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.
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
