Field notes for people who run properties
Guides, reports and working practice from the team building Vestibel — written about behaviour that ships, not roadmap.
The answer your AI should refuse to give
A guest asks about the pet policy at midnight. The confident wrong answer is worse than no answer at all.
The restaurant charge that never reached the room
The single most common piece of lost revenue in a hotel with a restaurant, and the two-system seam that causes it.
The Tuesday that quietly costs you a thousand pounds
A single ordinary day at a twenty-room property, and the six places money leaks when the systems do not talk.
What house laundry actually costs you
Linen is stock. Treating it as an expense line hides the losses that matter.
Pay now or pay at delivery
Two posting modes for bookable services, and why tours and treatments usually want different ones.
Reports your accountant will accept
Why every operational report has to agree with the night audit, and what it costs when two of them do not.
Letting guests order without losing the floor
Guest-initiated orders, waiter acceptance, and charging a room-service order to the room.
Reading a Z-report and believing it
What has to be true underneath before a shift-end figure is worth reconciling against.
Joining tables without losing the bill
Two tables become one party, one folio and one set of splits — then come apart again without anyone re-keying an order.
Waste that tells you something
Spoilage, breakage and over-production are three different problems. A single "wastage" figure hides which one you have.
One menu, two audiences
The QR menu guests read and the till menu staff use are the same catalogue — and keeping them the same is the whole trick.
Printer routing when one property has six printers
Which slip comes out where is a function of the terminal, the role and the station — not of the printer list alone.
Why your POS should refuse to print twice
Double-tapping Fire on a laggy tablet is the most ordinary thing a waiter does. Here is what has to happen underneath so it costs nothing.
Running private rooms and dorms in one property
Mixed inventory on one board, and the one setting you cannot change after the fact.
What a "party" is, and why your bill depends on it
The billing primitive underneath dine-in, room service, spa and stays — and how a group of rooms bills as one.