Hotel Front Office Management, 3rd Edition

ORGANIZATION OF THE FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT 51HOSPITALITY PROFILE?O. Long, general manager plan is current and operating. He also attends anEricof the WaldorfAstoria in 8:00 a.m. customer feedback meeting each day to reviewfeedback on the previous day’s efforts to pro-New York City, has been employedwith Hilton Corporation vide quality service. He adds that he wants to ensurefor 30 years. He served in various management positions,including the Hilton Short Hills, Chicago through motivation, training, development, and sothat the level of talent in the organization is nurturedHilton and Towers, Hilton Walt Disney Village, FontainebleauHilton Resort, and the Palmer House. Early in Mr. Long’s career, his mentor encouragedforth.His well-thought-out career with Hilton has allowedhim to develop a strong network of relation-and a solid working knowledge in all the other areas.him to gain expertise in any three areas of the hotelships and vital experience to prepare him for the positionhe holds today. Mr. Long indicates that there reer progression. He encourages future hoteliers whoHe feels this has been an overriding factor in his ca-are four major areas of responsibility in his job— are entering the field “to take complete ownershipfinance, marketing, customer service, and human resourcesmanagement. Although he has persons as-promotions just for the sake of the promotion; beand responsibility for your own career. Don’t takesigned to work on the day-to-day administration of selective of the moves that you make. Each movethose departments, he feels he is ultimately responsiblefor the success of those departments. For ex-have in growing your career.”should be weighed against the potential that it willample, he wants to ensure that a marketing and salesuse of a credit card to establish creditworthiness; or bill-to-account, an internal billingprocess—the lines at the cashier station can be long when a guest is in a hurry.The reservations manager is a position that can be found in many of the larger lodgingestablishments. This person is responsible for taking incoming requests for rooms andnoting special requests for service. The particulars of this position are endless, aimed atproviding the guest with requested information and services as well as accurate confirmationof these items. The reservations manager is responsible for keeping an accurateroom inventory by using a reservation module of a property management system. Thisperson must communicate very effectively with the marketing and sales department. Peakas well as slow periods of sales must be addressed with adequate planning.The night auditor balances the daily financial transactions. This person may also serveas desk clerk for the night shift (11:00 p.m. to7:00a.m.).Heorshemusthaveagoodgrasp of accounting principles and the ability to resolve financial discrepancies. This positionrequires experience as a desk clerk and good communications with the controller.The telephone operator has a very important job in the lodging establishment. Thisperson must be able to locate the registered guests and management staff at a moment’snotice. He or she is also expected to be able to deal with crises such as life-threateningemergencies. With the introduction of call accounting, a computer technology applicationthat tracks guest phone calls and posts billing charges to lodging establishments, theTLFeBOOK