Textbook of front office management and operations

487 Pages·2008·11.702 MB·English

by  Sudhir Andrews

Textbook of
Front Office Management
and Operations
About the Author
Sudhir Andrews finished his high school from St. Columba’s High School, New Delhi after which he
graduated with honors in English Literature from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He thereafter
qualified for the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and completed his Masters in Business
Administration (then called the Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration). He joined the Oberoi
Hotels in 1971 becoming one of the first MBAs to join the hotel industry and definitely the first from IIMA.
He joined the eighteen months Senior Management Training Program of the Oberois. During the
program he earned two Hotel Management Diploma with distinction-one from the International Hotel
Association, Paris, France and the other from the American Hotel and Motel Association (now American
Hotel and Lodging Association) based in Michigan and Orlando in the US. He also earned the Golden
Pin from the American Hotel and Motel Association as a trainer alt their “Train the Trainer” program in
Goa. He joined the Oberoi Manpower Development Department, responsible for the recruitment and
training of talent for the Oberois.
In 1979, he joined the Welcomgroup chain sponsored by ITC Ltd, as General Manager, Manpower
Development and rose to be Director, Human Resources on the Divisional Board. He created the
Welcomgroup hotel training center in New Delhi. His high point was the commissioning of the
Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration at Manipal, Karnataka. During this period the
wrote the first edition of his books, Food and Beverage Training Manual, Front-Office Training Manual,
and Housekeeping Training Manual, Tata McGraw-Hill accepted as official reference text books for the
hotel management and catering institutes.
In 1979, he joined a Principal of the Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Pusa,
New Delhi under the Ministry of Tourism. With the help of UNDP he was able to upgrade the institute.
His expertise found him on the Board of many national Institutes of Hotel Management and the National
Council of Hotel Management and Catering Technology. During this period he was involved in several
ILO and UNDP programs as faculty, in India and abroad.
In 1994, he moved to Dubai as Director-Human Resources for the Metropolitan Chain where he set
up the Metropolitan Institute of Hotel Management, to develop Arab nationals in collaboration with
HIM, Montreaux, Switzerland. In 1996, he became Group Vice President-Human Resources with the
sister concern of the Metropolitan Group that was expanding in the CIS countries with automobiles,
airlines, hotels, travel agencies etc.
He immigrated to Canada in 2000 where he worked with a Property Management Company till he
decided to heat east to Dubai again in 2002. He joined the Executive Office, a consulting wing to the
ruling Sheikh of Dubai.
He joined as advisor to the Merit Hotel School of Ooty, opening two hotel school campuses in Dubai
and Sharjah. He also taught as faculty. During this period he became one of the first persons in the world
to be certified as a global hospitality trainer by the American Hotel and Motel Association.
Recently, he did projects for Elkon Academy which brought in the Herriot-Watt University, Scotland,
into Dubai; plus hotel management degree courses accredited by the US and Switzerland.
Sudhir Andrews is now writing a series of indigenous hospitality textbooks for the hospitality industry
to be published by Tata McGraw-Hill.
Textbook of
Front Office Management
and Operations
Sudhir Andrews
Consultant
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited
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RAXLCDRYRQARD
Dedicated to the memory of
my mother
Amrutham Andrews

Letter from the Author
Dear Reader,
Congratulations on joining the hotel industry, which is part of the tourism industry that leads other
industries in revenues and employment worldwide. Your decision to join this industry is a correct one,
giving you ample opportunities to global careers. You have chosen that part of hotel operations that
contributes substantially to a hotel’s revenues – the front office. As a future front office professional it is
important to adopt international practices, attitudes and behaviours that are presented in this book.
It has been over two decades since the release of my first book—Hotel Front Office: A Training
Manual. Readers have encouraged me with their faith in the book. I thank readers for their trust and
support, which has encouraged me and boosted my confidence to bring out this book – Textbook of Front
Office Management and Operations.
The first book showed that the basic processes of front office operations worldwide remain the same
and shall continue to do so in the future. This edition faithfully retains those chapters. What has changed
is the application of those processes. This has been largely brought about by the revolution created by the
information technology. The attempt of this book is to empower front-office professionals with the
knowledge of these new changes to meet the challenges of the future.
