The Functions Of Reservations Tourism Essay

Reservation is a process of booking and blocking rooms in advance for the prospective guests. It is the hotels ability to equate the guests inquiry with the room availability. Approximately 70% of room sales business comes from reservations. Various reservation records are maintained so that the reservation section is able to provide the guest with efficient service and also deal with the guest inquiries regarding room availability, rates, discounts, food plans and services and facilities offered.

1. Ensures room on arrival :- A guest who makes prior reservation is ensured of the required type of room, no of rooms for his entire stay in the city. This saves him from the difficulty of finding accommodation on arrival especially during peak seasons when most of the hotels are full.

2. Budgeting – As he is informed of the tariff at the time of reservation, he is able to budget his holiday or tour, taking in account the amount he spends on his stay, food, entertainment etc.

3. Other facilities:- The guest is ensured of certain facilities offered by the hotel which can be confirmed by making the reservation e.g. sightseeing tours, business center offering secretarial services, entertainment etc. He is also able to give the hotel address to his associates for any meetings, correspondence transfers to and from the hotel.

(II) Importance for the HOTEL

1. Prior reservation gives the hotel an indication of the level of business likely to be encountered during any particular period. The reservations manager knows the amount of business ensured during that period from the confirmed reservations. It enables him to forecast future revenue generation and take necessary action to improve the amount of revenue expected.

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2. Guest satisfaction – The hotel is able to plan its activities and be prepared to receive an expected guest. They are able to provide the necessary services and facilities like security, transfers, preference of rooms to known guests, providing compile entries and any particular service asked by the guest at the time of making the reservation.

3. The front office manager is able to make the necessary decision regarding the no of walk-instant that can be accommodated on a particular day. Rooms requiring be repairing or taking off for redecoration can be blocked during the slack period as shown by the reservations. The no of rooms to be blocked for such purposes will also be determined according to the expected guest arrivals.

4. Scheduling of staff – Hotel staff may be scheduled more accurately to void under staffing or over staffing problems.

FUNCTIONS OF RESERVATIONS

1. Taking reservations for hotel rooms – This is the main function. They receive and process the requests for bookings from prospective guests and after checking the various charts on the room availability position for the required dates the booking may be confirmed. In case the room availability position is negative, alternate accommodation is suggested and alternate dates may be offered.

2. Information regarding various services and facilities may be given if asked for. It may be volunteered when alternate room and dates are suggested.

3. Amendment of booking – Guest wishing to change the type and no of rooms and/or dates of stay booked earlier would be amending their booking. This is also done through the reservations department.

4. Cancellation – This releases more no of rooms for sale for the dates specified and reservations must keep track of this in order to sell the rooms to other guests.

SOURCES OF RESERVATION

1. FITS:- Free Individual Travelers/Free Independent Travelers. DEIT – Domestic Free Individual Traveler. FFIT – Foreign Free Individual Traveller

2. GIT:- Group Inclusive Tour. Always has 1 group leader who remains in contact with the hotel.

3. COMPANY / CORPORATES:- Hotels get a lot of bookings from companies or corporates at CGR-COMPANY GUARANTEED RATE. They are given special discounted rates as well as additional privileges. The hotel should make sure that the Co. is able to pay the bill check the credit standing of the Co.

4. GOVERNMENT:- Also a source of booking for the hotel. (Both Central and State Govt.)

5. EMBASSIES:- All diplomatic offices and officials.

6. TRAVEL AGENCIES / TRAVEL AGENTS:- Smaller in operations.

7. TOUR OPERATORS:- They have tie ups with many local travel agents work on a much larger platform, helped by travel agents.

8. AIRLINES:- Can be clubbed with company but that is not done since the kind of discounts and business given by airlines is different.

9. OTHER HOTELS OF THE CHAIN:- Sister hotels of the concerned property also become sources of booking.

10. COMPETITORS:- Cases like walking a guest.

11. REFERRAL GROUPS:- Groups such as UTELL and LHW provide business to their member hotels.

12. CRO (CENTRAL RESERVATION OFFICE):- It can be in the hotel itself or can be another booking office.

13. CRS (CENTRAL RESERVATION SYSTEM):- Entire chain of hotels is connected to the CRS. CRO is one of the chains.

14. GDS (GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM):- Set up by airline companies. They fly across the globe and here require an efficient system for managing database. The hotels require a similar system, so they subscribe to GDS. GDS helps to maintain the reservation network of different hotels.

GROUP RESERVATION

Reservations of rooms form the largest percentage of business of a large hotel. Out of this total business the group business is maximum in many hotels. Hence the hotels getting their maximum revenue from the group business should be extra careful while dealing with group reservations.

GUARANTEED RESERVATION

This kind of reservation is which the hotel does not have to worry about the loss of room revenue even in the event of ‘no show’ of the guest. The guarantee can be given by a company for a company guest, or by credit card Company for a guest paying by credit card or by travel agent for travel agency bookings. So the hotel is assured about the business and the guest is assured about the room since the room for such reservations will not be released at the time limit but will be blocked till the end of the day.

Walk In

This is a very common term. This term refers to those guests of the hotel who arrive without any prior notice or reservation in the hotel. These guests arrive at the hotel hoping that there will be some room available for them. The hotel has to be very careful while dealing with the walk-ins. If the guest is paying by cash, then it is preferable for a hotel to ask for some advance from the guest. The advance should be sufficient enough to cover at least one night stay and some extra expenditure in the hotel. Such guests should be referred to the lobby manager and authorization should be taken from him on the registration cards of such guests. It also important to inform the other revenue centers about the PIA (Paid In Advance) or Cash only guests. These guests will not be allowed credit for any services or amenities provided to them. The desk agent should try and sell higher priced rooms to such guests .

CONCLUSION

The above mentioned are the types of reservation and the sources of reservation in hotels. Reservation may help the guest for the booking of rooms in advance.