The document describes the guest cycle in a hotel, which consists of 5 phases: pre-arrival, arrival, stay, departure, and post-departure. It provides details about key activities in each phase, including inquiry and reservation, registration, room assignment, guest services during the stay, billing and account settlement, and follow up after departure. Maintaining accurate guest accounting records is important throughout the entire cycle.

2. Inquiry &
Reservatio
n
Arriva
l
Sta
y
Departur
e
Post-
Departur
e

3. What is a
Cycle?
• Cycle
• a series of events, that are regularly
repeated in the same order.

4. Guest Cycle
Every hotel guest has almost the same
steps of interaction with hotel. In fact, all
activities around us are cyclic in nature.
Day- Night, Seasons, Week- Month etc.
Guest cycle helps to understand the
overall work-flow in a hotel.
Cycle is also an indicator that the
work is routine, repetitive and skill-
based.
The interactions have two aspects;

5. The Guest Cycle
Activities
Inquiry
Reservations
Activities
Registration
Room Assignment
Issuance of Room
Key Baggage
Handling
Activities
Preparation of Guest bills
Settlement of Guest
accounts Transportation
Future reservation
Activities
Mail and Message
handling Maintenance of
Guest accounts Paging ,
travel assistance
Safe deposits , currency
exchange
Phase
1 Pre
Arrival
Phase
2
Arrival
Phase
4
Departure
Phase
3
Stay in
hotel

6. Pre-Arrival
‘Pre-’ means, before; so pre-arrival is the
stage before guest actually comes to the
hotel.
Inquiry by the guest and reservation
confirmation by the hotel are the two
most important activities here.
Knowledge of availability of rooms, types
of rooms, rates, features, services and
local knowledge are a must to handle
this process efficiently.

7. • Previous experiences with the hotel;
• Advertisements & promotion of hotel;
• Recommendations from travel agents, friends, or
business associates;
• The hotel’s location or reputation and pre-
conceptions based upon the hotel’s name or
chain affiliation;
• Ease of making reservations;
• How the reservations agent describes the hotel
and its facilities, room rates, amenities;
• The attitude, efficiency, and knowledge of the front
office staff may affect a caller’s decision to stay at a
particular hotel or not.
The guest’s choice can be affected by many
factors:

9. Pre-Arrival
• Interaction between a guest and a hotel before the
guest arrives.
• Reservation is an essential activity in this stage.
• This phase includes :
 Selection of hotel by guest.
 Contacting the selected hotel by guest.
 Receiving of reservation request by staff
 Confirming or denying a reservation by staff.
 Noting of any special arrangement on arrival, such
as wheelchair , airport transfer, extra bed etc.
 Accepting any advance deposit and opening a
guest account.

11. Arrival
This stage includes the following
activities:
- Registration Function, a mandatory
(legal) process for all visitors to hotel;
Indian & Foreign, paying or non-paying;
- Rooming Function, a procedure to allot a correct
type of room, according to guest needs &
budget.
- Opening an account for recording charges &

12. Arrival
• Reception and welcome of guest.
• Registration of guest with identity proof, for
all guests.
• Room rate and Room allotment to the
guest.
• Handing over the room key and key
card to the guest
• Luggage assistance to the guest by bell
desk.
• Delivering the mail and messages that

15. The front desk agent should determine the
guest’s reservation status before beginning the
registration process.
Guests with reservations may have already
undergone pre- registration activities, meaning that
the form may already have been filled and room
allotted in advance.
Guests without reservations – or walk-in guests –
present an opportunity for front desk agents to sell
guestrooms at rack rate.
To sell successfully, the front desk agents must be
very familiar with the hotel’s room types, features,
USP and guest services, and also, be able to
describe those in a pleasing way.
A guest will not register if he or she is not convinced
of the value of renting a particular hotel room.

16. Registratio
n
Begins when the front desk agent extends a
cheerful & sincere welcome to the guest.
The procedure by which an incoming guest re-
confirms his or her wish to stay at a property, by
completing and signing a registration card.
A signature is the proof of accepting responsibility.
To a great degree, registration depends on
the information contained in a reservation
record.

18. Stage 3: Stay in Hotel
The focus of day-to-day front office
activities, where the front desk is
responsible for coordinating
guest services and resolving guest
complaints.

20. A major front office objective
throughout the guest cycle is to
encourage repeat visits.
Strong guest relations are needed to
achieve this objective.
Guest relations depend on clear,
constructive communications between
the front office, other hotel departments,
and the guest.
Security is another primary front office
concern during occupancy.

22. Stay
• Here the guest gets a first hand
information about the facilities and
services offered by a hotel.
• Functions include :
 Creation and maintenance of Guest
accounts.
 Accepting mail of guest and delivering
same to them.
 Handling guest queries and complaints.
 Providing travel assistance &

23. Various guest
servic
e
• Handling guest mail.
• Massage handling.
• Custody and control of
keys.
• Guest paging.
• Safe deposit locker.
• Guest room change.
• Left luggage handling.
• Wake-up call.
• Guest complaints.

24. Departur
e
• At this phase the departures from the
hotel. Functions are :
Preparation and presentation of bill.
Settlement of guest accounts.
Luggage handling by bell desk.
Left luggage handling.
Sales and marketing activity.
Giving a warm farewell at the point
of departure.

25. Front Office Accounting: Introduction
A front office accounting system
records the transactions of guests
and businesses, agencies, and city-
guests using the hotel’s services
and facilities.

26. The guestroom charge is the largest single entry
on the guest account. Additional expenses can be
charged to a guest’s account if he or she shows
an acceptable credit card at the front desk on
arrival.
Front desk accounting records must be checked
everyday for accuracy and completeness. This need
is met through the night audit procedure.
Although the name implies that this process takes
place in the night, this is not always the case. In
hotels with computerized front office accounting
system, the audit can be conducted at any time
during the day. Some computerized properties call
the audit the Day-End process or system update.

27. An effective guest accounting system consists
of tasks performed during each stage of the
guest cycle.
In brief, a front office accounting system:
• Creates and maintains accurate accounting folio for
each guest or non-resident guest;
• Tracks financial transactions throughout the guest
cycle;
• Ensures internal control over cash and credit
transactions;
• Records final payment and settlement for all goods
and services provided.

28. Create
A/c
Maintai
n A/c
Settle
A/c

29. At check-out, the guest vacates the room,
receives an accurate statement of account for
settlement, returns the room keys, and departs
from the hotel.
Once the guest has checked out, the front office
updates the room’s availability status and notifies
the housekeeping department.
During the check-out, the front office determines
whether the guest was satisfied with the stay
(Feedback Form) and encourages the guest to
return to the hotel – or book room in another
property in the chain.

31. The last step of guest accounting is settlement of the
guest’s account.
The purpose of account settlement is to collect money
owed to the hotel. Depending on the guest’s credit
arrangements, the guest will pay cash, sign a credit
card voucher, or verify direct billing instructions.
Account balances should be verified and errors
corrected before the guest leaves the hotel.
Problems may occur in guest account settlement when
charges are not posted to the guest’s account until
after the guest checks out. These charges are called
late charges.

33. Settling accounts for departed guests is generally
handled by the accounting department – not the front
office. However, the front office is responsible for
providing complete and accurate billing information, to
assist the back office accounting division in these
efforts.
Once the guest has checked out, the front office can
analyze data related to the guest’s stay. Front office
reports can be used to review operations, isolate
problem areas, where corrective action may be
needed, and observe business trends.
Operation analysis can help managers establish a
standard of performance which can be used to judge
the success of front office employees & operations.

34. Thank you