The document discusses the front office department of a hotel. It describes the front office as the hub, nerve center, and focal point of activity in a hotel. It then provides details on the functions of the front office including guest services, guest accounting, and coordinating other hotel departments. It outlines the guest cycle from pre-arrival to departure and the front office's role at each stage. It also discusses front office personnel roles like the front desk agent, reservation agent, and cashier. Finally, it covers front office systems and preparing for guest arrivals and check-in processes."

1. Front office:
Hub of the hotel
Nerve center of the hotel
Focal point of activity
Brain of the hotel

2. Front office
 Front office is the main control centre of all guest
services, and also coordinates the back office functions
with these services.
 serves as a main channel of two way communications
i.e. from hotel to guest and guest to hotel.

3. Front office
Front office is the name given to all the
offices situated in the front of the
house
Is a department where the guest is
received, provided information,
checked-in, his luggage is handled, his
accounts are settled at departure, and
his problems, complaints and
suggestions are looked after

4. Guests use the front desk
To exchange currency,
To find information,
or request other special
assistance.

5. I. Main functions of the front
office department
1. Guest Cycle
• Pre arrival
 Arrival
 Occupancy
 Departure

6. GUEST CYCLE
GUEST CYCLE
STAGE
PRE-ARRIVAL
ARRIVAL
IN-HOUSE
DEPARTURE
6

7. Guest cycle Front office function
Guest services Guest
accounting
Pre-arrival Reservation Establishment of
credits
Arrival Registration Charge posting
Occupancy Occupancy
services
Night audit
Departure Check-out and
history
Settlement

8. 2. Guest Services
a. Maintain accurate room status information
b. Process future room reservations, when there
is no reservation department or when the
reservation department is closed.
c. Coordinate guest services.
d. Provide information about the hotel, the
surrounding community, and any attractions or
events of interest to guests.

9. 3. Guest Accounting:
 Establishment of credit
 Charge posting
 Night audit and settlement
 Monitor credit limits
 Produce guest account statements and
 complete proper financial settlement.

10. The Front office staff must have
the following essential attributes
1.Personal cleanliness
 Fingernails should be clean, manicured
and cut short
 Men should be shaved and should emit no
body odor.
 Hair should be clean and neatly
combed/arranged

11. Attributes…
2. Little or no make-up.
3. Careful use of lipsticks.
4. No necklaces or bracelets
earrings, if worn, must be
small and unobtrusive

12. Attributes…
5. Uniforms must be clean and well
pressed
6. Stockings (if required) should be
clean, of a permitted color and free
of holes.
7. Shoes should be dark in color,
low-heeled and clean
8 fit: standing long hours
9 smile, social skills and good

13. Front office work shifts
 FO department operates 24 hours a day
 Three main shifts in FO department
Morning – day shift
7.00 A.M – 3.00 P.M
Day – evening shift
3.00 P.M – 11.00 P.M
Night shift
11.00 P.M– 7.00 A.M
13

14. Front office personnel
FRONT OFFICE
PERSONNEL
CASHIER
RESERVATIONS
AGENT
NIGHT
AUDITOR
TELEPHONE
OPERATOR
CONCIERGE
RECEPTIONIST
FRONT OFFICE
MANAGER
BELL BOY
DOOR
ATTENDANT
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1
2
3
4 5
6
7
8
9

15. FRONT OFFICE ORGANISATION
Front office manager
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16. FRONT OFFICE
MANAGER
HEAD HALL PORTER
PORTER
DOORMAN
DRIVERS
TELEPHONE SUPERVISOR
Telephone Operators
CASHIER SUPERVISOR
FRONT OFFICE CASHIER
CASHIER
NIGHT MANAGER
NIGHT AUDITORS
RESERVATIONS
MANAGER
RESERVATIONS
SUPERVISOR
RESERVATION CLERKS
ASSISTANT FRONT
OFFICE MANAGER
MAIL AND INFORMATION
SUPERVISOR
MAIL AND
INFORMATION CLERK
RECEPTION MANAGER
RECEPTION SUPERVISOR
SENIOR RECEPTIONIST
RECEPTIONISTS

17. DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF
FRONT OFFICE STAFF
Front Office Manager
skilled planner
channelizes the various resources
cordial relationship between the front office and other
hotel divisions and department’s

18. Continued…
Evaluate and decide the need of
personnel in the department.
Participate in the selection of
front office personnel.
Train and update staff skills.

