Front Office Project
Front Office Project
The Night Audit is the control process whereby the financial activity of
guest’s accounts is maintain and balanced. The process tracks charges and
payments and the departmental receipts and charges on a daily basis. This
working definition encompasses not only the mechanical proofing of totals
of charges and payments but the further review of account activity by
management. The front office manager monitors the credit activity of guests,
projects daily cash flow from room sales, and monitors projected and actual
sales for the various department.
Learning the process of the night audit can provide valuable information for
someone who plans to continue in the hotel industry. It also gives the
necessary objective overview to evaluate the hotel’s financial activity. As the
night audit allows a review of all the financial activity that takes places in a
hotel in one day. Based on that reviews the general manager must determine
how the night audit should be adapted to meet the expenses and profit goals
for the accounting period. The night audit provides insight into how each
department must be monitored to produce an acceptable income statement. It
pulls together the plans and operations of a hotel on a daily basis, not just at
the end of an accounting period. Ultimately, the night audit allows general
managers to make good financial decisions based on current and cumulative
data.
The night auditor has many responsibilities in addition to preparing the night
audit report. This person also must check in and check out guests who arrive
or depart after 11:00 P.M., process reservations, perform the duties of
security guard, monitor fire safety system, act as cashier for banquet
functions, and perform the work of manager on duty. The night auditor acts
as a communication link between the guest and hotel operations during the
11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. shift.
The night audit is not one of those reports that is put on the shelf and
forgotten. Management uses it to verify the integrity of the guest accounts
and to review operational effectiveness, which is the ability of a manager to
control costs and meet profit goals.
There are five basic steps involved in preparing a night audit:
Posting room and tax charges
Reconciling departmental financial activities
Reconciling the accounts receivable
Running the trial balance
Preparing the night audit report.
Learning the mechanical or hand method of doing the night audit, however,
will assist the front office manager in understanding the intricacies of
following a paper trail of guest and departmental transaction. The modern
method of performing the night audit on a PMS will be used, but one should
also be familiar with the components up close and personal.
Students studying hotel front office management may ask, “Why should
the night audit report be prepared?” It offers a massive amount of daily
operational financial feedback that provides an immediate opportunity
for managers to react and respond. The night audit report is key in
maximizing the efficiency of a hotel. The daily figures regarding room
occupancy, yield percentage, average daily rate, and revenue per
available room (RevPAR) provide managers with daily opportunities to
improve a slow sales period. Guests who demand an accurate folio
complete with guest charges can be helped more efficiently as a result of
this process. As you begin your career in the hotel industry, take the
opportunity to review the financial statistics generated by the night audit
report. It will provide a capsule review of the importance of
departmental financial activities and their role in delivering hospitality.
This background will also provide you with insight into the decision-
making process, which, in turn, helps various departments, adhere to
their budgets.
1. The Night Auditor should check the PMS and close all the guest folio
at 12 midnight and simultaneously open new account for the next
data.
2. Individually each guest folio is examined to see all the guest charges
are posted and this is tallied with the supporting voucher present.
3. Checks up the billing instruction of all the bill regarding discounts,
special rates, creditors, travel agency voucher and makes sure all the
billing instruction are followed correctly.
4. He should check physically the cash box and its content. The amount
of cash collected should tally with the guest folio payments
5. The Night Auditor pays special attention to foreign currency payments
ensuring these have been charged at correct officials rates and the
encashment certificate have been made and issued violation will
amount to FEMA violation.
6. The Night Auditor should compile the D report (trial balance) and
ensure the total of the entire debit equal the total all the credits. For
any service delivered with the debit for which payment is not received
at the moments, the same is referred to city ledger (amount due)
7. The Night Auditor should ensure zeroing the accounts for each and
every guest folio by examining physically all the folio.
Prerequisites:
Qualification: A hotel graduate or in some cases a normal graduate
strain of night duty, should be well versed in all front office skills, as
communication, guest accounting, guest complains, managing other
staffs.
Bank Deposit:
Bank deposits are also part of the night audit. In large hotels, bank
deposits are made several times a day to satisfy security concerns. The
bank deposit includes both cash and credit-card deposits. It is
important to note that cash, business checks, and checks from credit-
card companies are received several times throughout the business
day. After these credit-card companies are received several times
throughout the business day. After these to the corresponding guest or
city ledger account.
Accounts Receivable:
Cashier’s Report:
In some hotels, the front desk clerk or cashier is responsible for
proofing and collecting the various departmental daily reports. In
those situations, the cash and credit-card
vouchers are added into the individual cashier’s shift report. Also
included in that report are the amounts of cash and credit-card checks
received for application to accounts receivable. Each cashier’s shift
report is verified by departmental daily reports, cash and credit-card
vouchers, and accounts receivable cash and credit-card check
transactions. These figures must be verified in the daily bank deposit.
