Hotel Front Office Management, 3rd Edition

50 CHAPTER 2: HOTEL ORGANIZATION AND THE FRONT OFFICE MANAGERParking Garage ManagerThe responsibility of ensuring a safe environment for guests’ vehicles falls to the parkinggarage manager, the person responsible for supervising the work of garage attendantsand maintaining security of guests and cars in the parking garage. Garage maintenance,in cooperation with the engineering and housekeeping departments, is another responsibilityof this position. Often a hotel rents out parking spaces to local businesses andprofessional people. The accounting process associated with this service involves the accuratebilling and recording of funds and subsequent deposits. This person also has todevelop budgets and recruit and train employees. The garage manager often providesdriver assistance to guests when their cars break down. Providing directional informationto departing guests is also a frequent task of the garage manager. Even though these jobsmay seem small in the overall operation of a lodging property, they build a strong foundationin providing service to the guest.Organization of the Front Office DepartmentThe organization chart in Figure 2-5 depicts a typical organization of staff for a frontoffice manager. The staff includes desk clerk, cashier, reservations manager, concierge,night auditor, telephone operator, bell staff, room key clerk, and elevator operator. Notall of these positions are found in every lodging establishment. In some operations, thefront desk clerk acts as desk clerk, cashier, telephone operator, and reservations clerk, asrequired by the volume of business. Many large, full-service hotels employ the completestaff as listed.Staffing the front desk positions incurs a cost to the lodging establishment. The frontoffice manager, in consultation with the general manager, usually prepares a personnelbudget that is related to salary levels throughout the lodging establishment.The responsibilities of the front office staff are quite varied. The position of the deskclerk can encompass many duties, which typically include verifying guest reservations,registering guests, assigning rooms, distributing keys, communicating with the housekeepingstaff, answering telephones, providing information about and directions to localattractions, accepting cash and giving change, and acting as liaison between the lodgingestablishment and the guest as well as the community.The position of cashier includes processing guest checkouts and guest legal tender andproviding change for guests. This position is found in a number of lodging establishments,and it helps to make the front desk workload manageable when a full house, a hotel thathas all its guest rooms occupied (sometimes referred to as 100 percent occupancy) ischecking out. Given the possibility that a 400-guest convention could all check out in ashort time period, this division of labor is a well-planned concept. Even with the bestplannedsystems—such as express checkout, whereby the guest uses computer technologyin a guest room or a computer in the hotel lobby to check out; prior approved credit, theTLFeBOOK