FRONT OFFICE OPERATIONS

CASE STUDY

Hotel Medium is where Josephine Corpuz is working as front office manager.

This hotel has 300 sleeping rooms and has been operating for the past five years. To
achieve its objectives, the hotel adapted a policy of overbooking to offset unrealized
reservations.

The hotel’s record for the past five years in terms if advanced booking was
determined to be 92%. This means that to achieve room occupancy of 100%, Miss
Corpuz must accept bookings for more than 300 rooms, and these should be 326
bookings.

This particular day, however, the front office has already accepted 300 bookings.
A few minutes later, a senior citizens’ group called and requested reservations for 40
rooms. This information was relayed to Miss Corpuz by her assistant, and she asked for
a few minutes to determine her answer.

Question:
Should Miss Corpuz accept the reservation request of the senior citizen? Support
your answer.
 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
1. What are the basic functions of the front office?
2. Describer the “main product” of hotels.
3. What steps are necessary in reserving hotel rooms?
4. What are the common requirements in registering guests?
5. In the process of assigning rooms, what steps are necessary?
6. Why is coordination with ither departments an important function of front office?
7. What activities are closely coordinated by the front office with the housekeeping
department?
8. What types of information are important to hotel guests?
9. What is overbooking?
10. What is “upselling”? When should it be undertaken.
11. Why is reception a very important function of hotels?
12. What factors affects room rates?
13. In what ways may hotel bills be settled? Differentiate.
14. What advantages and disadvantages are offered by the registration book?
15. Proper grooming is necessary for hotel personnel tasked to welcome the guests.
Why is this so?