ROOM SERVICE OPERATION

INTRODUCTION >

Room Service is a facility offered by most hotels which provides food & beverage to guest in their rooms.
A guest generally order food & beverage over the telephone from a room service menu located in his
room. The service is convenient to guest, to prefer eating in the privacy of their rooms for several
reasons.

1. Important people like celebrities want their privacy away from public attention & media. Eating
in a restaurant will attract too much attention.
2. Some do not wish to dress to go to restaurant to have a meal & like to have the food in the
casual wear even in night dress. Generally crew members dose this.
3. They may want to watch a T.V. programme while eating since attractive global channels like
latest news & they watch also favourite sport matches. This factors has led hotels to promote
special T.V. meal.
4. Many cannot start their day unless they have their morning tea services the pick time service in
many hotels.
5. Breakfast can be order the night before through a door knob facility. Breakfast door knob card
kept on the pillow during the turn down by evening housekeeper. The key factor of this service
is the choice of time. The room service will deliver the breakfast at an appointed time that is
convenient to the guest.
6. Some guest’s private meeting happens in their room & prefer to have their meal in the privacy
of their room.
7. There has been a surge of women in all aspects of working. Women are travelling alone more
than any other era. They prefer to eat their meals in their room for security reasons.

DISADVANTAGES OF ROOM SERVICE >

1. Their room service food & beverage menu is more expensive than regular restaurant menu.
While, this is an opportunity for additional profit because of the convenience that the hotels
provide by giving food in the privacy of the room it is more expensive for the guest.
2. Guests in a hurry are dependent on quick room service. Unless the room service is professionally
organized there can be delayed in services and the lot of guest will be iii will.
3. The challenge for the hotel is to ensure the food is hot at time of service. Since, food is
transported from the food service usually located in the main kitchen the possibility of the food
getting cold is there. This challenge gets more critical at resort properly which may have
independent cottages spread over a large area.
4. The hotel has the additional cost of having staff, space & equipment for the room service facility.
The room service order generated was justify the cost of having room service. Room service in
many hotels have 24 hours check in & check-outs have 3 shifts, this is a cost.
TYPES OF ROOM SERVICE >

There are three types of Room Service.

1. Centralised Room Service

2. Decentralised Room Service

3. Moblied Room Service

1. Centralised Room Service >

Here all food orders are processed from the main kitchen & send to guest rooms by a common set
of waiters. The benefit of a central kitchen is that the Room Service menu can offer a wide range of
item since the main kitchen is epuipped with all the equipment & skill to provide them. One
disadvantage could be the time taken to serve the food to the guest room. All hotels structures have
service elevators that are used by all sundry. The time taking to get 1 st turn can result in an irritated
guest over a delay. The other major disadvantage is to keep the food hot, for this use insolated
container is done, which further increases the Room Service cost. Resort properties that have villas
spread over acres may have a serious problem with centralized Room Service.

2. Decentralised Room service >

Each guest floor or set of floor may have a different pantry locate at the floor itself to serve them.
Orders are taken at a central point by order takers who in turn convey the order to the respective
pantry. Food options are limited here. Limits to cold items like prepared sandwiches, meat platter,
blast frozen foods that are heated in microwave. There is generally a water boiler located in a each
pantry for the service of tea & coffee. Some pantries have hot cases for keeping the food. The
advantages of such a system is the speed of service specially during pick time. The major
disadvantages is the pantries can offer only limited range of food.

3. Mobiled Room Service >

This is the one where an elevator is dedicated to Room Service pantry. Orders are taken as a central
point & conveyed to the mobile pantry. The greatest advantage is the speed of service. The range of
food offered is again limited & only dispensed easy to serve food like sandwiches, pies. Some hotels
are able to adopt the elevator for an evening cocktail service where they stock a bar for quick
beverage service minibars fitted in the guest rooms, of most hotels. Mobile bar service become
irreleveant.
 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE >

ROOM SERVICE MANAGER

ROOM SERVICE SENIOR CAPTAIN CASHIER

ROOM SERVICE ORDER TAKER

WAITERS

BUSPERSONS

GUEST ORDE R FLOW

Order taker notes down the
Guest’s orders on phone order on a K.O.T. Hands over K.O.T. to Captain

(Also tries to upselling)

Captain allots K.O.T. to waiter

Waiter goes to cashier & raises a check

Waiter deposits K.O.T. with kitchen announcer

Waiter assembles the tray or trolley

Waiter picks up food from kitchen service

counter
Waiters serves the food
Waiter returns after 20 min. & enquires with the food
Waiter proceeds to guest room for service.
to clear the tray or trolley. if any service is required
& gets the check signed.
1. The guest can place the order on the phone.

