Set Hotel Reservations Department Standards

Hello and thank you for watching VisiHow. Today, we'll be focusing on a 4-part series on hotel Reservations department standards for booking new reservations on the telephone. A Reservations agent for a hotel needs to adhere to a set of standards for the department when they are booking reservations. This is to ensure proper service for the hotel guests and make the process as smooth and pleasant as possible.

Steps

1. 1
   To begin, when the call is answered, the agent will need to provide a proper greeting, whether the call has been transferred or picked up for the first time

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   To learn how to provide a proper greeting in a luxury 4 or 5-star hotel, please view the video tutorial on greeting guests, which can be found on this website.

   

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2. 2
   The Reservations agent will also need to establish reservation details, including the dates of arrival and departure for the guest, the number of rooms the guest needs, the number of nights they are staying, and how many guests there will be in each room

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   There may be different policies on the guests per room, such as how many guests a certain room will occupy or any extra charges for an additional guest. There also may be child charges or pet charges as well if the hotel is pet friendly.

   

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3. 3
   The Reservations agent, after they've established the details, will need to ask some qualifying questions that will help determine a guest's requirements and needs

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   Some of these questions may be if the guest is a member of the hotel's loyalty program, if the guest has stayed with this hotel before, what the purpose of the guest's trip is, and whether the guest would like a smoking or non-smoking room if the choice is available. They are not available everywhere, but for a hotel that has a smoking or non-smoking room or a smoking or non-smoking floor, we should be able to place a guest in the most comfortable situation. Asking these types of qualifying questions will help us determine which rooms and which rates we will be offering to the guest. It will be based on what they require.

   

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4. 4
   In general, all through the call, especially when we're opening, the staff should be an attentive listener

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   There should also not be any unpleasant background noise during the call. As always, the calls should be answered within 3-4 rings. Some hotels have a rule stating that calls should be answered within 3 rings and sometimes within 4. This does depend on the brand of hotel and the hotel's brand standard. If the call needs to be put on hold for any reason, the staff must ask permission to place the guest on hold, and the hold should also be brief. It should not last much longer than about 30 seconds so that we don't irritate the guest. We need to try to get them a response as quickly as possible.

   

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5. 5
   This concludes today's tutorial on hotel Reservations department standards

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   This is part 1 of 4, and is dealing with new reservations which are made by phone. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them in the space below.

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Video: Set Hotel Reservations Department Standards - Overview

Hello and thank you for watching VisiHow. Today, we're discussing a 4-part tutorial on hotel Reservations department standards for new reservations booked by telephone. This is part 2 of 4, which discusses making the offer. After we have asked our guest qualifying questions to determine their needs, we need to provide them with an offer.

Steps

1. 1
   To make an offer, we should first provide positive descriptions of at least two rooms types and rates

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   Generally, we should offer the higher priced room first and then a lower priced room second. In addition, we need to offer the guest a description of the different hotel facilities. This will let the guest know the different things they can take advantage of in the hotel. It may also convince them to stay with our property instead of with a competitor's property. If there are two very similar hotels to ours, and our hotel is the only one with a swimming pool, as the Reservations agent, we need to be informing potential guests that we have the swimming pool. This information can make their decision easier.

   

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2. 2
   If it's available, we may also need to offer a choice of bed type

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   This may or may not be already worked out within the room categories. There are some hotels that may have different room codes for different bed types, so those may already be separated. For instance, we may have a superior King room with a city view, or a superior King room with a sea view. We may also have a superior Double bed room with two double beds and a city view or a superior Double bed room with a sea view. All of those rooms would be under the superior category, but when we're booking them, we may directly book either the Double bed or the King bed. Those may be separated, or we may have one category or a superior room. Within that category, we may have different options for bed types. In such a case, this option would possibly fall under special requests, and we may need to explain to the guest if we offer them a choice of bed type, that we're not able to guarantee their request. However, we should assure the guest that we will attach the request to their reservation, and we'll do our best to honor that request on the day of the guest's arrival.

   

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3. 3
   Once we have made our offer, if the guest provides a buying signal, the staff should not have to be prompted to close the sale

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   What this means is, let's say we offer a guest a choice of a Junior suite with a King sized bed, a pull-out sofa, and a small seating area with a Jacuzzi tub at $299 per night, or a Superior King bedroom with a small seating area and a shower and bathtub combination at $150 per night. If the guest then says, "I'd like the Junior suite," then we don't have to, in turn, ask the guest if we can book that reservation for them because they've already let us know that they are interested. Therefore, we should just go ahead and close the sale.

