Typical Telephone Requests by Guests

Telephone operator or front desk agent of any hotel usually faces some typical request by guests over telephone that they should handle tactfully. Here are some examples of such typical questions with some standard responses. The telephone operator should carefully observe this response that he or she could give good response in case of any typical guest request.

Examples of some requests and response are as follows:

  • hotel guest phone callGuest: Good Morning. Could you please connect me to an internal extension number?

Front desk agent: “please hold one moment, I am connecting to you. May I have the telephone number please?” (Repeat the number and say )“Will you like to stay on the line as I connect or shall I call you back?”

  • Guest: “Ok I have some inquiry of hotel facilities and timings.”

Front desk agent: (give accurate information and say), “The information may be found in the house directory in the drawer of your telephone console.”

  • Guest: “I am new here in this city. I want to know about city facilities and highlights.”

Front desk agent: No problem at all sir/ms, I shall connect you to the concierge/information desk who will give you the required information.

  • Guest: “I have a complaint of faulty equipment in my room”

Front desk agent: (listen to the computer carefully and say), “May I have your room number please sir/ms, I will report this problem to the housekeeping desk who will attend to your problem at the earliest”.

  • Guest: “I would like to place a wake-up call”.

Front desk agent: “Surely sir/ms, may I have your name, room number and time of the wake-up call?” Repeat the message to confirm.

  • Guest: “Can I have the correct local time, please?”

Front desk agent: “Surely sir/ms, the time is…..”The front desk department is expected to have the correct local time and maintain a clock by which the entire hotel generally adjusts their timing. It is the duty of the front desk supervisor to ensure that the timing is accurate according to the local time.

  • Guest: “I am having dinner in XYZ restaurant. Please forward my calls to the restaurant as I am expecting an important call right now”.

Front desk agent: “Please inform to the captain of the hotel that you are expecting important call sir/ms”.

Beside these typical guest requests, sometimes the front desk agents also have to face some unusual and atypical calls which also come from the guests. Here are some of the common unusual requests by guests which have to handle carefully.

  • “I am wondering there is a shadow outside my door”
  • “I am locked inside my bathroom. Please send someone to rescue”
  • “Oh my God. My bed has caught fire through my cigarette”
  • “There is a mouse in my room. My kids are afraid of mouse”
  • “Can you tell me what’s going on in your hotel? The guest in the next room is making too much noise that I cannot sleep properly”
  • “I was outside my room and housekeeping service was going now. Now I find my wallet and passports are stolen”
  • “I am feeling very unwell. Do you have any doctor?”
  • “I could not sleep properly due to loud television sound from next room”

In these situations the front desk agent should first provide assurance to the guest that the situation will be solved soon and tell him or her to stay quite. Then the front desk agent should immediately contact with the housekeeping staff. In such typical situations, the housekeeping department can play a vital role. Housekeeping department should check visually and if the situation is serious then the housekeeping staff should seek for additional help from respective field. For example, if the problem is related with engineering department then the housekeeping staff should contact with the engineering department. These types of indications must be recorded in the hotel log book, maybe it is needed by another front desk agent.

The front desk agent should always being polite with the guest whether it is typical questions or it is any unusual calls. He should answer all the questions with courtesy. The guest should be addressed with Sir or Ms.

Here are some common but standard courtesy words which should be used during guest-front desk agent conversation:

  • “How may I help you sir/ms”
  • “Thank you sir/ms”
  • “Have a nice day”
  • “One moment please”
  • Wishing guest according to the time of the day. For example say good morning between midnight and moon or say good afternoon when the time is between noon and evening. Moreover the term good evening is used when the time is between evening and midnight. Remember the term Good Night is used only if the guest is returning to bed.
  • If the line is busy then ask the guest to hold or you should call back him or her, don’t forget to ask his name and room number.
  • If front desk agent is not sure whether the female guest is miss or Mrs. then address her Ms.
  • If there is any kind of delay then say “sorry for the inconvenience”.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Hospitality School

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