December 3, 2024

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Duties and responsibilities of a hotel night auditor

Duties and responsibilities of a hotel night auditor

No matter the circumstances, some tasks in a hotel have to be done daily to keep operations smooth and the business on track. The role of the night auditor fits that description with its high level of responsibilities at unusual hours, to empower daytime operations to flourish.

In this post, we answer the question “just what does a hotel night auditor do?”, before exploring their responsibilities and the hallmarks of what makes a great hotel auditor for your hotel—and how to find them.

What is a hotel night auditor?

Hotel night auditor duties span across two main areas: running the front desk and being the face of the hotel overnight, while also closing the books for the day, producing reports and setting up the morning teams for success.

Any guest entering a hotel after around 11pm will likely say hello to what they would call a ‘front desk agent’, without even knowing they are likely speaking to the hotel night auditor. Once the clock strikes midnight and hopefully the phones have stopped ringing, the hotel auditor uses this ‘quiet time’ to perform crucial daily tasks. These are focused on multiple business areas, including finance and operations.

Sounds simple? Consider that they are closing the books for the day that ended at midnight, and then a late check-in walks in at 1 AM. The hotel night auditor is responsible for checking them in and ensuring that the stay is recorded for the correct night, which closed at midnight.

Job description: What does a night auditor do?

Hotel night auditors can perform all the same tasks as front desk staff perform daily, from check-in and check-out to managing guests’ requests and following emergency protocols. In fact, in many smaller hotels, where the hotel night auditor will be the only member of staff present, they are expected to perform these duties with more authority than daytime team members, who have a team as a backup. But that is not all. A key part of their role is performed when guests are not demanding their attention.

On top of their guest-facing duties, night auditors are in charge of necessary daily (or nightly) procedures that are essential to keeping the business running. The results are processed payments, reconciled accounts, verified guest folios and night audit reports, including operating statistics, for management to start the next day.

A hotel night auditor job description therefore usually combines the attributes of a strong front desk agent with the aptitude to follow strict procedures independently, and the acumen to spot any inconsistencies.

The goals of the night audit process are to handle and record transactions accurately and to organise and report financial and operational information.