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What does a Night Auditor do?

Tiffany Manley
Tiffany Manley

A night auditor is a hotel employee who conducts accounting and managerial duties for a hotel at night. Depending on the size of the hotel, these duties can range from simply closing out the business day and running financial reports to handling the aforementioned items as well as duties associated with housekeeping, security and guest relations. Night auditors generally perform their duties with a relatively limited staff because hours range from late night to early morning.

One primary function of a night auditor is to perform accounting functions to close out the hotel’s business day. This involves many things, some of which are balancing credit card receipts, entering information into spreadsheets, filing, verifying billing information and using property management software to close the business day. It is very important that a night auditor ensure the accuracy of all information.

A night auditor at a hotel will likely be in charge of guest services at night, which includes checking in late arrivals.
A night auditor at a hotel will likely be in charge of guest services at night, which includes checking in late arrivals.

Different hotels might have different ways of handling the audit process. Various property management systems exist, ranging from older models that require a great deal of user input and fast new models that do practically all of the work for the auditor. A night auditor will use some variation of this software to prepare his or her nightly audit.

A job as a night auditor can be a good entry-level position for hotel employees who are willing to work overnight.
A job as a night auditor can be a good entry-level position for hotel employees who are willing to work overnight.

In addition to performing the necessary accounting functions, a night auditor might also be in charge of guest services. This might include checking in late arrivals, offering assistance with room amenities or processing early checkouts. Basically, because the hotel drops to minimum staffing at night, they are the face of the hotel. As a result, the night auditor should provide optimal customer service. They might also perform housekeeping duties.

Another part of guest relations for which a night auditor might be responsible is ensuring that each guest's charges are accurate. It is important that all charges be correct in a hotel’s system for its own data processing, but it also is important that all guests receive the correct bills and are charged properly. In larger hotels, this can involve not only guests' room charges but also their charges at the hotel restaurant or gift shop and other charges.

A night auditor generally will have a nightly set of responsibilities, but there are times when quick thinking come into play. Sometimes the auditor might face some sort of emergency or a customer complaint. Knowing the correct protocol and having the ability to think on one’s feet will greatly assist a night auditor in these situations.

Discussion Comments

anon342746

A night auditor job is not for every one. It's really under paid. You have to do accounting, plus customer service, plus housekeeping, plus maintenance issues, plus pub/restaurant duties, plus security, etc., and the list goes on. And also killing sleep is another challenge. It's not worth it.

anon328886

A night auditor's job is very hard and extremely underpaid for the amount of duties that they have. Most accountants make a lot of money. Not a night auditor, even though that is what they are for a hotel --their accountant, which is a very important job for any company.

I have worked as a night auditor for 10 years and am burned out because of the lack of respect for my experience in the hotel industry. They act like just anyone can be a night auditor, but that is far from the truth. It takes a lot of skill to be a good night auditor in all kinds of areas! I do not get raises. I need to find another career!

anon294514

I'm a night auditor, and it's a very hard job. Trust me. I have been here for three years and have no life. I sleep, eat and work. Yes I'm grateful for my job. The reason I do it is I love to be unsupervised.

indemnifyme

I really respect anyone who works a night job. One of my ex-boyfriends had a night job and let me tell you, it's not easy.

First of all, you end up on a totally different sleep schedule than everyone else you know. It can be difficult to sleep during the day because of noise and sunlight coming in through the window. (Blackout drapes can help a lot with this problem.) Not to mention that sleeping during the day really isn't optimal for your health; I read somewhere the best hours to sleep are between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M.

Second of all, a lot of night jobs require a diverse set of skills. Like this article says, hotels and other business that have night employees have less employees working at night than during the day. This means that the night employees have more duties. The night auditor job is the perfect example: the night auditor has accounting, management, and customer service duties. Usually those would be three separate jobs!

Working at night would definitely not be for me!

JessicaLynn

I think my office could really use a night auditor! We don't serve customers at night but we accept a lot of payments during the day. Every evening my boss has to close out the system and make sure everything is reconciled and ready for deposit the next day. I know it takes him awhile to do this especially because we have to wait until the end of business day in case of last minute payments.

It would probably be really nice for him to have someone to do this for him. Maybe I will suggest that we consider hiring someone to come in at night and take care of the administrative stuff.

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    • A night auditor at a hotel will likely be in charge of guest services at night, which includes checking in late arrivals.
      By: .shock
      A night auditor at a hotel will likely be in charge of guest services at night, which includes checking in late arrivals.
    • A job as a night auditor can be a good entry-level position for hotel employees who are willing to work overnight.
      By: mertcan
      A job as a night auditor can be a good entry-level position for hotel employees who are willing to work overnight.