Supervise reservations and booking services

This standard is about supervising the reservation and booking service to ensure the development and maintenance of the necessary resources and procedures essential for operation. It also involves monitoring the service and suggesting improvements and is likely to be used by a supervisor responsible for the activities within the area of work on a daily basis under the direction of the relevant manager.
Taking a reservation and, importantly, being able to negotiate with customers in a professional but approachable way are key to ensuring profitable revenue streams. It's key to understand the organisation's product and offer to the market but also policies on areas such as discounting, overbooking and outbooking if the hotel is full.

As with so many aspects of hospitality, communication with colleagues is imperative, both within your direct team and across the wider organisation. This standard covers the key areas specific to a supervising a professional reservation and booking service.

When you have completed this standard you will be able to demonstrate your understanding of and ability to:

• Supervise reservations and booking services

1. Allocate staff and brief them on duties, relevant procedures and any variations relating to their work routines
2. Make sure staff have the skills, knowledge and resources they need when they  need them and encourage staff to ask questions if there is information that they do not understand
3. Make sure your staff follow the reservations and booking procedures, conduct  and present themselves according to organisational requirements and standards
4. Lead staff to identify different customers and their real and perceived needs and communicate with customers in a manner that promotes a positive customer experience
5. Ensure the reservation and booking service complies with legal requirements, industry regulations, professional codes and organisational policies
6. Inform your staff and customers about any changes to the service that may affect them
7. Monitor the quality of work and progress against plans and take effective action to manage problems that may disrupt the reservations and bookings service when they occur, finding practical ways to overcome barriers
8. Control costs, make best use of available resources and proactively seek new sources of support when issues arise
9. Monitor and review procedures to make sure the service meets the needs of  customers
10. Collect and pass on feedback and recommend improvements to the relevant people according to your organisation's requirements
11. Give feedback to staff to help them improve their performance where appropriate
12. Use effective methods to gather, store and retrieve information, accurately complete the required records and report on performance to support the service according to your organisational procedures

1. The roles and responsibilities of different individuals in your organisation and department and how these affect the reservation and booking service
2. What organisational policies apply to the running of the reservation and booking service and the review of procedures
3. What the organisation's product is and what guest facilities and services are available to the  customer where the booking is being made
4. What the organisation's overbooking policy is and the policy for out- booking guests when full
5. How to develop reservation and booking procedures to meet requirements
6. How to review and update plans, targets, objectives, activities and work performance
7. How to estimate the time and other resources required for reservation and  booking activities, ways of preparing contingency plans and who to approach when you need approval for the use of additional  resources
8. How to implement the relevant requirements of health and safety, employment and equal opportunities legislation and other relevant industry specific regulations and codes  of practice
9. What the organisation's discount policy is and how promotional offers should be handled
10. How to communicate with customers and assess their needs
11. The information you need to maintain and improve the reservation and booking service and how to collect it
12. The different ways of completing and storing records, computerised and paper-based, and the advantages and disadvantages of each
13. How to monitor your staff's performance against your organisation's standards and what to do if performance does not meet these standards
14. How to identify possible solutions to problems and the limits of your  authority when implementing these
15. How to assess whether the relevant requirements of health and safety, employment and equal opportunities legislation and other relevant industry specific regulations and codes of practice are being met and what action should be taken in response to breaches of requirements
16. Why it is important to seek the views of staff and customers and gain their feedback , how to collect and analyse feedback and present recommendations
17. How to give feedback to your staff to help them improve their performance

The following behaviours are provided as guidance to underpin effective performance of a hospitality supervisor

1. You make appropriate information and knowledge available promptly to those who need it and have a right to it
2. You pass on your knowledge and information to support the development of staff and colleagues
3. You model behaviour that shows respect, helpfulness and co- operation
4. You recognise recurring problems and promote changes to structures, systems and processes to resolve these

Effective methods to gather, store and retrieve information include cost- effective, time effective and ethical means.
Information includes from customers and staff

This standard is a sector specific standard and has particular links with the following standards in the Hospitality Supervision & Leadership suite of standards: HSL14, HSL16, HSL19, HSL21, HSL23, HSL24