Arrivals

[2nd Semester Front Office | UNIT 5 BHM153 | IHM Notes]

In the guest arrival stage there are certain steps:

Preparing for guest arrival (In reservation section)

• Verification of documents

• Preparing of documents i.e. Movement list or expected arrival +expected departure list.
  

MOVEMENT LIST: It is a document which contains the name of expected arrival and expected departure for next day.

• Pre-Arrival: The front office needs a list of all guests expected on a given day to prepare for guest’s arrival, with their estimated arrival times, room type (or allocated room, if any), special requirements and so on. The arrivals list is usually generated, using the date in booking diary, the day before the arrival date, so that it is as current as possible. Separate group arrivals lists and VIP/SPATT (Special attention guest) , handicapped guest, regular guest etc, lists may be generated a week in advance, however because these guest require more preparation. The various lists will be copied, as required by the housekeeping dept, F&B dept and guest relation.

• Pre-registration for some guest: Pre-registration is an activity of registering a guest before his arrival based on the information already available. The entries are made in guest registration (GR) card.

• Preparation of amenities voucher: This voucher is made by receptionist prior to guest arrival so that the extra amenities which is requested by the guest at the time of reservation shall be kept in the room.

Preparation at reception desk

• Morning briefing and reading log book.

• Calculation of number of expected arrivals and departure

• Calculation of room position: Room position-Available vacant rooms + no of rooms of expected departure–no of rooms of expected arrival.

• Allocation of rooms for guest VIP’s etc.

WELCOMING OR RECEIVING GUESTS:

First impressions are incredibly important. The look, the appearance and manner of the reception and front staff will either match ,exceed or disappoint guest’s expectation, which in turn may influence how they feel about their whole stay at the hotel, how they describe their experience to others. It dosen’t matter how good your check in system and procedures are, and how impressive the public area of the hotel, if reception staff don’t welcome every guest promptly, courteously and in friendly manner.

WHY DO GUEST NEED TO REGISTER?

• It satisfies the legal requirement for the hotel to keep records of their guests.

• It provides a record of arrivals, while may help to account for residents in the event of a fire or other disaster.

• It confirms guest’s acceptance of the hotel’s term and condition.

• It occupies the guest while the receptionist checks booking records, allocates rooms, preparing keys.

After a guest arrives at the hotel, the front desk agent should complete the guest registration process. This is to make sure that the guest registration is completed as per the hotel standard and also to collect important guest information’s. Guest is also asked to sign on the printed registration card as a statutory requirement and also to verify that the details provided on the registration card is accurate.

Registration card may also include details of the reservations like room type, room rate, billing instructions, arrival and departure date etc. Regcard also include ‘Management policies’ to which the guest has to accept and sign on the space provided for the same.

In some countries it is a legal requirement to have the guest signature on the registration card.

Even in hotels with fully automated front office management systems guests may be asked to sing on the pre-printed registration card on arrival as a legal requirement.

The formats used during the check-in of the guests are:

1.Guest Registration Card (GRC) – Registration card is filled by the guest during check-in. It is a very important document from where a front desk agent gets all the information about the guest. A registration card consists of name of the guest, address, organization name and address, nationality, arrival time and date, expected date of departure, purpose of visit, room number, number of person, room rate etc.

2. C Form – C Form is a legal document which has to be filled by all foreign nationals except those from Nepal. NRI’s with green cards do not have to fill this card. Children up to 16 years and diplomats from other countries are also exempted from filling C form. Three copies of C form are made, 1st copy is sent to the FRRO, 2nd copy is sent to the local police station, and the 3rd copy is kept as office copy with the hotel. FRROs are mostly located only in metropolitan cities. In smaller cities or towns, the C form has to be sent to the local police station. Pakistani forms are directly sent to special branch of FRRO called Pakistan Cell. A Pakistani after reaching India has to report in person to the office within 24 hours.

3. Arrival and Departure Register – It is a register maintained by the front desk agent which monitors all the arrivals and departures on a particular day. It monitors the rooms allocated and those just vacated for helping the Housekeeping department for making rooms ready again for guests. It also helps to find out the number of people checked in so as to calculate the house count.

Assigning the room and rate– Room assignment is an important part of the registration process. Room assignment involves identifying and allocating available rooms in a specific room category to a guest. Room and room rates may be pre assigned on the basis of reservation information. Room assignments are finalized during registration.