Presentation On Reservation

By
 What Is Reservation ?

A Reservation is basically
blocking accommodation for a
guest for a future date
generally, though it maybe for
the current date also
 Importance Of Reservation
• It is the sales point of the hotels major product
that is rooms. This factor becomes more
relevant, since the room is a perishable product

• All the other departments are exclusive

dependent on the reservation and would
become more irrel4evant if no rooms were sold
except a certain extent Food & Beverage which
has an independent role of its own to a degree.
Hence the reservation department is the
foundation stone of the entire hotel operations
in a manner of speaking
 Usefulness Of Reservation
• Reservation is very useful to the guest as it
gives him a certain feeling of security and
comfort to know that he has a room ready
for him. This feeling of having shelter,
which is an integral part of human
psychology gives hi, great satisfaction,
which in turn is the major component of “
guest Experience”- Our primary aim.
• Reservation is very important from the Hotel’s
point of view as it gives the Hotel’s
management a clear, if not exact picture of
what the hotels position may be like in
advance. The Hotel can prepare itself for the
situation I.e if the sale position is not very
encouraging then necessary steps may be taken
to boost the sales. Conversely if occupancies are
very high then operations need to be geared up
to ensure peak performance under pressure
 Sources Of Reservation
1. Travel Agents
2. Airlines – Crew/Layovers
3. Free Individual Traveller (FIT)
4. Group
5. GRAB
6. Corporate
7. Welcomnet
8. Sheraton
9. Embassies
10 Other Welcomgroup properties
 Reservation Segments
• DFIT
• DCONF
• FCONF
• GIT
• COURTESY
• FFIT
• FCVGR
• DCVGR
• DPACK
• FPACK
• CREW
• LAYOVER
 Reservation Hierarchy

Reservation Manager

Reservation Executive

Crew/Sheraton Agent
Arrival List Coordinator

2 Reservation agents Group/Conf Coordinator

Reservation Flow Line
Reservation Agents Receives call

Practices S.G.S.S

Checks Status for availability

Incase Available
Check Guest History & Display Selling Skills

Inputs Reservation

Recaps Reservation

Gives Guest Confirmation No.

Thanks the caller for choosing our hotel

Display F.A.B techniques

 What Is F.A.B Techniques?

Features ,Advantages & Benefits

1. Features are property characteristics.
2. Advantages are the competitive superiority of
the features .
3. Benefits are why features are important that
is what value they have to potential guests.
4. Advantages are benefit statements features
are not.
5. We have to ask specific questions to uncover
guest needs so we can present benefits that
present value.
F.A.B Technique Consideration
1. Advantages & Benefits statements are
sales tools . Features are not.
2. A feature may have numerous benefits due
to the different type of guests we have and
their different needs.
3. A benefit that might be of value to one
type of guest may represent no value for
another.
4. Some features may not have any
competitive advantage
5. We have to questions to uncover needs and
therefore discover which particular
advantages and/or benefits have value to
 F.A.B Example

Advantage
Actually , we are the most central hotel to the
business district of the city
 F.A.B Example

Benefit
• We are a short walk to most major company
offices and this means you don’t have to
worry about finding taxis.
 F.A.B Tips
Offer One Product at a time

Never say we have a range of rooms.

Quoting more than one product at a time
will only serve to confuse the caller and
often lead to a lower rated sale
 F.A.B Tips
Don’t make Value Judgments

Don’t apply your own values remember

the guest called us so we should assume that
they are prepared to pay our rates
 F.A.B Tips
Spend Time Obtaining High Quality
Information

Spending More time doing this at the

beginning of the call will reduce the amount
of time making the sale later in the call.
The Sale Triangle

Making The Sale

Where should
the effort go?

Questioning And Listening

 Status Control

Status control is an
effective tool used by the
reservation manager to
maximize yields in the room
segment by controlled room
merchandising
 The Constituents

It encompasses various
parameters related to category
mix/ rates/ occupancy periods
and provides a guideline for the
sale of rooms on future dates
 Importance Of Status Control

• Forecasting – balancing of peaks/

valleys/ shoulders
• Determining future availability
• Inventory control
• Yield management
• Demand Control
• Obtaining the desired segment
category mix
• Controlling the average length of
stay
• Controlling the transient segment
(DFIT/FFIT) versus the volume
segment
(CONF/GROUPS/CREW)
 What Does It Involve
• Application of Status control rules
• Ascertaining city pressure
• Determining lead time
• Identifying your ABC dates
• Anticipating demand trends
• Monitoring the no show factor
• Defining your merchandising policy
occupancy or ARR Led
• Overbooking management
 Status Control Rules
Property level:
Property Availability can be controlled
with a no arrival, stop sale or by closing all
room types

Room Type Level

Room types can be closed individually or
all at once

Rate Plan level

Individual rate plan can be closed
•Statusing involves a
combination of any
one of more than one
of the above options
 No Arrival Rule
• Regardless of the length of stay
requested space may not be sold in any
room category that is closed on the
arrival date.
• No arrival status is used when you
don’t want any reservations for arrival
on a particular day but stay thru’s will
be accepted
 All Close /Close Rule
• When all the room categories are
closed rooms of any type/ certain type
can be sold for arrival on closed dates

• A reservation can be through an all

close as long as it meets the conditions
of the 50% thru rule
 50% or Sell Thru
• All close :
If one of the categories is open on the
arrival date & at least one category is
also open for 50% or more of the
remaining days, space may be sold in
any one of the categories that are open
on the arrival date.
• Specific Cat Closed:
When a room type is closed, it can
be sold to a guest provided that the
room type is open on the day of the
arrival & on 50% of the remaining
days

This rule should be used very

cautiously
 Stop Sale

No Sale of any room to be made

when the status is stop sale

A stop sale will also stop any

stay thru’s reservation
 Status Maintenance
• When Do I send a No arrival Status?

