Making Room Reservations or How to Successfully Draw a Box

A look at the red room reservation notebook reveals that some of us need a refresher course in making reservations.  This is what you do when a guest says, "I want to reserve a room."

Step 1:  Ask to see the guest's I.D. 
Step 2:  Find the sheet for the appropriate day in the red reservation notebook.
Step 3:  Look to see if a room is free for the two hour time period the guest is requesting.
Step 4:  If so, use a pencil to block out the two hour section by drawing a box around it. 
Step 5:  Inside the box, very clearly write:  1)  the guest's name, 2) the guest's barcode number from his or her I.D., 3) the hours of the room reservation, and 4) your intials.

I know it's true, we are a bit anal about how room reservations are made.  OK, maybe we're even more than a bit anal about this.  But for good reason!  It prevents mix-ups.  If you've ever been here when someone's room wasn't ready for them because of our mistake while scheduling, you would become anal too.  We've let someone down, and they rightfully get upset.  They stare at us, waiting for us to magically pull an available room out of thin air.  It's embarrassing.  It's sad.  And luckily, it's preventable.  If we all record room reservations in the same manner, the chance of errors is pretty much zilch.  Good-by embarrassment and a need for magic skills we do not possess!

So let's all do it like the example below.  This shows a room reserved from 4:30-6:30.  Notice how the box encompasses "4:30" and stops above "6:30".  Notice the guest's name, barcode number, the reservation time, and my initials in the box.

Got a question (or two, or three) about making room reservations?  Ask your supervisor.