What should I do if the hotel front desk opens a heavy room? Seven cases with solutions (recommended collection))
The double room is a taboo at the front desk of the hotel. There are many reasons for the double room. We have made an analysis on the scene of the double room, hoping to help the hotel staff.
As a front office manager, if you have never worked at the grassroots level, it is difficult to know the complex and difficult work of the front office, especially the front desk, and the fast-changing work of the assistant lobby manager. If you start at the grassroots level, such as the front desk, and haven’t experienced the embarrassment of a heavy house “personally”, you don’t know how diverse and incredible the reasons behind these thrilling stories are.
To use a famous saying, that is, there are always many striking similarities in success, and each failure has its own difficulties. Undoubtedly, the heavy house is a manifestation of the failure of the front desk and related personnel, but for the time being, let it be the mother of success.
01
Collection of front office mistakes
Case 1 · A false alarm
At 10 o’clock in the evening, Mr. Li called the front desk of the hotel from his home and said that he had opened 5 rooms. Among them, the guest of 2105 had just called and said that someone had been trying to open his door. He asked the hotel to investigate immediately, otherwise, the matter would be Very serious.
After about 10 minutes, Mr. Li called again, saying that his guest told him that someone was opening his door again and asked the hotel to solve it immediately. After a while, Mr. Li went to the front desk and asked the hotel to give a reasonable explanation, at least half of the room fee for 5 rooms.
The first time I received a call, AM asked the security guard to patrol the door of 2105, and there was no abnormality. After receiving the call again, AM felt the seriousness of the situation and immediately notified the security department to obtain relevant surveillance video. There was indeed a middle-aged man who tried to open the door of 2105 twice, but he did not look suspicious.
So AM explained to Mr. Li that it was possible that other room guests had misremembered the room number; another possibility was that one of Mr. Li’s clients, and described to Mr. Li the appearance of the person who tried to open the door. Mr. Li said it was impossible. If they were together, the guests of 2105 would not tell him. He insisted that the hotel make compensation. AM said that the hotel could not agree to make compensation until the final situation was clarified.
As soon as the guests heard it, my guests and I could not rest normally at such a late hour, and the hotel did not agree to any compensation at all, so they were even more angry and demanded to meet the general manager immediately. In fact, it’s a shame. Later, I asked myself to check the monitoring. The matter has come to this point, and if he is not allowed to watch it, things will not progress. After asking the MOD, he agrees to Mr. Li to check the relevant surveillance video.
It turned out that the guest who tried to open the door came from another room 2115 opened by Mr. Li. Maybe when assigning the room, he also remembered the wrong room number, so he opened 2105. Because the guests in the 5 rooms are all Mr. Li’s customers, but they come from different places and are not very familiar with each other. So, it caused a little farce with no danger.
Case 2 · There is no danger
Guest A has just finished the check-in procedure, and came to the door of room 618 with his beloved girlfriend in a beautiful and excited mood, but found that his key could not open the door, so he came with doubts and irritability. Front desk, inquire about the reason.
After asking the guest’s name at the front desk, I checked it on the computer. I didn’t know if I didn’t check it. When I checked it, I was shocked. The guest obviously lived in room 816. living.
Case 3. It’s too late to say, it’s too soon
Receptionist A is welcoming a regular guest to check-in warmly. Because the guest’s file is complete, credit is good, and he has signed an agreement with the hotel, so when he sees that there is a room 912 in the computer that is exactly what the guest wants, he thinks that everything is based on the guest. The first service concept, so after A asked the guest to sign on the R/C, he did not C/I in the computer, but made a room card directly. Even less than 1 minute before and after, the guest left the counter very satisfied.
2 minutes later, the guest called the front desk angrily and asked to see the manager, because he just took off his clothes and was about to take a shower, and a stranger rushed into his room directly, which made him feel very uncomfortable and insecure. When I checked the computer, it turned out that receptionist B sold the 912 to a foreign guest at about the same time.
