Assignment 2: The Front Desk

In a hotel, the front desk is considered the heart of hotel operations. Generally, all hotel guests have some form of contact with the front desk whether they are booking a room, checking in / out, calling on the phone, registering complaints, and / or requesting information. An effective and efficiently operated front desk is very important to the financial success of a hotel.

For this assignment, you are going to conduct a research study on front desk operations and its impact on the financial success of the hotel

Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you:

1. Provide a brief history of how front desk operations have evolved over the last 25 years, including how tasks have changed, evolved, and / or disappeared.
2. Provide a step-by-step approach for front desk agents in taking a hotel room reservation for a guest. For each step, describe the actions required, necessary information collected, and the purpose of collecting this information. Finally, document a hypothetical script for a front desk agent to follow when taking a hotel room reservation for a guest (either over the phone or in person).
3. Discuss how technology has changed guest service and reservations for all hotel guests, and how lack of guest knowledge of technological changes can impact hotel operations and customer satisfaction.
4. Determine what roles the front desk plays in the safety of their guests and the procedures the front desk should follow in order to protect the hotel guests.
5. Determine the financial impact of front desk agents NOT effectively managing the billing and guest folio process in a hotel. Provide two (2) detailed examples of mismanagement of the billing and guest folio processes, and the impact on hotel finances.
6. Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• This course requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different compared to other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details. (Note: You’ll be prompted to enter your Blackboard login credentials to view these standards.)
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Design the guest services and processing of arrivals / rooming to improve the quality of hotel operations and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Develop procedures for handling guest complaints.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in lodging operations management.
• Write clearly and concisely about issues in lodging operations management using proper writing mechanics.

Click here to view the grading rubric.