Explain the responsibilities of an executive housekeeper.

10. A guest walked up to the front desk agent in an upscale hotel, ready to check out. As she would usually do when checking out a guest, the agent asked the guest what his room number was. The guest was in a hurry and showed his anxiety by responding,"I stay in a hundred hotel rooms and you expect me to remember my room number?" The agent then asked forthe guest's name,to which he responded,"My name is Mr. Johnstein."After thank¬ ing him, the agent began to look for the guest's last name, but the name was not listed in the computer. Because the man had a heavy accent and the agent assumed that she had misunderstood him, she politely asked the guest to spell his last name. He answered,"What? Are you an idiot? The person who checked me in last night had no problem checking me in." Again, the agent looked on the computer to find the guest. The guest, becoming even more frustrated,said,"I have a plane to catch and it is ridiculousthat it hasto take this long to check me out. I also need to fax these papers off, but I need to have them photocopied first.'The agent responded,"There is a business center at the end of the counter that will fax and photocopy what you need.'The guest replied,"If I wanted your opinion, I would have asked you for it. Haven't you ever heard of cus¬ tomer service? Isn't this a five-star hotel? With your bad attitude,you should be working in a three-star hotel. I can't believe they let you work here at the front desk. Haven't you found my name yet?" The agent, who was beginning to get upset, asked the guest again to spell out his full name. The guest only replied,"Here are my papers I wantfaxed if you are capable offaxing them.'The agent reached to take the papers, and the guest shouted,"Don't grab them from my hand! You have a bad attitude, and if I had more time, I would talk to someone about getting you removed from your position to a hotel where they don't require such a level of customerservice.'The agent was very upset, but kept herself calm to prevent the guest from getting angrier. The agent continued to provide service to the guest, sending the faxes and making the photocopies he had requested. Upon her return, the agent again asked the guest to repeat his last name because he had failed to spell it out. The guest replied by spelling out his name,"J-o-h-n-s-t-o-n-e."The agent was finally able to find his name on the computer and checked him out while he continued to verbally attack her. The agent finished by telling the guest to have a nice flight. Part II Lodging Questions 1. Is it appropriate to have the manager finish the checkout? Or should the front desk agent just take the heat? 2. Would you have handled the situation in the same manner? 3. What would you have done differently?

11. Overbooking is an accepted hotel and airline practice. Many question the practice from various standpoints, including ethical and moral. Industry executives argue that there is nothing more perishable than a vacant room. If it is not used, there is no chance to regain lost revenue. Hotels need to protect themselves because potential guests frequently make reservations at more than one hotel or are delayed and, therefore, do not show up. The percentage of no-shows varies by hotel and location but is often around 5 percent. In a 400-room hotel, that is 20 rooms, or an average loss of approximately $2,600 per night. Considering these figures, it is not surprising that hotels try to protect themselves by overbooking. Hotels look carefully at bookings: Whom they are for, what rates they are paying, when they were made, whether they are for regular guests or from a major account (a corporation that uses the hotel frequently), and so on. Jill Reynolds,the front-office manager at the Regency La Jolla, had known forsome time that the 400-room hotel would be overbooked for this one night in October. She prepared to talk with the front-desk associates as they came on duty at 7:30 in the morning, knowing it would be a challenge to sell out without "walking" guests. Seldom does a hotel sell out before having to walk a few guests. The hotel's policy and procedure on walking guests enables the front desk associates to call nearby hotels of a similar category to find out if they have rooms available to sell. If it is necessary to walk a guest, the associate explains to the guest that, regrettably, no rooms are available because of fewer departures than expected. The associate must explain that suitable accommodations have been reserved at a nearby hotel and that the hotel will pay for the room and transportation to and from the hotel. Usually, guests are understanding, especially when they realize that they are receiving a free room and free transportation. On this particular day,the house count indicatesthat the hotel is overbooked by thirty rooms.Three orfour nearby, comparable hotels had rooms available to sell in the morning. Besides walking guests,Jill considers other options—in particular"splitting"the fifteen suites with connecting parlors. Ifthe guests in the suites do not need the parlor, it is then possible to gain a few more "rooms" to sell separately; however, rollaway beds must be placed in the rooms. Fortunately, eight parlors were available to sell.

Discussion Question 1. If you were in the same situation, what would you do?