After a hotel room is given to a guest, there are times when that room must be changed to another room. Several reasons mainly affect the room change. But there are two main reasons. They are because the guest is unhappy about the room. Other reason is room change due to maintainers’ problems.
What are the reasons for the room change?
Guest requests: If the guest is unhappy with the room given to him, they request to change it. Reasons for that could be things like not liking the location of the guest room, not enjoying the view, not wanting the room number, and hearing more noise because the room is closer to the restaurant and club. Apart from this, there are cases where a guest room change depending on other factors.
Maintenance and Repairs: If the air conditioner, fan, bathroom tap, TV or something else in the room is not working correctly or is broken, if they cannot be repaired or replaced quickly, then a room change has to be done.
Upgrades: This opportunity can be seen more when the guest stays in the hotel for a few days. Here, guests have bought a standard room, but they want to go to a higher room category, so there are times when they request to change the room.
Room reserved: In some cases, the guest is expected to stay at the hotel for a long time on the scheduled check-out date. In such a case, if the guest’s current room is allocated to another guest, the guest will have to be given another room. Therefore, there are times when a room change has to be done.
Joiners: A room change can also happen due to adding an extra person. For example, when a guest is in a single room, if one of his or her friends comes and wants to stay in the hotel with him/her, the room has to be changed from a single room to a double or twin room. In those cases, a room change has to be done.
It can be known that a request made by the guest should do a room change. Similarly, in some cases, the hotel also informs the guest that a room change should be made. For example, a massive water leak in the rooms on the upper floor can come to the guest’s room on the lower floor, so it needs to be renovated. Similarly, if insects such as bed bugs are found in one room on the floor, the other rooms should also be controlled, so the hotel makes the guest feel that the room should be changed in such cases.
How does a guest room change correctly?
- When the receptionist feels that a guest room change is necessary, the receptionist should find out if the room can be changed that day. Attention should be paid to the room allocation and the front office information sheet. When the hotel is fully booked, transforming the room is impossible. In such a case, the receptionist should inform the guest about the situation. Also, the receptionist should inform above difficulty to the front office manager and the duty manager and take further action based on their advice.
- A room change should be made only to a comparable room in the same category as the guest’s present room.
- If a guest decides to stay in the same room for more days than his / her check-out date, as a receptionist, you should also pay attention to the room allocation for the following days. For example, Today, they may be able to extend the room the guest is currently in. However, it is accepted that the room will be given to other newly arriving guests in the coming days, including tomorrow. In such a case, the current guest will have to be changed to a room with the same type and category from tomorrow onwards. It is essential to explain this situation to the guest very well. If the guest would like to upgrade their room to a higher category, it is always possible if rooms are available. But additional charges for guests should be paid before check-out.
- After the room change, the new room number of the guest should be known to the guest. When the guest says that the baggage is all ready to collect, the bellmen should feel about moving the luggage from the current room to the new room where the room has been changed. The guest should get the key to the new room through the bellman. Bellmen should hand over the key of the guest’s previous room to the receptionist.
- The receptionist should notify all departments, including Housekeeping, Restaurant, Kitchen, Bar, Cashier, and Account, that there is a room change. For that, the receptionist must send room change notifications to each department. Below is a sample room change notification for study convenience.
- According to the information received, the guest folio and all other things must be changed with the new room no.
- At the time of a room change, if there is damage to the hotel’s items in the room, if the item from the minibar has been used, inform the guest about it and put the amount to be charged in the guest folio with the new room no.
- If there is lost and found, let the guest know about it.
The above article has explained how to do a room change correctly, and if you have any problem with it, please comment below.