Reservation Systems and Methode
Reservation Systems and Methode
Reservation Systems and Methode
RESERVATION SECTION
DEFINITION
• The Reservation Section is a vital part of the front office department of the hotel and plays an
important role in the sale of guestrooms by taking future room bookings and thus plays an
important role in generation of revenue for the hotel.
ORGANISATION
Senior Reservationists
Reservationists
LOCATION
The reservation section is located at the back of the front office in a hotel.
MODES OF RESERVATIONS
VERBAL WRITTEN
E.g Telephone E.g Letter
Telex
Fax
E-Mail
VERBAL MODES
The following are the verbal modes in which a reservation request a hotel:
TELEPHONE
WRITTEN MODES
The following are the written modes in which a reservation request reaches a hotel:-
o Written requests for reservations are common for group, tour and convention business.
o Generally, mail requests are sent directly to the reservation department of the destination
property.
Intersell Propery
Agencies Direct
The following are the channels and sources of reservation of hotel guestrooms.
1. PROPERTY DIRECT
• The hotels and motels are the main sources or channels of reservation for guests as the
guests can directly approach the guests for the process of reservation of guestrooms.
• Thus, the guests can personally visit the hotels and motels for reservation or may even
contact these properties through telephone, fax, e-mail etc.
2. TRAVEL AGENTS
• The travel agent are also and important channels or sources of reservation for the
hospitality properties.
• The travel agents are intermediary retail agents who sell rooms, airline seats and other
products and services to the travelers.
3. Corporate travel Department
• Most of the big corporate organizations have a separate travel departments consisting of
hired professionals who arrange and cater for the travel and accommodation requirement
of the travelers.
4. Hotel Representative
• All the hospitality properties have sales representative who approach various market
segments and given give the sales presentation of the product and service offered by the
hotels.
• Thus, these sales representative also generate a large amount of revenue for the hotels.
5. Tour Operators
• The tour operator are also intermediary agents who sell accommodations to the travelers.
• The tour operators are wholesalers who purchase the rooms, airline ticket, and other
products from the various principle suppliers and from a package and finally sell these
packages either to the travel agents or the guest directory.
• Thus, the price quoted by the wholesales is always less than the price quoted by the travel
agents.
6. Intersell Agencies
• The intersell agencies are multiple products handlers such as hotels rooms, airlines and
car rental who act as intermediary agents for the hotels and help these hospitality
properties to sell their products such as rooms along with the airline seats which they sell
to the travelers.
TYPE OF RESERVATION
DEFINING RESERVATION
It is a mutual agreement between the guest and the hotel in which the guest hire accommodation
from the hotel at a given time for a given time.
CONFIRMED RESERVATION
A confirmed reservation is a reservation in which the hotel has acknowledged the room
request of a guest on a particular date a specified duration and is able to assure the guest of
the accommodation in the property on the requested date and in the requested guestroom
category.
UNCONFIRMED RESERVATION
An unconfirmed reservation is a reservation in which the hotel has acknowledge the room
request of the guest but not able to assure the guest about holding the guestroom for the
guest on the specified date due to unavailability of the requested guestroom.
Prepayment:
o A prepayment guaranteed reservation requires that a payment in full be
received before the day of the arrival of the guest.
o This type of reservation is the most desirable form of reservation and is
used at the resorts.
Credit Card:
Advance Deposit:
o An advance deposit guaranteed reservation requires that the guest should
pay the hotel a specified amount of money as deposit (one’s night room rent)
before arrival.
o Thus if a guest holding an advanced deposit guaranteed reservation fails to
register the hotels may retain the deposit and cancel the reservation for the guest’s
entire stay.
Travel Agent:
o In a travel agent guaranteed reservation, the travel agent guaranteed the
guest’s reservation.
o Thus, in case of a no-show, the hotel generally bills the travels agency for
the payment and the travel agent must then collect from the client or the guest’s
entire stay.
Corporate:
CONFIRMED NON-CONFIRMED
RESERVATION RESERVATION
CONFIRMED CONFIRMED
GUARANTEED NON-
RESERVATION GUARANTEED
RESERVATION
PREPAYMENT CGR
CORPORATE CGR
AIRLINE CGR
• The Hotels around the world have development different systems of processing and recording
reservation request from the guests depending on their levels of operation, no rooms and budget.
