Guest Cycle Front Office

The hotel guest stay cycle can be divided into four main stages. Withinthese four stages there are important task related to guest services andguest accounting.Front office employees must be aware of guest services and guestaccounting activities at all stages of the guest stay. Front office staff caneffectively serve the guest if they have a clear understanding of the flowof business in hotel. Guest Cycle also represents a systematic approach tofront office operations.

1. Pre - Arrival

The Guest chooses a hotel during the pre- arrival stage of the guestcycle. Choice of the guest can be affected by many factors, includingprevious eperiences with the hotel, advertisement, word of mouthreferral by friends and colleagues, location, corporate, travel agentbooking, hotel name, hotel loyalty program member etc.The guest!s decision of making the reservation can also be effected by theease of making the reservation and the way reservation agent interactedand described the facility of the hotel like room type, room rate,recreational facilities and other attractions near the hotels etc. We can certainly call the reservation area as the sales office  for non-corporate or group bookings. Its employees should be sales orientatedand present positive, strong image of the hotel. if a reservation can be accepted, the reservation agent create areservation on the hotel management software. The creation of thisreservation record starts the hotel guest cycle. This reservation containsdetails of guest specific request which will help the hotel to provide theguest with personalised service during his stay.The details which is collected during the reservation also helps the hotelto complete pre-registration activities like assign room according to guest request, room rate to be charged to the guest folio during the course of stay etc. Although the reservation details helps in providing guests withanticipatory service the primary objective of making the reservation is tomake sure that room will be available when he arrives to the hotel.

2. Arrival

 The arrival stage of the guest cycle includes registration and roomassignment process. After the guest arrives, he or she establishes abusiness relationship with the hotel through front office. It is the frontoffice staff responsibility to clarify any Query of the guest especially thedetails of room rate of packages he 'she is booked on.Front office staff should determine the guests reservation status beforebeginning the check-in registration process. Guest with reservation andguest without reservation commonly known as Walk-in!s also provides aopportunity of business for front desk staff. A registration card or Reg. card is printed and completed at the time of check in, which will help the front desk to collect essential information.The reg. card should contain details like billing instructions,reservationdetails, number of adults and children occupying, address, passport andvisa for foreign nationals, full address, personal details and credit carddetails. Because the guest and hotel gains certain legal benefits it ismandatory to get guest signature on the registration card.The registration process is complete once a method of payment and theguest!s departure date have been confirmed and duly signed by theguest. The guest may be given a room key and direction to the room orescorted by the guest service associate or guest service manager . When the guest checks-in to the room the occupancy stage of the guestcycle begins.

3. Occupancy

The manner in which the front office staff represents the hotel isimportant during the occupancy stage. As the main contact centre for hotel activity, the front office isresponsible for coordinating guest requests. Among those providinginformation and supplies to the guests. Front desk should take ettra care to respond to the guest on a timely andaccurate manner. The main focus of the front desk staff is to provideanticipatory service and to meet or exceed the guests expectations. Thiswill encourage the guest to repeat to the hotel. Security is also a main important concern during occupancy of the guest.Issues like protection of funds and valuables are among those. The frontdesk should also follow the hotel standard operating procedure forhandling the hotel and guest keys, property surveillance, safe deposit boxes, guests personal property, and emergencies are also important.

A variety of charges restaurant charges, telephone, internet, travel desketc. during the occupancy stage affect guest and hotel account. cost of these charges will be posted to the guest account according to front officeposting procedures. and also in most cases the Room charges is thesingle largest charge on the guest folio.other front office financial tasks during the occupancy stage is to verifythe charges posted to the guest account and checking guest accountsagainst the credit limit.

4. Departure

Guest services and guest accounting aspects of the guest cycle arecompleted during the cycle!s fourth and final phase ie departure. At departure the guest vacates the room, receives the accurate statementof the settled accounts, returns the room keys and leaves the hotel. Once the guest has checked out, front office updates the rooms availabilitystatus and notifies the housekeeping department. (For hotels using/roperty management software the status of the room is updatedautomatically) At this stage front office also collect the feedback of the guest experience in the hotels by handing over the guest feedback form.