The document discusses the front office department of hotels. It describes the organizational structure and roles of the front office, including the front desk staff, reservations, night audit, concierge, bell staff and other positions. It outlines the responsibilities of the front office manager and other front office roles. It also covers front office systems, from non-automated to fully automated property management systems.

1. 1. 1. Welcome to a new learning session! Knowledge is Money.
2. 2. Introduction To Front Office Department Organization Chart, Functions, Duties & Responsibilities 3
3. 3. Chapter Focus Point •Describe the significance of Front Office in a hotel. • Draw a Front Office organization chart in a hotel. • Explain
staff duties & responsibilities, job specifications, for positions in FO department within a hotel. • Briefly describe the activities during
guest cycle of a hotel. 4
4. 4. • Most important department in the hotel. • Guest makes first contact with FO department. • First place that can makes guest develop an
impression about the level of service, standard, facilities and hospitality of the hotel. 7 FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT
5. 5. Overview of the Front Office Front Office Manager Revenue Management Desk staff Reservation Guest Services Night Audit
Concierge Bell staff
6. 6. Managing the front office-related accounting and data collection processNight Auditor  Guest assistance, especially luggage Bell
Staff  Guest information Concierge  Guest registration at check-in Front Desk Staff  Managing the reservation process
Reservations (advance booking)  Establishing room rates Revenue Management Front Office Responsibilities
7. 7. FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT •Communication and Accounting are the two most important functions of the Front Desk
operations. • Accounting procedure involve accepting advance booking of hotel rooms, opening & maintaining an account or bill for the
guest and, settlement of the guest bills at the time of check-out 12
8. 8. Front Desk
9. 9. FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT •Effective Communication with guest includes processing the guest reservation, handling the guest
reception on arrival, answer the guest queries during stay in the hotel for services like, wi- fi internet facilities, safe deposit lockers etc.,
processing check out of the guest, and coordinating with other departments of the hotel for maintaining an accurate room status & guest
history. 14
10. 10. Front Office Working Hours • FO department operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Always open for guest arrivals & departures. •
Three main shifts in FO department are, Morning or day shift 7. 00 a. m. – 3. 00 p. m. Afternoon or evening shift 3. 00 p. m. – 11. 00 p.
m. Night (graveyard) shift 11. 00 p. m. – 7. 00 p. m.
11. 11. Front Office Organizational Chart • It shows the hierarchy of this department. • Hierarchy is the diagrammatic representation of the
organizational structure. • The controlling or commanding officer is shown at the top, and the reporting sub- ordinate staff is shown
below. • The size of the organization depends on the size of the hotel & level of service.
12. 12. Front Office Organization Chart Front Office Manager Night Auditor Front Desk Agent Reservations Agent Switchboard Operator
Front Office Cashier Uniformed Service Concierge General Manager Assistant General Manager
13. 13. Organizational Chart • Organization structure of FO department will change from hotel to hotel. • It depends on the size, and standard
or style of operations of the hotel. (Classification of hotels) • It can be categorized into - Small sized hotel - Medium sized hotel - Large
sized hotel Standard could be expressed as luxury, mid- priced and budget hotel. 18
14. 14. Duties & Responsibilities of Front Office Personnel
15. 15. General Manager • Overall in-charge of hotel organization. • Front Office Manager reports directly to General Manager. • GM
evaluates the overall performance of the FO Manager. • Situations that FOM can not deal with, is handled by GM.