The cashier’s report will also note any variances in actual totals and
PMS totals. Usually, the hotel will set a policy regarding the front
desk clerk or cashier’s liability for these variances. For example, if the
actual amount collected is one cent to one dollar less than the amount
obtained in the cashier’s report, the front desk clerk or cashier is not
liable for the difference. Amounts significantly larger than one dollar
will be investigated to see if such losses are regular occurrences.
When the actual amount collected is more than the amount obtained in
the cashier’s report, the extra money will be maintained in a house
fund to compensate for under collections. These amounts should also
be investigated as to regularity and source. Substantial overages and
shortages must be investigated for proper debiting and crediting of a
guest’s account.
Manager’s Report:
The manager’s report is a listing of occupancy statistics from the
previous day, such as occupancy percentage, yield percentage,
average daily rate, Rev PAR, and number of guests. Data such as
these are necessary for monitoring the operation of a financially
viable business. The general manager, controller, front office
manager, and director of marketing and sales will review these
statistics on a daily basis.
Room Service:
Some hotels report room service sales as a separate figure from total
restaurant sales. If a hotel has organized a special marketing and
merchandising campaign to increase room service sales or feels that
careful monitoring of this potentially profitable service is necessary,
then the night auditor will report this figure. Room service 1 may
represent breakfast sales only; 2, lunch sales; and 3, dinner sales.
Banquet Sales:
Hotels with large banquet operations will report the banquet sales
figure separately from restaurant sales. These figures are a total of
the guest checks, which tally the individual banquet charges. The
night auditor will also check the daily function sheet to ensure that
all scheduled functions have been billed. The general manager can
use banquet sales figures to determine how effective the food and
beverage manager is in controlling related expenses for this
division. They also indicate how effective the director of marketing
and sales is in generating business. Banquet breakfast, banquet
lunch, and banquet dinner figures are reported separately because
they provide marketing information on which areas are successful
and which could be more successful. The banquet sales figures (and
the room sales figure) also provide information on the cash flow
activity of the hotel. If the hotel has scheduled $25,000 of banquet
business and $25,000 of rooms business for a weekend, it can meet
various financial obligations due on Monday, depending on method
of payment. The controller in a hotel will therefore watch room and
banquet sales very closely.
Room Rental:
The charges for room rental—these are not guest rooms but meeting
and function
rooms—are reported on special room rental guest checks. The night
auditor will cross- checks these guest checks against the daily
function sheet to be sure the banquet manager has charged room
rentals to the appropriate guests. This figure is reported separately
at those hotels that charge fees for the rental of
facilities when no food or beverage is ordered. For example,
banquet rooms may be rented for seminars, meetings,
demonstrations, and shows. Since room rental represents a
potentially large profit area (especially during slow banquet sales
periods), general managers will want to know how effective the
marketing and sales department has been in maximizing this profit
center.
Valet:
One of the services a hotel offers is dry cleaning and laundry. This
feature must be closely monitored because the hotel pays cash to
the off-premises dry cleaner or laundry service when the clothing is
returned. These costs, plus a markup for hotel handling charges, are
posted to the guests’ folios. Some hotels maintain a valet or dry
cleaning/ laundry journal indicating valet tags, control numbers,
processing dates, vendor charges, handling charges, posting activity,
daily totals, and the like. Transfer slips are prepared to indicate the
charges for valet service. The charges on these transfer slips are
then posted to the guests’ folios. The total of the transfer slips
comprises the valet total for the night audit.
Telephone Charges:
After the telephone industry was deregulated in the early 1980s, call
accounting became a standard practice in hotels. This allowed hotels
to set individual surcharge rates, rates for adding service charges for
out-of-state long-distance telephone service. The telephone
department became a very profitable area in the hotel business. Since
all phone calls are charged to the guest folio, an accurate accounting
of the charges is necessary. In a hotel with a call-accounting system
that interfaces with a property management system, this tally is
electronically obtained.
The gift shop in a hotel prepares a daily sales report for the front
office. Cash register tapes or point-of-sale audit tapes will
accompany the report. The general manager will want to examine
the financial activity of this profit center. This is another area in
which cash flow potential is monitored. Recording the tax collected
on gift shop sales and reporting this figure is a necessary accounting
procedure.
Vending:
Hotels that maintain their own vending machines will monitor the
daily collection of cash. If a facility has a large number of vending
machines, the food and beverage manager assigns one person to
collect and count the money and prepare a daily sales report. These
reports provide the total sales figure for vending.
