However, your record shows the reservations manager has personally assisted you on six occasions.

"We meet you, and if we think you're a good guy or a good egg, we'll let you in," said Teri Bruna, a reservations manager.

It was the kind of math problem they might have found in a textbook, but here the reservations manager, Eileen Crawford, was standing by.

"It's a very French idea of people coming together in a relaxed atmosphere," said the reservations manager at Pastis, which has a long wood table that seats 21.

Barbara Buenafe, Pebble Beach's reservations manager, said: "Most of our customers just want to get through to a human being.

About 100 business people booked the package Wednesday night, said the reservations manager, Robert J. Nelson.

Ms. Silliman's father, who was a reservations manager for National Airlines, died three years ago.

"The old Marlboro Man was a symbol of the Marmont's way of life," said Michael Banks, the reservations manager.

The reservations manager will either write or telephone near that date to verify the reservation, as a 'no show' means a loss of business to the hotel.

But Mr. Bosco, a reservations manager at a midtown hotel, said the emaciated condition of the baby in the photographs appeared too severe to miss.