Front office department

FRONT OFFICE
DEPARTMENT

SUBMITTED BY
KANYAPAK SEEKHEW NO.30

116310102134-8

Front office Department

Front Desk is a very important department in the hotel,
making direct contact with guests. The main function of
this department is Reservation, Guest service, Check-in,
Check-out, Telephone, Finance & Cashiering, Foreign
Exchange, Room Assignment, Inquiry etc.



The Front Office is also called the nerve centre of a
hotel. It can be defined as a front of the housing
department located around the foyer and the lobby area
of a hospitality property. As this department is located
around the foyer area of the hotel and is visible to the


guests, patrons and visitors, t
hey are collectively called

“Front Office”.

Should guests have any problems or require to

appreciate or comment, they would normally go directly

to the Front Office, because it is convenient to contact

and converse with other departments. Therefore, this

department is the direct delegate to link the work and

report the consequence to other departments.

This department is one of the major operational and

revenue-producing departments of the hotel which

generates two-thirds of the revenue earned by a hotel

from the sale of the guest rooms. It involves in providing

valuable services to the guests during the entire guest

cycle consisting of Pre-arrival, Arrival, Occupancy and

Departure.

Importance of Front Office

Department


Traditional Front Office functions include reservation,

registration, room and rate assignment, guest services, room
status, maintenance and settlement of the guest account, and
creation of guest history records.
The Front Office develops and maintains a comprehensive
database of guest information, coordinates guest services, and
ensures guest satisfaction. These functions are accomplished by
personal in diverse areas of Front Office Department.
The front office is also known as the face of the hotel. It is the
first guest contact area and also the nerve centre of the hotel.
All the activities and areas of the front office are geared
towards supporting guest transaction and services.

The operational function of the

Front Office Department




Guest Registration: Does all guest registration-related
activities like Check-in, room assignment, welcoming, room
rate etc.
Guest Service: Fulfils any Guest Services related activities.
Guest History and records: Creates and maintains a guest
profile, history, likes and dislikes, collect feedback etc.
Guest Database: Develops & maintains
a Comprehensive Database of Guest Information
Updates Room Status: responsible to update the correct
room status like CI, CO, DNCO, DND etc.
Reservation: This section is responsible in registering the
room reservation from various sources, with recordings,
filing of reservation records, and revise on the appropriate
time to make sure that guests would have their rooms
upon entering the hotel.
Postage and Parcels: This section is to facilitate guests
pertaining to the posting of letters, telegrams, and
parcels.
Telephone: This section is to facilitate guests pertaining
to the telephone both internally and externally, and to
wake guests up in the morning upon request.

Finance and Foreign Exchange: This section relates with
the Accounting Department, through the collection from
guests through their services, and also give the foreign
exchange service.
Inquiry: This section is to answer questions and inquiries
of guests. Therefore, this section would have to be alert
with all the movements of the hotel.
Bell Desk and Concierge: Provide all services related to Bell
desk and Concierge.

Staffing the Front Office

Department

In order to carry out its missio
n, goals and objectives,

every company shall build a formal structure depicting
different hierarchy of management, supervision, and
employee (staff) levels. This very structure is referred to
as an organisation chart.
Moreover, the organisation chart shows reporting
relationships, the span of management, and staff/line
functions. The organisation chart for the front office
department differs as per the size of the hotel. View here



Typical Staff positions under the
Rooms Division Department

Front Desk Agent: Registers g
uests, and maintains room

availability information.


Cashier: Maintains and settles guest folios, and properly

checks out guests.

Night Auditor: Controls the job of the Accounts Receivable
Clerk, and prepares daily reports to management (ex:
Occupancy Report and Revenue Report).

Mail & Information Clerk: Takes Messages, provides
Directions to Guests, and maintains Mail.

Telephone Operator: Manages the Switchboard and
coordinates Wake-up Calls.

Reservation Agent: Responds to Reservation Requests and
creates Reservation Records.

Uniformed Service Agent: Handles Guest Luggage, escorts
Guests to their Rooms, and assists guests for any bit of
information requested.

