Why do people call a hotel and ask for the front desk?

Don't they realize those are the people at a hotel that are consistently busy with guests physically in front of them. Reservations are done through the reservations department. Directions are available through mapquest. The weather report is on the weather channel.

Same reason they come on Answers and ask what the weather will be for a certian place next week or next month instead of looking on the many weather sites. Same reason they come on Answers and ask what the capital of Michigan is instead of just entering that in the search bar and geting the answer much faster. Some people just don't know how to do the simplest research, some know nothing about problem solving, some have no imagnation. If they are a visitor in a foreign country , then they may not know a different way to get the informatin...or if they are very young. Complicated info, asking for opinions, technical facts are different, but simple tasks like you mentioned...people are often lazy or incredibly uninformed.

Because people are stupid. I guess they forget when they were trying to check-in and all the front desk clerks were busy attending to people in front of them, and that the people making reservations are busy on the phones in an office behind them.

The arrangement of duties and who handles what and where is only a recent fact.

It used to be that if you wanted to make a reservation in a hotel you called the front desk.

Also the front desk is the face presented to the world...to most people the front desk IS that hotel. It is human nature to go there first.

I guess because to most people the hotel's front desk is equivalent with the go-to place for customer service. When you are staying @ a hotel its the first place you go to for information. So, its only logical that people would call ask for them. I dont, I just ask my question to whoever answers the phone...for example: "I'd like to make reservations please" and then they transfer me. lol