FRONT OFFICE SERVICES NC II

Sample Question and Answers

1. What comprise product knowledge and what is its importance?

The following are some of the products that must be known by heart by every FO personnel. The knowledge of the
details of the following will make the FO clerk confident and efficient in handling concierge services.
 Floor plan and what views  Types of accommodation
 Number of guests rooms  Room rate structure
 Sizes of rooms  Guest room features and amenities
 Hotel amenities and facilities
2. What includes shift endorsement?
 Arrival report which includes the number of guests arriving by the date and the type of room each has requested.
 Departure report which includes the number of guests checking out on a particular date.
 VIP report (optional) which includes the names and requirements of guest arriving on a particular date who will
receive special gifts and services
 Night audit; others
3. Explain the general flow in rooming a guest?
 Greeting the guest with the time of the day with a friendly smile.
 Determine if the guest has a reservation or not by asking his/her name. (Check the arrival report)
 If there is no reservation, perform the reservation process for the guest.
 If there is a reservation, front office agents verify the data taken by the mailing address, arte, method of payment
and departure dates.
 Assignment of rooms.
 Assist the guest in luggage
 Escorts the guest to the guestroom
4. What are the things you may do in preparing for a group arrival?
 Needed rooms are blocked off on the room rack
 Keys are sorted out for each room
 If group billing has been used, an account is opened
 If individual accounts have been arranged, they are generated in advance.
 On arrival, separate counter is to be set up to keep congestion to a minimum from the main desk
 The hotel may opt to give a kit containing the welcome note, key charge instructions, tour or convention details,
map of the city and so on
 Bell staff member standby to move the guest to their rooms in small groups.
 Coordination with other departments is performed for a smooth flow of the guest stay
5. What are the personal safety measures to be observed in lifting guest luggage?
 Place your feet shoulder-width apart to maintain your balance.
 Grasp the item with both hands
 Bend your knees; don’t bend your waist
 Use your leg muscles, keeping the item close to your body
 Get help if an item is too heavy or is an awkward shape
6. When riding an elevator, what are the things to remember?
 Riding an elevator gives you a chance to provide superior service. Always be the last on the elevator and the last
one off. This lets you hold the door open for all the guest each way. If you see guest approaching the elevator, hold
the elevator for them.
7. What do you do when guest losses luggage?
Here are some suggestions when a guest loss his luggage:
 Get a complete direction of the bag; type, color, size, markings and luggage tag, ect.
 Look in the bell closet
 If you can’t find the bag in the bell closet, let the guest look. Searching for the bag will help the guest feel better than
just standing around waiting.
 Check overflow areas for the bag. Find if a large group checked out today, and whether their bags were stored
somewhere other than the bell closet.
 Coordinate with the transportation dispatcher. They may help you find out if the luggage was accidentally sent with
one of their vehicles. Check also with your colleagues.
 If wrong guest has the bad, work with a front desk agent to call the guest.
8. What are some signs of intoxication to be observed?
 Loss of coordination  Quantity of alcohol consumed
 Change in speech  Smell of alcohol
 Moods, behavior and conduct  Body language
9. How will you handle an intoxicated guest?
 Talk to the customer or their friend  Offer water/food
 Briefly explain your responsibilities  Slow down the service
 Promote non-alcoholic drinks  Inform other staff about the situation
 Offer low-alcoholic beverages
10. What are the concerns to note when asking an intoxicated patron to leave premises?
 Give a polite final warning  Explain why the person is being asked to leave
 Notify friends  Explain transportation options
 Identify transportation  Follow the person to the door
 Arrange assistance  Ensure the person is safely off the premises
11. Describe the functions of night audit
The major function of night audit is to:
 Verify posted entries to guest and non-guest  Resolve room statues and rate discrepancies
accounts  Monitor guest credit limits
 Balance all front office accounts  Produce operational and managerial reports
12. The role and job description of the night audit process
 The night audit requires attention to accounting detail, procedural controls, and guest credit restrictions. In this
sense, the night auditor shall track the room revenues, occupancy percentages and other standard operating
statistics.
 He/she shall also prepare a daily summary of cash, check, and credit cards activities that occurred in the Front
Office department on a daily basis.
 In night auditing, end of business day is a vial time for the auditor. As far as the closing of business day is concern,
management shall determine end of day. Which is the time after which the night audit can prepare his/her daily
reports. This end of day is usually the time where the majority of outlets close or no longer have frequent activity.
 The night auditor shall always compare the date conveyed in different folios against points of sales outlets daily
reports, housekeeping room status report. This is called cross-referencing and is a vital procedure in the internal
control.
 After comparing the night auditor should come up with the guest, non-guest and department accounts. This total
should match the daily POS totals (i.e. in balance). If not, then the auditor is said to be out of balance and the
auditor shall substantially review all account statements, vouchers support documents and departmental source of
documentation in order to bring the night audit to balance.
13. The main steps of the night audit process, are?
 Complete outstanding posting  Post room rates and taxes
 Reconcile room status discrepancies  Prepare required reports
 Verify room status  Prepare cash receipt for deposit
 Balance all departmental accounts  Clear or back up the system and distribute reports
 Verify no-show reservations
14. How will you address overbooking?
Overbooking is a serious mistake when the FO accepted reservations over how much the hotel can accommodate. To
address the problem, close monitoring of the departures with the Housekeeping Department should be done, and take
