UK Professional Development

Academy

Module – Front Office Operations Management

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Introduction
The front office is the most important department of a hotel. It is the most visible
part of hotel and guests first time interact with the hotel through the front office
staff, and they form the first imprint about the hotel based on the efficiency,
capability and behaviour of the front office staff. The reception desk of front office
performs the functions like the sale of rooms, handling of guest requests, room
assignments, guest registration, preservation of the guest accounts, cashiering along
with managing mail and providing information.

Front desk also handles the financial tasks which include getting cash payments,
managing guest folios, authenticating cheques and handling foreign currency and
credit cards. In this Unit, students will be given a comprehensive knowledge of all
these aspects of the front office management. The reception desk is the central point
of front office activity and is positioned in the front lobby of a hotel and dispenses all
front-of-the-house activities of the hotel. It is the communication centre of the hotel
with a great amount of guest contact.

Front Office: Organisational Structure

The front office department is responsible for performing quite a few functions.
Therefore, it becomes essential to have a well-defined organisational structure for
smooth operations. The organisational structure of the front office depends on many
factors:

Size of the Hotel: The specialised staff is required for larger hotels whereas, in the
smaller hotels, one employee/staff member may perform a variety of duties.

Type of Guests: Different guests have different needs, and their needs usually differ
on the basis of their purpose of visit, i.e., business travellers’ desire less time to be
spent on checking-in and checking-out processes, therefore, the front office desk can
play a pivotal role to handle such type of clients rather than concierge.

Type of Hotel: In some hotels such located in the airport area recognises that a guest
may check-in or check-out at any time during the 24 hours of a day. Therefore in
such type of hotels, the major focus is on the front office desk to continue the
activities 24 hours.

Standard of Service: High-standard hotels generally deliver more personal services

for guests and, therefore, they expect greater skills from their employees.

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The above-stated factors shape the organisational structure of a hotel. Generally,
most of the hotels follow the similar structure.

There are many subdivisions in front office department. In large hotels, the cashiers
report directly to the accounts department, with the financial controller taking
overall responsibility. The overall sketch of the front office remains the same, but
there can be alterations to the structure due to different cultures of the organisation.

Front Office Staff Competencies

Hotels are the part of the service industry, so, the front office department requires
the competent and professional people to handle the daily activities. The front office
staff requires the following competencies;

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 • Recognise their particular roles and responsibilities in the hotel and front
office as an operation.
• Train themselves with fundamental manners and fashion.
• Must have pleasing, gracious, and friendly personality.
• Wear the clean and neat uniform.
• Conduct themselves with professionalism, positive attitude, and cooperative
nature.
• Must have effective communication skills.
• Must have the skills of teamwork.
• Must have the capability to handle the complicated situations.

Front Office Ranks and Responsibilities

Front office manager:
A Manager is the overall in-charge of the Front Office Department who distributes
the available resources to attain the organisational goals. The fundamental function
of front office manager is to oversee all the staff members of the front office and to
ensure the appropriate and smooth operation of the department. Front office
manager directly reports to the General Manager.

Responsibilities

Major responsibilities of front office manager are;

• Supervise and synchronises the activities of the front office department.

• Establishes a link between the management and front office staff.
• Planning for the resources for future needs.
• Managing front office employees with proper scheduling.
• Appraise the job performance of front office staff.
• Launches the training programs according to the needs of staff.
• Execute budgeting function.
• Resolve guest problems rapidly, efficiently politely.
• Establishes coordination and good communication with other departments.
• Staff meetings and staff briefing are conducted by the front office manager.
• Resolve the complaints of staff members.
• Establishes a better team and motivates them for achieving the organisational
objectives.
• Ensure all SOPs are followed for a guest.

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 • To ensure maximum sales of hotel rooms, coordinates with the sales and
marketing team.

