Attention! The protel Air upgrade in Summer 2020 brought about changes to the user interface and also to many functions. You can find the updated instructions for them in the new protel Air Online Help. Please note: The migration process is still ongoing. Therefore you may still be able to use some functions as described in this Online Help. For this reason, we will not delete this Online Help yet. If you have any questions, please contact your support!
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[Housekeeping > Discrepancies]
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The discrepancies feature is used to compare the occupancy status of a room displayed in the Front Office with the occupancy status reported by the Housekeeping personnel. A discrepancy occurs when there is a conflict between the Front Office and Housekeeping occupancy status of a room.
Possible discrepancies are displayed in the Discrepancy column.
Benefit: The discrepancy feature helps you to detect room status discrepancies and resolve them as soon as possible in order to maximize room revenue and detect skippers before it is too late. Resolving room status discrepancies in a timely manner helps you to prevent lost and uncollectible room revenues and omissions in postings (for more information see section How to resolve room discrepancies).
In total, there are three types of discrepancies:
Sleep - Front
Office: vacant vs. Housekeeping: occupied
Rooms that have been reported as occupied by Housekeeping, but are
listed as vacant in the Front Office. This may indicate that a guest
has settled his or her account and left the hotel, but the Front Office
staff has failed to properly update the room’s status. The room is
vacant, but believed to be occupied.
Skip - Front
Office: occupied vs. Housekeeping: vacant
Rooms that have been reported as vacant by Housekeeping, but are listed
as occupied in the Front Office. This may indicate that the guest
has left the hotel without making arrangements to settle his or her
account. In properties where payment is made in full at check-in,
or an express check-out folio is delivered before the day of departure,
guests with credit cards on file may simply leave the keys in the
room and depart. When Housekeeping comes in to clean the room they
may mark it as vacant, while the Front Office still has the reservation
checked-in.
Persons- There may be discrepancies between the number of persons per room listed in the Front Office and the number of persons reported by Housekeeping. This option allows the Housekeeping staff to enter the number of persons per room, thus enabling any discrepancies to be further scrutinized.
Call up the Discrepancies function by clicking on the Housekeeping > Discrepancies menu. The Discrepancies window appears.
By default, the list shows all rooms which need to be cleaned (departures and stay overs) - including their respective status on the current business day. Filter settings can be used to change the displayed data in the grid (see below).
By default, the list is displayed in ascending order by room number / room name.
You can use various filters to display the list according to different criteria. All filters can be combined with each other. Example: If the filter option 'Discrepancies' is set to 'Skip' and the filter option 'Section(s)' is set to 'floor 1', all skips on the first floor are displayed (including all of the other rooms without discrepancies!).
Important: Click the magnifying glass to refresh the display after setting a filter!
Filter |
Explanation |
Section group |
Select the group for which the list is to be created. For example Section Group 1 for "AM shift", Section Group 2 for "PM shift" or Section Group 3 for the respective part of the building (depending on how the section groups are used and configured in your system). You can select one or more section groups by ticking the corresponding checkboxes. Additional information about configuring groups can be found in the following help topic: System data > Housekeeping > Sample configuration. |
Section(s) |
Here you can select the different housekeeping sections which are configured in the housekeeping system data. A housekeeping section can be a floor or a hallway, a main building or annex, or just a physical housekeeping area to simplify the process of assigning rooms to attendants for daily cleaning. Simply put, it is a physical group of rooms (which typically are in close proximity to or near each other) that can be cleaned in a specified time by one attendant. You can select one or more sections by checking the corresponding checkbox. Additional information about configuring sections can be found in the following help topic: System data > Housekeeping > Sections. |
Room/Type |
You can restrict the display to a specific room or room type. To do this, enter either the number or the name of the room or the name of the room type. |
Status |
Filter the list according to the status of the rooms with regard to the guest movement (arrivals and departures, overnight stays, and the like). Example: If you only want to see those rooms whose guests are departing today, check the Departure checkbox in the Status drop-down list. You can also select several entries at the same time, for example, to display the list for departures, stay overs and moves. By default, this filter is set to Departure and Checked in (=stay overs), i.e. these two check marks are initially set when the list is called up. |
FO Status |
You can restrict the list to only occupied or only vacant rooms (in regard to the occupancy status of a room displayed in the Front Office). Display vacant rooms only: Display occupied rooms only: Display vacant and occupied rooms: |
Ro. Status |
If you wish, the display can be limited to a certain (or several) room status, for example, if only dirty rooms are to be displayed. |
Discrepancies |
If you do NOT want a particular type of discrepancy to be displayed, remove the check mark from the drop-down list: Example: No person discrepancies are to be displayed - the "Persons" check mark is removed. ATTENTION: Basically the list also shows rooms WITHOUT discrepancies. If you only want to see discrepant rooms, you can sort the Discrepancy column in ascending order by-clicking on the column header. Consequently, all discrepant rooms appear at the top of the list - see the following figure. |
The contents of columns with underlined column titles can be edited in-line:
Click two times into the underlined field for the column you would like to edit.
Change the contents of the field which you have clicked on.
Click [Enter] to adopt the changes.
