SECTIONS OF FRONT OFFICE

COMPILED BY
MR.SUNIL KUMAR
LECTURER
PORTERS (CONCIERGE\LOBBY SERVICES)
The porters department comprises a large group of uniformed staff,
include:
1. Head hall porter(bell captain\lobby services manager).
2. Doorman.
3. Porters or pages(bellboys).
PORTERS (CONCIERGE\LOBBY SERVICES)
Head hall porters is in charge of all of the uniformed staff in the
front office and works from a desk in the main lobby.
The duties and services which can conduct :
1. Control of the uniformed staff
2. Close liaison with the front office manager and other
department.
3. Giving of information to guests concerning about the hotel
service and local directions.
4. Message taking and issuing room key
5. Arranging the hire of hotel cars
6. The booking of theatre tickets and the conformation of airline
passages.
7. Solving of the guest problems and queries about the local and
recreational facilities.


PORTERS (CONCIERGE\LOBBY SERVICES)
The head hall porter, is the person who arranges anything a guest requires,
even such things as a private airplane trip.
In some cases which there is not separate security staff, the security of the
hotel lobby may become a duty of the uniformed staff.
MAIL AND INFORMATION
It is found only in the large hotel and it is incorporate into reception
department.
The mail and information section comprises:
1. The mail and information supervisor
2. Mail and information clerks.
MAIL AND INFORMATION
The mail and information supervisor is responsible for:
1. a team of main and information clerks who
give out guests keys and deliver guests
mail and messages.
2. Dealing with guest visitors
3. Provide information on the hotel or local
attractions.
4. They would supply of local postage
stamps and stationery

TELEPHONE \OPERATOR
The staff in section include:
1. Telephone supervisor
2. Telephone operator : For day and night operator
Which the process all income and outgoing calls through the hotel
switchboard.
The staff need good language and communication skills.

TELEPHONE \OPERATOR
The will give general information over the
telephone .
They will place international calls and give
wake-up calls as required by the guests.
They operate a hotels paging system which
provide communication service to certain
members of hotel staff and management by
the nature of their job.
Act as the communication centre in the event
of emergency.

GUEST RELATION OFFICE
It is possible that the guest meet the
receptionists and porters and very little
contact with other member of the staff.
This section (GROs) will create a more
caring and personal hotel atmosphere.
GROs Located in the main lobby.
The main responsibility of GROs is make
guests feel welcome and provide more
personal service.
Handling guest problems and complains.
Handling guest needs as a doctor , simply
feel unwell.
GUEST RELATION OFFICE
The responsibility to care for VIPs and Frequent guest :
1. Checking their rooms are prepared
2. Escorting them on arrival
FRONT OFFICE CASHIER
Staff include
1. The cashier supervisor
2. Cashiers
The responsibilities of supervisor cashier for all the cash and
methods of payment by the guest
The front office cashier reported directly to the account manager
rather than the front office manager.

FRONT OFFICE CASHIER
The front office cashier are responsible for the opening preparation and
settlement of resident guest account.
Check to ensure that all charges are added to guest accounts.
Safe deposit system of the hotel
Foreign currency exchange service.
RESERVATION
We will describes typical in this chapter is
the activities associated with the reservation
process, these activates include:
1. Conducting the reservation inquiry.
2. Determining room and rate availabilities.
3. Create the reservation record.
4. Confirming the reservation record.
5. Maintaining the reservation record.
6. Producing reservation reports.
7. Researching, planning, and monitoring
reservation.
RESERVATION
The outcome of reservation process is having a guest room ready and
waiting when the guest arrives.
The room must meets the guest needs and expectation during the
reservation process.
The hotel manager or owner have different objectives highest occupancy
and room revenue possible.
RESERVATION
To achieve these outcomes , hospitality operation must have efficient reservation
process or procedures.
Reservation agent must be able to respond in a quick, accurate , and pleasant
manner.
Process reservations involves matching room requests with room availabilities
and rates; recording; confirming; and maintaining reservations ; finally
producing management reports.
RESERVATION
Reservation information is useful in other front
office function. (for example: finalize room
assignments, create guest account, fulfill guest
special needs).
At the same time, Achieve high occupancy and
revenue and takes considerable research,
planning , and monitoring. The person assigned
these tasks is usually the reservation manager
or supervisor. In some cases, the front office
manager or rooms division manager or even
GM may have these responsibilities.
RESERVATION
Selling rooms is very important role for the reservations department,
deciding what rooms should be sold and the price to sell them.
RESERVATION AND SALES
Manually or before the computerization:
Reservation agents focused on basic room
availability information. And they did not
have an effective means by identify available
rooms by rooms type. For example: non
smoking room or room with certain bedding
or view.
Automation of the reservation process
provides accurate and current room and rate
information. For example specific room type,
locations, special features and quickly
confirmed as part of the reservation process.
Reservation systems enable reservations
agents to assign specific rooms.
RESERVATION AND SALES
Many lodging or hotel companies now view reservations as a part of sales
department but the function is a part of room division. And they
conduct sales training programmed with reservation agents.
Many reservation office have sales goals, include number of room nights,
average room rate, and room revenue booked.

