Front Office Operations Management in Hotels: Hilton Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of front office operations within the hotel industry, using the Hilton brand as a case study. It begins with an introduction to front office functions, including the front desk, reservations, concierge, and housekeeping, highlighting their significance in customer service and overall hotel management. The report emphasizes the importance of front office operations, citing literature reviews and research to support its claims. It then delves into the operational roles of key personnel, including the front office manager, front desk agents, and night auditors, detailing their responsibilities in customer service, reservations, event management, and accounting. The report concludes that effective front office operations are crucial for guest satisfaction, hotel productivity, and maintaining a positive brand image. The study highlights how various technologies are used in the hotel industry to manage all activities and to connect with the guests effectively. The report underscores the significance of providing excellent services and treatment to guests, which ultimately enhances the hotel's reputation and goodwill.

Front Office Operations

INTRODUCTION
Front office operations are the core operations departments of the hotel. This can include
the front desk and reception, along with reservations, concierge and house keeping, sales and
marketing. Front office confirms the reservations of the guest and solve their complaints and
queries. Back office maintains the accounts of the guest, bill preparations and report generations
etc.
Hotel Hilton & resorts multinational brand where full service for hotel and resorts are
provided. It is one of the biggest hotel brand under the flagship of American Multinational
Hospitality Company. The study states importance of front office operations in the Hotel and
supporting the relevant content with the literature review. Further the study ends with the
operational roles of Front office manager, Front office desk agents and Night auditor.
Importance of Front office operations in the Hotel :
According to the Evans, (2017)There two different categories of Front office operations
that are front house operations and back-house operations. In front house operation all operations
are visible to the guest of the hotel. These operations involve the interaction with guest, checking
the availability of accommodations, providing the key's to the guest and guest payment
settlement. Whereas the back-house operations staff manage these operations in the guests
absence or whenever where involvement of guest is not necessary. This operational activities
involve determination with types of guest, maintaining the account of the guest, preparation of
bills and generating report.
As per the Islam, (2018)The importance of front office operations are as follows -
 Arranging accommodations — They arrange the accommodations of the rooms as per
the requirements and special needs of the customers. These can be room or non-smoking
room, pool facing room etc. The Hotel Hilton provides an App to their customers, where
they can select their accommodations as per their requirements.
 Handling Complaints — The hotel guest lodge their complaints and issues to the front
office operations. Then the issues are solved by the front desk manager and satisfy the
customers. The guest of Hotel Hilton can mark their complaints on their App as well.
 Porter Services — In Hotel Hilton, after the check in of the guest, the bellboy or porter
gets the luggage of the guest to their rooms before guests enter the assigned room, and

they should ensure that everything is perfect in the room. They will take care of any
deficiency from the office furniture to the lighting or ventilation and inform to the front
office.
 Concierge Area — The check in of guest in the hotel as part of a travel package then the
front desk coordinate with guest whether its travel, entertainment and other and then
everything is arranged according to such activity. They can solve issue of guest which
may be for the local attractions or direction. In Hotel Hilton manager make sure about
related activities which include the car service, restaurant reservations etc. to their guest
with minimum charges.
Operational roles :
Operational role of Front Office Manager
Front office manager is a senior manager in hotel and versatile characteristic who often
keeps away many roles like as a receptionist or clerk where customer firstly interact in front desk
and accountable for maintaining a professional work, staff supervision and administrative
support in the hotel. Manager completely depend on the hotel's needs(Robinson and et.al., 2016).
 Customer service - Front office manager gives services to customer by giving
information of their inquiries and solving customers issues. Front office manager gives
professional welcome to customers upon arrival. Hilton hotel manager fulfill their needs
by providing good services to customers and keeps good relation so that next time
customer prefer to visit again.
 Duties - Hilton hotel manager keep away duties like booking, assignment of rooms,
maintaining guest record like check in and check out and keeping day to day account
management like assign charges, input and insert payments to guest account and data
entry and update data. Hotel manager also responsible for coordinating activities,
supervising the subordinates, hiring and training and preparation of budget for front
office(Solnet and et.al.,2016). Reservation - Hilton hotel also provide online reservation services for customers. Hotel
provides a room management software app which is easy to book room, can check room
according to their budget. It also gives discount to customers in online booking which
encourage customer's to keep in preference. Front office manager looks after all these
booking(Front office operation in hotel and hospitality management,2017).

 Event management - Front office manager often organizes some events like christmas,
new year which is supervised by manager and distributes the duties to staffs so that
event's handle out in well manner. Hilton hotel manager specially organizes such kind
events for entertainment of guest.
Operational role of the front office desk agent:
Front office means its is the front area of any hotel or office where visitor check in and
related to the front office the word desk agent define as the person or individual who were sitting
or working on the front office that particular person or individual is known as the front office
desk agent. Commonly front office is also called as the reception of the particular
hotels(Alananzeh and et.al., 2018). Basic role of the front office desk agent are discussed below:
 Welcoming guest - Basic role of the front office desk agent of the Hilton hotel is
welcoming the customer or visitor of the Hilton hotel by offering them the welcome
drink, magazines and Wi-Fi. Desk agent of the Hilton hotel aim to give customer or
visitor the feeling of the relaxation.
 Deals with the customer - Generally front office desk agent always deals with the
customer or the visitor whoever check in or check out the Hilton hotel. Front office desk
agent answer the customer or visitor in very clear, sincere and in professional
manner(Melián-González and Bulchand-Gidumal, 2016).
 Deals with the payments - Desk agent of the front office deals or work with managing
the payment. Desk agent deals with the various mode of payment such as the cash, credit
card or debit card, internet banking, mobile banking and checks. All the billing or the
payment work of the Hilton hotel are done at the front office or the reception of the hotel.
 Solving the queries or answer the calls - Front office desk agent always answer the and
every call. And solve the query of the customer or visitor related to Hilton hotel. For
example queries related to the availability of the rooms, rates of rooms, booking
etc(Kuiper and et.al., 2016).
Operational role of the night auditor:
Night auditor is an individual who works in night shift in the hotel related to the
accounting or front desk, Or we can say night auditor perform the work for both front office
agent and accounting. Night auditor have to do other works of the hotels also depending on the

situation. Commonly night auditor is an individual who perform overall work of the hotel during
his/her working hour(Cobos and et.al., 2016). Operational role of the night auditor are discussed
below:
 Customer service or accounting duties- Night auditor customer services include the
work related to the welcoming the customer of the Hilton hotel, handling the customer
reservation process of the Hilton hotels and coordinating with the other staff of Hilton
hotel. On the other hand night auditors accounting duties include the work related to the
reconciling the accounts of the Hilton hotel, preparing customer bills etc(Modic and
Damij, 2018).
 Other duties Apart from the customer service and the accounting of the Hilton hotel,
night auditor of the Hilton hotel is also asked to perform many other duties like setting up
the meals for the Hilton hotel customers to their respective rooms or making tea or coffee
for them during the night shift.
 Deals with the over solved situation- Night auditor of the Hilton hotel is the only one
who deals with the over sold situation under this situation of the Hilton hotel night
auditor handle or calm the customer, find and arranging suitable alternate accommodation
for them according to the Hilton hotel standard(Ionel, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is concluded that Front office operations plays a major role in the
management of the overall functioning of the hotel. With the help of these operations hotels can
easily satisfy their guest and avail them with the pleasant experience to visit back to the Hotel.
These increases the productivity of the hotel and raises the number of guest visiting to the hotel.
With the better management they can easily solve the problems and queries of the guest.
Different technologies in the industry helps hotel to maintain the all activities of the hotel easily.
Get in touch with the guests and making them feel good with their good services and treatment
this all somehow raises the goodwill of the hotel.