Dealing with Customers ǀ Front Office Services

 Guest Cycle

There are four stages of the guest cycle. The guest cycle refers to the flow of operations that occur in a hotel from when a guest chooses a hotel, to checking out. The four stages are:

Pre-arrival Stage

The pre-arrival stage is a crucial stage of the guest cycle for establishments since this is where the guest decides what hotel to choose.

The factors that are commonly considered by guests when choosing a tourism establishment are:

• Previous experiences with the establishment
  
• The establishment’s advertisements
  
• Recommendations from travel agents, friends, or business associates
  
• The establishment’s location
  
• The establishment’s name or the name of the hotel chain operation

Another consideration considered by a guest is the ease of making hotel reservations. Thus, if a FO staff or the hotel’s system is incompetent when receiving reservation requests, guests might be turned off to stay at your establishment.

How a front office reservation agent also describes the hotel’s services and amenities is crucial to getting reservations. The agent must be quick, accurate, detailed, and polite when responding to callers’ requests and queries.

Arrival Stage

The arrival stage focuses on the check-in activities of the guest. It includes: 

• Registering the guest
  
• Assigning a room and rate (for walk-in guests)
  
• Determining methods of payment (for walk-in guests)
  
• Identifying a departure date
  
• Escorting or directing the guest to the room
  
• Club membership

Occupancy Stage

When the guest arrives at the room and accepts it, the occupancy stage begins. The occupancy stage is considered as the center of front office activity. The front office plays a major role during a guest’s stay at the hotel. 

For example, the front office is the one who provides information and supplies when the guest requests it. It is the main source of service that the hotel supplies. The FO staff should perform these tasks well because this will determine whether a guest will repeat his/her stay at the hotel. 

Some of the services that a guest may acquire during his/her lodging are:

• Purchase of food and beverages
  
• Use of telephone
  
• Gift shop purchases
  
• Laundry Services
  
• Inquiries

These transactions should be well recorded and processed according to the FO posting and auditing procedures.

Departure Stage

The departure stage is the final stage of the guest cycle and involves the guest’s check-out process. When checking out, the guest vacates the room, receives a statement of account for settlement, returns the room keys, and leaves the hotel.

When settling the guest’s account, confirm whether the guest would pay by cash or by credit card. Account balances should be checked for error before the guest leaves the hotel. There are instances were late charges occur. These are charges that were not posted to the guest folio until after the guest has already checked out.

When the room is already vacated, the guestroom’s room status is changed and the housekeeping department is notified.

Finally, the departure stage is when the front office staff determines whether the guest was satisfied with their service. The front office staff must not forget to ask for guests’ feedback, may be verbal or written, to assess the quality of the hotel services they experienced. At this stage, the front office may also encourage the guest to acquire the hotel’s services once again. This could be the beginnings of a guest history record. 

A guest history record contains the personal and financial information of guests that would help in the development of the hotel’s marketing strategies. With this, the hotel’s services may also be customized according to the client’s needs.