Operational Aspect in Front Office of Hotel Shankar Lazimpat, Kathmandu A Thesis ProposalSubmitted to Global Academy of Tourism and Hospitality Education (GATE)Affiliated to Hotelleresuisse Swiss Hotel Association (SHA)Budanilkantha, Mandikhatar, Kathmandu, NepalIn the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the GATE-SHA Higher Diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management (GATE-SHA HDH &RM)BySandeep DahalSHMD:8220216GATE CollegeMandikhatar, Kathmandu, NepalDate of Submission: July,2018DECLARATIONI, hereby, declare that the Thesis Proposal entitled, “Operational Aspect Of Front Office In HOTEL SHANKAR ” submitted to GATE College, affiliated to Hotelleriesuisse, is my original work done for the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of the GATE-SHA Higher Diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management (GATE-SHA, HDH&RM). …………………………….SignatureSandeep DahalDate:13 July 2018 LETTER OF APPROVALThis is to certify that the Thesis Proposal submitted by Sandeep Dahal entitled “Operational Aspect In Front Office Of HOTEL SHANKAR” has been approved by the department in the prescribed format of the faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Education.
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.. DateACKNOWLEDGEMENTI am very thankful to Mr. Dharma Raj Bhattarai for providing the guidance to prepare this Proposal. I would like express my gratitude towards the GATE College family, my friends and family who gave me continuous support and encouraged me to work hard. I would like to opportunity to thank Mr.
Sachin Shrestha and Bishnu Magar for providing their support and suggestion to complete this Proposal.ABSTRACT The front office is the part of a company that comes in contact with clients, such as the marketing, sales, and service departments.In the hotel industry, the front office (also known as front desk) welcomes guests to the accommodation section: meeting and greeting them, taking and organizing reservations, allocating check in and out of rooms, organizing porter service, issuing keys and other security arrangements, passing on messages to customers and settling the accounts. TABLE OF CONTENTSLETTER OF DECLARATION……………………………………………………….
LETTER OF APPROVAL……………………………………………………………ACKNOLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………………ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………CHAPTER: I INTRODUCTION…………………………………………
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… 1-51.1 Background of the Study 11.
2 Statement of the Problem 21.3 Objectives of the study 31.4 Significance of the study 31.5 Limitation of the study 41.6 Chapter Plan 4CHAPTER:II LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………… 6-8CHAPTER :II RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………. 9-103.1 Research Design 93.2 Source of Data 103.
3 Population and Sample 103.4 Data Collection Tools 103.4.1 Structured Questionnaire: 103.
4.2 Interview: 103.4.3DifferentPublications…………………………………………….
113.5 DatCollectionProcedure…………………………………………………………113.6 Data Analysis Procedure 11CHAPTER: IV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION……………………… 12-134.
1 Summary 124.2 Conclusion 12References………………………………………………………………………….15 CHAPTER: IINTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the StudyThe front office is the part of a company that comes in contact with clients, such as the marketing, sales, and service departments. The front office in the hotel industry, also called the reception area, which the receptionist is the one who get in touch with the customers, most importantly, confirm their reservation and answering their questions.
The receptionist in the front office will pick up phone calls from customers too, welcome customers and also help customers checking out at last.The front office receives information about the customers then will pass onto the other department of the company. The front office can also contact with marketing and sales department when the customers have questions on it. The company needs to give training to the front office manager because this position will contact with customers the most.One of the biggest challenges that front office staff might face in the hotel industry would be over booking. This might lead to low reputation to the company as bad communication and organization skills are discovered. This might also lead to unsatisfactory of customers.
Phone call might not be picked up by front office staff due to large amount of work needs to be done, and customer might not be happy about this. This will affect the reputation of the company again, as customers can’t call the front desk as soon as they want to. Front office staff might also get annoyed by customers, as they might not book a room beforehand, and the front office staff can’t get angry at them.
The function of front office is to directly get in touch with customers, and is usually the first place that customers get to when they arrive to the company. The front office can discover more information about the customer by asking them questions, also helping the customers out.The front office receives information about the customers then will pass onto the other department of the company. The front office can also contact with marketing and sales department when the customers have questions on it. The company needs to give training to the front office manager because this position will contact with customers the most.
