A night auditor works at night at the reception of a hotel.
Video Night auditor
Description
The night auditor typically handles both the duties of the front desk agent and some of the duties of the accounting department. This is necessitated by the fact that most fiscal days close at or around midnight, and the normal workday of the employees in the accounting department does not extend to cover this time of day. Work shifts for night auditors usually run from 11pm to 7am, but could vary depending on the hotel. Shifts of 10pm to 6am, or 12 midnight to 8am, are not uncommon. Work weeks vary by hotel as well, with most hotels having a full-time auditor working five nights a week (Sunday through Thursday is common at many hotels), and a separate part-time auditor working the other two nights a week (Friday and Saturday nights at many hotels).
In larger hotels, night auditors may work alongside other nighttime employees such as the night manager, the hotel security guards, telephone attendants, room service attendants, and bellhops. Some larger hotels have multiple night auditors. In smaller hotels and motels, the night auditor may work alone, and may even only be "on-call", meaning that once he or she completes running the daily reports, the auditor retires to an area away from the desk while remaining available to attend to unexpected requests from guests.
In the smallest hotels and some bed and breakfast establishments, the front desk may close entirely overnight. Guests in such facilities are typically given a contact number for an employee or manager, who may be sleeping on the premises or live nearby, for use in case of emergency.
If a night auditor works at a front desk alone, it is likely necessary for that employee to know about local information, events, and other hotels in the area, in the event that a guest makes those kinds of inquiries. This is despite night auditors having to sleep during the day and not necessarily having the chance to frequent various restaurants, bars, or cultural/convention events themselves. When working alone, night auditors do not have anyone at the hotel they can get assistance from overnight regarding these kinds of inquiries. The auditor may find it helpful to maintain a database or notebook binder at the Front Desk that contains list and contact information for hotels and other places nearby, restaurants that deliver or stay open late, transit information and timetables, church and worship information, and other locally-relevant data.
Maps Night auditor
Functions of a Night Auditor
The night audit itself is an audit of the guest ledger. The guest ledger (or front office ledger) is the collection of all accounts receivable for currently registered guests. It can also be defined as the collection of all guest folios. A folio (billing receipt) is the account of an individual guest who is currently registered. The purpose of the night auditor includes, but is not limited to, ensuring the accuracy of all financial information, and gathering all needed paperwork to complete the audit. This will include pulling any or all checked-out guests' registration cards, and making sure all guests are checked-out in the system that should be checked-out.
One task of the night auditor is posting the day's room rate and room tax to each guest folio at the close of business (which usually occurs from midnight to 2 AM). Second, the night auditor must ensure the accuracy of the charges to the guest folios, ensuring that the sum of revenues due to accounts receivable from the various departments (i.e. Food & Beverage, Rooms, gift shop) found on the department control sheets equals the sum of the charges made to the guest folios.
Front desk function
In addition to the accounting function, night auditors may also be required to perform the typical front desk functions during the graveyard shift. These functions include check-in, check-out, reservations, responding to guest complaints, coordinating housekeeping requests, and handling any emergencies that may arise. It is not especially required, but a good habit nonetheless, that the night auditor keep printouts of various reports on paper at the Front Desk (some hotels call these "contingency reports") in the event that a power outage takes place at a hotel.
Night auditors may work alongside a security officer to maintain a level of security during late-night hours for both night staff and guests. In addition to balancing the guest ledger, the night auditor is usually responsible for balancing the city ledger and the advance ledger. The city ledger consists of money owed to the hotel by credit card companies and direct bill accounts. The city ledger also contains house accounts, such as management dry cleaning charges, or local phone call charges which are usually adjusted (written) off at the end of each month. The advance ledger is aptly named because it is a ledger for guests who have sent money in advance to either pay for or guarantee their stay. These funds are posted to the advance ledger when received by the hotel, and then transferred to the guests folio (in the guest ledger) upon arrival of that guest.
At some hotels, there are times when reservations are made for the hotel that exceed available inventory of rooms, resulting in an "oversold" situation. The night auditor is usually the hotel employee that must deal with this if the hotel is still oversold by the time of the night audit shift. If the guest arrives that has an oversold reservation, the auditor ends up having to calm the guest and find them suitable alternate accommodations, preferably nearby, then process the transfer accordingly as per the hotel's standards. This can be a lengthy process depending on the amount of affected guests and length of time necessary to find alternate accommodations; having to deal with oversold situations can affect the time it normally takes a night auditor to do the audit, manager reports, and change of day in the hotel's computer system.
Other duties
Depending on the hotel, some night auditors are asked to perform other functions. Examples include setting up breakfast in the hotel's dining area, delivering express checkout folios to rooms, delivering newspapers to select guests' rooms, laundry, stocking a "market" area of the lobby where snacks and refreshments are sold to guests, walking the hotel property (in lieu of the hotel having security guards), and making coffee for guests on an individual basis (or alternately, pots of coffee for a complimentary guest coffee area in the hotel lobby). At times, the night auditor helps tidy up the hotel lobby area (including picking up trash left behind, or glassware and dishes not left in a restaurant or bar by a guest), stocks up employee supplies for the front desk area, or replenishes guest amenity/sundry items given out complimentary at the front desk. At hotels without in-house technical or IT departments, it is up to the night auditor to contact property support for technical assistance during their shift.
Further reading
- "Witness to Wackiness on the Night Shifts, The New York Times, November 4, 2007. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- Will Murray, "A night in the life of a night auditor", Firth and Fortune, May 12, 2008. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- Alex A. Kecskes, "Working the Hotel Night Audit shift", Nexxt.com, April 7, 2011. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
External links
- Night Auditor information and pay scale at Chron.com
- Night auditor alternate definition at Urban Dictionary
Source of article : Wikipedia
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