Career As a Front Office Manager

Front Office is one of the 4 divisions in a Hotel, namely Front Office, House Keeping, Food & Beverage Service and Kitchen, also known as Food Production department. It is the part of tourism sector that leads other industries in revenues and employment worldwide. Your decision to join service industry can be most appropriate as it provides you ample opportunities to join global careers. By opting to make a career in Front Office, you may have chosen the part of hotel operations that contributes substantially to a hotel’s revenue. In order to become a successful front office Manager of tomorrow, it is important for you to adopt international practices, attitude and behavior.

The Front Office as the name suggests is the first and last point of contact for a guest.  The way front desk staff greets and attends to guests queries can make or break the image of the hotel. To be at front desk, your personality should be a perfect mixture of skillful hospitality & effective organizational skills, then working as a front office manager at a hotel property might be an invigorating and fulfilling career path. A successful front office manager at hotel should never settle for less than A +. The duties of front office manager can be wide-ranging. A front office manager is in charge of seeing that new employees get trained properly while ensuring proper functioning of everything from assigning work schedules to handling finances.

The hotel front office manager ensures that guests have a pleasant experience when checking into their rooms and staying in the facility. Outstanding customer service and comfortable surroundings are keys to encourage repeat business through enhancing the goodwill of the property. They also hire, train and schedule front office staff. Duties of front office managers include overseeing reservations, assigning rooms at the time of check-in and handling billing and taking feedback at the time of check-out. Front office managers also have to respond to customer complaints and ensure that staff members respond to guest special requests.

Managerial positions in most of the 4 to 5 star hotels require minimum of a bachelor’s degree plus relevant industry experience. Degree programmes in hospitality management include coursework in accounting, marketing, housekeeping management, economics, hotel management and maintenance. Mostly hotels offer training for managers that includes courses in the specific needs of the facility, such as reservations software, though each property requires trained manpower and is looking for people who already have education diploma or degree in HotelManagement. Front office managers usually obtain the position after having gained experience working in the facility. Hotel administrators or upper management may select employees who have demonstrated leadership and excellent guest service. Experience in working with guests in a hotel helps to gain skills in customer service, communication, listening, time management, organization, and problem solving.

“There are hotels everywhere. You can go anywhere in the world and you’ll have an opportunity for a career in hospitality.”

 “To succeed in Front Office you need to be self-motivated, service oriented, unafraid of challenge and long hours, and you have to have passion and drive!” “Each position within the hospitality industry requires its own set of distinct qualities which comes with equal level of responsibilities. However, it is said that no matter what position you hold, passion and dedication is the key to survive & succeed.”

The career opportunities are endless in Hospitality Industry. “Hospitality uniquely offers careers from entry level to CEO. Trades (engineers, painters, culinary), Housekeeping, Food and Beverage Service, finance and accounting, sales, human resources – we have it all!” You meet new people and create new relationships each day. No matter what your role is you will impact someone’s day, take pride in that! Love what you are doing, and it will shine through in your work.”

To conclude, “To be a front office manager in a hotel, you need to process certain skill set and hospitality, the job is quite rewarding and also provides security in the long run.

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