Front Office Operations and Staff Roles: A Hospitality Industry Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of front office operations within the hotel industry, emphasizing their crucial role in customer service and overall hotel management. It begins with an introduction to the front office, highlighting its function as the primary point of contact for guests and its importance in shaping customer experiences. The main body delves into the significance of front office operations, including arranging accommodations, handling complaints, providing porter services, managing concierge areas, managing paperwork, and scheduling appointments. Furthermore, the report examines the operational roles of front office staff, specifically focusing on the front office manager and night auditor. The front office manager's responsibilities include staff training, guest relations, record-keeping, and activity monitoring. The night auditor's role involves monitoring audit reports, operating the front desk at night, and managing accounting functions. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings, reinforcing the importance of the front office in ensuring smooth hotel operations and guest satisfaction. The report is supported by relevant references from academic journals and books.

REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Importance of front office operation in hotel..............................................................................3
Analysis of the operational role of front office staff...................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Front office is an area of the company which makes direct contact with the customers
when they first arrive at the hotel. This department is the face and voice both of the company and
it builds link between the customers and business (Modic and Damij, 2018). This department
includes receptionist, managers and many more who make direct contact with the clients and this
department is visible to the guests. This report is in the context of hospitality industry which is a
broad category includes food, drinks, event planning, hotels, transportation and many more. This
report covers the importance of front office operations in hotel and the analysis of their role with
specific staff position.
MAIN BODY
Importance of front office operation in hotel
Front office provide service for their clients as the place for managing the check-in and
check-out of their guests. This department interact firstly with guests and visitors and make sure
that the great services are provided to their guests. They ensures that their customers experience
make memorable by satisfying them (Shin, Perdue and Kang, 2019). They provide information
to their customers, welcome them on their arrival and provide guidance to them about the places.
It is the mode by which the information of other departments pass off. Its importance are as
follows:
Arranging accommodations: It is important to have a front desk person in the hotel in
order to perform the functions. Here, the front desk manager arrange and schedule the
appointments of visitors. It includes planning or organising the events for their guests and
arranging their rooms according to their demand as the choice of accommodations influences the
success of hotel. They always try to impress their clients and develop familiar contact with them.
Handling complaints: This is the section or department which manages the clients and
their issues. They handle the other functions such as interior issues, clients complaints, their
reports and many more. They also coordinate with the other departments in order to manage
them such as chefs, dry clean and many more (Nguyen, 2019). From the customers view point,
they want someone who understand or listen them about their issues and take care of their
problem in order to satisfy them. For front manager they need to keep themselves calm, listen

properly, acknowledge the problem, analyse the facts and then find the solution as this helps in
solving the problems of customers.
Porter service: These are the services which are performed when the guests arrive in the
hotel and then the bellboy take care of their luggage and takes them to their room. Here, the
bellboy and manager perform same task and guide their clients about the functions and usage of
the equipments. It is important for the porter to make sure that everything runs smooth and
perfectly according to the customer.
Concierge area: It is important for the front office manager in to coordinate with them to
manage their activities and travel package such as entertainment, travel and many more. The
manager or the reception arrange or mange everything. It is the responsibility of the front desk
person to address and resolve the problems of their guest and guide them about the local areas in
order to attract them.
Managing paper work: To front desk person in the hotel is important as they manages
more key areas and overall development of the hotel. They coordinate with many functions and
units in order to reassemble them (Alananzeh and et. al., 2018). For instance, if any event is
organised in the hotel they manage, control and monitor them and also manages the related paper
work. Moreover, paper work include many details such as about their employees, their rules and
regulations and many more.
Scheduling appointments: It is an important function of front desk manager as to
schedule and manage the appointments of the visitors and for those who came for the interview.
These appointments are schedule by the front desk manager as they have the skills in order to
communicate with the customers. They have communication and managerial skills which helps
them in coordination and managing with people. Therefore, they are important for hotel in order
to develop their customers and client base.
Analysis of the operational role of front office staff
Hospitality industry has various job opportunities for all type of people whether they are
skilled or not. The organisational structure of a hotel is little bit complex but the front office
manager is the base for the management of hotel an plays a very important role as they are the
one who coordinate and manage with many people, departments and guests.

