The document provides an extensive overview of equipment used in hotel front offices, detailing the functions and designs of front desks and necessary tools like room racks, mail and key racks. It discusses various equipment such as account posting machines, fax machines, and security monitors, along with their operational roles in guest services. Additionally, it covers general office supplies relevant to hotel management, emphasizing on efficient guest registration and service management.

1. What is a Equipment?
• /ɪˈkwɪpm(ə)nt/ (Phonemic Transcription)
• noun: equipment
• the necessary tools, items or implements for
a particular work and purpose.
"suppliers of office equipment, sports
equipment etc"

3. The Front Office
This is where the guests register
on arrival, request information
and services, relate complaints,
settle their accounts, and check
out.

4. Hotel Front Desk

5. Front Desk Design
• Prominently located in the hotel lobby
• A typical front desk surface is a counter
approximately three-and-a-half feet high and
two-and-a-half feet deep

6. A. Circular or
semi-circular
structure • This very structure
provides an effective
service to more guests
and, appears more
modern and
innovative. But, since
guests will approach
the Front Desk from all
angles, more staff is
needed.

7. B. Traditional
straight desk
In this design,
lesser staff is
needed, but
fewer guests can
be served at the
same time.

8. C. Desk- less
environment • Under this design, there
is no Front Desk, at all.
This is usually replaced
by a hostess, or steward
welcoming the guest,
seating him or her on a
chair or sofa, and
conduct registration
activities there while
having a cocktail or a
welcome drink.

9. D. Pod Style
Front Desks
In place of a single
counter structure,
the desk is
separated into 2 to
3 stand- alone
units. Guest can
approach any desk,
that has the
shortest, or no
queue.

11. • The length may depend on the number of rooms
in the hotel, duties performed at the front desk,
and the physical design of the hotel lobby.
• Signage may be placed on or above the desk to
direct guest to the proper activity center for
registration, cashier, check-out, information, mail
handling, and other guest services.
• Partitions may hide Front Office data from guest’s
or visitor’s view, standing at the desk, since much
of front office information are considered
confidential and proprietary.

13. Functions of Front Desk
• Assigning of rooms and registration of arriving
guest according to established procedures;
• Handling of guest room keys, mails, cables,
parcels, messages, etc.
• Serving as a communications center for the guest
while he or she is registered in the hotel,
providing the needed information not only about
hotel facilities and services but also about the
points of interest nearby like post office, flight
schedules, areas of entertainment, tourist spot,
etc.
• Control and updating of room rack status.

14. • Preparation and maintenance of reports or
records pertinent to the guest stay in the
hotel;
• Submission of night sales report indicating
the number of rooms sold, vacant rooms,
average rate, total revenue, occupancy rate,
etc.;
• Co-ordination with other departments in the
performance of its function, especially with
the Housekeeping and Accounting section.

15. Front Office Equipment

17. Front Office Equipment, Reception,
Bell desk, Concierge and Lobby

19. Room Rack
Considered as the most
important piece of front office
equipment.
This is an array of metal file
pockets designed to hold room
rack slips, that display guest and
room status information.

20. The old racks system looked like this.

22. The room rack is normally
recessed into the front desk
counter, tilted against the desk,
or mounted below or behind the
desk. When key slots are added
to the room rack, it can serve as a
combination room and key rack.

23. • The room rack contains a summary of
information about the current status of
all rooms in the hotel. A room rack slip
or in some hotels, the guest registration
card itself, can be inserted into the room
rack, to display guest data, room
number, and room rate.
• One glance at the room rack should
immediately inform the front desk agent
of the occupancy and housekeeping
status of all rooms. (e. g. vacant or
occupied, & clean or dirty)

24. The room rack may also contain
information about room types,
features, and rates.
Front desk agents normally use this
information to match available rooms
with guest needs during the
registration process.

25. Mail, Message, and Key Rack
A key rack is an array of numbered
compartments used to store guestroom keys.

28. • Key racks in previous times used to be visible
to individuals, both behind and in front of the
desk. Today, key racks are often placed in
front desk drawers to ensure the safety and
security of guests.

29. Key And Mail Rack, Mail Sorting Rack, Mail
Forwarding File, Duplicate Key Rack

30. To minimize the number of racks in the
front desk area, hotels may combine
the key rack with either the room rack
or the mail and message rack.
A combination of mail, message, and
key rack can be either a free-standing
wall unit or an under-the-counter row
of compartments.

