COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What do hotel guests expect the front office clerks to do?

2. Where is the front office?

3. What does the front office consist of?

4. What does the reservation department provide?

5. What kind of services does the front desk provide?

6. What is the specific task of the booking clerk?

7. How does the receptionist help the guest to check in?

8. What will the receptionist do before he assigns a room to the
guest?

9. What sort of rooms do most hotels offer?

10. Why may the guest ask the clerk to provide an extra bed
for him?

11. Why is there a rack with message boxes behind the counter?

12. Why is there a key drop?

13. Who takes care of the guests’ accounts?

THE BELL SERVICE

When hotel guests check in, they expect someone to show them to their rooms. They also want someone to help them with their luggage. Often guests would like some employee to run errands for them. These are duties of the bell service.

At the head of the bell service is the bell captain. The bell captain’s post is next to the front desk. The bell captain directs bellmen.

The room clerk gives the guest’s room number and the key to the bellman. The bellman escorts the guest to his room. He escorts the guest to the elevator first and then to the floor. There the bellman shows the guest his room. He must show where the light switches are. He must also explain how to use the room appliances: the TV-set, telephone, air-conditioning. The guest may want him to explain some other hotel services: room service, laundry or dry-cleaning.

In many hotels the bellman also carries the guest’s luggage. But some hotels have got porters who must carry the luggage. Very often the bellman or the porter uses a cart to move the luggage.

The bellmen also run errands for the guests. They can even page guests in the hotel. You can see a bellman carry a sign with the name of the guest whom he is paging. Or you can hear a bellman call out the name while he is carrying the sign.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What do hotel guests expect when they check in?

2. What are the duties of the bell service?

3. Who is at the head of the bell service? What does he do?

4. Where can hotel guests find the bell captain’s post?

5. What does the bellman do when he receives the guest’s
room key?

6. What must the bellman show and explain in the room?

7. Who carries the guest’s luggage in the hotel?

8. How does the bellman page a guest?

THE HOUSEKEEPING

When guests stay at the hotel they expect somebody to clean their rooms. The housekeeping department does it.

At the head of the housekeeping service is the housekeeper. He supervises the chambermaids.

Chambermaids prepare the rooms before the guests check in.

The housekeeper tells the maids to general clean the rooms or to make up the rooms. He may ask the maids to scrub down the bathrooms or just change the bed linen and the towels. Generally the maids air the rooms, make the beds, dust the furniture, vacuum clean the floor, wash the bathroom, empty the waste baskets.

Chambermaids use carts to carry supplies: soap, tissues, bed and bath linens. There are containers for dirty linen and rubbish on those carts.

Chambermaids use master keys to provide security for the hotel rooms.

If the guests need extra bedding or rollaways, the housekeeping service will do it. The housekeeping service provides hair-dryers and irons if the guests need them.

When guests check out, the housekeeper inspects the rooms. The housekeeper informs the front desk if everything is in order. He also informs which rooms are occupied and which rooms are vacant.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1155