19. Continued…
 Schedule the staff duties. Scheduling may
lie on the front office supervisor and
approval might go to the manager
depending on the magnitude of the
activities and size of the hotel.
 Supervise and help workloads during shifts.
 Evaluate the job performance of each front
office employee.
 Maintain working relationships and
communicate with all departments.

20. Continued…
 Maintain master key control.
 Check room status
 Resolve guest problems quickly, efficiently and
courteously.
 Update and monitor group information and
requirements.
 Review credit limit report

21. Continued…
Preparing reports to the general
manager
Forecasting future reservations and
track the occupancy.
Enforce all cash-handling, other modes
of payment and credit policies

22. Front Desk Agent
 Designated as receptionist
 Is the first person a guest sees on entering the
property and the last person the guest sees on
leaving.

23. Duties and Responsibilities:
 Register guests and assign rooms; accommodate
special requests, if possible.
 Assist in pre-registration and blocking of rooms for
reservations.
 Thoroughly understand and adhere to proper credit,
other modes of payment, cash handling policies and
procedures.

24. Duties and Responsibilities…
 Know room status, locations, types and rates.
 Use suggestive selling techniques to sell rooms and to
promote other services of the hotel.
 Coordinate rooms’ status with housekeeping
department; notify all check-outs, early check-ins,
special requests etc.

25. Duties and Responsibilities…
 Handle issuing and closing of safe deposit boxes for
the guests.
 Read, maintain and pass-on log and bulletin board at
each shift.
 Know all safety and emergency procedures, accident
prevention policies.
 Report any unusual occurrences or requests to the
manager.

26. Reservation Agent
Duties and Responsibilities:
 Process reservations by mail, telephone, fax or
central reservation system referral.
 Process reservations from the sales office, other hotel
departments and travel agents.
 Know the type of rooms, location and layout,
status, rates, package plans, benefits etc.

27. Duties and Responsibilities of
Reservation Agent:
 Maintain reservation records by date and time of
arrival and alphabetical listings.
 Process cancellations and modifications.
 Prepare letters of confirmation and communicate to
the prospective guest / representative.
 Know the hotel’s policy on guaranteed reservations
and no shows.

28. Duties and Responsibilities…
 Process advance deposits on reservations.
 Prepare expected arrival lists and communicate
reservation information for front office.
 Promote goodwill by being courteous, friendly
and helpful to guests, managers and fellow
employees.

29. Switchboard Operator
Basic Function:
 Receives and directs incoming and outgoing calls
to individual guests, staff, or departments.

30. Duties and Responsibilities switch
board operator
 Answer incoming calls.
 Direct calls to guestrooms, staff, or departments
through the switchboard or PBX system.
 Place outgoing calls.
 Receive telephone charges from the telephone
company and forward charges to the front desk for
posting.
 Take and distribute messages for guests.

31. Duties and Responsibilities…
 Log all wake-up call requests and perform wake-up call
services.
 Provide information about guest services to guests.
 Answer questions about hotel events and activities.
 Provide paging services to hotel guests and employees.
 Know what action to take when an emergency call is
requested or received.
 Be aware of all the emergency service nos. and systems
relating to the same.

32. Duties and Responsibilities
Front Office Cashier
 Operate front office posting equipment/ system.
 Obtain the house bank and keep it balanced.
 Take departmental readings at the beginning of the
shift.
 Post charges to guest accounts.

33. Duties and Responsibilities
 Handle Paid-outs (VPO)
 Transfer guest balances to other accounts as required.
 Settle guest accounts in cash, credit card, and
Company account by transferring balances to the
respective ledgers
 Post non-guest ledger payments
 Make account adjustments
 Balance departmental totals and cash at close of shift.

34. Bell Service Staff
Basic Functions
 Meeting, greeting and escorting guests to
their rooms and also the reverse of it.
 Handle messages and page guests.
 They also act as the eyes and ears of the
hotels since they are strategically stationed
and also make trips to many floors and rooms.

35. Basic Functions continued..
Work closely with the front desk
staff, room service employees
and other hotel personnel in
providing guest assistance with
luggage, transportation and
miscellaneous needs.

