Role of Front Office and Housekeeping in Accommodation Services - Mariott International Inc

This article discusses the importance of the front office and housekeeping departments in the accommodation industry, with a focus on Mariott International Inc. It explores the key roles and responsibilities of these departments and emphasizes the need for effective coordination and communication. The article also highlights the significance of maintenance and security in ensuring customer satisfaction.

The Accommodation
Industry
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Table Of Contents
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..3
Mariott International Inc………………………………………………………………….3
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….9
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………11
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INTRODUCTION
The accommodation industry refers to that type of industry which refers to the
hospitality sector. Here accommodation refers to the building, room and lodging which
provides shelter for a person to stay, sleep and live. It includes hotel, tourism agencies,
restaurants and bars. In this report, the analysis has been done on the role of the front office
department within accommodation services and also the analysis has been done on the
contribution of the housekeeping department for providing effective accommodation services.
The research has been done on the role of facilities and security plays within accommodation
services. (Mecca, and et.al., 2015). The research has also been done on the types of
accommodation services available within the hospitality industry. The chosen organisation is
Mariott International Inc. It is the hotel which an American multinational company which
operates, franchises and licenses lodging including hotel, residential and timeshare properties.
The hotel is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. It is the largest hotel chain in the world by
the number of available rooms. The hotel was formed in 1993. The hotel has thirty brands
with seven thousand six hundred forty two properties containing 1423044 rooms in one
hundred thirty one countries and territories.
Mariott International Inc
There are various kinds of departments within the hospitality industry or within a hotel. It
includes the front office department, housekeeping department and facility and security plays.
For the purpose of discussing the front office function of the organisation, it act as the public
face of the hotel. It primarily begins with greeting hotel patrons and checking in guests. They
also provide assistance to their customers at the time of their stay which completes their
accommodation, food and beverage, accounts and receives payment from guests. The front
office act as the nerve for the entire organisation. All the transaction passes through within
this department.
The front office department consists of various heads which includes reception, guest service
offices, bell services, reservation, operators, executive club, health and recreation centre and
business centre. The guests assistance has been provided by the front office which is their
main purpose. The assistance has been provided in the form of with luggage, transportation,
information concerning the hotel and the city and any other service arrangements which can
be required at the time of their stay. With reference to the Mariott International Inc, the key
roles which an individual has to fulfil within the front office department has been discussed
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in the following way. They have to process guest check-ins, assigning rooms and activating
the room keys. The individual has to coordinate with house-keeping to track the readiness of
rooms for the purpose of check-in and report about any concern with respect to guests.
The individual has to respond, answer and process all guest calls, questions or concerns and
messages. The individual has to give guests information and directions with respect to the
property and local area of interest. The individual has to process check-outs and also need to
resolve any disputed charges. The front office worker has to process check-outs and resolve
any disputed charges. The individual has to process payments and room charges. The front
office individual has to fulfil the duty of confirmation of reservations and cancellations. Also
have the responsibility with respect to the running of daily reports on the number of arrivals
and departures. The individual has to take care about the brand standard of all aspects of the
job role. For the purpose of meeting out the overall business mission and objectives. The
mission of the Mariott International Inc is to enhance the lives of the customers by creating
and enabling unmatched vacation and leisure experience. The hotel objective is that to
provide the best services to their customers and provide a safe and secure environment with
the comfortable approach and with the high quality service. (Mawet, and et.al., 2016). For
fulfilling the objectives and mission of the hotel it is necessary that the initial service and
basic service starts from the front office. It is the way through which every kind of services
has been executed. For satisfying their customers the most important thing is that the
customers do not need to wait for their room allocation and they immediately get their
services on the spot when the customers entered into the hotel. For making their customers
happy they have to be very prompt and proactive in terms of their services with respect to the
front office department. In this way and with the corrective measures the overall business
mission and objectives can be achieved.