RESERVATION AND SALES
The ability of the reservation department to:
1. Sell rooms.
2. Maximize revenue.
3. Inventory control.
4. Improve guest satisfaction.
Properties can more accurately forecast and
better react to business volumes with
emphasis on sales and marketing
technique.
Gathering forecasted sales information and
using it to determine pricing or room rate
strategies is often referred to as revenue
management.
RESERVATION AND SALES
THE ROLE OF THE SALES DEPARTMENT IN
RESERVATION
Sales department taken a more important
role in reservation, there are several reasons
for this:
1. The sales department is a primary source of
reservations for the hotel. (group sales
manager or representatives create group
reservations these are the most commonly
corporations or trade associations holding
important meetings).
2. The sales department is usually responsible
for sales with other markets as well as
groups. The sale department may have a
specialist assigned to corporations for
business traveler and travel agencies.


RESERVATION AND SALES (CONT)
THE ROLE OF THE SALES DEPARTMENT
IN RESERVATION
Sales objectives and incentives including
promotions are tied to total revenue.
By measuring total revenue, sales
managers are encouraged to balance room
nights with rates.

RESERVATION AND SALES
THE RESERVATION SALES PLANNING
PROCESS
The reservation department can book business many month
or year in advance.
Some hotels have group contract even future into the future,
Some hotel may have the majority of their group business
booked in six month or less.
The sale department that starts the reservation and revenue
management processes by focusing on committing
rooms well into the future.
TYPES OF RESERVATIONS
The majority of hotel guests making reservation.
There are many forms of reservation:
1. Guaranteed reservation.
2. Non-guaranteed reservation.
GUARANTEED RESERVATION
A Guaranteed reservation assures the guest that the hotel will hold a room until a
specific time of the day following the guests scheduled arrival date.
Guaranteed reservations provide some protection to the hotels revenue even in
the case of a no-show,
No-show a situation in which the guest makes a reservation but does not register
or cancel the reservation.

GUARANTEED RESERVATION
There are variations of guaranteed reservations
include the following:
1. Prepayment: prepayment guaranteed
reservation requires that a payment in full be
received prior to the guest's day of arrival. And
this is the desirable form of guaranteed
reservation. Example U.S.
2. Credit card: credit card guaranteed reservation
which the hotels ensure to receive payment for
no-shows through credit card company which
developed this system for that.
GUARANTEED RESERVATION
Credit card guaranteed reservations are the most common form and
customary in commercial hotels.
no-show reservation; most hotels charge one nights rate plus tax. But in
the Resort may charge more than one nights because the staying
period is longer than the hotels and it is more difficult to fill rooms.
GUARANTEED RESERVATION
3. Advance Deposit: the guest pay the hotel a specified amount of
money before arrival and it should cove one nights room rate and
room tax. If the guest cancel the reservation before the time or arrival,
the hotel may retain the deposit and cancel the reservation for the
guests entire stay. This type of guaranteed is more common at
destination resorts and convention center hotels.

GUARANTEED RESERVATION
4. Travel agent: travel agent guaranteed
reservation used to be very common.
travelers pay the travel agent in advance
for their transportation and room charges.
And the travel agent guarantees the
clients reservation. In no-show case the
hotel bills the travel agency for payment
and the travel agent must then collect from
the guest. This is less common. The hotels
accept travel agent guaranteed
reservations from only the largest and
most financially responsible agencies.
GUARANTEED RESERVATION
5. Voucher or MCO: another type of travel agent guarantee is the travel
agency voucher or miscellaneous charge order (MCO). The MCO is
the voucher issued by the airline reporting corporation and is
controlled by many of the same travel agency regulations that control
airline tickets.