Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1901 — HOTEL BOOKKEEPING. [ARTICLE]

HOTEL BOOKKEEPING.

Cnrlooa Mysteries of Account-Keeping In Hostelrles Explained. Of course the keeping of books for 1,500 patrons of a big hotel who have all sorts of expenses charged to their accounts, from the ordinary hotel charges to telegrams, cabs, flowers, theater tickets, packages delivered C.” O. D. and money loaned, and of the 1,500 employes is a very complicated problem, says a writer in Alnslee’s Magazine. That, however, is only a part of the bookkeepers’ duties. To prevent any leakage which might seriously Impair the small percentage of difference between success and failure, all big hotels employ a system of checking. Every order from the dining room passes through the hands of two or three checkers before it reaches the kitchen in the shape of s requisition, which Is held as a voucher for the delivery of the portion. After the order has been filled in the kitchen It Is again inspected by another checker, who marks off each item on the order blank. When the bill, with the separate Items added up, has been paid by the guest, it goes to the cashier, who receipts it, tears off the stub for the waiter and files the bill Itself. Every twelve or twenty-four hours, according to the system, the originai order in the guest’s handwriting and the several memoranda made by the cashier and the checkers are turned in to the auditor’s department, where they are compared for the purpose of discovering any discrepancies. Each department is conducted independently of every other in its accounts, so that at a glance they may be compared as sources of revenue. In his books which are really daily logs of business, the proprietor can find a record of the number of dinners served on any day of the receptions and banquets, of the coal burned and electric light used, of the stock on hand and repairs made, of the weather,- and, in fact, of every detail of the thousand or more that go to make up the business of running a big hotel.