Introduction
The role of the front desk is essential in every hotel. All the operations of the hotel are dependent on the front desk. The guests must have to contact the front desk in order for the accommodation. There are several responsibilities of the front desk, which includes the booking of the room, the front desk registers all the complaints of the hotel, and they reserve the booking on the phone. The financial success of every hotel is fully dependent on the services provided by the hotel and the front desk. It is essential that the front desk provides the services effectively for the successful growth of the hotel. The underlying paper has discussed the detailed information about the functions and responsibilities of the front desk in hotels.
The front desk in the hotels also called the reception is the place where the visitors arrive in order to book the rooms. The tasks of the front desk include the marketing and sales, reservations, concierge, and housekeeping. The tasks of the front desk have changed rapidly. The employees which work in the front desk help to confirm the reservation of the customers. They also note down the complaints of the customers and the queries. The front desk also performs the tasks of the housekeeping and the sales and marketing so that the front desk employees perform multiple tasks (Kasewurm, 2011).
Hotel room reservation
After the arrivals of the guest in the hotel, the front desk agent completes the registration process of the guests in order to acquire the hotel room. The main purpose of the registration process is to ensure that the procedures are followed according to the standards of the hotel. The employees at the front desk, collect the important information about the guest in order to book the room. The guests are signed on the printed registration card by the hotel. After that, the guests verify that the information about the guest printed on the registration card is correct or not. The front desk employees include the first and last name of the guest on the registration card. After that, the employees of the front desk search the reservation record of the guests. They record the arrival date and departure date of the guests in the computer system. They ask the room type from the guest and told them the charges of that room. They also describe the payment method to the guests and elaborate the meal plan with the guests.
The front desk employees take the proof of the ID of the local guests and take the visa and passport details of the foreigner guests. The guests have to illustrate the purpose of the visit in the hotel. They also give the number of the relatives in the case of an emergency. It is the duty of the front desk employees to elaborate the cancellation policies to the guests. After writing down all the details, the front desk employees again clarify the details of the guests with him in order to confirm that there is no mistake in the reservation process. The front desk employees must clear the terms and policies of the hotel to the guests before the reservation process of the guests. The front desk clears the guest that in which time he must check in the room and in which time he must check out from the room. Also, it is essential to describe the instructions to the guests about the parking fees and other charges before the process of reservation (Millar & Baloglu, 2011).
Importance of front desk agents
The services provided by the employees of the front desk to the guests are very crucial. The front desk employees record the complaints of the guests and help to resolve those complaints. If the front desk provides the excellent guest services, it will directly impact on the performance of the hotel. It is essential for the front desk employees to maintain a good relationship with the customers and resolve the complaints rapidly so that the customers will attract with the services of the hotel. The financial performance of the hotel is directly related to the front desk employees. So, the agents of the front desk are very crucial in the hotels (Al-Mutawa & Ibrahim, 2013).
The services provided by the hotel to the poor guest's impact on the performance and the profitability of every hotel. If the hotel provides the best services to the guests, it helps to enhance the profitability of the hotel because if the guest like the services, they will prefer to the others to accommodate in that hotel. So it is essential for every hotel to provide the best services to the guests in order to attract them. But, if the hotel fails to provide the best quality services to the guests so that it will impact negatively on the guests and they will not visit in that hotel again. Also, they will retain the other individuals for going in that hotel. This will reduce the profitability of the underlying hotel.
Role of front desk in the safety of guests
It is the duty of the front desk to provide the effective supervision of the hotel. The front desk is responsible for controlling all the procedures in the hotel. The front desk is responsible for providing training to the employees of the hotel in order to provide the best quality services to the customers. The front desk is responsible for providing the security to the guests. It is the duty of the front desk to apply the policies in the hotel in order to stop the crimes. The responsibility of the front desk is to provide the safe and secure environment to the customers. The key card lock provided by different hotels to the guests in order to provide them safety and security. The front desk employees are responsible for the security of the customers and use the security cameras in order for the safety of the customers.
The front desk provides the protection to the guests from crimes which include health hazards, murder and food poisoning, etc. The front desk provides the lockers to the guests in order to keep saving their important things in that locker. It is the duty of the front desk to provide the clean water to the guests. They also provide the storerooms to the guests in order to secure their luggage. The front desk is also responsible for the kitchen equipment, boilers, lifts and the furniture settings of the hotel. They are responsible for the bomb threat security system and provide the fire safety equipment to the customers of the hotel (Cheng & Kozikowski, 2015).
Mismanagement of the front desk impacts on the finance of the hotels
Example 1
Portland hotel was very wonderful and provide the effective services to the guests. One of its guests named William received the excess bill amount due to the mismanagement. William was sure that the amount will be the same as he was expected. He guessed that the excess amount was due to the wifi service, but the front desk clears that the wifi service was free. The excess amount of the bill was due to the mismanagement of the hotel.
Example 2
The second example of the mismanagement of the front desk is the famous hotel named Riviera. Anthony spends his vacations in the Los Angeles so he stayed in Riviera for only one night. He estimated the amount of the one night, but when Anthony received a bill he was getting shocked. The bill was beyond his expectations. The underlying hotel has charged the amount of the final folio. There was a big mismanagement of the front desk in the amount of the bill.
Conclusion
It is concluded that the role of the front desk in the hotels cannot be ignored. There are several responsibilities of the front desk in every hotel. If the front desk of the hotel is strong, so that hotel can easily perform the best services to the customers and also the profitability of the hotel will be enhanced. The front desk is directly related to the financial performance of the hotels. The services provided by the front desk impact on the financial performance of the hotels. It is the responsibility of the front desk to provide safety and security to the guests.
References
Al-Mutawa, S. & Ibrahim, M. (2013). Effects of Gender and Personality Traits of Front-Desk Employees on Customers' Assessment of Service Quality: Evidence from Islamic Banks in the UAE. IJBM, 8(15). http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n15p1
Cheng, J. & Kozikowski, A. (2015). We Need 2C but Not 2B: Developing Serotonin 2C (5-HT 2C ) Receptor Agonists for the Treatment of CNS Disorders. Chemmedchem, 10(12), 1963-1967. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.201500437
Kasewurm, G. (2011). Scripts for front desk staff. The Hearing Journal, 64(Supplement), 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.hj.0000403520.01551.4e
Millar, M. & Baloglu, S. (2011). Hotel Guests' Preferences for Green Guest Room Attributes. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 52(3), 302-311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1938965511409031
