Hotel Transport Service

Providing transport service is an important service of the hotel. This service comes under the control of the concierge. The transport service supervisor or head driver reports to the concierge. Under the head, there are a number of drivers performing various duties under the Head Driver. Drivers are scheduled on each shift to fulfill the following duties:

COURTESY COACHES

Courtesy coaches pick up guests from the airport and drop them to the airport A courtesy coach is a free service. A traveller will find these courtesy coaches of practically all hotels in the city at the parking lot The coaches follow a cyclical drive pattern to and from the hotel to cover all flights. A cosmopolitan city would have several flights during the day and night The courtesy coaches are therefore quite busy for almost 24 hours of a day. They need to thus work in shifts to avoid exhaustion and possible accidents. Drivers are rotated through the three shifts of a day to complete this activity.

While guests with confirmed reservations are automatically provided the courtesy coach privileges, passengers without reservations may also use the coach with the hope of getting a room at the hotel. Many hotels nowadays have direct telephone lines from the airport itself Tourist-conscious airports provide a section where the slides of hotels ate displayed with route maps, room rates etc. Passengers may call the hotel from the airport itself and secure a confirmed reservation in which he/she will be instructed to catch the courtesy coach. Hotels may even display the coach schedule at the airport for the benefit of the guest.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BASIC CONCIERGE SERVICES ..HERE

LIMOUSINE SERVICE

Ljmousine services are another service provided to VIPs. A limousine is a luxury car driven

by a liveried driver who has languages skills, etiquettes and manners and conversational skills. He is expected to be very well-informed of the hotel and city features and facilities. A VIP asks for such a service at the time of making a reservation. Sometimes limousine services are charged to a guest.

CARS FOR OFFICIAL DUTIES

Hotels also provide cars to their executives on official duties. The General Manager may want to attend a Hotel Association Meeting, the Financial Controller may want to visit the bank, or sales executives may want to make sales calls, etc. Hotel cars are maintained with or without drivers to meet such official.

TRAVEL TRIPS.

Many hotels provide company cars as perquisites to their senior executives for official travel. The upkeep of these cars is the responsibility of the transport service section. The duties include car registration with the authorities, periodic servicing, petrol control, etc. They also respond to breakdowns by linking with the local Automobile Association.

TRANSPORT SERVICE FOR STAFF

Staff transportation is also an important responsibility of the transport service section. Hotels provide pick and drop facilities to their staff to ensure punctuality on a shift Many hotels have exclusive staff accommodation especially when staff is not locally hired. Staff accommodation gives expatriate staff the benefit of accommodation, a perquisite to attract good talent. The staff buses ply at convenient times to cover all shifts.

VALET PARKING

Valet parking is a service provided by finer hotels for their local guests. Parking especially when there are large functions and galas in the hotel can be inconvenient to guests. The transport service section provides drivers (male/female)

for this purpose. The hotel keeps dedicated parking slots for valet parking drivers. While this is normally a free service, the guests do tip drivers for the service: Valet parking becomes critical to downtown hotels that have parking limitations. Valet parking attendants may have to park cars a distance from the property. A valet parking attendant has a serially numbered tag with a counterfoil. He notes the car registration number on the tag and hands the counterfoil to the guest. The main tag is strung onto the car keys which are maintained at the valet parking desk in the porch. As soon as a guest wants to exit the hotel, he/she hands over the counterfoil to a valet parking attendant to identify the car and bring it to the porch. Obviously these valet parking attendants are special as they must be skilled to drive any model of car.

CITY COURTESY SERVICE

City Courtesy Service is another free bus service by the hotel to take hotel guests to the city center. This service is particularly critical to hotels in the suburbs, airports or remote resorts. They want to give the guests the comfort that they are accessible to the city center even though the hotel is situated out of town. Hotels display city courtesy service schedules in the lobby for the convenience of guests. The driver will identify pick-up points in the city (often only one at the city center) at the time schedules of such pick­ups. Guest will have to meet those deadlines to avail the benefit of this courtesy service.

CITY TOURS

City Tours are another service provided by the transportation section. This may be outsourced by the hotel to transporters who are more qualified and certified for tourist trips or run this service themselves.Either way, it is a charged service which includes the bus charges, tour guides and perhaps meals at pre-negotiated restaurants. The hotel may even provide packed lunch-boxes to guests on city tours.

AMBULANCE SERVICE

Ambulance Services are a relatively new feature provided by finer hotels. Such hotels have their private ambulance equipped to handle medical emergencies while. on route to the nearest hospital. This is an integrated service of medical emergency that involves the telephone department, security, hospital, house doctor and the lobby staff. Hotels recognise that highly-stressed executives can have medical emergencies at any age. Retirees are another great travelling public who invest their lifelong earnings on a once in a lifetime world tour. Being an older generation will need medical support wherever they travel.