Introduction to front office organization, hierarchy, duties and responsibilities.

A detailed presentation on the organization of a hotel front office, the various sections, employees and their respective duties and responsibilities.

1. Welcome to a new learning session! Knowledge is Money.

2. Introduction To Front Office Department Organization Chart, Functions, Duties & Responsibilities 3

3. Chapter Focus Point Describe the significance of Front Office in a hotel. Draw a Front Office organization chart in a hotel. Explain staff duties & responsibilities, job specifications, for positions in FO department within a hotel. Briefly describe the activities during guest cycle of a hotel. 4

4. Most important department in the hotel. Guest makes first contact with FO department. First place that can makes guest develop an impression about the level of service, standard, facilities and hospitality of the hotel. 7 Front Office Department

5. Overview of the Front Office Front Office Manager Revenue Management Desk staff Reservation Guest Services Night Audit Concierge Bell staff

6. Front Office Responsibilities Revenue Management Establishing room rates Reservations (advance booking) Managing the reservation process Front Desk Staff Guest registration at check-in Concierge Guest information Bell Staff Guest assistance, especially luggage Night Auditor Managing the front office-related accounting and data collection process

7. Front office department Communication and Accounting are the two most important functions of the Front Desk operations. Accounting procedure involve accepting advance booking of hotel rooms, opening & maintaining an account or bill for the guest and, settlement of the guest bills at the time of check-out 12

8. Front Desk

9. Front office department Effective Communication with guest includes processing the guest reservation, handling the guest reception on arrival, answer the guest queries during stay in the hotel for services like, wi - fi internet facilities, safe deposit lockers etc., processing check out of the guest, and coordinating with other departments of the hotel for maintaining an accurate room status & guest history. 14

10. Front Office Working Hours FO department operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Always open for guest arrivals & departures. Three main shifts in FO department are, Morning or day shift 7 . 00 a. m. – 3 . 00 p. m. Afternoon or evening shift 3 . 00 p. m. – 11 . 00 p. m. Night (graveyard) shift 11 . 00 p. m. – 7 . 00 p. m.

11. Front Office Organizational Chart It shows the hierarchy of this department. Hierarchy is the diagrammatic representation of the organizational structure. The controlling or commanding officer is shown at the top, and the reporting sub-ordinate staff is shown below. The size of the organization depends on the size of the hotel & level of service.

12. Front Office Organization Chart Front Office Manager Night Auditor Front Desk Agent Reservations Agent Switchboard Operator Front Office Cashier Uniformed Service Concierge General Manager Assistant General Manager

13. Organizational Chart Organization structure of FO department will change from hotel to hotel . It depends on the size, and standard or style of operations of the hotel. (Classification of hotels) It can be categorized into - Small sized hotel - Medium sized hotel - Large sized hotel Standard could be expressed as luxury, mid- priced and budget hotel. 18

14. Duties & Responsibilities of Front Office Personnel

15. General Manager Overall in-charge of hotel organization. Front Office Manager reports directly to General Manager. GM evaluates the overall performance of the FO Manager. Situations that FOM can not deal with, is handled by GM.

16. General Manager

17. Front Office Manager Leads and coordinates the activities of the front office department. Acts as a link between the management and front office employees. Responsible for hiring, training, supervising and disciplining all front desk, reservation, and guest services staff members, in order to maintain the desired standard of service. Prepares the financial budget for the front office department. Evaluates the job performance of each front office employee. 22

18. Front Office Manager

19. Bell Boy Handling guest luggage at the time of arrival and departure. Escorting guests to their rooms on arrival. Familiarizing guests about safety features and in-room facilities. Locating a guest in a specified area of the hotel. The process is called Paging in hotels. Posting guests mails. Providing information to guests about hotel facilities and services when asked. 24

20. Bell Boy

21. Bell Boy, with luggage trolley

22. Bell Captain

23. Cashier Opening and maintaining the guest account or folios. Recording all credit charges and payments in guest folios. Preparing bills at the time of check-out. Receiving payment from guests . Handling credit/debit/charge cards for the settlement of a guest account. Administer the safe deposit locker system. Handling foreign currency exchange. 28

