Front Office Operations
This domain tests the guest cycle, room and rate vocabulary, and the small calculations that appear in the paper.
The guest cycle drives everything
Pre-arrival (enquiry, reservation, confirmation) → arrival (registration, rooming, key issue) → occupancy (information, cashiering, concierge) → departure (check-out, folio settlement, bell desk) → post-departure (records, guest history, follow-up). Sections: reservations, reception, information, cashier, bell desk, EPABX, business centre.
Room and rate vocabulary
Single, double (one bed), twin (two beds), triple, suite, studio; adjoining versus connecting rooms. Meal plans: EP room only, CP room plus breakfast, MAP breakfast plus one main meal, AP all three meals. Rates: rack (published), corporate, group, seasonal, weekend, OTA, package. Reservations are guaranteed (credit card, advance, voucher) or non-guaranteed. Overbooking is deliberate cover for no-shows. Foreign guests require Form C.
Worked example: occupancy and RevPAR
A 120-room hotel sells 90 rooms at an average room rate of ₹4,200. Occupancy = 90 ÷ 120 = 75%. Room revenue = 90 × ₹4,200 = ₹3,78,000. RevPAR = room revenue ÷ total rooms = ₹3,78,000 ÷ 120 = ₹3,150, which also equals 0.75 × ₹4,200. Reasoning: RevPAR uses all rooms while ARR uses only sold rooms, so RevPAR can never exceed ARR.
Traps
Defining MAP as all meals; confusing double with twin; dividing by occupied rooms when asked for RevPAR; treating a non-guaranteed booking as certain late at night; forgetting the folio is the guest's bill record.