Front Office, 2nd Edition

Chapter 3

Guest accounting

Introduction

It is the responsibility of front office to prepare the guest's bill, present it, and ensure that it is paid. This involves a lot of record keeping, for a guest may incur a large number of separate charges during his stay, from the cost of the room and various meals through to telephone, laundry and entertainment charges.

The process is complicated by the fact that the hotel industry traditionally gives a guest credit during his stay. The amounts involved can be quite substantial: a room for one night coupled with an evening's business entertaining in a top city centre hotel can come to several hundred pounds. In contrast to many other businesses, this credit often has to be extended to relative unknowns ...