Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ...

1Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management

© 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved.

Management of Data-Generating Front Office Subsystems



Overview of Front Office Data Sub-Systems

• Revenue-generating sub-systems

• Non-revenue-generating sub-systems



Management of InterfacedSub-System

• Telephones

• Recodable locks

• Pay-per-view services

• In-room vending

• Point of Sale (POS) systems

• Property-specific interfaces

• Credit/T&E/debit card payments



Telephones

• Auto-attendant: A system in which incoming calls transferred from the telephone system are answered automatically as they are received.

• Automated Wake-up: A system in which guests (or front office staff) may use the hotel’s telephone system to program a pre-recorded call to be received in a guest’s room at a time requested by the guest.

• Message on Hold: A system that eliminates the silence that occurs when guests are required to wait for their call to be picked up by the party the caller is attempting to reach.



Telephones

• Telephone systems can include:– Wireless and/or voice-over technology capability

– Caller I.D.

– Caller-auto call-back capability

– Conference call capability

– Telephone volume control

– Speed-dialing

– Call forwarding, hold, transfer, and “do not disturb”

– Voice messaging



Telephones

• The call accounting system must:– Make a record of all incoming and outgoing calls

– Choose the least cost method of sending outgoing calls

– Maintain records of who will be charged for calls

– Maintain records of how much should be charged for calls

– Post appropriate telephone charges to the proper guest’s folio



Telephones• Smart Switch: A device that detects detailed

information about the destination of a telephone call when it is made.

• Least Cost Routing: A system using a pre-programmed, interfaced smart switch to select the telephone route that charges the least based upon a call’s specific destination.

• Dial-up Internet: A method of Internet connection that utilizes a standard telephone and telephone call for connection to the worldwide-web.



Telephones• Call Records: A listing of the source, length, and

destination of each call made within a hotel during a specific time period.

• Local Call: A telephone call typically made within a small geographic area.

• Long Distance Call: In general, a call made to a telephone extension located in an area code outside of the call’s originating area code.

• International Call: A call made to a telephone extension located in a country code outside that of the call’s originating country code.



Telephones

• IT: Short for “Information Technology”; a broad term used to identify areas of management related to the design and administration of computer-related hardware and software programs.

• Move/Add/Change: The process of re-configuring or re-programming a call accounting system to, for example, move an extension from one location to another, add an additional extension, or change a line from one that posts charges for usage to one that does not.



Recodable Locks

• Recodable Locking System: A hotel locking system designed so that, when a guest inserts a key card into a lock for the first time, it is immediately recoded, and entry authorization for the previous guest is cancelled.



Pay-per-View Services

• These systems began by offering movies, but now they also allow access to pay-per-use:– Video games– Music– High-speed Internet access– Live sporting events– Concert broadcasts



In-Room Vending• E-fridge: A cabinet usually including both

refrigerated and nonrefrigerated sections designed with an electronic processing unit that allows direct PMS interface.

• Wi-Fi Certified: (Wireless Fidelity Certified) Refers to any products tested and approved as “Wi-Fi Certified” by the Wi-Fi Alliance and certified as interoperable with each other.

• Hot Spot: A Wi-Fi area that allows for high-speed wireless Internet access or other data transmission.



Point of Sale System

• POS: Short for “Point of Sale”; a location within the hotel (excluding the Front Desk) at which hotel goods and services are purchased. In many hotels, the POS is interfaced with the PMS.



Point of Sale System• POS Terminal: A computer system containing its

own input and output components and, perhaps, some memory capacity without a central processing unit. Used to record:– Name of the item(s) purchased – Quantity of item(s) purchased– Price of each item purchased– Total costs of all items purchased – Amount of applicable taxes (if any)– Total to be entered into the folio and to be collected from

the guest at check-out



Property-Specific Interfaces

• Most popular/common include:– Ski lift tickets– Green fees– Posting of charges related to the hotel’s:

• Internet access• Health club• Spa/salon • Beauty shop• Barber shop• Florist



Credit/T&E/Debit Card Payments

• Credit Card: A system by which banks loan money with interest to consumers as purchases are made. Merchants accepting the cards for payment are charged a fee by the banks for the charges made by their customers with the credit card.




• T&E Card: Short for Travel and Entertainment card; a payment system by which the card issuer collects full payment from the card users each month. The card companies do not typically assess interest charges to consumers. Instead, they rely on fees collected from merchants accepting the cards.




• Debit Card: A payment system in which money collected by a merchant (hotel) is automatically (electronically) deposited into the merchant’s local bank account. As with bank and T&E cards, merchants accepting the cards are assessed a fee for the right to do so.




• Smart Card: Payment card in which user information such as demographics, purchase history, and product preferences is contained within a computerized “chip” imbedded in the card.

• Merchant Service Provider (MSP): An entity that, for a fee, manages payment card acceptance and funds collection for businesses (hotels).




• Discount Fee: The amount (percentage) payment card issuers charge merchants for the right to accept their cards. Discount fees may range from 1-5% of a consumer’s total purchase.

• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT): The electronic movement of money from one bank account to another.



Management of Non-Interfaced Sub-Systems

• Telephones:– Messages– Wake-up calls

• Internet access• Pay-per-view (in-room)• In-room vending• POS systems• Guest laundry• Credit/T&E/debit card payments

– Holds




• Back office accounting

Reasons for not interfacing with PMS include:– Multi-brand ownership– Financial confidentiality from external-hotel

entities– Financial confidentiality from internal-hotel

entities




• Centralized Accounting System: A financial management system that collects accounting data from one or more hotels and then combines and analyzes the data at a different (central) site.

• Decentralized Accounting System: A financial management system that collects accounting data from an individual hotel site and combines and analyzes that data at that same site.

Woods et al., Professional Front Office Management © 2007 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ...

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