Spa:
Operating Statistics
The night auditor will prepare the daily operating statistics for the
general manager and the various department directors. This quick
summary provides a review of the day’s activities and the hotel’s
success in meeting financial budget targets. Hotel general managers
rely on these statistics as operational feedback mechanisms because
they provide information on the need to modify existing operational
procedures and offer insight into budgeting for future operational
procedures. Also, these figures become part of the hotel’s historical
operations record. The rooms sold, rooms vacant, and rooms out of
order are determined by assessing the housekeeping module and the
housekeeper’s report. The number of complimentary rooms (rooms
comp) is determined by reviewing guest reservations, registration
cards, and folios. A quick method used to determine occupancy
percentage, double occupancy percentage, yield, average daily rate,
and RevPAR is shown. Room income for the day is obtained from
the total room charges that were posted after a certain time in the
evening (between 11p.m. and midnight) and any half-day rate
charges. The number of guests is provided by the PMS registration
module. The number of no-shows is compiled by tallying the
number of reservations with a confirmed status that did not show.
Not included in this figure are guaranteed reservations, which are
processed with a credit-card number regardless of whether the guest
showed. The preparation of a night audit report can be very time-
consuming. However, with a great deal of cooperation, planning,
and organization, combined with the use of a PMS that interfaces
with a point-of-sale system, the time can be greatly reduced. The
accurate preparation of the night audit report provides an essential
control and communication tool for management.
All 163 rooms at the Taj Residency Bangalore are cocoons of plush comfort
and endearing warmth. Replete with modern room amenities, the rooms at
the Taj Residency Bangalore are perfect for business and holiday travelers.
Taj Residency accommodation reflects a collage of artistic furniture, colorful
tapestries, room facilities, ethnic décor and state-of-the-art gadgets.
There are a variety of Restaurants and Bars at the Taj Residency including
Cafe Mozaic that serves an eclectic mix of Mediterranean, Mexican, Italian,
Lebanese and Indian delicacies as well as regular coffee-shop items and pre-
plated platters, served in innovative styles. The Taj Residency hotel offers an
array of business facilities including a fully equipped Business Centre,
offering 24-hour Internet connectivity, copier/facsimile facilities and
secretarial service. The Taj Residency hotel Bangalore also offers meeting
Rooms and Banquet Facilities.
Category: 5 Star
Access: 40 kms from Airport,
7 kms. from Railway Station,
7 kms. from Bus Stand.
Rooms: 163 Rooms
Cuisine: Indian, Chinese, Continental
Room Centrally Air-conditioned, Room Service, H/C running water,
Facilities: Telephone, Fax, T.V., Safe Deposit, Channel Music
Facilities: Business Centre, Executive Lounge, Banquet & Conference
Facilities, Beauty Parlour, Health Club, Swimming Pool
Services: Doctor on Call, Laundry, Money Changer, Safe Deposit, Baby
Sitting, Valet, Travel Desk Service
Rooms:
Taj Residency Bangalore offers completely air-conditioned rooms
that are cocoons of silken pleasures that entwine you in a smooth
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There are 166 rooms that are categorized into Residency rooms,
Executive rooms and Standard rooms. Each room is equipped with
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Stay at the Taj Residency rooms and unwind in style. Feel ensconced
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Restaurants:
Visit the Taj Residency hotel for a sumptuous dining experience that
would linger on your taste buds for a long time. Right from formal
to casual dining, you can enjoy them all at the Taj Residency
restaurants.
Graze: This is a must visit place with its delicious steaks and
amazing cocktails to tickle your taste buds. The Duo Pilipino band
that performs in the evenings is another attraction at this restaurant
cum bar
Your taste buds would surely love every moment of your stay at the
Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore. It would not be surprising to see
you return for an encore in the near future.
Front Office department in Taj Residency, Bangalore:
The FRONT OFFICE is the nerve center of a hotel. Members of the front-
office staff welcome the guests, carry their luggage, help them register, give
them their room keys and mail, answer questions about the activities in the
hotel and surrounding area, and finally check them out. In fact, the only
direct contact most guests have with hotel employees, other than in the
restaurants, is with members of the front-office staff.
The front office functions can be divided into five general areas:
1. reception
2. Bell service
3. Mail and information
4. Concierge
5. Cashiers and night auditors
two major departments are represented in this list. The employees staffing
the first four areas are in the rooms department. The fifth is the financial
area, where guest charges are accumulated and posted to the bills, and all
cash transactions are consummated. These are all accounting-department
functions, and so the cashiers and night auditors are in that department.