Table of Contents
Here is a list of equipment and furniture, racks and cabinets, etc. usually used in hotels run on manual/ mechanical and automatic systems, i.e., non-automated, semi-automatic, and fully automatic systems.
Manual Equipments
1. Room Rack
• Located just behind the front desk.
• The room rack is a wooden framework designed and contains a metallic array of pockets which contains large number of room rack slips for showing the Reservation and HK status of each guest room of a property.
• The Room Rack slip contained in the metallic pockets shows the type of room, the occupancy status of guestroom and name of the guest registered in the guest room.
2. Information Desk
• Positioned at the front desk and used by the front desk agent to track the various in house guest of the hotel.
• Information contained in the information rack are name of the guest, number and type of room occupied, rate of the guestroom and departure and the billing instructions.
3. Mail And Message Rack
• It contains an array of pigeonholes with each pigeonhole used to store the various mails and messages received for an in-house guest.
4. Key Rack
• It is underneath the counter of front desk.
• It contains array of slots used to keep the keys of the guestrooms.
5. Folio Bucket
• It is used in the front desk Cash section.
• It contains large number of slots where folios are arranged sequentially according to room number.
• It is used by the Front Office Cashier to store and track the folios of the registered guests of the hotel and also used to maintain the folios safely for future use and reference.
Semi – Automated
1.Posting Machine
• For posting the various charges in the accounts of the guest.
• Used to calculate totals of the guest accounts, departments and transactions.
• There is a keypad in account posting machines which enables cashier to enter room number and type of transaction.
2. Cash Register
• It is used to record various sales of sundries at the Front Desk such as stamps , Newspapers , Candies.
• It includes a key pad , category key and amount entering key.
3. Wake Up Devices
• It is used to remind the guests of the awakening the guest at the requested time.
• The most famous device is James Remindo Timer which is an alarm clock with pull out pins.
• Simple alarm clocks are used .Wake up calls are recorded in wake up sheet with information of time , room number and name of the guest.
4. Credit Card Imprinter
• It is used when the guest makes a payment at the time of settling the bill.
• Makes an imprint of the credit card used by the guest as a method of payment.
5.Typewriter
• Used for preparing Front Office Documents like :
I. Registration Card Of the Guest
II. Group Reservation Confirmation letter
III. To conduct other word processing job
Automatic
6.Credit Card Validator
• To check the validity of the guest credit card at the time of arrival as a mode of payment.
• It is a computer terminal linked to the credit card data bank which holds the information concerning the validity of the credit card of the guest.
7. Time Stamping Machine
• It is used to record the check in and checkout time of the guest and delivery time of any mail or message for the in- house guest.
• It imprints the time and date on a piece of paper and is important for carrying out front office operations.
8. Fax Machine
• Facsimile Automated Xerox
• It operates through telephone lines to receive and send official documents.
9. Call Accounting System
• It is fully computerized telephone system which allows the proper billings of the outgoing calls of the guest.
• It is also known as APBX known as Automatic Private Branch Exchange.
10. Computers
• It is used for the purpose of :
Reservation
Registration
Accounting
Auditing
User friendly.