Chapter 3

Front Office Operations

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

© 2005, Educational Institute

 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 record-
keeping systems and describe front office
documents.
3. Describe the front desk and its support devices,
and describe the services and equipment of a
hotel’s 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
• Occupied
• Complimentary
• Stayover
• On-change
• Do not disturb
• Sleep-out
• Skipper
• Sleeper
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 Room Status Terms
(continued)

• Vacant and ready

• Out-of-order
• Lock-out
• DNCO
• Due out
• Check-out
• Late check-out
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 Room Types
• Single • Double-double
• Double • Studio
• Triple • Mini-suite or junior suite
• Quad • Suite
• Queen • Connecting rooms
• King • Adjoining rooms
• Twin • Adjacent rooms
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 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
• 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 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
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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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 Front office Documents
• Pre-Arrival Documents
• Arrival Documents
• Occupancy Documents
• Departure Documents

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 The Front desk
• Functional Organization
• Design Alternatives
• Accessibility
• Point of Sale System
• Support Devices

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 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
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• 900 or premium-price 12
 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
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 Property Management Systems
• 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
• 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
Inventory control software
• Stock levels
• Purchase order system
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• Stock rotation scheduling 20
 System Interfaces

Non-Guest-Operated Interfaces
• Point-of-sale system
• Call accounting system
• Electronic locking system
• Energy management system

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(continued) 21
 System Interfaces
(continued)

Guest-Operated Interfaces
• 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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 Sales Automation Systems

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