Chapter 3 focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the various employees from an entry level to manager roles.It breaks down the departments involved in running a successful hotel. It also dives into how to manage room occupancy and calculating revenues. It talks about the various components of housekeeping as well as offering suggestions as to getting a headstart for pursuing the manager positions while still in college.

Key Terms

1. Application Service Provide (ASP) – Delivers a complete booking system tied to the hotel’s inventory in real time via the Internet. Ex.Hotels.com; expedia.com; trivago.com
2. Average Daily Rate– One of the key operating ratios that indicates the level of a hotel’s performance. The ADR is calculated by dividing the dollar sales by the number of rooms rented. Ex. Sales/ # of rooms rented
3. Call Accounting Systems (CAS) – A system that tracks guest room phone charges Ex. Computer database chart.
4. Catastrophe Plans– A plan to maximize guest and property safety in the event of a disaster. Ex. Earthquake, Tsunami, Katy Perry’s “Firework”
5. Central Reservation Office (CRO) – The central office of a lodging company, where reservations are processed. Ex. Front Desk
6. Central Reservation System (CRS) – A reservation system that is commonly used in large franchises to connect their reservation systems with one another; enables guests to call one phone number to reserve a room at any of the chain properties.
7. City Ledger– A client whose company has established credit with a particular hotel. Charges are posted to the city ledger and accounts are sent once or twice monthly. Ex. Is the accounting of a company that has established credit with the hotel.
8. Concierge – A uniformed employee of a hotel who works at a desk in the lobby or on special concierge floors and answers questions, solves problems,etc. Ex.A private secretary for hotel guests.
9. Confirmed Reservations – A reservation made by a guest that is confirmed by the hotel for the dates they plan to stay. Ex. Confirmation number after booking room
10. Cost Centers – Centers that cost money to operate and do not bring in revenue. Ex. Human Resource Department.
11. Daily Report – A report prepared each day to provide essential performance information for a particular property to its management. Ex. Sales goals for the day
12. Employee Right to Know – Per U.S. Senate Bill 198, information about chemicals must be made available to all employees. Ex. Harsh chemicals that can harm us.
13. Executive Committee – A committee of hotel executives from each of the major departments within the hotel. Ex.The GM, Marketing director, HR director, accounting director, etc.
14. Global Distribution Systems (GDS) – A system that can distribute the product or service globally. Ex. Reserving a Hilton in the US or reserving one in Europe.
15. Guaranteed Reservations – If rooms are available on guest demand, the hotel guarantees the guest rooms on those days. Ex. Walk-ins book a room if its available.
16. Night Auditor – The individual who verifies and balances the guest’s accounts. Ex. A cashier counting out their register.
17. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – Purpose is to ensure safe and healthful working conditions, set mandatory job safety and health standards, conduct compliance inspections, and issue citations for noncompliance. Ex. Child labor laws
18. Productivity – The amount of product, goods or services produced by employees. Ex.A good nights sleep usually leads to higher productivity.
19. Property Management Systems (PMS) – A computerized system that integrates all systems used by a lodging property, such as reservations, front desk, housekeeping, food and beverage control, and accounting. Ex. Electronic bookkeeping
20. Revenue Management – The management of revenue. Ex. Understanding what the money coming in means, adjust for busy/down times.
21. Revenue Centers – Centers that produce revenue. Example: The accounting department of a hotel or any business is responsible for the cost and profit of an organization.
22. Revenue Per Available Room (REV PAR) – Total rooms revenue for period divided by total rooms available during period.
23. Room Occupancy Percentage (ROP) –The number of rooms occupied divided by rooms available; a key operating ratio for hotels.
24. Room Rates – The various rates charged for a hotel room. Ex. $40 per night
25. Rooms Division – The department that makes up the rooms division.
26. Uniformed Staff – Front of house staff. Ex. Door attendant, the bell person, housekeeping and security.
27. Yield Management – The practice of analyzing past reservation patterns, room rates, cancellations, and no-shows in an attempt to maximize profits and occupancy rates and to set the most competitive room rates. Ex. Educated guessing as to how many rooms will be filled regardless of how many are reserved.

My name is Arian Florez and I am currently a student at City Tech. I was born in Astoria, Queens and have resided in Queens for the majority of my life. I identify as Colombian as my parents both immigrated to the states where they met and created the little bundle of joy that stands before you today.
Academics have always been important to me as learning must never stop if one expects to continue to grow. Though I graduated from Flushing High School, I spent much of my high school career at the Baccalaureate School for Global Education where I was exposed to a more diverse body of learning and a more personalized high school experience. The French teacher had an especially large impact on my life because he influenced me to continue my studies in the food industry. Fast forward four years, and I found myself making a decision between taking a business oriented career path or deciding to teach. Whether the business path was the better choice for me is yet to be seen. Regardless, I transferred from Hunter College into City Tech and haven’t looked back since.
I hope to graduate with a degree in hospitality management and from there I will assess my options and likely pursue further guidance in terms of entrepreneurship and all things business. While I recognize the importance of academic accolades such as degrees, I realize the importance of learning and growing socially as plenty of useful life lessons aren’t necessarily touched upon in a classroom setting. Ultimately I wish to be as well-rounded as possible so that whether it be for my employer or for myself, that I may be well-equipped to solve any problems that come my way.
In regards to my strengths, I would say it would be my ability to reflect and recognize that there are always areas I can improve in and always a better way to do things. I feel that I am a problem solver as I try not to just see things from my perspective, and put myself in the shoes of others more often than not. I am of the belief that anybody can say they work hard but actions always speak louder than words and that is why I feel that I just need to accumulate the knowledge behind my craft in order to be as efficient as possible.
Personally I want to try foods from all over the world and just be exposed to different cultures and mindsets that exist around the world. I want to know how people think and why they act the way they do. I want to be able to live comfortably while still being in control of my future. Asides from traveling and overindulging in delicious foods, I like to think I have a great sense of humor and try my best my brighten up the days of others with a little humor. The world is filled with money oriented cookie cutter businessmen, but I feel that my humor has helped in getting to know people, help deflate tense situations, as well as interact with people I might otherwise not interact with if not for business purposes. I want to be able to look back and be proud of not only having succeeded academically and financially, but having done so on my terms. Finally, my desire to travel and open my horizons to the entire world is always a nice way to improve my craft so that I may open my restaurants and other businesses with a better grasp of what the people need as a whole, besides my delicious cuisine of course.