Front office Department

FRONT OFFICE
DEPARTMENT

BY MATISTA DUANGKHAI 116310102184-3

What is Front Office Department?

Front Desk is the department directly responsible
for dealing with hotel guests. since the reception
room booking Preparing rooms for guests to stay
Management of various services for guests
during their stay in the hotel, such as information
services. Facilitating communication both inside
and outside the hotel

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.

Operational policy of
the hotel front desk

1. Service Policy

The front desk is responsible for
serving guests willingly and serving
guests with equality. speed and
accuracy Including the distribution of
jobs for employees to be able to
serve guests thoroughly.

2. Personnel Policy

Hotel Front Desk personnel policy can
save staffing costs by recruiting
efficient and competent employees to
do more than one job to educate
employees. skills and experience,
including solutions to problem.

3. Specific policies under the front

desk
Determining specific policies such as
Reservation reception will set specific
policies such as How to get a
reservation Reservation conditions
Front desk such as welcome
procedures, greetings, check-in.

The role of the front office

1.First and last contact point

The front desk is the first and last point to serve guests
both inside and outside the hotel. Therefore, the front desk
must make the first impression on the guests who come to
use the service. And also have to make a final impression in
order to make a good impression before leaving This will
bring guests back to use the service again.

2.Information Center

The front desk is the most opportunities to meet guests.
Because it is located in the lobby of the hotel, most of
which are located in a location that is easily accessible to
guests.

3.Nerve Center

When the guest wants to receive the service, the guest
will notify the request to the front desk for further
coordination.

Responsibilities
of Front Office
Department

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 department includes




Uniformed Service Concierge
Cashier Guest Service
Reception Room Reservation
Telephone Operator Night Auditor

Front office Manager

Should be a person who has experience
working in hospitality as well. Front office
managers are responsible for both service
delivery and promotional activities and are
also responsible for managing various
components of the work. Front Office
managers are also an important tool in
developing the department's staff to be
proficient and to perform according to
hotel standards. Therefore, Front Office
managers are critically required to
formulate guidelines and policies.

Assistant Front Office
Manager

For this position there will be one to
two or more depending on the
workload and management policy.
Responsible for lightening the
responsibilities of the front office
manager.

Night Auditor

The Night Auditor works in the evening
shifts. Take care of only the night
cycle and also collect information
about the guest's stay the next day.
Take care of guests expense accounts
during their stay, including financial
details.

Operational Structure of Front
Office

Front office positions

Room Reservation
Responsible f
or taking care of
customer bookings and taking
bookings by phone, fax and plays a
key role in the sales pitch.
Negotiating with the utmost objective
is to get as many reservations as
possible.

Telephone Operator Service
Serves for communication services
both inside and outside the hotel via
telephone system or Telephone
Switchboard and also a fax service
Wake-up service and control of
television and radio systems.

Front office positions

Uniformed Service

Responsible for impressing the guest as
it is the first to serve the guest when the
guest arrives at the hotel, therefore the
uniformed service supervisor is
responsible for overseeing the
performance of staff both in regards to
dress code. Communication and speed
of service.

Concierge

Facilitate and provide information
services to guests such as
restaurant reservations, attraction
cards, Passenger plane tickets,
bus tickets, as well as providing
information about arts and
culture.

Front office positions

Door Attendant

Be the first employee to serve guests at the entrance
of the hotel building and greets guests when they
arrive at the hotel and opens and closes the door when
they want to enter and exit. and help carry luggage
from the vehicle and take guests to the reception.
Supervise the traffic in front of the hotel with services
including safety. Call a taxi or cab when guests need it
and help take care of parking. He often asks for help,
especially asking directions to places such as tourist
attractions, mall, Airports, bus stations and restaurants.

Front office positions

Bell Attendant

Bell Attendant will help take care of the guests'
luggage by having a luggage cart as a tool to help
with work and bring the guest luggage to the guest
room. Introduce and familiarize yourself with the
hotel's facilities and services, security systems and
luggage storage. Employees in this position should
be physically strong and have the ability to
communicate, especially listening and speaking
foreign languages, as well as creating an
impression of service.

Front office positions

Reception



Some hotels may be called
reception. Responsible for check-in,
check-out and assisting guests with
information or currency exchange.

Cashier

Record expenses from guests visiting
different departments and taking back
rooms and paying for services. Therefore,
care must be taken to collect information
about the use of the current service. and
must be able to explain the details of the
payment in case the guest has any
misunderstanding and record the guest
information after the guest has returned
the room.

Qualifications of Receptionnist

1. Positive attitude

The receptionist should have a good
attitude and possess pleasant. This will
make the guests who talk to us feel more
comfortable and friendly.

2. Polite

A good receptionist must be polite. gentle
verb humble Do not use harsh language or
make any unsatisfactory verbs at the hotel
guests.