Other simple tasks, like taking customers’ jackets or serving drinks to customers might also be one of the front office staff’s job. A receptionist may also assume some security guard access control functions for an organization by verifying employee identification, issuing visitor passes, and observing and reporting any unusual or suspicious persons or activities.A receptionist is often the first business contact a person will meet at any organization. It is an expectation of most organizations that the receptionist maintains a calm, courteous and professional demeanor at all times, regardless of the visitor’s behavior. Some personal qualities that a receptionist is expected to possess in order to do the job successfully include attentiveness, a well-groomed appearance, initiative, loyalty, maturity, respect for confidentiality and discretion, a positive attitude and dependability. At times, the job may be stressful due to interaction with many different people with different types of personalities, and being expected to perform multiple tasks quickly.1.2 Statement of the ProblemFront office is regarded as one of the most professional department in the hotel, as it is the first ever department which comes in contact with the guest.
There is well qualified and skilled staff in front office yet there are many problems that the front office might face.Check-in and Check-out: Front office should be brisk in performing quick check-in/check-out of guests and groups. Moreover, constant walk-ins during busy days can pose as a major problem too. Any inconvenience in arrivals and departures can create displeasure among the guests.Housekeeping: Sometimes it may happen that, housekeeping department missed to clean a room after check-out and when another guest checks-in, the room is dirty and the complaints are received at front desk.
Hence to maintain a transparency between the front desk and housekeeping is also difficult for the Front desk.Queries Regarding Bills: Many of the guests might have queries regarding their bills which they raise at Front Desk. Imagine this scenario during a busy weekend at a hotel. It can be very challenging.
Complaint Resolution: Front Office being the primary point of contact for the guest, it becomes very important to resolve their each and every complaint. The person at the Front desk should be able to answer all questions of the guests and also should be able to understand guest emotions(whether it is anger, displeasure or any) and deal with them accordingly.1.3 Objectives of the StudyThe specific objective includes:• To study the important functions of Front Office department.• To study the system of control in the Front Office.• To know about the management information systems.
1.4 Significance of the Study This study has some significance such as;• This study helps to know an overview of the operating of hotel.• This study helps to study the flow of work accomplished in the Front office department and their key units.1.5 Limitation of the StudyThis study will be conducted within time constraint so the study has some limitations such as;• The study is limited due to storage of time and insufficient exposure to finance and accounting department.• A large portion of this study is based on assumption and textual sources.
• The study will be conducting within the limited budget and therefore it may not cover all the aspects of the study. 1.6 Chapter PlanThe research is divided into different parts. The preliminary part contains cover page, table of contents followed by different chapters and last part includes references. There are five main chapters in this research.
1.6.1 IntroductionChapter one includes the background of the study and introduction of the study area. The chapter also includes the research problem, objectives of the research and limitations of the study.1.6.
2 Review of LiteratureChapter two contains review of literature. A review of literature is done in this chapter. Literature about meaning, problem faced by front office staff is made.1.
6.3 Research MethodologyChapter three includes research methodology. A methodology followed for the research such as type of research, techniques of data collection is described in this chapter.1.6.4 Presentation and Analysis of DataChapter four includes the interpretation and the analysis of the data obtained through survey, interview and other different methods. It is the systematic arrangement or presentation of the data using appropriate statistical tools.
1.6.5 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation Lastly, chapter five contains results, summary, conclusion, recommendation and references at the end of this research. Recommendation will be based on the findings of the research.CHAPTER: IIREVIEW OF LITERATUREA literature review is a text of scholarly paper which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources and do not report new or the original experimental works.HotelsAt hotels, front office refers to the front desk or reception area or the core operations department of the hotel.
This would include the reception and front desk, as well as reservations, sales and marketing, housekeeping and concierge. This is the place where guests go when they arrive at the hotel. Employees working in the front office will confirm guest reservations and also attend to guest complaints and queries.The employees who work in the lobby of the hotel are also part of the front office as they deal with guest directly. The concierge, cashier, porter, and mailing service are included in the front office.
The important area of Front office is a. Reception b. Information c. Cash Challenges facedThe front office staff might lack motivation sometimes as they do the same work repeatedly on a daily basis and usually their pay is the lowest compared to other staff. This is a very important fact to take note of as this might affect the profitability and efficiency of the company as this staff member will directly deal with customers the most.
This staff member might have high stress levels as they might have to deal with bad-tempered customers and a lot of complaints, making it hard to maintain good services.One of the biggest challenges that front office staff might face in the hotel industry would be over booking. These bad communication and organization skills might lead to a bad reputation for the company and unsatisfactory services to customers.Front office staff should receive continuous training as this will improve their customer service. Salary increases can also provide more motivation.The phone system could be configured in such a way that the company can track the calls that are missed by the front office. This can help them get back to the customers as soon as possible.CHAPTER: IIIRESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research methodological aspect is a procedure used in making systematic observation, obtaining data evidence or information as part of a research project or study.
