DEPARTURE PROCEDURE IN FULLY AUTOMATED SYSTEM

Lesson Notes

DEPARTURE PROCEDURE IN FULLY AUTOMATED SYSTEM

This is a Computerised check-out system of check-out procedures and has a number of advantages for speed, efficiency and accuracy. All the relevant data is stored electronically and easily accessed from various data points (e.g. by date, name or room number). Records can be easily updated, and, since they are all interlinked, related records and status reports will be simultaneously updated. When a guest checks-out, room status displays will immediately show that the room is ‘vacant, not yet ready’; housekeeping tasks lists will show that the room is available for cleaning; the departures list will be updated; the guest index will indicate that the guest has left; and the guest’s record will be ‘filed’ under ‘past guests’ without the physical transfer of any files.

Guest accounts can be maintained in the computer system, with some transactions automatically entered by the system itself: pre-set room charges will be posted each day from the reservation records, for example, and restaurant/bar bills may be directly input to the account from Electronic Point of Sale systems in the relevant departments. The posting of charges can be done swiftly and automatically allocated to the relevant room accounts, with updated running totals.

Final guest bills are therefore calculated and generated automatically by the system: far less time-consuming and error-prone than manual and mechanical systems, and more professionally presented in a final-version, correction-free, smartly printed form. Check-out and settlement are speeded up (a major advantage at one of the busiest periods at front desk) by facilities such as: automatic foreign currency conversions; automatic verification of company account status; and express/self check-out. The departure procedure in a hotel running on a fully automated system is smoother and more efficient. It involves the following steps:-

The check out request is received at the front desk or bell desk.
The front desk sends a bell boy to transfer the guest luggage from the room to lobby.
The front desk informs all POS and other department of hotels about the departing guest through the interlinked computer network.
Since all the point of sales are interlinked any credit transactions of the guest will automatically get added in the guest folio.
The front desk prepares the master bill by selecting the bill option of the cashier module
The front office presents the master bill, along with supporting vouchers, to the guest for review.
The payment is received from the guest as per the predetermined mode of payment
The front office makes the luggage out pass.
The front desk communicates the departure of the guest to housekeeping and all the other concerned departments.
The front office records are updated automatically. These include:-
The auto removal of the name of the departed guest from the in-house guest name list.
The automatic updating of the current room status from occupied to vacant/dirty.
The automatic updating of the guest history card.

EXPRESS AND SELF CHECK-OUT

As express check-in, the hotel may offer facilities for guests who may need to check-out early, before reception is open or who simply wish to avoid a busy period at the cashier’s desk. In a manual system, this may be done by gaining authorisation from the guest to debit the entire amount of the bill to the guest’s credit card.

An express check-out form may be supplied to guests on check-in, or on request, or made available with in-room information, for completion in advance of departure. The guest supplies all relevant credit card details on the form (or the cashier may take a credit card imprint) and signs a declaration that (s)he authorises the hotel to debit the full amount of the bill to the designated credit card, and to send the bill and receipt to a given address: this substitutes for a signature on the credit card voucher.

The guest may be supplied with a copy of the bill as it currently stands, the night before departure, as a guide to the approximate total of the account. When the guest leaves, (s)he simply puts the express check-out form – and room key – in a designated ‘drop box’. The credit card payment can then be processed by the cashier, in the usual way, and a copy of the finalised bill and credit card voucher/receipt posted or e-mailed to the guest. In a computerised system, as for self check-in, the guest may be able to simply use a kiosk or computer terminal at reception (or even in-room), which:-

Asks the guest to key in the name and room number, and/or to swipe the electronic key or credit card previously logged on the system.
Displays and/or prints out the account to date.
Invites the guest to confirm/accept the bill (or flag items for query).
Invites the guest to insert or swipe their credit card, in order to process a credit card payment.
Issues a receipt (or logs the need to send a copy bill and receipt to the guest at his or her registered address).

GROUP CHECK-OUT

Just as with group check-in, the main issue will be to minimise chaos. A separate group waiting area or room may help to get the group out of its rooms (so that housekeeping can begin preparing them for re-letting), in one place (so the group leader can keep them together) and away from the front desk (so they do not overwhelm the cashier and other departing guests). The front desk should have a departures list for the group, so that it can follow a checklist for ensuring that:-

All keys have been returned.
The tour leader has countersigned a voucher itemizing all the accommodation and meal charges the tour company will be responsible for.
Individual guests’ extras bills (if any) have been paid.
All luggage cleared from the rooms and any storage areas.

