Hotel Front Office Operations Roles

This assignment delves into the various roles within a hotel's front office department. It outlines the specific duties and responsibilities of key positions such as Front Office Manager, Assistant Front Office Manager, Cashier, Telephone Operator, and Reservationist. The document highlights their contributions to guest satisfaction, operational efficiency, and revenue management within a hospitality setting.

Running head: ACCOMMODATION MANAGEMENT
Accommodation Management
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Table of Contents
Background of Accor Hotels.......................................................................................................2
The front office department.........................................................................................................2
Role of the front office department.............................................................................................3
Role of the customers and the customer’s needs related to the front office department.............5
Steps of the accommodation manager to ensure the hotel in meeting customer needs and
creating positive experiences.......................................................................................................6
Outsourcing..................................................................................................................................7
Advantages and disadvantages of moving towards an outsourcing solution..............................7
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8
References:......................................................................................................................................9

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Background of Accor Hotels
Accommodation is one among the basic needs of the international as well as domestic
travelers. It plays a very important role in overall experience of a traveler’s visiting a place and
with the same, it is the biggest component of his expenditure. Hence, accommodation
management is the crucial aspect of tourism or hotel industry. Accor is one of the most famous
hotel chains in the world (Kimes & Ho, 2017). It was established in the year 1967 by Gerard
Pelisson and Dubrule. At those times, when no single man in France used to belief in the
business model of the hotels but their own creativity and effectiveness, these two men pushed the
boundaries of their hotel ever further and the outcome is unknown to none. Accor has over 4,100
hotels in 95 different countries and with more than 2,50,000 hospitality experts who shares same
passion to take care of millions and millions of guests throughout the world. They have a list of
over 20 brands to meet the desires of every guest type. They ranges from the luxury brands like
the Raffles and Banyan Tree etc to the economy brands like the Mama and Novotel. If one goes
through their official website, it is specifically mentioned in a section under the tag “AccorHotels
Overview” that Accor considers its guests as unique and that its promises to meet each of their
demands.
The front office department
The front office/desk department of a hotel plays an important role in the overall success
of every hotel and its operations. The quality of service and the guest satisfaction as well differs
according to the efficiency of the front office department. It is regarded as the most noticeable
departments in every hotel (Bardi 2013). Reception desk is the focal point of activities within
the department of front office (Schipper et al. 2013). It is the generally the communication centre
and the place where the visitors receives the initial impression of the hotel.

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Role of the front office department
(Refer to Annexure 1)
Role of the customers and the customer’s needs related to the front office department
There are several segments of guests arrives in the section of Accor. There are
some people who visit with families in the hotel with the primary purpose to spent holidays. The
others include an international visitor who comes to attend their business meetings and also there
are some international tourists who spent their most of the time socializing (Diaz and Koutra
2013). These sectors of hotel guests are from diverse entities, which have diverse needs,
requirements and patterns of travelling.
The front office department is mainly responsible for performing and managing three
important areas and they are guest services, the property management system or PMS, data
management and guest accounting.
1. The PMS include the back-up system and the central reservations system (CRS). The
PMS Manager keeps the record of the name, data and other related information
such as telephone number, address and credit or debit card details of the guests that
are staying in the hotel. He also keeps the record of the room rate paid and room
type that are occupied by the guest during their last stay, a history of their prior
folio charges, the form of the payment used by the guests to settle his or her account with
the hotel. With the same, the room preferences and company affiliation of the guest,
the guest’s membership in groups receiving a discount from the hotel are also the
look out of the PMS manager.

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2. In terms of guest services, the responsibility of the front office department is to be ready
for assisting in a various gust-related requests like, handling luggage and their
transportation. With the same, they must also provide directions to several attractions
in the local area, routing mails, delivery of newspaper and the organization of safety
deposit boxes. Arranging for the wake-up calls as according to the customer
preferences, providing guest security by the careful dissemination of the guest-
related information, conveying information about the available hotel services,
handling the guests’ concerns and payment disputes and taking messages for the
guests, are some of the other vital responsibilities that are conducted by the front office
department.
3. The guest accounting and data managers performs the task of daily review of all the
financial transactions with the hotel guests by the front office.
In order to meet the customer needs, the front office team must ensure that a registration
card is provided to them at the time of their arrival. A registration card is a card which
provides every details such as the guest’s name, arrival date, rate to be paid by them, departure
date and other information that are related to the guest’s stay. They must ensure that the guests
are greeted at the time of their arrival. It is their responsibility to confirm that the details of
the provided registration card to the guests is correct. It is also the duty of the
accommodation manger to secure a form of payment, and room assignment. He also issues
the room keys to the guests. However, at the time of their departure, the front office
department provides them the overall bill. The actual settlement of the guest’s bill includes
confirmation of the guest’s identity, presentation of a copy of the bill for the guest’s processing,

