ID UNIT KOMPETENSI / COMPETENCY UNIT ID / HT-110-3:2011/C01/P(1/9) / Muka / Page : 1
Drpd/of : 24
KOD DAN NAMA PROGRAM /
PROGRAM’S CODE & NAME / HT-110-3:2011 –GUEST SERVICES OPERATION
NO. DAN TAJUK UNIT KOMPETENSI /
COMPETENCY UNIT NO. AND TITLE / C01 : RECEPTION ACTIVITIES HANDLING
TAHAP / LEVEL / 3 (THREE)
NO. DAN PENYATAAN AKTIVITI KERJA / WORK ACTIVITIES NO. AND STATEMENT /
  1. IDENTIFY RECEPTION ACTIVITIES HANDLING REQUIREMENT
  2. PREPARE ARRIVAL ACTIVITIES
  3. CARRY OUT GUEST ARRIVAL ACTIVITIES
  4. ATTEND GUEST ENQUIRIES AND NEEDS
  5. CARRY OUT BILL SETTLEMENT ACTIVITIES
  6. CARRY OUT PRODUCT SALES ACTIVITIES
  7. ATTEND RESERVATION NEEDS
  8. CARRY OUT FILING ARRANGEMENT
  9. PERFORM TELEPHONIST FUNCTION
  10. EVALUATE RECEPTION ACTIVITIES HANDLING EFFECTIVENESS
  11. PRODUCE RECEPTION ACTIVITIES REPORT

ID UNIT KOMPETENSI / COMPETENCY UNIT ID / HT-110-3:2011/C01/P(1/11 / Muka / Page : 1 Drpd/of : 23

TOPIC: INTRODUCTION TO FRONT OFFICE

PURPOSE:THE PURPOSE OF THIS MODULE IS TO GIVE EXPLANATION ABOUT HOSPITABILITY TO FRONT DESK PERSONNEL, TO ENSURE THEIR KNOWLEDGE ON GROOMING, BODY LANGUAGE, VOICE INTONATION, COMMUNICATION SKILL, SAFETY AND SERVICE MANUAL.

INFORMATION:

1. INTRODUCTION OF FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT

Front office is the most important department because it has the most guest contact. Guest makes their first contact with front office staff when they arrive at a hotel. The hotel’s first impression depends on the services provided by the front office staff. Therefore the front office staff gives a significant impact on the hotel image. The function of the front office includes reservation, registration, room and rates assignment, room status, guest services and cashiering. Normally, front office operates 24 hours a day with three main shifts divided among the staff:

Morning-day shift 7am – 3 pm

Day-evening shift 3pm – 11 pm

Night shift 11pm – 7 am

The front office is the nerve center of a hotel property. Communication and accountingare two of the most important functions of a front desk operation. Effective communications with guests, employees, and other departments of the hotel are paramount inprojecting a hospitable image. Answering guest inquiries about hotel services and otherguests, marketing and sales department requests for information on guest room availability,and housekeeping department inquiries concerning guest reservations are but afew of the routine tasks performed almost constantly by a hotel front desk in its role ascommunications hub.

Accounting procedures, involving charges to registered and non-registered hotel guest accounts, are also very important in the hospitality field. Itemizedcharges are necessary to show a breakdown of charges if a guest questions a bill.Services for which fees are charged are available 24 hours a day in a hotel property.Moreover, because guests may want to settle their accounts at any time of the day, accountsmust be current and accurate at all times. Keeping this data organized is a top priority of good front office management.

Figure 1: Front Desk

1.1 FRONT OFFICE RESPONSIBILITIES

i) ORGANIZATION CHART

A hotel is clearly an organization because it has certain goals which need to be achieved. The main goal is to bring guest to stay in the hotel as this will make a lot of profit. In order to achieve its goals, plans and coordination’s of activities between departments need to be smooth. What better way to do this than by using organizational chart.

Organizational chart will give a clearer picture of the relationship between the different positions within the hotel. It also enables the manager to know the positions of staff within the hotel and also who is answerable to whom. Organizational chart also shows where and how each department fits into the overall organization of a hotel. Each staff has to understand their duties and responsibilities. By looking at the organizational chart, they can see how they interlink with each other in their daily activities.

However, hotel organization structure varies. It depends on the size and style of operation. Normally hotel organization structures can be categorized into small, medium or large.

Figure 2: Hotel Organization Chart

Figure 3: Front Office Organization Chart

a) JOB DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATION

Telephone operator

  • Processing all incoming and outgoing calls
  • Give morning wake-up call
  • Taking messages
  • Must be able to deal with crises up to and including life-threatening that tracks

guest phone calls and posts billing charges to lodging establishments.

  • This person may also assist the desk clerkcashier when necessary.