The hotel may co-opt the group leader to gather keys and remind guests about extras bills, in order to minimise to-ing and fro-ing. If the group is due to leave later than the standard check-out time, the hotel may offer a waiting or ‘hospitality’ room, enabling group members to rest, store hand luggage and use bathroom facilities during the period between check-in from individual rooms and departure. This is a valued service for tour guests – but it also enables the hotel to clear individual rooms for servicing at the usual time, and to avoid having groups milling around reception.

PREPARING AND PRESENTING GUEST BILLS

Guests may have paid a deposit or even the whole accommodation amount in advance, to confirm their reservation, this will have to be deducted from the total bill, to provide the balance still owing. Guests may have incurred a number of additional charges during their stay: extra nights’ accommodation; meals and drinks from the hotel restaurant, bar or room service; drinks and snacks from the in-room mini-bar; newspapers (if charged for); laundry services; telephone calls made from the room phone; additional services (e.g. treatments in the hotel spa); and so on.

In most hotels, these items will not be paid for as they are purchased they will be ‘charged to the room’. In the restaurant or bar, for example, guests may give their room number and sign a voucher or ‘chitty’ for the services they have received. In the case of the mini-bar, they will be asked to fill out a form with the items they have consumed. These details will be passed to reception and added to the guest’s main room account. Keeping track of all these items involves a lot of record-keeping. The process is both complex and sensitive, with particular challenges arising from the fact that:-

The hotel is effectively giving guests credit for the duration of their stay: allowing them to consume goods and services now and pay later. This is not unusual in business dealings, of course, but hotels are in the unusual position of giving potentially substantial credit to people about whom they may know very little. There’s a risk of inability or failure to pay, which must be planned for.
Guests may be incurring additional charges in different departments of the hotel, right up to departure. There needs to be fast, accurate notification of this information to the billing or accounting section, in order for all charges to be included on the guest’s bill at check-out.
The keeping of guest account records and preparation of bills is usually the responsibility of a billing or accounting section (in large hotels), while the handling of settlement (payment) is the responsibility of the hotel cashier. In a smaller hotel, this may all be handled by available front desk staff, so receptionists need sufficient numerical (and cash handling) skills to cope with whatever accounting procedures the hotel uses.

GUEST ACCOUNTING AND BILLING SYSTEMS

Many hotels now use computerised guest accounting and billing systems which keep a running total of what each guest owes (taking into account deposits, prepayments and additional charges) as each item is entered or ‘posted’. Front office staff can print out the running total at any time, if a guest wishes to know the current status of his or her account, sometimes also called a ‘folio’. With a manual system, each guest account needs to be balanced and totalled daily in a tabular ledger: the hotel’s running log of each day’s business, including the following for each room:-

The running total owed (outstanding charges), brought forward from the day before
The day’s accommodation and meal charges, as appropriate to the rate or package terms agreed
Itemised additional charges incurred under various headings: bar, restaurant, phone and so on
A running total of outstanding charges at the end of the day

Any payments made against the amount owing (e.g. prepayments or deposits) and any outstanding amounts to be carried forward to the next day. The payments made plus amounts carried forward should therefore equal (balance) the amount owing for each day. On settlement of the final account, at check-out, there will be no amounts carried forward: payments should balance the amount owing.

Whichever method is used, the main objective of the person dealing with the preparation of guest accounts is to be as accurate as possible, the bills or folios presented to guests must accurately reflect the services used, pre-payments made and the charges notified to the guest. Errors whether over or under-charging will inevitably reflect badly on the hotel.

RECORDING DEPOSITS AND PRE-PAYMENTS

As we noted above, one of the key tasks in guest accounting is to record deposits and pre-payments, so that these are deducted from the final bill and the guest isn’t charged for them twice.

Receipt of a deposit or pre-payment should immediately be recorded in the reservations status records. If pre-payment is required to guarantee a reservation, any deposit made will be shown clearly in the booking confirmation documents and invoice, requiring the prospective guest to pay the outstanding balance by a stated date. The guest will normally be sent a receipt for any deposit or pre-payment received.