31. Some front offices use this rack as room divider
by placing it between the front desk and the
switchboard (Telephone) areas of the front office.
When the mail and message compartments of the
rack are open from both sides, telephone
operators (who are positioned on one side of the
rack), and front desk agents (who are positioned
on the other side of the rack) have equal access
to rack contents.
Operators who record telephone messages for
guests can insert them into the rack from the
back side; front desk agents can retrieve the
messages from the front side.

33. Reservation Racks
Racks which store the reservation rack slips
or pre- printed registration cards for
anticipated arrivals.
Front office uses both two types of
reservation racks, the advance reservation
rack and the current reservation rack.

35. In an advance reservation rack, reservation rack
slips or registration cards are arranged by the
guest’s scheduled dates of arrival and, within each
day’s grouping, alphabetically by the guests’ or
groups’ names.
A current reservation rack is a portable subset of
the advance reservation rack. Early each morning,
the advance reservation rack slips or registration
cards for the day’s expected arrivals are loaded
into the current reservation rack and taken to the
front desk.
The current reservation rack is used by front desk
agents to assist guests in processing registration.

36. Information Rack
An information rack is an index of in-house
guests, in alphabetical order, by both surname
and room number.
An information rack is commonly used to assist
front office employees with proper routing of
telephone calls, mail, messages and visitor
inquiries.
The information rack normally consists of
aluminum slots, designed to hold guest
information slips.

37. Folio Trays
Folio tray or folio bucket is where the guest
folios are stored and arranged by guest room
numbers.
Guest folios remain in the tray throughout the
occupancy stage of the guest cycle, except
when they are used in posting transactions.

40. A second folio tray is normally located in the
hotel’s accounting office.
This tray contains the folios of departed guests
being directly-billed or of guests who paid by
credit card.
Once these accounts are settled, the folios are
moved to a permanent storage location.

42. Account Posting Machine
An electro-mechanical or electronic
device used in semi-automated
hotels. An account posting
machine is used to post, monitor,
and balance charges and credits to
guest accounts.

44. Voucher Rack
A container for storing vouchers, room
number-wise, for future reference and
verification during the night audit.

46. Cash Register
Used to record cash transactions at restaurants, bar
etc. and maintain cash balances.

48. Telephone Equipment
 Call Accounting Systems – a device
linked to the telephone system that
identifies each phone number dialed
from guest room telephones. It provides
a record of each room’s local and long
distance phone calls, so that appropriate
charges may be posted, to the guest’s
folio.

50. Switchboard /EPABX
• Electronic private automated branch exchange
• Switchboard is a piece of equipment a hotel
uses to manage several telephone lines and
multiple room or office extensions.
• Switchboard is capable of:
• Receiving several calls at once
• Making several calls at once
• Interfacing with hotel’s property management
system, (PMS) to record calls made, and
automatically calculate the charges.
• Place many calls on hold, or transfer calls

52.  Automatic Call Dispensing – is limited to wake-up
call into computer, and at the scheduled times, a
telephone call is automatically placed to the guests’
rooms.
 Telephone/ Room Status System – assists with
rooms management and prohibit the unauthorized
use of telephones in vacant rooms.
 Fax Machine – makes it possible to transmit or
receive full-page documents.
 Call Detection – works with the main telephone
equipment and call accounting systems. Call
detection equipment has the ability to pinpoint the
exact moment when a telephone call is connected.

53. FAX Machine

54. Facsimile
• The word facsimile means an exact copy.
• A fax machine reproduces written
documents, received from or sent to,
external locations, by electronically
scanning and transmitting the document via
a telephone line.
• Fax machine can process only one single-
sided page.
• Fax machine sends or receives the
documents within minutes of transmission.

55. Fax machine
• Note that once you have sent
the message to a wrong
number there is no way of
retrieving it.
• You may not even be aware
that, you have sent the
message to the wrong person.
• This can present huge
problems to you and your
organisation if, confidential
information is accidentally
sent to a wrong number!

56. Printer & Scanner
Paper
Trimmer

57. Support Devices
 Credit Card Imprinter – an imprinter
presses a credit card voucher against a guest’s
credit card. The impact causes the raised card
number, expiration date, and name on the
card to be recorded on the voucher for use in
credit card billing and collection procedures.
It may be manual or electric.