the guests to other partner hotels for temporary accommodation. Fetch the guests every time a room is available, and
offer other freebies to comfort the guests.
15. Describe an availability board
 A convenient visual guide for controlling overbooking. It reflects the true picture of the room availability status for a
six-month period.
16. Differentiate a guaranteed reservation from a confirmed reservation
 When the guest paid for the first night’s stay, by giving hid credit card or paying cash, it is a guaranteed reservation,
but when the guest just told the FO over the telephone that he is coming, then it is confirmed reservation. The guest
may not really arrive.
17. What is a central reservations system?
 A system from an independent company that charges the hotel for a fee for each reservation it generates or a
percentage of the revenue generated from the reservation it books.
18. What is a FIT?
 Individual tourist or representatives who come into the hotel and ask for a reservation in person. Free Independent
Traveler/Foreign individual Tourist.
 Refers to an individual who frequently travels and reserves in the hotel, thus the hotel has maintained updated
record of the guest.
19. Name at least four sources of reservations
 Mail. Telephone. Central Reservations System. In person. Corporate/Company Account
20. How will you handle the different forms of reservation?
 Most of the hotels are not using the computerized reservation system with different software like Opera, Micros
Fidelio, and other customized software. However, there are still hotels that maintain manual reservation that
requires so much attention and careful management.
21. How does a no show affect the hotel?
 A no show is a guest who has reservation but for whatever reasons do not arrive. Is affects the hotel revenue
especially when it is only a confirmed reservation during a lean period. Some hotels have policies to hold the
reservation up to 6:00 pm. A room left vacant for a day is a revenue lost forever.
22. Have you experienced operating the reservation using a system?
 There are popular systems like Opera, Harmony or Micros Fidelio and others, but I only have an experience on our
own customized system the Maestro Hotel which I can demonstrate on the computer.
23. What are the information needed to be asked by a reservation agent from the guest?
 Expected time and date of arrival  The arrival date, time and departure date of the guest
 The names of all parties desiring reservations  The name and address of the party to whom the
 Convention or group or business affiliation confirmation is to be sent
 Type of accommodation (standard, suite,  The form of payment to be used
double/deluxe)  The room rates
24. What is the standard practice in answering the telephone?
 Generally, the telephone should be answered in the following manner.
 All telephone calls must be answered within 3 rings.
 All calls must be answered with a greeting to include:
o The appropriate time of day “good morning/afternoon/evening”
o The hotel name or department
o The associate’s name
o An offer of assistance, e.g., “how may I help you?”
25. How will you handle guest complaints?
In handling guest complaint, bear in mind the following acronym: Take the HEAT
H – Hear the complain of the guest
E – Empathize with the guest
A – Apologize to the guest
T – Take action and be responsible for the complaints
26. How does the guest greeting affect the Front Office image?
The guest greeting including the eye contact, smile, use of guest name and a standard phrase of meeting a guest that
will give a positive 1st impression of the hotel, thus it will greatly affect the image of the hotel
27. Discuss the methods of settlement of guest accounts.
 Some guests settle their accounts in advance prior to their arrival either by depositing partial payment thru bank
or credit cards.
 Most of the hotel guests (personal account) settle their bill/account onsite using their credit card by allowing the
hotel to block the required amount.
 For corporate and government accounts, the hotel grants a credit line that can be used for company personnel
thru Bill Sending Arrangement with corporate rates.
 For clients like Travel Agencies, the deposits for the guests are done on specified periodic settlement with
special rates.
28. What constitutes the ‘++’ sign added to the charges?
The ++ sign reflected on the guest bill constitutes the following:
 12% Value Added Tax (VAT)
 Local Charge – City Tax
 Service Charge – an added amount for hotel employees
29. What are the different forms of guest payment?
Guests can settle their accounts thru the following: cash, cash equivalents, and non-cash documents:
 Credit Cards – credit line extended by a financial institution.
 Bill to account (Direct Billing) is a pre-authorized account that allows guest to have their charges processed on
a regular billing cycle without the use of credit card to settle the amount.
 Cash can either be local and/or foreign currency bills. All foreign currencies are transacted by the hotel.
 Traveler’s check are paid checks issued by a bank or financial organization which is processed like cash.
 Debit cards are banking institution issued cards that are similar to credit cards. Charges incurred through by
the holder are directly debited to funds of the owner in the guest’s bank account.

Note:
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Strictly provided for FRONT OFFICE SERVICES TRAINEES ONLY.
 What comprise product knowledge and what is its
importance?

What includes shift endorsement?

Explain the general flow in rooming a guest?

What are the things you may do in preparing for a group

arrival?

What are the personal safety measures to be observed in

lifting guest luggage?

When riding an elevator, what are the things to remember?

What do you do when guest losses luggage?

What are some signs of intoxication to be observed?

How will you handle an intoxicated guest?

What are the concerns to note when asking an intoxicated
patron to leave premises?

Describe the functions of night audit

The role and job description of the night audit process

The main steps of the night audit process, are?

How will you address overbooking?

Describe an availability board

Differentiate a guaranteed reservation from a confirmed

reservation

What is a central reservations system?

What is a FIT?
 Name at least four sources of reservations

How will you handle the different forms of reservation?

How does a no show affect the hotel?

Have you experienced operating the reservation using a

system?

What are the information needed to be asked by a

reservation agent from the guest?

What is the standard practice in answering the telephone?

How will you handle guest complaints?