Words: 1058
1. 0 Front office department 1. 1 Organisational chart [pic] 1. 2 Duties of front office staff 1. 2. 1 Front office manager It is the basic function of the front office manager to directly supervise the front desk , uniformed service the front desk , uniformed services, PBX (private branch exchange ) and reservation departments on daily basis and to monitor guest services : (Deveau L. T. et. al,1996). The person who responsible of all the function of the front office. Basically managers do monitoring department services and the PBX stands snatch as switchboards/ telephone operators.
On the other hand, manager is leading the front office staff in delivering hospitality. (Bardi J. A 2003 ) also dealing with the other department, Account or sales marketing department ,housekeeping department etc. This process assistance develop both interpersonal and effective interpersonal skills 1. 2. 2 The reservation Manager The reservation manager who organise the staff duty rotas, establish and maintain high standards of work. For example: The reservation manager has authority to make decision when hotel is fully booked or to continue and become overbooked (Baker S, et. l 1998) Duties: • Training reservation agents and setting-up cross training programs. • Preparing and distribution to other department 10days and 30 days forecast • Handling room rates and request for reservation information • Maintain and developing working relationship with central reservation office and travel agents. • Make the decision on whether booking should be accepted or not. 1. 2. 3 Telephonist Telephonist supervises all the telephone operators’ call through the hotel. The staffs require good communication skills and language skills.
Not only that, they obligated to place international calls and give wake-up calls as required by guest. The telephone exchange is normally located near the reception because of the extremely close working relationship exist between the front office and telephone exchange (Andrew S. , 1999). Duties: • Charging of calls made by the guest is to be calculated by the operator. • Responsible for the maintenance of the board as any defect in the board affect operating efficiency. • Telephone department is to act as the communications centre in the event of emergency(e. g. ire alarm) • 24-hour local and international telephone service. 1. 2. 4 Receptionist Receptionist (reception clerk/ agent) taking information from guest arrival, greet the guest when they arrive, check the guest into the hotel, assign rooms and check all the payment methods of guest. ( Baker S. , et. al, 1998) They help to ensure that quality service is being given by the front office departments in general hotel. Most of the times guest travels from long way so they are exhausted and may be impatient therefore need efficient and quick check-in services provided by pleasant reception agent.
In order to deliver quality and standard service should have good social skills, pleasant manners, empathetic and always be ready to help. Duties: • Keep the records of hotel room’s status such as clean, occupied, out of order etc… • Responsible to take keys from guest. • Assigns VIP rooms to ensure guest satisfaction and handling guest immediate problems or queries. • The notification and greeting of important guests • Selling the facilities of hotel • Maintaining records of guest • Also check the guest method of payment. 2. 0 Property Management System (PMS) 2. Property Management System Property Management Systems are computer systems that develop to perform two basic functions in accommodation industry. First, they are designed to store data in a convenient and easily retrievable way. Second, they then process this data in such a way that management will receive information conducive to effective decision making. (Deveau. et. al, 1996) 2. 2 Purpose of a PMS in a large hotel In the hospitality industry, a property management system is used to manage guest bookings, online reservations, point of sale, telephone and all other facilities.
Hotel property management systems may interface with central reservation systems and revenue or yield management systems, front office, back office and point of sale systems. (Deveau. et. al, 1996) Using a Property Management System will help to • Reduce the repetitive tasks by analysing and controlling actions. • Generate current and easily accessible Information needed by the management to make decisions • Improve the timing and accuracy of the service to provide quality customer service • Keep internal operations in a standardised way that is easy to control and would be almost impossible to duplicate in a manual system. . 3 Reports a PMS can generate 2. 3. 1 Vacant Rooms Report – The Housekeeping Vacant Rooms Report displays a list of vacant rooms and all room statuses in the hotel. The report identifies both the status of the room (vacant or occupied) as well as the condition of the room (clean, dirty, inspected, out of order, or out of service). It also shows the specific dates that a room is blocked. This report is important to front office staff, housekeeping supervises and room attendants to verify the room statuses. 2. 3. 2 Reservation Pre-Blocked Report –
The Reservation Pre-Blocked report allows the user to determine what room assignments are in place and see the Front Office and Housekeeping status of the room. This is useful when run for the current business date as the front desk can keep track of the room status and make a room blocking change when necessary. The information on the report includes the guest’s Estimated Time of Arrival, thus allowing the front desk to track if the room with be ready upon the anticipated arrival. As this report does not display guest preferences, do not use this report for attempting to match a room block with a guest request.
This report is important to front office staff to make dictions when allocating rooms. 2. 3. 3 Financial Transactions with Generates Report – The report output lists each transaction code and the corresponding amounts for the dates specified in the filter. A breakdown of the taxes generated by the posting of each transaction code is included. Also included is the user that posted each transaction. This report is important to the accountant to verify transactions. 2. 3. 4 History and Forecast Report –
The History and Forecast Report gives you a clear picture of past reservation activity as well as what reservations are anticipated into the future. The report output divides into Statistical data and Forecast data. This report is important to the management to identify privies situation and to make decisions. (MICROS Systems 2005) ———————– Front Office Manager Front Office Supervisor Assistant Manager Front Office Night Auditor Telex Operator Information Assistant Reservation Assistant Registration Assistant or Receptionist Front Office Cashier Steno Typist Guest relation office