The front office is the nerve center of the hotel and oversees key functions like check-in, bell services, and guest relations. It can be divided into 5 areas: reception, bell services, mail/information, concierge, and cashiers/night auditors. Room clerks maintain the room rack to track occupancy and availability, check reservations, and notify housekeeping and operators when guests check-out. The registration process categorizes guests as groups, reservations, or walk-ins. Other front office roles include doormen, bellmen, elevator operators, and mail/information clerks. Automation has been sought to improve efficiency of front office, reservation, and accounting functions.

2. The Front Office is truly the nerve center
of a hotel. Members of the front office
staff welcome the guest, carry their
luggage, help them register, give them
their room keys and mail. The sleeping
rooms are comfortable, well equipped
and clean. The role played in the Front
Office is promoting good guest
relation is self-evident and cannot be
overemphasized.

3. The Front office Function can be
divided into 5 general areas:
1. Reception
2. Bell Service
3. Mail and Information
4. Concierge
5. Cashiers and night auditors

5. The Room Rack
Consist of a series of metal trays slotted to
hold slips, usually 1 ½”x4” in size. The
clerks should know the established rates,
the kind of accommodation offered in
each room or suite that is, the type of
beds-single,double,twin or studio-the
location exposure and even the size.The
chief room clerk must see that the room
rack is updated.

6. The Room Clerks
The Room Clerks daily routine:
 The chief clerk reviews the night clerk’s
report to get an idea of the preceding
day’s occupancy and the number of
vacant rooms, if any available for
immediate assignment to new arrivals.
 The room and the total number of
projected departures for the day are
checked.

7.  The clerk must check the reservations for the
day, noting the approximate time of arrivals,
special requirements,instruction,deposit,and
so on, must block out rooms for some of the
expected arrivals.
 Supplies must be checked
 The time stamp is checked for the current date
 The room rack is checked against the
housekeeper’s morning report of the
preceding nights occupied and vacant rooms.

8. The 3 task that clerks need to perform when
the guest check out:
 They indicate in the room rack that the guest
has vacated, but at the same time they show
that the room is not yet available for a new
guest generally either by folding rack slip in
half and placing it back n the slot, or taking
out the slip and stock card and standing both
up in the slot.
 They notify the house keeper
 They notify the telephone operators and/or
information clerks.

9. REGISTRATION
The incoming guest according to 3 general
categories:
 GROUPS AND CONVENTIONS-This category
involves a substantial number of guest who may
all arrive at or about the same time.
 GUEST WITH RESERVATION-As the guest come to
the registration clerk, each should be pleasantly
greeted and asked if he or she has a reservation.
 WALK-INS-These are people who come into the
hotel without a reservation and asked for a room.

10. Assistant Managers
The assistant managers
are not part of the front
office staff, yet they must
be included in the
reception area

12. DOORMEN
For those guest who
arrive by private car
or taxi, the first hotel
employee they meet
is the doorman.

13. BELLMEN
Once the guests have
registered and been
assigned a room, they are
turned over the bellmen,
whose function is to carry
the guests baggage and take
them to their room

14. OTHER BELL SERVICE
EMPLOYEE:
Elevator Operators
Starters
Lobby Porters
Packaged Room
Clerks

16. MAIL
Handling the guests’ mail
before they arrive, during
their stay, and after they
check out is probably the
clerk’s most important
function.

17. ROOM KEYS
The mail rack also holds
the room key, so this is
also the function of the
mail and information
clerks.

18. INFORMATION
The information
responsibilities of the mail
and information clerks are
usually limited to answering
questions regarding the
guest rooms and other
facilities of the hotel.

21. AUTOMATION
Complete automation of the
front office,reservation,and
accounting functions has
been and still is the fervent
wish of most hotel
operators.