Prepaid Guest, Overbooked Deluxe Rooms, and a Cash Shortage at 23:10
At 23:10, a 74-room city hotel is running at 96% occupancy. Three rooms are out of order because of a plumbing failure, five walk-in guests are waiting in the lobby, and a wedding group has blocked 28 rooms. A guest arrives with a prepaid online travel agency voucher for a deluxe room. The property management system shows the reservation, but the deluxe category is overbooked; the only free room is a suite whose rack rate is ₹2,400 higher. The guest says the booking was prepaid and refuses to pay more. At the same time, the night auditor reports that the evening cashier's drawer is short by ₹3,200, and a wedding-group room has a leaking air-conditioner. The duty manager has one front-office assistant and one security guard on duty and must act without waking the general manager unless necessary.
1. What should the duty manager do first for the arriving prepaid guest, and what should be said at the desk? Sequence the actions and explain why.
Read the worked answer
Acknowledge the guest first and keep the conversation calm. Verify the voucher and the PMS record, then confirm that the reservation is prepaid. Do not debate the rate in the lobby. Because the only free room is a suite, the practical solution is to assign the suite at no extra charge and treat the ₹2,400 difference as an upgrade cost. A prepaid booking is a commitment; walking a guest at 23:10 creates transport cost, compensation, a possible chargeback, and a public review that costs more than one suite upgrade.
Sequence: check the suite is clean and inspected; block it in the PMS under the guest's name; print a registration card showing zero balance due; escort or direct the guest quickly; tell the guest clearly that the suite is being provided at the prepaid rate because the booked category is unavailable. Then record the upgrade reason and authorisation in the shift log, and inform reservations in the morning so the overbooking is investigated. If the suite were not ready, offer the lounge and a firm time rather than leaving the guest standing at the desk.
2. The cash drawer is short by ₹3,200. How should the duty manager handle the shortage before the shift ends, and what should not be done?
Read the worked answer
Handle the guest first, then secure the cash evidence. Recount the drawer with the cashier and a witness, and check the float, receipts, credit-card slips, house drops, and PMS postings. Look for a misplaced envelope, a wrong denomination, or a posting made to the wrong room before assuming dishonesty. Ask the cashier for a written statement of the shift, preserve the drawer and CCTV, and record the exact variance in the handover.
What should not be done: do not cover the shortage from another drawer, do not adjust the PMS or cash sheet without authorisation, do not accuse the cashier in front of guests or staff, and do not let the cashier take the drawer home or destroy slips. The duty manager should inform finance in the morning and let the established investigation process decide fault. The reason is chain of custody: once cash is moved or records are altered, the shortage can no longer be proved or fairly attributed.
3. Prepare a handover note for the morning manager covering the three incidents. What facts, decisions, and follow-ups must be recorded?
Read the worked answer
The handover should be short, factual, and time-stamped. For the guest: name, voucher number, booked category, suite assigned, zero balance due, the ₹2,400 upgrade authorised, and who authorised it. For cash: shift, cashier name, amount short ₹3,200, recount result, documents preserved, and the instruction that finance should review. For the air-conditioner: room number, leak reported, action taken such as room change or engineering call, and whether the room is still sellable.
Each entry needs three parts: what happened, what was decided, and what remains pending. Record only facts observed, not guesses about the cashier or the plumbing cause. The morning manager needs the upgrade authorisation because it affects revenue reporting; the cash variance because it affects audit; the maintenance issue because it affects inventory. A handover that says only 'guest upgraded' or 'cash short' forces the next manager to reconstruct the night, which is how errors become disputes.