Chapter 7 - Front Office Equipments.pdf

Chapter 7 Front Office Equipments Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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

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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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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

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Key Rack

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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

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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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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

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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

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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

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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 18 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments case of fire

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

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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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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Safety Equipments Fire ExtinguishersFour 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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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

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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

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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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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 Chapter 7 – Front Office Equipments

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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

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