Front Office Reception Layout

• The front office reception area is a busy workstation where guest inquiries and transactions occur.
• Strategic planning of the front office workstation by hotel management is important.
• Front desk staff must be familiar with various aspects of their roles.
• Understanding architectural symbols and front desk layout is a skill acquired in this lesson.
• The lesson covers interpreting architectural symbols and the layout of the front desk reception area according to workplace needs.
• Workstation organization helps efficiently file documents and save time searching for them.

Technical Terms

• Alphabet of lines refers to different shades and forms of lines portraying meaning in technical drawings, as perceived by the draftsman.
• Architectural symbols are illustrations that correspond to the actual objects that may be found inside a room.
• Floor plan is an illustrated layout of the floor as viewed from the top.
• Front desk pertains to the workstation of the front office staff.
• The front desk is where the first encounter with the guests takes place.
• Front office is the hotel department responsible for relating with guests.
• The front office also handles employees, and other departments for business inquiries.
• The front office also handles complaints, and accounting services.
• Line is the basic element of drawing that gives details to an object or illustration.
• Technical drawing pertains to illustrations of an object to the most actual detail shown by the draftsman.

Alphabet of Lines

• Line is the basic element of drawing used to illustrate a realistic view of an object.
• There are different kinds of lines: straight, curved, thick, thin, long, and short.
• Every variation of line portrays meaning in technical drawing.
• These variations are called the alphabet of lines.
• A border line is the thickest line that encloses the entire illustration.
• A visible line clearly defines the drawing that can be seen by the observer.
• Visible lines are made up of heavy strokes of soft pencil.
• A hidden line represents the part of the drawing that is not visible to the observer.
• Hidden lines are detailed to describe dimension.
• Hidden lines are composed of short dashes drawn in 1-2 millimeters gap.
• Extension or projection line shows the limit of the dimension.
• The extension extends from the drawing in about 1-2 millimeters gap.
• Dimension line is drawn between extension lines to describe the measurement.
• A dimension line is composed of arrows at both ends and the unit measure situated at the middle of the line.
• A cutting plane line illustrates the portion of the imaginary object where cutting took place.
• The cutting plane's symbolic line is made up of a long dash and two short dashes drawn repeatedly, followed by the vertical dash and arrowhead on both ends.
• A section line specifies the area of a cut portion using slanting thin lines that are usually 45° inclined, shown along with the cutting plane line.
• A phantom line shows traces of the part of an object that had been moved through a long dash and two short thin dashes drawn repeatedly.

Other Symbolic Lines

• Leader lines can be used for indicating measurement and labeling, or describing part of the object.
• Leader lines are made up of horizontal and slanted lines with an arrowhead at one end.
• Reference lines, alternative to leader lines, may be used to describe the portion of the object.
• Reference lines are irregular curve lines with arrowheads at one end.
• Center lines identify the axis of a symmetrical object.
• On a center line, long and short dashes are drawn alternately for about 1-2 millimeters distance.
• Break lines are used to indicate a part of the drawing that is continuous but too long to illustrate.
• There are two types of break lines drawn in freehand: the long break line and the short break line.

Lines - Width and Character

• Visible line: thick (width 0.75-0.96 mm)
• Hidden line: thin (width 0.38-0.55 mm)
• Section line: thin (width 0.38-0.55 mm)
• Center line: thin (width 0.38-0.55 mm)
• Dimension, Extension lines and Leaders: thin (width 0.38-0.55 mm)
• Cutting plane or viewing-plane lines: thick (Width 0.75-0.96mm)
• Short-break line: thick, freehand (Width 0.75-0.96mm)
• Long-break line: thin, freehand (Width 0.38-0.55mm)
• Phantom line: thin (Width 0.38-0.55 mm)