Front office manager

Front Desk Manager

Position Summary

The Front Desk Manager is responsible for the overall management of the Front Desk operation, guest services, reservations administration, daily revenue controls, and Front Desk staff performance.

The role ensures that all reservations, guest documentation, payments, communications, and daily operational tasks are completed accurately and on time.

Key Responsibilities

1. Front Desk Operations

• Manage the daily Front Desk operation and ensure proper coverage for all shifts.
• Ensure smooth guest check-in and check-out.
• Handle guest enquiries, requests, complaints, and service recovery.
• Ensure Front Desk staff provide professional and consistent customer service.
• Monitor daily arrivals, departures, stayovers, room changes, extensions, and special requests.
• Ensure proper shift handovers and follow-up of outstanding matters.

2. Reservations & Cloudbeds

• Monitor all new reservations received through:
• Booking.com
• Agoda
• Expedia and other OTAs
• Direct bookings
• Email
• WhatsApp/telephone
• Ensure every reservation is correctly reflected in Cloudbeds.
• Verify guest names, dates, room types, rates, payment status, remarks, and booking documents.
• Ensure required documents are uploaded to Cloudbeds immediately.
• Check for reservations or documents that have not been properly migrated or uploaded.
• Prevent duplicate bookings, missing bookings, incorrect room allocation, and reservation errors.

3. Daily Revenue & Payment Control

• Ensure all accommodation charges are correctly posted.
• Check credit-card charging and outstanding payments daily.
• Follow up on declined cards and unpaid reservations.
• Reconcile OTA payments, direct payments, cash, and other payment methods.
• Identify incorrect rates, unauthorized discounts, or revenue leakage.
• Escalate discrepancies to Management immediately.
• Ensure staff do not manually override rates or provide unauthorized discounts.

4. Rate & Inventory Control

• Check that the correct rates and room availability are displayed across Cloudbeds and OTA channels.
• Monitor sold-out dates, low inventory, and unusual booking patterns.
• Inform Management of significant pickup, cancellations, or occupancy changes.
• Ensure promotions and discounts are correctly applied and not unintentionally stacked.
• Flag any booking where the effective discount appears excessive or inconsistent with approved pricing.

5. Email & Guest Communication

• Ensure hotel emails are checked and responded to throughout the day.
• Ensure booking-related emails are actioned rather than simply read.
• Upload documents and update reservations immediately when information is received.
• Maintain professional and timely communication with guests.
• Follow up on unanswered guest requests and unresolved cases.

6. Team Management

• Supervise and train Front Desk staff.
• Prepare or coordinate Front Desk duty rosters.
• Allocate daily responsibilities clearly.
• Monitor attendance, punctuality, grooming, conduct, and productivity.
• Conduct proper shift briefings and handovers.
• Coach staff when SOP standards are not followed.
• Report repeated negligence, misconduct, or performance problems to Management.

7. Daily Control Checklist

The Front Desk Manager must ensure completion of all daily tasks, including:

• Reservation checks
• New booking verification
• Cloudbeds updates
• Document uploads
• Guest registration/documentation
• Card charging
• Outstanding payment follow-up
• Cash reconciliation
• OTA reconciliation
• Arrival/departure checks
• Email follow-up
• Guest request follow-up
• Shift handover
• Incident reporting
• Daily operational reporting

Tasks should not be carried forward to the following shift or following day without a documented reason and proper handover.

8. Guest Experience

• Monitor guest satisfaction throughout the stay.
• Resolve complaints promptly and professionally.
• Coordinate with Housekeeping and Maintenance on guest-related issues.
• Follow up after complaints to ensure resolution.
• Identify opportunities for upselling, extensions, direct repeat bookings, and additional hotel revenue.

9. Coordination with Housekeeping & Maintenance

• Communicate room status accurately with Housekeeping.
• Prioritize rooms required for arriving guests.
• Report maintenance defects immediately.
• Follow up until defects affecting guests or room availability are resolved.
• Ensure rooms are not unnecessarily blocked or kept out of inventory.

10. Reporting to Management

Provide Management with clear reporting on:

• Daily occupancy
• ADR
• Room revenue
• Pickup
• Cancellations
• No-shows
• Outstanding payments
• Operational incidents
• Guest complaints
• Maintenance issues affecting room sales
• Staff performance issues
• Uncompleted tasks
• Revenue discrepancies

Accountability

The Front Desk Manager is accountable for ensuring that Front Desk SOPs are actually carried out, not merely assigned.

Where a task is delegated, the Front Desk Manager remains responsible for checking that it has been completed correctly.

Any significant financial discrepancy, missing reservation, payment issue, guest complaint, security incident, or breach of SOP must be reported to Management immediately.