TYPES OF RESERVATION

1. GUARANTEED RESERVATION

In the guaranteed reservation the hotel assures the guest that the required rooms shall be blocked after confirmation. Under this, the hotel agrees to hold a room for a specific time of reservation following the scheduled day of arrival. Usually the guaranteed reservation, the advance deposit is sent through the various modes of payments for the anticipated charges for which the booking of the room has been requested. Thus the room revenue is secured even in the case of no show. The following variations in the advance payment for guaranteed reservation are:

• ADVANCE DEPOSIT
An advance deposit guaranteed reservation requires that the guest pay the hotel the anticipated amount of money before arrival. Advance deposit is partially large enough to cover one or two nights' room charge. This type of reservation is more common in resorts and less in city hotels.

• PRE-PAYMENT
This requires full payment prior to the guest arrival. This is normally the most desirable form of guaranteed reservation. This type of reservation is rarely used while booking rooms in any hotel industries.

• CREDIT CARD
Guaranteeing reservations through credit card are most popular method of payment in the business hotel. It is a form of guaranteed reservation and is customary in commercial hotels. Depending on the financial status and money n bank, the credit card is issued to the buyers/ clients.

• TRAVEL AGENTS
Guest pays the travel agents in advance for their tour package and the travel agent guarantees the client's reservation. In lieu, the agent provides the voucher to the guests indicating the required services that are required to be offered by the hotel. In case of no show, the hotel generally bills travel agencies for payment, and according to the agreement the travel agent must make the payment to the hotel.

• COOPERATE
This is the contractual agreement between corporation/ companies and hotel which state that the corporation will accept financial responsibility for any no show guest. Such contracts are often popular in business hotels and down town hotels.

2. NON- GUARANTEED RESERVATION
Non- guaranteed reservation is a provisional reservation. In this reservation, neither there is any legal process of confirming the room nor is any payment for the advance deposit made. When the reservation is confirmed under the non- guaranteed reservation, the hotel agrees to hold the room until the reservation canellation hour (6 p.m.) on the day of arrival. After the cancellation hour, the room is released and the reservation gets automatically cancelled.

RESERVATION AND SALE

The reservation of a hotel services create contractual relationship between the hotel and its guests. Thus, relationship starts as soon as a reservation is made. In hospitality business the agents are given more responsibility to project the room revenues profitably. Therefore, hotel industries generally consider that the reservation is a part of sales department, though the function has traditionally been the part of room division.

In order to know to sale of accommodation, first of all, reservation section is focused primarily in rooms’ availability identification. The reservation personnel, however, should ensure that various types of rooms requested by the different sources are whether available or not. The main objective of reservation is to maximize the room sales at all times so as to increase the room revenue. After automation of he reservation procedure, accurate and correct room number, positions and rate are informed. Then, reservation agents can review room and rate information for the specific date. As a result, requests for specific room types, locations and special features can be constantly acknowledged and quickly confirmed.

The ability of the reservation section to sell more rooms, increasing revenue, promote sales strategies and improve guests’ satisfaction is often cited as an important justification for investing in a front office system. In the front office operation, the main record of room sales are :
• Room reservation charts
• Reservation forms
• Daily arrival and departure list
• Guest index

PURPOSE OF RESERVATION

Reservation can be defined as an agreement between clients and service providers for the services that are to be rendered in the future. The service is fundamentally related to booking/blocking of accommodation for the visitors/travelers. The guest is greatly benefited once the reservation is done within the premium time. It helps them to get better price and to get a fair deal. The purpose of reservation is enumerated as under :

• For effective planning and to increase the efficiency of the given manpower, machine, money and material.
• To sale the main product of the hotel, i.e. accommodation.
• To forecast future room occupancy.
• To maximize occupancy at all times.
• To avail the best of the facilities at the most reliable rate.
• To save time and money.
• To build a good rapport among the guests.
• To maximize occupancy by the sale of other outlets of the hotel.
• To avoid skippers and business of non-prospective guests.
• To secure payment in advance.
• To help in marketing and sales promotion strategies.
• To maintain standard formats of summary of information.
• To enable the management to estimate the anticipated revenue.

INTRODUCTION TO RESERVATION

The term reservation can be defined as ‘an agreement between the customer and service provides for service pertaining to the future.’ Request for booking of hotel rooms from various sources is received, processed, documented and retrieved at the appropriate time to ensure the guests their room and other services upon arrivals. It enables the management to maintain a proper control. it also helps in strengthening sales and marketing strategies.

In a large hotel this section area of the front office equipped with sufficient accessories and equipments, and ideally with a view to render better service to the customer/guest. Hence, required things in this section are conveniently this section has causally been looked after by receptionists. This section not only books the rooms for quests accordingly, but also performs all activities of the factors affecting reservation, such as confirmation, cancellation, over booking, reservation amendment, no-show, etc. in the modern times all these functions are carried out through the computer network system.