Reservation Manager
The term reservation is used for booking a specific lodging in the hotel by a guest for
a specific period of time. This section does not directly deal with the guests,
therefore, the reservation manager processes the requests of reservation that reach
the hotel by different modes. A reservation manager must possess salesmanship
skills by suggesting higher room categories, elaborating and selling of the other
services of the hotel. The reservation section of the front office is responsible for
generating the maximum revenues, therefore the reservation manager must be a
person with strong knowledge about the service with effective communication skills
to influence the behaviour of a customer. The important tasks performed by the
reservation manager include;

• Having comprehensive knowledge about the reservation systems.

• Reviewing the hotel reservations on a daily basis.
• Forecasting about the occupancy.
• Integrating the latest rates of the travel agents.
• Managing correspondence with the various travel agencies.
• Allocation of tasks to the reservation staff on a daily basis.
• Offering the deals to special guests, VIPs, repeated guests etc.
• Training and development of reservation staff.

Reception Manager
Following are some prominent roles and responsibilities of the reception manager:

• Effective dealing with the guests who are checking-in or checking-out.

• Warm welcoming the guests, accompanying them to the room, and seeing
them off.
• Ensuring professional greeting of clients, visitors, and guests.
• Completing the registration card or facilitating the guest for filling up the
registration cards.
• Effective coordination with housekeeping department for maintaining and
cleaning the rooms.
• Managing appraisals and performance rewards of the staff.
• Doing reviews about the current standards of the front office and integrating
the new practices
• Organising special gifts for the guests on some special occasions.

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 • Training and development of receptionist.

Guest Services Manager

The responsibilities of the guest service manager include:

• Managing emails, letters, and couriers of the guests.

• Making sure that guest messages are conveyed at the right time.
• Effective training of guest service staff.
• Maintaining guest service recommendation cards and guest complaints.
• Development and evaluating guest service staff.
• Confirming the delivery of services, exactly and timely.

Night Audit Manager

The distinctive responsibilities of a night audit manager are:

• Placing lodging charges, taxes, and other paid services such as restaurant
charges to each guest's account precisely for making bills.
• Performs the duty of manager at night.
• Settlement of the guest account according to the requirement.
• Managing security of the hotel during the night shift.

Communication Manager
The distinctive responsibilities of communication manager are:

• Ensuring an efficient communication system in place.

• Training and development of telephone operators.
• Immediate delivery of the couriers and faxes to the guests.
• Evaluating telephone operators.
• Having a close check on the communication facilities such as PBX, facsimile,
internet in the hotel.
• Integration of the latest technologies for making communication more
effective.

Other Staff members at Front Office

Information assistant:
Information assistant at the front office provides the information to the guest about
the hotel’s products and services, places of tourist interest in the city, adjacent food
and beverage outlets, etc. Some of the other major responsibilities of the
information assistant include the maintenance of information rack, managing and
delivering the guest mail, messages and couriers, handling of the room keys. On the

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other side, he also works collaboratively with the engineering and maintenance
department for maintenance of the guests’ room.

Cashier:
At the time of stay at the hotel, the guests perform various financial transactions. All
these financial transactions are settled in the bill of guest at the time of departure
and cashier is the major person who settles down all the transactions. It is
indispensable for the front office cashier to maintain the guest folio/sheet updated
by placing all financial transactions. Other major responsibilities of the cashier
include the transfer of guest balances to another account according to the
requirement, handling of V.P.O, checking the authenticity of the currency, exchange
of foreign currency, and balancing the cash.

Telephone operator:
Telephone operators play an important role in the image building of a hotel in the
minds of guests. On a daily basis, there are fewer chances of direct contact between
the telephone operators and guests. The major responsibilities of the telephone
operators are answering incoming calls, forwarding incoming calls to the various
extensions and keeping the record of guests’ calls.

Bell boy:
Bell boy perform various activities within the hotel and have direct contact with the
guests. Their major responsibilities include the transportation of the guests’ luggage
into the room, putting the tags on the luggage, escorting the guests to their rooms
and familiarise them with the in-room facilities and services. Moreover, bell boy
takes a detailed look of the room to check any damage to the hotel property at the
time of guests’ check out.

