Room service in a hotel: technology and organization

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Often, when looking at the advertising booklets of travel agencies, you can see an indication of the room service offered by hotels and inns. A person who has even a little knowledge of the English language, it is quite clear that in this case we are talking about services that are provided directly in the room. What is room service in a hotel, what does it include and how can it be organized?

Spectrum of services provided

This service offers an additional service in the hotel in the form of personalized service to the guest in the room. Today, such a service is gaining popularity not only in high-level hotels, but also in those that have a smaller number of stars.

Specialists of the room service in the hotel offer, first of all, the delivery of dishes and drinks to the guest's room, which he ordered from a special menu. Another function of such employees is the preparation of roomsVIP categories before their settlement.

Often, when organizing room service in a hotel, the structure of the service includes units serving mini-bars. In such cases, the hotel has another additional service. It consists in checking the mini-bars in the rooms by the service staff and replenishing them in a timely manner.

Room service in a high-class hotel provides for the provision of many other services. For example, calling a massage therapist, make-up artist, hairdresser, press delivery, etc. By the level and volume of types of service in a hotel, its category is often judged. But in any case, all services offered should be provided quickly and not allow customers to wait.

Target Audience

Which customers need room service in a hotel? The target audience of this service in most cases are:

• business people who are tired after a day's work, because of which they do not want to go to a restaurant;
• couples who decide to spend a romantic evening alone;
• parents with small children.

Composition of service

How to organize a room service? Such a service is a whole team, which includes a director and administrators (managers), waiters, and sometimes a sommelier. If the hotel is small, and the number of orders in it is small, then room service is usually carried out by restaurant employees. These are waiters who are free at their main job at some point.

Consider the main responsibilities of workerssuch a service.

Director

The room service is managed by one of the hotel employees. It is he who is responsible for the following:

• scheduling the work of waiters entering the service;
• workload distribution;
• developing a room service menu in a hotel;
• sales reporting;
• interaction with the marketing service of the hotel, which will promote the proposed service;
• solving problem situations that arise during the operation of the service.

The director of the room service must have a higher education (preferably a professional one), speak English quite well, and speak a second foreign language at a conversational level, have experience in catering, know the service standards that must be observed when serving guests, and also have business skills.

Manager

The main task of this specialist is to receive orders received by the room service and coordinate work for their fast and high-quality implementation. Among the main responsibilities of a manager:

1. Taking orders from hotel guests and assisting them in choosing drinks or meals. In addition, the manager needs to discuss with clients the time of execution of their requests. It is important for a specialist to know that the normal organization of room service in a hotel involves the delivery of breakfast by card within 15 minutes, by call - in 15-30 minutes. During the same time, the client must also receive lunch. Dinner delivery time is no more than 45 minutes. When orderingfor drinks alone, the guest must wait a maximum of 15 minutes for them. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that it is advisable to serve food to the room 5 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. Otherwise, the client will have breakfast at the expense of the hotel.
2. Checking the correct serving of trays and tables.
3. Checking the formation of orders from the room service menu in the hotel.
4. Solving problems that are within his area of expertise.

Good organization of room service in a hotel is possible if the manager of the service of higher education (preferably professional), good knowledge of English, and at a conversational level - a second foreign language, experience in catering for at least 2 years knowledge of the service standards used in servicing hotel guests. At the same time, this specialist must be polite, sociable and responsive. In addition, he must have clear diction.

Waiter

This employee in the room service is linear. It is his responsibility to fulfill the wishes of the guest by delivering drinks and food to his room.

At the same time, the waiter is the person who comes into personal contact with the customer.

The main responsibilities of this employee are:

• delivering the order to hotel guests in the room or in the beauty salons, he alth clubs, etc. located on the territory of the hotel complex;
• maintaining order and cleanliness in the service room;
• calculation of the guest for the services rendered, if the required amount is not paidcheck-out client;
• timely collection of dirty dishes, which must be done within 10 minutes if requested by the guest by phone.