Case 4 · Self-defeating
Mr. Zhang didn’t check in at the hotel until 2:00 a.m. because the plane was late. He came to the front desk to inform the receptionist that he had a reservation. The receptionist checked the computer for a long time before finding Mr. Zhang’s reservation in the cancellation of the reservation, so she resumed and checked in.
Not long after Mr. Zhang went upstairs, he called and said that the room opened to him by the front desk was occupied by someone. It turned out that it was the peak season of the hotel, Mr. Zhang did not make a guaranteed reservation, and he was late at the hotel, so the hotel sold the room that Mr. Zhang reserved in the early hours of the morning. The reception lady who checked Zhang in was rather sleepy because it was late at night, so she checked in directly without noticing the system prompt.
Case 5 · Not the most careful, only more careful
The leader of the Oriental Travel Agency came to the front desk and took 10 rooms. After a while, one of the guests said that his room was already occupied. It turned out that when the receptionist at the front desk received Mr. Xu, the rooms at that time were dirty. Only after the standard room reserved for the team had just been cleaned, and after discussing with Mr. Xu Haosheng, the single room that Mr. Xu originally booked was changed. When I switched to a standard room, I originally planned to replace the standard room of the Oriental Travel Service with another vacant room when it was a little empty.
Case 6 · Concurrent listening is clear
Mr. Wan is a frequent visitor to the hotel. He is fine on weekdays and is familiar with the front desk, but when something makes him dissatisfied, he gets angry. That day, when Mr. Wan came back from outside, he asked the front desk to swipe the room card. The front desk didn’t dare to delay. Because of the frequent customers, he didn’t check the computer and swiped the room card directly according to the guest’s request. After a while, Mr. Wan called the front desk, and before the receptionist spoke, he was scolded, saying why someone else was living in his room, and quickly told the guest to leave, otherwise he would be rude.
What’s more serious is that just after Mr. Wan finished the phone call, Mr. Chen, who was registered on the computer, came to the front desk angrily and asked, what did you do? It was also thrown out, you must give me a reasonable explanation, otherwise I will immediately call my lawyer to sue you, it is too unsafe to live here.
It turned out that Mr. Wan stayed in this room last night, and he didn’t come back today. When the front desk urged the D/O, he called Mr. Wan, but he didn’t get through. It happened that the deposit was owed a little more, so he refunded it for him.
Case 7 · Chain reaction
It is the peak season of the hotel, and at 11 o’clock in the evening, it is hard to find a room in the local area, and our hotel is no exception. At this time, two out-of-town guests came to the front desk and asked to give them two rooms anyway. The price doesn’t matter. They still have friends living here.
A kind of AM has been looking for a long time, and there are still two reservations that have not arrived. They are all so late. It would be a pity if they didn’t come. I went in and saw that it was a reservation from another team. house. Thinking that it is inconvenient to confirm with the team so late, since you have no guarantee, if you don’t come so late, you can’t lose two room charges in vain, so I helped the two guests go through the formalities.
After a while, one of the guests came down and said the room was occupied. When AM heard this, he was in trouble. Fortunately, the other room was not heavy. We solemnly apologized to the guest and asked the guest to wait patiently. We must find a way to find another room for him. Immediately contact MOD to vacate the room and ask HSKP to clean it as soon as possible. This side has just been cleaned, and there is another room that is also occupied. Originally, a guest said to wait a while, but it was so late anyway. When the two met, they couldn’t help but get angry, no matter what it was just now. Begging the front desk to ask for a room, just scold you, you have no room, forget it, how can you sell the room that someone lives to us, isn’t this a fraud?
If it is normal, you can always find a way, even if you upgrade to a suite, but it is really hard to find a room in the peak season. After thinking about it for a while, the maintenance room is too problematic, and at this time, the guests are already on fire, and it is impossible to compromise casually. For the guests to stay in other hotels, the hotel will deliver them. After a stalemate for a while, the guests still disagree. At this time, a guest just came to the front desk to ask for a late night snack. , only banging the counter.
