UNIT 6: Four Functional Areas of the Accommodation

Four Functional Areas/Department

1. Front Office Department (FO) – (Front Office Manager – FOM)
2. Food and Beverage Service – (F&B Manager)
3. Food and Beverage Production – Kitchen (Executive Chef)
4. Housekeeping – (Executive Housekeeper)

1. Front Office Department (FO) – (Front Office Manager – FOM)

Sections of FO:
a. Front Desk
 Check in (registration) and Check out (Cashiering)
 Block/assign rooms for guests before arrival
 Coordinate with other department such as: Housekeeping, bell service, reservations
 Provide information about the hotel and facilities
 Provide accurate room status information
 Maintains guest accounts and settle bill accurately

b. Uniformed Services Staff

 Bell Service (Bell Captain)
- Has the most frequent contact with the guests. Its staff is very important part of the
reception process. The bellman usually works next to the front desk.
- Greet incoming guests and escort them to their rooms. (Rooming the guests)
- Provide guests with baggage handling and transport service upon arrival and checkout.
- Deliver message or parcel to guestrooms
 Doorman
- Welcome and greet guests upon opening the door either car or hotel main entrance.
- Assist in uploading or loading the luggage.
 Lobby Hostess/Hosts
- Welcome and greet guests upon arrival/departure
- Escort guests to the Reception desk for check in or registration
- Provide welcome drinks
 Valet Parking Services
- Follow the procedures of parking and retrieving the vehicles of the guests respectfully and
carefully
- Providing prompt and courteous support to the guests while checking in or checking out
of the hotel.
 Concierge (for luxury hotel)
- Welcome guests upon entrance and confirm reservation
- Act as the point of reference for guests who need assistance or information and attend to
their wishes and requirements
- Understand guests needs and provide them with personalized solutions by suggesting
activities and facilities provided by the hotel
- Acquire extensive knowledge of the premises and the nearby venues and business to
make the most suitable recommendations.
 - Arrange events, excursions, transportation etc. upon request from hotel guests.
- Answer phone and make reservations
c. Telecommunication (Guest services Agent – GSA)
- Answer incoming calls
- Direct call to guest rooms, staff or departments through switchboard or PBX system.
- Places outgoing calls
- Receive guest messages and deliver the same to the guest.
- Logs all wake-up call requests and performs wake-up call services
- Provides information about the hotel services to guests
- Understand the telephone operator board or PBX switchboard operations
- Provide paging services for hotel guests and employees
- Follow telephone etiquette.
Function of Front Office in a Hotel
1. Sell guestrooms, register guests, and assign guestroom
2. Coordinate guest services
3. Provide information about the hotel, the surrounding community, and attractions or events of
interest to guests.
4. Maintain accurate room status information
5. Maintain guest accounts and monitor credit
6. Produce guest account statements, and complete proper financial settlement

2. Food and Beverage Service (F&B Manager)

- Is a part of the service-oriented hospitality sector.
- It is a process of preparing, presenting and serving of food and beverages to the customers through
restaurants, food stalls etc. This includes fresh, prepared foods as well as packaged foods, and
alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks or beverages.

Food and Beverage outlets are divided into the following categories:
a. Restaurants
b. Lounge
c. Bar
d. Nightclub/Discotheque
e. Room Service
f. Banquet/Meeting and Conference

a. Various types of Restaurants:

 All Dining Restaurant – They are usually called as Coffee Shop or Café in Hotels. They are usually
in size with many covers (seats), compared to other restaurants in the same hotel. Open for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
 Fine Dining Restaurants – are characterized by their elaborate and exclusive menu with special
emphasis on the very high quality of food they serve.
 Specialty Restaurants – which usually have a type of National or Regional character or cuisine
attached to them, for example: Italian Specialty Restaurant.
b. Lounge
- their main purpose is to offer Food and Drinks in comfortable and cozy seating in relaxed
surroundings. There are many kinds of Lounges ranging from a Lounge in a Lobby, Cocktail Lounge,
and Executive and Club Lounge on Special Floors.
c. Bar
- where drinks are served with small/limited snack menu. The service is fast and quick.
d. Discotheque/Nightsclub
- Music and entertainment takes the priority with the food and drink. Music and entertainment range
from DJ to live bands playings.
e. Room Service/In Room Dining
- Also know as In Room Dining. Service of Food & Drink in Guest Rooms in a Hotel or a Resort
f. Meeting and Conference Rooms
- this is under the Banquet & Conference Section. They are a great source of revenue in Food and
Beverage Department usually in Corporate – MICE (Meetings, Incentives and Conferences &
Exhibitions)

3. Food and Beverage Production – Kitchen

F&B Production/Kitchen – is responsible for the actual preparation of food items, a process, in which
raw materials are cooked, combined and transformed to make a dish. Whereas F&B service is
responsible for the systemic service of food from the hot or cold plates of kitchen to the customer’s
tables as per their choices or order.