3. Equip themselves with basic etiquettes
and mannerism.

You should always be respectful and treat your
guests equally, you should not choose to serve only
one guest.

Qualifications of
Receptionnist

4. Wear clean and neat uniform

clean dress It's something that is visible on
the outside. It's the first impression. those
who meet will first see how to dress. Those
working in reception need to dress well. This
does not mean the dress is luxurious and
expensive, but the dress is clean.

5. Possess extraordinary communication skills.

Need to have a good level of English skills
because they have to provide services to
foreign guests.

Working hours of the hotel front desk

Morning Shift

06.00 a.m. - 03.00 p.m.

Afternoon Shift 02.00 p.m. - 11.00 p.m

Night Shift 10.00 p.m. - 07.00 a.m.

The Guest Cycle in Hotel

1. 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.

Enquiry Pickup Service

Reservation

2. 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.

Handling Luggage Opening Guest Acct Registering

Allocating Room Issuing key

3. 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.

Currency Exchange Telephone Calls Managing guest Acct

Managing guest Service Managing Transport

4. 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.

Drop Service Guest Payment
Clearance

Handling Luggage Check-Out Procedure

Types of Hotel Reservation Systems

An efficient and effective reservation system is what
adds to the hotel’s profitability. Following are the
most popular reservation systems:

Whitney System of Reservation

It was developed in 1940 by Whitney Paper
Corporation from New York, hence the name. This is
a conventional manual reservation system the hotels
used to follow during pre- computer days in the
hotels. It contains the following setup for
reservation:

Slip for request of accommodation reservation
 Whitney slip that records guest name, accommodation type,
number, and duration of stay
 Temporary/Permanent arrival slip
 Guest bill
 Guest registration card
 Correspondence file
 Bedroom journal that records daily occupancy of the guest with
date, guest name, room type, and room number

Types of Hotel Reservation Systems

Central Reservation System (CRS)

It is a computerized reservation system that reduces
paperwork and can handle large amount of
reservation data effortlessly.

In this system, since the guest data and reservation
data are stored on the storage disks of the
computers, it can be accessed at wish. It is stored in
the form of a database of collection of records
which can enable searching, adding, removing, or
updating any guest related data.

Problems and solutions

Problems

Nobody likes long lines, and this is especially true when a
person is waiting on something they don’t just want, but
need — like a comfortable room with a bed in it. Long
lines at a hotel’s front desk can be a real problem for
desk agents as they can cause guests to become
frustrated and argumentative.

Solutions

Front desk staff at any hotel can improve their
overall efficiency, streamline the guest experience
and eliminate long lines in the lobby by offering a
Contactless Check-In solution to guests before they
ever set foot on the property. Contactless Check-In
enables guests to go through the check-in process
conveniently on their own mobile devices. This tool
frees up front desk staff to spend more time fielding
questions from guests and less time dealing with
administrative paperwork.

Problems and solutions

Problems

The Guest come to check in on time, but
the room is not ready to serve.

Solutions

Take the guest to wait at the waiting room, tell them the
reason why it happened. Apologize to the guests and
serveWelcome Drink and inform the guests that the room
will be ready in no later than 2 p.m.

Problems and solutions

Problems

The customer has already made a room reservation
through the website. But when arriving at the hotel,
there are no rooms available because people have
overbooked the number of rooms available. This case
is called overbook.

Solutions

Find hotels for customers in the vicinity
Apologize and take responsibility and
refund the customer's booking.

Problems and solutions

Problems

Customers come to ask for early
check-in. And then the old customer is
not yet time to check out and refuses
to pay for early check-in.

Solutions

Maybe ask guests to wait in the lobby
and recommended that guests deposit
their luggage and go for walks or
other activities to wait for their time.

Problems and solutions

Problems

Another problem that hotels is to ask
for an ID card to check in or if a
foreigner, it will be a passport which
some guests do not allow.

Solutions

Explain to guests that it is a matter of
safety. Therefore, it is necessary to
verify your identity to prevent
impersonation.

Hotel Uniform

Hotel Uniform

Hotel Uniform

Black: Gives a feeling of luxury
Elegant, modern and mysterious.
Blue: Gives a feeling calm, stable and
professional.
Daisy : give a feeling of beauty and purity.
Daisy is a symbol of love and instead of
the feelings given to the guests.

Game

Cashier

Telephone operator

Door attendant
Bell attendant

Answer

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Door attendant
Bell attendant

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Reference

Tutoriials Point. Front Office
Management. Retrieved from tutorialspoint
: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/front_office_

management/front_office_management_int
roduction.htm

Blockdit. Front Office Department.
Retrieved from Blockdit :
https://www.blockdit.com/posts/5ef1a784766
2d70cb6da51f7

Jobnsure. Qualities of a good
receptionist. Retrieved from Jobnsure :
http://www.jobnsure.com