Front Office Management -
Introduction

Every multi-departmental phy
sical business needs to

have a front office or reception to receive the visitors.
Front Office Department is the face and as well as the
voice of a business. Regardless of the star rating of the
hotel or the hotel type, the hotel has a front office as
its most visible department. For a business such as
hospitality, the front office department comes with an
aspect of elevating customer experience with the
business.
Front Office department is a common link between the
customers and the business. Let us learn more about it.
What is Front Office Department?
It is the one of the many departments of the hotel
business which directly interacts with the customers
when they first arrive at the hotel. The staff of this
department is very visible to the guests.
Front office staff handles the transactions between the
hotel and its guests. The staff receives the guests,
handles their requests, and strikes the first impression
about the hotel into their minds.

Front office department includes −
Front Desk
Uniformed services
Concierges
Front Office Accounting System
Private Branch Exchange (PBX), a private telephone
network used within an organization
Basic Responsibilities of Front Office Department
Following are the most basic responsibilities a front
office can handle.

Creating guest database
Handling guest accounts
Coordinating guest service
Trying to sell a service
Ensuring guest satisfaction
Handling in-house communication through PBX

Front Office Operations
There are two categories of Front Office Operations −

Front-House Operations
These operations are visible to the guests of the hotel.
The guests can interact and see these operations, hence,
the name Front-House operations. Few of these operations
include −

Interacting with the guests to handle request for an
accommodation.
Checking accommodation availability and assigning it
to the guest.
Collecting detail information while guest registration.

Back-House Operations
Front Office staff conducts these operations in the
absence of the guests or when the guest’s involvement is
not required. These operations involve activities such as −

Determining the type of guest (fresh/repeat) by
checking the database.
Ensuring preferences of the guest to give a personal
touch to the service.
Maintaining guest’s account with the accounting system.
Preparing the guest’s bill.
Collecting the balance amount of guest bills.
Generating reports.

Guest Cycle in Hotel
Generally, a guest’s interaction with the hotel is divided
into the following four sequential phases −

Pre-arrival
It is the stage when the customer is planning to avail an
accommodation in the hotel. In this first stage, the
customer or the prospective guest enquires about the
availability of the desired type of accommodation and
its amenities via telephonic call or an e-mail. The
customer also tries to find out more information about
the hotel by visiting its website.

At the hotel end, the front office accounting system
captures the guest’s information such as name, age,
contact numbers, probable duration of stay for room
reservation and so on.

Arrival
The front office reception staff receives the guest in the
reception. The porters bring in the guest luggage. For
the guest with confirmed reservation, the front office
clerk hands over a Guest Registration Card (GRC) to the
guest and requests the guest to fill in personal
information regarding the stay in the hotel. The clerk
then registers the guest in the database thereby
creating a guest record and a guest account along with
it. Later, the clerk hands over a welcome kit and keys of
the accommodation. After the procedure of registration,
the guest can start occupying the accommodation.

Occupancy
During occupancy, a front office accounting system is
responsible for tracking guest charges against his/her
purchases from the hotel restaurants, room service, bar,
or any outgoing telephone calls made via the hotel’s
communication systems. The front office staff is
responsible to manage and issue the right keys of the
accommodations to the right guests. On guests’ request,
the staff also makes arrangement for transportation,
babysitting, or local touring while the guest is staying in
the hotel.



Departure
During guest departure, the front office accounting
system ensures payment for goods and services provided.
If a guest’s bill is not completely paid, the balance is
transferred from guest to non-guest records. When this
occurs, collection becomes the responsibility of the back
office accounting division.

At the time of guest departure, the front office staff
thanks the guest for giving an opportunity to serve and
arrange for handling luggage. In addition, if the guest
requires airport or other drop service, the front office
bell desk fulfils it.

Men department
office uniform

Inspiration

Male staff uniform get inspired in the pink part of
the shirt color comes from the color of the lotus
leaf Pathumchat or Bua Luang.The purple color
comes from the Bua Pan or Chalongkwan species
pattern from silk.



