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Front office manager is entirely responsible for evaluating the success of front office performance in meeting apartment’s objectives. Front office manager role Is to wisely use resources which are available to him/her for the Improvement of department’s objectives. Front office manger responsibilities involve planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling, staffing, leading and evaluating to attain the objectives. Front office managers are currently facing many challenges in managing human resources, revenue management, and safety and security in hotels.
This is because of changes in environment in which they work. There is a need for managers to identify these challenges and they should try to overcome them. Aims and Objectives Aims and objectives of this report is to identify the challenges faced by today’s front office managers under the key areas that involves management of human resources, revenue management, and safety and security management. This report explains the role of front office manager and addresses on challenges faced by today’s front office manager.
It shows critical evaluation of the challenges faced and recommends how managers can consistently deal with these challenges. Methodology The research methodology used for this report is based on the information gathered neuron ten use AT secondary data I Nils Is done mainly Day ten use AT Dodos Ana Trot some internet sources related to front office operations. The material was carefully analyses and this report has been prepared which addresses challenges faced by front office managers in managing human resources, revenue management, and safety and security.
Introduction “Traditional front office functions include reservations, registrations, room and rate assignment, guests services, room status, maintenance and settlement of guests accounts and creation of guest history records”(Savanna and Brooks, 2005). The role of front office manager is challenging because they have to manage several priorities all together. Front office manager represents the image of the property and their Job in fact is a challenging. In order to provide and achieve higher levels of guest and employee satisfaction, the front office manager has to carefully design and plan the front office goals and strategies.
Organizations success depends upon how effectively a front office manager manages various departments that are under him or her and how well they focus on their Job. The following challenges are faced by today’s front office manager: The Management of Human Resources Human resource has always been a major issue for front office managers. The front office depends completely upon people and how they apply their knowledge, skills and attitudes. People management is a key matter for front office managers. “Human resource planning is a very important aspect of creating and maintaining a successful organization.
It involves ensuring that the organization has the right amount of staff with the right skills and qualifications at the right time”(Connelly and Mining, 2006). Challenges faced in Recruiting: Recruiting the staff for front office position always involves the front office manager. Recruiting involves interviewing and evaluating applicants to decide the best person for the Job position. The biggest challenge for managers is to recruit the best candidate to fit in a position for an organization. There can be many negative consequences of employing wrong people in the organization.
It is a challenge for managers to choose right applicant. A wrong decision can be risky for an organization as it may cause increase in labor turnover and thus an extra expenditure for organization. This can give manager an extra load of work as they will have to spend more time and money on further selection. Challenges faced during Staffing: The front office manager is responsible for making staff schedule. Managers have to forecast before they can make staffs schedule. Roaster of front office staff is based both on budgetary and forecasting of guest check-ins and check outs.
It is all affected by the frequency of guest’s requests for information. This is a challenging job for the manager as all this has to be done after determining labor costs. Managers have to review salaries of their staff as per hourly wage rate basis to lactate labor costs. They have to effectively manage resources so as to save on labor cost. It is thus a challenging Job for managers to predict and to determine how things will be affected by their decision. Revenue Management Bard (2011) clearly identifies “revenue management is the technique of planning to achieve maximum room rates and the most profitable guests”.
Revenue management plays an important role because it is all about maximizing the sales of rooms and generating profitable revenue Tort ten note. So Toronto Attlee manager snouts try Nils best to maximize profit by using his tactics. The front office managers have to build up reservation policies which would increase a profitable bottom line. Challenges faced in achieving high Occupancy Levels: All front office managers dream to achieve 100 percent occupancy levels for the organization success.
A good level of occupancy can be achieved by managers only if they get successful in attracting new customers. It is also a challenge for managers, how to sell rooms and attract guests? They have to consider about number of factors to get a high occupancy percentage. They have to make sure that their front office personnel are competent in making sales. For this they have to train their staff and teach them skills for how to maximize sales. This all needs a lot of effort and time to train the front office staff and is a difficult Job to do.
It is though a challenging aspect of their Job. Challenges faced in establishing Room Rates: One of the challenges for a front office manager is to establish room rates. Manager have to use information to forecast the number of reservations a hotel can expect based on availability, demand and other factors in order to fix room rate. The biggest challenge for the manager’s is to set the ideal selling price for rooms so that they can attract maximum number of customers and get a good margin on sale. Room rates must be set by managers to satisfy the purpose of return on investment.
They have to constantly monitor their competitors in order to provide competitive rates to guests. It is thus a challenging Job for managers to look on market conditions while establishing room rates. This is a tricky part of their Job to determine a price and thus challenging. Safety and Security Management Front office managers have many responsibilities, one of which is safety and security of guests and employees. Front office is a hotel’s communication centre and acts as a ink between the hotel management and the guests.
Managers should have a well- designed security program which should include evacuation plans in case of fire, bomb threats and some other emergencies. It is the duty of front office manager to respond whenever contacted by a guest call for assistance because of fire, theft, illness or any other emergencies. It is manager’s duty to protect guests from harm while they are on their property. Managers have to take care of guest room security, key control, locks, safe deposit boxes, credit and billing procedures, emergency reoccurred, safety procedures and more.
It is their legal duty to provide reasonable care to protect guests and employees. Challenges faced regarding Fire Safety Plan: Front office manager has to communicate fire safety plan to its employees and guests. It is manager’s duty to take active measures and instruct employees and guests to handle a stressful situation. It is therefore a challenge for managers to take preventive steps as these emergencies sometimes cannot be handled appropriately. In situations like these consumers can even sue the organization for not maintain a ell-organized procedures for security.
It is a difficult task for managers to plan and deliver fire safety training to all front office personnel and even to communicate it to guests all the time. Challenges faced in Room Key Security: It is the responsibility of front office manager to maintain a room key control system. Managers have to authorize certain personnel to have access to keys. It is duty of a manager to check the issuing of keys. They have to check for unregistered guests, unauthorized employees Ana any Tanta party trying to gal. access to a guests room.
It is a challenge for managers to recognize these safety issues without any help from security director. Conclusion We cannot deny the fact that front office manager has many responsibilities. Their success depends on taking care of all such challenges with a smile. It is a challenging job for managers to manage diverse work force made up of different people varying in ages, ethnic backgrounds, cultures and values. Managers have to carefully recruit and plan for roasters so that they can control costs. They have to forecast before they make staff roaster so that they can safe on labor costs.
Front office managers have to effectively use revenue management techniques in the reservations department. Managers can achieve their targets by organizing the most efficient pricing structure for rooms and providing the guest with right product which fit their needs. For this managers have to train their staff so that they sell rooms effectively rather than simply taking bookings. Hence front office managers should know how to use revenue management as an effective reservation tool. “Traditionally, security has been the responsibility of the front office”(Angelo and Vladimir, 2004).