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inspection of the payment of guest and lastly, revising the status of the room in the PMS in
order to appoint the room as vacant and ready to be cleaned.
Steps of the accommodation manager to make sure that the hotel is meeting the customer
needs and creating positive experiences
No matter what the sector is related to, the accommodation managers of all the sectors
share similar responsibilities (Mackenzie and Peters 2014).
1. Develop a positive relationship with the tenants, guest, residents as well as the staffs.
2. Ensuring smooth running of the accommodation facilities that includes the safety of
the guests (Smith and Ong 2015)
3. Ensuring that adequate security id provided for the building
4. Monitoring the work of the room service departments and ensuring that a high
standard is maintained
5. Ensuring that the demands of each of the customer segment is completed
Outsourcing
In current days, outsourcing facility services are regarded as the future of the Australian
hospitality industry (Leeman and Reynolds 2012). None can deny the fact that it is very
beneficial for the hotel industry but for the front office department it is not a viable solution as it
will make the front desk tasks more complex.
Advantages and disadvantages of moving towards an outsourcing solution
Advantages-
1. It shall reduce the hotel’s administrative costs (Schniederjans 2015). It will help the hotel
to run with those expenses that are used by the guests only.

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2. The professionals will supply the hotel with best possible products and services
(Tayauova 2012).
3. It will help the hotel to focus on its core competencies by employing better and
experienced specialists (Lamminmaki 2012)
Disadvantages-
1. It is tough for a hotel or company to commend a third party because it may result is loss
of control on their own business affairs (Caruth, Haden and Caruth 2013). It will become
difficult to ensure that the staffs are delivering standard services to the customers.
2. There is a high risk of incorrect alignment of the strategic aspects and the objectives of
the hotel (De Vita and Tekaya 2015). When the external elements starts to participate in
the internal affairs of the business, it becomes hard for the company to transmit its
objectives accurately.
Recommendations
The iconic Accor hotel serves the best to meet the customer’s need and customer
satisfaction. Still, change is important is every industry for maintaining their success. In order to
ensure that best experience is provided to the guests, the front desk must ensure that the food
supply is healthy, as the sector of food and beverage rules a hotel. With the same, for the guests
who come with their families; proper room, source of entertainment like TV, as mentioned in
earlier should be made. In addition, outsourcing will be a better solution for most of the gaps
that are been recognized in the overall analysis. Outsourcing the overall house cleaning training
to a strong suit commercial cleaning company will provide a low rate or cost-effective method to
triumph with the housekeeping procedures. Apart from cleaning techniques, a good

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housekeeping training will encourage the mindset of being careful and will entwine its way
through entire guest experience on-property. With the same, the outsourcing agency will reduce
the total number of claims and the loss of work that a hotel incurs. This is because, in case of
outsourcing, that agency will take the overall responsibility of most of the worker’s
compensation issues. These recommendations are made for the part of front office department in
this analysis, which Accor can implement in its hospitality business in order to remain successful
and that too in the top position for the next years. It will enhance the customer experiences and
will draw the people’s attention towards its service, contributing in improved profitability.

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References:
Bardi, J.A., 2013. Hotel front office management. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Benavides-Velasco, C. A., Quintana-García, C., and Marchante-Lara, M. 2014. Total quality
management, corporate social responsibility and performance in the hotel industry. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, 77-87.
Cambra-Fierro, J., Melero-Polo, I. and Vázquez-Carrasco, R., 2014. The role of frontline
employees in customer engagement. Revista Española de Investigación en Marketing
ESIC, 18(2), pp.67-77.
Caruth, D.L., Haden, S.S.P. and Caruth, G.D., 2013. Critical factors in human resource
outsourcing. Journal of Management Research, 13(3), p.1.
Chen, K.H., Liu, H.H. and Chang, F.H., 2013. Essential customer service factors and the
segmentation of older visitors within wellness tourism based on hot springs hotels. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 35, pp.122-132.
De Vita, G. and Tekaya, A., 2015. Hotel outsourcing under asset specificity:“The good, the bad and the
ugly”. Tourism Management, 47, pp.97-106.
Díaz, E. and Koutra, C., 2013. Evaluation of the persuasive features of hotel chains websites: A
latent class segmentation analysis. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 34, pp.338-
347.
Espino-Rodríguez, T.F. and Lai, P.C., 2014. Activity outsourcing and competitive strategy in the
hotel industry. The moderator role of asset specificity. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 42, pp.9-19.