Role for the front office manager Manage and train the staff: It is an important role of being a front office manager as
they need to manage and provide suitable training to their employees in order to manage
them or to improve their efficiency (Ravazzani, 2018). Front office manager develop
communication with them which helps them in motivating and also increases their overall
performance. Different hotels have various ways to provide training to their employees,
some provide on-the-job training whereas some provide off-the-job training which
depends on the hotel and these are conducted or organised by the front office managers as
they know about need and requirements of their guests. Deal with guests: Front office manager plays an important role in dealing with guests as
they have the potential to communicate with the visitors which helps them in impressing
them and attracting towards the hotel. Front office manager helps in building the
customer base as their politeness and managerial skills helps in developing the reputation
of the hotel. Maintain records: Their roles and responsibilities does not limit till dealing with guests
as they provide services to visitors which are external roles. They also have internal roles
as they manages the internal records which helps them in organising their staff. Apart
form maintaining them, update them is also their responsibility.
 Monitor all activities: After providing training, dealing with guests and maintaining
records, they also plays an important role which is monitoring and controlling the various
activities in which they guide their employees (Mansour and Elmohandes, 2018). To
monitor the activities of their employees they need proper information which helps them
in communicating with them. Monitoring will happen when any change is introduced
which need to monitor and it provides the proper understanding of the whole system.
Role of Night Auditor
A night auditor is the person who perform both responsibilities of the front desk manager
and accounting department. These are the persons who work at the night in the hotels to facilitate
their customers such as security guards, night bellboy, telephone attendants, room service and
many more who make direct connect with the customers in night (Shin, Perdue and Kang, 2019).
Night auditors post or the person usually seen in big or branded hotels as these hotels are
accessible at 24*7. Their roles are discussed as under:

 Monitor audit reports: It is an important role of the night auditors to monitor the audit
reports as these need to be monitor. As this report contains the opinions of the auditors
which are issued by the independent auditors after the analysis of the whole financial
statement and related reports. These reports include financial statements, accounts and
other compliant reports and all these are managed by the night auditors because they
perform the functions and roles of both front desk manager and the auditor also. Operate front desk job: Night auditors plays an important role in operating the front desk
task. The aim of night audit is to analyse the financial activities of the hotel. They not
only review the accounts of guests at night but also track their credit limits and actual sale
of the different departments (Fakhr and Marini, 2019). They are important in the business
operations of hotel as their management body refers to the audit report to the future plans
and goals which control the expenses. These are the people who perform all the front
office functions at night which are performed by the front office manager such as
managing people, attending guests, coordinating with them, plan their night out and many
more.
 Manage accounting: It is the process which provide information about the finance and
accounting information which helps the managers or the night auditors in their decision
making. As they manages the audit of the hotel same in the way they monitor the
accounts and its related information (Modic and Damij, 2018). This information helps in
accommodating the availability of the check-in, check-out and cancellations. It includes
details report about their guests who exceed the credit limit which is set by the hotel
management.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is concluded that front office manager is important for the
smooth running of hotel and they have various roles and responsibilities which needs to
performed by them. As they manages and coordinate with the other functional units of hotel
order to operate the activities. Here, the importance and roles of the front office manager and
night auditor is discussed. They both plays same functions but on comparing both of them, night
auditors work more as they manages the accounts, relationship with customers and employees
and all night related services.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alananzeh, O.A.,and et. al., 2018. The impact of customer relationship management on tourist
satisfaction: The case of Radisson Blue Resort in Aqaba city. Journal of Environmental
Management & Tourism. 9(2 (26)). pp.227-240.
Fakhri, M.R. and Marini, S., 2019. THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IN HOTEL FRONT
OFFICE DEPARTMENT. THE Journal: Tourism and Hospitality Essentials Journal.
9(1). pp.45-52.
Mansour, T.M.A.N.M. and Elmohandes, N.M., 2018. Investigating the Effects of Using
Simulation Training on Hotel Front-Office Employees’ Performance.
Modic, D. and Damij, N., 2018. Towards Intellectual Property Rights Management: Back-office
and Front-office Perspectives. Springer.
Nguyen, H.H.M., 2019. Optimizing the role of hotel front office staff in modern-day revenue
management.
Ravazzani, S., 2018. Diversity management. The International Encyclopedia of Strategic
Communication, pp.1-13.
Shin, H., Perdue, R.R. and Kang, J., 2019. Front desk technology innovation in hotels: A
managerial perspective. Tourism Management. 74. pp.310-318.