2. The order taker will answer the phone with in two rings & should wish the guest & offer help e.g.
“Good Morning”! Room Service…….How may I help you?”

3. She will listen for the room number & immediately consult computer to assemble the name &
address of the guest & from then on address the guest by name . Most guest are impressed are
being identified. The order taker will take the order in a K.O.T. & try to upsell the order by the power
of suggestion. She must repeat the order to the guest to confirm that she has written down the
order properly.

4. Many hotels as a cost measure may require the order taker to do the cashier’s role as well. She
hands over the K.O.T. to the captain who enquires capitable distribution of the work load to team of
waiter. The waiter immediately approaches the announcer to kitchen, handover the K.O.T. to him
& returns to the room service area to assemble the tray or trolley.

5. In the tray or trolley sections many has been assembled during the mise-en-place. The waiter will
only have add those items special to the order. The waiter picks food from the kitchen & places on
tray or trolley. He proceeds to the guest room at the guest room waiter will knock the door
announcing Room Service. He will repeat the drill if there is no response.

6. When the guest opens the door wish him by the day & place the tray on the coffee table. In case of a
trolley he places it besides the window. He shall do final adjustment to the cover & asks the guest if
he wishes to be served. Normally the guest will refuse the waiter must get the bill signed in
acknowledgement that the bill has been paid for. Waiter must not solicit tips & accept if graciously if
given> The waiter may then ask “when shall I ask for clearance.” The waiter shall close the door
gently after him.

7. The waiter returns to do clearance observing the same procedure. Most guest leaves their trolley
outside the door so as not to be disturbed.
MISE-EN-PLACE >

Mise-en-place is the preparation done before the start off service to ensure that service moves
smoothly, while the best attempts are made to be fully prepare a 24 hour service like room service may
consume the preparation with in the shift itself there by making the preparation a constant process. This
is done by the bus person (or waiters) scheduled to do clearance on that day.

The List of duties during mise-en-places>

1. Requisition of fresh linen from house keeping . Issue of fresh linen is done strictly against soiled
ones, submitted to the in house laundry or the house keeping part .Therefore, soiled linen has to
be counted & categorized in a Housekeeping requisition form that lists the linen by that time &
number.
2. Count of service coare including glassware, crockery & cutlery & dishes from Kst. The room
service is issued with an inventory of items under each head. These have to be a counted from
and all times & especially in a circulation at 3 points >
a) Room service racks & preset up area.
b) Dishwashers in the KST.
c) On guest floors trays & trolleys.

Some hotels do identification mark on the cutlery to separate there item from the others in the
dishwasher on the practical side stocktaking may not be possible on a daily basis it is the room service
manager who may state. The internal inventory procedure as he is ultimately countable for it.

3. Requisition of supplies from generally store e.g. toothpick, paper napkin, proprietary sauce
4. Tray & trolley set ups which include cutlery, crockery for accompaniments.
5. Sanitation by the KST brigade keep the room service area clean.
6. Polishing of silverware, glassware & cutlery.
7. Requisition of minibar items for beverage store & dispensing bar
8. Napkin folding for service.

ASSIGNMENT >

BUTLER SERVICE >

In ancient Greece and Rome it was nearly always slaves who were charged with the care and service of
wine. The English Word “butler” is derived from the Middle English word “Boteler” from old French
“bouteiller” (bottle Bearer) and before that from Middle Latin “Butticula” which in turn got modified as
“Butt” an English word, from the latin word “Butt Is” meaning a cask.

Gradually throughout the 19th century and particularly the Victorian era, as the number of butlers and
other domestic servants greatly increased in various countries, the butler became a senior male servant
of ahousehold’s staff.

Butler is involved in helping the host to conduct the service smoothly. Platters and entre’l dishes are
brought on trolley and kept before the host to portion out all the items. Often the butler and the
assistants take the platters around for second helping. It is also called Family style service. It is a very
private type of service which doesn’t exceed ten to fifteen guest. This service is generally used for High
class establishment, royal functions and balls.

Advantages > Personalised & Good Presentation.

Disadvantages > 1. Skilled staff

2. Increased Costs

3. Suitable for small gathering

4. Possibility of unequal portioning.

ROOM SERVICE LAYOUT >

1. Tray
2. Trolley
3. Dispense Bar
4. Racks
5. Order taker’s cabin
 Telephone
 Computer
 Room Rack

ROOM SERVICE LAYOUT

Racks For Stacking

Racks for set ups Trolleys set up for service

Assembly

Table Soiled linen hampered

Dispense Bar

Service Elevator Order taker’s cabin