Let us examine some of the changes in travel and hotelkeeping that have
emerged:
Today’s traveller wants to make reservation of a room for himself or herself
through the web, from the comfort of the house or office. S/he wants the
reservation to be instantly confirmed and the hotel to honour the promise of
a room upon arrival. S/he also expects a certain level of service during his
stay in the hotel. The traveller has so many choices—brought to him by
Innovative Reservation Distribution Systems—available at his or her doorstep
that the loyalty of the guest is at a premium. Websites take a traveller through
virtual tours of hotels, showing what rooms and other facilities look like in
reality and give pricing options to suit every budget. Information technology
has enabled the traveller to customise his reservation as per his or her
requirements, on a user-friendly form on the web, which selects those hotels
that meet the specifications of the traveller offering him a deluge of options. A woman traveller may
want a hairdryer and ironing board in her room while a businessman may want teleconferencing facilities
and secretarial services during his stay in the hotel. There are no limits to the needs of the guests and the
computer accesses those sources, which meet these needs, at the click of a button. What is essential in
such a scenario is that upon the traveller’s arrival, the front office staff must respond according to the
convenience and expectations already created in the traveller’s mind through the web.
With the onslaught of the information age, guests have become knowledgeable about what to expect
from the hotels. Since quicker and convenient modes of transportation have made travel to all parts of
viii Letter from the Author
the globe possible, the traveller has become “international” and knows what global standards of services
are. Hence, hotels now have adapted to the needs of the new traveller and brought about innovative ways
of responding to these needs of a demanding customer. Some of the changes that hotels have made in
their existing set-up, in their drive to orient themselves according to the new milieu, are given in the
proceeding paragraphs.
Downsizing is part of the new economic business strategy. Newspapers are screaming everyday of
the layoffs of thousands of employees by large reputed organisations. Hotel chains too are pruning their
workforces and loss-making properties and facilities to stay economically viable. They are employing
technology to do things that were originally done by people. Information processing has made middle-
management redundant and the position of Front Office Manager and Supervisor could well be rendered
redundant in future or turned into new dynamic roles. Establishments want their employees in the workforce
to multitask roles. A Front Office Agent is now required to take reservations, register guests, handle
guest complaints, do the front office accounting function and generate reports for decision-making. This
is made possible by automation. Computerisation has entered into all aspects of our lives. The front
office is no exception.
Empowerment is the logical consequence of downsizing. Empowerment is the delegation of
responsibility along with the authority that goes with it, to lower levels. A Front Office Agent is now able
to make decisions that were earlier made by his managers and supervisors. For instance, he can upgrade
regular guests or offer complimentary stay if such decisions promote business. The Front Office Agent
could well be in total control of front office operations and be held accountable for the total guest
experience. Organisations have now begun to believe that “lean is beautiful” and are empowering its
frontline staff with skills and tasks earlier held by managers and supervisors. The Front Office Agent has
now become a knowledge worker with technical knowledge, competencies and skills to manage higher
responsibilities. This has prompted me to bring in the subject like principles of management.
Leasing is another new business strategy and will be a part of hotel life.
Investors are making radical configurations in how they are going to do hotel
business. Investors now believe that standalone hotels are unlikely to give the
return on investments. They are now creating community complexes under
one roof rather than just a hotel. This concept makes the hotel a part of the
community complex, which has shopping malls, cineplexes, entertainment
centres, furnished apartments, convention centre and office blocks, all set in
spectacular environments with landscaping and water courses. Entertainment
centres will have facilities such as food courts, children’s parks, artificial ski
slopes, ice-skating rinks, water sports etc. Investments would be in billions leading to a new breed of
professionals such as real estate managers, event managers, convention specialists, cinema complex
management etc. With real estate at a premium, investors feel that the best strategy is to lease space to
ensure regular returns. They will lease space to branded food and beverage restaurants, shops, long-term
guests, entertainment agencies, etc.
