It's 7:40 am. Three guests are waiting to check out, a Booking.com reservation needs copying into the register, and room 112 is calling about the hot water. Between guests, the manager is updating room counts on four OTA extranets. None of that last job is looking after a guest. This post walks through a desk day, what the system should do alone, what stays human, and how to measure the time saved.
A front desk day, hour by hour
Here is an ordinary day at a small hotel, and who should do each job. Look at the right-hand column. Every row that says "the system" is time your staff spend by hand if your software can't do it.
| When | The job | Who should do it |
|---|---|---|
| Before first light | Close yesterday, lock the totals, roll the date | The system |
| 7 am | Hand over the shift and read yesterday's numbers | People, from a report the system made |
| 8 to 11 am | Checkouts, bills and payments | People, with restaurant bills already on the folio |
| All day | OTA bookings, changes and cancellations arrive | The system puts them on the board |
| All day | Room counts go out after every booking | The system |
| 11 am to 1 pm | Rooms cleaned and marked ready | Housekeeping marks them, and the board shows it |
| 1 pm | An early arrival asks for a room | People decide, and the system suggests the fee |
| 2 to 9 pm | Check-ins, walk-ins and questions | People |
| 8 to 11 pm | Room-service orders | The system sends the KOT to the kitchen and the charge to the folio |
| Next morning | The owner asks how yesterday went | The system emails the report |
Let the system do the repeat work
A good test: if a person copies something from one screen or piece of paper into another, the system should do it. Here is what that looks like in practice.
OTA bookings arrive by themselves
A channel manager brings each OTA booking, change and cancellation straight onto your board. Nobody copies it from an email or an extranet, so nobody types a date wrong. Our post on what a channel manager does covers the basics.
Room counts and rates go out without a phone call
After every booking or cancellation, the new room count goes out to every connected channel. When you change a rate, it goes out too. If you use ZimmerStack's pricing engine, its prices go out within the hour, and again when a booking lands. Correct counts are also how you stay reliable in the eyes of the OTAs.
The night audit closes the day before first light
Nobody should sit up to close the day. In ZimmerStack, the night audit closes the day itself, before first light, and locks the day's totals. The morning shift reads the night audit pack instead of rebuilding yesterday by hand. Our night audit explainer shows what happens inside it.
Restaurant bills reach the folio
A room-service order sits on the guest's folio, the running bill for the stay, from the moment the KOT fires. The desk can also raise a restaurant order from the guest's booking sheet. At checkout the food is already on the bill, and nobody re-types a restaurant bill.
Room status comes from housekeeping
The board shows every room's housekeeping state. When a room is marked clean, the desk sees it and can sell it. A housekeeping discrepancy report shows where the housekeeping board and the front office disagree, so you can catch a clean room sitting unsold by mistake.
The owner's numbers arrive without anyone typing them
The owner shouldn't have to call the desk for last night's numbers. In ZimmerStack, the Manager Flash report can be emailed every morning to whoever you choose. It can wait until the night audit has closed the day. The owner's admin app can also alert your phone about new bookings, cancellations and expense vouchers.
Keep the human work human
Automation should give the desk time back, and that time should go to guests. Some moments need a person, and no screen will do them well.
The welcome
A guest remembers the first minute at the desk. Eye contact, their name and a clear answer about breakfast matter more than speed. The system helps by having the booking ready, so the receptionist looks up at the guest instead of down at a screen.
The problem
A guest with a cold shower or a wrong bill needs a person who can decide. Software can record the problem as a ticket and time it. It can't apologise the way a good duty manager can. Our post on tracking guest requests covers the follow-up.
The upsell
An upgrade, a late checkout or a dinner booking starts as a conversation. The person at the desk reads the guest, and the system makes sure the charge is right. In ZimmerStack, the desk adds extras like early check-in, late checkout or an extra bed from a list you set. When a guest arrives early or leaves late, the system suggests the fee from your policy. The desk either charges it or waives it with a reason that goes in the log.
Every minute the desk spends typing is a minute a guest spends waiting.
Measure the hours you get back
Time saved is easy to claim, and almost as easy to measure. Do it before and after any change you make.
- List the repeat tasks. Include anything copied, checked or phoned about more than once a day.
- Time each one. Use a phone stopwatch on two ordinary days.
- Count how often it happens. Tally marks on a sheet at the desk are enough.
- Multiply and add up. Use the formula below for each task.
- Repeat after the change. The difference is the time your desk got back.
Worked example
Five jobs done by hand
In this example, the desk times five jobs it does by hand today. The numbers are illustrative, and yours will differ.
| Task done by hand | Minutes each | Times a day | Minutes a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copy an OTA booking into the register | 4 | 8 | 32 |
| Update room counts on four extranets | 8 | 8 | 64 |
| Type a restaurant bill onto a folio | 2 | 10 | 20 |
| Phone housekeeping to ask if a room is ready | 3 | 8 | 24 |
| Put together the owner's daily numbers | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| Total | 160 |
In this example, 160 minutes a day × 30 ÷ 60 = 80 hours a month. That is 80 hours the desk can spend on guests instead of screens.
The PMS and the channel manager pages show each of these jobs on real screens.
Run a desk on a hotel that isn't yoursDrag stays on a live booking board and watch one rate change reach every channel, in your browser, with no login.Open the playable demoWhat to do this week
- Write down every job your desk copies from one screen or piece of paper into another.
- Time the three biggest ones on two ordinary days.
- Check that every OTA booking reaches your board without anyone typing it.
- Set the morning report to reach the owner by itself, so the desk stops putting it together.
- Give the time you win back to one guest habit, such as a daily courtesy call to every in-house guest.