ROOM SERVICE OPERATFION

INTRODUCTION > Room Service is a facility offered by most hotels which provides food & beverage to guest in their rooms. A guest generally order food & beverage over the telephone from a room service menu located in his room. The service is convenient to guest, to prefer eating in the privacy of their rooms for several reasons. 1. Important people like celebrities want their privacy away from public attention & media. Eating in a restaurant will attract too much attention.

2. Some do not wish to dress to go to restaurant to have a meal & like to have the food in the casual wear even in night dress. Generally crew members dose this. 3. They may want to watch a T.V. programme while eating since attractive global channels like latest news & they watch also favourite sport matches. This factors has led hotels to promote special T.V. meal. 4. Many cannot start their day unless they have their morning tea services the pick time service in many hotels.

5. Breakfast can be order the night before through a door knob facility. Breakfast door knob card kept on the pillow during the turn down by evening housekeeper. The key factor of this service is the choice of time. The room service will deliver the breakfast at an appointed time that is convenient to the guest. 6. Some guests private meeting happens in their room & prefer to have their meal in the privacy of their room. 7. There has been a surge of women in all aspects of working. Women are travelling alone more than any other era. They prefer to eat their meals in their room for security reasons. DISADVANTAGES OF ROOM SERVICE > 1. Their room service food & beverage menu is more expensive than regular restaurant menu. While, this is an opportunity for additional profit because of the convenience that the hotels provide by giving food in the privacy of the room it is more expensive for the guest. 2. Guests in a hurry are dependent on quick room service. Unless the room service is professionally organized there can be delayed in services and the lot of guest will be iii will.

3. The challenge for the hotel is to ensure the food is hot at time of service. Since, food is transported from the food service usually located in the main kitchen the possibility of the food getting cold is there. This challenge gets more critical at resort properly which may have independent cottages spread over a large area. 4. The hotel has the additional cost of having staff, space & equipment for the room service facility. The room service order generated was justify the cost of having room service. Room service in many hotels have 24 hours check in & check-outs have 3 shifts, this is a cost. TYPES OF ROOM SERVICE >

There are three types of Room Service. 1. Centralised Room Service 2. Decentralised Room Service 3. Moblied Room Service

1. Centralised Room Service > Here all food orders are processed from the main kitchen & send to guest rooms by a common set of waiters. The benefit of a central kitchen is that the Room Service menu can offer a wide range of item since the main kitchen is epuipped with all the equipment & skill to provide them. One disadvantage could be the time taken to serve the food to the guest room. All hotels structures have service elevators that are used by all sundry. The time taking to get 1st turn can result in an irritated guest over a delay. The other major disadvantage is to keep the food hot, for this use insolated container is done, which further increases the Room Service cost. Resort properties that have villas spread over acres may have a serious problem with centralized Room Service.

2. Decentralised Room service > Each guest floor or set of floor may have a different pantry locate at the floor itself to serve them. Orders are taken at a central point by order takers who in turn convey the order to the respective pantry. Food options are limited here. Limits to cold items like prepared sandwiches, meat platter, blast frozen foods that are heated in microwave. There is generally a water boiler located in a each pantry for the service of tea & coffee. Some pantries have hot cases for keeping the food. The advantages of such a system is the speed of service specially

during pick time. The major disadvantages is the pantries can offer only limited range of food.

3. Mobiled Room Service > This is the one where an elevator is dedicated to Room Service pantry. Orders are taken as a central point & conveyed to the mobile pantry. The greatest advantage is the speed of service. The range of food offered is again limited & only dispensed easy to serve food like sandwiches, pies. Some hotels are able to adopt the elevator for an evening cocktail service where they stock a bar for quick beverage service minibars fitted in the guest rooms, of most hotels. Mobile bar service become irreleveant.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE > ROOM SERVICE MANAGER

ROOM SERVICE SENIOR ROOM SERVICE ORDER TAKER WAITERS BUSPERSONS

CASHIER

GUEST ORDE R FLOW Guests orders on Order taker notes down the order on a K.O.T. (Also tries to upselling) Hands over K.O.T. to Captain Captain allots K.O.T. to waiter Waiter goes to cashier & raises a check Waiters serves the food & enquires with the food if any service is required & gets the check

Waiter returns after 20 min. to clear the tray or trolley.