Apart from front office department, house-keeping department also plays a very important
role in terms of their execution of services. For understanding the key roles within house
keeping department it is important that to follow the proper rules and regulations according to
current pandemic situation. It is necessary to follow and comply with the clean matters
housekeeping training programs. It is instructed to use the PPE equipment as per the hotel
guideline. It is required to clean frequently the touch points from the hotel management. It is
necessary that to fill the hand sanitizer stations as per the requirement. Hand over any lost
item to the house keeping leader with noting time, place and date. It is important to report
about all the maintenance faults to the head or lead housekeeper. It is also required that to
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understand all fire and emergency evacuation procedures. To keep the uniform clean and
smart should be the first priority. (de la Pena, and et.al., 2016). The hotel statutory health and
safety regulations should be observed in a proper manner. The individual should be aware
about the energy conservation efforts and follow all the company procedures. There are some
other roles and responsibilities which is associated with the housekeeping department. These
are the major key roles that an individual has to follow within the house keeping department.
To ensure the sufficient supply and for the purpose of meeting the demand it is important to
understand the importance of linen stock and other guest supplies. In the Mariott International
Inc hotel it is important to understand that the large number of customers have visited the
hotel and there are lots of rooms in the hotel. So according to the requirement and with the
hygienic purpose it is very necessary that according to the customers requirement and needs it
should be changed and deliver in the room within the period of time. The other kind of
requirements by the guest should be fulfilled in the prompt manner otherwise it will degrade
the standard of the hotel. According to the pandemic situation and current difficult time, it is
required that the more importance should be given with respect to the cleanliness, hygienic
conditions and fresh environment within the rooms as well as outside the rooms in the hotel.
The importance of relationship of housekeeping department with other departments also
plays a very important role within the hospitality industry and within the hotel. The
housekeeping department is a kind of base for the hotel which keeps the hotel in a very
cleaning position all the period of time. It is very important to make coordination with all the
other departments from the perspective of housekeeping department. Because every kind of
department has the requirement of the housekeeping people. If they don’t have smooth
coordination then it becomes difficult to maintain the standard of the hotel. For maintaining
this standard it is necessary that all the people of housekeeping department do their duties in a
responsible manner and execute their work in a proper result-oriented manner. In terms of
quality and services it is the coordination with housekeeping department also resulted into a
positive spectrum. (Serra-Cantallops, and et.al., 2018). This is the department who takes care
about the small requirements of the customers in terms of fulfilling the five star or seven star
facility.
To provide effective quality accommodation services, the relationship between the
housekeeping department and other key department in the Mariott International Inc hotel
should be maintained in the positive spectrum. With respect to the hotel the housekeeping
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department has lots of responsibilities with every small kind of work. So in such a large hotel
this department people always seems to be very busy and in a active but internally in a tiring
position. There are various departments in the hotel who need cleanliness and in any clumsy
situation of any room then it can only be solved by the housekeeping department. The
foremost thing for this department is that other departments have to deal with them in a very
patience manner and with the love and affection nature. Because every person deserve respect
whether it is from any type of department. So the coordination with house keeping
department plays a very important role in the hospitality industry.
The cleaning of room, requirements of room, cleaning of frequent touch points, taking care
of the lightings area and other requirement of rooms at any point of time can only be fulfuiled
by this department only. Although it is a lower work but it is root of maintaining the standard
of the hotel. Every department needs the support of housekeeping department that’s why it is
really important that the relationship of housekeeping department with other departments
should be maintained into a proper manner. Within the hotel there are various kinds of
services which includes world class service, mid range service and limited service. They
provide services according to their range but the aim of services has been differentiated
according to the classification. High class services provide elaborated service while mid
range services, spectrum has been reduced with their own kind of nature. And the budgeted
services has been provided according to the limited area. So different kinds of services have
their own kind of pros and cons over there.