To know in-depth information about the topic the researcher will discuss with the professional related for several times and other related secondary information. For the preparation of the report data will be collected from the both the primary as well as the secondary sources which will include; text books, research articles, journals and related website links. This chapter contains a brief description of methodology that a researcher will use to fulfill the research objectives at various stages of the research. 3.1 Research DesignA research design is a plan of the proposed research work. A research model or design represents a compromise dictated by mainly practical considerations. Research design is a research plan providing guidelines to researcher to get answer of the research objectives and to help control experimental and error variance of a particular research problem.The researcher will use both explanatory as well as descriptive research design.
In the study the explanatory research design will be used to understand about the problems that staff needs to face during work hours.3.2 Source of DataAs per the need of the study the researcher will use both the primary as well as the secondary source of data. The data collected from these sources will be both qualitative as well as quantitative. The data will be collected through original research such as census data, sampling, journals, articles and records of the tourism board, chef association etc.3.
3 Population and SampleThe researcher will take sample from the staff working in front office of HOTEL SHANKAR. The researcher will be interviewing the Front Office Manager. The number of the sample size will be near to 10. 3.4 Data Collection ToolsThe researcher will adopt research methods as per the need of the study such as research objectives, types to the data required for the research. The researcher will be using the following data collection technique to collect primary data.
3.4.1 Structured Questionnaire:The researcher will prepare questionnaire containing both the open and close question.
Questionnaire will be given to the Front Office Manager of HOTEL SHANKAR and they will be asked to fill the questionnaire in order to fulfill the data requirement of the researcher.3.4.2 Interview:The researcher will interview the participants in order to collect first hand data.
Interview will be scheduled as per the objective of the study containing both open and close-ended questions. 3.4.3 Different Publications:The researcher will collect data from different books and the published articles in the magazine and websites and also from journals. 3.5 Data Collection ProcedureData will be collected through both primary and secondary sources; in case of the primary data will be collected through structured questionnaire, interview and different publication.
These collected data will be both qualitative and quantitative. The researcher will prepare questionnaire to collect opinion from the different respondents. Both open and closed-ended questions will be framed.
Interview questions will be prepared according to the objective of the study to collect first hand data. Different articles, journals and books will be considered in order to collect second hand data. 3.6 Data Analysis ProcedureThe qualitative data will be collected, coded and tabulated and interpreted in the appropriate formats.
Different statistical tools will be used if necessary to compare the data obtain from the field survey. Primary data will be processed in the percentage of total response. The result obtained from the questionnaire and the interview methods will be presented in the tabular formats.CHAPTER: IVSUMMARY AND CONCLUSION4.
1 SummaryFront Office is the nerve hub of the Hotel as it makes the first contact and the last contact with all the guests. This department is the back bone of any hotel. It is also the largest income generating department. This department has the maximum contact with the guest during his stay.
The main components of this department are reservation, information’s, reception and cashier along with the telephone, desks and guest re The study of a hotel is based on the distinct functions, service etc., and this formed the basis of the study of the operational aspects of a model hotel, As a result the objective of this study was to observe the various systems and procedures followed by different departments of a model hotel. A general brief on each department, the hierarchy pertinent to it, the various components and management information systems was provided.The study was however limited due to time constraint and the department could not be studied in detail. The staff in HOTEL SHANKAR was cooperative and I get chance to know many things. 4.2 Conclusion The front office or can be known as the main nerve of the hotel is the first and the last sector that interact with a client.
Front offices are typically called so because they are at the front or entrance hall of a business, giving customers an easy access to office workers. This vital section of the business can serve many purposes, depending on the company, and are frequently the best place to obtain any customer-related information. Front offices may have an entry desk staffed with a secretary or administrative worker. This main desk can offer assistance to incoming clients or customers, and can direct queries to correct personnel. On the other hand, all personnel in the department may be trained in customer assistance, since front office workers may have many duties, training all of them in customer service means that someone will almost always be available to help a guest.REFERENCESREFERENCE BOOKS• FRONT OFFICE BY SUDHIR ANDREWS• FRONT OFFICE MANAGEMENT BY S.K.BHATNAGARMAGAZINES• FOOD AND WINE• FOOD AND BEVERAGE MAZGIN• KANTIPUR NEWS• TORISUM IN NEPAL• KTM POSTWEBSITES• www.wikipedia.com• www.hotelshanker.com.np• www.agoda.com• www.google.com.np• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_officeOTHER SOURCES• HOTEL’S BROCHURES• STAFF INFORMATION• LOCAL MAGAGINE• HOTEL WEB SITE• FOOD AND BEVERAGE MAGAZINE