58. Credit Card Imprinter

59. Credit Card Imprinter
A credit card imprinter, sometimes
affectionately called a “knuckle buster”
because of its difficulty to physically
manipulate, is a device that makes a
carbon copy imprint of a customer's
credit card on a Charge Slip of the bank.
Used when P-O-S machine is not
available.

60. Magnetic Strip Reader
A magnetic strip reader, reads data
magnetically encoded and stored on the
magnetic tape strip on the back of a credit
card and transmits this data to a credit card
verification service. On the basis of the
credit card data and transaction data, the
credit card verification service either
approves or disapproves the transaction.

63. Time Stamp
Folios, mail, and other front office paperwork are
inserted into a time stamp device to record the
current time and date. This recording can be very
important in establishing a chronology (timeline)
of events.

65. Security Monitor
(Closed Circuit Television or CCTV)
closed-circuit television monitors allow front
office or security personnel to monitor
certain areas of the hotel from a central
location.

67. Wake-Up Devices
This is usually a specially designed clock
with multiple alarms setting to remind
front desk agent or telephone operators
to place wake-up calls.
A wake-up call log kept beside the
clock, informs the agents or operators,
which room numbers are to be called,
and at what times.

69. Self-Registration & Self
Check-out Terminals
Fully automated hotels provide self-registration
and check out terminals for guests. These
terminals do not eliminate front desk agents,
but can free them to attend to other hotel
duties – which can enhance guest service.

73. Franking
Machine

74. Franking Machine
• Franking machine can stamp hundreds of
envelopes quickly and efficiently by printing
the correct amount of postage required and
date on the envelope according to the
envelope’s weight and size.
• The franking machine records the totals of
all stamps issued.
• At the agreed time, the amount of postage
used is paid to the supplier (Post Office)
along with a lease fee for the product.

75. Continued
• These are utilised mainly by large businesses
and are rented from Post Offices. They are
used to process out-going bulk mail.
• Franking machines are programmed by the
supplier to have a certain amount of value
placed for pre-programmed credit on a
meter.
• When this value is reached the machine
ceases to operate until more money is paid
and the meter is reset.

76. Postage Meter or Franking Machine
• Noun BRITISH
A Franking Machine is a mechanical device
used to create and apply physical evidence
of postage (or franking) to mailed item.
Postage meters are regulated by a country's
postal authority. A postage meter imprints
an amount of postage, functioning as a
postage stamp, a cancellation and a
dated postmark, all in one. The meter
stamp serves as proof of payment, and
eliminates the need for adhesive stamps.

78. Photocopy Machine

79. Photocopier
• A Photocopier, similar to a fax machine, will
produce an exact copy of a document. It
enables to reproduce documents without
the need to retype or reprint them.
• Rapidly copying several one or two sided
pages
• Stapling collated documents.
• Reducing or increasing the size of the copied
documents
• Reproducing in colour or back and white.

80. Photocopy machine Do’s & Don’ts
Avoid;
• Inhaling the toner dust as it can
damage your lungs.
• Looking directly at the light while
the photocopier is in operation
as it is not good for your eyes.
• Touching the hot rollers or
elements of the photocopier as
they will burn you.
• Misusing electrical equipment.
For example, keep dry and
ventilated to avoid electric
shock.

81. Paper Shredding Machine

82. Paper Shredder
• Paper shredders
• Sometimes, your organisation will want to
destroy letters or documents that are
confidential or contain records that are useful
to competitors.
• Shredders cut paper into very thin strips so
that they are very difficult to reassemble and
read.

84. General Office Equipment
1. Tape (dispenser)
2. Paper clip holder
3. Ruler
4. Paper clips
5. Push pins
6. Bulldog clip
7. Scissors
8. Correction Fluid (white-
out)
9. Pencil sharpener
10. Calculator
11. Stapler
12. Staples
13. Pen
14. Pencil
15. Eraser (= rubber)
16. Highlighter
17. Hole-punch
18. Rubber bands (elastic
bands)

85. Thank You
For your time, attention or
patience!

86. Compilation & Presentation
Praveen Jha
Senior Faculty
IHM Hajipur
Vaishali, Bihar