Rooms Division Operation

1.Different departments and functions of them

1. Functions of front desk

Front desk agents are the face of the company, hotel or hospital. They are the first ones to greet business associates, guests, patients, etcThe primary role of a front desk official is to present the organization in the best possible manner. Front desk job description or receptionist job description will vary from one industry to another.


In general, all front desk agents will have to welcome and assist customers and clientele. For this they are required to have excellent communication skills, pleasant personality and should love interacting with people. They should also have basic mathematics and computer operation skills, as their job will also involve maintaining records and data on the computer. Good telephone etiquette and email etiquette are also required. 


They should also have some basic conflict resolution skills, so as to handle difficult customers in the most professional manner. Depending on how well the executive can do this tactfully, he or she can be called an efficient front desk agent. Clients are bound to have complaints and some may even spearhead conflicts. Others may behave rudely and refuse to make payments. At such times, a front desk agent has deal tactfully, without getting agitated or jeopardizing the company name. These skills cannot be acquired at any college or teaching program, but has to be emanate from within a person.

Besides etiquette, a front desk executive must keep his or her work space clean and organized. A sloppy desk will send the wrong vibes to the clients. Front desk executives also need to be alert and sharp when it comes to their client's details. They have to know their clients by name and should also keep an eagle's eye on the visitors visiting the hotel. In case of any felony, the front desk executive is the one who can help the cops with small important details.

2.Functions of reservation 

The main duty of a hotel reservation agent is to help guests book their rooms for a stay. By asking several questions, including the number of people in the party, whether the guest smokes, bed preference and length of the stay, reservation agents can book the perfect room and package to accommodate guest preferences. Reserving space for guests also requires reservation agents to manage schedules and handle confidential information such as a guest's credit card number, address and personal needs.

Reserving the Happiness

Maintaining customer satisfaction is an essential duty for hotel reservation agents. Creating comfortable quarters, handling all requests, assessing customer needs and resolving issues are all part of making sure guests of the hotel are happy. Directing calls and requests to appropriate departments as issues and inquiries arise are a large part of the job. It's not uncommon for the reservation agent to communicate with housekeeping, concierge, spa managers, the fitness department or even outside vendors to maintain peace of mind for travelers. Doing so requires reservation agents to practice patience, concern and active listening as well as sympathy in all matters pertaining to a hotel guest's comfort. The reservations agent's ability to interact with various hotel departments is essential for a smooth operation.

Reserving the Knowledge

Most of the knowledge needed to be a hotel reservation agent is covered during on-the-job training. During training, agents usually learn about office procedures, database maintenance, completing transactions and how to deal with confrontational situations. Because travelers tend to ask many questions about the surrounding areas and how to get around, training may also include a briefing on what the town has to offer. Some guests may also look to reservation agents for advice during emergency situations. Agents are usually prepared during the training to properly handle dire situations that may require medical attention. Lastly, agents must know hotel policies such as refund terms, age requirements and more. Besides short-term training on the job, hotel reservation agent positions usually require at least a high school diploma. However, some companies may prefer that you have an associate's degree.

Reserving the Skills

Computer literacy and excellent reading comprehension are essential skills, as reservation agents spend a lot of time on computers securing reservations and processing credit cards. Being well-spoken and having negotiation skills are also important when tending to guests and dealing with concerns that may arise. Some agents are also gifted salespeople, as they maintain full occupancy by selling and convincing guests to reserve rooms at the location. Those with exceptional skills and knowledge may have the opportunity of a job promotion to manager. They may also be able to secure a pay increase larger than the average hourly rate of $10.58. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field is expected to grow steadily as the increase in travel creates demand for more hotels and hotel staff members.

3. Functions of cashier 

Functions of cashier is mainly accurately process sales and payments for goods/services and provide receipts to customers.

Their main job duties are greeting and acknowledging each customer, assist customers where possible, provide answers to product and payment-related queries and resolve customer complaints. They are also in charge of referral of customers to the right person to answer queries and deal with any problems and accurately process sales using cash registers, scanners or equipment.

Besides providing to obtain total purchase amount, they have to bag, box and wrap merchandise. They may be required to assist in other areas such as shelf stocking, product display, pricing and clean-up. They also need to maintain a neat, tidy and orderly work area.

