Effective Communication: Front Office and Hotel Department Relations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the vital role of communication between the front office and other departments within a hotel, specifically using Intercontinental Hotels as a case study. It emphasizes the importance of effective communication channels and strategies to ensure smooth operations and achieve organizational goals. The report explores the interrelationships between the front office and key departments such as housekeeping, sales and marketing, and human resources, highlighting how communication impacts task completion, customer service, and overall hotel performance. It discusses various communication tools and techniques, including oral and written communication, and their significance in facilitating information exchange and coordination. The report concludes by underscoring the positive impact of efficient communication on enhancing hotel operations, fostering teamwork, and improving profitability.

Communication
between Front Office
and other Departments
of Hotel

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Communication is a fundamental exercise of human beings which they perform everyday
for exchanging information with one another. It is a process of creating and sharing of ideas and
views amongst the people to reach a common understanding and mindset. It is a very important
and essential tool for organisations to operate effectively as through proper communication a
synergy can be created in entity and amongst its different departments. This report, covers
different aspect of effective communication which is required amongst front office of a Hotel
and other functional units or departments existing (Barnlund, 2017). Managers of hotel and other
departmental units have to ensure that the techniques and tools they are using for developing
communication are appropriate and potential enough for running the day to day operations.
Development of proper communication is necessary because of the interrelationships of different
functional units on each other and for achieving all goals and objectives of company effectively.
For this assignment, Intercontinental Hotels are chosen for understanding usage of
communication in organisation. Intercontinental Hotels is a British multinational hospitality
service provider. Intercontinental Hotels also denoted as IHG which was established in 2003 and
headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. IHG is rendering its services in around
100 countries having huge operations on a very large scale.
MAIN BODY
Front office department of business is a face and voice of them, they are the most visible
department of the organisation. Front office department works as the common and only link
between the customers and the businesses, they are the communication channel amongst the
organisation and guests. Intercontinental Hotels also, have a front office team in which several
experts are employed. Front office department works with several other departments their work
are interrelated and therefore, effective flow of communication is required to run in organisation
amongst departments and front office. Effective communication between functional units is very
helpful for the Intercontinental Hotels as it enables them to perform all tasks in an appropriate
and efficient manner. In the next section importance of communication is discussed in context or
front office and other departmental units by showing their interrelationships and for effective
completion of all tasks in time.
Front office and House-keeping departments

House-keeping unit have different responsibilities, like sending reports to front office
about the room status, keeping rooms ready before the guests arrives etc. It is job of House-
keeping executives and team members to keep all the rooms clean before the guests enters in
their rooms (Wong and et. al, 2019). They also have to keep check that all amenities are present
in rooms along with all required items. After front office staff they are the once who gets in close
touch with the customers. Here, comes the role of communication, both the front office and
house-keeping units team members of Intercontinental Hotels have to communicate with one
another for completing assigned tasks. Front office department have to inform house-keeping
members the moment rooms gets vacant so that they can clean them and keep it ready for the
next guests (Hansen, 2018). Also, its duty of house-keeping staff to keep front office updated
about the services rendered by guests of particular rooms so that final check of customers can be
made without any mistakes and flaws. Both the departments have to have proper communication
between them and appropriate channels to communicate so that all tasks and duties assigned to
them are fulfilled before time.
Front office and Sales/ Marketing departments
Sales and marketing department members are responsible for building creative ideas of
sales and promotion of hotel. They gather several information from internal and external sources
for understand current trends and customer requirements. Internal source will be Front office
department and its executives, as they are the one who first communicate with guests and stay in
regular touch with them. Also front office employees takes feedbacks from customers at the time
of their departure about the services rendered by Intercontinental Hotel and its staff. Therefore,
they are the best internal source for sales team for collecting data (Ho and Segui, 2018).
Communication is required, as it is a process of exchanging information and different views of
people. Proper communication will enable both the departments to work effectively, sales and
marketing team will use the data provided by front office and make promotional plans. Once
marketing is done and customers are attracted now front office staff requires the information
about the techniques and promotional plans so that they can serve and inform guests accordingly.
For instance, if marketing department of Intercontinental Hotels, offered some discounts to some
special customers as promotional strategy and did not communicated with front office
department, it can create confusion in the organisation. Inconvenience faced by guests due to
lack of communication in both the departments can hinder the reputation and goodwill of