• This chapter discuss the various system of reservation found in the hotels of the world.
• The following are the various systems of reservation in the hotel industry: -
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
ADVANTAGES:
o The central reservation system is a fully computerized network of reservation used by the
players of the hospitality industry across the world.
o The central reservation system operates through the satellite and is based on the principle
of WAN(Wide Area Network).
o The central reservation system operates through Central Reservation Offices which are
also called CROs.
o The following are the main types of Central Reservation System:-
The advance letting chart was a famous system of recording reservation used in small hotels
which do not have computerized system of reservation.
The chart is maintained on a monthly basis and is also called the Room Letting Chart or the
Conventional Booking Chart.
The chart has 31 columns in which the dates of the month are arranged horizontally while the
guestroom number and types are arranged vertically for reservation.
Each individual reservation is completed by showing line with arrows with the name of the guest
written on the line with block letters while each group reservation is shown by boxes with the
name of the group written in block letters.
Advantages:
The chart is used in small hotels there are limited number of rooms and where the guests stay for
a longer duration.
Disadvantages:
It is not easy to find out how many rooms are booked and how many rooms are available for
sale at a glance from the chart.
The Density Control Chart is used in large hotels with large number of guestrooms, which do
not have computerized reservation system.
In this chart the various categories or types of guestrooms available in the hotel are grouped
separately and displayed on a chart.
Thus, if a hotel has 25 double rooms, each of the guestrooms would be shown on the chart.
This chart is designed on the principle that each reservation reduces the availability of the rooms
and each cancellation increases the availability of the rooms.
In this chart, the dates of the month are arranged horizontally in 31 columns while the number of
rooms of specific type are written in descending order.
Thus, strokes are put in the boxes against each of the rooms and the number of strokes put in
continuation denote the reservation of the particular guestroom for the future period.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
While completing the density chart with strokes, it is easier to make mistakes, and more difficult
to check them, since one has no idea which stroke represents which guest.
The density chart is useful only in hotels with standard rooms. Attempts to use the chart in older
hotels have caused problem especially with regular guest asking for a specific room, as it is not
at all easy to guarantee while using a density chart.
The room status board is a chart, which shows the rooms booking position for one year on
continuous basis.
The statuses are shown under three categories: sold out, on request and free sales by three
different colored plastic discs.
Sold out condition means that no rooms are available for further reservation for that period or
date.
On Request condition means that the rooms can be blocked subject to cancellation and the guest
is given this status of wait list.
Free sales means that the guestrooms are available for sale for the requested dates.
The free sales changes to on request and further to sold out and with the cancellation the status
changes from sold out to on request and further to free sales.
COMPUTERISED ROOM STATUS DISPLAY
In most of the automated hotels nowadays, the room availability information is managed by the
computers which display the electronic room availability chart in the visual display units or the
monitors.
Thus, the reservation agents are able to know the room booking positions of the hotel in the
computers itself.
All the hotel follow a systematic procedure for processing the reservation requests of the
individual guests or FITs.
The hotel receives the reservation enquiry from the guests and then matches the reservation
enquiry with availability of the required guestrooms on the requested dates.
1. The hotel at first receives the reservation enquiry from the guest through telephone, fax, and
letter or through personal meeting.
2. The reservation personnel then enquire about the dates of arrival and departure of the guest to
and from the hotel.
3. Then the reservation agent enquires about the type and number or rooms requested by the guest
on the specified date.
4. Then the reservation agent matches the reservation request of the guest with the availability of
the accommodation product and this is done with the help of tools of availability such as
Advance Letting Chart or Density Control Chart or Room Status Board or Computer.
5. If the reservation request does not match with the room availability, the reservation agent
suggests alternative dates or guestroom types to the guest.
6. If the reservation request matches with the room availability, the reservation agent proceeds
further with the processing of the reservation requests and takes other details of the reservation
enquiry such as the name of the guest, his destination, his company address, time and arrival
details which may cover the flight number and its time of arrival, billing instructions given by
the guest, person requesting the reservation for the guest, special instructions given by the guest
and any other information relevant from the point of view of the reservation. All the above
information about the reservation is recorded in reservation form or slip.
7. Finally, the reservation agent gives a confirmation number to the guest, which is the proof of the
confirmation of the reservation by the hotel.