A deposit or prepayment will be entered in the advance deposit ledger. The amount will also be entered in guest account or billing records when the guest checks-in and the bill is opened so that the guest has an opening credit balance reflecting the deposit.

The reservation records, confirmations and guest account should be cross-checked, to ensure that the received/acknowledged deposit amount tallies with the amount shown on the guest account.

There will be a separate (‘ledger account’) entry for arrangements whereby the hotel will claim the amount of a guest’s bill from another party at a later date (e.g. a tour company or a corporation with a credit account at the hotel), by issuing an invoice or statement. The guest may have pre-paid a tour company or conference organiser for accommodation and/or meals, and present a voucher or coupon confirming this fact to the hotel. Having checked that this is a legitimate, agreed arrangement (and received authorisation), the charges covered can be recorded as a ledger entry.

AGENCY (COMMISSIONABLE) BOOKINGS

Reservations made by travel agents and hotel booking agents (including online booking agencies) are normally made on the basis that the agent will earn a commission (percentage) payment on the room rate, as its ‘reward’ for making the sale on the hotel’s behalf. Commissionable bookings should be noted in the remarks column of the bookings diary, or in the computer reservation form, so that when the guest checks-in, their account can be marked as commissionable. Two separate accounts (or a split folio) may need to be opened for the guest, so that the commission can be calculated on the accommodation part of the bill only. If guests are having their main accommodation charges settled by a company or tour organiser, they may also require a split folio: that is, there will be a master account or folio for the room charges (which will be sent to the company) plus a folio for the extras or incidentals, which will be settled by the guest.

POSTING CHARGES

During the guests’ stay, extras such as drinks, afternoon tea, newspapers, telephone calls and other items can be added to their accounts. Information about charges will have to be passed from the departments concerned to the front office:-

For inclusion on the guest’s bill. This is called ‘posting charges’.
Charges may be recorded automatically: e.g. by a telephone call logging system or via an Electronic Point of Sale system (linking the bar or restaurant cash register to the front office billing system).
They may be pre-agreed with the guest, and signed for at reception on registration (e.g. a daily charge for newspapers or extra towels).
They may take the form of reimbursements (repayments) of payments made by the hotel on behalf of guests, or ‘visitor paid outs’ (VPOs). For example, the hotel may have had to pay COD (cash on delivery) for a parcel delivered to a guest by courier, or may have sent someone out to fill a guest’s medical prescription.
They may be confirmed by the guest and notified to reception via vouchers or ‘chitties’, with the name of the guest, room number, date/time, details of the service provided or items purchased, and their cost. Guests will often be required to sign the chitty to confirm their agreement with the charge, prior to sending to the billing section: this is useful in the event of a later dispute (so signed chitties are usually retained in the guest file until departure).

EXAMPLE

A guest is getting ready for dinner, and dials out from his room telephone to make a reservation at a local restaurant: the computerised telephone system logs the call, and automatically charges the call charge to the guest’s room account. Meanwhile, the guest has had a beer and a packet of peanuts from his in-room mini-bar: he writes a ‘1’ against these items on the printed price list, adds up the subtotal, and signs his name and room number on the form. Housekeeping will pick up this form the next day, when the mini-bar is being checked and re-stocked, and the form will be sent to reception for adding to the guest’s account.

Unfortunately, the restaurant was fully booked, so the guest decides to entertain his guests in the hotel. They meet at the bar for pre-dinner drinks. When their table is ready, the bar tender presents the guest with a bill for the drinks: the guest signs his name and room number, and takes the top copy while the bar tender sends the bottom copy through to reception. Similarly, at the end of dinner, the guest is presented with a bill. The restaurant has an Electronic Point of Sale system, so when the guest gives his name and room number, and signs his bill, the ‘cash register’ automatically logs the amount and transmits it to the main Hotel Management System, which logs it on his guest account. The guest had previously arranged with the concierge for flowers to be delivered to his room, as his wife is joining him the next day. The concierge has arranged for the delivery with a local florist, and paid for the flowers. A ‘visitors paid outs’ amount has been logged on the guest’s bill. The following morning, the guest also receives the newspaper he asked for on check-in, and the price of the newspaper is charged (as he was told it would be) to his room account.

