Working at the front office

What we should know about working at the front office?
The front office office is a multifunctional workstation. The front desk agent is in charge of several duties and is the first person guests are meeting. He/she is the imagine of the hotel, the brand. If you are a front office agent or if you like to begin an experience at the front desk, in this article get to know more about what it means working at the front office.

Working in the hospitality industry is a great experience and the front office combines several duties and competences.

The working station

Working at the front office: first of all, let´s review the different names for this working station. We know this working station as reception, front house, front office nad front desk. The reception is directly at the entrance, where people can be firstly greeted and where they can receive information.
The front office/desk or front house is where guest can do the most important procedures concerning their stay and where they can have information. Most of the properties have both together. Except for big resort, where in most of them there is a main reception at the entrance.

Job´s titles

Same is for the job positions: we hear about receptionist, front house agent, front office clerk and front desk agent. Overall they are all doing a similar job and basically the title “agent” is related to employees not only in charge of welcoming and doing all administration procedures, but also doing some sales duties.

Of course, all properties have the own way to work, with different tasks and the own internal structure. Hence the property decides which is the best title for this job.  
In this article we mention front desk / front office and front desk / office agent, referring to all above mentioned job titles and working stations.

Duties

A front office agent is in charge of several duties: from the contact with guests to some administration tasks. The front office agent looks after guest´s relationship and take care of the correspondence. It is the first department guests will involve in case of complaints or emergencies. The CRM is operated mainly by the front office. At the front office, guests are proceeding with the check-in, check-out, payments, reservations of different activities and more. The administrative tasks are part of sales, accounting and reservation. Most of them are concierge too. Only big or luxury hotels have a concierge service apart.

When some departments after the office time are closed, the front office take care of some requests. Front office agents are selling rooms and are trying to promote upselling and loyalty. In some small properties, the front office is in charge of reservations, accounting or MICE. Working by selling rooms means to work with OTAs portal systems too.
With everything, the front office agent has a good knowledge of property and rooms. As well has a touch of knowledge of all departments.

Requirements

The employees working at the front office have the possibility to meet different cultures, therefor communication skills are very important. Moreover, employees have advantage by speaking more languages. A basic know how about intercultural skills is very important. Nevertheless, the best practice regarding the communication with guests is learning by doing. Languages can be learned by talking to guests. Hence, the experience to work in touch with cultures, will growth the intercultural know-how.

The front office agent must be discreet and must have strong nerves. In fact, even if most of the people are on holiday and supposed to enjoy the stay, sometimes there might be unhappy situations. The shifts are unregular in most of the properties, therefore employees should work outside office time, during weekend and public holidays. For this job you must like people and you must be an open-mind person.

This job is the most complete if you want to begin a career in the hotel industry or in tourism, but also if you want to learn more about communication and cultures.
In brief, this job combines different competences and it is a great experience.