36. Concierge desk (concierge
personnel)
Basic Functions:
 They are specialized in assisting the guest –regardless of
whether inquiries concern in-hotel or off-premises
attractions, facilities, services, or activities.
 Must provide concise and accurate directions.
 Make reservations for flights, theater or special
events, obtain tickets.
 Organize special functions such as VIP cocktail receptions
and arrange for secretarial services, if needed.

37. Night Auditor
Basic Functions:
Must be skilled record keeper since the job requires
him to track :
 room revenues,
 occupancy percentages,
 prepare a summary of the financial performance for
the day.

38. Guest Cycle:
The guest cycle describes the
activities that each guest passes by
from the moment he/she calls to
communicate a reservation inquiry
till he/she departs from the hotel.

39. 1. Guest Services
Reservation =
Registration =
Occupancy services =
Check-out and history

40. 2. Guest Accounting:
Establishment of credits=
posting charges= Night
auditing = settlement of
accounts

41. Pre-arrival:
 At the Pre-arrival stage, the hotel must create for
every potential guest a reservation Record.
 complete all the pre-registration activities and prepare
guest folios(applicable only for automated systems).

42. 2. Arrival
 At the arrival stage,
registration and rooming
functions takes place and
the hotel establishes
business relation-ship with
the guest.

43. 3. Occupancy
At the occupancy stage,
 The front office department shall coordinate guest
services in a timely and accurate manner.
 Handling complaints
 collect comment cards
 provide positive feedback to guest as soon as
possible.

44. Occupancy…
 shall design effective procedures in order to protect the
funds and valuables of guests.
 Another activity at occupancy is to process posting of
guest charges (i.e. post room rates, F&B charges,
additional expenses, and taxes…) to various guest
folios, master Folios… While doing so, front office clerks
shall continuously check for deviations from the house
limit, and take corrective measures as to change the status
of the guest to paid-in-advance. Finally, front office clerks
shall periodically review Account Balances in coordination
with the night auditor.

45. 4. Departure:
At the departure stage, the guest
shall be walked out of the hotel.
Finally, cashiers shall settle guest
account outstanding balances (i.e.
balance the Guest account to 0)

46. Departure…
In general, a proper checkout occurs when the
guest:
a) Vacates the room
b) Receives an accurate settlement of the
guest account
c) Returns room keys
d) Leaves the hotel

47. Departure…
 At departure, checkout personnel should
encourage guests to consider returning to the hotel
on any future date.

48. Balancing
Net Outstanding Balance=
previous balance+ debit- credit
NOB= Pb + Dr- Cr

49. Balancing…
Debits are Charges
Credits are payments

50. Front Office Systems:
 Until the 1960`s, nearly all hotels were operating
under the manual system. At late 70`s, with the
introduction of computers,
 Nowadays, most of the five-star hotels operate under
the fully automated system

51. Three(3) different
systems
1. Non-automated (manual)
system
2. Semi-automated (Electro-
mechanical) systems
3. Full automated (computer
based) systems

52. 1. Non-automated (manual)
system
 This very system is the one Characterized by the sole
usage of hands.
 In fact, all formats, Procedures and different kinds of
calculations are done manually.

53. 2. Semi-automated (Electro-
mechanical) systems:
 This system gets use of some Electro -mechanical
equipment. In fact, under the semi-automated system,
each department might have its own computer system
under which it handles all its operations.

54. 3. Full automated (computer
based) systems
 That’s the best system ever used in the hotel industry.
 In fact, it is characterized by the excessive use of
departmental software package programs integrated
and connected to a main frame or terminal situated at
the front office department.

55. PREPARING FOR GUEST ARRIVAL AND CHECK –IN
PROCESS
Introduction to reservation
Reservation
Is the activity of booking the room in
advance for a prospective guest on his
request for future, which may be from
few days to months in advance.

56. Types of reservation
1. Guaranteed and
2. Non-guaranteed
 The type of reservation depends
on whether a guest agrees to
guarantee the booking by certain
methods of Payment, or by
contractual agreement.

57. 1. Guaranteed reservation
A guaranteed reservation means
that a guest will guarantee to pay
for the room even if it is not used,
unless the guests has followed the
hotel’s prearranged cancellation
procedures.

58. Guaranteed reservation….
 In return the hotel promises to hold the room until the
checkout time of the day following the date of arrival.
Guaranteed reservations protect the hotel from ‘no
show’ (guests who make a room booking but do not
arrive or cancel it)..

