INTRODUCTION TO

FRONT OFFICE
DEPARTMENT
 Front Office Overview

This section as previously mentioned is the

most visible since it is responsible for the
incoming and outgoing of guests. This section
usually generates the greatest amount of
revenue for an accommodation venue through
room sales.
 Front Office Department
◦ Most important department in the hotel
 Nerve for hotel operation
 Interface (link) between a hotel and its guests
◦ Guest makes the first contact with Front Office Department
◦ First place that can make guest develop an impression about the level of
services and standard facilities

◦ Communication and Accounting are the most important functions of the Front

Desk Operation.
 Front Office Department

◦ Accounting procedure

involve:
 Settlement of the guest’s
bill
 Accepted advance
booking of hotel rooms
 Settle bills at the same
time of check-out
Samples of Hotel Receipt and Bill
 Front Office Department
◦ Effective Communication
◦ Guest
 Processing guest reservation
 Handling the guest reception
 Fulfill the guest inquiry usage in the hotel such as internet facilities, safe
deposits
 Check in and check out the guest
◦ Other departments of the hotel
◦ - Maintaining the room status
 Front Office Department

◦ FO department operated 24 hours a day

◦ Three main shifts in FO department
Morning – 7:00am-3:00pm
Afternoon – 3:00pm-11:00pm
Night Shift – 11:00pm-7:00am
Front Office Organizational Chart
 The Front Office
The Front Office of the hotel generally performs the following basic activities:
◦ Processing advance reservations
◦ Registering guests – check in
◦ Rooming guests
◦ Handling guests’ luggage
◦ Issuing room keys
◦ Providing information
◦ Handling guests’ mail and parcel
◦ Administering telephone service
◦ Accounting (making payments and billings)
◦ Checking out guests
 The Front Office
◦ Non-automated Front Office Systems
◦ Handwritten forms
◦ Reservation index cards
◦ Density board blocked reserved rooms
◦ Registration cards – multiple copies
◦ Time stamp
◦ Room Rack: housekeeping status of each room
◦ Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas
◦ Charges handwritten to folios (guest account or hotel
billing)
 The Front Office
◦ 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
◦ Posting machines recorded charges to guest folios
 Property Management Systems
◦ • Reservations
◦ • Room Management
◦ • Guest account management
◦ • (POS) Point-of-sale system
◦ • Magnetic Stripe Readers also called a magstripe reader, is a hardware device that reads the
information encoded in the magnetic stripe located on the back of a plastic badge (for ATMs and
credit cards)
◦ • Credit cards
◦ • Debit cards
◦ • Smart cards Smart card readers- are used with smart cards which are a type of plastic technology
card with a built-in chip used for. electronic processes including personal identification, access control,
authentication, and financial transactions. Smart card readers obtain or “read” this type of data.
 Front Office Personnel
◦ People are involved in serving guests are:
◦  Reception (Front desk, Receptionist)
◦  Reservations Clerk
◦  Concierge
◦  Bell (porter)
◦  Airport Representative
◦  Telephone operator
 Front Office Manager
◦ - Supervises the front desk, reservations, concierge and
PABX( Private Automated Branch Exchange).
◦ - He/she also assists the rooms division manager in compiling
information for reports.