The Bell Desk or Luggage Handling Department is very crucial part of the Front Office as an Organization. Bell Desk usually plays an Important role during the entire guest cycle. The Bell Desk is situated visibly clear to the Front Desk due to constant communication requirements.
The location of the bell desk also helps in the effective coordination with the front office personnel, i.e. for the Arrival and Departure of guests, to validate Room Discrepancy report, escort the guests to the rooms etc. And the bell boys can also report and assist the security in dealing with undesirable elements in the lobby. The senior bell captain is the in-charge of the bell desk and along with his staff performs various duties and responsibilities.
This Keynote Article will help you to understand Daily Tasks performed by the Hotel Bell Desk along with a brief description of Each Tasks.
Starting From the Morning, The First Task would be “Wake-Up Calls”. So… In some hotels, the wake-up call to groups and crews is coordinated by the bell desk. In such cases, it is the responsibility of the bell captain on-duty in the morning shift to prepare the wake call sheets of all the groups and crews in-house.
The Second Task would be “Newspaper Delivery”. Well, As per the hotel policy, all hotel guests receive a copy of a local newspaper each morning. The bellboys in the night shift are responsible for delivering the newspapers to all occupied rooms.
The bell captain obtains the room verification report or occupancy report (providing information on all rooms presently occupied). The bellboy then marks the room numbers for each newspaper. and also inserts the daily newsletters in each paper provided by the public relations office the previous evening. They then distribute the newspapers. The record of numbers of newspapers received on a daily basis is maintained by the night shift bell captain.
Now, The Third and Most Important Task, The “Luggage Handling” during the time of Guest Check-out and Check-in. Briefly, The Luggage Handling of the guest is done on various occasions such as arrival, during stay (change of room), and at the time of departure. At the time of arrival when the luggage of the guest is moved from car/taxi to the lobby and further to the allotted room, the activity is called “Up Bell Activity”. When the luggage of the guest is moved from room to lobby and further to the car/taxi at the time of departure the activity is called “Down Bell Activity”. The baggage is collected from the room upon request. A left luggage register is maintained in this case and an entry is made in this book. A baggage ticket (which has two parts) is used. One part is attached to the luggage and the counterfoil is given to the guest. This portion details the hotel’s liability exemption clause. When the guest comes to collect his luggage he has to produce his portion of the baggage ticket. FYI… The luggage storeroom must be secure at all times.
During the Day, “Mail and Message Handling” is also an important task of the hotel bell desk, as The bell desk’s function is also to handle and distribute mails and messages received by the front desk in the absence of the guests to their respective rooms. Also distribution or newspaper and magazines etc. to various rooms and the areas of the hotel and keeping a record of the same is done by the bell desk.
Another Important Task is “Paging” as Apart from luggage handling the bell desk is also responsible for paging a guest. The paging is a system of locating the guest in the hotel. Many times the in-house guest expects a phone call or a visitor but decides not to wait in the room, and might decide to go to public areas such as a bar, restaurant. swimming pool, lobby or lounge, etc. of the hotel or may go out of the hotel. In such cases, the hotel requests the guest to tell about his whereabouts through a location form. This proforma may be kept in the stationary folds in the room as well as at the information section of the counter. Usually, it is fill in by the guest but many times it may be filled in by the hotel staff on the instructions of the guest The completed location form is kept in the key and mail racks. This information is sent to the telephone department also (the guest may directly inform or the front desk may do so). The purpose of the form is to earmark the area of paging and save time. In the case of a computer system, the information is recorded on the computer instead of the location forms.
Moreover, Another very important function of the bell desk is “The Collection of Room Keys” from a Check-out guest and depositing the same at the Information Desk or Hotel Front Desk.
The Miscellaneous Jobs such as postage stamps handling, taking care of outgoing mail of the guest, carrying out outside errands for the guest and hotel such as buying of cinema tickets, moving of files and documents, etc. for the guest as well as going to banks, post office and FRRO police station for delivering of ‘C forms’ (In Specific Cases only) etc., confirming of railways/bus reservation, etc. are done by the bell desk. Bellboy shall do the outside jobs only on the instructions of Bell captain. A service call slip will be prepared. Also, an entry in the logbook will be made and an entry in the bell captain’s control sheet, which is meant to control the movement of bellboys will be made. Finally when the bellboy will return an entry will be made in the service call slip and bell captain’s control sheet and will be signed by bell captain. In most hotels these days the bell desk is also responsible for car parking areas and control of revenue generated from the car parking areas. At times when there is a room discrepancy, the bell desk staff helps the lobby manager in checking and sorting out of the status of the hotel.
So, These were the usual functions of the hotel bell desk. A Day in the life of a Bellboy is mostly busy, there are number of tasks and responsibilities to be fulfilled along with good amount of mental and physical stress. most of the time, with the lack of knowledge or learning they fail to progress in their career, So we as their seniors or up-line always need to have a softer side for them, help them in learning, accepting their mistakes and inspire them to progress in their life. Whenever possible, allow them to rest and have food on time to maintain a good mental atmosphere in them! NEVER FORGET TO TEACH THEM. More Power.