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GÜLSÜN, B., YILMAZ, O. and ASLAN, B., 2015. AN EXAMPLE STUDY OF TOURISM
LOGISTICS FOR TOURISTIC PLACES IN TURKEY.
Kimes, S. E., & Ho, J. (2017). Revenue management in luxury hotels. Journal of Revenue and
Pricing Management, 1-5.
Lamminmaki, D., 2012. A management accounting perspective on hotel outsourcing. Accounting
and Financial Management, p.341.
Leeman, D. and Reynolds, D., 2012. Trust and outsourcing: Do perceptions of trust influence the
retention of outsourcing providers in the hospitality industry?. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 31(2), pp.601-608.
Mackenzie, M. and Peters, M., 2014. Hospitality managers' perception of corporate social
responsibility: An explorative study. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 19(3), pp.257-
272.
Mok, C., Sparks, B. and Kadampully, J., 2013. Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Perry, D., Smith, Z., White, D. and Wade, G., Wal Mart Stores Inc, 2017. Systems and methods
for identifying transaction capabilities of cashier. U.S. Patent 9779395B2.
Schipper, L., Meijboom, B., Luijkx, K. and Schols, J., 2013. Front/back office considerations in
the operational access to long-term care for older people: Findings of a multiple case
study. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 6(4), pp.252-262.
Schniederjans, M.J., Schniederjans, A.M. and Schniederjans, D.G., 2015. Outsourcing and
insourcing in an international context. Routledge.

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Smith, R.A. and Ong, J.L.T., 2015. Corporate social responsibility and the operationalization
challenge for global tourism organizations. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 20(5),
pp.487-499.
Tayauova, G., 2012. Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing: analysis of outsourcing
practices of Kazakhstan banks. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41, pp.188-195.
Wang, J. and Ritchie, B.W., 2012. Understanding accommodation managers’ crisis planning
intention: An application of the theory of planned behaviour. Tourism Management, 33(5),
pp.1057-1067.

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Annexure 1
1. Front office manager
 To manage the operation of the front office including the cashier
 To ensure that all the policies and processes are well assembled with the highest
priority of guest satisfaction and service
 To review the status of availability of rooms, blockage of the rooms and the
various special requests of the guests on regular basis (Wang and Ritchie 2012)
 To make sure that the cost effectiveness and budge in the front desk is attained
 To review the logbook of the front desk regularly to monitor every activities
 To review all the VIP room blockings
 To train and monitor all the staffs
 To familiarize with the front desk policies and processes and the various special
rates and programs
 To participate in the morning briefing and organizing the afternoon briefing on a
daily basis and also disseminating the various information to the reception team as
early as possible
 To approve the duty rosters
2. Assistant front office manager
 To monitor the operational activities
 To provide highest standard of the courteous service
 To ensure that the work of shift closing, refunds, room deposits and rebates are
completed.
 To prepare staff schedules and to complete the payroll

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 To monitor the labor costs
 To conduct the meetings of the front desk and to resolve issues
 To perform the check-in and check-out processes
 To perform short trainings
3. Cashier
 To receive payments (Perry et al. 2017)
 To assimilate and maintain the reports and records on non-monetary
 To supervise the checkout stations
 To offer the customers to carry-out the services after the completion of the
transactions
 To provide cash checks for the customers
 Sorting, counting and wrapping the currency and coins.
 Computing and recording the total transactions
4. Telephone operator
 To answer the calls
 Recording guests requests (Cambra-Fierro, Melero-Polo and Vazquez 2014)
 To coordinate the responses to the guest issues
5. Reservationist
 To give answers to the various enquiries of the customers and to advice them
accordingly
 To assist the customers
 To ensure that all the clients have access to the different services without any jerk
 To help the clients filling the reservation forms

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