Front Desk Operations

📂 What you will find in this section:

To help your team navigate front desk operations, cashiering workflows, and daily shift duties, we have organized this section into seven key functional areas:

📊 Dashboard, Inventory & Search: Tools for searching guest profiles, reviewing house inventory, checking future availability, and customizing reservation list views.
🛎️ Daily Operations & Shift Management: Desktop workflows for starting/ending shifts, logging lost and found items, extending stay authorizations, and reinstating no-shows.
⚡ Automated & Batch Processing: Time-saving automated workflows for running pre-arrival card validations, top-up credit card authorizations, and web payment links.
🌙 Audit & Regional Variations: End-of-day reconciliation guides, night audit execution, invoice searches, and printing proforma or preliminary billing statements.
👤 User Management: Quick-start administrative guides for setting up front desk user accounts, assigning operational roles, and managing security access.

📂 Knowledge Base Articles

📊 Dashboard, Inventory & Search

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Check Availability for Future Dates	Learn how to search room availability, check occupancy levels, and review rate options for future booking dates.
Dashboard Overview	Learn how to navigate the HK PMS dashboard and understand the key information, metrics, and shortcuts provided in each tile.
Guest Profiles	Learn how to create, view, and manage guest profiles to track contact information, stay history, preferences, and billing details in the PMS.
House Inventory	Learn how to use the House Inventory screen to track available rooms, daily occupancy, rate restrictions, and guest arrivals and departures across all room types.
How to Search for a Reservation	Learn how to search room availability, check occupancy levels, and review rate options for future booking dates.
Recently Viewed Reservation	Learn how to use the Recently Viewed Reservations feature to quickly re-access recently viewed guest bookings and reduce navigation friction during daily workflows.
Reservation List View	Learn how to set default list views, adjust column visibility, and apply sorting preferences to optimize the Reservation Listing screen.

🛎️ Daily Operations & Shift Management

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Extended Stay Authorization	Learn how to process weekly and periodic credit card authorizations for extended stay reservations to manage credit risk and ensure sufficient funds.
Lost & Found	Learn how to log, track, and manage lost and found items in the PMS to assist guests with recovering missing belongings.
Reinstate for No-Show Reservations	Learn how to reinstate no-show reservations on the current business date to quickly reactivate bookings and restore room availability.
Start / End Shift	Learn how to start a new shift in HotelKey to ensure uninterrupted access to all PMS features and front desk tools.

👤 User Management

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Create and Remove a User Account	Learn how to create new user accounts, assign roles and permissions, and remove user access within the PMS system administration settings.

⚡ Automated & Batch Processing

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Batch Process Pre-Arrival Credit Card Validations	Learn how to batch-process pre-arrival credit card validations to verify cards up to 7 days prior to check-in and proactively resolve payment failures.
In House Credit Card Top-Up Batch Process for Reservations	Learn how to run the In-House Credit Card Top-Up batch process to automatically increase card authorizations and cover projected guest charges.
Payments: Web Link Registration and Payments	Learn how to register and process web link payments to securely collect online credit card authorizations for guest reservations.

🌙 Audit & Regional Variations

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Invoice and Information Bill - Check Out a Reservation	Learn how to check out a completed reservation and generate an Invoice or Information Bill for the guest.
Invoice Search	Learn how to use the Invoice Search tool to quickly locate, filter, and access historical financial records and billing invoices.
Night Audit	Learn how to execute the daily Night Audit process, rollover business dates, and complete end-of-day property reconciliation.
Print a Proforma Invoice - a Preliminary Invoice	Learn how to generate and print a proforma invoice to provide guests with an estimated cost breakdown of room rates, taxes, and fees prior to check-in.