Field / column |
Explanation |
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Date |
Current business date (not editable). |
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Rooms |
Room name or room number of the room. |
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RT |
Room type of the room. |
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Status |
Occupancy status with regard to the guest movement (arrivals and departures, overnight stays, and the like). This is the same status which is also displayed in the housekeeping list.
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Room status |
The room status indicates the status of a room in terms of its cleanliness.
With a right mouse click on the room you can change the room status. Or mark the room in the list and click the button Change room status. |
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FO Status |
The FO status shows the occupancy status in the Front Office:
The Front Office status cannot be changed in this view. It changes automatically when a guest is checked in or out. |
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FO Status (Icon) |
Shows the FO Status as icon.
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HK Status |
The housekeeping status represents the occupancy status as found by Housekeeping. Housekeeping can set the HK Status to "vacant" or "occupied" without affecting availability. The option to have the rooms reported as vacant or occupied by Housekeeping improves room control and cooperation between Front Office and Housekeeping. If you enter a room as "occupied" which is vacant according to the FO status, a "Sleep" appears in the "Discrepancy" column. If you enter a room as "vacant" which is occupied according to the FO status, a "Skip" appears in the "Discrepancy" column. To set the HK status double-click the HK Status column and then select the occupancy status (Vacant or Occupied) you want to apply to the selected room. Note that only the HK status can be changed from this screen. If the Front Office status needs to be changed then a guest either needs to be checked out or checked in. |
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HK Status (Icon) |
Shows the HK status as icon.
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FO Persons |
The number of persons recorded for the room per the reservation. |
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HK Persons |
The number of persons recorded for the room by Housekeeping. You can record the number of persons that are in a room by entering the figures here. For example, if the Front Office has recorded only one person for a room, but the housekeeping attendant detects that at least two people are in the room, the differing number of persons should be entered here. By default, the number of adults entered in the reservation is displayed in this field. |
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Discrepancy |
Sleep is where Housekeeping report the room as occupied and Front Office report the room as vacant. Skip is displayed if Housekeeping report the room as vacant and Front Office report the room as occupied. Persons appears if the number of guests recorded in the reservation differs from the number of persons found by Housekeeping. Sleep/Persons & Skip/Persons indicates both a discrepancy between FO and HK status (Sleep or Skip) and a Persons discrepancy. Of the two types of discrepancy, a sleep discrepancy may be the most critical that needs to be investigated in terms of the current state of the room and to maximize room revenue. It is important to check any room that is displayed as occupied by Housekeeping when the Front Office shows that the room is vacant. Skip discrepancies tend to occur during the middle of the day when Housekeeping has cleaned a departure room (and then indicates it as vacant), but the Front Office still indicates it as checked in as the guest did not officially check out upon departure. |
The occupancy status for the FO- and HK status is always set on the basis of the occupancy status with regard to the guest movement (arrivals and departures, overnight stays, etc.) - see following table:
Status |
FO/HK-Status is set to: |
Arrival |
Vacant |
Checked In |
Occupied |
Inhouse/Stay |
Occupied |
Departure |
Occupied |
Checked Out |
Vacant |
Move Out |
Vacant |
Move In |
Occupied |
You can change the room status of a room by selecting the room in the grid, clicking the Change room status button and selecting the desired room status from the list - see the following figure.
As in any active list, you can resize and rearrange the columns as you like - see the following help topic:
Elements & functions > Column settings
Tip: When saving the current list view, the filter settings you have made are also saved!
You can print the contents of the window as displayed on the screen.
Select the down arrow in the column header of any column in the grid and then select the Print command.
Click on Print as PDF file and protel Air creates a PDF which opens in a new browser tab.
Click on Print as Excel file and protel Air generates an Excel file which is automatically downloaded to the default download directory of your browser.
Use the following user rights to manage the admittance of users to the discrepancies functions. These rights are automatically included in the pAir Front Office role, which gives the users access to all Front Office functions by default (including newly developed ones).
User right |
Explanation |
PAirAccessHSKDiscrepancies |
This user right is required to access the Discrepancies dialog (Housekeeping > Discrepancies). Remove this permission if you do not want the logged-on user to be able to access this function. |
PAirHSKDiscChangeHousekeepingStatus |
Allows the user to edit the occupancy status in the HK Status column. |
PAirHSKDiscChangeHousekeepingPerson |
Allows the user to edit the number of persons in the HK Persons column. |
Any room discrepancies that occur are recorded in the Action Log. The following actions are logged in detail:
Changes to the occupancy status in the HK Status column
Changes to the number of persons in the column HK Persons
Changes to the HK Status or HK Persons will display the original value and the new value it was changed to.
Discrepancies are resolved in coordination between Housekeeping and Front Office staff by finding out the reason for such a difference.
Skip room statuses are corrected automatically if the guest is checking out today. Skip rooms that are not scheduled to depart need to be rechecked to ensure they are vacant. Once the correct status of the room has been determined, check it out if it is vacant, or change the status to occupied.
To resolve Skip rooms, investigate the discrepancy and have the Front Office check the guest out or update the HK status to occupied.
To resolve Sleep rooms, investigate the discrepancy and have the Front Office reinstate the guest or update the HK status to vacant.