What is the front office’s responsibility for communicating with other hotel departments, guests, and the public?

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The hotel front lobby is the first point of contact for guests entering the hotel and the last point of contact when leaving the hotel. It is directly related to the guest's accommodation satisfaction and impression of the hotel. In modern hotels, the front office is often considered the core department of the entire hotel. It has higher requirements than other departments in terms of front office settings, staff quality, and management methods. Therefore, the management of the front office has become an important part of hotel management.

1. The concept of hotel front office

The hotel front office is also called the main service desk, or the main desk, front desk, etc. It is usually located in the lobby of a hotel and is a comprehensive service department responsible for promoting hotel products and services, organizing reception work, and business scheduling. The front office is comprehensive, comprehensive and coordinated in hotel management, and is the nerve center of the hotel.

The specific tasks of the hotel front office include guest reservations, registration, room status control, settlement and review of guest accounts, and comprehensive front office business management. The work of the front office mainly involves the business activities of the hotel's external affairs department.

The hotel's external department is usually a broader term than the front office. It includes hotel appearance, lobby, front hall, guest rooms, public areas, entertainment and fitness venues, restaurants and bars, business centers and shops, etc. Corresponding to the external affairs department, it is the hotel's internal affairs department, which refers to those hotel departments that do not have direct contact with guests, such as the finance department, human resources department, engineering maintenance department, warehouse, laundry room, and data processing center. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs divide the hotel into two major parts, which form the first-line and second-line hotel operations or business operation and management functional departments. Therefore, hotel external affairs department is different from the front office, which is a term that includes the front office.

2. Tasks of the front office department

Specifically, the front office department has the following seven main tasks:

The first task of the front office department is sales guest room. At present, a considerable number of hotels in our country are profitable, and the front office accounts for more than 50% of the total hotel profits. The number of guest rooms sold by the front office and the high or low price reached not only directly affect the hotel's guest room revenue, but also indirectly affect the hotel's restaurant, bar, etc. revenue due to the number of guests and the level of consumption. .

(2) Correctly display the room status

The front office must correctly display the status of each room at any time - occupied room, occupied room, room to be cleaned, room for sale Rooms, etc., providing a reliable basis for the sales and allocation of guest rooms.

(3) Provide related services

The front office must provide guests with high-quality reservations, registration, emails, inquiries, phone calls, messages, luggage, entrustment, room changes, keys , check-out and other services.

(4) Organize and save business data

The front office should maintain the most complete and accurate data at all times, and record, count, analyze, predict, and organize various data. and archive.

(5) Coordinate customer service

The front office department should issue various business instructions to relevant departments, and then coordinate with each department to solve new problems encountered in the implementation of the instructions. Contact Each department provides quality services to guests.

(6) Establish guest accounts

The purpose of establishing guest accounts is to record and monitor the financial relationship between guests and the hotel to ensure that the hotel obtains operating income timely and accurately. A guest's bill can be created when booking a room (crediting a deposit or prepayment) or when checking in.

(7) Create guest history files

Most hotels create guest history files for sporadic individual guests who have stayed at the hotel more than once. Guest history files arranged in alphabetical order by guest names, recording relevant content.

3. The status and role of the front office department

(1) The front office department is the center of the hotel’s business activities

Guest rooms are the most important product of the hotel. The front office department drives the business activities of other hotel departments through the sales of guest rooms. To this end, the front office department actively carries out room reservation business, handles check-in procedures and arranges housing for arriving guests, and actively promotes and promotes various hotel products.

At the same time, the front office department must promptly report various information such as customer sources, customer conditions, customer needs and complaints to relevant departments, and coordinate the customer service work of the entire hotel to ensure the efficiency and quality of service work.

At the same time, the front office department is the center of customer service from beginning to end, and is the link between guests and the hotel. Front office staff serve guests from booking and check-in before arrival to checkout, and establish guest history files, which run through the entire transaction process between guests and the hotel.

(2) The front office is the representative of the hotel management organization

The front office is the nerve center of the hotel, and it is the representative of the hotel management organization in the minds of guests. Guests check-in and check-out are in the front hall, and check-out and check-out are in the front hall. When guests encounter difficulties, they can go to the front hall for help. When guests are dissatisfied, they can also go to the front hall to complain.

The words and demeanor of the front office staff will leave a deep first impression on the guests, and the initial impression is extremely important. If the front office staff can treat guests in a courteous manner, provide services to guests with skillful skills, properly handle guest complaints, and help guests solve difficult problems conscientiously and effectively, then they will also feel good about other hotel services. Rest assured and satisfied. On the contrary, guests will be dissatisfied with everything.

There are some specific things that front office employees need to pay attention to at work:

1. Pay attention to using polite words, such as "please", "you", "sorry", "Mr.", "Ms." etc.

2. Always remind yourself to smile.

3. Be good at controlling your emotions at work.

4. Learn to refuse artistically.

It can be seen that the work of the front office directly reflects the work efficiency, service quality and management level of the hotel, and directly affects the overall image of the hotel.

(3) The front office department is the consultant and assistant of the hotel management organization

As the center of hotel business activities, the front office department can collect various information about the entire hotel operation and management. , and carefully organize and analyze this information, and provide the hotel management agency with data and reports that truly reflect the hotel's operation and management on a daily or regular basis. The front office department also regularly provides consulting opinions to hotel management agencies as a reference for formulating and adjusting hotel plans and business strategies.

To sum up, the front office is an important part of the hotel and the first important link in strengthening hotel operations.