How to process a reservation with pen and paper?

We discussed how to take a reservation. The process of handling it might need some extra information. Not every establishment has the luxury of an online reservation system but that’s a topic for the next blog of our training. When writing down the reservation with and pen there are some common mistakes being made:

Sloppy handwriting.
Too many abbreviations.
Piece of paper is too small.
Not having a decent pen around.

All these mistakes might result in a (partly) incorrect reservation being made. This annoys the patron as well as the host or server greeting them when the patrons arrive. You really want to make sure you get things right, so here is how you do that:

When writing down the reservation, make sure you have a pre-arranged list of fields you want or need to fill in.
When writing down a reservation, do this in the same place. Use a quiet area where you’re able to concentrate to make sure to make you mistakes or allow yourself to be disturbed by guests or colleagues.
Having a permanent spot for writing down a reservation makes it faster. You know where your book of reservations is, have a sufficient amount of (new) pens readily available and decent lighting.
Sign they made reservation with your initials or name, if a manager or colleague has any questions they know who to ask first.
Always double check you have some kind of contact information, this can be email or a phone number.
Ask for a mobile phone number so you are able to contact the guest up until the moment they arrive. Anything might happen, so being able to contact them even if they are already on their way is a smart idea.

Personal note:

If a place does things old-school, it definitely has its charm. It usually is not fast and gives room for mistakes. If you have no other choice but write down a reservation, I can not stress enough the importance of having correct contact information. It means you can always contact them to confirm your other information if you might not be able to decipher handwriting, especially if a co-worker wrote it down initially. It’s annoying AF when the person doing the seating plan can’t figure out all information and doesn’t know who to ask. This results in spamming group apps where the message might get lost in translation. Just write in clear letters please, you’re not in kindergarten anymore.

Sincerely,

Den The Man

Sloppy handwriting.

Too many abbreviations.

Piece of paper is too small.

Not having a decent pen around.

When writing down the reservation, make sure you have a pre-arranged list of fields you want or need to fill in.

When writing down a reservation, do this in the same place. Use a quiet area where you’re able to concentrate to make sure to make you mistakes or allow yourself to be disturbed by guests or colleagues.

Having a permanent spot for writing down a reservation makes it faster. You know where your book of reservations is, have a sufficient amount of (new) pens readily available and decent lighting.

Sign they made reservation with your initials or name, if a manager or colleague has any questions they know who to ask first.

Always double check you have some kind of contact information, this can be email or a phone number.

Ask for a mobile phone number so you are able to contact the guest up until the moment they arrive. Anything might happen, so being able to contact them even if they are already on their way is a smart idea.

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