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The Reservation Office
In the hotelindustry, the term reservation refers to the booking of accommodation
by a client. Reservations are made by the particular guests for particular rooms
according to their needs. All the reservations are made for a specific period of time.
Reservation for a room is actually a surety by the hotel for the availability of a room.
Reservation is important for the hotel because it facilitates the hotels to;

• Sells their products such as accommodation easily

• Creates customers for the other departments
• Builds a first and positive impression on the client
• Provides useful information and data for other departments

Different reservation systems are used within the hotel industry, therefore, the
reservation process may differ from hotel to hotel.

Types of Reservation System

Which reservation system will be used in a hotel is entirely dependent on the size
and operations of the hotel. For example, small hotels usually use the diary book for
reservation, and this diary book keeps the complete record of the guests. In this

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case,the front desk manager will perform the duties of reservation systems, and
front desk clerk will be the reservation clerk. In very small hotels the owners perform
all the duties of reservation supervisor.

A reservation system starts its action after receiving the request for reservation from
a guest or a travel agent. A proactive reservation system is necessary for the healthy
profitability of a hotel. Each reservation is noted on a small, multipart piece of paper
fixed in a metal frame, which, in turn, is filled in date and alphabetical order on a
metal rack. The slips are usually colour coded to denote the type of guest. Usually,
there is one rack for every day over say, the next three months, and fewer racks for
future periods. Copies of the slip, also on racks, may be sent to other departments
such as reception or telephones when the guest arrives. This system gave rise to the
expression rack rate, which is how hoteliers often refer to the price of rooms.

The above-mentioned reservation system involves a lot of paperwork. Therefore,

computerised reservation systems have emerged. Modern computer technologies
can handle the large data of guests more efficiently. There is also specialized
software that can handle the guests’ data quite easily. In computerized reservation
systems, the guests’ data is stored on the hard drive of the computer. Computerized
reservation systems are important because;

• It provides the important information about the guest;

• Information can be stored for a long period of time;
• There is no need of documentation and offers a swift way to enter the data
• It makes the searching of data easy and flexible
• Facilitates in check-in and check-out process

Larger hotels have the central reservation systems. The central reservation system
helps the chain of hotels to manage the reservation of various properties within a
single centralised reservation system. In today’s hotel industry various smaller hotels
have come together to form a central reservation system. The centralised
reservation systems also helped in a smooth check-in and check-out process.

In today’s world, the online booking or reservation is becoming trendy. In such type
of reservation systems, the guests make a request of reservation via the internet on
the website of the particular hotel. After an online reservation request, the hotel’s
management reconfirms the reservation through an email or telephone call and then
makes it an official reservation.

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Accepting or Denying Reservation
A request received by the guest is accepted or denied on the basis of availability of
the particular room for a specific time period as mentioned in the reservation
request. The availability of a particular room is confirmed through reservation charts,
computerised systems or forecast boards. If the requested room is available, then
the request is accepted otherwise it is rejected immediately.

The acceptance of a reservation request is not as simple as it looks. In reality, it is a

vital decision made by the reservation staff for accepting or rejecting of any request.
For making this decision, first of all, the reservation staff uses the information such as
credit standing of the person, type of guest, the purpose of visit, the time duration of
stay etc. In computerized systems cross-checking of this type of information is quick
and easy while in the manual system it takes time. Denying a guest is clearly a loss
for hotels, but sometimes hard decisions are needed to be made. Denying
reservation is a decision taken in the following circumstances;

• If the requested accommodation is not available, then reservation staff offers

the alternate category of accommodation and try to sell the upper class of
rooms.
• If the hotel is reserved or booked to its capacity, then reservation staff don’t
have other option to deny the request politely and gently. At the time of
denying the staff members may suggest the alternate hotels in the area or the
same group of hotels.
• If a reservation request comes from a blacklisted guest, agent, or tour
operator, then the manager has the authority to deny the request. Most of
the guests or agents are blacklisted due to non-payments or delayed
payments.

