Front_Office_Operations

Chapter 4 – Check-out procedures

Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to :-

●Procedures for posting charges, recording deposits and prepayments

●Procedures for preparing and presenting guest bills

●Procedures for accepting guest payment, using different methods of payment

●Procedures for processing visitors paid outs (VPOs), disbursements and petty cash

●Procedures for foreign currency exchange

●Procedures for express check-out, late check-out and group check-out

●Measures to protect the security of cash and other forms of payment

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Chapter 4 – Check-out procedures

Checking-out guests

1.Checking-out guests

1.1Check-out procedures

1.2Computerised check-out systems

1.3Express and self check-out

1.4Group check-out

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Checking-out guests

Check-out is an opportunity to offer further services to guests to enhance their stay and their onward travel experience. Front office staff may offer assistance with the handling of luggage. They may also offer assistance with onward travel arrangements, ordering a taxi or shuttle bus service to the nearest airport or train station, say; or confirming reservations at the next destination hotel - or perhaps recommending and making a reservation at a sister hotel at the guest's next destination.

It is also a great opportunity to do some selling and information gathering e.g.. a satisfied departing guest may be open to joining the hotel loyalty scheme (if any), or accepting the recommendation of a sister hotel. Departing guests will also be in an excellent position to fill out Customer Feedback forms, with the good points and bad points of their stay fresh in their minds. This will be valuable information for hotel management to identify how the hotel's facilities and service can be improved.

Check-out is a point at which the hotel is vulnerable to getting it wrong. Guests may be feeling sad or stressed on departure: their holiday is over; there are uncertainties about onward travel arrangements; or there may be worries about the bill. Checking-out of the hotel should be made as relaxed, positive and trouble-free as possible.

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Chapter 4 – Check-out procedures

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1.1 Check-out procedures

As with check-in, the hotel will have a standard set of basic procedures for the departure and check-out of guests.

●Check-out times. Most hotels inform their guests on reservation and check-in, and again via in room information, about the standard check-out time. The registration form, e.g.. may state: 'Guests are requested to vacate their rooms by 10 am on the morning of departure'. This standard check-out time (usually 10 or 11 am) is designee to ensure that rooms are vacated in time to be cleaned and prepared for incoming guests (who may arrive mid-afternoon).

●Confirming departures. Although reservation and registration documents clearly state a departure date, some guests may wish to extend their stay at the last minute, and it may not occur to them to give the hotel advance notice of their change of plans. Many hotels, therefore, seek to confirm with the guest that they are due to depart as planned, usually the night before.

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1.1 Check-out procedures continued…

●This is also an opportunity to check whether the guest requires early or late check-out. If the guest needs to leave before reception is staffed, the bill may need to be presented and settled the night before, and instructions given for returning the keys on departure. If the guest wishes to stay in the room later than standard check-out time, this will have to be approved. Housekeeping will have to be notified to delay cleaning, and the room status will have to be monitored (to ensure that it is not allocated to a new guest who has notified an early arrival). There may be a charge for late checkout.

●Departure services and information. When confirming departure, front office staff may also offer additional services such as an early wake-up call, assistance with luggage, airport transfers or help with onward travel arrangements. Guests may also be provided with a Departure Pack including their bill (for checking prior to payment); a reminder of check-out times, procedures and services; a customer feedback form (asking the guest to evaluate the facilities and service offered to them during their stay); promotional brochures for the hotel and/or hotel chain (as a reminder for future travel needs); and perhaps a letter or card thanking them for their stay.

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●Departure notifications. On confirmation, other departments of the hotel will have to be informed that the guest is departing. Switchboard will need to know not to put calls through to the room. Housekeeping will need to know which rooms to prepare for re-Ietting. The bar, restaurant and other internal services will need to know not to extend further credit to guests who have already settled their bills, and so on. These notifications may be made via a Departures List (often combined on the same sheet as the Arrivals List): a list of all anticipated departures on a given day, in room number order. However, guests can change their minds at the last minute: some may leave unexpectedly, while others may extend their stays. Some hotels, therefore, circulate periodic updates of actual departures, so that the Departures List can be amended. In a computerised system, these notifications, and the updating of all relevant records (housekeeping task lists, room status displays, departure lists), are done automatically as each guest is checked out on the system.

●Bill preparation, presentation and settlement. The guest bill (room account or 'folio') will be prepared for presentation to the guest, either at check-out or (in case of early check-out, or to allow the guest to check the bill) the night before departure. On check-out, the guest settles the account, using one of a range of payment methods accepted by the hotel. These are major check-

out tasks, and we will discuss them in detail, later in the chapter.

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●Key return. It is the responsibility of front office to ensure that the guest returns room keys on checkout, to avoid the hassle and security risk of keys being lost or taken away by departing guests. Keys will often be stored on room-numbered racks, or in room-numbered pigeon holes (along with guest mail), allowing an at-a-glance check that keys have been returned. Electronic key cards may need to have their room access data 'erased' (blocking subsequent use) before storage.

●Updating records. Once the guest has left, there is some immediate record updating to do. On a computerised system, this is done automatically as the guest is checked-out, but in a manual system, front office staff will have to update:

–The room status records or room rack, to show that the room is first being prepared ('vacant but not ready') and then available for re-Ietting. If a rack system is used, the

guest's card can simply be removed from the rack and disposed of.

–The guest list or index (used by switchboard to locate the room numbers and extensions of guests by name)

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–The guest file. Copies of the guest's bill and payment details will be added to the guests file (already containing the reservation form, confirmation, any correspondence and the registration card), which will be stored in the past guests' filing system for 12 months.

–Guest history records. Hotels wishing to offer a personalised service to returning guests keep records of their details and preferences, updated for each stay. This allows front office staff to 'recognise' returning guests (even If the staff have changed), anticipate their particular needs and wants, send birthday cards and so on. This would probably not be worthwhile for any but luxury hotels, or loyal regular guests, except for computerisation, which makes it achievable for any establishment.

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1.2 Computerised check-out systems

Computerisation of check-out procedures has a number of advantages for speed, efficiency and accuracy. All the relevant data is stored electronically and easily accessed from various data points (e.g.. by date, name or room number).

Records can be easily updated, and, since they are all interlinked, related records and status reports will be simultaneously updated. When a guest checks-out, room status displays will immediately show that the room is 'vacant, not yet ready'; housekeeping tasks lists will show that the room is available for cleaning; the departures list will be updated; the guest index will indicate that the guest has left; and the guest's record will be 'filed' under 'past guests' without the physical transfer of any files.

Guest accounts can be maintained in the computer system, with some transactions automatically entered by the system itself: pre-set room charges will be posted each day from the reservation records, and restaurant/bar bills may be directly input to the account from Electronic Point of Sale systems in the relevant departments. The posting of charges can be done swiftly and automatically allocated to the relevant room accounts, with updated running totals.

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Final guest bills are therefore calculated and generated automatically by the system: far less time consuming and error-prone than manual and mechanical systems, and more professionally presented in a final-version, correction-free, smartly printed form.

Check-out and settlement are speeded up (a major advantage at one of the busiest periods at front desk) by facilities such as: automatic foreign currency conversions; automatic verification of company account status; and express/self check-out (discussed below).

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