Intercontinental Hotels. This can lead the hotel towards failure as predetermined goals are not
achieved by them harming the whole organisation (Ruesch and et. al., 2017). Therefore, effective
communication will enhance the practices and operations of Intercontinental Hotels enabling the
company to attain best performances.
Front office and Human resource departments
Human resource department manages the all the employees appointed in the organisation.
They have several responsibilities related to staff members, human resources department are
responsible for bringing experts and talents employees in the company according to the need of it
(Hovland and Lumsdaine, 2017). Human resources unit will recruit and select all potential
candidate on behalf of Intercontinental Hotels and fill all the vacant positions. They
communicate with front office department in case of any misconduct or violation of hose laws by
front office executes or team members. At times of any event taking place in the hotel, at that
time too human resource department communicate with front office unit to collect all the
information about the event so that appropriate number of workers can be acquired by them on
time for preparation of event. There are various other aspects where both the front office and
human resource department have to have proper communication in order to attain their team
objectives and add their contribution in achieving overall objectives of the Intercontinental
Hotels.
All these departments of Intercontinental Hotels, have be co-ordinated and work with
front office unit and for that they have to maintain good communication amongst one another.
Effective communication taking place between front office and other functional units of
Intercontinental Hotels will enable team members to work appropriately in order to complete
their assigned tasks in time. This will enhance the operations of Intercontinental Hotels and help
them to adopt better practices. Indulging in effective communication practice and using
appropriate tool also, assist organisation to improve their operations and performance levels.
Communication is an essential tool of day to day life of human beings, it will also
enables hotel to operate effectively and obtain potential results (McNair, 2017) . Different tools
of communication can be used by staff members of Intercontinental Hotels for ensuring effective
operations and attaining all predetermined objectives. Some ways and communication channel
which are used by Intercontinental Hotels for transferring information are as follows:
Oral communication

It is one of the most common and widely used channel of exchanging information and
views with one another. Front office staff of the hotel make phone calls to communicate with
house-keeping staff in order to inform them about the needs of guests in specific rooms. This
ensure completion of tasks immediately as and when guests ask for something. This
communication channel ensure all operations work effectively all staff servers exactly what
customer is asking for and when they are asking for it.
Written communication
This is formal method of communication, which is used when something very important
and confidential data is being exchanged. Written communication can take place through letters
and emails. This communication channel also works as proof for future needs if any
requirements arise. Front office department of Intercontinental Hotels, used this communication
channel to communicate with sales and marketing department to gain knowledge about the
promotional and other strategies so that all data is acquired properly and they can use it for future
reference check and as proof if any problem arises (Mehrabian, 2017). Written communication
channel is more effective and ensure appropriateness of operations as it serves as proof.
All these different tools and techniques of communication which is adopted by
Intercontinental Hotels staff members and management ensure effective operations and smooth
functioning of hotel. These communication techniques enables smooth flow or information from
one department to another helping them in performing their duties and attaining given aims and
objectives, so that ultimate goals of company can be achieved.
CONCLUSION
In the above assignment, analysis is conducted for understanding how communication
taking place between front office and other functional units of organisation enables it to execute
all operations effectively. All departments are interrelated with each other their tasks and role are
dependent on other departments duties. Therefore, for completing their jobs in given time period
and attaining efficient results they have to have proper communication and develop good
channels of exchanging ideas and views. Different techniques and tools of communication is
used by front office unit to communicate with other functional units ensuring effective
functioning of operations of company. Proper flow of communication ensures growth of hotel as
coordination is there in the structure which results in higher performance and attaining better
profits which are efficient and effective for the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barnlund, D. C., 2017. A transactional model of communication. In Communication theory (pp.
47-57). Routledge.
Hansen, A., 2018. Environment, media and communication. Routledge.
Ho, T. and Segui, J., Strong Force Iot Portfolio 2016 LLC, 2018. Cross-session network
communication configuration. U.S. Patent 10,135,746.
Hovland, C. I. and Lumsdaine, A. A., 2017. Experiments on mass communication (Vol. 4976).
Princeton University Press.
McNair, B., 2017. An introduction to political communication. Routledge.
Mehrabian, A., 2017. Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Ruesch, J. and et. al., 2017. Communication: The social matrix of psychiatry. Routledge.
Wong, S. H. and et. al, 2019. Communication techniques. U.S. Patent 10,194,330.