Waiter deposits K.O.T. with kitchen Waiter picks up food from kitchen announcer assembles the roomor Waiter proceeds to guest tray for Waiter service counter

1. The guest can place the order on the phone.

2. The order taker will answer the phone with in two rings & should wish the guest & offer help e.g. Good Morning! Room Service.How may I help you?

3. She will listen for the room number & immediately consult computer to assemble the name & address of the guest & from then on address the guest by name . Most guest are impressed are being identified. The order taker will take the order in a K.O.T. & try to upsell the order by the power of suggestion. She must repeat the order to the guest to confirm that she has written down the order properly.

4.

Many hotels as a cost measure may require the order taker to do the cashiers role as well. She hands over the K.O.T. to the captain who enquires capitable distribution of the work load to team of waiter. The waiter immediately approaches the announcer to kitchen, handover the K.O.T. to him & returns to the room service area to assemble the tray or trolley.

5. In the tray or trolley sections many has been assembled during the mise-enplace. The waiter will only have add those items special to the order. The waiter picks food from the kitchen & places on tray or trolley. He proceeds to the guest

room at the guest room waiter will knock the door announcing Room Service. He will repeat the drill if there is no response.

6. When the guest opens the door wish him by the day & place the tray on the coffee table. In case of a trolley he places it besides the window. He shall do final adjustment to the cover & asks the guest if he wishes to be served. Normally the guest will refuse the waiter must get the bill signed in acknowledgement that the bill has been paid for. Waiter must not solicit tips & accept if graciously if given> The waiter may then ask when shall I ask for clearance. The waiter shall close the door gently after him.

7. The waiter returns to do clearance observing the same procedure. Most guest leaves their trolley outside the door so as not to be disturbed.

MISE-EN-PLACE > Mise-en-place is the preparation done before the start off service to ensure that service moves smoothly, while the best attempts are made to be fully prepare a 24 hour service like room service may consume the preparation with in the shift itself

there by making the preparation a constant process. This is done by the bus person (or waiters) scheduled to do clearance on that day. The List of duties during mise-en-places> 1. Requisition of fresh linen from house keeping . Issue of fresh linen is done strictly against soiled ones, submitted to the in house laundry or the house keeping part .Therefore, soiled linen has to be counted & categorized in a Housekeeping requisition form that lists the linen by that time & number. 2. Count of service coare including glassware, crockery & cutlery & dishes from Kst. The room service is issued with an inventory of items under each head. These have to be a counted from and all times & especially in a circulation at 3 points > a) Room service racks & preset up area. b) Dishwashers in the KST. c) On guest floors trays & trolleys.

Some hotels do identification mark on the cutlery to separate there item from the others in the dishwasher on the practical side stocktaking may not be possible on a daily basis it is the room service manager who may state. The internal inventory procedure as he is ultimately countable for it. 3. Requisition of supplies from generally store e.g. toothpick, paper napkin, proprietary sauce 4. Tray & trolley set ups which include cutlery, crockery for accompaniments. 5. Sanitation by the KST brigade keep the room service area clean. 6. Polishing of silverware, glassware & cutlery. 7. Requisition of minibar items for beverage store & dispensing bar 8. Napkin folding for service.

ASSIGNMENT > BUTLER SERVICE > In ancient Greece and Rome it was nearly always slaves who were charged with the care and service of wine. The English Word butler is derived from the Middle

English word Boteler from old French bouteiller (bottle Bearer) and before that from Middle Latin Butticula which in turn got modified as Butt an English word, from the latin word Butt Is meaning a cask.

Gradually throughout the 19th century and particularly the Victorian era, as the number of butlers and other domestic servants greatly increased in various countries, the butler became a senior male servant of ahouseholds staff.

Butler is involved in helping the host to conduct the service smoothly. Platters and entrel dishes are brought on trolley and kept before the host to portion out all the items. Often the butler and the assistants take the platters around for second helping. It is also called Family style service. It is a very private type of service which doesnt exceed ten to fifteen guest. This service is generally used for High class establishment, royal functions and balls.

Advantages > Personalised & Good Presentation.

Disadvantages > 1. Skilled staff 2. Increased Costs 3. Suitable for small gathering 4. Possibility of unequal portioning.

ROOM SERVICE LAYOUT >

1. Tray 2. Trolley 3. Dispense Bar 4. Racks 5. Order takers cabin Telephone Computer Room Rack ROOM SERVICE LAYOUT

Racks For Stacking

Racks for set ups

Trolleys set up for service

Assembly hampered Table Soiled linen

Dispe nse Bar