Essential Hotel Management System Features and Terminology
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Core Hotel Management System Features
Cancel Reservation
Allows for the cancellation of existing guest reservations.
Confirmation Letters
Enables sending confirmation letters to guests for their bookings.
Credit Card Guarantee
Used to secure a reservation with a credit card, ensuring payment.
Delete Reservation
Provides the option to remove a reservation from the system.
Deposit Management
Manages guest deposits; often requires changing the reservation type first (e.g., to 'Deposit Required' - DR).
Fixed Charges
Automatically posts recurring charges to each reservation, commonly used for supplementary transactions.
Housekeeping Management
Facilitates managing guest preferences for services like turndown service or specific room service times, and allows for changing the status of a room (e.g., clean, dirty, inspected).
Reservation Queue
Allows placing an arriving reservation into a queue when no clean or inspected rooms are immediately available. This feature prioritizes handling these arrivals. Reservations in the queue can be pre-assigned to a room number or remain unassigned.
Guest Locators
Used to locate a guest within the hotel if they receive a call but are not in their room.
Guest Messaging
Enables sending text messages to arriving guests, which can be displayed on TV screens or through the phone system.
Package Options
Displays a list of package elements and tracks real-time consumption of charges associated with them.
Party Reservations
Connects guests who wish to identify themselves as a group (typically less than 10 rooms) without requiring a formal group contract.
Reservation Privileges
Allows setting restrictions or granting specific privileges on each reservation, such as 'NO POST' which prevents charges from being posted without explicit permission.
Rate Information
Displays the room rate and a summary of any associated packages.
Registration Cards
Pre-prints registration cards for reservations, streamlining the check-in process.
Charge Routing
Enables automatic routing of charges.
- Window: Allows for different invoices for a single reservation (e.g., a company paying for part of the stay).
- Room: Consolidates charges for two reservations or rooms onto one payment.
Shared Reservations
Manages situations where multiple guests share the same room:
- Entire: One guest pays for all charges.
- Split: Charges are divided between two or more guests.
- Full: Both guests are charged, often discreetly.
Internal Traces
Facilitates internal messages and communication between different hotel departments.
Baggage Tracking
An option to monitor the location of guest baggage within the hotel.
Waitlist Management
Allows placing a reservation on a waitlist when no rooms are currently available.
Key Hotel Operations Terminology
- Hotel Distribution (F3): Accesses information related to hotel distribution channels.
- Source: Indicates the origin or volume of bookings made by a caller or specific booking channel.
- Walk-in: Refers to a client who arrives at the hotel without a prior reservation.
- Loyalty: Pertains to guest membership or loyalty programs.
- Guest Cycle: Describes the stages of a guest's stay: Reserved, Due In, Checked In, Due Out, Checked Out.
- Availability & Rates (F5): Provides quick access to room availability and pricing information.
- Merge Profiles: The function to combine two existing guest profiles into a single, unified profile.
- Share (Entire): A shared room scenario where one guest is responsible for all charges.
- Fixed Charges: Recurring charges that are automatically applied during a guest's stay.
- Due Out: Refers to a guest who is scheduled to check out today.
- RTC (Rate Type Change): Used for upgrading a guest's room type, often implying a fixed or specific rate application.
- Accompanying Guest: Adding a second guest's name to a reservation without incurring additional charges for that guest.
- Block vs. Party: A 'Party' identifies as a group without a formal contract, whereas a 'Block' typically implies a contracted group of rooms.
- Out of Order (OOO): A room status indicating that the room cannot be sold due to maintenance, renovation, or other reasons.
- Routing/Window: An option to specify that a company or third party will be charged for the guest's stay.