Chapter 3 Front Office Operations

Managing Front Office Operations Seventh Edition (333TXT or 333CIN)

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Competencies for Front Office Operations

1. Summarize front office operations during the four stages of the guest cycle. 2. Explain the evolution of front office recordkeeping systems and describe front office documents. 3. Describe the front desk and its support devices, and describe the services and equipment of a hotels telecommunications area. 4. Identify and describe property management systems used by the front office.
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The Guest Cycle

Pre-arrival Arrival Occupancy Departure

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Room Status Terms

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Occupied Complimentary Stayover On-change Do not disturb Sleep-out Skipper Sleeper

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Room Status Terms

(continued)

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Vacant and ready Out-of-order Lock-out DNCO Due out Check-out Late check-out
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Room Types

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Single Double Triple Quad Queen King Twin

Double-double Studio Mini-suite or junior suite Suite Connecting rooms Adjoining rooms Adjacent rooms
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Non-Automated Front Office Systems

Handwritten forms Reservation index cards Density board blocked reserved rooms Registration cardsmultiple copies 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 vouchers and verified settlement
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Semi-Automated Front Office Systems

Handwritten and machine-produced forms National reservation networks Pre-registration activities Density board blocked reserved rooms Registration cardspreprinted 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
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Property Management Systems

Modules Reservations Rooms management Guest account management General management Point-of-sale (POS) system Magnetic strip readers Credit cards Debit cards Smart cards
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Types of Telephone Calls

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Local Direct-dial long-distance Calling card Credit card Collect Third-party Person-to-person Billed-to-room International Toll-free 900 or premium-price

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Telecommunications Equipment

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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
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Front Office Software Packages

Reservations management Rooms management Guest account management General management

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Reservations Management Software

Availability/forecasting Reservation records Reservation confirmations Room pricing Revenue management

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Rooms Management Software

Room status Registration Room assignments Room rate information

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Guest Account Management Software

Folio management Credit monitoring Transaction tracking

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General Management Software

Revenue analysis Operating statistics Financial analysis Guest history

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Back Office Interfaces

General ledger accounting software

Accounts receivables Accounts payables

Human resources software

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Payroll accounting Personnel recordkeeping Labor scheduling

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Back Office Interfaces

(continued)

Financial reporting software

Chart of accounts Balance sheets Income sheets Transaction analysis Stock levels Purchase order system Stock rotation scheduling
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Inventory control software

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System Interfaces
Non-Guest-Operated Interfaces

Point-of-sale system Call accounting system Electronic locking system Energy management system

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(continued)

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System Interfaces
(continued)

Guest-Operated Interfaces

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In-room folio review and check-out In-room entertainment system In-room vending machines In-room fax machine In-room Internet access
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