SINGLE SUIT: One single bed room+sitting room.
  • DOUBLE SUIT: One double bed room+sitting room.
  • DUPLEX SUIT: Room in two floors with interconnecting staircase.
  • CABANA: Room by the side of swimming pool with one sofa-cum-bed.

For better & Clear understanding read our Hotel Room Types tutorial.

Room rates: in general room rates are of three kinds—maximum, minimum and moderate. On the basis of above three types of rate, different hotel makes different ranges of room rates to enable the hotel to meet the budget of a guest as per standard. Hotel fixes a room tariff considering the size of rooms , single bed, double bed, location of the hotel, décor and extra facilities of a particular floor of rooms (if any). Hotel also offer special rate to meet the guest’s needs, such as:

  • Extra Bed: should be one forth or the normal room rate.
  • Airline Rate: special discounted rate as per contract made with airline for a long period.
  • Group Rate: special discounted rate applicable to group only. A group of 10 persons or more. Normally for every 25/30 persons group, a complementary room may be given to the team leader.
  • Day Use Rate: this rate is for the daytime use only that means check-in & check out is in the same day between 6.00 am to 6.00 pm.
  • Long Staying Rate: a minimum of one-month stay or more can be considered as a long staying guest. Special rate is also applicable to this kind of guest. This rate is normally negotiable with the guest.
  • Family Rate: this rate is also negotiable with the guest depending on number of children and the age of children.

Let me remind you we have an ultimate guide on hotel room rate. Don’t forget to read that from here: https://hospitality-school.com/hotel-room-rates

Discount Policy: discount policy varies from hotel to hotel, but nevertheless there are some similarity in making discount for the following organizations, but the percentage of discount in not being mentioned here because the percentage has to be fixed by the particular hotel according to the policy.

  • Airlines
  • Travel agents
  • U.N. bodies
  • Enlisted local or foreign companies
  • Travel Writers
  • Hoteliers
  • Top executive of airline & Travel agents
  • Government Bodies
  • Foreign Missions/Foreign Aid Agencies

Discount sometimes depends on mutually agreed terms and conditions with the parties, so, the front desk should have an updated discount policy with them to avoid the wrong information passed to the customers.

Group Reservations: There is no specific number of people to be considered as a group. Normally at least ten persons or more should be considered as a group. A group involves a good amount of business. So, a special discount is normally allowed for them. The group leader should be given special facilities; sometime his room can be given as complementary. Percentage of discount depends on the number of persons of the group and the length of stay. While handling group reservation, we should keep in mind that a large number of rooms have to be blocked and finally at the last moment if the reservation is cancelled, the hotel will lose the normal business. So, considering the reliability of the company/organization you have to decide whether advance should be taken or not. While confirming the group reservation, it should be noted down that the party has to give at least 15 days advance notice for cancellation of the booking as well as a condition should be there saying that equivalent to one night’s stay of the group will be charged. But this charge can be exempted considering the following things:

  • Number of persons of the group.
  • The volume of business you did and you are expecting to do in the future.
  • Relation between the party and the hotel.

Forecast: Forecasting is a very important activity of reservation section to have an idea of volume of business in the coming months.

No-shows and cancellations often take place. So, to avoid the loss of business, every hotel has to have some over-booking which should be determined by the previous experience. But, over-booking should be very calculative so that you do not have to refuse a guest after arrival. So, over-booking should be made considering the following aspect:

  • More cancellation than expected.
  • More no—shows than expected.
  • Walk-in guests.
  • Guest’s over stay.
  • Room goes under repair.
  • House use rooms.

Normally forecast made weekly, fortnightly or monthly considering reservation in hand, wait listed, confirmed reservations and as per the updated reservation chart. For small hotel this type of reservation is very convenient. But some big computerized hotels have got different systems of room blocking.

4 COMMENTS

  1. The hand outs are nice and self explanatory,please keep it sending me freely of charge to impart your knowledge to me too.
    Thanks.

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