Generating Reports At Front Desk

Reports are significant parts of any institution, especially the hospitality sector, where many check-ins and check-outs are done. Not only that but to satisfy your customers and ensure their safety, reports are needed. You need to know what they like and how they like it, what they eat and what they do not, to satisfy them. It is necessary to understand who can visit your guests, the time they wake up, what services they like to be offered at different times, the facilities they enjoy using, and other vital information to ensure that you deliver the best to them. 

Of course, reports are not needed only for the sake of the customers; reports are also required to monitor the organization's growth. Questions on profits, hotel security, hotel management, worker's welfare, and hotel administration can all be answered with adequate reports. 

While other records may not be available at the front desk, front desk reports are crucial and have a lot to do with customers' and customers' welfare. They guide receptionists at the front desk when answering questions, irrespective of shift, and aid proper hotel administration. 

Significance of Generating Reports At Front Desk

• Operational Efficiency: Front desk reports provide a snapshot of daily activities, allowing management to monitor performance, track reservations, check-ins/check-outs, and ensure smooth operations.
• Data Accuracy: By generating reports regularly, front desk staff can ensure that customer data, financial transactions, and inventory are up-to-date and accurate, minimizing errors.
• Revenue Tracking: Reports on bookings, payments, and refunds help track revenue streams, ensuring that all financial activities are properly recorded and discrepancies are identified early.
• Customer Service: Reports can highlight trends in customer requests, complaints, or feedback, helping to improve service quality and respond proactively to customer needs.
• Resource Allocation: Understanding patterns in guest arrivals or peak hours can help allocate staff and resources effectively, avoiding under or overstaffing.
• Compliance and Auditing: Detailed records maintained through front desk reports ensure compliance with financial regulations and can serve as a reference during audits.
• Problem Identification: Reports can identify issues such as double bookings, system errors, or delays, allowing the front desk team to take immediate corrective action.

Here are some of the reports generated at the front desk and how to develop them.

Arrival Report

The Arrival Report is the one which contains information on guests' arrival. It shows precisely when guests came in and help management make any decisions or conclusion on the guest from then onwards. 

Generating the Arrival reports depends solely on the style of record-keeping used by each hospitality business. A search of time in a computerized business may turn up with the full records and details. It would be a search of the guest's name or an entity search in some other places. 

The Arrival Report, when shown, doesn't come with check-in time alone. It may sometimes indicate a guest's booking status, reservation time and reservation notes, rental and flight information, among many other details.

Housekeeping Status Report

Housekeeping Status Report helps to determine if and when a guest is in their room. This way, housekeepers can visit guest's rooms for routine cleaning. It is easy to glance through and helps in the determination of the occupancy state of a room. How long a guest has been gone may be used to determine how long they may stay away from based on records or the types of beddings they like to have in their room.

Generating the housekeeping status report also depends on the hotel management system adopted by the hotel. However, a significant part of the report is determined at the front desk, where the guest check-in and checks out. 

It is essential to update the housekeeping status report from time to time to maintain its relevance and give information on whether a room has been cleaned.

Bookings Report 

Another of the front desk reports that can be generated is the Bookings Report. The bookings reports cover all the details of bookings with time and payment made. It tracks records from the moment of reservation till guests are in the building. It helps hotels track how well they are doing, the time of the year they have the highest bookings, and how much resources they are putting into works.  

The booking software determines how much information can be gotten about the booking as it regulates the information collected from guests. Nonetheless, the data are often accurate as they provide detailed information. Often the bookings reports come with a label, making it easy to track each booking or the number of days each guest spent at the hotel. 

Stay over Report

The stay over report is a report which covers a guest's stay over records. It gives access to details of a guest's visit and the types of services they love. If a guest has ever stayed at your hotel under a particular reservation name, then you can be assured that you can always have the chance to serves them better when they return. A stay over report helps to tell more about a guest's visiting habit, like the time of the year they love to visit the hotel and their activities when they stay.

   Generating a stay over report can be based on the guest's present stay, and it could contain pending services which they will be offered.  Systems used in the hotel also help determine how the report is presented and what aspects of its acres are granted.

Incident Report

An incident report at the front desk serves to document any unusual events or issues that arise during operations. It includes details such as the type of incident (e.g., customer complaints, security breaches, or lost items), the time and date it occurred, and the individuals involved. Additionally, the report outlines the actions taken to resolve the issue, helping management assess the situation and take necessary follow-up actions for future prevention.

Customer Feedback and Complaints Report

The Customer Feedback and Complaints Report is crucial for understanding visitor or client experiences at the front desk. It captures both positive feedback and negative complaints, offering insights into areas of improvement and customer satisfaction. The report typically includes the date and time of the feedback, details of the customer’s comments, and any follow-up actions taken to resolve issues. This information helps management address concerns promptly and enhance service quality. The report also tracks recurring issues, enabling long-term improvements and providing a record of how complaints are handled, contributing to better customer relationship management.

