The Hospitality Solutions Team - THST

PURCHASES & SUPPLIES

MENU PLANNING

EGGS VARIETY

NUTRITION & DIET

Stocks, Soups & Sauces

KITCHEN OPERATIONS

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Front Office techniques

HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT

A fundamental characteristic that can significantly enhance your employability is having a genuine thirst for knowledge and personal development.

How you respond when faced with novel and demanding situations and assignments will ultimately determine the doors that swing open before you.

The greater your eagerness to learn, the wider the array of opportunities that will be bestowed upon you.

Remember, a hunger for growth not only enriches your skillset but also makes you a captivating and sought-after candidate in the professional world. So, embrace every chance to learn, and watch as countless doors of possibility unfurl right in front of you

RESERVATION PROCEDURES

Coffee Specialties

Classic Cocktails

WINE & FOOD HARMONY

BEERS🍺

Bar Management

GLASSWARE WIPING AND POLISHING:

1. Prepare hot water.
2. Fill up 25% of the soaking pan or wine cooler with boiling water. (Water need to be Changed if it gets cold).
3. Prepare a dry and cleaned glass cloth.
4. Hold the glass stem / bottom with one end of the cloth over the hot water and let the steam surround the glass.
5. Insert one corner of the glass cloth, bunched into the glass end.
6. Put the right-hand thumb into the glass and the fingers outside the glass.
7. Move the glass cloth clockwise to polish.
8. Put all polished glasses upside down on the tray.
9. Always hold the glass at the stem or bottom
Cutlery Wiping and Polishing:
1. Prepare hot water.
2. Fill up 25% of the soaking pan or wine cooler with boiling water. (Water need to be Changed if it gets cold).
3. Prepare a dry and cleaned wiping cloth.
4. Put cutlery in the hot water with the handle up.
5. Group different types of cutleries in order.
6. Hold the handle of the cutlery and dip it in to hot water.
7. Fold the cloth into half, put left end of the cloth on the right hand.
8. Hold the cutlery handle with the left hand using the cloth.
9. Use another end of glass cloth to polish cutlery.
10. The handle is to be polished last before putting it on the clean tray.
11. Once polished, don't touch the cutlery.
Important Points to note before service:
• Glassware must be free of chips, stains, dirt or water marks.
• Silver and flatware must not be tarnished, broken, flaked, worn, damaged or dented in any way.
• Never give a warm glass to guest.
• Silverware must not be used if crooked.

Food presentation

The food & beverages service cadres

NEW YEAR'S EVE COUNTDOWN PARTY
Venue: The White Castle
𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞:-
𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐃𝐉
𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝
𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬
𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫
Saturday 31st December, from 5pm

Why hotel auditors miss the mark

I recently watched a documentary on fraud and why the auditors were unable to detect anything even when they were right on top of what was so obvious to the person featured in the interview. The narrator also explained very clearly that the audit function is set up to fail.

This piece is about what hotel auditors do and what they really should be looking at to find inconsistencies that lead to detecting financial problems in the hotel.

Auditors are set up to fail because they are so green. I remember we had a revolving door of both internal and external auditors at the hotel for what seemed like years. Funny thing is other than the head guy the staff was always new. The audit function is the very first job these people get out of school and they are super green, even wet behind the ears.

On one audit visit, the auditor was tasked with sampling the inventory counts so he asked where the main kitchen was and in particular the “butcher shop.”I replied, “It’s just upstairs. Let’s go visit and see if Desmond is there.”

Sure enough we went to butcher shop in the main kitchen and Desmond and his team were busy ripping apart chickens for a banquet later that day. The inventory was counted the night before, and we were to spot check. This was not Desmond’s first rodeo and he knew just by looking at us what the deal was.

The auditor had the count sheets and asked where the 200 kilo’s of beef tenderloin totaling $4,900 were. Desmond playing the part and looked puzzled then said, “Follow me.”

He took us into one of the large walk-in coolers and he opened a non-descript brown box and pulled out a side of smoked salmon and said here is the lot, we have 20 boxes in total. With this stunning substitution the auditor looked at the boxes and simply said thanks. Desmond was grinning from ear to ear.

The auditor seemingly did not even know the difference between salmon and beef. I think he was just so stunned to be in a busy production kitchen with a wild-eyed Portuguese man with a knife in his hands and did not want to ask any stupid questions.