Figure 4: Telephonist

Receptionist

  • Greeting guest
  • Verifying guest
  • Reservationsregistering guests,
  • Communicating with the housekeepingstaff,
  • Answering telephones
  • Providing information about and directions to local attractions
  • Accepting cash and giving change
  • Acting as liaison between the lodging
  • Handling special request
  • Handling check-in and check-out
  • Providing information for guest
  • Assigning rooms and dispensing guest room keys

Figure 5: Receptionist

Reservation

  • Handling guaranteed and non-guaranteed reservation
  • Up sell accommodations
  • Forecasting
  • Providing management information to other departments

Cashier

  • Receiving payment
  • Balancing guest account
  • Maintenance of guest account
  • Administer the safe deposit system
  • Handling foreign currency
  • Processing guest checkouts and guest legal tender andproviding change for guests.

Concierge

  • Ensuring guest satisfaction
  • Arranging tours, limousine and entertainment tickets
  • Maintaining good relationship with hospitality industry
  • Personal helper for VIP
  • Provide latest information of events

Figure 6: Bellman

Night Auditor

  • Processing guests’ accounts
  • Handling a cash float
  • Effectively maximizes inventory levels during high occupancy/sold out nights
  • Verify that revenue from all sources is accurately balanced and stated in the propertymanagement system; investigate, correct and follow up on any discrepancies
  • Produce daily reports for departments and department heads
  • Transmit batch credit reports to credit card processor

ii) FRONT OFFICE FUNCTIONS

ROLES OF FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT

The front office is the most visible department in a hotel. Front office personnel havemore contact with guests than do staff in most other departments. The front desk is usually the focal pointof activity for the front office and is prominently located in the hotel's lobby. Guests come to the frontdesk to register; to receive room assignments; to inquire about available services, facilities, and the city orsurrounding area; and to check out.

The front desk often serves as the hotel control center for guestrequests concerning housekeeping or engineering issues. International guests use the front desk toexchange currency, find a translator, or request other special assistance. In addition, it may also be a baseof operations during an emergency, such as a fire or a guest injury.

Other front office functions include receiving and distributing mail, messages, and facsimiles (faxes), aswell as guest cashiering. Cashiers post charges and payments to guest accounts, all of which are laterverified during an account auditing procedure (often called the night audit).

Front desk personnel also mayverify outstanding accounts receivable, and produce daily reports for management. Some hotels haveadded concierge services to their list of front office functions. In a sense, concierge services are simply anextension of the guest services provided by front office personnel.

The functions of the front office are to:

• Sell guestrooms, register guests, and assign guestrooms.

• Process future room reservations, when there is no reservations department or when thereservations department is closed.

• Coordinate guest services.

• Provide information about the hotel, the surrounding community, and any attractions or eventsofinterest to guests.

• Maintain accurate room status information.

• Maintain guest accounts and monitor credit limits.

• Produce guest account statements and complete proper financial settlement.

a)OTHER DEPARTMENT RELATIONS

FRONT OFFICE IN RELATION TO OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Interdepartmental communications in a hotel is very important. As front office serves as the communication liaison in providing guest services, other departments have a unique communication link with the front office staff. Most of the time, the front office staff will response to guests’ requests for information on location of hotel, special events in the community and public transportation. Thus, in order to ensure guest stay is satisfactory or their visit is a pleasant one, effective interdepartmental communications is vital.

i) HOUSEKEEPING

  • A close liaison between the front office department and housekeeping department is essential so that the information about the guestrooms is kept accurately up to date.
  • Housekeeping department is considered the most important support department for the front office.
  • A front desk staff cannot assign a guestroom until the room has been cleaned, inspected and released by the housekeeping department.
  • The housekeeping department and front office department must promptly inform each other of any changes in a room’s availability or status
  • In order to maximize room sales, a change in a room’s housekeeping status should be promptly communicated to the front desk.
  • When the housekeeping status information used by the housekeeping department differs from the room status information used by the front desk to assign rooms, a room status discrepancy occurs. This discrepancy can tremendously affect hotel’s ability to satisfy guest needs and maximize rooms’ revenue.
  • During high occupancy (sold out) periods, a prompt relay of housekeeping information to the front desk is needed. This will help the registration process to run smoothly when guests check in. Failing to do so might cause dissatisfaction among guests.
  • In order to organize room cleaning schedules, the housekeeping department needs information on guest departure and stay over from front office department.
  • The chambermaid will collect items found in guestrooms. The housekeeping department who is in charge of lost and found has to relay information to the front desk if guest item happens to be left in hotel’s room.
  • If the hotel’s public area such as the lobby is dirty, the front office staff needs to inform the housekeeping department to clean the area.
  • Housekeeping personnel need to report to the front desk any unusual circumstances that may indicate a violation of security for the guests. The front desk staff will in turn relay the problem to the security or proper in-house authority.
  • Overall, effective communication among housekeeping department and front office department contribute to guest satisfaction in the hotel.

