Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

Objective 7
Present factors to
be addressed as
hotel personnel
select a PMS
Selecting a
PMS
CHAPTER ROADMAP
167

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FRONT OFFICE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
FOUR Rs OF FRONT OFFICE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
As shown in Roadmap 1, this chapter begins with an overview of how the PMS
provides information to FOMs for planning and decision making. Front office
managers must supervise the daily work of front desk staff to attain optimal guest
satisfaction levels and to maximize room revenues and profits. To do so, FOMs
must identify and respond to their guests’ special requests, needs, problems, issues,
and concerns. They must also facilitate the efforts of front office personnel as they
train, schedule, empower, coach, counsel, and resolve staff-related problems. In
addition to fulfilling their responsibilities to hotel guests and employees, FOMs
must manage information. To do so allows FOMs to monitor and control daily rev-
enues and expenses and to ensure that proper procedures and required controls are
in place.
The hotel business, in its earliest days, was relatively uncomplicated. As shown
in Figure 1, FOMs could do an effective job if they simply understood these four
basics:
•
Desires of their guests
•
Rooms and services available for sale
•
Prices to be charged for rooms and services
•
Accounting and data management methods required for proper record keeping