Front Office Manager

Position Purpose
Supervise the employees of the Front Office Department by delegating job assignments and managing the work environment to ensure maximum efficiency while maintaining service standards.
Essential Job Functions
Management
• Ensure all Front Office quality standards are complied with and that policies and procedures are consistently applied.
• Coordinate activities with other hotel departments in order to facilitate increased levels of communication and guest satisfaction.
• Supervise the activities and the service levels of the concierge, telecommunications, guest relations, service express, and front desk divisions.
• Responsible for the hiring, training, and direction of new department employees.
• Responsible for the selection, training and development of the personnel within the Front Office.
• Operate the department within the Westin policies as they relate to the ethical codes, standards of good business practice and local laws and regulations.
• Schedules the front office staff.
• Supervises workload during shifts.
• Evaluates the job performance if each front office employee.
• Conducts regularly scheduled meetings of front office personnel.
• Ensure that employees are, at all times, attentive, friendly, helpful and courteous to all guests managers and other employees.
• Review daily front office work and activity reports generated by Night Audit.
Administrative
• Work in conjunction with accounting to maintain and minimize levels of account receivables.
• Assist in the daily maintenance of room inventory status to achieve optimal levels of revenues while maintaining high levels of guest expectations.
• Responsible for budgeting, forecasting, financial planning and management of the Front Office. Activities center on identification of strengths and weaknesses and the development of plans and strategies to ensure business development.
• Responsible for sales to guests through the Front Desk and any actions taken by the incumbent that can impact on volume of business. Responsible for direct link between effort expended and decisions made and revenue generated by Front Office (performance indicators are sales, units, growth, turnover, etc.)
• Have control over the elements that determine profit and loss. Responsible for all major operating expenses and has the capacity to set margins and manage the business against profit projections. Make decisions that relate to profit and loss. Responsible for the financial management of the operation.
• Give direction and be responsible for the implementation of plans. Monitor plans’ effectiveness and introduce changes in response to the marketplace, including setting targets, planning and scheduling work and performance indicators that are typically productivity and efficiency measures.
• Report on a regular basis to the Executive Committee on the performance of the department against budgets, sales and profit projections, and of operations and human resources performance. Analyze variances and monitor the impact of initiatives and corrective actions.
• Provide support of a specialist nature to the Executive Committee but particularly to the Department Managers. Work in support of team goals and measure effectiveness by the quality of decision making at the senior level as well as through the profit and service performance at the individual unit level.
• Operate all aspects of Front Office computer system, including software maintenance, report generation and analysis, and simple configuration changes.
• Review Front office log book and Guest feedback forms on a daily basis.
• Maintain an organised and comprehensive filing system with documentation of purchases, vouchering, schedules, forecasts, reports and tracking logs.
Marketing
• Responsible for promoting the product and services to the targeted customer/guest group. Develop promotional programs, point of sales materials, merchandising activities.
• Responsible for enhancing the product and service that is presented to the guest. Able to make changes that respond to the marketplace and to guest needs, both present and anticipated.
• Recommend changes to the product and services. Use market research to develop new products and services.
• Responsible for maintaining quality of product and ensuring consistency in its delivery and standards.
Supervisory Responsibility:
Supervise and direct the front office associates and make adjustments as needed to maintain service standards.

Required Knowledge and Skills:
• Interpret and comply with a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagrammatic or schedule form.
• Ability to focus and maintain attention to the performance of tasks despite periods of interruptions.
• Ability to work and complete assignments on time despite frequent stressful, emergency, critical or unusual interruptions.
• Requires good communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Knowledge of computer accounting programs, math skills as well as budgetary analysis capabilities required.
• Most tasks are performed in a team environment with the employee acting as a team leader. There is minimal direct supervision.
• Extensive knowledge of the hotel, its services, and facilities.

Qualifications: Required Education and Experience
• High School or equivalent education required.
• Minimum two year experience in Front Office/Housekeeping/Guest Services required.
• Minimum two years supervisory experience required.

Additional Eligibility Qualifications
Good communication skills, both verbal and written required