Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

FRONT OFFICE : HUB OF THE HOTEL
Nevertheless, the question suggests that those on the hotel’s safety committee and
the FOM must reconsider how front office staff can protect the safety of guests and
employees. The “answer” may involve procedures that were not even imaginable only
a few years ago.
Maintenance and Engineering Department
Guestrooms must be properly maintained, as well as be cleaned, before they can be
made available for guests. In the earlier discussion of the housekeeping department
and its interactions with the front office department, you read that the FOM’s
estimates of guestroom occupancy help the executive housekeeper to make plans for
deep cleaning plans. Similarly, occupancy forecasts assist the hotel’s maintenance and
engineering staff to plan major maintenance and repair work. Maintenance such as
replacing wallpaper and painting walls can be done one room at a time. Other main-
tenance activities will likely make several rooms or more unavailable. Consider the
replacement of carpeting in guestrooms: Carpeting for many rooms is brought to the
site, and several rooms are recarpeted daily. Sometimes a maintenance task for a
single room affects many rooms. For example, older hotels often have plumbing sys-
tems designed so that water in an entire wing of rooms must be shut off to service
bathroom fixtures in only one room.