Focus on Rooms: As regards the hotel, the investor will concentrate on room revenue only, which
would result in another form of leasing. They may have one common dining room or coffee shop and bar.
They will lease space within their premises to branded restaurants like TGIF, Chillis, etc. Hotel investors
have seen the virtue of linking with international chain operations that have the muscle of economies of
scale, professional management, standardised systems and procedures, common advertising budgets and
technical support. The hotel will be franchised to an international chain, which has established its name
and reputation. This has prompted me to bring in the subject of chain hotel associations.
Letter from the Author ix
Information Technology has taken over all the processing work, which was done earlier by human
beings. Innovative softwares make information quick, accurate and productive. Reports are churned out
by the minute to make management decision-making respond to daily changes. Each chapter has a section
on automation that influences that part of operation. I have also introduced the topic of hotel automated
systems.
Outsourcing of the in-house services is another strategy to manage downsizing. This has become a
part of the daily functioning in most organisations. Large hotels are outsourcing their functions such as
housekeeping, accounting, security, horticulture, laundry, food preparation, etc. This is because of several
reasons such as:
· High energy costs
· High cost of raw materials especially those that are imported.
· High labour costs and the availability of skilled personnel.
· High costs of real estate to accommodate non-revenue operations.
· Rapid changes in technology and the expertise required to keep pace. Outsourced businesses
concentrate only on their limited sphere of specialisation attaining mastery.
· Quality movements require different types of expertise and certification for several sub-businesses
like the laundry, food service operations, security etc.
The call for outsourcing has seen the mushrooming of specialist companies
like the Housekeeping & Maintenance Companies, Security Companies,
Landscaping and Horticultural Services, Industrial Laundries, branded
restaurants etc. This in itself has opened additional employment opportunities
for hotel professionals. These outsourced services will have to adhere to the
hotel’s policies while retaining their individual identity. All this is effected
with well-designed legal instruments. This puts the pressure on remaining
employees to multi task. Getting the right talent becomes a challenge. I have
included a chapter on managing human resources to help front office
professionals get the right people for the new roles.
Youth will form the chunk of the future workforce. It is quite possible to see a workforce of below
thirty-five years. Those mature professionals who get out of the employment market would have to re-
engineer themselves to consider self-employment. They could either open their own bed and breakfast
places or turn into outsourced specialists. Hotels prefer youth for various reasons:
· They are better informed through advancement in education
· They bring the latest technologies and ideas
· They keep the workforce fresh
· Multi roles require high energy and longer hours
· They are ambitious to earn more
· They are hungry for success
· They enjoy working and are open to new ideas
· They come with better competencies
In spite of the whirlwind of change, the front office specialist will continue to be there to faithfully
receive and room guests. Gone are the days when a service professional went to a hotel, did his job in an
x Letter from the Author
eight hour shift and returned home. This luxury is perhaps left only to the college students who work
part-time to earn a few extra bucks for their tuition. They are paid on an hourly basis anyway. But the
front office professional has to think like an entrepreneur and is empowered to respond to changing
business situations and customers constantly (See the section in Introduction entitled “The Future Guest
”). We will see that the front office personnel will work for longer hours requiring youth and energy that
goes with it. The front office professional has become a strategic player in the success of the hotel. It is
important, therefore, to know how the new knowledge worker is recruited, trained and motivated.
This book has been carefully written to serve several segments of
the hotel industry. This book, therefore, is ideal for:
· Front Office professionals
· Hotel Management students
· Craft course students of Reception services
· Lecturers of Hotel Management and Craft services
· Apprentices in front office
· Front office professionals like the front office agent, bell desk
personnel and telecommunications staff
· New entrants who have no formal training or education in front
office and are entering the industry.
· Supervisors and staff of leisure activities like theme parks, cruise liners etc.
· Entrepreneurs who wish to set up their own lodging facility
· Training centres of hotels
· Independent hotel owners and staff
· Hospitality trainers
Readers, it is time to shed the old coat and wear the new one of this new exciting millennium. I wish
all of you the best of luck in your pursuit of becoming the new front office professional. I hope this
edition will be your able companion throughout your career.
Yours faithfully
Sudhir Andrews