Hotel front office management represents the tasks and activities associated with handling the service desk at hotels and motels. The tasks are often varied and include a number of important items that feed information to upper management. A few common tasks include basic bookkeeping, handling customer issues and problems, and dealing with standard hotel maintenance. Hotel front office management may also be responsible for hiring, training, and scheduling workers in the area. These positions can include clerks, night auditors, service staff, and cleaning crews.
Bookkeeping tasks include the cash drawer, receipt management for rented rooms, and petty cash expenses for the hotel. These ensure that the hotel can properly balance and account for monies received from customers. Hotel front office management may not actually complete all the standard bookkeeping tasks. In some cases, the manager may simply oversee the process and ensure it is both accurate and valid. This separation also presents a strong segregation of duties, which helps prevent embezzlement or fraud from occurring.
Customers are the lifeblood of business, especially with hotels. As a service-based business, hotel front office management helps take care of a variety of customer issues. While most are fairly basic and help ensure a pleasant stay, every now and again a serious problem comes up. The hotel front office manager must be at the center of these issues and head off any negative problems before they really get started. Failure to do so can result in potentially negative comments toward the hotel and its staff, which can be an even larger proglem.
Hotel maintenance is a never-ending process. Hotels may find themselves extremely busy at times, especially during peak travel seasons. The hotel front office management reviews maintenance issues and places requests for repair or replacement of items. The manager is also responsible for ensuring these issues are taken care of in a timely manner. For example, delayed pool maintenance can turn customers away from the hotel, lowering the business’s income.
Any other issue can quickly become a responsibility for hotel front office management. As a manager, there is often no end to the daily tasks that can arise. These include preparing for business meetings, handling mail and packages, reviewing reservations, or checking out cleaned rooms. In short, this individual is the point person in charge of making things happen properly and run smoothly at the hotel.