Functions of Front Office in Accommodation Services

This report evaluates the functions of front office within different accommodation services, including key roles, interrelationships with other departments, and the importance of scheduling maintenance and repair work for minimizing disruption to guests.

Managing
Accommodation
Services

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
Evaluate the functions of front office within different accommodation service....................1
Key roles of front office department......................................................................................1
Role of housekeeping department..........................................................................................2
Explain the importance of forecasting linen stock and guest supplies to identify that the
demand has met sufficiently...................................................................................................3
Importance of interrelationships between housekeeping and other departments of hotel......3
Identify the importance of scheduling maintenance and repair work for minimising disruption
to guests..................................................................................................................................4
Importance of security in the hotel.........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Accommodation refers to the stay of people in different types of places which includes the
hotels, motels, chalets and many more(Borg and Ljungbo, 2018). Depending upon the situation
and the wants of the people they make their booking accordingly and also according to the
occasions for which they will be going at the particular place. The most important thing in that is
the services which are provided in the accommodation by the hotel. Balmoral hotel is the biggest
and luxurious hotel which is situated in Edinburgh, Scotland. This report will cover the functions
of front office, role of front office, housekeeping, forecasting linen stock and guest supplies. It
will also include the interrelationship of housekeeping with other departments and the role of
maintenance and security.
LO1 done in PPT.
Evaluate the functions of front office within different accommodation service
The functions have been explained below-
Hotels- For the hotel front desk plays the major role and the functions of the front desk of
Balmoral have been discussed below-
 To make interactions with the guests regarding their accommodation.
 When guest arrive, the main work is to collect their whole information.
 Providing the keys to the guests(Nikolaidis and Poullikkas, 2020).
 Solving the issues of the guests if they are facing any problem.
Cottages- Cottage is basically a small house which depicts the traditions of the particular place
which is basically related with semi-urban location.
 They have to welcome the guests as soon as they arrive.
 They have to answer to the phone calls and regarding any inquiry.
 To arrange the mode of travel for the guests.
 To keep the records of all the financial data.
Key roles of front office department
Balmoral hotel is the biggest hotel in Scotland which has great dining and amazing facility of
room service(Martinović and Ifko, 2018). The front office department of the hotel is the most
important part of the hotel which deals with day-to-day work of the hotel and attends the guest.
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The front office department of the hotel plays great role for the guests as well as for the hotel.
The importance of front office department in context with Balmoral hotel has been mentioned
below-
 This department handles all the work which is related with handling the administration
work and also the office reception.
 It is the first place in which the guests and the representative of the hotel meets and in
such case the front office department provides the guest with all the important
information.
 They are responsible to set the environment in the hotel to be positive as they are the ones
who represent the hotel so they have to build the friendly attitude with the guest
(Moucheraud, 2018).
 They check the database of the guests and determine all the guests which are there in the
hotel.
 The department is responsible for creating good relations with the customers as they are
the ones because of which guests will recommend it to others.
Role of housekeeping department
Housekeeping department of the hotel is responsible in providing the clean and welcoming
atmosphere to the guest(Pulido-Fernández and Merinero-Rodríguez, 2018). They have the duty
to make the hotel clean and comfortable so that no guests feel uncomfortable inside the rooms or
at any place which is the main responsibility also of the department of Balmoral. The role of
housekeeping department in context with Balmoral hotel is discussed below-
 They have the biggest duty of making the place clean because without having clean place
no guests would like to come in such hotel.
 The efforts which are made by the housekeeping department is directly linked with the
good experience of the guests.
 They have the duty of making the rooms clean and without having clean rooms in the
hotel makes the image of the hotel worst.
 Balmoral housekeeping department cleans the carpets and rugs to make the entry and the
place where these rugs and carpets are placed to be the best.
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 The housekeeping department of the hotel is the main department of the hotel. This is
because they are the one by which the reputation and the success of the hotel is linked
with.
Explain the importance of forecasting linen stock and guest supplies to identify that the demand
has met sufficiently
Forecasting linen stock-
Linen in housekeeping is very important which involves the sheets for beds, pillowcase,
blankets, duvets and many more(Paddeu, Shergold and Parkhurst, 2020). This area is considered
to be the most expensive in the housekeeping department which needs to be forecasted because
the less and huge amount of linen can create problem to the hotel. For managing it effectively, it
is required that the stocks are realised on time and the linens should be placed for storing,
replacing and for laundry on time. This is because the investment made on linen is high
compared to other and without the linen it would be impossible to make the rooms maintained