In the reservation policy of the hotels, the time and mode of payment are always
mentioned. In case of bulk booking or special booking of the room requires the
advance payments. The advance payment can either be full or partial room rent.
These advance payments are either refundable or non-refundable according to the
reservation policy of hotel if the cancellation request has been made. Many times
the reception staff overbook to cover contingencies like a guest not turning up even
after having confirmed reservation or at times when tour operators make
reservations for more than an actual number of passengers to get greater discounts
on volume. During the main season, the reservation staff don’t take the chance of
over-booking. At the time of the mainseason, the over-booking issues are handled
according to the reservation policy of the hotel.

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Managing Reservations
The management team forecast the requirement of rooms according to the reports
of reservation. Forecasting has been made for a period ranging from 10 days to
several months. Forecasting is also dependent on the capacity of the hotels during a
particular season. Most of the time the forecasting is made for a shorter period of
time by considering the upcoming events and festivals in a particular area. As the
forecasting is an important part of the reservation policy, therefore, making an
effective reservation policy is the most vital task of the management. The reservation
policy focuses on the sales channels (travel agents, corporate clients or walk-ins)
therefore, sometimes the reservation section adopts its own policy to run the
business successfully.

Generating Reservation Reports

Reservation section of the hotel receives a lot of information especially about the
guests, and this information should be managed in a proper way. At reservation
desks after collecting the required information the guests’ folios are created and
updated continuously. After doing this, the reservation reports are generated on the
daily or weekly basis. These reports may include;

• Group status reports containing the information about the groups that arrived
or departed during a specific period of time. Group status reports may also
include the information like size of the group, guaranteed booking, type of
group etc.
• Reports about the revenue forecast demonstrating the future sales of rooms.
• Turn Away Reports that will include the number of reservation requests
denied and if possible, some information about the one asking for a
reservation.
• Room availability reports are generated on the daily basis that demonstrates
the number of rooms available and sold.
• The special arrivals or VIPs reports will contain the information about the VIPs
and some additional information about the preferences of the guests.
• Expected arrivals and departure report containing information about the
guests that will check-in or check-out within the short period of time.

Check-In Process
Check-in process is an important process because it involves the exchange of
information between the hotel staff and guest. The check-in process may be
computerised and manual. The manual process starts when a guest directly walks-in
without reservation or having a reservation for his/her requested accommodation. A

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walk-in guest has no prior reservation exchanges the necessary information and
request for an accommodation. The reservation desk after receiving the necessary
information checks the availability of the room and allow the room if it is available.

Guests having prior reservations are directly assigned the room which he/she
requested.

The minimum information that reservation desk requires is the name of the guest,
size of the group, time duration for stay and their mode of payment. After assigning
the room, the bell boy carries the luggage and leads the guest towards the assigned
room. In the meantime the reservation desk process the information and creates the
guest account. After the major check-out, the front office creates a list of guest
staying and departing the hotel. This report depicts the availability of the rooms for
walk-in guests. In case of computerised reservation systems only the walk-in guests
are asked to provide the personal information. On the other hand, the guests having
prior reservations just need to confirm their information at the reception.

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Once the guests are allotted the desired rooms, the computerised systems are
automatically updated regarding the guests’ information. The assistance of the front
office manager is required hardly, mainly in the case of over-bookings, i.e., when two
or more guests arrive for the same room, the manager can either allocate another
room to the guest or can try to upscale the room type. If in a situation a hotel is
unable to handle extra or special guests then special arrangement at the different
hotels are made for the guests. Regardless of the check-in method, the fundamental
idea behind the check-in is to gather the information about the guests and making
their reservation experience smooth and joyful.

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Front Office Accounting
Within a hotel, there are various transactions taking place between the hotel and
guests. These transactions are related to various services that guests can avail during
their stays such as laundry services or room services. In most of the hotels, the guest
doesn’t make any payments for availing the services, and all the service charges are
included in their bills.

The charges of the services are continuously posted to the guests’ accounts which
keep the billing up to date. This process can be performed manually or through a
computer. Once all the postings have been made it is necessary to recheck that the
correct amount of charges has been entered in the guest folio or not.