Sections of the Kitchen:

a. Hot Kitchen – is where raw materials are prepared and cooked, whether baked, fried, roasted,
boiled or steamed.
b. Cold Kitchen, Larder, Garde Manger – is cool, well-ventilated area where cold dishes such as
salads, hors d’oevres, appetizers, canapes, pates and terrine are prepared and other foods are
stored under refrigeration.
c. Pastry/bakery – is responsible for making all bread products, pastry products, cakes and biscuits
and any deserts used in the hotel.
d. Butchery – is responsible for preparing a variety of cuts of meat, poultry, and fish.
e. Vegetable Section – responsible for preparing vegetables such us cutting – mise en place.
4. Housekeeping

Major Responsibilities of Housekeeping Department:

 Maintaining of guestrooms, public areas, administrative offices/back-of-the-house on a high
standard of cleanliness
 Washing the linens
 Providing amenities for the guestrooms and public areas
 Provide uniforms for the staff.

Is responsible to keep the following areas clean and tidy:

 Guestrooms (by Room Attendants)
 Public areas such as: (by Pubic Area Attendants)
- Lobby, Lifts, Hallways, Public CR’s
 Banquets and Conference Halls
 Parking Area
 Sales and Admin offices
 Garden
 UNIT 7: OTHER DEPARTMENT IN THE HOTEL/ACCOMMODATION OPERATION
Other Departments:
1. Sales and Marketing Department – (Director/Manager of Sales and Marketing)
2. Security Department – (Security Manager)
3. Accounting Department – (Financial Controller)
4. Human Resource Department – (HR Manager)
5. Maintenance and Engineering Dept. – (Chief Engineer)

1. Sales and Marketing Department

Role of Sales and Marketing: In the Hotel

a. Planning hotel’s sales and marketing strategy

b. Preparing and issuing sales contracts in timely manner
c. Maintaining accurate sales records, forecast and histories
d. Coordinating and communicating special client requests with affected hotel
departments
e. Hosting clients during their stay
f. Conducting site tours

4 Functions Sales and Marketing

 Sales
 Convention Services
 Advertising
 Public Relations
Sales - Activities related directly to servicing consumer demand & booking clients
Marketing - Activities designed to increase consumer awareness & demand by promoting &
advertising hotel.

Importance of Sales and Marketing

The goal of a hotel’s sales and marketing effort is to identify and communicate with guests
whose needs match the services and facilities offered by the hotel

Role of Director of Sales and Marketing

 Identify and cultivate clients
 Manage hotel’s marketing efforts
 Set rates to maximize RevPar
 Negotiate sales contracts on behalf of hotel
 Serve as a leader to hotel’s sales and marketing team
Evaluating Sales and Marketing Department
Operating Comparison Criteria
 Occupancy, ADR, RevPar, market share, historical trends, to-date performance, country
of origin.

Goals
 Assess performance of Sales & Marketing Department as well as the entire property
 Know the strength of hotel and Sales and Marketing staff’s sales in comparison with
selected competitors.

2. Security Department
Security is an important concern in every hotel.
• Is responsible for implementing procedures which aim at protecting the safety and
security of hotel guests, visitors, hotel employees and the hotel itself.
Example: monitoring surveillance equipment, patrolling the hotel premises and maintaining
security alarm systems.

