Front Office Equipments.pdf

Chapter 7

Front Office Equipments

Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments 1

Learning Objective

To learn

Various types of equipments used in front office

Equipments that make the hotel operations easy

and systematic

Methods to handling of the office equipments

2 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

Room Rack

• The room rack are the equipments where registration

records are inserted to serve as room rack slips

• Considered as most important piece of front office

equipment

• Array of metal file pockets designed to hold room rack

slips that display guest and room status information

• When key slots are added to the room rack, it can

serve as a combination room and key rack


Room Rack

• One glance at the room rack should immediately

inform the front desk agent of the occupancy and

housekeeping status of all rooms

• Front desk agents normally use this information to

match available rooms with guests needs during the

registration process


Key Rack


Key Rack

• These are sets of racks were generally kept at the

front desk in earlier day

• A key rack is an array of numbered compartments

used to store guestroom keys

• Key racks are often placed in front desk drawers to

ensure the safety and security of guests


Key Rack

• A combination of mail, message and key rack can be

either a free-standing wall unit or an under the

counter row of apartments

• When the mail and message compartments of the

rack are open from both sides, telephone operators

and front desk agents

• Operators who record telephone messages for guests

can insert them into the rack from the back side; front

desk agents can retrieve the messages from the front

side


Reservation Racks

• A special board or series of pigeonholes where cards

are put to show which room have been booked

• Front office uses both two types of reservation racks

• In an advance reservation rack, reservation rack

slops or registration cards are arranged by the guest

scheduled dates of arrival and with each day’s

grouping


Reservation Racks

• A current reservation rack is portable subset of the

advance reservation rack

• The current reservation rack is used by the front desk

agents to assist in processing guests during

registration


Information Rack

• An information rack is an index of in-house guests, by

both last name and room number

• An information rack is commonly use to assist front

office employees with proper routing of telephone

calls, mails

• The information rack normally consists of aluminium

slots designed to hold guest information slips


Folio Trays

• Folio tray or folio bucket is where the guest folios are

stored and arranged by guestroom numbers

• Guest folios remain in the tray throughout the

occupancy stage of the guest cycle, except when they

are used in posting transactions

• A second folio tray is normally located in the hotel’s

accounting office


Folio Trays

• This tray contains the folios of departed guests being

directly-billed or of guests who paid by credit card

• Once these accounts are settles, the folios are moved

to permanent storage location


Account Posting Machine

• An electromechanical or

electronic device use in

semi-automated hotels

• An account posting

machine is used to post,

monitor, and balance

charges and credits to

guest accounts


Other Equipments

• Voucher rack – it is a container for storing vouchers

for future reference and verification during the night

audit

• Cash register – used to record to cash transactions

and maintain cash balances

• Telephone equipment – telephone equipments

consists of call accounting systems, automatic call

dispensing, telephone / room status system, fax

machine and call detection


Other Equipments

• Credit card imprinter – Imprinter presses a credit

card voucher against a guest’s credit card

• Magnetic strip reader – a magnetic strip reader,

reads data magnetically encoded and stored on the

magnetic tape strip on credit card

• Time stamp – Time stamp recording is important for

establishment of chronology of events


Other Equipments

• Security Monitor – CCTV cameras for security

personnel to monitor certain areas of hotel

• Wake-up devices – used by telephone operators to

place wake-up calls

• Multi-zone clock – indicators of the time at different

time zones across world


Other Equipments

• Wi-fi ticket – provides user id and password to guest

to access the internet facility of the hotel

• Card imprinting machine – PVC cards enabling the

customers to make it easy to book for them


Safety Equipments Safety equipments used in hotel – the basic safety

equipments include

• Smoke detectors – to detect smoke in case of fire as

a preventive measure

• Fire extinguishers – meant to involve various

classes fires

• Carbon monoxide detectors – important to detect

as the gas is invisible and dangerous

• Sprinkler systems – equipments to sprinkler water in

case of fire 18 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

Safety Equipments

Smoke detectors –

To detect smoke in case of fire as a preventive

measure

Some detectors have ability to report heat build up

prior to evidence of smoke or flame

Some of the detectors respond only to the smoke

and other products of combustion


Safety Equipments

Smoke detectors –

Single-station hard wired smoke detectors require

that the unit be on electric wiring as opposed to the

battery power

An automated system integrated all smoke

detectors in each location

Many local jurisdictions enacted local regulations

requiring fully automated smoke detector systems


Safety Equipments

Fire Extinguishers-

Four classes of fires that a lodging property should be

prepared for

• Class A – Involves ordinary combustibles

• Class B – Involve flammable liquids

• Class C – Involve electrical equipment

• Class D – Involve cooking oils and fats


Safety Equipments

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

• Carbon monoxide is a dangerous by-product of a

malfunctioning water heater, kerosene heater, coal

boiler and any other wood

• Carbon monoxide is invisible and has no smell, it

cannot be detected by natural means


Safety Equipments


Sprinkler Systems

• Sprinkler systems are now mandated in an

establishments four stories or higher

• Most jurisdictions now require full sprinkler in the new

constructions of any commercial property

Accident Prevention Signs

Hotel also uses various signs to prevent accidents-

• Danger signs – which indicate the immediate

dangers ahead

• Caution signs – used to warn against potential

hazards

• Safety instruction signs – use where need for

general instructions relative to safety measures


Summary

• The Front office department of a hotel comprises of

the sections like Reservation, Front Desk, Bell desk,

Travel desk, Concierge etc

• The Front office manager must be a skilled planner

who channelizes the various resources

• The Front desk agent is the first person a guests sees

on entering the hotel and the last person the guest

sees on leaving


Summary

• The front office is elegantly designed to

accommodate the staff and for the smooth service to

the guests

• Number of front office equipments ensure an effective

hospitality of the guest


Documents

Front Office Equipments.pdf