Training a New Receptionist Inside the PMS: A First-Week Story
Frontdesko's Learning Center trains staff inside the live PMS: more than 40 guided tours that highlight the next click on the real screen, a daily tip and a what's-new feed, all translated into nine languages besides English.
By the Frontdesko team · Last updated: October 31, 2026
A New Receptionist's First Week
Illustrative scenario. A 20-room hotel with a new receptionist is a made-up property used to show the screens in order. It is not a customer story, and no figures here are real results.
The whole point is that she learns on the real screens of the hotel she works in, not in a separate course. That is also the main limit, covered below.
What Is in the Learning Center?
The Learning Center is a drawer in the staff app, opened from the graduation-cap icon in the header. It has three parts.
The tours by category
The count a person sees is the number of tours their role can open, so a receptionist's checklist is shorter than a manager's.
How Does a Guided Tour Work?
- A dimmed mask leaves a clickable hole over the exact element to use next, with a pulsing ring and a card explaining the step ("Step 2 of 5"). The person performs the real click.
- Steps advance on the person's own click, on a watched condition such as a window opening or closing, or with Next for orientation steps. Form-filling steps use a floating, non-blocking card.
- Tours pick a booking that supports the action: today's arrival for check-in, an in-house stay for check-out, a paid booking for a refund. If none exists the tour says what to create first.
- If a step's target never appears, for example because of permissions or empty data, the card flips to Skip step or Exit tour so the screen can never be locked.
- If a required window closes, the tour rewinds to "open the booking".
- Completion is saved per user and shown on the checklist. A toast confirms each completed task.
Languages
The staff app is available in 10 languages: English, Lithuanian, Filipino, Thai, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Indonesian. The tour, tip and what's-new text is translated into the nine languages besides English, using each language's on-screen labels, and a test keeps the keys and placeholders in step with English. A Lithuanian-speaking night receptionist can run the same tours in Lithuanian.
What Does It Not Do?
- There is no practice sandbox. Tours run on your live hotel data and the clicks are real. A check-in tour will check a real guest in. Run the billing and cancellation tours on a test booking.
- Tour content is built in. Hotels cannot write their own tours or add house rules to the existing ones, so keep your own procedures in a short SOP (see hotel SOPs).
- No team report. Each person sees their own checklist. The tours module has no manager view of who finished what.
- It is not a certificate. Completing a task proves the person clicked through the flow, not that they understand your policies.
- Tips are advisory. The ranking uses which screens a user has recently clicked, stored in that browser, so it is a nudge, not a skills assessment.
For a wider onboarding plan around a new PMS, see what good PMS onboarding support looks like, and for who should be allowed to do what, staff roles and permissions.
The Learning Center is part of the PMS, which is free with unlimited rooms. See pricing for the paid channel manager and AI assistant add-ons.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you train new hotel front desk staff on a PMS?
Frontdesko trains inside the live app. The Learning Center has more than 40 guided tours that highlight the next click on the real screen while the trainee does the work, plus a daily tip and a what's-new feed. Trainees tick off tasks on a checklist at their own pace.
How many guided tours are there?
More than 40, one for each PMS workflow, across nine categories from Start here to Setup and personal settings. Each takes about one to four minutes. A person sees only the tours their role is allowed to open.
Are the tours safe to run on live data?
Not entirely. The trainee performs the real workflow, so a check-in tour checks a real guest in. Tours choose a suitable booking and warn when none exists, but you should practise payments, refunds and cancellations on a test booking.
Does the daily tip interrupt work?
No. The card appears at most once a day, only after the screen has been calm for a while, with no modal or tour open. It can be dismissed, replaced with another tip, or switched off for good with Turn off tips.
What languages are the tours available in?
The staff app has 10 languages. Tours, tips and what's-new text are translated into Lithuanian, Filipino, Thai, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Indonesian as well as English.
Can a manager see who has completed training?
Not today. Each person sees their own checklist and progress. There is no team-level completion report, so ask new starters to show their checklist or check their work in the reservation history.
Can we create our own guided tours?
Not yet. The tours are built into the product. Use them for the standard workflows and keep house-specific procedures in your own SOP document.
Does staff training cost extra?
No. The Learning Center is part of the PMS, which is free with unlimited rooms.
Onboard Your Next Hire Without a Training Day
Guided tours, daily tips and a what's-new feed come with the free PMS. Open the graduation cap in a live demo.
Related Guides
Onboarding, procedures and permissions