Priority Check-In Procedures

In a situation where a huge group arrives at the hotel and: • The rooms are not yet ready • There are multiple guests with special requests • There is an overbooking issue As the receptionist, I would follow a detailed, professional, and empathetic approach to minimize disruption and preserve guest satisfaction. 🛎️ Step-by-Step Response Plan: 1. Stay Calm and Professional Remain composed and courteous at all times. Appear confident and in control to instill trust. 2. Acknowledge the Situation and Communicate Transparently • Greet the group warmly. • Politely explain: “We are very excited to welcome you. Due to a high volume of guests and some unexpected delays in room turnover, your rooms are not yet ready. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and are doing everything we can to prepare them quickly.” 3. Offer Immediate Comfort • Invite guests to relax in the lobby or lounge. • Offer complimentary refreshments: tea, coffee, juice, snacks. • Provide free Wi-Fi access and luggage storage. • If the hotel has a bar or restaurant, offer a discount or voucher. 4. Prioritize Room Preparation • Alert housekeeping to expedite cleaning and preparation of rooms for the group. • Allocate available clean rooms to guests with urgent needs or special requests (e.g., families with children, guests with disabilities). • Use a priority checklist. 5. Manage Overbooking For guests affected by the overbooking: • Apologize sincerely. • Offer Alternatives: • Arrange accommodation at a nearby partner hotel of equal or better quality. • Cover transportation to the other hotel. • Offer compensation (e.g., free night stay later, upgrade, dining credit). 6. Address Special Requests • Personally ensure special requests (e.g., hypoallergenic bedding, accessibility needs) are communicated and fulfilled once rooms are available. • Follow up personally when possible. 7. Stay in Touch • Provide estimated wait times and update the group regularly. • Offer a contact number or dedicated point person for any concerns. 8. Debrief After Resolution • Document the event. • Notify management. • Offer feedback for process improvement.

When an Executive Housekeeper faces a situation of back-to-back check-ins and check-outs in a full house, it’s one of the toughest and most crucial operational challenges in a hotel. Here’s how a smart and experienced Executive Housekeeper manages it efficiently: ⸻ 🧹 1. Pre-Planning and Team Briefing • Pre-shift briefing: Conducts an early morning briefing with supervisors and room attendants to assign rooms strategically. • Prioritization: Marks departure rooms and VIP early check-in rooms on the board to clean first. • Coordination with Front Office: Gets the list of expected check-ins and check-outs and aligns cleaning priority accordingly. ⸻ ⏱️ 2. Real-Time Coordination with Front Office • Keeps constant communication with the Front Office / Duty Manager for room status updates (e.g., Vacant Dirty → Vacant Ready). • Uses WhatsApp groups or PMS alerts to update when rooms are ready for check-in. • For early arrivals or walk-ins, ensures quick turnaround by sending additional staff or supervisors to those specific rooms. ⸻ 👩🔧 3. Manpower Management • Splits the team into sections: • One group for check-out rooms • Another for stay-over rooms • A quick-response team for priority or VIP rooms • Deploys extra staff: Calls off-duty room attendants or uses cross-trained staff from public area or laundry for temporary support. ⸻ ⚡ 4. Quick Turnaround Techniques • Introduces “Double-up system” — two room attendants clean one room together for faster completion. • Supervisors perform spot-checks instead of full inspections when time is tight. • Keeps linen, guest supplies, and amenities pre-stocked on floors to avoid delays. ⸻ 🧺 5. Coordination with Laundry and Maintenance • Ensures laundry team is running at full speed for linen turnaround. • Informs engineering to prioritize quick repairs in check-out rooms before housekeeping takes over. ⸻ 🧠 6. Motivation and Morale • Keeps team morale high through short breaks, appreciation, and refreshments (tea, snacks, etc.). • Encourages teamwork and reminds them that “today’s challenge is tomorrow’s success story.” ⸻ 🏁 7. Post-Operation Review • After the rush, holds a debrief meeting to discuss what worked well and what needs improvement. • Rewards best-performing attendants or sections to keep motivation strong for the next rush day. ⸻ In short: 👉 The Executive Housekeeper acts like a battlefield commander — planning ahead, communicating constantly, multitasking under pressure, and motivating the team to deliver spotless rooms on time, ensuring guests never feel the chaos behind the scenes

Volume 2 of how I would use #CustomerExperience and #CustomerSuccess tactics to improve brand experience for popular brands. Volume 2 - Hotel Check In Times Not a lot of people know this, but I worked at MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas for 2 years. It was there that I grew an appreciation for hospitality and how the behind the scenes work is so critical to the guest experience. One thing that jumped out at me during my time working in the hotel industry was how only 20% of the rooms are ready to be occupied at the 3pm check-in time. If we start cleaning at 11am checkout, that's as far as we are able to clean by 3pm. The theory is that by the time the we run out of rooms, we should have more rooms cleaned. So the drip of the rooms being cleaned needed to outpace the rate of the check-ins.  This is why sometimes your room is ready and sometimes, it's not. To ensure that people's rooms are ready at the time of check-in, we could have guests reserve a check-in time in the amount of rooms that we know we will have clean rooms ready. This can even scale based on last night's occupancy (meaning if we didn't sell out last night, then we will have rooms already clean and ready to check-in next day). Guests who know they aren't arriving at 3pm due to flights can reserve a later check-in time. Guests who are interested in complimentary upgrades can choose a later check-in time for increased probability (still no guarantees). Guests who want to check-in during an unavailable time, have the ability to pay for an upgrade to a vacant suite that is ready for occupancy to get in earlier. Guests who pre-checkin online early will have the earliest pick of the check-in times. This is a similar effort-benefit behavior that people who check-in on Southwest Airlines are conditioned to do to ensure priority boarding class. No waiting around the lobby for your room to be ready. This frees up guests who have already checked-in and can now spend money on restaurants, gift shops, entertainment, or more. Less customer service complaints over hotel room wait times. Share your thoughts in the comments. How would you improve the hotel experience? #hotel #hospitality Photo courtesy of Casino.org