59. 2. Non-guaranteed reservation
 A non-guaranteed reservation is a reservation in which
the guest has simply agreed and confirmed that they
will arrive. It is normal for this type of reservation for
the hotel to agree to hold a non-guaranteed room until
a stated cancellation time, normally to 6pm. If the
guest doesn’t arrive by the cancellation time, the room
is then released.

60. Non-guaranteed
reservation…continued
 The hotel then freely sells the released room to
another guest or to original guest if they arrive late and
if the room is still available. The cancellation time is
sometimes called the release time.

61. Basic Check-in Activities.
Five(5) basic stages
Preparing for guest arrivals
Room assignment and determination of room rate
Registration
Checking the method of payment
Issuing the room key and escorting the guest

62. In general, newly arrived guests at a hotel are classified
in to three main categories, i.e.
1. Guest with Guaranteed
reservation
2. Guest with Non-guaranteed
reservation and
3. Walk-ins

63. Preparation for guest arrivals
Before assigning guest room you need to have some
information.
 Room status and availability
 Expected arrivals and departures
 Arrivals with special requests
 VIPS and frequent stay guests

64. Room status and report
“Room status report” which shows whether a room is:
 Occupied (O)
 vacant( empty)(V)
 dirty (D)
 ready for occupancy or(R)
 out of order(000)

65. Expected arrivals List
The expected arrivals list
provides basic
information on guests
who are expected to
arrive on particular date.

66. Guest history record
 Many top-class hotels keep guest history records
which contain details of all previous guests.
 If guest history record is available, the names of all the
guests on the expected arrivals list should be checked
against the guest history record to see if any of the
guests have previously stayed in the hotel.

67. Expected arrivals with Special
Requests
Extra bed
Baby cot
Extra blanket
Flower .etc

68. Important guests may include
VIPs (very important person)
 Frequent-stay guests,
Celebrities,
Guests in expensive rooms,
 Guests with security risks.
 Executives from the hotel’s head
office, and so on.

69. CIPs (commercially important
person).
 May be guests and executives of large corporate
account-holders,
 Important journalists and media staff,
 Travel agents and tour company staff, and Guests
whose companies could bring a lot of business to the
hotel in the future.

70. SPATTs (special attention guests)
 are guests who may need extra care and
attention, such as
 handicapped guests,
 elderly or ill guests, and
 long-stay guests.

71. Room assignment and room rate
 The process of assigning rooms and room rates differs
with the different categories of guests.
 Expected arrivals
 If there is pre allocation of rooms

72. Walk-in guests
 A guest who comes to hotel without
reservation.
 Walk-in guests can only be assigned rooms and
room rates after it has been confirmed that
there is accommodation available.

73. Registration
Purpose
 The purpose of registration is to record a guest’s
arrival and confirm their personal details.
 For the purpose of security.

74. Guest with reservations
 For a guest with a reservation, the process of
registration and room allocation occurs immediately
on arrival. The receptionist will ask the guest to
complete and sign a registration form and will check
these details against the details held at the reception.
Should there be any discrepancies, these need to
clarify at this point.

75. Pre-arrival registration
 One of the busiest times for the reception department
is during the check-in hours. to ensure that newly
arrived guests are greeted and given their rooms as
smoothly and efficiently as possible, speedy
registration procedures are required.
 pre-print all the guest’s details on a registration card
prior to their arrival, as previously mentioned

76. Checking the method of payment
 This precaution helps to prevent embarrassment to the
guest at check-out, as well as preventing walk-outs.
 The main reason for doing this is to ensure that the
hotel can know in advance if the guest needs to make
especial arrangements for setting their bill, e.g.
wanting to pay by cheque, or to use uncommon foreign
currency.

77. The general rules for checking the
method of payment are outlined
below
 If the guest is walk-in or has a non-guaranteed
reservation, take a pre- payment or a credit card
imprint.
 If the guest has a guaranteed reservation and is setting
their own account, Ask to take a credit card imprint,
and phone for authorization for an amount which is
estimated to cover the whole stay.

78. The general rules for checking the
method of payment are outlined
below
 For settlements by cheque, ensure that the cheque
guarantee card will cover the whole amount.
Remember that it contravenes the cheque card
agreement to use multiple cheques for settlement of
one bill.
 FINALLY
 Issuing Room Keys and escorting the guest

79. THE END