24. Cashier

25. Door Attendant Open the doors of the guest vehicles on their arrival in the hotel portico. Help bell boys in lifting luggage. Open the hotel’s entrance door for guests. Coordinate with parking attendants for parking guest vehicles in the hotel’s parking area . Stop unwanted people from entering the hotel building. 31

26. Door Attendant

27. Night Auditor, The most responsible position during night shift. Checking all guest accounts at night for errors. Preparing the night audit report for GM. Check-in and check-out guests, who arrive or depart after 11.00 p.m. Processing the reservations. Performing the duties of security guard. Monitoring fire safety system. Act as cashier for banquet function. Performing the duties of manager on duty. 33

28. Night Auditor

29. Receptionist Welcoming & greeting guest on arrival. Complete registration process. Notify all departments about arrivals & departures. Handling special requests. H andling check-in and check-out. Providing information to guest related to services, timings and prices. Assigning right type of rooms and dispensing guest room keys. 35

30. Front Desk Agent

31. Room Types, a Recapitulation. Single Double Triple Quad Queen King Twin Double-Double Studio Mini-Suite (Junior Suite) Suite Connecting rooms Adjoining rooms Adjacent rooms

32. Room Status Terms Occupied Complimentary Stay-over On-change DND Sleep-out Skipper Sleeper Vacant and ready Out-of-order Lock-out DNCO Due out Check-out Late check-out

33. Concierge Making reservations for guest dining in famous restaurants of the city. Arranging tours, limousine, and entertainment tickets. Maintaining good relationship with local hospitality industry, that provide tourism products. Personal helper to V I P in- house. Obtaining tickets for theatres, musicals etc. Provide latest information about events. 39

34. Concierge

35. Reservation Agent Handling guaranteed and non-guaranteed reservation Up sell accommodation products Prepared the expected arrival list and the expected departure list every day Prepared a guest folder to keep the mails and messages of guest with reservation documents. Providing management information to other departments, like group arrival, VIP, full house etc. 41

36. Reservation Assistant

37. Telephone Operator Processing all incoming and outgoing calls. Log all wake-up call on the system. Answer questions about the hotel’s services and product. Taking messages. Operating hotel telephone billing system. Direct incoming calls to the desired extension. Provide paging services, by Public Address System, for guest and employee. 43

38. Telephone Operator

39. Types of Telephone Calls Local Direct-dial long-distance Calling card Credit card Collect Third-party Person-to-person Billed-to-room International Toll-free VoIP – voice over Internet Protocol

40. Telecommunications Equipment PBX system Call accounting system Guestroom phones Pay phones Pagers/cell phones Automatic call dispensing system Telephone/room status systems Internet access Call detection equipment

41. Non-Automated Front Office Systems Handwritten forms Reservation index cards Density board blocked reserved rooms Registration cards Time stamp Room rack -housekeeping status of each room Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas Charges handwritten to folios Adding machine tape attached at check-out Night audit cross-checked folio charges to voucher and verified settlement

42. Semi-Automated Front Office Systems Handwritten and machine-produced forms National reservation networks Pre-registration activities Density board blocked reserved rooms Registration cards -preprinted and multiple copies Room rack -housekeeping status of each room Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas Posting machines recorded charges to guest folios Night audit cross-checked folio charges to vouchers and verified settlement

43. Fully Automated Systems Equipped with a software packages Online credit authorization terminals Electronics guest folios Electronically posted guest accounts Process continuous trial balances Automatically produce bills Create guest history records

44. Property Management Systems Property Management System is a specially designed software, to handle the hotel operations, with the help of networked computers, installed at all departments. PMS has greatly improved a hotel’s ability to quickly accept , store and retrieve guest reservation, guest history, requests, and billing arrangements . More details in coming semesters.

45. What makes a front office management successful? Having a passion for the job Accepting the change in role Being a good role model Having a positive attitude Delegating, using authority intelligently Communicating effectively Leading a diverse workforce. Creating and developing teams. Pro- active approach, setting and monitoring performance conditions. Providing ongoing assistance to team.

46. When guests have unique, first-time questions or requests, document the question and the answers, or solutions found, by noting them in front desk log-book, or daily report, for others to know and learn from.

47. Compilation & Presentation Praveen Jha Senior Faculty IHM Hajipur Vaishali , Bihar