Finally, knowing that the hotel really has no rooms, they called for the other four rooms that had just returned to the hotel from outside and asked to check out all of them. The two of them had nowhere to stay, so everyone would stay.
From the above story, some common causes of heavy houses can be roughly classified:
A, due to personal carelessness. For example, write 816 as 618. You can say that it was busy at the time, there was another phone call before the room key, and there were guests waiting, but if you are careful enough, you can avoid it.
B. Overconfidence in experience contrary to SOP. For example, the practice of issuing room cards first and then C/I shows the importance of uniformly implementing SOPs.
C, lack of basic rigor and good professional habits. For example, opening the door without verifying the identity.
D, lack of concentration at work. The morning shift may not sleep well, the middle shift is too trivial, and the night shift is prone to sleepiness.
E, lack of work tacit understanding. For example, when it is particularly busy, the notification between colleagues who sell houses at the same time avoids double housing.
F. The house is full, are you ready? The boss and the senior management are happy to see the full house, but not necessarily people pay attention to the accident that may occur after the full house is full, (the high-level usually enjoys a good dream when the accident occurs) and the aftermath of the accident coping plan.
02
The seriousness of the hotel room
Double room is a taboo in almost all hotels, it can be seen that it is very tricky, and the consequences are generally quite serious. However, the severity varies:
1. Suspected heavy house. In fact, it is not a double room, but the guest found the wrong door. If you don’t know each other, you are afraid that you don’t know each other, and the guest who found the wrong door is drunk again. At this time, the role of security is very important.
2. Double room, but the guest who stayed first is not in the room. The guest who checked in later saw the luggage and determined that someone had already stayed.
3. The heavy room leads to the loss of the guest’s belongings. There was a customer who complained that his wallet was taken away by the person who moved in later. This kind of problem is a bit complicated. If we can’t negotiate, I am afraid it has to be judged by the police uncle.
4. There is a conflict between the guests on both sides. Both spats and limbs are serious and usually require heavyweight appearances.
5. After the relocation, there is no room available. Just imagine that you are also angry, not to mention that some guests are really not high quality! According to past experience, whether guests from both sides meet, including verbal conflicts across the door, is usually the dividing point for qualitative changes. That is to say, if there is no meeting, it will be a small matter; once you meet, please pray in your heart first.
I once heard a manager of the catering department talk about the spirit and courage of the guests to quickly eat the flies in the dishes “without paying attention”. The manager of the front office department seems to be more than the test in the face of the heavy room.
03
How to avoid double room
Since the double room is inevitable, it will be much better to strengthen some aspects of the work:
The right people do the right things
No one is born to be in a hotel, especially a front desk job. Then the training before work and the exercise at work will greatly improve the growth of employees. However, I would say that some people are really not suitable to be the front desk, and as the front desk of the front line of the hotel, only by recruiting the right people can we expect the expected progress and performance. I’m not an HR expert and can’t make a precise definition of the right person.
However, there should be at least some qualities, such as gentleness and humility, politeness and enthusiasm, politeness, sincerity and simplicity. Because the front desk needs to be in contact with money, it is necessary to have a strong sense of numbers and a more rigorous logical ability. In terms of using the right people, FOMs are often troubled by another problem. They find that the nature of the work determines that they need to find those employees with more rigorous thinking in order to be thoughtful and avoid mistakes.
Systematic training is essential
It is often seen that employees are relatively self-disciplined during the training period. After half a year, I think I have entered a new realm, and I have the tendency to do whatever I want or do whatever I want. As everyone knows, when he thinks that he is already familiar with a field, it just means that he has encountered a new bottleneck. Of course, if employees can be so actively aware of this problem, maybe he doesn’t need to be an employee anymore.
