The front office at a hotel includes employees and units with whom the guest or customer has the first contact, communication, and information exchange.

This includes reservations, sales, housekeeping, as well as concierge services. It’s practically all employees in the lobby and at the reception, while we should also add the staff in hotel bars and restaurants, as well as at wellness centers.

The front office, of course, pertains most to the reception, where guests and visitors are welcomed, their needs understood, where necessary information are provided, reserva­tions are made, and the like, but all of the above tasks together affect the efficiency and functioning of the front office of the hotel.

Why is the front office important?

The front office is responsible for everything that we first experience at the hotel.
The access and entrance to the hotel, the reception at the front desk, carrying of luggage, arrival and entry to the rooms…
Resolving potential questions or problems of the guests in connection with the room or the hotel, the attitude and service of the waiters in the bar or restaurant… Every­thing leaves an impression and creates the final image. Literally everything is important. Every em­ployee at the hotel with whom the guest has any communication influ­ences the creation of the general impression and the feeling that the guest carries with him or her.

The guest is very often unaware of the process of creating an impres­sion, but in the end, the sum of everything affects the satisfaction, recommendations, and repeat visits.

Everyone will want to come back to where they felt good. This is the key to success and the need for adequate employees who make up a good front office.

The road to a satisfied customer and guest is paved with emotions

Just as the process of shopping is mainly based on emotion, so a stay in a hotel, restaurant or another service area, is in fact laced with emotion.
Most guests and participants of an event are very sensitive to how they are welcomed, or how they’re treated by the organizers, but also by the staff that directly serves them or provides them with neces­sary information. In short, they are sensitive to how they all affect the way they feel.
Everyone wants to feel special. Everyone wants his or her presence to matter. To have their wishes or demands accepted with understan­ding and filled with satisfaction.

Everyone feels good when their opinion and presence are valued. Everyone will want to come back to where they felt good.

This is the key to success and the need for adequate employees who make up a good front office.Tourism is generally based on awakening and satisfying various kinds of emotions.
Success, acceptance, understand­ing, attention, these are just some of the feelings that initiate going to a restaurant or staying in a hotel. The job of a good front office is to contribute to the experience of these emotions.

Of course, this does not mean that guest satisfaction and the success of an event depend only on the front office. A lot of factors contribute to this, starting from the front office communication with senior manage­ment, flexibility of management, flexibility of the customer, organiza­tion and detailed description of the expectations and needs of guests to the hotel itself and its amenities and microlocation. It can even depend on weather conditions.

What is the front office responsible for?

Guest satisfaction or success of an event, as we said, depends not only on the front office. However, the fact is that the front office is responsible for the first, initial communication between the guest and the hotel, when services are possibly being sold or reservations made. The fact is that the front office is also responsible for the first impres­sion when guests or groups come to the hotel. The speed and efficiency of check­ in and friendly provision of required information to every guest inspires confidence and security.

As well as resolving concerns, meeting them halfway in solving in­dividual problems or possible misunderstandings during their stay.
In addition, the front office is also responsible for that last impression when the customer pays the bill and leaves.

It’s 15 times easier to sell to an existing satisfied customer than to bring in a new one.
Warmth, professionalism, and co­urtesy certainly contribute to the guest leaving with a smile on his or her face and thinking about coming again or recommending the place.
Another role of the front office is to be a good filter of information to the back office, so that they can communicate with each other and function as a whole, and this is the only way that the system can work properly.

What are the specific tasks at the front office?
In hotel management, to name a few, the front desk compiles guest lists, conducts check ­ins and check ­outs, and then forwards all these  information to other sales depart­ments, as well as to the depart­ments of housekeeping.

They schedule meetings with man­agement (if necessary), sort and respond to emails, answer phone calls. They issue and charge bills. They resolve complaints, provide information. And all other tasks that are aimed to satisfy the customer and adhere to the hotel’s policy and rules. It is clear that the front office is the face and voice of the hotel.
With their appearance, attitude, manners, knowledge, willingness and ability to help, they reflect the image of the entire company and that is why they play an important role in its presentation and busi­ness.