Front desk shift handover checklist: cash, arrivals and promises

A front desk shift handover is a short written routine, signed by both agents, that passes six things from one shift to the next: the cash count, arrivals still due, rooms not ready, open requests and promises, pending identity notifications, and rooms out of order. Verbal handovers lose exactly the items nobody wrote down.

The night agent takes over a desk where a guest has been promised a late checkout until 14:00, a cash deposit sits in an envelope with no note, and one arrival from the evening is still missing an identity notification. None of it is written down, so for the next eight hours none of it exists. This article turns the handover into a one-page written routine: what goes on the sheet, in what order, how the cash count works, and how promises and compliance items are passed on without loss.

What should a front desk shift handover cover?#

Six blocks, always in the same order: cash, arrivals still due, rooms not ready or out of order, open requests and promises, compliance items, and notes on VIP or long-stay guests.

A fixed order matters more than elegant prose. The incoming agent learns where to look, and a block left empty is visibly empty rather than silently forgotten. Each block answers three questions in the same shape: what is the state now, what is still open, and who owns it.

Write exceptions and open items, not a narrative of the shift. A guest who checked in, paid and went to bed needs no line on the sheet. The test of a finished handover is simple: can the incoming agent act on every open item without phoning the outgoing agent at home?

Read the sheet aloud together at the desk. The incoming agent asks about anything unclear before signing, not after. Keep it to one page; a second page signals an unusual shift, not a broken form.

Why do verbal handovers lose things?#

Because speech leaves no record, and the only person who remembers the detail is the one going home.

Three categories fail most often: promises, because no system holds them; cash, because it is physical and moves silently; and compliance items, because they are invisible until an inspection or a complaint. A verbal handover transfers what the outgoing agent considers important, not what the incoming agent will need at 03:00.

Nothing on a spoken handover shows what was not said. The incoming agent cannot ask about a promise that was never mentioned. Recall is weakest at the end of a night shift, which is exactly when the handover happens.

The failure surfaces late and somewhere else: at checkout, at next week's cash reconciliation, or during an inspection. A written sheet also protects the outgoing agent; it shows what was passed on, to whom, and at what time.

How do you hand over the cash drawer?#

Count it together at the desk and both agents sign the counted figure, not the expected one.

Write the float on the sheet before counting, so the count has a stated target and a missing bank note is not mistaken for a shortfall. Count the drawer and the safe drop separately; a single combined total hides which of the two is wrong.

List every cash movement since the previous count: deposits taken, paid-outs, refunds, and foreign currency if the hotel accepts it. Record any difference on the sheet with the amount and the time it was found. Never adjust the drawer quietly to make it balance.

Both signatures go next to the counted figure, not at the bottom of the page where they could belong to anything. The count is a control, not an accusation: the sheet states what was counted, and the supervisor reconciles afterwards.

Which arrivals and rooms belong in the handover?#

Every arrival still due, every guest waiting for a room, and every room that cannot currently be sold.

For arrivals still due, write the name, expected time, room assigned or not, payment status (paid, deposit taken, pay on arrival), and any special request attached to the booking. For early arrivals waiting, note how long they have waited, where they are sitting, and what they were told. Rooms not ready need the room number, the reason (late departure, housekeeping, maintenance) and the expected ready time.

Rooms out of order need the room number, fault, job number, who is fixing it, and when the room returns to sale. Room status codes differ between hotel systems, so write the meaning next to the code. No-shows still open should state whether the room is held, released or charged, and who makes that decision; see hotel no-show handling: when to charge, release or reinstate for that decision on its own. And if arrivals still due exceed sellable rooms, say so at handover, not at 22:00 when the last guest reaches the desk; how to walk a guest when your hotel is overbooked is a decision you want to make early.

How do you record promises and open requests?#

As a numbered item with a time, a named owner and a status, closed only when the guest has been told the outcome.

A promise is anything a guest has been told will happen: a late checkout until a stated time, a transfer at a stated time, a wake-up call, a repair, a rate review. Write the promise as the guest heard it, with the time it was made and who made it. "Late checkout until 14:00, agreed by Ayşe at 21:40" survives a shift change; "late checkout requested" does not.

Give every item an owner by name and a due time; "the morning team" is not an owner. Keep the status vocabulary small: open, in progress, done, declined. A declined request closes only after the guest has been told. Carry open items forward with their age, because an item that appears on three consecutive handovers is a management problem, not a handover problem. Complaints follow the same rule, and an open complaint is the highest-risk line on the sheet. The wider discipline behind this is covered in hotel guest request management: log, assign and close each one.

What compliance items must be checked before you sign?#

Every guest given a bed during the shift should have an identity notification prepared, and any that are still pending belong on the sheet with the reason.

The Identity Notification Law (Law No. 1774 of 1973) requires the responsible operators of hotels, motels, guesthouses, holiday villages and similar lodging places to keep identity and arrival-departure records day by day for everyone they give a bed to, domestic or foreign, paid or free, by day or by night, and to keep them ready for inspection by the general law-enforcement authorities at any time (mevzuat.gov.tr, Kimlik Bildirme Kanunu, consolidated text, 1 November 2026 (opens in a new tab)). An additional article of the same law requires every private or public lodging facility to keep its records on computer day by day and report them instantly by connecting to the authorities' computer terminals (same source). The same law says a facility may not accommodate anyone who cannot prove identity with an identity card or another valid official document (Law No. 1774, Articles 9 and 14).

In practice, the police identity notification system (KBS, misafir kimlik bildirimi) has been in service since 18 April 2017 for lodging facilities in police jurisdiction, and registered facilities send their records through it instantly (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü, Kimlik Bildirim Sistemi, 2026). The Gendarmerie General Command runs its own system, KBS Tesis 2, and states that facilities can send notifications directly from their hotel management software (Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı, Kimlik Bildirim Sistemi, 2026 (opens in a new tab)).

So the handover line stays narrow and concrete: which arrivals still lack a notification, which registration records are incomplete, and who is fixing it before the shift ends. Do not write deadlines, penalties or recipient details on the sheet. Confirm your own procedure, deadlines and penalties with a legal adviser.

What does a written handover log look like?#

One page, one row per open item, the same six blocks every day, and two signatures at the bottom.

The header carries the date, shift, business date, the names of both agents, and the time the handover started and finished. The six blocks appear in the same order every day, and an empty block stays visible rather than being deleted. Each row carries the item, the detail, the owner, the due time, the status, and which shift the item was carried from.

The outgoing agent signs what was passed on; the incoming agent signs what was received. The second signature is the one that carries weight. Keep it in one place only: a bound book at the desk or a note in the hotel system, because a sheet that exists in two places exists in neither. Review the sheets weekly; items that recur point to a process gap, not to a careless agent. For how the business date and the day's records fit around this, see hotel operations management: how one business day fits together.

What to do next#

Write the six blocks on one sheet tonight, in this order, and make both agents sign it at the desk. Run it for two weeks, then read the sheets together and fix whichever block keeps filling up with the same item: that is where your handover is actually losing things.