INTRODUCTION
Front office can be defined as the sales, marketing and service departments which are a direct interaction with the customer and cooperating with the back-office departments to maintain a two-way flow of information. In hospitality industry especially hotel, front office department play an important role or can called as the nerve center of the hotel. The responsibility for the front office staff is to welcome the guest, carry their luggage, help them register, give them their room keys and mail, answer question about the activities in hotel and surrounding area, and finally check them out. Beside, front office functions can be categorized into five general areas:
Cashiers and Night Auditors
Concierge
Mail and Information
Bell Service
Reception
Five General Areas of Front Office Functions
ANSWER FOR QUESTION 1
Front office department or front desk (reception) is the first impression for lodging establishment. Therefore, the staffs in the department must know their own responsibility and their task. The following is the staff in the front office department.
Telephone Operator
Reservationists
Cashier
Night Auditor
Front Desk Representative
Assistant Front Office Manager
Front Office Manager
Front Office Staff
Firstly, the front office manager can be a direct supervisor of the front office department. The main duties of the front office manager are maintaining a high level of efficiency among the front office staff. Other that that, the duties of the front office manager are include giving assistant the training and cross-training of the front office employees. Besides, preparing monthly reports and prepares the personnel budget related to the salary levels throughout the lodging establishment. Then, assists the rooms division manager in formulating and implementing the front office policies and procedures. The manager usually be the one who responsible for dealing with the client and taking correct action when there is special requests, problems, or complaints from the guests.
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After the front office manager, comes to the assistant front office manager that helps on the manager’s work. The assistant front office manager is a person who is responsible for coordinating the front desk operation. Besides, the assistant manager may train the front desk staff, monitoring the guest accounts and payments, and authorize checks and special credit procedure. Other than that, the assistant manager also giving assists at the front desk during the busy period. In additional the assistant manager also keeps an eye on reservations for the current day and preparing daily room occupancy forecasts
Thirdly, the front desk representative or can call as a front desk agent. The main responsibilities of the front desk representative are welcome and register the guests when the guest arrived. Other than that, assigning rooms and issue room keys or cards to the guest and also provide information about the hotel services that available in the hotel. During the check out of the guest, the desk clerk must show the account to the guest and also collect their payment for the accounts. The balance cash accounts then return back to the guest if there is a balance. In additional, inform housekeeping department about the availability of the room so they can start their cleaning job. The front desk representative also will inform the bell attendant to transport the guests’ luggage to the lobby, and prepares to help the guest to carry it to the room or to the car. Besides, the duties or responsibilities of the front desk representative are to keep a space as reservations rooms and also giving respond to reservation enquiries. Then, giving reports to the manager about the complaints and dissatisfaction of the customer.
The fourth is the night auditor which only works in the night time around 2300 to 0700 as a receptionist. Besides, the night auditor has a dual role which is working as a front desk representative at night and preparing the machine balance report. . Therefore, the person who works as a night auditor must have the ability to understand the principles and the ability to solve the financial discrepancies because one of the functions of the night auditor is to balances the daily financial transactions. Other than that, the night auditor also produces statistics and summaries of the revenue. In large hotel, the night auditor might work with other nighttime staff such as security officers, telephone attendants, room service attendants and bellhops but in small hotel, the night auditor may work alone. Therefore the person must have experience as a desk clerk and good communications with the controller in order to work as a night auditor.
Then, is the cashier of the front office department. Cashier can be defined as an occupation which is focused on the handling of cash money. The responsibilities of the cashier in front office not only handling the cash flow of the hotel but processing guest checkouts and guest legal tender and also providing change for the guests. Besides, the cashier also helps the front desk workload manageable when full house which means the hotel that has its entire entire guest rooms occupied and sometimes referred to as 100% occupancy. Other than that, cashier also prepare and settle the guests’ accounts. In additional cashier also manage the safety deposit boxes in the hotel. The front office cashier also provides a foreign currency exchange service which allow guest from other country to get their money to the country’s money.
The second last of the staff in front office department is the reservationists. There are four types of reservation, walk-in reservation, through phone calls, through fax, and lastly through emails. The responsible for reservationists is to take reservations that made by the guest and giving the information about the facilities of the hotel to the future guests. The main duties that performed by the reservationists are giving friendly and a respectful service to future guests while involving in telephone sales. Besides, answering all the reservation phone calls, taking reservations, and dealing with the reservations correspondence. Other than that, having deal with group bookings such as changes, cancellations, and rooming lists. Then, the reservationists should do a negotiation about the rates in the hotel to get a better sale by offering a more expensive room to the customer. The reservationists also must ensure that all equipments are working properly and that the needed amount of supplies is on hand. On the other side, the reservationists have to keep an accurate room inventory by using the reservation module of a property management system. In additional, the reservationists must have a good and effective communication with the marketing and sales department.
