Preface
The Fifth Edition of Hotel Front Office Management remains one of the leading texts in addressing the demands for instructing future leaders of the hotel industry. Educators who are preparing professionals for roles as front office managers and general managers in hotels are required to meet the challenges of operations, technology, training, empowerment, and international applications. This latest edition of Hotel Front Office Management continues to encourage students to take an active part in apply-
ing these concepts to the exciting world of hotel operations.
To the Student
The emphasis on management continues to play a central role in Hotel Front Office Management, Fifth Edition. The text’s structure will assist you as you prepare for positions as entry-level managers. The logical presentation of chapters in order of operations—overview of lodging hospitality; tour of the front office, review of the guest cycle, and analysis of guest services—allows you to gain insight into a front office manager’s role in the hotel. Reviews and analysis of other departments and how they relate to the front office include security and housekeeping.
To the Instructor
Instructors will find text material presented in a logical manner to develop lesson plans. Features include Chapter Focus Points; Opening Dilemmas to encourage students to relate to practical information; figures, tables, and photos that
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represent current industry trends; International Highlights, which encourage diversity; End-of-Chapter Questions that support content presented in the text; and three welldeveloped Case Studies per chapter to facilitate student discussion.
A list of Key Words can be found at the end of each chapter, and an excellent Glossary at the end of the text is provided to assist instructors as they develop classroom activities and exams. Faculty will also find PowerPoint Slides and a well-developed Instructor’s Manual with Test Bank on the web site.
Text Features
The Fifth Edition of Hotel Front Office Management has maintained its high standards of pedagogical features, including:
■Opening Dilemmas present students with a mini-case-study problem to solve with the help of subsequent chapter presentations; a Solution to the Opening Dilemma is included at the end of each chapter.
O P E N I N G D I L E M M A
The group leader of a busload of tourists approaches the front desk for check-in. The front desk clerk acknowledges the group leader and begins the check-in procedure, only to realize no clean rooms are available. The desk clerk mutters, “It’s 4:00 P.M., and you would think someone in housekeeping would have released those rooms by now.” The group leader asks, “What’s holding up the process?”
■Hospitality Profiles feature selected commentaries from hotel front office managers, general managers, and other hotel department managers; these contribute a human relations element to the text.
H O S P I T A L I T Y P R O F I L E
ric O. Long, general manager |
He has served in various management positions at |
Eof the Waldorf=Astoria in New |
the Hilton Short Hills, Chicago Hilton and Tow- |
?York City, has been employed by |
ers, Hilton Walt Disney Village, Fontainebleau |
? |
|
Hilton Corporation for 30 years. |
Hilton Resort, and the Palmer House. |
■International Highlights include articles of interest that accentuate the international workforce and international career opportunities for hospitality graduates. Additionally, they provide a forum for instructors and students to discuss this aspect of hotel management.
W H A T ’ S N E W A N D R E V I S E D I N T H I S F I F T H E D I T I O N xiii
I N T E R N A T I O N A L H I G H L I G H T S
uInternational translation cards, which assist foreign guests in translating travel phrases of their native language into English, are frequently kept at front desks. International visitors and
hotel desk clerks find these cue cards helpful.
■Front-line Realities present unexpected yet realistic situations. Students are asked to discuss a method of handling these situations.
F R O N T- L I N E R E A L I T I E S
qAfuture guest has called the hotel and wants to arrange a small dinner party for his guests on the first day of his visit. The marketing and sales office is closed for the day, and the banquet manager has left the property for a few hours. What would you suggest the front desk
clerk do to assist this future guest?
■There are now three Case Studies at the end of each chapter.
■A Glossary, which appears at the end of the book, summarizes terms introduced in each chapter (and appearing in italics in the text).
What’s New and Revised in This Fifth Edition
Chapter 1 Introduction to Hotel Management
■“Select-service” lodging terminology is introduced to reflect current usage; “limitedservice lodging” was used previously.
■Technological advances, including social media, guest room technology, IT infrastructure, surviving a tough economy with help from technology, and demystifying Web 2.0 are now included in the technological list of advances of the lodging industry.
■The importance of the Internet is emphasized for its role in marketing.
■A section on the economic downturn of the late 2000s is included to encourage students to address this challenge as they face their career and future management horizons.
■Additional metrics allow students to maintain their currency in the lodging market GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit per Available Room).
Chapter 2 Hotel Organization and the Front Office Manager
■Updates include organizational charts of a large, full-service hotel, a medium-sized lodging property, and a select-service lodging property.
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Chapter 3 Effective Interdepartmental Communications
■New information on social media and its use by the marketing and sales departments is presented and discussed.
Chapter 4 Property Management Systems
■Updates now include social media terminology (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn®, YouTube) where applicable to emphasize its appropriateness to reservations as well as to marketing and sales.
■A brief listing of property management system vendors is now included, encouraging students to go beyond the text to seek information they will need in their future careers.
Chapter 5 Systemwide Reservations
■New facts about social media applications including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are integrated throughout the chapter.
■Information on the central reservation systems for Choice Hotels®, Hilton Hotels®, and Marriott International, Inc., is updated.
■The effect of the Internet on pricing rooms is updated.
■Discussion of the global distribution system and its counterpart, customer relationship management, is expanded.
Chapter 6 Revenue Management
■A discussion of the Star Report is now included.
■The section on channel management now covers current technology that allows users to alter rates, inventory, and reservations in connection with third-party web sites.
■Other features include multilingual and international currency capability.
Chapter 7 Guest Registration
■ The section on self-check-in is updated.
Chapter 9 Guest Checkout
■Foreign currency transactions are exemplified by the exchange of Euros to U.S. dollars.
Chapter 10 Preparation and Review of the Night Audit
■ Figures on Case Studies (Night Audits) were updated.
Chapter 11 Managing Hospitality
■Information on social media and the impact of technology on managing hospitality is refreshed.
A D D I T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S |
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Chapter 13 Promoting In-House Sales
■The figures in the sales budget for the example Planning a Point-of-sale Front Office are updated.
Chapter 14 Security
■The effects of international terrorism on hotel security are discussed.
■Information on electronic locks is expanded to included contactless electronic locks such as wristbands, key fobs, and key cards that use radio frequency identification (RFID).
Chapter 15 Executive Housekeeping
■New emphasis is placed on technology used to assign room attendants.
■The management concept of outsourcing housekeeping activities is presented.
■A new section addresses the chief engineer’s responsibilities, including role in a lodging property, managing maintenance, interdepartmental communications, energy management, and the greening of the lodging industry.
Additional Resources
An Instructor’s Manual to accompany the textbook is available to qualified adopters and may be downloaded from www.wiley.com/college/bardi. It contains materials to assist in the classroom. An updated Test Bank is also included.
The Test Bank for this textbook has been specifically formatted for Respondus, an easy-to-use software program for creating and managing exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn, eCollege, ANGEL, and other eLearning systems. Instructors who adopt Hotel Front Office Management can download the Respondus Test Bank for free. Additional Wiley resources also can be uploaded into your LMS course at no charge.
PowerPoint Slides are available for download at the text’s website (www.wiley.com/ college/bardi). Each set of slides contains the chapter focus points and key discussion points of the main topics of the chapter.
I think you will enjoy this new Fifth Edition of Hotel Front Office Management. I always appreciate hearing your comments (jxb21@psu.edu or james_bardi@yahoo.com).
My very best to the future professionals of the hotel industry!
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