Security- Duties and Functions

o Maintain professional appearance
o Maintain key control
o Understand and response to alarm devices
o Maintain hotel safety and security
o Maintain departmental security and loss control
o Handle emergencies
o Administer first aid
o Patrol hotel property
o Write reports
 o Keep records

Concept in Hotel
• It is the moral and legal responsibility of a hotel to protect its guests and their property
against threats posed by human beings with a conscious intent to harm them.
• The security department of the hotel is responsible for the overall security of the
building, in-house guests, visitors, day users, and employees of the hotel.
Security? Why?
• Hotel guests want to feel safe and secure in their temporary home. Hotels have a duty
to protect them.
• Apart from the possibility of death or injury and destruction, the adverse publicity from
an incident, can result in ruined reputations, failing business and knock-on effects to
tourism in the country or region.
• The risk to hotels can also increase because of the identity of an individual guest or his
or her family. VIPs, celebrities or the infamous can present special difficulties.
• Hotel staff may not even become aware of risks that some guests may bring with them.
Consequently, a hotel must be vigilant at all times.
3. Accounting Department
The Purpose of Accounting in the Hospitality Industry
• Accounting is the process of recording financial transactions, summarizing them, and
then accurately reporting them.
• An Accountant is a person skilled in the recording and reporting of financial
transactions.
• Accounting in the hospitality industry is utilized every time a guest purchases food,
beverages, or a hotel guest room.
• Creditors want to know about the proposed business’s estimated financial performance
before they decide to lend it money.
• Owners of a hotel want to monitor their business’s financial condition.
• Investors want to put their money in businesses that will conserve or increase their
wealth.
• Managers use accounting techniques as well as their education, experience, values, and
goals to make management decisions.
4. Human Resource Department
HR Planning – systematic analysis of HR needs in order to Ensure that the
• Right number and
• Right kind of people are available at the
• Right time, at the
• Right place to do the
• Right job & to do the job
• Right
Objectives
The basic purpose of HRP is to decide what positions the organization will have to fill and how
to fill them.
• Forecast personnel requirements
• Cope with changes
• Use existing manpower productively
• Promote employees in a systematic way
Importance of HRP
Organizations use HRP to meet future challenges, cut costs, and achieve greater effectiveness
• Create a talent pool
• Prepare people for future
• Cope with organizational changes
• Cut costs
• Help succession planning
HRP Trend in Hotel Industry
Outsourcing
• Creating Talen Pools
• Submitting Applicant’s Information according to the needs of the organization
• Final selection will made by organization
• Have to Pay Service Charge
5. Maintenance and Engineering Dept.
Unit Objectives
• Describe the role and responsibility of engineering and maintenance department
• Explain the importance of managing maintenance in relations to guests comfort
• Relate the impacts of utilities and hotel profitability
• Suggest ways to promote environmental awareness in accommodation business

The role of engineering and maintenance department

 The primary job of the engineering and maintenance department is to properly maintain
the hotel building, equipment and grounds.
Duties and Responsibilities of Engineering & Maintenance Department
1. Property operations
Includes running the utilities like HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning)
plant and machinery, water treatment and distribution, boilers and water heating,
sewage treatment, external and common area lighting, fountains and water features
etc. Covers 24 hours shift per day.
2. Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM)
This is one of the most important functions of E & M often cited as the most
critical from longtime building asset maintenance point of view. The philosophy is to
regularly carry out a set of preventive actions for every machine in the building rather
than allow it to run to failure and the tackle expensive breakdown maintenance costs.
3. Fire and Life safety
is also responsible to ensure a safe building for its occupants. This includes
ensuring 100 percent up-time of all the fire pumps serving the sprinkler and hydrants
around the building, the fire alarm system consisting of smoke detectors, manual call
points and alarm bells, egress lights, emergency backup power gensets, inverters, UPS,
public address system, CCTV cameras, fire doors, etc. They work hand in hand with
security personnel in carrying out evacuation drills and safety checks of the premises.
 UNIT VIII: Guest Cycle Stages

Four Stages of the Guest (Cycle) Journey

1. Pre-Arrival Stage
2. Arrival Stage
3. Occupancy Stage
4. Departure Stage

Guest Cycle
1. Pre- Arrival Stage
 Guests choose accommodation (Reservation)
2. Arrival Stage
• Airport - 1. Welcomed by Airport Representative
2. Hotel Car Driver
• Hotel - 3. Uniformed Services Staff (Doorman, Bell Service, Luggage Handling, Lobby Host)
4. Front Desk (Registration, Confirmation of the reservation, Rooming in the guest)
3. Occupancy
• Hotel - Availing of the hotel facilities/outlets
4. Departure
• Hotel - 4. Front Desk (Bill Settlement, Check-out, Luggage handling, Transportation)