Transcript THE FRONT DESK - My Academic World

THE FRONT DESK
This is where the guests register,
request information and service, relate
complaints, settle their accounts, and
check out.
Front Desk Design

Prominently located in the hotel lobby

A typical front desk surface is a counter approximately
three-and-a-half feet high and two-and-a-half feet deep
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The length may vary according to the number of rooms
in the hotel, duties performed at the front desk, and he
physical design of the hotel lobby

Signs may be placed on or above the desk to direct
guest to the proper activity center for registration,
cashier, check-out, information, and mail handling, and
other guest services

Partitions may screen front office data from guests or
visitors standing at the desk, since much of front office
information are considered confidential and proprietary.
Functions of Front Desk

Assigning of rooms and registration of arriving guest according to
established procedures;
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Handling of guest room keys, mails, cables, parcels, messages,
etc.;
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Serving as a communications center for the guest while he or she
is registered in the hotel, providing the needed information not only
about hotel facilities and services but points of interest like post
office, flight schedules, areas of entertainment, tourist spot, etc.;
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Control and updating of room status rack;
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Preparation and maintenance of reports or records
pertinent to the guest stay in the hotel;
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Submission of night sales report indicating the number
of rooms sold, vacant rooms, average rate total
revenue, occupancy rate, etc.;
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Coordination with other departments in the
performance of its function especially with the
Housekeeping and Accounting section.
Front Office Equipment
Room Rack
Considered as the most important
piece of front office equipment.
This is an array of metal file pockets
designed to hold room rack slips that
display guest and room status
information.
The room rack is normally recessed into the front
desk counter, tilted against the desk, or mounted
below or behind the desk. When key slots are
added to the room rack, it can serve as a
combination room and key rack.

The room rack contains a summary of information about
the current status of all rooms in the hotel. A room rack
slip or in some hotels, the guest registration card itself
can be inserted into the room rack to display guest data,
room number, and room rate.

One glance at the room rack should immediately inform
the front desk agent of the occupancy and housekeeping
status of all rooms.
The room rack may also contain
information about room types, features,
and rates.
Front desk agents normally use this
information to match available rooms with
guest needs during the registration
process.
Mail, Message, and Key Rack
A key rack is an array of numbered compartments
used to store guestroom keys.

Key racks used to be visible to individuals
both behind and in front of the desk.
Today, key racks are often placed in front
desk drawers to ensure the safety and
security of guests.
To minimize the number of racks in the front desk
area, hotels may combine the key rack with either
the room rack or the mail and message rack.
A combination of mail, message, and key rack can
be either a free-standing wall unit or an under-thecounter row of apartments.
Some front offices use this rack as room divider by placing it
between the front desk and the switchboard areas of the front
office.
When the mail and message compartments of the rack are open fro
both sides, telephone operators (who are positioned on one side of
the rack), and front desk agents (who are positioned on the other
side of the rack) have equal access to rack contents.
Operators who record telephone messages for guests can insert
them into the rack from the back side; front desk agents can
retrieve the messages from the front side.
Reservation Racks
Racks which store the reservation rack slips or
registration cards for anticipated arrivals.
Front office uses both two types of reservation
racks: the advance reservation rack and the
current reservation rack.
In an advance reservation rack, reservation rack slips or
registration cards are arranged by the guest’s scheduled dates of
arrival and, within each day’s grouping, alphabetically by the
guests’ or groups’ names.
A current reservation rack is a portable subset of the advance
reservation rack. Early each morning, the advance reservation
rack slips or registration cards for the days expected arrivals are
loaded into the current reservation rack and taken to the front
desk.
The current reservation rack is used by front desk agents to assist
in processing guests during registration.
Information Rack
An information rack is an index of in-house guests, by both last name and
room number.
An information rack is commonly used to assist front office employees
with proper routing of telephone calls, mail, messages and visitor
inquiries.
The information rack normally consists of aluminum slots designed to hold
guest information slips.
Folio Trays
Folio tray or folio bucket is where the guest folios
are stored and arranged by guestroom numbers.
Guest folios remain in the tray throughout the
occupancy stage of the guest cycle, except when
they are used in posting transactions.
A second folio tray is normally located in the
hotel’s accounting office.
This tray contains the folios of departed guests
being directly-billed or of guests who paid by
credit card.
Once these accounts are settled, the folios are
moved to a permanent storage location.
Account Posting Machine
An electro-mechanical or electronic device
used in semi-automated hotels. An account
posting machine is used to post, monitor,
and balance charges and credits to guest
accounts.
Voucher Rack
A container for storing vouchers for
future reference and verification during
the night audit.
Cash Register
Used to record cash transactions
and maintain cash balances.
Telephone Equipment
 Call Accounting Systems – a device linked to the
telephone system that identifies each phone number
dialed from guestroom telephones. It provides a record of
each room’s local and long distance phone calls so that
appropriate charges may be posted to the guest’s folio.
 Automatic Call Dispensing – is limited to wake-up call into
computer, and at the scheduled times, a telephone call is
automatically placed to the guests’ rooms.
Telephone/ Room Status System – assists with rooms
management and prohibit the unauthorized use of telephones in
vacant rooms.
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Fax Machine – makes it possible to transmit or receive full-page
documents.
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Call Detection – works with the main telephone equipment and call
accounting systems. Call detection equipment has the ability to
pinpoint the exact moment when a telephone call is connected.
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Support Devices
 Credit Card Imprinter – an imprinter presses a credit
card voucher against a guest’s credit card. The impact
causes the raised card number, expiration date, and
name on the card to be recorded on the voucher for use
in credit card billing and collection procedures. It may be
manual or electric.
Magnetic Strip Reader
A magnetic strip reader, reads data magnetically
encoded and stored on the magnetic tape strip on the
back of a credit card and transmits this data to a credit
card verification service. On the basis of the credit card
data and transaction data, the credit card verification
service either approves or disapproves the transaction.
Time Stamp
Folios, mail, and other front office paperwork
are inserted into a time stamp device to record
the current time and date. This recording can be
very important in establishing a chronology of
events.
Security Monitor
(Closed Circuit Television or CCTV) closed-circuit
television monitors allow front office or
security personnel to monitor certain areas
of the hotel from a central location.
Wake-Up Devices
This is usually a specially designed clock with
multiple alarms setting to remind front desk agent
or telephone operators to place wake-up calls.
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A wake-up call log kept beside the clock informs the
agents or operators which room numbers are to be
called at what times.
Self-Registration /
Check-out Terminals
Fully automated hotels provide self-registration
and check out terminals for guests. These
terminals do not eliminate front desk agents, but
can free them to attend to other hotel duties –
which can enhance guest service.