4. Functions of concierge

The word concierge has French origin and it means "keeper of the keys". Basically this profession dates back to medieval France, when individuals were employed to look after homes and castles and were given the responsibilities of fulfilling the requests of guests. As the wheels of time have progressed, this profession has evolved itself and duties of concierges have expanded to various levels.

Duties of a concierge are Handling mails and messages of guests and reply promptly to the issues concerned, arranging reservations for dinners and concerts, suggesting restaurants, shopping location, spas, health services and other places of interest for the guest in the area.
They also responsible for acting as travel consultants and guide guests on various discount travel packages and special services offered. They would also act as a guide in local tourist maps and geographical area. They would maintain confidentiality of any information of the guests and keep it only to the knowledge of hotel management. They would also in charge of taking care of guests’ essentials and belongings.

5. Function of housekeeping

Waste Disposal

Daily usage of syringes, medicines, bandages, or any other medicinal waste must be disposed off as soon as possible. The hospital housekeeping department must see to it that the waste containers are emptied very often before they are overfilled. This includes trash from all areas like the patient's room, waiting rooms or the waste bins from the corridors. Some of the recyclables have to be disposed as per the rules of the hospital, so a housekeeper should have the knowledge of the procedures and policies if at all there are any. 


Cleaning Linens

Every hospital uses linens in bulk, such as bed sheets, scrubs, gowns, pillow covers, curtains, etc. So cleaning them daily is important for hygienic purposes. The job of a hospital housekeeper is to gather these linens, wash, iron, fold, and inspect their cleanliness. They are also responsible for replacing torn or faded linens if required.


Cleaning Rooms and Locations

The hospital housekeeping staff should understand that a patient's room should be clean and disinfected. It is the responsibility of housekeeping to provide fresh, clean linens to every room that is under his/her supervision. They are also responsible for keeping the bathrooms, room flooring as well as the sanitary clean. It is the duty of the staff to disinfect the entire room after a patient has been discharged or shifted to another room. This helps to prevent further spreading of illnesses.

As you know that all hospitals have to be clean and hygienic to avoid spread of infections. For proper patient care, all locations have to be kept clean. Areas such as the wards, waiting areas, staff rooms, examination rooms, testing rooms, and most important, the operation rooms have to be well-maintained from all angles. Other surfaces such as doors, windows, floors, walls, have to be cleaned thoroughly. 

6. Function of laundry 

      

A laundry helps wash, dry or dry-clean various items for an establishment. Laundry assistants work in laundromats and for dry-cleaners, and handle a wide array of duties. They care for shirts, pants, sports coats, blankets, bed sheets, pillow cases and other articles of clothing and linens. Occasionally, laundry assistants handle a variety of clerical duties as well.

Laundry assistants clean washers and dryers, mop floors, fill machines that vend dryer sheets and detergent and hang clothes that have been dry-cleaned. They make sure customers have coins for machines and sometimes may iron or remove stains from clothing. In some establishments, laundry assistants might run cash registers, answer phones, greet customers and perhaps even deliver dry-cleaning. Basically, laundry assistants need to be able to multitask and perform duties that often change on a daily basis.

2.Functions of different hotel systems

1. A Property Management System (PMS)

It is a software application that is designed and can be implemented to meet the varied requirements of any size hotel or hotel group. A PMS could help manage room inventory, handling reservations, checking guests in, assigning rooms, accommodating in-house guest needs, checking guest out, handling all billing and accounting requirements, reporting and marketing. It can help hotel chains dramatically reduce hardware and software investments, and labour expenses, by running multiple properties off of a single database / hardware platform. Centralised hardware and software can also make system support and upgrades easier as all hardware and software is contained to one central location. Hotels may also reduce labour costs by sharing common functions between properties such as reservations, accounting, sales and PBX.

2. A call accounting system (CAS)

It reduces employee phone abuse and allows employee productivity to increase. This type of system also reduces fraud and security problems within an organization, which promotes the improvement of the overall success of a business. It reduces fraud by allowing management to monitor who employees call, verifying personal or business use.

3. A Global Distribution System

It holds all pertinent data relating to air travel. It stores a passenger name, ticket details, fare tariffs, and a schedule of flights. Information entered into a company's system is automatically sent to the Global Distribution System. Data between different types of systems can be transmitted through a uniform messaging system, which alerts the user to scheduling conflicts or changes.

