PART 2- INTRODUCTION TO FRONT OFFICE

MODULE 1:THE GUEST CYCLE Departure

The departure stage is the final stage of the guest cycle and involves the
guest’s check-out process. When checking out, the guest vacates the
Four Stages of the Guest Cycle room, receives a statement of account for settlement, returns the room
keys, and leaves the hotel.

Pre-Arrival Arrival Occupancy Departure

When settling the guest’s account, confirm whether the guest would pay
by cash or by credit card. Account balances should be checked for error
before the guest leaves the hotel. There are instances were late charges
occur. These are charges that were not posted to the guest folio until
Pre-arrival Stage
after the guest has already checked out.

The pre-arrival stage is a crucial stage of the guest cycle for establishments
When the room is already vacated, the guestroom’s room status is
since this is where the guest decides what hotel to choose.
changed and the housekeeping department is notified.

The factors that are commonly considered by guests when choosing a tourism
Finally, the departure stage is when the front office staff determines
establishment are:
whether the guest was satisfied with their service. The front office staff
must not forget to ask for guests’ feedback, may be verbal or written, to
Previous experiences with the establishment
assess the quality of the hotel services they experienced. At this stage,
The establishment’s advertisements
the front office may also encourage the guest to acquire the hotel’s
Recommendations from travel agents, friends, or business associates
services once again. This could be the beginnings of a guest history
The establishment’s location
record.
The establishment’s name or the name of the hotel chain operation
A guest history record contains the personal and financial information of
Another consideration considered by a guest is the ease of making hotel
guests that would help in the development of the hotel’s marketing
reservations. Thus, if a FO staff or the hotel’s system is incompetent when
strategies. With this, the hotel’s services may also be customized
receiving reservation requests, guests might be turned off to stay at your
according to the client’s needs.
establishment.

How a front office reservation agent also describes the hotel’s services and Topic 1: Promoting Products and Services to Guests
amenities is crucial to getting reservations. The agent must be quick, accurate,
detailed, and polite when responding to callers’ requests and queries.

Arrival

The arrival stage focuses on the check-in activities of the guest. It includes:

Registering the guest

Assigning a room and rate (for walk-in guests)
Determining methods of payment (for walk-in guests)
Identifying a departure date
Escorting or directing the guest to the room
Club membership

Occupancy

When the guest arrives at the room and accepts it, the occupancy stage begins.
The occupancy stage is considered as the center of front office activity. The
front office plays a major role during a guest’s stay at the hotel.

For example, the front office is the one who provides information and supplies
when the guest requests it. It is the main source of service that the hotel
supplies. The FO staff should perform these tasks well because this will
determine whether a guest will repeat his/her stay at the hotel.

Some of the services that a guest may acquire during his/her lodging are:

Purchase of food and beverages

Use of telephone
Gift shop purchases
Laundry Services
Inquiries

These transactions should be well recorded and processed according to the FO

posting and auditing procedures.

Preparing a guest folio and conducting night audit will be discussed in Module
2: Providing Front Office Services, Unit 3: Evaluating Front Office Financial
Activities.
 Topic 3: Developing and Updating Local Knowledge

Topic 2: Promoting Products and Services to Guests

Room Rates and Meal Plan

In selling guestrooms, the front office staff must know the location, features,
availability and the rates for each room type/ room rate is the price that a guest
pays for overnight stay. The standard rate used by the hotel is called rack rate.

Depending on the season, hotels may have different rack rates for different
times of the year. Nevertheless, here are the room rates used in the hotel
industry.

COMMERCIAL RATE- Commercial room rates are usually offered to the

business travelers that stay in the hotel for business purpose. This is also
called as Cooperate rate.

GOVERNMENT RATE- A special or discounted rate negotiated with

government agency for foreign visitor or staffs in official business.

FAMILY RATE- Room rate offered for parents and children staying in the
same room.

DAY RATE- Day rate is offered to guests who check in and out on the same day.

PACKAGE-PLAN RATE- Package plan rate is offered to guests who want to

avail rooms with service inclusions or with other available events or activities;
this is usually offered for a limited time.

MEAL PLAN Anmay

example of services of goods that
be included in package rates.
TYPE OF GUESTS
There is a wide-range of potential guests in lodging
industry. Knowing hotel's specific market is important in
recognizing and providing the special needs of the guest
that can make their experience valuable. There are three
kinds of hotels markets - Business travelers, pleasure
travelers and group market.

BUSINESS TRAVELERS

Business travelers are those guests that engage in business travel.

Compare to other two, they require more space, access to communication
equipment, meeting and convention facilities. These include guests
attending meetings, conventions and symposiums.

LEISURE TRAVELERS

Leisure travelers include travelers from all ages, gender and culture that travel
for leisure purposes. Compared to business travelers leisure travelers tend to
be more price sensitive and drawn to hotel packages and incentives. They
greatly appreciate the facilities that hotels offer to their guests e.g. pool,
restaurant, spa and fitness area.

GROUP TRAVELERS

Group Travelers lodge in the same hotel but stay in different rooms. This
includes conventions, seminars and other similar activities with ten or more
people. Segmentation allows companies to place more than one brand in a
single reservation system.
Topic 5: Sales Techniques at the Front Desk