Chapter 3

Front Office Operations

Managing Front Office Operations
Seventh Edition
(333TXT or 333CIN)

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 The Guest Cycle

 Pre-arrival
 Arrival
 Occupancy
 Departure

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 Room Status Terms
 Occupied
 Complimentary
 Stayover
 On-change
 Do not disturb
 Sleep-out
 Skipper
 Sleeper
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 Room Status Terms
(continued)

 Vacant and ready

 Out-of-order
 Lock-out
 DNCO
 Due out
 Check-out
 Late check-out
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 Room Types
 Single  Double-double
 Double  Studio
 Triple  Mini-suite or junior suite
 Quad  Suite
 Queen  Connecting rooms
 King  Adjoining rooms
 Twin  Adjacent rooms
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 Non-Automated Front Office Systems
 Handwritten forms
 Reservation index cards
 Density board blocked reserved rooms
 Registration cards—multiple copies
 Time stamp
 Room rack: housekeeping status of each room
 Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas
 Charges handwritten to folios
 Adding machine tape attached at check-out
 Night audit cross-checked folio charges to vouchers
and verified settlement
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 Semi-Automated Front Office Systems
 Handwritten and machine-produced forms
 National reservation networks
 Pre-registration activities
 Density board blocked reserved rooms
 Registration cards—preprinted and multiple copies
 Room rack: housekeeping status of each room
 Vouchers received from point-of-sale areas
 Posting machines recorded charges to guest folios
 Night audit cross-checked folio charges to vouchers
and verified settlement
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 Property Management Systems
Modules
Reservations
Rooms management
Guest account management
General management
Point-of-sale (POS) system
Magnetic strip readers
Credit cards
Debit cards
Smart cards
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 Types of Telephone Calls
 Local
 Direct-dial long-distance
 Calling card
 Credit card
 Collect
 Third-party
 Person-to-person
 Billed-to-room
 International
 Toll-free
 900 or premium-price
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 Telecommunications Equipment
 PBX system
 Call accounting system
 Guestroom phones
 Pay phones
 Pagers/cell phones
 Automatic call dispensing system
 Telephone/room status systems
 Internet access
 Call detection equipment
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 Front Office Software Packages
 Reservations management
 Rooms management
 Guest account management
 General management

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 Reservations Management Software

 Availability/forecasting
 Reservation records
 Reservation confirmations
 Room pricing
 Revenue management

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 Rooms Management Software
 Room status
 Registration
 Room assignments
 Room rate information

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 Guest Account Management Software

 Folio management
 Credit monitoring
 Transaction tracking

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 General Management Software

 Revenue analysis
 Operating statistics
 Financial analysis
 Guest history

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 Back Office Interfaces
General ledger accounting software
 Accounts receivables
 Accounts payables
Human resources software
 Payroll accounting
 Personnel recordkeeping
 Labor scheduling
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 Back Office Interfaces
(continued)

Financial reporting software

 Chart of accounts
 Balance sheets
 Income sheets
 Transaction analysis
Inventory control software
 Stock levels
 Purchase order system
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 Stock rotation scheduling 16
 System Interfaces

Non-Guest-Operated Interfaces
 Point-of-sale system
 Call accounting system
 Electronic locking system
 Energy management system

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(continued)
17
 System Interfaces
(continued)

Guest-Operated Interfaces
 In-room folio review and check-out
 In-room entertainment system
 In-room vending machines
 In-room fax machine
 In-room Internet access

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