   

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4. 4
   This concludes our tutorial on hotel Reservations department standards for new reservations made by telephone

   .

   This is part 2 of 4, dealing with making the offer. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them in the space below.

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Video: Set Hotel Reservations Department Standards - Making the Offer

Hello, and thank you for watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we're discussing hotel reservations department standards for making new reservations by telephone. This is part 3 of 4 on closing the sale. After we have obtained the guests stay details, asked the qualifying questions, made the offer, then received the guests buying signal, we need to proceed with making the reservation. To do this, we may be using some property management system software. I won't go into the specifics of this because the software that's used or the method of storing reservations may differ dramatically by property, but the information that is collected and stored should be very similar.

Steps

1. 1
   To begin, we need to obtain the callers and guests name and contact information

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   The person that is calling to make the reservation may not be the person who is staying in the hotel, but we do need the guest's name directly on the reservation. It's very important that the person that shows up to present their identification is the person whose name is showing on the reservation. We also may need to obtain the caller's name if it is different from then guests name, and we may need to take their phone number in case there is any problem or question regarding the reservation and we need to contact them.

   

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2. 2
   We also need to document any special requests

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   Many guests may have a preference for a higher floor, lower floor, quiet room, away from the elevator, or connecting rooms, and we need to document these requests. While doing this, we may need to explain clearly to the guest that this is a request and based on availability. There are any number of reasons why we may not be able to accommodate Mr.Smiths request for a high floor on the date that he arrives. Explain politely to the guest that we will absolutely try to accommodate the request, but unfortunately we're not able to guarantee it. That will be based on our own hotels policies.

   

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3. 3
   We'll need to obtain the guests arrival details and offer any transport assistance

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   If we know that Mr.Smith will be arriving after 3 days at 3 o'clock in the afternoon at the airport, we can ask him if he needs any help getting from the airport to the hotel either by public transportation, taxi or a transfer service, and we can make those arrangements. Knowing the time he expects to arrive also can help with the housekeeping department to make sure we try to have his room ready for him when he does arrive.

   

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4. 4
   We also need to confirm the reservation details

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   Repeat all of the details that we obtained when we asked for the information in step 1. Make sure that we've entered the guests reservation correctly. This way, we have the reservation correctly in the system and if there is any problem we can make the changes immediately so that we know exactly what the expected occupancy is on the dates of the guests stay. Repeat the guests arrival date, departure date, the number of rooms, the number of guests per room, room type and price. Confirm these and get the guests verbal agreement. Provide a confirmation number verbally on the phone as well.

   

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5. 5
   Then, advise them of our guarantee and cancellation policies

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   The guarantee and cancellation policies will also vary, depending on the hotel we're working in.

   

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6. 6
   This concludes the tutorial on hotel reservations department standards for making new reservations by phone

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   This is part 3 of 4 on closing the sale. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them in the space below.

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Video: Set Hotel Reservations Department Standards - Closing the Sale

Hello and thank you for watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we're discussing hotel reservations department standards on making new reservations by telephone. This is part four in the four-part series, dealing with ending the call.

Steps

1. 1
   After we have booked the reservation, confirmed all of the details, provided the confirmation number verbally, and advised the guest of the cancellation and guarantee policies verbally, we need to thank the caller for their business and offer them a pleasant farewell

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   There should not be any question that the call is ended. We need to make it very clear that the call is over but we need to do so very politely and professionally.

   

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2. 2
   The process should be completed within 10 minutes, generally

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   There may be some cases where a reservations call takes longer than 10 minutes. If a guest asks a lot of questions about the local area, we may be in a position to help them, but we may want to direct them to the concierge or take their contact information and pass it on to the concierge so that they can contact the guest and help them make all of the arrangements.

   

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3. 3
   We can also send an email confirmation letter

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   In many cases when we ask for contact information, a guest may refuse to give their email. One way to increase the chances of obtaining the guests email address (which is important to a lot of hotels), is to say "May I have your email address so that I can send you an email confirmation". In some cases, people will still say "no" or "I don't have an email address", but in many cases, people will provide their email address if they know it's going toward receiving a confirmation of their booking.

   

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4. 4
   This concludes the tutorial on hotel reservations department standards for making reservations by telephone

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   This was part four of four on ending the call. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please leave them in the space below.

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Video: Set Hotel Reservations Department Standards - Ending the Call

What is acknowledge customer making a reservation using property standards?

What is property standards? how to make a skit for it.

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