16. 16. General Manager
17. 17. Front Office Manager • Leads and coordinates the activities of the front office department. • Acts as a link between the management
and front office employees. • Responsible for hiring, training, supervising and disciplining all front desk, reservation, and guest services
staff members, in order to maintain the desired standard of service. • Prepares the financial budget for the front office department. •
Evaluates the job performance of each front office employee. 22
18. 18. Front Office Manager
19. 19. Bell Boy • Handling guest luggage at the time of arrival • and departure. • Escorting guests to their rooms on arrival. • Familiarizing
guests about safety features and • in-room facilities. • Locating a guest in a specified area of the hotel. The process is called Paging in
hotels. • Posting guests mails. • Providing information to guests about hotel • facilities and services when asked. 24
20. 20. Bell Boy
21. 21. Bell Boy, with luggage trolley
22. 22. Bell Captain
23. 23. Cashier • Opening and maintaining the guest account or folios. • Recording all credit charges and payments in guest folios. •
Preparing bills at the time of check-out. • Receiving payment from guests. • Handling credit/debit/charge cards for the settlement of a
guest account. • Administer the safe deposit locker system. • Handling foreign currency exchange. 28
24. 24. Cashier
25. 25. Door Attendant • Open the doors of the guest vehicles on their • arrival in the hotel portico. • Help bell boys in lifting luggage. • Open
the hotel’s entrance door for guests. • Coordinate with parking attendants for parking guest vehicles in the hotel’s parking area. • Stop
unwanted people from entering the hotel building. 31
26. 26. Door Attendant
27. 27. Night Auditor, The most responsible position during night shift. • Checking all guest accounts at night for errors. • Preparing the night
audit report for GM. • Check-in and check-out guests, who arrive or depart after 11.00 p.m. •Processing the reservations. • Performing
the duties of security guard. • Monitoring fire safety system. • Act as cashier for banquet function. • Performing the duties of manager on
duty. 33
28. 28. Night Auditor
29. 29. Receptionist • Welcoming & greeting guest on arrival. • Complete registration process. • Notify all departments about arrivals &
departures. • Handling special requests. • Handling check-in and check-out. • Providing information to guest related to services, timings
and prices. • Assigning right type of rooms and dispensing guest room keys. 35
30. 30. Front Desk Agent
31. 31. Room Types, a Recapitulation. • Single • Double • Triple • Quad • Queen • King • Twin • Double-Double • Studio • Mini-Suite
(Junior Suite) • Suite • Connecting rooms • Adjoining rooms • Adjacent rooms
32. 32. Room Status Terms • Occupied • Complimentary • Stay-over • On-change • DND • Sleep-out • Skipper • Sleeper • Vacant and ready •
Out-of-order • Lock-out • DNCO • Due out • Check-out • Late check-out
33. 33. Concierge Making reservations for guest dining in famous restaurants of the city. Arranging tours, limousine, and entertainment
tickets. Maintaining good relationship with local hospitality industry, that provide tourism products. Personal helper to V I P in- house.
Obtaining tickets for theatres, musicals etc. Provide latest information about events. 39
34. 34. Concierge
35. 35. Reservation Agent • Handling guaranteed and non-guaranteed • reservation • Up sell accommodation products • Prepared the expected
arrival list and the expected • departure list every day • Prepared a guest folder to keep the • mails and messages of guest with reservation
documents. • Providing management information to other • departments, like group arrival, VIP, full house etc.41
36. 36. Reservation Assistant
37. 37. Telephone Operator • Processing all incoming and outgoing calls. • Log all wake-up call on the system. • Answer questions about the
hotel’s services and product. • Taking messages. • Operating hotel telephone billing system. •Direct incoming calls to the desired
extension. • Provide paging services, by Public Address System, for guest and employee. 43

2. 38. 38. Telephone Operator
39. 39. Types of Telephone Calls • Local • Direct-dial long-distance • Calling card • Credit card • Collect • Third-party • Person-to-person •
Billed-to-room • International • Toll-free • VoIP – voice over Internet Protocol
40. 40. Telecommunications Equipment • PBX system • Call accounting system • Guestroom phones • Pay phones • Pagers/cell phones •
Automatic call dispensing system • Telephone/room status systems • Internet access • Call detection equipment
41. 41. Non-Automated Front Office Systems • Handwritten forms • Reservation index cards • Density board blocked reserved rooms •
Registration cards • Time stamp • Room rack -housekeeping status of each room • Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas • Charges
handwritten to folios • Adding machine tape attached at check-out • Night audit cross-checked folio charges to voucher and verified
settlement
42. 42. Semi-Automated Front Office Systems • Handwritten and machine-produced forms • National reservation networks • Pre-registration
activities • Density board blocked reserved rooms • Registration cards -preprinted and multiple copies • Room rack -housekeeping status
of each room • Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas • Posting machines recorded charges to guest folios • Night audit cross-
checked folio charges to vouchers and verified settlement
43. 43. Fully Automated Systems •Equipped with a software packages • Online credit authorization terminals • Electronics guest folios •
Electronically posted guest accounts • Process continuous trial balances • Automatically produce bills • Create guest history records
44. 44. Property Management Systems • Property Management System is a specially designed software, to handle the hotel operations, with
the help of networked computers, installed at all departments. • PMS has greatly improved a hotel’s ability to quickly accept, store and
retrieve guest reservation, guest history, requests, and billing arrangements. • More details in coming semesters.
45. 45. What makes a front office management successful? • Having a passion for the job • Accepting the change in role • Being a good role
model • Having a positive attitude • Delegating, using authority intelligently • Communicating effectively • Leading a diverse workforce.
Creating and developing teams. • Pro- active approach, setting and monitoring performance conditions. • Providing ongoing assistance to
team.
46. 46. • When guests have unique, first-time questions or requests, document the question and the answers, or solutions found, by noting
them in front desk log-book, or daily report, for others to know and learn from.