Finally is the telephone operator which is a person who provides assistance to the caller. Telephone operator plays an important character in the lodging establishment therefore the operator must have the full knowledge of all the facilities in the hotel so the people who call won’t get any wrong information. Besides, the operator also helps to transfer calls from outside of the hotel to the guest room. In order to maintain the safety of the guest, the operators cannot give out the room number of a hotel guest to the outsider. In additional, the operator also must know the emergencies procedures such as calling doctor, ambulance, police and fire department when necessary. Although the chance of the operator having face-to-face conversation with guest are very seldom but operator plays very important role in representing the hotel to the guest. The person as the operator must always maintain a friendly and courteous tone of voice. Other than that, the information given by the guest should be kept carefully and strictly confidential. During the busy period, the operator may also assist the desk clerk and cashier when necessary.
The Front Office Organization Chart in a Small Hotel
Front Office Supervisor
Front Office Cashier
Front Office Assistants
The Front Office Organizational Chart in a Mid Size Hotel
Front Office Manager
Assistant Manager Front Office
Steno Typist
Night Auditor
Front Office Supervisor
Front Office Cashier
Telex Operator
Reservation Assistant
Registration Assistant of Receptionist
Information Assistant
The Front Office Organizational Chart in a Large Hotel
Corporate Owner
General Manager
Assistant General Manager
Front Office Manager
Concierge
Telephone Operator
Desk Clerk
Reservations Manager
Elevator Operator
Bell Staff
Room Key Clerk
Cashier
Night Auditor
CONCLUSION
In the hotel industry, the front office department is the department which welcomes guests and is the first impression to the guests. Therefore, due to the increase of the traveler day-by-day, whether it is for business, vacation or for any other reason, there is a self growth inside the hotel whether it is big or small hotels. Hence, the needs of trained persons who have the ability to perform the basic front office operations in a hotel efficiently are increasing. By giving training to the individual about the front office skills, the hotel only can generate or increase their revenue.
QUESTION 2
Front office staffs must have certain skills to attract guests during the first impression. Write about Front Office staff in guest relations.
INTRODUCTION
Social skills are an essential qualification that agreed by most of the experienced hoteliers for front office work. This skill means possessing the ability to achieve a specific objective efficiently. We know that the ability of producing acceptable quality text without taking all over the day or spoiling a dozen sheets of paper during the writing or typing are called typing skill. Besides, cooking skills means ability to produce food which can be eaten and appetizing. Therefore, social skills are communication with living things instead of typing skill, communicating with keyboard and cooking skulls, communicating kitchen ingredients. The social skills are more different compare to the other two skills because it needs employ words, expressions and gestures in order to achieve the objective. Therefore, social skills are skills that have the way to influence other people’s attitudes and behavior by using those elements. Many people know how to do this normally and interacting with other people but there is always a place for improvement. In order to use the skills properly and correctly, the individuals need to take lots of time to practice. Other than that, some customers are very easy to handle or can say as easy-going, while some of the customer might seem impossible to please no matter what you do. So, it is important to understand the differences of the customer which means we have to ensure what mood that the customer is in. Social skills are same with any other kind of skills which only can develop through practice. These practices are a form of unscripted face-to-face conversations, or ‘role-playing exercise’. Finally, reduce the question on the kind of solution as how you go about the communicating it that counts.
ANSWER FOR QUESTION 2
As a front office staffs, there are certain skills that are need to know or master in order to attract the guests during the first impression. The figure below is the skills which front office staffs should learn or have.
Non-verbal Speech Elements
Speech
Eye Contact
Expression
Gesture
Posture
Position
Self- Presentation
Behaviour
Skills needed for Front Office Staffs
Firstly, behaviour is the way that somebody behaves, especially towards other people. For example, you as the guest had booked the room one week before the day you walk in to the hotel. Of course the first thing to do is to check in the room that you had booked with the normal letter of confirmation on your hand at the reception desk. The reception should welcome and greetings such as ‘hello, welcome, how can I help you?’ before start dealing with the guest. Beside, the receptionist should speak out the phrase and tone correctly, means the tone that suitable for the situation. Other than that, the receptionist should show respects to the guest by attending to the guest first even there are counting or other jobs are ongoing. Then, the receptionist should be in proper attire and suitable hairstyle. These are what the behaviour means which include what we do, what we say and how they present ourselves towards the guest.
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Secondly, self-presentation means that the interpersonal of the receptionist such as their dressing and grooming. The dressing and grooming of the receptionist are important because the guest can know more before having a conversation with the receptionist. Then, lots of the hotels require their staff to wear uniform according to the departments. Example, food and beverage department, chefs should wear apron, hats, pants while the security department, the security guard should wear the security guard uniform which there is a weapon and wisely. For the front office department, the staffs require to wear formal attire or uniform blouse. The reason for the staff to wear uniform according to the department is because guests can easily recognize and get help from the staff directly according to what they need. The staff of the front office department must ensure that their attire or uniform are clean and tidy. The guests will think if a dirty and untidy receptionist, most probably the rooms, restaurant, and kitchen are the same, dirty and untidy.