As the saying goes, there must be a teacher for three people. Colleagues at the front desk may wish to take a look. Do your colleagues use different methods for the same thing? Even occasionally a newcomer will use a more convenient and effective method than senior employees to deal with a certain problem. Operation details. This usually shows a lack of systematic training. Many hotels, including some five-star hotels, have tight staffing and frequent turnover. Basically, they only do initial training for new employees, and there is no improvement or cross-training in later stages.
Some employees have been promoted without the support of relevant training. In addition to finding that their salary has increased slightly, the professional skills, professional skills and management methods of newly promoted managers have not been improved accordingly, and they do not even know their new job responsibilities. How can we expect him to perform well in the short term? Of course, the role of self-taught is important, but in order to achieve the hotel’s business goals and service levels that exceed the expectations of guests, systematic training is indispensable.
Listen to the words of the guests
Between the hotel and the guests, there is a need for mutual trust. If there is no trust, the guests doubt the hotel, and the hotel suspects the guests, which will inevitably lead to an unhappy ending. However, does it mean that since we choose to trust the guest, we do not need to judge and do exactly what the guest wants. That would be a big mistake. Because it is completely copied, it is not for the sake of the guests. It is very likely that major mistakes will be caused because our professionalism does not play a role, which will bring inconvenience or embarrassment to the guests and cause losses to the hotel.
For example, we usually have a 3-minute room inspection time when we check out, but many guests are in a hurry. At this time, our approach is to ask the guests if they have any consumption. If not, then check out directly. However, we must listen to the request of the guests to open the door. That is to say, if the guest asks to open a certain door, we should assist, but we have the responsibility to ensure that the person who asks to open the door is the same as the registered person, at least the person who asks to open the door is allowed to enter by the registered person.
Not the most careful, only more careful
The employees in the front office should look energetic and energetic, and they should be professional when they do things. And one of the performances of professionalism is that it is methodical and has a beginning and an end. By the way, I have always believed that there is mutual respect between hotel staff and guests, and we earn respect from guests by professional performance and personal charisma.
Since our work is interlinked, in order to do these work well and reflect our professionalism, we have formulated many SOPs. For example, in the above case, the practice of giving the guest room card first and then C/I is self-confidence in experience, but it is not typical of SOP. Of course, the C/I 816 room card on the computer is made 618 because it lacks basic rigor, and has nothing to do with SOP.
The room number will be wrong, and it is not surprising that the deposit slip is wrong. Since the deposit slip will be wrong, it is expected that the wrong money will be returned. And these are definitely not professional performances. This is related to what we said earlier, with the right people, in order to do the right things. For another example, the reception team should have a special person in charge, so that it is easy to do some preparatory work. About an hour before the team arrives, it is necessary for the team receptionist to reconfirm whether the room card corresponds to the room number in the computer, whether the room status is already available for purchase, etc., so as to avoid changes in the middle.
Teamwork and work tacit understanding
The strength of a team is greater than the sum of the strengths of individuals, which is based on effective division of labor and close cooperation, and the tacit understanding of work comes from the stability of team members. Just imagine, how can we form a tacit understanding at work when we change the front desk of new people every month? In teamwork, we must actively act as a stepping stone, not a stumbling block.
For example, in the above case, finding a room for the customer who arrived at the store first should have been commendable, but it is not wrong for you to take out a room from the team, just take out the changed room card in time and make up Put on the changed room card, so as to avoid acting as a stumbling block for colleagues in the reception team. When the customer arrives at the peak, A sells a certain room as a room card first, and B sells it again, which is a sign of lack of tacit understanding of work. In fact, it is difficult to ensure that everyone is not wrong, but with a tacit understanding at work, mistakes will be greatly reduced.
04
crisis management
Hotels often encounter some unexpected situations, which always test the experience and wisdom of managers. Here we only discuss the handling of heavy room incidents. Although we can do a lot of preparations in advance, when the guests are standing in front of them, it is inevitable that there will be a lot of sparseness. Of course, it is very rare to cause a double room. However, the double room often causes serious consequences. Therefore, when dealing with it, it must be Be decisive and courteous.