Most of the hotels around the world have a large number of guests coming in groups and
these groups are of major importance to the hotels from the point of view of the revenue
registration.
The various types of groups visiting hotels are airline crew members, corporate groups
for seminar, conference or convention, educational groups of students or professionals, travel
groups of vacationers or holidaymakers or religious travelers.
Thus, the hotels take great care while handling the reservation requests of the groups as
the groups give a huge magnitude of revenue to the hotels.
1. The hotel at first receives the reservation enquiry from the group either through the group
leader or through the intermediary agent by telephone, fax, and letter or through personal
meeting.
2. The reservation personnel then enquire about the dates of arrival and departure of the
group to and from the hotel.
3. Then the reservation agent enquires about the type and number or rooms requested by the
group on the specified date.
4. Then the reservation agent matches the reservation request of the group with the
availability of the accommodation product and this is done with the help of tools of availability
such as Advance Letting Chart or Density Control Chart or Room Status Board or Computer.
5. If the reservation request does not match with the room availability, the reservation agent
suggests alternative dates or guestroom types to the group.
6. If the reservation requests matches with the room availability, then the reservation agent
discusses with the group leader of the intermediary agent about the number of rooms to be kept
aside for the group as ‘block’ and then decides the cut-off date with the reservation agent which
is agreed upon date between both the parties according to which the group leader or the
intermediary agent has to reserve all the guestrooms of the block by the cut-off date and after the
date specified , the hotel is free to release all the unreserved rooms of the block in the general
room inventory pool.
7. The reservation agent then, proceeds further with the processing of the reservation
requests and takes other details of the reservation enquiry such as the name of the group, group
leader and the group members, number and type of guestrooms requested, date and time of the
arrival of the group, mode of settlement of the bill by the group and special instructions by the
group to the hotel.
8. Finally, the reservation agent gives a confirmation number to the group leader or the
intermediary agent involved in the process of the group reservation.
9. The reservation agent then sends the letter of confirmation of the group reservation to the
group leader or to the intermediary agent.
AMENDMENTS, CANCELLATIONS AND
OVERBOOKING
RESERVATION MAINTAINENCE
Most of the time it becomes necessary for the hotel to make modification to the reservations of
the guests or to cancel the reservation as requested by the guest.
Thus, it is very important for the reservation department to properly maintain the various
reservations of the guests for future amendments or cancellation.
Thus, a reservation agent should be efficient enough to organize and properly keep a track of the
reservation records of the guests.
Thus if a person contacts the hotels to change a reservation ,the reservations agent must be able
to quickly trace the reservation record of the guest, verify its details and do the needful
modification.
• Guests often make non-guaranteed reservation for their stay, as they are mostly sure that
they will reach the property before the stated cancellation hour of the hotel.
• Sometimes, it happens that the guests are not able to arrive on time at the hotel. In that
case, most of the guests convert their non guaranteed reservation in to a guaranteed one.
• The following is the procedure to modify a non- guaranteed reservation :-
o Obtain the name of the guest and find out the correct non-guaranteed reservation
record.
o Obtain the guest’s credit card type number and expiration date and the
cardholder’s name and verify the validity of the credit card.
o Assign the guest, a new reservation confirmation number according to the policy
of the hotel.
o Complete the change from non-guaranteed to guaranteed reservation status
according to the procedures of the property.
RESERVATION CANCELLATION
OVERBOOKING
• The Reservation Booking Dairy is found in hotels, which are small in size and thus, have
limited number of guestroom with them.
• This system consists of a booking dairy which is maintained by the reservation office and is used
for taking down the reservations for the coming or future period.
• The booking dairy has got 356 to 366 pages, which mark the days of the year.
• Each page is for each day of the year for which guestrooms of the hotel will be reserved.
• Thus, the reservations are taken for the requested data in reservation and them transferred to the
dairy according to the date of arrival of the guest.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Date of Arrival : The proposed date of arrival of the guest is written in this column.
Date of Departure : The proposed date of departure of the guest is written in this
column.
PAX : The total number of guests in the party is written in this column.
Address of the Guest : The contact address of the guest is written in this column.
Expected Time of Arrival : The expected time of arrival of the guest in the hotel is written in
This column.
Room Type Request : The room rate decided between the hotel and the guest and the plan
requested by the guest is written in this column.