– The forecast indicates that the hotel is sold

out for the night and cannot accept any
more reservations for the day.
Or
– I am sure of a sell out on Thursday and
would like to build up occupancy on
Wednesday thereby increasing on length of
stay and minimize usable denials from
Wednesday.
 Status Maintenance

• When do I send an all close

status?
– I am sure of a sell out on Monday,
but also know that there is a high
demand for Sunday & Tuesday. By
sending an all close for Monday you
will prohibit arrivals on Monday and
restrict arrivals on Sunday to a
minimum of 3 nites.
 Status Maintenance
When do I use a stop sale status ?
• Stop sale should only be used when the
booking status for a particular date is
critically overbooked. It is
recommended that the stop sale option
should never be used.

• An all close is a better option

 Status Maintenance
When would I close my discount categories
?
By carefully monitoring the booking
patterns one can determine the demand days
easily. Closing the discount cats will ensure
that the rooms available for these dates are sold
at a higher rate.

Bear in mind that there should be enough

demand in the market to support the higher
rates.
 Overbooking (Occupancy
Management )
• Concept of overbooking is viewed with
skeptical concern
• In many cases overbooking to overcome the
problem of no-shows & late cancellations
may produce advantages by way of
operating efficiencies that far outweigh the
occasional inconvenience to guest
• Depending on the No show factor the
cumulative revenue loss can add up to
substantial amount of money
 Overbooking (Occupancy
Management)
• Involves management of various occupancy
categories into which guests are placed:
- Confirmed reservations
- Guaranteed reservations
- Stayovers
- Undestays
- Walk-ins
 Overbooking (Occupancy
Management)
• Confirmed reservation represents the most
volatile group whereas walk-ins are the
reservation Managers delight

Occupancy Management Formula

– Takes into account a no show factor which is
based on trends
 Occupancy Management
Formula
Total Nos. Of rooms available
(-)
Confirmed reservation no show factor
(-)
Guaranteed reservation No show factor
(-)
Predicted understays
(-)
Predicted walk ins
= Rooms available for sale
 Science Of Reservation
ASD Analysis
(Avail, Sale, Denial)

ROTA
(Reservation Office Telephone Analysis)

STAR Analysis
(Sales Type Analysis of Rooms Sold )
 Denial Analysis
– The key to effective control of availability
forecasting and pricing lies in the knowledge of
the market demand for your property
– Demand can only be accurately gauged if a
track is kept of denials
– Demand = Availability + denials

– Identification of regular patterns of demand can

assist the Reservation Manager in the early
establishment of status control to maximize
yields.
 ASD Analysis

• Predicting demand thereby assisting in

forecasting & status control
• Analyses ARR’s
• Analyses rate resistance
• Analyses future status control
• Gauge Public reaction to your facilities …is
it adequate.
• Analyses rate category effectiveness
• How is your property as an alternate
• Is your property a destination property
• Determine corporate usage
• Determine travel agent value
 S.T.A.R.S
• One regular cause of lost room revenue is
unnecessary upgrading due to imperfect
status control and category in the
reservation department and uncontrolled
room allocations on registration.
• The star analysis is designed to assist the
reservation manager in reducing any such
revenue loss by keeping track of actual
rooms sold. Hotels using this system have
the form filled out each night by the night
reception clerk from the revenue reports.
 Application of STARS
• The reservation Manager will be able to assess
how successful are his control mechanisms when
comparing the room sales with the number of
rooms in each category, and if it is in accordance
with the merchandising philosophy of the unit.
• When compared with previous years, the
reservation Manager can assess the business
trends in rack rated business thus assisting the rate
committee in setting new rates.
• The availability of this data will considerably
reduce the time application needed to prepare
budgets and will encourage more accurate
budgeting
 Yield Management Systems
• What is yield?
Revenue production capacity

• What is yield optimization ?

Highest possible bottom line revenue i.e
room revenue – procurement cost – contributory
expenses + derived revenue

Yield management is a tool to find how to sell to –

to whom – at what price & when
 Yield Management Systems
Key Element are:
• Describing The Business
A) Market segments
B) Occupancy Targets
C) Lead- Time Expectations
• Looking For Opportunities
A) Revenue Trends
B) Strategies
• Carrying out Management’ will
implementation of strategies
A) Carrying Out Management’s will
implementation of strategies
 Contributing To An Increase In
Yield
Higher ARR
• React To high demand
• Encourage upsell
• Offer smaller Discounts
• Manage Group Rate
• Close Discount Cats
• Select market segment
• Establish revised rates
• React to demand mix
 Contributing To An increase In
Yield
Higher occupancy %
• React to low demand early
• Open discount rates
• Open low rated room types
• Close Non guaranteed bookings
• Manage oversells
• Smoothen the peaks and valleys
• Build shoulders thru restrictions
• Manage minimum stays
• Fill Group Valleys
 Welcomnet
• Welcomnet is our internal off line central
reservations system which worked on the
basis of sold out statuses sent by each
Welcomgroup property.

• The network consists of 11 Welcomnet

offices spread throughout the country at the
following destinations:
 Locations

• Mumbai
• Calcutta
• Madras
• Ban Cochin
• Coimbatore
• Pune
• Hyderabad
• New Delhi galore
• Ahmedabad
• Vadodra
 Sheraton Offices
Sheraton Reservation sales offices
have been strategically set up in key areas
around the world, giving ITT Sheraton a
network which covers every corner of the
world