The following professional requirements are imposed on room service waiters: higher or secondary vocational education, good command of English, experience in public catering for at least 2 years, as well as knowledge of the basics of service standards and etiquette when serving customers.

Supervisor

If there are room service and mini-bars in hotels, then the staff of this service will certainly have a person with this position. Supervisor tasks include:

• order products from stock;
• workload distribution
• scheduling minibar staff to go to work;
• run reports.

Minibar staff

The duties of these workers include:

• checking minibars in guest rooms and replenishing them;
• recording the cost of consumed drinks and products in the accounts of guests;
• blocking the minibar when the guest owes;
• Checking the operating mode and technical condition of the equipment.

A minibar employee must have a higher or secondary vocational education, know English, the basics of etiquette and safety. In the case of installing automatic equipment, another requirement for such an employee is experience in using the hotel's automated control system.

In addition, with the mini-bars available in the hotel, the service managerroom service, in addition to the duties described above, must order the products necessary for this site in the warehouse and generate the appropriate reports.

Schedule and features of work

How is the working day of the room-service employees in the hotel organized? As a rule, this service provides four shifts for its employees:

• 1st – 6.30 – 14.30;
• 2nd – 14.30 – 23.30;
• 3rd – 16.30 – 01.30;
• 4th – 20.30 – 8.30.

Menu

Room service technology involves taking into account some specific factors. One of them is the compilation of a menu of dishes offered by the hotel restaurant, but in a more abbreviated version. For room service, this takes into account the list of what the average consumer orders most often. When compiling such a menu, an analysis is made of dishes that are often ordered by visitors in a restaurant.

Recently, more and more people are becoming adherents of a he althy lifestyle. That is why some hotels organize delivery of organic products. At the same time, the room service service must include dishes in the menu that correspond to the he althy nutrition program.

Equipment

Room service is located in the hotel in a separate room. This is a room that should be located in close proximity to the elevator and the trading floor. Due to the specifics of the room service, which consists in the remoteness of customers from the kitchen, there is a need forthe use of certain inventory and equipment, including a service elevator (for the speed of order fulfillment), serving trays and trolleys, thermal containers, heating surfaces, cooling elements, etc. Cloche covers will also be needed. All tableware for room service must be presentable.

In those hotels where hot meals are served at night, their delivery is carried out using special equipment and serving items. These can be, for example, food warmers with paste or a candle, which serve as a heating element. In addition, you will need carts equipped with bottle holders and other devices that should be functional and convenient.

Accepting orders

Let's consider the technology of room service in a hotel. Reservations are required for room service for hotel guests. This can be done in the following ways:

1. By phone, as well as by pressing a special button set to call the waiter. In each of these cases, the service worker needs to write down the room number, the number of people, the name of the desired drinks and dishes, the time of receiving and submitting the order.
2. With the interactive TV system (if the hotel has one). With this method, the guest can order food in the room by pressing the button on the remote control. In this case, there is a procedure for the customer to confirm the selected menu, which makes it possible to exclude a service error.
3. When using an order card. Similar wayonly applicable for breakfast. For room service food delivery, the hotel guest receives order card forms at the administrative desk during check-in. Subsequently, they are stored in the guest's room. If you wish to use the services of the room service, the client must take the form and fill in certain columns in it. These are the breakfast serving time, room number, client's last name, number of persons, order date. At the end of the form, the customer must put his signature. The order card must be posted on the door handle from the side of the corridor. This must be done before 3:00 am. To collect forms, room service employees go around the corridors of the hotel. They do this at night or early in the morning. The completed forms are transferred to the service section responsible for preparing breakfasts. In the morning, kitchen workers prepare meals according to customer orders.

Payment

How do customers pay for dishes delivered by room service? The service for providing food in the morning can be provided as part of the breakfast included in the room rate. In some cases, the delivery of such dishes is an additional service and is paid separately.

Analysis of room service indicates that the price of the dishes offered, as a rule, is slightly higher than those set in a restaurant or hotel cafe. On average, this difference is 15%.

