Principles of Hotel Management

B
USINESS
H
ELP
Lobby : The bell boy escorts guests from the main door
with their luggage to the front office. After the guest has been
registered the front office informs the bell boy of the room
number so that the guest may be escorted to his room and his
luggage placed in the room.

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Hotel Organisation
263
In most hotels, a guest wishing to check out of the hotel
calls the bell desk for a porter to carry his luggage down. The
bell desk informs the front office of the intentions of the guest
so that the cashier can prepare his bill. It is only after the front
office is satisfied regarding the payment of bills and retrieval of
room key will they allow the bell boy to remove the luggage
outside the premise of the hotel.
Often, a guest requests the front office for a change of room.
The front office intimates the bell desk to send bell boys to help
in the shifting of luggage.
“Skippers” are those guests who leave the hotel without
paying their bills. This is made possible because the “skipper”
comes with little luggage to avoid bringing the attention of the
bell boys to his “secret” check out. Alternatively, if he has
just a briefcase, he may leave the hotel under the pretext of a
business call. The bell boys have to be alert to notify the
front office about guests with scanty baggage so that a
necessary advance is taken from them and a close watch is
kept on them.
The information section of front office alerts the bell
boys to deliver messages received by them for guests in the
hotel.
“Paging” is the system of displaying the name of a guest
on a small board with a long handle. The board is held above
the head of the bell boy and has small bells which are rung to
draw the attention of customers to the board.
When a phone call is received for a guest in a specified
location, this paging system is used to contact guests. The bell
boy does the paging in most public areas especially the lobby.
To keep a tight control on rooms, the housekeeping and
front office have to closely coordinate. One way is through the
room report whereby the housekeeping staff checks each room
on every floor and advises their status through a report.

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Principles of Hotel Management