Figure 7: Housekeeping (maid)

ii) FOODS AND BEVERAGE (F&B)

  • Good communication between both food & beverage department and front office department is important in ensuring guest stay is a pleasant one.
  • When guests check-in, front office department needs to give out breakfast voucher to guests. Other than that, food and beverage department needs front office staff to provide information to guests about operating hours, menu and location in the property.
  • Problems such as late charges pose inconvenience to the guest. It occurs when guest comes into the restaurant for breakfast and has already checked out without paying. This happens when food & beverage department staff fails to post charges incurred by guests to their room account and forgets to inform front office department about them.
  • The front office department needs to give reports on guest methods of payment to the food and beverage department. Normally, guests who wish to charge privileges throughout the hotel must leave an imprint of their credit card at front desk. Thus, when the guest charges a meal at a restaurant, bar or calls for room service, food and beverage staff does not have to call the front desk for credit information.
  • Front office department must also work with food & beverage department in terms of credit adjustments. Restaurants and room service might wrongly charge guests for their meals. In these cases, food and beverage department need to issue a credit adjustment, take it to the front office desk and have the front office staff deduct the charges from the guest’s account.
  • Thus, it cannot be denied that both front office department and food and beverage department need to work together hand in hand to give excellent service to guests.

Figure 8: Food and Beverage (Waiters)

iii) ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT

  • Collaboration between the front office and accounting department is necessary so that the information about guest accounts maintains accurately and updated constantly.
  • Accounts department is important support departments for the front office since a large number of transactions with guests happen at the front desk every day.
  • During the guest stay, they use hotel facilities such as bedrooms, restaurant, laundry and room service. Charges will be made for the services and facilities that the guest uses. All transactions will be recorded by the cashier at the front desk.
  • The cashier is also part of the account department. Hence, effective teamwork among accounts and front office department contribute to guest satisfaction while staying in the hotel.
  • At the end of the business various auditing activities will be performed by the night auditor (also part of the accounts department staff).
  • Auditing is important to determine that all guest bills are properly settled. This is very important to ensure guest satisfaction when they pay all the bills during check-out.
  • The night auditor will also produce reports regarding all the transactions including front office arrival guest for the next day.

iv) SALES AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT

  • In order for the front office department to generate sales, it requires the coordination between front office department and sales and marketing.
  • This interaction can influence the hotel’s revenue by proper planning, implementing promotions, advertising and a good marketing technique using various holiday packages and group tours through the use of marketing and public relations skills.
  • Public relations are important in order to make good business deals with the various travel agency and Airline Company. Hotel can benefit from the good image of public relation as a whole by building good rapport with the public.
  • Front office can benefit from all the activities carried by sales and marketing and public relation because it can increase their room sales.
  • Front office department provides important information on room availability so that sales and marketing department can make reservations for groups, tours and corporate bookings.
  • Marketing strategies made by the sales and marketing department depend on the guest history record by the front office. This history record of frequent and corporate guest is needed so as to create an effective promotion approach to past and potential guests.

v) MAINTENANCE

  • Front office department will handle various complaints from the guest and staff of the hotel. Thus, front office department and maintenance communicate on requests for maintenance service and room status.
  • Most complaints are related with problems regarding poor heating or cooling, faulty plumbing, noisy equipment and broken furniture. All reports will be recorded at the front desk log book for repair work order.
  • Maintenance is responsible for maintaining the appearance of the exterior and interior of the hotel and also responsible for swimming pool sanitation.
  • Front desk staffs are responsible to monitor the log book so that the problems will be taken care by the maintenance personnel. Failing to do so will make the room unsalable and also make the guest dissatisfied with the hotel services. This will cause lost of revenue. Maintenance help to minimize this loses through repairing all rooms that need fixing.

Figure 9: Maintenance

vii) SECURITY

  • Front office handles large amount of cash and guest assets. Security department provides protection for guests, hotel staff and properties.
  • The security department provides surveillance and access control for the public area such as the lobby area located near the front desk and guest rooms.
  • Surveillance is normally done through hidden circuit camera and positioning security guards at various hotel entrances.
  • Securing access to guestrooms using electronic door locking system operates through a master control console at the front desk which is wired to every guest room door.
  • Improved security by the security department can reduce criminal threat from outside. The security staff will also handle all criminal acts caused by the guest or staff.
  • Thus, front office can focus on their operation by knowing that hotel staff and guests are safe with the support of security department.

b)PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (PMS)

Computer systems differ from hotel to hotel. This is known as the property management system (PMS). It contains a set of computer software packages that supports a variety of front and back of the house activities. By using PMS, information is made available more quickly and current. Reservation staff can do forecasting more accurately.

For front desk staff, a guest’s history is easier to obtain and also it enhances direct and up to date guest billing. One of the advantages of PMS is that housekeeping can be linked to the system so that when rooms have been serviced or vacant, this information is readily available to front office department. Communication within all departments in the hotel is much smoother with PMS. It allows two-way communication between departments in a hotel.

  • FUNCTIONS, FEATURES AND USAGE OF PMS

In this topic, we focus on the operational aspects of the front desk department, which include considering the physical structure and positioning of the front desk, selecting a property management system (PMS), and using PMS applications.