Importance of Front Office Operations and Roles of Front Office Manager and Night Auditor in a Five-Star Hotel

This assignment discusses the importance of front office operations in a hotel and evaluates the operational roles of a front office manager and night auditor in a five-star hotel. It also focuses on the case of Holiday Inn, a UK-based hotel.

ASSESMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Mention examples to denote the value of front office operations in context with a business
firm.........................................................................................................................................3
Evaluate the operational roles of Front office manager and Night Auditor in context of a five-
star hotel.................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is referred as a category in service sector which includes hotels, restaurants,
amusement parks and some additional fields of tourism industry. This industry is entirely
dependent upon high disposable income and availability of leisure time. Hotel management is
defined as an interest area that includes different operational aspects a hotel industry (Hossen,
2019). Operational departments of a hotel include front office, housekeeping, food & beverage
department etc. This assignment discusses about Holiday Inn which is a UK based fivestar hotel,
headquartered in Buckinghamshire, London. This report will cover about importance of front
office operations for a hotel along with roles of Night auditor and Front desk manager in
managing the business activities of hotel.
MAIN BODY
Mention examples to denote the value of front office operations in context with a business firm
Front office department is considered as the face of a hospitality establishment. It is the first
department which interacts with the guests. Hence, overall impression of hotels in the minds of
customers is generated with the services offered by Front desk department. This department has
various operations which benefits in increasing the customer experience of guests while residing
at hotel (Hussien, 2015). Some of the front office operations and their importance in context with
Holiday Inn are stated below:
 Reservation: It is a main function associated with front office operations. Even if most
of the customers prefers to do reservations with the help of online services, it is very
important for hotel to monitor, verify and change them as per the requirements of guests.
This operation is very important as it helps other departments in identifying about the
number of guests which will arrive at hotel along with some extra service they require.
For instance, If reservations will not be carried out properly, it will be impossible for
guests to have comfortable journey at hotel and they will feel reluctant to come there
(Islam, 2018).
 Check In: This is another Front desk operation in which reservation of guest is reviewed
when they arrive at hotel so that accuracy can be maintained. Proper check in of guests is
very important. For example, If they are not treated good at the time of check in, they
may consider employees of Holiday Inn. Due to this, they may not prefer repeat visits

there. Another example is that, this operation of holiday inn will ensure that people with
their right identity are coming to hotel by which security of other guest and employees at
hotel is maintained.
 Communication and accounting: This is the foremost front office operation in which
front desk manager of a company interact with guests to identify their needs and
requirements. By this, serving customers became easy task. Also, manager performs
accounting procedures that includes settling of guests bills, advance booking of hotel and
settling o bills via checkout. These operations of front office benefit the customers in
having a smooth journey at hotel. Also, business operations of Holiday Inn relating with
money are also performed in systematic manner due to this operation of front desk
department (Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, 2015).
Evaluate the operational roles of Front office manager and Night Auditor in context of a five-star
hotel
There are different operational roles which are performed by a Front office manager and night
auditor. These role benefits a business in smooth working due to which earning high revenues
and profits became easy. These revenues will help Holiday Inn in getting advantages over rival
companies in a considerable manner (Van der Rest and et. Al., 2015). Operational roles of both
front desk manager and Night auditor in context with Holiday Inn are stated below:
Front desk manager
Activities and operations associated with Front office department is managed by Front
desk manager. This person has the role to coordinating activities of employees within their
department and with other departments as well. For example, Front desk manager in Holiday Inn
will have the operational role to supervise their subordinates along with training them regularly
so that they can serve guests in a proper manner. Other than this, another role of front desk
manager is to prepare budget for front desk department and allocate required resources to each
employee. Along with it, monitoring and evaluating the performance of employees working in
concerned department is also the duty of front desk manager (Korez-Vide, Tansek and Milfelner,
2016).
For example, in context with Holiday Inn, If some employees of department are not
performing their work properly, it will be the responsibility of the manager to tell them their

mistake and train them so that their working potential and capability will improve. Manager in
front office department also has a role to receive bookings from customers and guiding them
during their visits so that they will feel comfortable and their trust in the services of hotel will
increase. If front desk manager in Holiday Inn will not perform their role and work in a proper
manner, it will be difficult for entire department to work in a systematic manner. Due to which
conflicts and issues can take place in department (Manjiri and Rao, 2016). Also, customers can
feel neglected if manager will not treat their needs properly. This will impact the sales and
profits of Holiday Inn negatively.
Night Auditor
Night auditor is a person which works at the reception of hotel at night. This person
performs operational roles of both Front desk department and accounting department, in context
with front desk offices, main duties of a night auditor are day to day account management and
book keeping. In case of Holiday Inn, main responsibility and role of a night auditor is to post
accommodation charges and tax charges to people which are staying at hotel, accumulation of
guest services payments and charges, settling various financial activities which are performed by
departments on each working day (Nasurdin, Ahmad and Tan, 2015).
For example, night Auditor in Holiday Inn have the operational role to post room charges
and appropriate taxes to guest accounts along with processing the charging vouchers and credit
card vouchers of guests so that they can redeem the discount which they have earned via offers.
Other than this, verifying that all the transactions which are carried out by the front desk
department are performed after checking of document evidences is the job role of a night auditor
(Pramadhika and SS, 2017). Printing up of files and reserving them is also their job role. In some
situation, manager is not available at workplace, in that situation it is the responsibility of night
auditor to serve the needs and requirements of customers in shortest time possible. If night
auditor of concerned hotel will not perform their work in a proper manner, it will be difficult for
hotel staff to manage their finances and accounts. Also, taxes which will be charged by
customers will not have any justifications due to which victim guests can charge file against
hotel. This will reduce the reputation in market and people will not considered them as an option
when they needed to stay at a hotel (Sayın and Karaman, 2018).

CONCLUSION
As per above give report, this has been concluded that front office department plays an
important role in the working of a hotel. There are different advantages of a front office activities
for operations like appropriate Reservation, Check In, Communication with customers and
accounting of front desk finances. All of these advantages benefits a hotel in earning high
revenues and profits as per their expectations. Operational roles of front desk manager are
coordination of front desk activities, supervising and guiding subordinates, hiring and training of
staff to improve their productivity. Due to these roles, entire front desk department works in an
effective manner. Operational roles of night auditor are day-to-day account management, book
keeping, information entry and updating related with funds and finances etc. These roles help in
enhancing the overall productivity of company.
.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Application on the Front Office Department (Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Tourism
and Hotel Management, Helwan University).
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Bazar.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. and Bilgihan, A., 2015. Customer loyalty: a review and future
directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(3). pp.379-414.
Korez-Vide, R., Tansek, V. and Milfelner, B., 2016, April. Assessing intercultural competence
of front office employees: the case of hotels in Slovenia. In Biennial International
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Office; A Qualitative Study on Hotels. TOURISM, BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
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Van der Rest, J. I. and et. Al., 2015. Hotel revenue management: from theory to
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Wood, R.C. ed., 2017. Hotel Accommodation Management. Routledge.