Night Audit:-

night auditors may work alongside other

nighttime employees, such as security officers,
telephone attendants, room service attendants,
and bellhops.

Functions of the night audit:

a) Verify posted entries to guest and non-guest accounts

b) Balance all front office accounts
c) Resolve room status and rate discrepancies
d) Monitor guest credit limits
e) Produce operational and managerial reports

Working process of the night audit:

• The night audit requires attention to accounting detail,
procedural controls, and guest credit restrictions. In this
sense, the night auditor shall track room revenues, occupancy
percentages, and other standard operating statistics. He/she
shall, also, prepare a daily summary of cash, check, and
credit card activities that occurred in the front office
department on a daily basis.

• In night auditing, end of the business day is a vital time for

the auditor. As far as the closing of business day is
concerned, management shall determine the end of day,
which is the time after which the night audit can prepare
his/her daily Reports. This end of day is usually the time
where the majority of outlets close or no more have frequent
activity.
 • The night auditor shall always compare the data conveyed in
different folios against points of sales outlets daily reports,
housekeeping room status report…This is called cross-
referencing, and is a vital procedure in the internal control.

• After comparing, the night auditor should come up with the

guest, non-guest, and departmental accounts. This total
should match the daily POS totals (i.e. in balance). If not,
then the auditor is said to be out-of-balance, and the night
auditor shall substantially review all account statements,
vouchers, support documents, and departmental source of
documentation in order to bring the audit to balance.

• The night audit shall compare all credit limits of guests and
non-guests accounts with credit card floor limits, hotel's
house limit, guest's status and reputation. If high balance
accounts (i.e. balances for which the guest or non-guest limits
are very near to an established limit) are detected, the night
auditor shall note and report this to management the
following day.

• Under the manual, a daily transcript and a supplementary

transcript are used to track daily transactions of guest and
non-guest accounts respectively. Hotels operating under
semi-automated systems use D-Cards for the same purpose.

Operating Modes of night auditing:

1. Non-automated system: under this very system, 4

forms are widely used, which are:
a) Daily and supplementary transcripts
b) Guest and non-Guest folios
c) Front office cash sheets
d) Audit recapitulation sheets
2. Semi-automated system:
The audit of guest and non-guest accounts is ensured mostly
through mechanical or electronic posting machines. The most
important form obtained under this very system is the D
Card.

3. Fully-automated system:
This very system is the best compared to manual and semi-
automated systems. In fact, this system can be interfaced with
point of sale terminals, call accounting systems, and other revenue
centers for quick, accurate and automatic postings to electronic
guest and non-guest account folios. This very fact enables the night
auditor to concentrate more on auditing transactions and analyzing
front office activities.

Night Audit Process:

1. Discovery and correction of front office accounting errors
ensured through the cross-referencing process.
2. Creation of accounting and managerial reports including audit
balance, average rate, occupancy percentage, usage of package
plans and other marketing programs, and the number of group
rooms and complementary rooms occupied.

Verifying the Night Audit:

Most of the errors encountered in the night audit process stem from
the fact that the hotel is not operating under fully automated
system.
The widely occurring errors in the night audit process can have the
form of:
 a) Pickup errors
b) Transposition errors
c) Missing folios

Baggage Storage Service

passenger can store luggage after leaving their
hotels, during day trips one visit where he/she
want to visit destination point or a person who
want to go for meeting.

When possible, use your hotel.

The simplest way to store luggage is to leave it with your hotel's
front desk. Nearly all hotels will hold bags for a few hours before
you check in or after you check out. Some hotel use to fill up a
form for this service gave a token to the guest, so it could become
easy for them.
At smaller hotels, you can simply leave bags with the receptionist;
at larger or more expensive hotels, you'll need to store bags with
the concierge or luggage porter (who should be tipped for the
service).
Example of the hotel which they are providing this kind of
service:-
• Venice Airport Hotels
• Venice Railway Station Hotels
• Venice Cruise Terminal Hotels
• Most of Manhattan's finer hotels have a luggage
storage room. If your hotel does not store luggage, you
might ask the concierge of a nearby one that does. You
might also find that a generous tip can possibly help
find you a solution if the hotel clerk hasn't got an
answer. However, less expensive hotels might not be of
any help at all, at which point you need to consider
other options.
• On a similar note, if you just stepped off a cruise ship
and have eight hours before your flight, what to do? If
you are the persuasive sort and well-dressed, you likely
could store your luggage at a four-star hotel simply by
approaching the concierge. Again, a generous tip would
be in order, in addition to any fee the hotel might
charge.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_auditor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averagedaily_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/left_luggage