Front Office professions in the era of soft skills[Les métiers du Front Office à l’heure des soft skills]

Social skills have always been at the heart of hospitality professions. However, we are now seeing a promotion and strengthening of these skills in the medium and high ranges of chain hotels as the main competitive advantage. The transformation of these hotels into "Life Style" offers includes changes in the consumption patterns of travel and tourism in order to attract ever more customers and retain them. Customers seek more authentic, unique relationships in their service experiences. The interpersonal skills and personality of the employees in contact have become essential resources for maximizing the quality of service. In the hotel industry, as in all service sectors, soft skills now take precedence over any other skill (Le Monde Economique, 2016). Human resources policies are thus oriented towards this strategic trend and employees are prescribed behavioral standards (Lhuillier, 2006). They are trained, recruited and evaluated in relation to them. These new HR practices, emanating from the strategic imperatives of the competitive environment of hotel firms, are changing the perception - but probably not the reality, as we will see - of front-office professions. We will tackle these different questions in this chapter, firstly from the evolution of the front office professions, through the specificities and challenges of professionalization, then consequences on the working experience of front office employees. and finally recruitment and appraisal practices.