Departure Report

 Want to know more about the time guests leave? The departure report will give you all of the details. It covers the unit the guest used, the room number or floor, the day of departure, the reservation name, the number of nights spent, and the exact time they finally checked out to leave the hotel building. 

Being the last point of call before leaving, the front desk is also the place where all of this information can be generated easily through whichever means of managing the hotel administration uses. 

The departure report is like a log that tells more about each time the guest left the premises, leaving their keys at the reception to attend other businesses. Of course, it gives the overall access to all of this information only to the authorized persons.

Standard Procedure For Generating Routine and Emergency Reports

At an interval, hotel management needs reports to make decisions and plan for the future. Management could call for these reports each year at a specific time, and Managing officials may need them in urgent situations. Sometimes, reports may just be required to tell the business's current state and how many rooms are available. They may be generated daily, weekly, or at other time intervals. Below are some of the procedures to be followed in generating reports at the front desk

Shift Handover Report

A shift handover report is an essential document at the front desk, ensuring continuity between outgoing and incoming staff. It provides a detailed account of tasks completed, pending issues, and important updates for the next shift. This report typically includes information on unresolved customer inquiries, maintenance requests, or special instructions for upcoming events. Additionally, it highlights any incidents or irregularities observed during the shift, such as security concerns or VIP guests expected to arrive. By offering a clear overview of ongoing activities, the shift handover report facilitates a smooth transition, preventing miscommunication and ensuring consistent front desk operations.

Printing

Usually, at a specific time interval, as required, the reports are printed out. Printing is primarily carried out during the night shift as it is believed that activities are slowed down at this point. Using a digital management system also makes the whole process of printing easier as you can efficiently collate and convert them to a printable format, like pdf, and then print them out for use. 

As there are various types of reports to be printed, it is necessary to indicate the ones to be printed and therefore collate them to avoid mixups.  At this level, the department reports are printed, and each department handles theirs.

Sorting

Sorting is arranging the reports all based on the departments they came from and where they are going. Will you be using the housekeeping status records to tell how much work the housekeeping department has been doing? Will that help you to determine pay-per-room or any other type of thing? Sorting clears the air, and with it, you get clear indications on the parameters for decision making.

In-house Printing

Other than department printing, which can be likened to general printing, there is also the need to print specific reports in-house. These additional reports are based on other necessary things like the room number, timestamps, and others. If you added a new room or created a new session at your hotel at the beginning of the year, special reports like this will help you to tell how well the space has been doing and how much people have spent on it so far. You get to see the feedback as well as the queries and therefore can answer the question of whether to duplicate the services and make it more available or not.

Downtime Reports

Are there other reports from outside the hotel that you'll like to access? Then this stage is the time to go for them. Information about airport pickup services, delivery, events/function planning and management, reservations come in here. In the case of a daily report generation, this is the point where the people in charge of such services are notified to ensure that they are carried out. You know the hotel's daily opening balance as well as the closing balance. The arrival list, as well as special requests made, are looked into, departure time by room number, in-house guest list, rate variance report, out of services room list, cashier status, and out of order room lists are all made at this stage of the report generation.

Filing

The end means of obtaining all of the downtime reports is to be able to file them to the appropriate quarters or utilize them in the way that they should be used. Filing helps send it to the right department, and then the pending issues are taken care of. Required services are also offered and decision-making aided.

Utilizing Property Management System In Generating Reports At Front Desk

A Property Management System (PMS) is invaluable for generating various reports at the front desk. It integrates data from different aspects of hotel or property operations to provide comprehensive insights. For instance, it can automatically generate Daily Activity Reports by aggregating check-ins, check-outs, and guest interactions. The PMS also manages Guest Folio Reports, detailing individual guest transactions and balances. Occupancy Reports show room availability and booking patterns, while Revenue Reports track financial performance from room sales and ancillary services. Additionally, Housekeeping Reports and Maintenance Requests can be managed to ensure timely service. By automating these reports, the PMS helps streamline front desk operations, enhance accuracy, and improve decision-making.

Final Thought

Decisions are an integral part of any organization, and therefore, the reports which would be used to make them should be adequately provided. With digitalized tools and systems, Hotels can generate these reports quickly without hindrances.

Booking Ninjas' Property Management System provides a unique platform and template to automate and simplify guest onboarding into your facilities. We give our clients a unique, one-stop platform to handle everything property management from a cloud-based, globally accessible platform. Be sure to visit our Pilot page to see the Booking Ninjas system for yourself.