and good hotels like Balmoral keeps the forecasting correct.
Importance of Supply chain-
With the help of supply chain the raw materials can be accurate well and with that the
purchasing of the items can be made at a productive range. The hotel can allocate the resources
in a well organized manner depending on the customers(Hansen, Nybakk and Guerrero, 2019).
This is because hotels have to take the raw material for different things and before giving nay
order they first identify the guests which can be there in the hotel. This is because they can easily
satisfy the needs of the customers if the things will be provided to the guests on time.
Importance of interrelationships between housekeeping and other departments of hotel
The interrelationship of housekeeping department with other departments have been discussed
below in context with Balmoral hotel-
 Housekeeping with front office- The duty of housekeeping department is to clean the
room and make it good in appearance. While the duty of the front office department is to
provide the room to the guests (Davis, 2020). Thus, in this case the coordination between
these two departments needs to be good so that each department can coordinate with one
another before making the booking.
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 Housekeeping with food and beverages service- The department which is repsonoible
in providing the food to the guest needs the tables to be clean including the napkins (Hou,
Zhai and Liu, 2018). Not just this, they also need the uniforms to be clean to show the
hygiene to the guest. Thus, it becomes important to have coordination between these both
department otherwise the image of the hotel can fall down.
 Housekeeping with security department- The security of the hotel needs to good so
that the guest can feel secure with their things which are kept in the room. But not just
this, some of the guests are involved in the illegal things which needs to be taken care by
the housekeeping and if something is going then they have to report it to the security
department.
Identify the importance of scheduling maintenance and repair work for minimising disruption to
guests
Importance of maintaining and repair work is very important as it reduces the disruption
which can cause disturbance to the guests and this might create frustration and irritation.
Balmoral keeps the consideration of this thing so that if any maintenance needs to be done in the
hotel they take it with proper precautions(Gonzalez, Tillman and Holmes, 2020) . The
importance in context with Balmoral hotel is discussed below-
 When the schedules are made on time then all the repair work which needs to be done is
done at the earlier time which helps in reduction of the costs. Because emergency work
always require higher costs which needs to be given by the hotel itself.
 It helps in reduction of problems and the services are provided by the hotel and used by
the customers without any disruption.
Importance of security in the hotel
Each and every hotel has to maintain the security of their hotel as there are number of people in
the hotel with their most important and costly items. Before making the bookings in the hotel,
people also check the security which is there in the hotel.
 The security helps in protecting the guests from any misconduct which can involve any
crime or health hazards from the outsiders.
 The hotel is safe from any suspicious person or activity which is seen by the security
people placed at the entry and the exit gates.
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 The hotel monitors the people who has entered in the hotel and who has made the exit
because of which if any false thing happened inside the hotel then the person can be
catched within less time (Hwang and Jonathan Yue, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that accommodation services which is provided
by the owner of the hotel. Every guest wants their stay to be the best and which has great
experience while visiting the place. Because the people will invest their money just to spend their
good time in the place for which they have made the booking and for this the services provided
by the hotel must be the best.
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References:
Books and Journals
Borg, E.A. and Ljungbo, K., 2018. International market-oriented strategies for medical tourism
destinations. International Journal of Market Research. 60(6). pp.621-634.
Davis, R., 2020. Integrating Digital Technologies and Data drivenTelemedicine into Smart
Healthcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic. American Journal of Medical
Research. 7(2). pp.22-28.
Gonzalez, K., Tillman, C.J. and Holmes, J.J., 2020. Coming home: why veterans with disabilities
withhold workplace accommodation requests. Human Relations. 73(10). pp.1439-1466.
Hansen, E., Nybakk, E. and Guerrero, J., 2019. Service innovation in forestry: the perspective of
family forest owners. In Services in Family Forestry (pp. 121-142). Springer, Cham.
Hou, J., Zhai, X. and Liu, P., 2018. A review on China's wind power accommodation in the
background of “Internet+” strategy. International Journal of Energy
Research. 42(4).pp.1469-1486.
Hwang, Y.H. and Jonathan Yue, Z.E., 2019. Intended wildness: Utilizing spontaneous growth for
biodiverse green spaces in a tropical city. Journal of Landscape
Architecture. 14(1).pp.54-63.
Martinović, A. and Ifko, S., 2018. Industrial heritage as a catalyst for urban regeneration in post-
conflict cities Case study: Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cities. 74.pp.259-268.
Moucheraud, C., 2018. Service readiness for noncommunicable diseases was low in five
countries in 2013–15. Health Affairs. 37(8). pp.1321-1330.
Nikolaidis, P. and Poullikkas, A., 2020. Sustainable Services to Enhance Flexibility in the
Upcoming Smart Grids. In Sustaining Resources for Tomorrow (pp. 245-274). Springer,
Cham.
Paddeu, D., Shergold, I. and Parkhurst, G., 2020. The social perspective on policy towards local
shared autonomous vehicle services (LSAVS). Transport Policy. 98. pp.116-126.
Pulido-Fernández, J.I. and Merinero-Rodríguez, R., 2018. Destinations' relational dynamic and
tourism development. Journal of destination marketing & management. 7. pp.140-152.
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