Front Office Department Functions and Key Concepts
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This document outlines the key activities and organizational structure of a hotel's front office department. It discusses functions like reservations, reception, bell services, concierge services, and the night audit process. The front office is responsible for welcoming guests, handling reservations and check-ins/outs, providing guest services, managing accounts and payments, and ensuring maximum revenue and customer satisfaction. Effective reservation management, revenue optimization, guest service, and use of property management systems are important concepts for the front office team.
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Front Office Department Functions and Key Concepts
- 2. Learning Objectives After studying, the learner will be able to; Review the organizationational structure of the front office team; Discuss the key activities of the front office team Discuss the importance of the reservation process; Explain guaranteed and non-guaranteed reservations Discuss the forms of settlement Simulate a telephone reservation Simulate the welcoming, registering escorting of a guest; Perform a showroom Demonstrate a check-out process Explain what is revenue management; and Review key compentency-based profiles of the front office deparment.
- 3. Front office One of the most important department of the hotel. It is the nerve center of the hotel It is invovled in the accomodation services as well as the reservation and reception areas. It provides the first impression that is significant in the guest’s stay.
- 4. Staff of this department are involved in ; Welcoming the guests Taking and recording reservations Providing information about the establishment to prospective clients Allocating rooms to clients and issuing keys Organising the moving and storing of luggage Checking in and out procedures to guest (check in usualy starts 2:00 pm and check out is in 12:00 nn ) Taking and coveying messages and correspondence for guest Preparing guest accounts and processing payments
- 5. Front Office Organizational Structure Rooms Department Reservation Uniformed Services Bell Desk Valet Transportation Concierge Door Greeters PBX Revenue Management Front Desk Front Office
- 6. Front Office Organizational Matrix Sub Department Brief Description Hotel Cycle Division Head Senior Manager Section Manager Supervisory Bank and file Resevations Responsible for all hotel bookings Pre-arrival stage Rooms director Front office manager Reservations manager Reservations supervisor Reservation age Uniform Services Include the concierge transporta-tion Encompasses the whole operating cycle, although Rooms director Front office manager Assistant front office manager Uniform Service Supervisor Concierge Staff Door Attentand/Greeter Valet Parkers Transportation Drivers Bell Staff Front Desk Comprised of cashiers and front desk agents Encompasses the whole operating cycle; departure is given emphasis by the cashiers as they are the ones to check out the guests Rooms director Front office manager Assistant front office managers Front Desk Supervisor Front Desk Cashier Front Desk Agents Night Auditor* Business Center Agent *In some hotels, the night auditor is part of the finance team PBX Recieves and connects incoming and outgoing calls from hotel Empahasis of this department will be on the in-stay phase Rooms director Front office manager PBX Manager PBX supervisor PBX Agents/Telephone Operators Revenue Management In charge of ensuring optimum revenue for the hotel Encompasses the whole operating cycle Rooms director Front office manager Revenue Managers Revenue Management Agent
- 7. Front Office Functions Can be divided into 5 general areas; Reception Bell Service Mail and Information Concierge Cashiers and night auditors
- 8. Reception Grand Men Seng Reception Area
- 9. Bell Service
- 10. Concierge
- 11. Key Concepts, Standards, and Practices Reservation management Concierge Night Audit Manage Property Management System Revenue management Guest service management Guest accounting General Data management
- 12. Reservation Management First contact of the guest is through the reservations department, majority of the bookings in the hotel are by the telephone. In this process, reservation agents take various reservations using the property’s front office management system.
- 13. Concierge (Guest Services, Front Desk Staff, and Uniformed Services) Is a french word, which originally refers to officers of the royal palace guard whose job was to protect the king of the palace. In was only in the mid-20th century that the concierge became a part of North American hotels serving high profile guest and delivering personalized service.
- 14. Night Audit As the name denotes. This activity is primarly done at the end of the day, usually on the graveyard shift. Is valuable to the hotel as this records all hotel operations for the day.
- 15. Management Property Management System The Property Management System (PMS) is the databank of collected revenue generating and non-revenue generating activities of the hotel guests. One major component of the PMS is the front office computer system, which manages reservations data and usage of rooms; determines revenue in a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis; and transaction information.
- 16. Revenue Management Part of the office work is managing the number of occupied rooms through the proper mix of hotel guests. This would include certain markets and priozitation of guests with potential revenue.
- 17. Guest Service Management The front office team takes care of guests from in to check out. All personel should exude professionalism in handling guest requests and complaints. In anticipation of guest demands, the team is challenged to give utmost customer satisfaction through flawless service.
- 18. Guest Accounting One of the major sources of guest complaints is the erroneous posting of their billings. Front office agents have to ensure that guest billings are thoroughly checked for property revenue to be optimized and for guest complaints to be avoided.
- 19. General Data Managament The front office team is tasked to update guest records in the system, specifically guest needs and requests, so that they can be easily identified and addressed for future use. Some hotels are now customizing their rooms according to their desires of their guest that are within the limits of their budget.
- 20. Pre-Arrival Phase: Reservations Guaranteed Reservations: The hotel accepts prepayment and holds a room whether the guest arrives or not. (cancellations depends on the hotel policy) Non- Garanteed Reservations: Hotel holds a room for a specified time. After the time expires, The Hotel can give the room to another guest.
- 21. Forms of settlement Prepayment – are payment made in advance through mail, walk-in and other methods. Advance deposits – are partial payments made by guest for his/her entire stay. Credit Card – are pre-authorize payments enabling the hotel to block a certain amount in the credit card to be used as the guest’s payment. Send bill arragement – settled by two agencies who make the deposit as a third party in the agreement.