Introduction to front office lesson 2

How Front Office
Department Runs
Lesson 2
© Ezzy Digital Learning 2020

Learning objectives
By the end of the lesson, you will be able to know
how the Front Office department runs, the overall
flow of operations, how the communications among
the sections in Front Office department build to
support the operations.
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Introduction
As Front Office department has some sections that play the same important roles in supporting
hotel daily operations, communication and hand-over process from previous shift into the next shift
is very crucial, as the hand-over process is bringing some points done, sharing and making the
next shift aware of and the important points to be followed up by the people on the next shift.
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Communication tools
The communication might be very complex in hotel daily
operations, so that it is very risky not to use communication tools
to support and communicate either within sections, departments
and among the staffs in the hotel.
Some communication and information tools that are usually used
in the hotel daily operations are:
• Log Book
• E-mail
• Notice Board
• Guest Request Form
• Property Management System (PMS)
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Flow of operation in front office
Every section in Front Office department has duties of
receiving any kind of requests, communicating and
following up the requests accordingly. Thus, working
as a Front Office staff has a very basic requirement
that the staff has to be able to communicate very well
either internally, among the staffs within departments,
as well as with other departments and with the guests.
By communicating very well, staffs will be able to
convey every message to other people and may avoid
any miscommunication.

Reservation is responsible for handling the room
booking and explaining the hotel products to the
customer. Hotel main product is Rooms, Food and
Beverages and other minor departments which
support the hotel to gain revenue.
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Managing all the products sold, Reservation Agent
may increase the selling by coordinating with
Housekeeping Department. The Room Reservation
Status may also have to be controlled to make sure
and to maximize the sales production by controlling
the sales and market segment allotment both Online
Travel Agent and Offline Travel Agent. At last, the
Reservation Agent has to do reservation
confirmation after confirming the room availability.© www.work.chron.com

Reception’s main duties is handling guest check-in,
greeting and arriving guest, offering assistance and
doing a proper check-in process, either the guests
come with or without reservation. Some other duties
that Receptionist may receive are any requests from
the guests directly or requests conveyed from other
sections, such as Telephone Operator or Concierge.
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The request at the Front Desk may vary from pre-
arrival, during stay and post departure of the guests.
It might be related to the Information that should be
provided to the guests, some requests that needs to
be informed and follow-up to other departments,
Billing assistance, posting charges, posting
correction and something in relation with Guest
Folio, Folio settlement, handling guest complaint.
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Telephone Operator or Communication Officer or
At Your Service main duties is receiving a call,
transferring calls to the extension or outside
destination numbers, holding calls, and all tasks in
relation with features in telephone consoles.
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Telephone Operator or Communication Officer or At
Your Service usually receives any calls or requests
from guests and then informs the guest’s request to
appropriate or related staff, when the Telephone
Operator receives a pick up luggage request from
guest or he/she will inform the request to the
Concierge or Bellboy to collect the luggage from
guest room to be delivered to the lobby (or other
place based on guest preference), for instance.
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Concierge or Bellboy does his job in relation with
luggage assistance, incoming and outgoing
package, providing general information and
concierge service. Concierge or Bellboy section
plays the first part in Front Office Sequence of
Service, which is started from acknowledging the
arriving guest by the Doorman, either by car, taxi, or
motorbike, greeting them by using a greeting
standard, offering assistance to find out the purpose
of visit. © www.freepik.com

The luggage assistance will be given for a guest who
comes for check-in, luggage tag will be issued and the
function will be explained. Bellboy will assist the
Doorman, greet and welcome the guest, assist guest with
luggage, and then escort the guest to the front desk.
Bellboy escorts the guest to his/her room after the check-
in process is finished, this process is called Rooming
Process.
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When Concierge or Bellboy does a rooming, he
will explain all hotel/resort facilities along the way
to the guest room. In front of the room, he
explains the location of the room, emergency
exit, assists the guest to open the door, and then
offers a room orientation to the guest. Concierge
Service is the widest part of his duties, in relation
with internal and external information, local
attractions, social and cultural events, festivals,
handling flight tickets and organising ticket
performance or showing for the guest. © www.freepik.com

Guest Relations Officers’ duties is responsible to prepare VIP’s and special guest cards,
such as Welcome Cards, Welcome Letters, General Manager’s handwritten card, all check-in
amenities, benefit and to inform or give stay inclusion to the guest upon check-in process. The
next thing to do is welcoming VIP arriving guest, doing check-in process for VIP and special
guest, such as honeymooners, guest staying at Executive Room, based on the local policy of
the hotel.
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The check-in process for VIPs and special
guests is not always done at the Guest Relation
Desk but also other places based on the special
arrangements of the guests’ room reservations.
Some hotels/resort may also refer to some tasks
in handling group check-in to the Guest Relations
Offices, handling the VIPs and special guests
during their stay, building a special engagement
with these guests by doing courtesy to find out
the level of guests’ comfort and satisfaction that
far. Guest relation is also responsible in
preparing their Folios handling guest check out
for these VIPs and special guests.
© www.tripadvisor.com

Front Office Cashier has responsibility in handling all
guest transactions starting from the day of arrival, during
guest stay until the day of departure. These tasks may
include posting guest deposit, posting guest charges,
posting correction or adjustment, pre-payment, splitting
bills, transferring bills, and folio settlement and city ledger
settlement.
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In terms of settlement, a Front Office Cashier must know the details whether the charges are done
to guest’s Personal Account, Company Account or Travel Agent Account, and to be closely related
to the Billing Instruction. Please take notes that nowadays, most of the hotels have only one job
title, that is called Reception or Front Desk, with the responsibilities of being a Front Office Cashier
and Reception or Front Desk.
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Business Centre Secretary/Attendant is a
Front Office staff who is responsible in doing a
coordination with Group Sales, Meeting and
Banquet Department in day-to-day operation,
because he/she is responsible to provide the
meeting requirements for business guests.
Business guests usually have their meeting
organized with their party or group in meeting
room, function room, board room, so that’s why
most of the hotels locate the Business Centre
close to these function rooms and not close to
Front Office Area.
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Some duties and responsibilities of Business Centre
Secretary/Attendant are providing the guest with
business needs, such as photo copy service, printing,
internet and Wi-Fi, papers and stationeries, translation
services, etc. All these services may have planned as
part of Front Office department in generating
departmental revenue.
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Front Office Administration may also be
defined as Front Office Secretary in certain
hotels. Her/his duties and responsibilities are
assisting Front Office Manager or Assistant Front
Office Manager in doing administration plan,
analysing the weekly and monthly departmental
consumption, doing departmental purchase
needs either weekly or monthly, this may not only
the stationeries but also drinks for staff, welcome
drinks in relations to the bar (depends on hotel
local policy). © www.freepik.com

Some hotels have changed the purchasing system into
computerized even also into a Purchasing Hotel System.
This consumption report becomes a part of Profit and
Loss report at the end of the month in which the meeting
will be conducted by Accounting Department to all
Department Head to analyse the profit and loss position
for all departments in the hotel.
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Front Office administration also assists Front
Office Manager or Assistant Front Office
manager in organising internal report such as
Front Office team attendance report to be
submitted to Human resources every month,
Monthly Operation Statistic Report, Room
Production Report in relation to Sales
Department monthly.
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Introduction to front office lesson 2

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Introduction to front office lesson 2