But this example is just what is missing with the audit function. Auditors need to be able to smell when something is off and then dig until they satisfy their curiosity or until they find a smoking gun.

Auditors that I have been exposed to always do the same tests, they never do anything unexpected. They follow a reservation with a deposit that becomes a liability to the arrival, and then they track the folio and room charges up until settlement on a credit card, and then it is following the credit card as it becomes cash in the bank. Same with a purchase order, next it is verifying its receipt, then it is accounts payable and off to the bank as a credit. They test the inventory counts, count some floats, send some accounts receivable letters and maybe they look at the payroll and HR process to see that new employees are properly approved. But that is about it.

What they should be checking to find a smelly sock or a potentially smoking gun is right under their noses. But like the saying goes, “They don’t know what they don’t know.” They could just for fun check some of the following areas with a focus on certain potentially softer targets:

Expense reports – Grab the GM’s, the DOS’s, and the Controller’s files and sift through what the big shots are doing and spending the hotel’s cash on.

The Bank Reconciliation – This is the “grand puba” of places to park a pile of dung. What is outstanding and why? Does it even reconcile? How well set up are the accounts and what is happening each month? Does the hotel reconcile its cash and credit cards daily? That is like a doctor checking your blood pressure, too high and something is wrong.

Cost of Sales – Why is the beverage cost 30 percent, what should it be? A simple test of the menu prices and point of sales volumes compared to some costings tells us what the potential beverage cost should be. Alas, it should be under 25 percent. Five points on three million dollars a year in beverage sales means $150K is up for grabs. Now, that would be useful information that could get some heads rolling.

Look at the accruals – I knew a Controller that was famous for making his forecasted GOP almost every month. Does that sound to good to be true? Yes, it does! Dig through the backup and make sure everything submitted is included and objective. How much are we cooking the books?

What about the rebates, voids and paid outs? – Auditors do not even know what these are. If there is a constant drip of voids in the F&B outlets there is a problem. If the desk is rebating room revenue because of seemingly noisy or cold rooms, there is a problem underneath the surface.

Accounts receivable sundry and accounts payable sundry balance sheet accounts – In hotels these are the clearing houses for bad transactions. What package inclusions are we paying for and what revenue came in, do they balance or is the hotel losing its shirt? These accounts and their use are like the barometer of the hotel’s operating accounting health.

How about checking a stack of BEOs vs. the actual banquet bills and customer invoices? – Did the banquet team post everything? What was missed? This again is a very telling sample that points to big problems. While you are there check the average number of days out the BEOs are published. If it is too short then many other things are problematic; like cost of sales and labor planning.

The list of places to look is vast. Full-service hotels are large and extremely complex.

Understanding how they function and what to look for takes experience, and detecting problems that owners and stakeholders want to know about means you need to be properly testing the areas that are most problematic.
I think the cartoon sums it up nicely:

REVITALIZING YOUR GUESTS’ TRUST & CONFIDENCE

With employees arguably being the most valuable asset and prevalent ambassadors, it’s important to;

• Reassure & restore fractured relationships
• Boast moral with effective employee engagement
• Encourage transparent and frequent communication
• Invest with time, energy and resource

There’s need to always treat employees, exactly the way we want them to treat our clients, they will not value clients if they don’t feel valued

This comes about through promotion of;
• Fun
• Recognition & reward
• Encouragement
• Positive organizational culture
• Purpose

Another important aspect of this process is the recruitment of suitable candidates with the right qualifications and experience but above, excellence will require special traits, life skills or soft skills such as;
• Passion …..with team ethos
• Potential/trainable …to grow with business
• Personality ….with I can do attitude

And lastly “train them well so they can leave and well enough so they don’t want to leave” Sir Richard Branson

We emphasize training & skills development because it’s evident that happy & skilled employees are a boast to a Company’s resilience & improved financial performance

If you would like to learn more about how we are working towards the ‘hotel of the future’ with our solutions, feel free to reach out to us

The Hospitality Solutions Team is mainly focused on staff training. We offer an entirely personalized training and develop your staff skills right at your business premises using the available tools & equipment, thereby reducing the training time, cost and enhancing performance

SKILL, RESKILL & MULTI-SKILL,
TRAINING IS NEVER AN ENDING CYCLE

LET’S TALK:
Mob: 0752 003 318 / 0776 428 573
Email: [email protected]

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"It doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down".
Roy T. Bennett