First, who will handle it. Generally speaking, the occurrence of heavy housing incidents is more difficult for managers, and there is even a sense of helplessness, such as the chain effect in Case 8, not to mention the coping ability of employees themselves. In the question of who handles it, 2 things to consider:
First, whether the response of the guests has been very strong;
Second, whether you have enough experience to deal with it, if not, you should seek the help of more experienced people in time. If the guest’s response is general, such as requesting to change rooms, it should be satisfied immediately without delay. Report to the AM on duty as soon as possible afterwards. If the guest has a strong reaction, they should report to the AM immediately, and request the help of the FOM and MOD as appropriate.
Second, figure out what’s going on. Not the cause of the event, but a general situation. Whoever handles it must have a clearer understanding of the incident. If you can’t even figure out what’s going on, how can you handle it well?
Third, timeliness. Regardless of whether the guest reacts strongly or not, the heavy room has already caused adverse effects on the guests of both parties concerned. At this time, there must be a sense of relief such as fire fighting, and the sooner the solution is the better. No matter how busy you are, priority should be given to the matter of the heavy room to avoid the intensification and fermentation of the guests’ emotions.
Fourth, take the initiative to apologize and exceed expectations. Now that the mistake has been made, AM and even FOM must take the initiative to apologize to the guests and ask for their understanding. If the guest has a strong reaction, but it does have a great impact on the guest, such as the first guest is taking a bath, the two sides have conflicts, and the later guest has no room to change. In addition to comfort, it needs to be given according to the hotel situation. Guests some discounts, concessions or compensation.
For example, late check-out time, upgrade to a suite, free delivery to the airport, room fee reduction, free room coupons or other hotel coupons, etc. And these discounts or offers are usually offered before the guest asks. If the guest asks, the situation is already very bad, and the request made by the guest at this time may not only be reasonable. Only in this case, because the fault is on our side, we will try our best to satisfy the guest even if the request of the guest is a little too much under the conditions of our authority and basic reasonableness.
If you really can’t meet the requirements of the guests, you need to ask more senior personnel to come forward to solve it. Of course, it is best not to change the person to handle, because it will delay the time, and may cause insufficient or inaccurate information, which will further deteriorate the guest’s mood.
After processing, a clear handover should be done, such as quick checkout when guests check out, to avoid waiting. Let the successor and the staff on duty when checking out pay extra attention to the rooms in the double room.
Fifth, find out why. The above cases are summed up after the fact, and the context is relatively clear. However, sometimes the reason for the heavy house may not be obvious, and it takes some effort and judgment to find it. But in any case, as long as the house is rebuilt, there must be a reason. If the reason cannot be found, it cannot be regarded as the real deal, and it is impossible to avoid another heavy house. It is worth noting that the heavy room is a sudden and emergency situation, and it is not suitable to investigate the cause at that time, because it does not meet the principle of timeliness, and it must be sorted out afterwards to warn other colleagues.
Sixth, follow up. Including two aspects: one is the continuous attention to the two parties in the heavy house, especially the party who entered later, until the check-out. The second is from the perspective of the system, drawing inferences from one case to another, and putting forward constructive suggestions to avoid the occurrence of heavy houses from the source. For departments, organize them into management cases. For the parties concerned, corresponding penalties will be given as a reminder and will be included in the employee evaluation.
The handling of heavy rooms sometimes affects and shows the shortcomings of the entire hotel’s operating mechanism and operating conditions. Staff and managers at the front desk need to have a certain sense of crisis, because any small negligence on their part may have a major impact on the guests.
Especially as a manager, you should pay more attention to employees, pay attention to the details of work, guide employees to develop good work habits, improve skills through training, and enhance team cohesion through regular meetings. We can only start from ourselves, actively cooperate with departments, reach a tacit understanding, and cooperate with each other to avoid the occurrence of heavy room incidents, to avoid leaving unforgettable bad impressions on guests, and bad records for hotels and individuals. .