The style of men's shirts
is inspired by Thai hill
tribe shirts. which when
used to adjust the look
and make the male staff
uniform look polite add
modernity and maintain
a Thai style as well.

Women department
office uniform

Inspiration

Female staff uniform get inspired in part
of the color of the pink dress comes from
the color of the lotus leaf.Pathumchat or
Bua Luang.The purple color comes from
the Bua Pan or Chalongkwan
species.pattern from silk as for the style
of the dress, it comes from Thai sabai
cloth that is worn obliquely to be applied
to match the dress even more.

Problems encountered in the
front department

1. Not enough time for breakfast.
Have you met your friends? Each time we go to a hotel,
we find that dining time is insufficient to meet our
needs, such as 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and found that
many hotels squeeze 2 hours of dining time.

solution
Extend dining time for customers to 8:00 a.m. - 12:00
noon so that customers can feel relaxed while resting in
your hotel. Otherwise, customers will feel uncomfortable.
Like being forced to rest and ultimately detrimental to
your business.

2. The customer stole the items in the hotel.
The customer stole the items in the hotel room. It is a
problem encountered in every hotel. because of not
knowing whether or not to take it home because there is
no clear label or intentionally take it back

solution
Put up a clear warning sign that if customers bring items
home, there may be additional charges as specified by
the hotel. If you need that product, please contact the
staff to buy the items you need. If the hotel finds that
the customer has intentionally stolen The hotel will take
legal action.

3. Customers harass employees
This problem will be more common with foreign
customers. due to different cultures or intentionally
harassing employees Therefore, employees must provide
services within the specified scope. Use appropriate verbal
responses.

solution
Avoid having sexual conversations with customers. or
explain to customers that Thai people are concerned
about physical contact Therefore, when the guest listens,
there is still an argument to be harassed. It is
recommended that you notify the supervisor. or security
personnel to help in a timely manner and should not enter
the customer's room alone

4. Not enough staff for customers
Inadequate service for customers It is a matter of
customers who are very disappointed in the service,
especially during the high season, the customers will be
overwhelmed. which if the guests come to stay in every
room Sometimes employees may work in exchange for the
transfer fee until they have almost no rest at all.

solution
If found that the staff is not enough for customers The
boss should consider recruiting more people. Or calculate
the room that our hotel will be able to serve
approximately how many customers. Therefore, if unable
to find additional staff The person who is the leader
should have a plan to deal with it in a timely manner.
Don't let problems happen to your customers. or to a
minimum in order not to affect the name of the hotel

5. Service system failed.
The world's problems are very broken. About systems
within the hotel such as Internet or Wi-Fi or power
outages throughout the hotel. Think of a medium-sized
hotel with 20 rooms if the power outage is almost
unresponsive. If it's a 100+ room hotel, what problems
will it have? So the hotel should be a backup power
supply. Support for emergencies and preventable internal
systems

solution
Must have the hotel's IT department back up the backup
data regularly. And there should be a form of service.
Not just lifted online, system crashes, data lost, how to
proceed?

problems that arise Often encountered often and still
unable to solve any problems The hotel business owner
probably doesn't want the hotel's reputation to decline
because the poor service makes the customers feel bad
by word of mouth. Therefore, paying attention to the
smallest problems will help the business survive in the
long run.

Game

Bell Boy

Telephone
Operator

Receptionist

Front office
Department

Door Attendant

Answer

Bell Boy

Telephone
Operator

Receptionist

Front office
Department

Door Attendant

Game

Answer

Game

_ _ l _ _ h o _ _ O_ e r _ _ o _

Answer

_ _ l _ _ h o _ _ O_ e r _ _ o _

Telephone Operator

Game

Answer

Contents

1. https://setupmyhotel.com/train-my-hotel-staff/front-
office-training/743-front-office-introduction-
operations-functions.html

2.https://www.tutorialspoint.com/front_office_managem
et/front_office_management_introduction.htm

Thank you