Storage and Issuing in Hotels

After items are received and verified, they should be immediately moved to locked storage. The hotel employees should move the items. If the receiving personnel are not available to move the items, the appropriate storage room supervisor should move the materials into storage.

The supplier's delivery person should not be allowed to enter the property's storage areas. A copy of the receiving document should be given to the store room staff for further verification before the items are stored.

Storerooms may contain several thousand dollars' worth of a property's assets. Clearly, they must be secured. There are a number of security procedures which, when implemented, help protect stored assets.

Eg: the locking system for storage areas should be different from that for the guestrooms and public areas. This keeps employees who use master or section master keys in their normal duties (for example, room attendants) from having access to storerooms that they are not authorised to enter.

A policy of limited access allows only authorized personnel to enter storage areas, which should be locked when not in use. An important element in storeroom control is the use of effective inventory procedures.

Perpetual inventory (which involves writing down all items as they are received for storage and issued from storage) could be kept for high value items.

Physical inventory (which involves actually counting the items in a storage area) should be conducted from time to time. The perpetual inventory will reveal what should be in the storeroom. The physical inventory will reveal what actually is in the storeroom. Discrepancies may indicate a security problem.

In additional to departmental inventories, the accounting department should also conduct inventories at a frequency determined by management. Such inventories may vary from a weekly inventory of floor supplies and room set-ups in housekeeping to an annual inventory of furniture and equipment. These inventories should be conducted by a team of personnel from accounting or a department other than the one being inventoried.

Nothing should be issued from storage without a requisition bearing an authorised signature. After-hour entrance to a storeroom should require a manager, supervisor, or security officer to accompany the employee needing to enter the locked storage facility. The key should be obtained from the front desk and should be logged.

The individuals entering the storage area and the reason for entry should also be logged. An authorised requisition for the materials taken should be completed and left at the desk of the storeroom manager.