For a supervisory position, it is necessary to check all of these details on a regular

basis because guest can check out at any time. In the daytime, the front office is
quite busy with different type of activities but at night there is less burden of work,
and there is a lot of time to recheck these transactions. During the night the bills and
receipts can be matched and checked easily. This job is done by the night auditors.
Night auditors check the posting or entries of bills from other departments of the
hotel and also the credit limit of the guests. These credit limits can be that of the
hotel or of a credit card or even that of a company’s account floor limits. Therefore,

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the accounts of the guests are updated on a regular basis to make the process of
settlement fast and smooth.

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Front Office Functions
The front office plays a role of facilitator between the guests and various
departments of the hotel. Moreover, the front office is responsible for offering
efficient services to the guests. Front office operations’ nature depends upon the
various transactions and interactions between hotel and guest at the time of the
guest’s stay at the hotel.

There are the various stages of guest stay which are as below:

• Pre-arrival
• Arrival
• Occupancy
• Departure

The transactions between the guests and hotel take place during these stages of
stay. Each stage involves a different kind of transaction. Some of the transactions
between the hotel and guests are;

• Transactions of Reservations,
• Check-in and registration,
• Mail and information,
• Uniformed service and baggage handling,
• Telephone calls and messages,
• Handling guest accounts
• Check-out and bill settlement

All of the above transactions and services are managed by the front office. The
services and functions are distinguished on the basis of the area where they are
performed. Some functions are performed at the front of the house while some
functions are performed back of the house.

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Front-of-the-House Operations
Front-of-the-house functions are performed in the front of guests therefore known
as the front-of-the-house operations. These operations either have a direct link with
the guests or they are performed in front of the guests. These operations start when
a guest calls or places a request for a reservation. Front office staff interacts with the
guests and takes the information for reservation purposes. After confirming the
reservation, the staff manages the guest when they check-in. Check-in is the most
important activity for the guests who made reservations or for the walk-in guests. In
today’s world, most of the reservation systems are computerized, but their features
are almost same.

Check-in is not a simple procedure because it requires a lot of information for

building the record of a guest. These records are maintained for the future purposes
and are also useful in case of any emergency. Moreover, the front office provides the
information about the different services of the hotel and establishes the first link

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between the guest and hotel. The front office has a central role in a hotel because it
is the focal point of all activities. Hence, decisions concerning the sale of a room to a
specific guest, availability and allocation of a room, preserving guest account by
coordinating with the housekeeping and room service are the major front-of-the-
house activities. Account settlement is the final activity performed by the front office
at the time of the check-out process. Therefore, it is also regarded as the first and
last place of interaction where a guest can interact with the hotel.

Back-of-the-House Operations
These are the activities that take place at the back of the stage and don’t take place
in front of guests. The front office operations are initiated when a guest makes an
inquiry for accommodation and then it is converted into a reservation request. After
that, the confirmed reservation leads towards the collection of information. This
information reveals that either the guest making reservation first time or he/she is a
repeated guest. Finally, the account of the guest is activated when he checks-in. This
account keeps all the record of transactions of a guest, for example, room rent, room
services, laundry, food and beverage at the hotel’s outlet and any other facility used
by the guest during his or her stay.

Night auditors facilitate the back of the office for managing the account of the guest.
In the varioushotels, there is a system of a credit line for their guests or for the
representatives of particular companies. This credit limit is predetermined, and
guests are allowed to collect the amount before asking for either a full or partial
payment. Night manager coordinates with the housekeeping department and room
sales for managing the occupied as well as unoccupied rooms. Records are
maintained at the front of the house, but most of the information regarding the
transaction of guest comes from the back of the house, therefore front of the house
needs right and timely information from the back of the house for making operations
more efficient.

Check–Out Process
Check-out is the last point where a guest contacts with the hotel. Therefore, this
point will make the clear difference for a guest. If the last interaction is smooth,
he/she will leave the hotel with pleasant memories. To make this point efficient, it is
divided into three different parts;

• Guest vacating the room

• Guest settling the bill
• Guest departing

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Guests usually vacate the room at the hotel’s check out time which is usually 12 at
noon. Sometimes due to check-out time can be extended due to the availability of
the rooms and type of guest. In small hotels the check-out times are flexible.