The role of front office overall maintains the control of every department. Because it is the
department through which customer takes entry to their final destination in their room. So in
case of any emergency this department already inform to the other departments of the hotel
that they have to prepare themselves earlier for the particular kind of situation. It can be with
respect to the customers, customer complaints and any emergency situation like fire alarms
and other situations also. Front office is the parameter who plays a very important role
whether in terms of satisfying their objectives, meeting the overall objectives of the
organisation and mission of it.
Within the hospitality industry, when customers visit the hotel with full trust and confidence
then it’s the responsibility of the hotel to ensure about the safety and security of their
customers as well as their hotel also. Also when such a brand name hotel is established
named as Mariott International Inc it is important that to take care about the maintenance
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work of the hotel so that it will create minimum disruption or no disruption for their
customers. The importance of scheduling the maintenance work or repair work is need to be
understood from the perspective of customers. ( Davis, and et.al., 2018). Maintenance work
or repair work should be scheduled at that period of time when the hotel rush is at the
minimum level. It can be scheduled at that time when there is no vacation time period or no
festive season is there. At that time the work can be executed in a proper manner and with
the result-oriented approach.
The Mariott International Inc takes care about the security and also understand the
importance of it. They are very strict in terms of their data protection. Although its all about
the data of their customers as well as about their hotel which makes a good impression in the
market that they have well maintained everything in terms of every aspect. They have
covered themselves with tight security system and also have the smartness with respect to
how to overcome the negative situation in a fast pace manner. They have checked and lock
their systems with the strong password system that no one can hack the system and also have
hired the technical team in case of any emergency so that they can resolve it into the result-
oriented manner. For the purpose of ensuring the overall guest satisfaction, the maintenance
role within the accommodation services is very important. Over the period of time, there can
be problems in the technical equipments and switches in the rooms and other departments so
it is required that it should be assessed with the immediate effect. So that no one can
complaint about it and customers also don’t get the chance to make the complaint about it.
Sometimes walls can be painted again for the fresh environment and with the changing
preferences of the customers the hotel can make a plan to paint it again and renovate it into
the new style. With this kind of maintenance, the chances of increasing the customers has
became higher. It is the best way to show that the hotel takes care about their customers
choices as well as matches with the current modern requirement of the hotel. So maintenance
and repair work plays a very important role in the hospitality industry. For satisfying the
customers from every aspect, it is really important that the communication between the
housekeeping department and maintenance department should be in the positive spectrum so
that results can be achieved. (O'Connell, G. and Dibden, A., 2017). Only the housekeeping
department is that department which tells that where are the weaknesses in the hotel and
where the maintenance work is required. Because it is the department who works in every
corner of the hotel and also knows about each and everything in the hotel in a detailed
manner. With the support and positive communication between the housekeeping and
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maintenance work then it can be possible that the repair work can be executed in a proper
way within the hotel. If there is no proper communication and the information does not
convey into the positive manner then it becomes difficult to execute the work of repairing
work. Communication is the medium through message can be conveyed that this particular
kind of renovation or repair work is required in that particular room or in the department. For
satisfying the customers in terms of their services it is required that within the hospitality
industry or within the Mariott International Inc hotel there should be proper communication
with each and every department so that the work can be executed into well mannered way.
CONCLUSION
The accommodation industry plays a very important role in the external world. It is
the industry which needs lots of planning, strategy, implementation and need to be work with
the current changing period of time. This is the industry where it has to deal with lots of
people and customers. So it is required that they have to take care about the choices and
preferences of their customers so that they can follow the modern trend and face the
challenges into the positive spectrum. The accommodation industry involves various heads
like hotels, restaurants, tourism agencies etc. So they have to be ready with every kind of
situation and also should be expert in public dealing so that they can face every kind of
situation in their hotel. According to the pandemic situation they have to be very smart
enough that how to attract the customers and how to retain them, it should be the talent in the
staff members of their hotel. (Youn, and et.al., 2015). So that’s why this industry is
challenging as well as the exciting industry also.
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REFERENCES
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