In hotel there are many ways to waiter served food to guest they may be Includes types of service like waiter service, buffet service or may be self service where guests collect their own food from the counter.
In this post we see 8 Fundamental different types of service in hotel.
Food and beverage service broadly devides into 3 category of service. They are
- Waiter service
- Self – service
- Assisted service
Waiter Service
In this types of service in restaurant, food and beverage are serve to guests by waiters at the guest’s place.
It may be at a table in a restaurant, in a hotel room, on a flight in a hospital and so on.
This service is further classified into the following types service in hotel –
- English service
- American service
- French service
- Guéridon service
- Tray service
- English service
1) English service
English service also known as silver service.
In this types of service in hotel Food is served from dish/platter on to the guest’s plate using service spoon and fork from the left-hand side.
And Conduct clearance from the right-hand side. The beverages serve from the right-hand side.
Advantage and disadvantage
| Advantages | Disavantages |
| Personalized service | Compare to other service it is slow service |
| Customer satisfaction | Low seat turnover |
| No plate wastage | More staff required |
| Waiters have scope to exhibit their service skills | Calls for high level of service skills, hence more labor cost |
For more information read article A Detailed Insight on Silver Service/English Service with Advantages & Disadvantages
2) American service
The American service is a simple and informal form of service.
It is also called as plated service.
In this style of service in food and beverage, the dishes are neatly plated in the kitchen by the kitchen staff and placed at the guest’s cover from the right- hand side.
All plated food is serve from the right-hand side of the guest.
Beverages are also serve from the right.
Clearance is done from the right-hand side.
Tray is used to carry cups, bowls, saucers and under plates.
Move clockwise when you work from right-hand side and counter clockwise when you work from the left-hand side.
Advantage and Disadvantage
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| High seat turnover as service is fast | More of kitchen time |
| Kitchen staff has scope for demonstrating their plating skills. | |
| Low labour cost | Chances to plate wastage |
| Service skill is not required | No personalized service |
You may also like A Detailed Insight on American Service | With Advantages and Disadvantages
3) French Service
Also known as family service.
In France, this types of service is found in family pensions and banquets, where the dish is presented to each guest from the left-hand side to help themselves.
In this style of service, dishes ordered by the guest are placed on the Table with service implements and plates for the guest to help themselves.
For a small no. of guest the dishes and plates would be placed on the table where in for a large number of guest a side table or a trolley can be used.
Alternatively, all the dishes may be placed on the table and the host may serve all his guests at the table first or assist them in service and serve himself finally.
This method is widely practiced in ethnic restaurants, especially in Chinese and Indian restaurants.
For example Indian breads and accompanying dishes are kept on the table for guests to help themselves.
If any assistance is required, the waiter may help the guest in passing and serving the dish.
Advantage and disadvantage of french service
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Service skills not required | Service staff will not be able to demonstrate their service skills |
| No plate wastage | Low focus on guest |
Want more information about French service visit the post A Detailed Insight on French Service: With Advantages and Disadvantages
4) Gueridon service
The Gueridon service is the highly personalized. In this style of service, dishes are prepared, carved, dressed or flambéed on a trolley in front of the guest and served with service cutlery.
This types of service in restaurant also called trolley service because different types of trolleys used in this service for more details you can read the article Everything You Wanted to Know About GUERIDON SERVICE and Were Afraid To Ask
Highly skills people require for serving this types of service. The Gueridon service found in fine dinning where the main objective of guest centric.
5) Tray service
In this form of service, the dishes ordered by guests are neatly portioned and arranged on a tray with necessary cutlery and taken to their rooms/beds/seats by waiters.
Special trays are available to retain temperature of dishes.
This style is practiced in room service, hospitals, flights and institutional catering.
Guests in hotels at times call for service of dishes in their rooms.
Their order are taken by room service order takers, dishes are arranged on a tray and served quickly in their rooms.
Orders can be collected either from the kitchen or floor pantry.
If talk about in hospitals patients are given a diet recommended by dieticians.
These dishes are arranged on trays and wheeled to their rooms on trolley.
In Airlines passengers who are confirmed to their seats in flights are given their meals on trays.
The advantage of this type of service is service skill are not require.
If we talk about disadvantages the this service not personalized, and waiter not get to show their skill in this types of service in hotel and food may be cold in the tray.
Self service
This is the simplest form of service, where service staff do not serve guests.
Guest help themselves with the dishes they would like to consume.
Self-service is divides into two types of services that is
- Cafeteria
- Vending machine
6) Cafeteria service
A self service eatery especially in work places, schools offering snacks, limited meals and beverage.
There are two types of cafeteria service in found
a) Traditional cafeteria
This type of service is widely followed in industrial and institutional catering. It consist of straight line of the counters with hot and cold dishes.
The guest may start from the one corner of the counter , pick up his/her tray or dinner plate ,selects the dish and pass along the line.
b) Free flow cafeteria
According to this style of service food counters are segregated according to type of food.(hot/ cold, apppetisers, soups , breads, sandwiches, entrees , salads, pastas, desserts etc.)
The counters are not arranged in the straight line but in shape.
7) Vending Machine service
In this style, the guests get the dishes from the machines. Guests buy tokens or coins and insert them into the vending machine and get whatever the like.
These machines are installed in busy areas such as railways, bus stations, airports, schools, hospitals and so on.
The example of this service is robotic service
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Vending machine service
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Effective portion control | Absence of guest interaction |
| Reduces labor cost as no assistance required | Limited selection of dishes |
| Low cost of operation | Unreliability |
| Hygienic | Not suitable for large scale operations |
| Good food controlled | Power dependance |
8) Assisted service
This is a combination of waiter and self service.
It is used extensively in hotels and restaurants.
Service staff assists guests in services like water, accompanying vegetables, sauces, sweets, and so on.
In this style of service, the dishes are neatly displayed with garnish in the appropriate containers and arranged attractively on the buffet table in a proper order for guests to help themselves.
