Pre-Arrival
The guest chooses a hotel during the pre-arrival stage of the guest cycle. The guest’s choice
can be affected by many factors
• Previous experiences with the hotel
• Advertisements
• Recommendations from travel agents, friends, or business associates
• The hotel's location or reputation
• Preconceptions based on the hotel's name or chain affiliation
Employees at the front office must be "sales-oriented" and present a positive, strong image of
the hotel. If a reservation can be accepted as requested, the reservations agent creates a
reservation record. The creation of this record initiates the hotel guest cycle. By confirming a
reservation, the hotel verifies the guest's room request and personal information, assuring the
guest that their needs will be addressed. The hotel may also perform pre-registration activities,
such as assigning a specific room and rate for guests who have not yet arrived and creating
guest folios. A guest folio is a record of the charges incurred and credits acquired by the guest
during occupancy.
Arrival
This stage includes registration and rooming functions. It is the staff's task to clarify the
nature of the guest-hotel relationship and the expectations of both the hotel and the guest. The
front desk agent should determine the guest's reservation status before beginning the
registration process. A guest will not register if they are not convinced of the value of renting
a particular hotel room. A registration record, completed either as part of the pre-registration
activity or at the time of check-in, is essential to efficient front office operations.
A registration record includes:
• Intended method of payment
• Planned length of stay
• Any special guest needs
• Guest's billing address
• Telephone number
• Signature
These details enable front office staff to meet special guest needs, forecast room occupancies,
and settle guest accounts properly. At check-out, the guest's registration card may also
become the primary source for creating a guest history card. This card is a record of personal
and financial information about a hotel guest, which can help the hotel in its marketing and
sales efforts and can be useful in registering and serving the guest if they return.
The front desk agent uses registration information to assign a room and possibly a room rate
for each guest. The housekeeping status of the room must be relayed to the front office, and
guestroom characteristics must be known. New and renovated properties must be barrier-free
in design, meaning facilities and accommodations must be designed with the disabled in
mind. The guest's method of payment should be identified. If a guest has not secured
management approval for credit before arriving at the property, the hotel may deny the guest's
request for credit at check-in. When the guest arrives at the room and accepts it, the
occupancy stage of the guest cycle begins.
Room Status Terminology
1. Occupied 8. DNCO (Did Not Check Out)
2. Vacant and Ready 9. Do Not Disturb
3. Complimentary 10. Due Out
4. Out-of-Order 11. Sleep-Out
5. Stayover 12. Check-Out
6. Lock-Out 13. Skipper
7. On-Change 14. Late Check-Out
15. Sleeper
Room Type Definitions
1. Single 8. Double- double Suite
2. Double 9. Studio
3. Triple 10. Mini-Suite/Junior Suite
4. Quad 11. Suite
5. Queen 12. Connecting Rooms
6. King 13. Adjoining Rooms
7. Twin 14. Adjacent Rooms
Occupancy
The front desk is responsible for coordinating guest services. Sound guest relations are
essential for encouraging repeat visits. Guest relations depend on clear, constructive
communication between the front office, other hotel departments and divisions, and the guest.
Front desk agents should carefully attend to complaints and seek a resolution that is
satisfactory to both the guest and the hotel.
Security issues that apply to front office employees include the protection of funds and
valuables. Procedures for hotel and guest key/card control, property surveillance, safe deposit
boxes, guest personal property, and emergencies are also important.
Most transactions will be processed according to front office account posting and auditing
procedures. Guest accounts must be carefully and continually monitored to ensure that the
house limit is not exceeded. Front desk accounting records must be periodically reviewed for
accuracy and completeness. This need is met through the night audit. The audit tasks include
verifying charges posted to guest accounts, balancing and checking accounts against credit
limits, resolving discrepancies in room status, and producing operating reports.
Departure
The final element of guest service is checking the guest out of the hotel and creating a guest
history record. The final element of guest accounting is the settlement of the guest's account.
At check-out, the guest vacates the room, receives an accurate statement of account for
settlement, returns the room key/cards, and departs from the hotel. The front office updates
the room's availability status and notifies the housekeeping department. Hotels often use
expired registration records to construct a guest history file. These records can be either
registration cards or electronic files. A guest history file is a collection of guest history
records.
The purpose of account settlement is to collect money due to the hotel. Depending on the
guest's credit arrangements, the guest will pay in cash, sign a credit card voucher, or verify
direct billing instructions. Account balances should be verified, and errors corrected before
the guest leaves the hotel. Problems may occur in guest account settlement when charges are
not posted to the guest's account until after the guest checks out. These charges are called late
charges. Even if the charges are eventually collected, the hotel usually incurs additional costs
through billing the guest. Settling accounts for departed guests is generally handled by the
accounting department. Front office reports can be used to review operations, isolate problem
areas, indicate where corrective action may be needed, and highlight business trends. Daily
reports typically contain information about cash and charge sales, accounts receivable, and
front office operating statistics.