Payment for food delivered to the room can be done in two ways:

1. To the waiter at the moment when he submits the order. To do this, the room service employee mustbe a pre-prepared account. The waiter will give one copy of it to the guest, and take the other two with him, which will allow him to make subsequent reports.
2. At the moment the guest checks out. Often, guests are asked to pay the amount for the services rendered to their general account. In this case, the waiter must give all three copies of the document, which lists the dishes delivered to the room and their cost, for the client to sign. After that, the bill is transferred to the reception. When giving the document to the client, the waiter must ensure that he signs it legibly. Also, this room service employee needs to make sure that the number of the room where the food was delivered is clearly indicated on the invoice. As for the client's signature, it must be identified by comparison with the existing sample entered into the hotel's computer system. With the correct registration of the invoice directly at the place of provision of the service, the risk of losses in the final settlement is minimized.

Cleaning dishes

How is this process organized? In most cases, the dishes are taken from the room during cleaning. Although it is better to do this when it is convenient for the guest. There is one more option. It involves placing a tray with dirty dishes in the corridor.

In this case, room service workers must remove them immediately. After all, trays will not only make it difficult to move along the corridor, but will also make a repulsive impression on the guests.

Minibars

Such equipment ismandatory for hotels, the level of which corresponds to 4 and 5 stars. At the same time, mini-bars can be used in three different modifications:

• traditional;
• semi-automatic, equipped with sensors for opening the door with simultaneous receipt of information on the operator's computer;
• automatic, allowing you to find out the consumption of a particular product by the guest with the simultaneous inclusion of its cost in the bill.

The last version of mini-bars has a number of advantages over the others.

They consist of:

1. Providing equipment with real-time information regarding stocks of products, while indicating the time and date of consumption of food and drinks, as well as prices for them and the expiration date of the remaining goods in the minibar.
2. Available automatic control system. It is required when installing equipment with a transparent door. With this design, guests can browse the range of products without opening the minibar. If guests wish to use this service, the device will be opened by the operator.
3. Automatic billing. Such a system allows you to completely eliminate inaccuracies and errors in using the mini-bar. Withdrawal by this system is quite fast, which is its significant advantage.
4. Availability of a program for automatic monitoring of equipment occupancy. With this system, the right products are delivered to minibars without causing inconvenience to guests.
5. Possibility of servicing up to 400 numbers by one room service employee. Cost optimization in this case is possible immediately in 5 departments of the hotel. Among them are reception, accommodation, personnel management, maintenance, and accounting.
6. Ability to track the expiration date of products in real time. This feature completely eliminates the possibility of damage to the goods and allows you to offer discounts in a timely manner, significantly reducing the amount of losses.
7. The presence of an automated control system that monitors electricity consumption. This is very beneficial for the hotel. This feature helps reduce energy costs.

Based on the ongoing analyzes of the work of the room service, which uses automatic mini-bars, marketers have convincingly proved that such equipment can pay off in just 2-4 months. After that, it starts to make a profit.

Booklet release

The introduction of room service in a hotel is not a sufficient condition for the use of its customers. To make a profit, each hotel guest must first of all be familiar with the organization of the delivery of food and drinks to the room. As one of the options for advertising, you can consider the release of bright booklets, which will describe the menu of the restaurant.

In addition, hotel customers should be informed that the delivery of drinks and food by the room service service is carried out based on the specified time, plus or minus five minutes. At the same time, all employees must strictly adhere to this rule.

It is also recommended to include speci alties offered by the hotel restaurant and their photos in the booklet. The cost of offers, as well as available bonuses and discounts, should also be indicated here.

When organizing a service, you will need to analyze the work of the restaurant and determine the time of its lowest attendance. You can get a discount during these unpopular hours.

Judging by the reviews, room service attracts more attention if the booklet offered to guests is cheerful and bright, describing in simple language the rules of this service, which service employees must adhere to without fail.