Front Office is the voice and face of the hospitality industry. It is commonly termed as ‘reception’ since it greets guests when they first arrive at the hotel. Irrespective of the star rating of any hotel or restaurant, its visual experience is delivered by the front office department. It is the major area that influences a customer to accept the services of a facility. Hence, front office acts as a common link between a customer and the hospitality body.
Front Office is a vital department of the hospitality industry. It acts as an interactive body that caters to customer needs when they first step into the hotel foyer. Hence, the front office staff are the most visible professionals and are marked by a pleasing personality. They handle varied duties like transactions between guest and hotel, coordination of guest services, generating guest database, handling customer accounts, ensuring customer satisfaction, selling specific services, and using PBX to handle in-house communications. The staffs are responsible for creating pleasant guest experiences and works to fulfil the customer needs during their stay in the facility.
The department comprises of concierges, uniformed services, front desk, front desk accounting
system, and PBX or Private Branch Exchange, an intra-organizational private telephone network.
Front office operations can be divided into two categories- (a) Front House Operation and (b) Back
House Operation
(a) Front House Operation: It is the visible part of the operation in which a guest can see and
interact. The job includes
(b) Back House Operations: It is the invisible part of the operation and undertaken in the
absence of guests. Hence, it does not necessitate guest involvement and remains unseen by
them. The job includes
(i) Pre-arrival Interaction: In this stage, customers plan to visit the hotel and so make regular inquiries concerning room availability, prices, and facilities. The front office responds to each guest query through email or phone and deliver suitable answers with an intention to convert the queries into confirmed bookings. The front office also needs to capture the customer information (like number of guests requirement, room
requirement, contact number, probable stay duration) on the office accounting system.
(ii) Arrival: On guest arrival, he/she is received by the front office while the porters carry the luggage in. Guests having confirmed registration are handed the GRC or Guest Registration Card and requested to fill in some personal information. This data is then updated in the Guest Record. Subsequently, the guest is handed a welcome kit and led to the booked room to commence their stay.
(iii) Occupancy: The front office keeps a tab on all charges incurred by the guest during occupancy. On customer request, he/she is also provided with added facilities like babysitting or transportation.
(iv) Departure: The front office ensures that the guest has been correctly billed for all services and facilities incurred during the stay. On customer request provides conveyance for drop-out.
