Director of Front Office

Job Description: Director of Front Office

Department: Rooms

Reports To: Hotel Manager

Position Summary

The Director of Front Office leads all front-of-house operations, delivering a polished, personalized, and seamless guest experience while ensuring operational excellence, financial integrity, and consistent execution of brand standards and core values. This leader champions an elevated service culture, drives guest satisfaction performance, and collaborates with hotel leadership to maximize reputation, occupancy, and profitability.

Essential Duties

• Recruit, interview, onboard, train, schedule, coach, and develop front office associates and leaders to deliver luxury-level, anticipatory service and consistent brand execution.
• Oversee all front-of-house departments to ensure immaculate arrival, stay, and departure experiences, including VIP recognition and special request fulfillment.
• Own front-of-house financial performance and controls: budgeting, forecasting, accounting compliance, house banks, petty cash, and coordination with corporate accounting for payroll support.
• Manage room inventory and occupancy strategy with a luxury mindset—minimizing displacement risk while optimizing ADR, upgrades, and premium product sales.
• Ensure front office systems, technology, and equipment (PMS, key systems, arrival tools, guest messaging platforms) operate at peak performance; champion process improvements that enhance the guest experience.
• Oversee vendor and personnel contracts impacting the guest-facing experience
• Lead and participate in property safety initiatives; ensure compliance with OSHA, and safe work practices.
• Foster a unified team where everyone contributes to business goals and exceptional guest experiences.
• Perform other duties as assigned by management.

Service and Culture

• Set luxury service expectations and standards of presentation, language, and professionalism; ensure consistent execution across all guest touchpoints.
• Build a high-performing team culture focused on empowerment, discretion, emotional intelligence, and attention to detail.

Guest Journey

• Ensure a flawless end-to-end guest journey with elevated arrival rituals, personalized room assignments, thoughtful amenities, and seamless departure and billing accuracy.
• Maintain rigorous standards for VIP arrivals, elite-tier loyalty guests, group arrivals, and high-profile clientele—ensuring privacy, preference management, and timely communication.
• Review guest correspondence, incident reports, and operational logs to identify trends, prevent service breakdowns, and improve consistency.

Guest Experience and GSS Performance

• Monitor guest satisfaction scores, brand metrics, online reputation, and luxury service standards; translate insights into actions that elevate performance.
• Lead daily performance huddles and service audits focused on experience drivers (arrival speed, recognition, problem resolution, cleanliness readiness, and colleague engagement).
• Partner with revenue leadership to optimize premium revenue opportunities (upsell, suite conversion, late check-out, amenities) without compromising service integrity.

Service Recovery

• Resolve guest concerns promptly with empathy and authority, using luxury recovery practices (ownership, discretion, and personalized solutions) to protect loyalty and reputation.
• Create action plans to address service gaps; coach leaders and associates to prevent recurrence and strengthen consistency.
• Empower associates to take immediate, guest-centered action within defined guidelines.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, inspire, and develop the on-property sales team, setting clear expectations and fostering a culture of accountability and performance excellence.
• Provide ongoing coaching, feedback, and professional development to build a high-performing sales organization.
• Maintain a visible, hands-on leadership presence, actively participating in key account strategy, site inspections, and client engagement

Operations & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Sales and Revenue teams to align on business mix, VIP/group execution, and strategies that maximize occupancy and rate while protecting the luxury experience.
• Partner with Housekeeping, Engineering, Security, and Food & Beverage to ensure room readiness, public space standards, safety, and service flow exceed luxury expectations.
• Ensure internal audit standards and brand compliance are met; maintain documentation, training, and operational cadence required for luxury-level consistency.

Qualifications:

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, Business Administration, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive leadership experience in luxury hotel operations, Guest Relations, or Rooms Division leadership.
• Demonstrated success leading luxury service cultures and improving guest satisfaction metrics.
• Proven ability to achieve and sustain strong GSS results.
• Strong communication skills, emotional intelligence, and composure in high-pressure environments.
• Advanced working knowledge of Opera PMS and guest feedback platforms.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Preferred

• Experience with proprietary or bespoke luxury service programs.
• Experience in a Forbes-rated or equivalent luxury environment.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to stand, move, and engage guests for extended periods in a guest-facing environment.
• Ability to lift or carry up to 25 pounds for VIP amenities or operational needs.

Key Performance Indicators

• Achievement and sustainability of Guest Satisfaction Survey (GSS) results.
• Consistent execution of The Manner luxury guest services standards.
• Effectiveness of service recovery and reduction in repeat guest issues.
• Team engagement and performance outcomes.
• Alignment with brand, ownership, and operational objectives.