Front Office Systems
• Non-automated (manual)
• Semi-automated (electro-mechanical)
• Fully-automated (computer-based)
Front Office Forms
• Pre-Arrival: Reservation record or reservation file and a letter of confirmation
• Arrival: Registration card
• Occupancy: Folio, voucher
• Departure: Folio, credit card voucher, guest history file
The Front Desk
The front desk is where guests register, request information and services, relate complaints,
settle their accounts, and check out. Signs may be placed on or above the desk to direct guests
to the proper activity center for registration, cashier services, check-out, information and mail
handling, and other guest services.
Functional Organization
The design and layout of the desk should provide each front desk employee with easy access
to the equipment, forms, and supplies necessary for their assigned tasks. Ideally, the front
desk layout is planned, and its furniture and fixtures are situated according to the functions
performed at designated activity centers along the desk. Efficiency is important.
Design Alternatives
There is general agreement that traditional mail, message, and key/card racks are unnecessary
at the front desk. Some hotels have circular or semicircular front desk structures.
Front Office Equipment
Room Rack
A room rack is normally recessed into the front desk counter, tilted against the desk, or
mounted below or behind the desk. The room rack contains a summary of information about
the current status of all rooms in the hotel. A room rack slip or, in some hotels, the guest
registration card itself can be inserted into the room rack to display guest data, room number,
and room rate. The room rack may also contain information about types, features, and rates.
Mail, Message, and Key Rack
A key rack is an array of numbered compartments used to store guestroom keys. Key racks
used to be visible to individuals both behind and in front of the rack. Today, they are often
placed in front desk drawers to ensure the safety and security of guests. To minimize the
number of racks in the front desk area, hotels may combine the key rack with either the room
rack or the mail and message rack. A combination mail, message, and key rack can be either a
freestanding wall unit, an under-the-counter row of compartments, or a set of drawers. Some
front offices use this rack as a room divider by placing it between the front desk and
switchboard areas of the front office (including voice mail messages and message lights).
Reservation Racks
Front offices often use both advance reservation racks and current reservation racks. In an
advance reservation rack, reservation rack slips or registration cards are arranged by the
guests' scheduled date of arrival and, within each day's grouping, alphabetically by the guests'
or groups' names. A current reservation rack is a portable subset of the advance reservation
rack. Early each morning, the advance reservation rack slips or registration cards for that day's
expected arrivals are loaded into the current reservation rack and taken to the front desk. The
current reservation rack is used by front desk agents to assist in processing guests during
registration.
Information Rack
An information rack is an index of in-house guests, organized by both last name and room
number. An information rack is commonly used to assist front office employees with the
proper routing of telephone calls, mail, messages, and visitor inquiries.
Folio Trays
In non-automated and semi-automated properties, guest folios are stored in a front office folio
tray (or folio bucket) and arranged by guestroom number. Guest folios remain in the tray
throughout the occupancy stage of the guest cycle, except when they're used for posting
transactions. Both the front office cashier and front desk agent are likely to require access to
folios stored in the tray.
A second folio tray is normally located in the accounting office. This tray contains the folios
of departed guests being direct-billed or of guests who paid by credit card. Once these
accounts are settled, the folios are moved to a permanent storage location.
Account Posting Machine
Semi-automated hotels that allow guests to charge purchases to their rooms use an account
posting machine to post, monitor, and balance these charges. It should be located near the
front office folio tray and voucher rack.
Voucher Rack
A voucher may be used to support the posting of a transaction. Once the transaction is posted,
the voucher may be stored for verification during the audit process. Vouchers may be filed for
future reference in a voucher rack located near the account posting machine.
Cash Register
A front desk cash register is used to record cash transactions and maintain cash balances. The
front office cashier is primarily responsible for its operation and contents. Most cash registers
also include printing devices for producing transaction tapes, sales receipts, imprinted
vouchers, and inventory and price control reports.
Telecommunication
Hotels must be able to support a broad range of telephone calls with adequate equipment to
ensure efficient and effective telecommunications systems.
Telecommunications Equipment
• PBX Systems (Private Branch Exchange)
• HOBIC Systems (Hotel Billing Information Center)
• Call Accounting Systems, which is a set of software programs that initiate the
placement, pricing, and posting of calls.
• Pay Phones
• Pagers and Cellular Phones
Property Management Systems
A property management system contains sets of computer software packages capable of
supporting a variety of activities in front and back office areas.
4 Common front office software packages include:
• Reservations Management Software
• Rooms Management Software
• Guest Account Management Software
• General Management Software
Reservation Module
• Availability/Forecasting
• Reservation Records
• Reservation Confirmations
• Room Pricing
• Revenue Management
Rooms Management Module
• Room Status
• Registration
• Room Assignments
• Room Rate Information
Guest Accounting Module
• Folio Management
• Credit Monitoring
• Transaction Tracking
General Management Module
• Revenue Analysis
• Operating Statistics
• Financial Analysis
• Guest History