Thirdly, is the standing position of the front office staffs during the working time. The position means that the place where somebody or something is situated. The place that the staffs stand is important in which not only in relation to equipment such as desk, but also relation on dealing with people. Moreover, all people have their own area of ‘personal space’, and interruption by a stranger that makes them feels uncomfortable. This position can be taken further which means like people will feel divide the barrier into two equal ‘territories’ without being aware when they are sitting or standing directly opposite each other with a desk or table in between it. If the receptionist slapped the registration form in front of the guest and then moved forward to see the guest filling it out. These kinds of action or attitudes done by the receptionist are totally wrong and called rude and this may causes the invasion that causes people feel uncomfortable. Therefore, these kinds of action or attitudes should be avoided in this industry.
Then, posture means that the position in which you hold your body when standing or sitting. In the front office, the posture includes the way that the staff stands or sit in relation to other people. Besides, when comes to facing people, usually indicates interest, and leaning forward shows even greater interest unless it involves an invasion of personal space. Moreover, some actions such as using our limb to attract the person that we interested or can use it as barriers to shut out the people we feel afraid or nervous about. Therefore, the front office staff will leant forward the desk and watch the guest filling form. Although, the staff looks interest, but the arm of the staff kept in folded which show that the staff is not very anxious to help the guest.
Then, the fifth skill among the nine skills is gesture which has the closest related to the posture. Gesture means a movement of a part of the body especially the head and hand. Besides, gesture also a way of sending signals by moving parts of our bodies which mainly is our hands, arms, and shoulders. Other than that, shrug also must be ignored because the person who shows that is unconsciously trying to get themselves away the problems. Besides, opening palm is a sign of friendship for the older age people and also an indication of honesty. Meanwhile, some of the gesture such as hand-to-face gesture will bring out negative feeling or action. For example like touching others nose or mouth can show the deceit or some of the negative feeling such as fear, uncertainty, worry or doubt. Therefore, the movement of the hand is very important.
After that, the sixth skill is expression which means a look on a person’s face that shows their thoughts or feelings. As a front office staff or can say as the first impression towards the guest, the staff should have a positive expression. There is the range of possible expression but some we can generally recognize friendliness when seeing it. For example like smiling with the mouth curves moving upwards and the eyes crinkle a little bit at the corners. Besides, it will make the guest feels nervous or worried when meeting those staff which staring to them with a blank, no expression face, and even get greeted by a sullen expression such as lowered brows, a closed, downturned mouth and slightly pouting lips. Therefore, as a front office staff should put on a serious expression which shows that you are caring about what the guest needs.
Then, eye contact can be defined as an act of looking directly into one another’s eyes. Eye contact is a very important thing in the hospitality industry especially in front office department. The reason is because by looking at someone usually carries not only interest but liking as well, and the frequent and longer you look, the more likely to carries these impressions. If the person is avoiding the gaze of the others who is talking, this means that person might talk or giving dishonest answers. Besides, there are also two types of direction on looking. First is the business gaze which means mostly the direction is concentrated on the eyes and forehead to maintain a serious and rational atmosphere. Then the second is the social gaze is the movement of the other person’s eyes and mouth which showing a better interest in reactions such as laughter. Therefore, the front office staff or can say as receptionist must understand the type of gaze and use it correctly to the guests.
Then the second last skills among the nine skills of the skills needed for front office staff is speech. Obviously, speech is a very important because it is the easiest way to express the staffs’ interest in the guest’s welfare by using phrases such as ‘Good evening’ and ‘ I hope you enjoy your stay’. Other than that, call the guest by their name or just called them ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ will be showing a type of respect to the guest. Of course it will be better if calling the guest by their name because this shows that the staff recognizes the guest as an individual and not just an unnamed guest. Therefore, having a good memory will be very useful in this case but there is also other way to use for calling the guests’ name. The way is take a quick look at the guest’s registration card.
Finally the last skill among the nine skills is the non-verbal speech elements. It means the tone that we use to talk with others. Words can be spoken out loudly or quietly, quickly or slowly, flatly or brightly. Besides, words also can insert a pause such like ‘Welcome … sir’ and this show that the staff not sure about the guest deserves. Other than that, lifting the tone a little at the end and so turn the phrase into a question ‘Welcome, sir?’. Therefore, in front office department, the staff should know how to use the suitable tone in the suitable situation.
CONCLUSION
It is important to have social skills in the front office work especially for the first impression of the guest. Besides, social skills not only meeting the guest’s psychological needs but also making them feel welcome. Other than that, receptionist can use these skills to calm down an irritable guest, for awhile or just to make the nervous one feel welcome.
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