In a manual system, hand-completed chitties may be pre-printed with information headings, to cut down on the amount of filling-in required. They should identify the department in which the charge is made (eg being colour-coded or differently designed for restaurant, room service, housekeeping, concierge and so on). This enables the hotel to analyse the spending of guests on different services, as well as making it easier to follow up guest queries about posted charges. Chitties may also be serially numbered, making queries easier to follow-up. The system only works if staff in other departments are accurate in filling out vouchers, and efficient in sending them swiftly to front office. This is a particular challenge with charges incurred on the morning of a guest’s departure, eg overnight mini-bar expenses and breakfast charges. (This is why breakfast is often included in the room rate and charged in advance.) The posting of charges is thus an important area in which there needs to be excellent communication between front office and other departments:

Chitties can also be printed out from cash registers or computerised point-of-sale systems for guests to sign, and in computerised systems, the charge is also automatically transferred to the guest account from the point of sale terminal. Hand-held electronic devices may even be used, with charges displayed and guests signing on-screen. Even if a computerised system is used, however, it is still useful to have a paper print-out with guest signature, in case of subsequent queries.

PRESENTING THE BILL

Accounts are usually prepared early each morning, after final postings have been made, for all guests on the departure list, although this may also be done the night before for longer stays, allowing guests to check through the bill at their leisure. Each guest’s bill will be:-

Written out: itemizing pre-payments and posted charges (often against pre-printed headings), and totalling the outstanding amount or
Printed out from a billing machine or computerised billing system: automatically itemizing pre-payments, credits and posted charges, with relevant details
Checked for accuracy against reservation and confirmation records and guest account records.
The final bill (or bills, in the case of split folios: split bills for accommodation charges and extras) can then be presented to guests for checking, agreement and payment.

GROUP BILLING ARRANGEMENTS

Payment and credit terms for the group including protocols for handling any payment disputes will have been agreed in a detailed contract with the tour operator or group organiser at the time of reservation. The operator’s credit status will have to be checked before the booking is accepted, since a group account may add up to many thousands of pounds. The group organiser should have sent a voucher, itemizing the expenses for which it will be responsible, with the final guest/rooming list. A copy of this voucher can then be counter-signed by the tour leader on the group’s departure, to confirm that the promised services have been delivered. The group’s account is completed and authorised by the cashier, and sent to the tour operator, together with the vouchers, for payment.

HANDLING ACCOUNT QUERIES

As usual, we’ll focus on the customer service angle first: how you handle a guest query or complaint about a bill is much more important than who is right or wrong. Billing questions and disputes must be handled efficiently and with good humour and understanding regardless of who is responsible for any error or misunderstanding. If errors are found, apologise clearly and simply (grovelling is not required) and put the matter right. Briefly, good practice for a dispute on check-out might be as follows:-

Take the guest aside, so that the matter can be handled discreetly and so that other guests can continue their check outs (if other staff are available) without disruption
Assure the guest that the matter will be immediately looked into, and ask him to wait for a moment while this is done. Reservation documents, chitties and other documents can then be checked for errors, and authorisation for legitimate reductions or adjustments sought.
If time is short (reception is busy and/or the guest has to leave immediately), the cashier may have or seek authorisation simply to alter or delete the disputed charges, to settle the issue without further conflict which might reflect badly on the hotel.
Authorisation from a manager may be required to offer a refund or reduction, or to write-off disputed charges. It may also be advisable to get confirmation from the guest that this has been corrected and accepted, in case of follow-up disputes. This can be done by getting both guest and manager to sign an Adjustment or Allowance slip, attached to the hotel’s copy of the final bill.
Both the hotel’s and the guest’s copy of the bill should be altered to show any adjustment. In a computerised system, the billing details can simply be amended to show the adjustment and the bill re-printed. In a manual system, a hand-written correction may be made and countersigned.
Any adjustments must be recorded in the guest accounts (e.g. the tabular ledger or computer system) as ‘adjustments’, ‘allowances’ or ‘refunds’ so that at the end of the day, the recorded payments received will still tally with the recorded amounts due.
Again, remember that this is just procedure and record-keeping: a positive attitude will make all the difference in whether this satisfies the departing guest or not.