An Analysis of Accommodation Management and Front Office Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of accommodation management within the hotel industry. It begins by emphasizing the importance of accommodation management in ensuring hotel standards, guest safety, and financial control, with a focus on the accommodation manager's rol...Read More

Running head: ACCOMMODATION MANAGEMENT
ACCOMMODATION MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Front office department and its importance.....................................................................................2
Roles, task, and functions of this department..............................................................................2
Customers need and role..................................................................................................................3
Functions of Accommodation manager.......................................................................................4
Viability of Outsourcing..................................................................................................................5
Benefits and Challenges..............................................................................................................6
Possible Recommendations.............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Accommodation management is important for ensuring the standard of the hotel and
provides safety and security for guests and residents. Accommodation manager is assigned for
that particular reason to take care of these aspects. Cleanliness, maintenance, and control over
the budgets are the prime concerns of accommodation manager (Wood 2017). Accommodation
primarily focuses on the private rentals, hostel and boarding houses in hotel and student
accommodation properties. Hence, the budget is the big factor of this aspect. Transports, cultural
and social value of that place, and shopping and entertainment facilities along with the hotel all
these are important for customers to choose their desired destination.
Front office department and its importance
Front office department is one of the core operation departments of the hotel. This
department deals with the customers directly so a better impression is needed from the
employees of front office department. Marketing, sales and technology handling team are
working together in this department and the department also linked with the entire hotel for
accommodation, marketing, promotion and enhancement of business (Yan and Zhao 2017).
Hence, this department shows their ability in controlling, man-management, operation and
execution in a hotel and these factors directly or indirectly boost their business.
Roles, task, and functions of this department
The basic role of this department is to handle customers and understand their problems. If
customers are not satisfying by employees’ service and make some unnecessary arguments then

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it will be a worse situation for the hotel, as customers have a bad perception of the hotel
management.
Roles of Front office department are very important for the hotel. Customer safety and
security is the prime aspect of this department. Front office management provides some training
and development prospects for their employees so that they can deliver better outcomes to
customers (Swenden 2016). Another role like tracking complains and works on it is the major
work that has been controlled by this department. If problems are identified by the employees’ or
management it became easier to reach its mitigation process.
The department has to do diverse numbers of task and functions. Customer checks in,
check out, allocation and reallocation of rooms, online and offline payments methods, cash
handling, cancellation of rooms, want a particular room, room servicing, edit of booking
orders all these are the task and functions of any front office department. There are some rooms
that are allocated for special guest as they invest more money for better affordability and
satisfaction. Department needs to deliver that much of satisfaction as they are the royal
customers of that hotel (Page 2014). So their room allocation is also considered as the
responsibilities of that department. Hotel in-house operation is also ensured better customer
relation, as employees’ used to go at customer room-step service. This is an enhancing procedure
to develop the business in an ethical way.
Customers need and role
Customers need is very important for the hotel as each section of different management
tries their best to satisfy customers by delivering quality service. The first thing in this need is the
effective communication which is needed from customers as this communication can deliver a

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direct message to customer and employees’. Hence there are no such chances of mismanagement
or miscommunications. Fair price, good environment, and innovative systems are also needed
by customers. Competitive price ranges are highlighted in that case and customers evaluate their
best place and these procedures are influenced by good environment and innovative systems in
that hotel. Innovative procedures like online payment, phone booking, sensor door lock system
or fingerprint key are these kinds of innovation that customers will pay more however if these
are not installed then price range is evaluated by customers (Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015).
Privacy is another positive aspect that customer needs and hotel authority tries to deliver their
best security to protect all their customers’.
Functions of Accommodation manager
Accommodation manager is needed for both public and private sector companies. The main
operation functions are organized by front office department.
 A manager takes care of customer safety and security.
 Supervise training staff and provide them important lessons for their professional
development.
 Ensure cleanliness and hygiene so that no health issues will happen.
 Ensuring financial success to customer’s and provides those rooms within their budget.
 Deliver quality service to customers so that a better customer relation maintains (Ling et
al. 2015).
 Provide customer support and try to mitigate problem situations identified by customers’.
 Take care of allocation of rooms in rush hours and take in charge of facility department
for that particular time.