Mode Payment : The mode of payment of the bill by the guest is written in this
column.
Reservation Status : The reservation status of the guest; whether guaranteed or
non-guaranteed is mentioned in this column.
Reservation Number : The reservation number assigned to the guest by the reservation
agent at the time of reservation is written in this column.
Special Instruction : The special requests made by the quest at the time of reservation
are written in this column.
Reservation Requested by : The name of the person requesting the reservation is written in this
column.
The Advance Lettering Chart is very important format out of the room availability while
processing the reservation in small hotels.
The Advanced Lettering Chart is maintained on a monthly basis and gives information about the
availability of all the guestrooms of the hotel for a particular month.
It is only after processing the reservation request in the advance-lettering chart, the reservation
agent notes down the other information of the reservation request of the guest in the reservation
form or slip.
But the advanced-lettering chart does not have apace for doing overbooking and this limits the
chart from being used in big hotels.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The Density control chart is used for determining the availability of all the guestrooms of a
hotel and is used for reservation application in medium and large hotel using non-automated
system of reservation.
The density control chart is also maintained on a monthly basis and gives information about
the availability of all the guestrooms of a hotel for a particular month.
The density control chart has got space for doing overbooking and is thus, more advanced as
compared to the advanced-lettering chart.
In the chart, all the types of guestrooms of the hotel are grouped together separately and
shown with separate table of overbooking for each of these categories.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
1. ROOM TYPE : In this space, the inventory of each room type of the hotel
mentioned.
2. HOTEL : The name of the hotel is written in this space.
3. MONTH : The month for which the advance-lettering chart is
mentioned is written in this space.
4. ROOM NUMBER : In this column, the date of the month for which the chart is
maintained is written in horizontal order.
5. 1 – 31 : In these columns, the dates of the month for which the chart
is maintained is written in horizontal fashion.
6. OVERBOOKING : There is a separate table for overbooking to be carried on
for each of the room category shown in the density control
chart.
7. “ / ” : The Density Control Chart is filled with strokes which are
drawn in each boxes from the date of arrival to the date of
the departure of the guest.
Hello XYZ
RESERVATION SLIP
Name :
RESEVATION SLIP
Address :
Arrival : Departure:
No:
Rate:
Billing Instruction :
Date:
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Reservation Slip are the most important format used by the reservationists, the moment
they receive any reservation requests through telephone, fax, or mail.
Although the reservation are immediately fed in the computers, but in case of computer failure,
these are the only manual formats, which can be used for references. Hence they are safely
preserved in the month files for future references.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
1. NAME : The name of the guest for whom the reservation is being
made Is written here.
2. ADDRESS : If the guest is a corporate guest, his company’s address is
written here. In other cases his residential address is written
here.
3. ARRIVAL : The date of arrival of the guest is written here.
4. DEPARTURE : The date of departure of the guest is written here.
5. TIME OF ARRIVAL : The time of arrival of the guest is written here.
6. FLT. : The details of the flight is written in case the guest is
arriving by the flight for airport pick-up which is
complementary for VIP guests.
7. TABLE : The table provides information about the various types of
rooms available in the hotel. The reservationists puts the
number of rooms requested under each type along with the
traffic or room rates. The room negotiable as discounts are
given to the corporate guests.
8. REMARKS AND : In this space, generally special
SPECIAL INSRTUCTION requests of the guests are written here such as :-
1) Room preference
2) garland welcome to VIP as requested by the person
making the reservation.
9. RESERVATION MADE BY : In this space, the name of the person who has made the
reservation for the guest is written here. If the guest has
himself made the reservation, his name and telephone no. is
written here. This helps the reservationists to contact the
person the person concerned in case of cancellation of
modification of the reservation made.
10. RESERVATION : In this space the reservationists who has taken the
reservation written here.
11. DATE : The date when the reservation is taken is here.
12. BILLING : The mode of settlement of the bill by the guest is written
here.
RESERVATION OR CANCELLATION SLIP
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Reservation or cancellation slip is very important format frequently used by the
reservationists in case cancellation or revision by the reservation by the guest.
It often is possible that the guest changes the date of arrival due to unavoidable reasons.
Thus, it is the duties of the reservationists to do the needful i.e modify the reservation or cancel
the reservation as requested by the guest.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION