Front Office Performance: Occupancy, Rate Statistics Essay

This essay delves into the critical role of the front office in hotel operations, emphasizing its function in revenue generation and guest service. It examines how front office personnel utilize occupancy ratios and average room rates to gauge performance. The essay defines occupancy rate as the percentage of occupied rooms compared to total available rooms and average room rate as the total revenue from room sales divided by the number of rooms sold. It highlights the importance of these metrics in assessing the efficiency of front office staff and overall hotel profitability. The essay also touches upon the significance of staff training and the need for strong communication skills within the front office team. The provided references include books and journals related to hotel management and front office operations, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject matter. The essay concludes by showcasing the impact of these metrics in revenue generation and guest satisfaction.

RECEPTION OPERATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FRONT OFFICE ESSAY................................................................................................................1
A. Purpose of occupancy and average room rate statistics in monitoring front office
performance.................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

FRONT OFFICE ESSAY
A. Purpose of occupancy and average room rate statistics in monitoring front office performance.
The front office refers to the initial place inside the hotel also known as reception area
where visitors and guests meets the hotel staff and inquire about various facilities available
(Jones, 2008). Thus to conclude, the role of front office department generates revenue for the
company. The front office manages daily operations, calculate occupancy ratios, identify income
of hotel, analysis and revenue per room (Kasavana and Brooks, 2018). The staff handling front
desk work is required to be presentable as he is the one who entertains visitors on first hand. His
duty is to provide guests with assistance related to transportation, management of luggage, any
information etc.
The front office personnel identifies the occupancy ratio and average room occupied by
guests on a daily basis (Vallen and Vallen, 2009). The occupancy ratios refers to total sale the
hotel made in a day by selling rooms. It is measured on the basis of percentage and average daily
utilization rate (Murray and et.al., 2012).
Occupancy rate:
It is measured on percentage basis and calculated as the number of occupied rooms in
comparison to total room available in the hotel premises. It helps in identifying the occupancy
ratio which is a prime task of front office personnel (Sengupta and Bansal, 2012). Sometimes
hotel management uses the number of rooms sold to calculate occupancy percentage. This
difference is usually taken into consideration as at times out of order rooms are also taken into
consideration while taking total availability of rooms (Tewari, 2009). Conversely, not including
out-of-order rooms may allow managers to artificially increase the calculated occupancy
percentage simply by classifying unsold rooms as out-of-order. Thus the percentage of
occupancy evaluates the front office personnel performance though the non-usable rooms may
impact their performance (Gray and Liguori, 2013).
Average room rate:
The average daily rate refers to calculation based on total revenue earned by selling
rooms divided by the number of rooms sold either on daily, monthly or yearly basis. The resorts
and multinational hotels usually takes into consideration the average daily rate of guests visiting
their hotel (Baker, Bradley and Huyton, 2015).
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Though there are various ways of identifying the front desk personnel performance as the
guests greets them the first. The front office personnel is required to report directly to the
director and present the daily workings (Baum and Odgers, 2017). They are also responsible for
making reservations based on phone calls or online bookings and are liable to make
arrangements for the same. The front office staff have a prime liability to provide comfort and
hospitality services to guests visiting (Ansah, Blankson and Kontoh, 2012). Their training and
development is cost consuming and time taking. However, hotel management should recruit and
select those personnel with set qualification and good communication skills as it is a crucial task
which generates revenue for the hotel (Walker, 2012).
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Illustration 1: Front Office at a Hotel
(Source: Hold the front desk, 2011 )

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ansah, A. K., Blankson, V. S. and Kontoh, M., 2012. The use of information and communication
technologies (ICT) in front office operations of chain hotels in Ghana. International
Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications. 3(3). pp.72-77.
Baker, S., Bradley, P. and Huyton, J., 2015. Principles of hotel front office operations. Cengage
Learning EMEA.
Baum, T. and Odgers, P., 2017. Benchmarking best practice in hotel front office: the Western
European experience. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 2(3-4).
pp.93-109.
Gray, W. S. and Liguori, S. C., 2013. Hotel and motel management and operations. Prentice
Hall.
Jones, T. J., 2008. Professional management of housekeeping operations. John Wiley & Sons.
Kasavana, M. L. and Brooks, R. M., 2018. Managing front office operations. Educational
Institute of American Hotel & Motel Association.Hold the front desk. 2011
Murray, S. A. and et.al., 2012. Illness trajectories and palliative care. IntPerspect Public
HealthPalliat Care. 30. pp.2017-19.
Sengupta, V. and Bansal, A., 2012. An empirical study on use of ICT in front office operation as
a tool to improve service quality and increased revenue generation. Arth Prabhand: A
Journal of Economics and Management. 1(1). pp.1-18.
Tewari, J. R., 2009. Hotel front office: operations and management. Oxford University Press.
Vallen, G. K. and Vallen, J. J., 2009. Check-in check-out: Managing hotel operations.
Walker, J., 2012. Introduction to Hospitality. Prentice Hall.
Online
Hold the front desk. 2011. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/06/hotels-future>
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