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 Develop the operation policies for introducing new innovations and also make a draft of
the business financial plan for that innovation (McPhail et al. 2016).
 Dealing with clients for the grand occasions of accommodations when aclient wants for
banquets, conventions,and other functions.
 Recruit some new staffs for the rescheduling of shift timing and work.
These are certain responsibilities of accommodation manager as they have to manage all
those departments for enhancing business opportunities. Customer service, safety and security
and delivering promotional strategy so that maximum number of people will come on that hotel
is the basic motive of them and their positive participation in business provide competitive
advantages to the hotel.
Viability of Outsourcing
Outsourcing is a kind of third-party influence in business and used this third party
intervention in a positive way. There are some strategic options to improve the organization and
company tried to outsource them for the development of the business. High-profile companies
are also making their growth in business by the applied source of outsourcing. There are some
legal contracts; business deals; marketing strategies’ need to change for their introduction in
particular business (Dzhandzhugazova et al. 2015). In case of small-scalebusiness, these
outsourcing scopes are considered as business promotions, as the company name, brand all these
specific services are known to people just because of extension in outsourcing. Australia has a
good business market in the hotel industry so their outsourcing process is required to divide the
work and responsibilities (Boella 2017). Hotel management is not available enough to meet
customers’ request at all the time, franchisees and small organizations work for the big parent

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organizations to process that work in a systematic way and that facility enhances an effective
bridge between hotels and customers’. Though there are benefits and drawbacks of this
outsourcing process.
Benefits and Challenges
There are some benefits of outsourcing. These are:
 The prime benefit of that process is concentration over core process. The hotel industry
has to take care of each and every aspect of their operation. In case of aligning with
outsourcing process, they can deliver their strength on the core objectives rather than
supporting processes. Supporting process like booking, room availability is operated by
certain franchises so this is considered as additional help.
 Risk has been shared by other companies. The parental company may lose the major
amounts but other small companies also lose their some parts of share in case of debt
situation so all outsourcing companies are trying their level best to enhance the market
position of the company.
 Outsourcing can bring quality employees’ to the organization. In case of certain projects
hotels outsource some employees’ for a particular time period so in that session
customers get quality service from their employees’ so a good reputation can build by
that process.
There are some drawbacks also in outsourcing. These are:
 Organization brand and ethics maintenance is the key concern as most of the outsourcing
companies operating their business manner without knowing the objectivity or aim of the
company. There is a chance of disgrace the brand image.

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 There is some hidden cost for franchises for accommodation and all which is not
legalized by the parental company (Hu et al. 2016). They are taking this money for their
company. Sometimes customers are not ready to pay this extra amount and theentire
blame goes to the parental company, this is a big concern for the organization.
 Sometimes data also transmitted through the process. Hence, a risk of privacy also
sustained in that outsourcing occasion.
Possible Recommendations
Hotel management needs to take innovative recommendation so that customer
satisfaction and anumber of opportunities can be found for the development of theorganization.
In case of front office department innovation like robot introduction and deliver thebill, payment
and all paper works within 10 seconds is a huge opportunity for customers not to wait long
(Zaitseva et al. 2016). Organize a test before outsourcing employees’ is another aspect that
incorporates quality employees in the organization. Change in themachine, technology,and
servicing are the other recommendations that management may introduce. If those recommended
process implemented in a proper way then better opportunities can be extracted from that
process.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that hotel industry has to deliver their level best for
customer satisfaction and in that case front office department this is one of the main aspects that
need to change for the accumulation of more people. Room allocation, money transaction, room
servicing, and VIP block maintenance all these are important responsibilities for the department

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and through the innovations, they are helping hotel economy by providing more customers to the
hotel.

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References
Boella, M.J., 2017. Human resource management in the hotel and catering industry. Taylor &
Francis.
Dzhandzhugazova, E.A., Zaitseva, N.A., Larionova, A.A., Petrovskaya, M.V. and Chaplyuk,
V.Z., 2015. Methodological aspects of strategic management of financial risks during
construction of hotel business objects. Asian Social Science, 11(20), p.229.
Hu, A.H., Huang, C.Y., Chen, C.F., Kuo, C.H. and Hsu, C.W., 2015. Assessing carbon footprint
in the life cycle of accommodation services: the case of an international tourist
hotel. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 22(4), pp.313-323.
Ling, L., Dong, Y., Guo, X. and Liang, L., 2015. Availability management of hotel rooms under
cooperation with online travel agencies. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 50,
pp.145-152.
McPhail, R., Patiar, A., Herington, C., Creed, P. and Davidson, M., 2015. Development and
initial validation of a hospitality employees’ job satisfaction index: Evidence from
Australia. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(8), pp.1814-
1838.
Nieves, J. and Segarra-Ciprés, M., 2015. Management innovation in the hotel industry. Tourism
Management, 46, pp.51-58.
Page, S.J., 2014. Tourism management. Routledge.
Swenden, W., 2016. India and the management of ethnic diversity: The unfinished business of
accommodation. From the Margins to the Mainstream: Institutionalising Minorities in South
Asia, p.245.

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Wood, R.C. ed., 2017. Hotel Accommodation Management. Routledge.
Yan, R. and Zhao, S.J., 2017. Influence of Value Co-creation on Emotional Attachment to P2P
Accommodation.
Zaitseva, N.A., Larionova, A.A., Mekush, G.E., Mayorova, A.N. and Povorina, E.V., 2016.
Methodological aspects of the financial justification of development strategies of hotel industry
enterprises. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 11(7), p.2559.