Nepal tourism year 2011

Reservation: Front office

Reservation is an advance request for the accommodation and the act of taking reservation is called the selling rooms. It is the process of booking rooms before the arrival of guest in order to ensure the availability of the room as per their need at the time of check-in.The points to be considered while taking reservation:

• Check-in and check-out date
• Number of pax and type of room
• Type of plan

Types of  reservation:

• Guranteed reservation
• Non-guaranteed reservation
• Wait-listed reservation

Modes of reservation:

• Telephone
• Internet
• Letter
• Fax
• Telex
• Direct approach
• Central reservation system

Sources of reservation:

• Travel agencies
• Companies
• Airlines
• Government offices
• Embassies
• NGOs & INGOs
• Personal approach

Reservation tools and instruments:

• Forecast boart
• Advance reservation/ letting chart

1. Conventional booking chart
2. Density booking chart

• Whitney rack

Organizational chart of Front office department

Front office Manager is the first person in authority in the front office department.the secretary of FOM assists the work of the FOM and Assistant front office manager is the second person in authority and below him are responsible for the report to him.

In order to carry out its mission, global and departmental goals and objectives, every company shall build a formal structure depicting different hierarchy of management, supervision, and employee (staff) levels. This very structure is refereed to as organization chart. Moreover, the organization chart shows reporting relationships span of management, and staff/line functions.

• The Front Office organization chart shall be designed according to Functions. Doing so not only enhances the control the Front Office has over its Operations, but also provides guests with more specialized attention. Such a division according to functions, however, is not practical in middle and small size hotels due to the fact that these very hotels don't posses enough and sufficient monetary resources to ensure the existence of at least 3 jobholders (i.e. one for each shift) for each job position. Therefore, in middle size hotels, a front office clerk might be responsible for more than one work position. This is ensured via cross training. On the other hand, in small size hotels, one or two front office clerk(s) might be responsible for all front office activities.

 Typical functions and positions under the Rooms Division Department:

• Front Desk Agent: Registers guests, and maintains room availability information
• Cashier: Closes guest folios, and properly checks out guests
• Accounts Receivable Clerk: Posts charges in correct guest folios and updates folios' outstanding balances
• Night Auditor: Controls the job of the Accounts Receivable Clerk, and prepares daily reports to management (ex: Occupancy Report and Revenue Report)
• Mail & Information Clerk: Takes Messages, provides Directions to Guests, and maintains Mail
• Telephone Operator: Manages the Switchboard and coordinates Wake-up Calls
• Reservation Agent: Responds to Reservation Requests and creates Reservation Records
• Uniformed Service Agents: Handles Guest Luggage, escorts Guests to their Rooms, and assists guests for any bit of information requested