4. CRS system

It could provide control over groups rooms, rate and inventory control, Administration work like Transaction activity by agent and CRO and User definable Global Messaging display

The CRS reporting system provides a number of standard reports. Additional reports can be created using the integrated report generator by your IT Specialist. System reports may be generated automatically and may be run daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or manually upon request. Reports include Expected Arrivals, Reservation, Property Forecast and Total Booking Activity.

5. EMS

An energy management system (EMS) is a system of computer-aided tools used by operators of electric utility grids to monitor, control, and optimize the performance of the generation and/or transmission system. The monitor and control functions are known as SCADA; the optimization packages are often referred to as "advanced applications".

The computer technology is also referred to as SCADA/EMS or EMS/SCADA. In these respects, the terminology EMS then excludes the monitoring and control functions, but more specifically refers to the collective suite of power network applications and to the generation control and scheduling applications.

Manufacturers of EMS also commonly supply a corresponding dispatcher training simulator (DTS). This related technology makes use of components of SCADA and EMS as a training tool for control centre operators. It is also possible to acquire an independent DTS from a non-EMS source such as EPRI

Energy management systems are also often commonly used by individual commercial entities to monitor, measure, and control their electrical building loads. Energy management systems can be used to centrally control devices like HVAC units and lighting systems across multiple locations, such as retail, grocery and restaurant sites. Energy management systems can also provide metering, submetering, and monitoring functions that allow facility and building managers to gather data and insight that allows them to make more informed decisions about energy activities across their sites.

Yield Management

Yield management is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize yield or profits from a fixed, perishable resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservations). In order to maximize their profit, they need to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price. In fact, it is deeply affected by the changing supply and demand. If the hotel managers can know more about the economy, they can generate more profit easily. So that effective yield management is very important to help create profit as against expenses.

The hotel needs to have an understanding of what itself hopes to achieve i.e. whether that is room occupancy, REVPAR, or some other measurement. Otherwise, the hotel needs to have a clear understanding of what kind of hotel the manager is working with, which will lead to an understanding of what a customer visiting the hotel wants in his or her hotel experience, and why customers choose their hotel over another hotel. Also, the hotel managers should have an ability to measure group sales against the overall goals of the hotel (for example, a hotel whose main goal is occupancy will be happy to host a large group at a lowered rate, but a hotel whose main goal is revenue may turn down a larger group in favor of a smaller group who can pay a higher rate). Last but not least, the hotel needs to have knowledge of what will cause the market to fluctuate (such as holidays, regular regional and local events, etc.).

To maximize the revenue, first, hotels should analyze different types of consumer behavior to get the whole picture of their customers. For example: job, sex, reason for coming. Second, Base on the history, statistic percentage of occupancy/average daily room rate/double, multiple occupancy percentage), predict the future demand of different types of customers for further planning. Last, prepay booking, price discrimination to limit particular room offering.

Recent trends  and development about  operating rooms division in hotels

Greening hotels and guest rooms

With the increasing awareness towards environmental-friendly , hotels are encouraged to support greening programs in all over the world.Customers can expect to see many green features in their guest room and participate in environmental protection while their staying in the hotel.Here is some example of the green features , you may not find all of them in every hotels , but it is fact that green features are becoming more and more common in operating roomss in hotel business.

Organic cotton or bamboo bed and bath linens

                     

Recycled bathroom paper products

Houseplant to filter and clean the air 

More popularity of technology

With the advancement of technology , hotels business is also largely affected by the latest technology in operating rooms division , such as the increasing usage and popularity of smart phones usage.

Firstly , customers are more willing to use technological devices such as smart phones to finish their reservation process , check-in process , and many services related in hotel.

Room reservation using smartphones, you can easily find hotel related apps in smart phones. You can pay online through your online banking or credit cards.

Hotels can provide self-check in counter for customers.

Your smartphone then became your room key

References:

1.http://www.ehow.com/about_7218988_hotel-reservation-agent-job-description.html

2.http://www.ehow.com/info_8245654_roles-responsibilities-housekeeping-department.html

3.http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-a-Property-Management-System?&id=812527

4.http://www.buzzle.com/articles/housekeeping-job-description.html