Who are Reception/Reservation, Cashier & Night Auditor?

Front Office staff should have knowledge of computer software (PMS – Property Management System) including MS Office.

Skills in administrative, effective verbal and written communication, decision making and judgment, conflict resolution, planning, and organizing

Ability to multitask and prioritize, customer service orientation, professional appearance and attitude, ability to handle stress and stay calm under pressure, teamwork, flexible regarding work schedules, to respond appropriately to diverse customers and guests.

Hotel Reception / Reservation: The one who received the guest or welcome and greet the guest is known as the receptionist. The hotel Receptionist is associated with Front Office. Their responsibilities start from receiving guests till the guests checked out. At the front desk, they understand the duties, responsibilities, and skills of managing. The purpose is to ensure guest satisfaction. From check-in to Check out following are the duties and the responsible.

Main Job Duties and Responsibilities

1. Welcome and greet guests. If possible take their name (Mr. or Mrs) and greet them. This will give them a comfort zone.
2. Register and check guests. While registering they fill in all the required and important information of the guest, like Passport and Visa (Expiry), Verify of payment Mode, Payment schedule, etc. that is clear and accurate records of guest
3. Inform the guest about the room and the rent, they are going to stay before allocating the room, to avoid any confusion. If all is ok than issue room keys and direct guests to their rooms
4. To take Guest booking/reservation on telephone/emails and any special request if any and confirm the booking. Maintain the clear and accurate records of guest room bookings for the instant number of room/s, No of Guest, Arrival and check-out date, and pick up arrangement, etc.
5. While guests stay assist them with receive and transmit messages for guests, retrieve mail, packages, and documents such as faxes for guests, provide accurate information about local attractions and services, listen and respond to guest queries and requests both in-person and by phone.
6. Being in the front office they have to monitor visitors in the hotels. maintain a neat and orderly front desk and reception area, prepare a daily report on incident if any, daily activities, any other report requested by the management, complaints made by the guest, any booking other than rooms ( conference, restaurant, party, etc.)
7. At the time of guest check out they compute accurate billing ( advance paid, restaurant bill, housekeeping bill, telephone, Spa, and other bills if any) and review the accounts with the guest during the check-out process. Once it’s done they make sure that the complete bill is settled and confirm the received payment.

Cashier: is responsible for handling payments, money, and valuables. The cashiers do payment settlement of the bills from the guest and give the receipt. They generally maintain a cash register. Cashiers keep track of charges for room service, telephone calls, and valet service of every individual guest. He accepts payments from customers in the form of cash, credit or debit card, cheque, or other forms of payment. He clarifies questions that come from the guest about the charges on their bills or any concern questions relating to the payment. Before he leaves from the duties his duty is to hand over the payment transaction to the Duty Manager or to the following staff.

Night Auditor: There are three types of Audits, External, Internal, and Internal Revenue Service. Mostly Hotel audits do internal Audit and some part of the Internal Revenue Service. They review or check the previous day’s all financial activities using a conventional method like using papers, receipt, vouchers, files, coupon, etc but there final check for the day is on PMS (Property Management system) which give efficient results. You can say Conducting a financial inspection of the daily business.

In the hotel business, finance management starts and ends at the front office. Room division, Restaurant Bills, Laundry Bills, Telephone bills, Spa, etc. The posting of transactions on the guest folios carried to the back-office accounting department. The guest accounts are counterchecked on a daily basis during auditing. They are the final point of contact. The management body refers to the night audit report to plan future goals and control the expenses.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

1. Accumulating guest service charges, tax, and payments and Settling the financial activities for the day.
2. Taking handover from last shift staff and run the trial balance for the day.
3. Closing financial activities for a day and Starting financial activities for the next day.
4. Verifying guest folios and room status reports and Preparing lists of expected guest arrivals for the next day.
5. Night Auditor report is a snapshot of Room Occupied, check-in and check-out, no shows, cancellation, cash and credit receipt, withdrawals, bookings, and payments from booking if any.
6. They prepare a statistical list of the previous day’s occupancy. It includes details about available accommodations, occupied accommodations, sold and vacated accommodations, rack-rate, number of guests in the hotel, number of no-shows, and so on.
7. All the tax information on reservation revenue and other POS revenues such as VAT, luxury tax, and service tax, the opening and closing balances for the Advance Deposit Ledger, Guest Ledger, and City Ledger.