Settling the guests’ bill is next important part of the check-out process. The bills are
updated at the night time to make the check-out process smoother. It is more
convenient to ask the guest before the time when he/she would be checking out to
confirm that the staff has some idea when the guest would be checking out and have
a bill ready. The bill includes the charges for different services utilized by the guest
during the stay. Settlement of the bills can take time because the guest would like to
recheck the bill before making the final payments. The departure of the guest takes
place when the keys are returned by the guest to the hotel staff. Once the guest
leaves the hotel, his/her folio is created for future purposes.

The Electronic Front Office (EFO)

Due to computerization in the modern world, the utilization of technology is
becoming an important part of the front offices. The digitalization or
computerization of the front office is an important part of property management
systems. Therefore the term of electronic front office has emerged which works
collaboratively with all the departments of the hotel besides its inter-dependence.
Here is the significance of computerization of front office.

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Auditing: Various postings of changes are checked and rechecked by the computers.
The balance is also cross-checked with the initial amount paid at the reception. This
reduces the duties and functions of the night auditors.

Yield Management:Yield management in hotel industry clearly focuses on the

occupancy of rooms by considering the best average rates of a room. Yield
management also consider the situation of “what, if” and various reports and
occupancy rate of the hotel for adjusting the room rate in a specific period. The front
office manager takes the decisions of yield management, and during this process, the
computer-generated reports assist him/her for making the best decision.

Registration: At the time of reservation when a guest check-in all the necessary
information is collected from the guest, therefore, they only need to sign and check
out. In today’s world, the remote check-in facilities are also becoming popular at the
airports. Plastic and paper keys are also becoming common. When a guest is
assigned a room, an automatic key is generated or printed. The configuration of the
locks of the room is changed according to the printed key. At the time of check-out
or loss of key from the guest, the locks are reprogrammed. When the locks are
reprogrammed, the previous key will not be able to open the locks.

Reporting: Front office needs the various reports and all these reports are efficiently
produced. With the help of computerization even the hourly status of the rooms and
housekeeping made available for ready reference. This makes the managerial
functions such as forecasting easier for the front desk.

Reservation: Reservation has been made swift and easy because bookings are
matched against the existing data saved in the computer. Therefore, managers can
directly come to know that the specific type of room requested is available or not for
a specific time period. The information about the guest is forwarded to the front
office people along with the reservation booking. With the help of it, the front desk
knows about the advance bookings and client’s information immediately. Central
reservation systems (CRS) facilitates the guests to know the status of a room and
book it.

Energy Management System (EMS): EMS is responsible for the controlled usage of
energy. After assigning the room to the guest when he uses his key and put it into a
special socket, power will be activated in the room by EMS and guest will be
facilitated with the ventilation and room lights. After guest leaving, the power supply
will be switched off. At the arrival of the guest, he needs to be notified about EMS by
the front office.

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Telephone Call Accounting:There will be no more telephone calls through operator
rather guests will be facilitated to make their calls directly from their room which
ensures their privacy and improved service for guest. Later, call charges are added to
the guests’ bill.

Posting: The guest bills include the various charges from the different hotel
departments such as room services, business centre, bar, restaurant, laundry etc.
The name of the guest, account details and room number are mentioned on account
of the guest which saves the staff from the paperwork.

Check Out: A guest can easily review his account through TV set available in the
room with the facility of the fully automatic check-out system. He can definitely
endorse the bill and his check out from his room. When he comes to the receptionhe
makes the actual settlement of the bill there and pays his dues. Hence, this
procedure saves the guest time, and he can easily check out even during the early
morning.

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References and Further Reading
Bardi, J.A., 2003. Hotel front office management. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Rutherford, D.G. and O’Fallon, M.J., 2007. Hotel management and operations. John
Wiley & Sons.

Tewari, J.R., 2009. Hotel front office: operations and management. Oxford University
Press.

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