The staff includes desk clerk, cashier, reservations manager, concierge,night auditor, telephone operator, bell staff, room key, clerk and elevator operator. Notall of these positions are found in every lodging establishment. In some operations, thefront desk clerk acts as desk clerk, cashier, telephone operator, and reservations clerk, asrequired by the volume of business. Many large, full-service hotels employ the completestaff as listed.Staffing the front desk positions incurs a cost to the lodging establishment. The frontoffice manager, in consultation with the general manager, usually prepares a personnelbudget that is related to salary levels throughout the lodging establishment.The responsibilities of the front office staff are quite varied. The position of the deskclerk can encompass many duties, which typically include verifying guest reservations,registering guests, assigning rooms, distributing keys, communicating with the house-keeping staff, answering telephones, providing information about and directions to localattractions, accepting cash and giving change, and acting as liaison between the lodgingestablishment and the guest as well as the community.The position of cashier includes processing guest checkouts and guest legal tender andproviding change for guests. This position is found in a number of lodging establishments,and it helps to make the front desk workload manageable when a full house, a hotel thathas all its guest rooms occupied (sometimes referred to as 100 percent occupancy) ischecking out. Given the possibility that a 400-guest convention could all check out in ain the short time period, this division of labor is a well-planned concept. Even with the best-planned systems — such as express checkout, whereby the guest uses computer technologyin a guest room or a computer in the hotel lobby to check out; prior approved credit, theuse of a credit card to establish creditworthiness; or bill-to-account, an internal billingprocess — the lines at the cashier station can be long when a guest is in a hurry.The reservations manager is a position that can be found in many of the larger lodgingestablishments. This person is responsible for taking incoming requests for rooms andnoting special requests for service. The particulars of this position are endless, aimed atproviding the guest with requested information and services as well as accurate confir-mation of these items. The reservations manager is responsible for keeping an accuratehotel room inventory by using a reservation module of a property management system. Thisperson must communicate very effectively with the marketing and sales departments. Peakas well as slow periods of sales must be addressed with adequate planning.The night auditor balances the daily financial transactions. This person may also serveas desk clerk for the night shift (11: 12:00 am to 7: 12:00 am). He or she must have a goodgrasp of accounting principles and the ability to resolve financial discrepancies. This po-sition requires experience as a desk clerk and good communications with the controller.The telephone operator has a very important job in the lodging establishment. Thisperson must be able to locate the registered guests and management staff at a moment’snotice. He or she is also expected to be able to deal with crises such as life-threateningemergencies. With the introduction of call accounting, a computer technology applicationthat tracks guest phone calls and posts billing charges to lodging establishments, thetelephone operator’s job has been simplified, as the tracking of telephone charges to reg-istered guests can now be done with ease. This person may also assist the desk clerk andcashier when necessary.The bell captain, with the entourage of bellhops and door attendants, is a mainstay inthe lodging establishment. The bell staff starts where the computerized property man-agement system stops. They are the people who lift and tote the baggage, familiarize theguest with his or her new surroundings, run errands, deliver supplies, and provide theguest with information on in-house marketing efforts and local attractions. These peoplealso act as the hospitality link between the lodging establishment and the guest. They arean asset to a well-run lodging establishment.The key clerk can be found in very large, full-service hotels that do not have electronickey systems. This clerk is responsible for issuing keys to registered guests and for relatedsecurity measures. Often he or she will sort incoming mail for registered guests and themanagement staff. This position has become obsolete in most hotels.The elevator operator, a person who manually operates the mechanical controls of theelevator, is almost an extinct species in the lodging establishment. This person has beenreplaced by self-operated elevators and escalators. Some of these people have been relo-cated to serve as traffic managers, who direct hotel guests to available elevators in thelobby. In large, full-service hotels, the traffic manager can be a welcome sight; often theconfusion of check-ins and checkouts can be lessened when he or she is on duty.The concierge provides extensive information on entertainment, sports,amusements, transportation, tours, church services, and baby-sitting in the area. He orshe must know the area intimately and must be able to meet the individual needs of eachguest. This person also obtains theater tickets and makes reservations in restaurants. Inmost cases, the concierge is stationed at a desk in the lobby of the lodging property.The organization chart portrays a much more simplified workforce thanseen with a full-service property. The desk clerks perform. multiple duties such as reser-vations and registrations, and they act as cashiers, telephone operators, and so forth.Whatever guest need is presented, the front desk clerk is called on to provide hospitalitywith efficiency and professionalism. In limited-service properties, the general managermay also assist, when needed, to process reservation requests, check guests in upon ar-rival, and check guests out upon departure.The night auditor’s role in a limited-service property is very different from that of hisor her counterpart in a full-service hotel. Because there are usually no departmental trans-actions from restaurants, banquets, lounges, gift shops, or spas, the night auditor is mainlyconcerned with posting room and tax charges and preparing statistics for the hotel. Withthe utilization of computer technology, the completion of the night audit has been reducedto a minimum of time. As previously mentioned, this task may be performed early in themorning prior to guest checkouts.
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