Contemporary Hospitality Industry: Types of Businesses, Operational Departments, and Skills Gap

This report explores the contemporary hospitality industry, including the different types of businesses, operational and functional departments, and the skills gap within the industry. It also discusses the impact of franchising and licensing agreements on the global development of the hospitality industry.

Contemporary
hospitality industry

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 AND 2...............................................................................................................................1
Different types of businesses in hospitality industry and diverse products that they offer.........1
Range of operational and functional departments within the hospitality organisation...............2
Discussion of contribution of hospitality industry to local, national and international
economies....................................................................................................................................3
Interrelationship between the operational and functional units within a hospitality organisation
.....................................................................................................................................................3
The way in which use of franchising and licensing agreements had influenced global
development of the hospitality industry......................................................................................3
Analysis of the way in which global growth, franchising and licensing developments have
contributed to the economic worth of the hospitality industry....................................................4
Investigation of range of operational roles within the hospitality industry and current skills
shortages......................................................................................................................................4
The skills gap within the hospitality industry in relation to a range of different operational
roles..............................................................................................................................................5
Analysis of the impact that skills gaps have on hospitality businesses and valid solutions to
address the gaps...........................................................................................................................5
TASK 3 AND 4...............................................................................................................................6
Covered in PPT............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is mainly involved in the process of delivering services to the clients
so that their expectations could be met and they could be satisfied with the services. It is essential
for all the organisations which are carrying out operations under this sector to make sure that
they are focused with customer satisfaction (Afsar, Shahjehan and Shah, 2018). With the help of
it, all the business goals such as higher profits, revenues and good market image could be
achieved. The entity which is selected for this report is Marriot Hotel which is one of the largest
hotels around the world. This report covers various topics such as examination of current
structure, size and scope of hospitality industry. Additionally, exploration of current and
anticipated skills requirements in the sector are also covered in this assignment.
TASK 1 AND 2
Different types of businesses in hospitality industry and diverse products that they offer
Hospitality industry is very large and there are various types of businesses that are
operating business under the industry. All the businesses that are operating under this sector are
as follows:
Accommodation: All the hotels that are operating business in hospitality industry and
providing accommodation services to the customers are the part of accommodation businesses
that are the part of sector. Some different types of hotels that are part of the industry are budget,
luxury, boutique, bed and breakfast hotels and resorts. The services that are offered by them are
room to stay, pool, facilities of dining, parking, internet etc.
Food and beverage: It is one of the largest type of businesses that are operating business
in the hospitality industry. All the restaurants, fast food chains like Mc Donald’s, KFC, Burger
Farm, Five Guys, Harvester etc., fine and casual dining etc. The products are services that are
offered by such businesses are food, meals, place to sit etc.
Travel and tourism: All the entities which are offering facilities to the customers who
are willing to visit a new place or a country are the travel and tourism businesses. The aviation
and traveling companies are the part of it. Main purpose of them is to meet expectations of
clients and satisfy them with good services (Afsar, Shahjehan and Shah, 2018). The facilities that
are offered by them are travel packages, transportation services, hotels, flight etc.
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Entertainment: It is also a type of business which operates its activities in hospitality
industry. All the theme parks, zoo, museums, theatres etc. are the part of it. Leisure services are
offered by them to the clients and it includes food and other essential which are required by
customers while visiting them.
Range of operational and functional departments within the hospitality organisation
Marriot is one of the largest hospitality organisations which are operating business at
global level. There are various functional and operational departments which operating business
of the entity. Description of all of them is as follows:
Housekeeping department: The division which is responsible for cleanliness of hotel
rooms, wash rooms, corridors of Marriot etc. It is very important for all the staff members who
are working in it to make sure that they change the bedsheets and pillows at the time of check out
of all the clients. It is one of the main operational department (Cheng and Chen, 2017).
Food and beverage department: It is also an operational department of Marriot which
is liable to deliver all the ordered food items of guests in their rooms. This division is required to
make sure that they deliver the right food to the right room.
Food production department: It is also known as kitchen department which is
responsible to cook food according to specifications of clients. The main responsibility of this
division in Marriot is to assure hygiene while cooking the food.
Front office department: This operational division of Marriot is responsible to attend
the guests at reception and make sure that all their queries are resolved. This department provide
rooms to the visitors according to their requirements.
Accounts department: It is a functional department of Marriot which is liable to keep
detailed information of all the finance related transactions. The salaries of all the staff members
is credited by this division.
Security department: This division is mainly liable to assure security of whole Marriot
Hotel, staff and the guests who are staying in the organisation. The individuals working in it are
responsible to keep detailed information of all the persons who are entering in the hotel.
Marketing department: In Marriot this department is mainly responsible to market the
hotel so that large number of targeted audiences could get aware of all the services that are
offered by it. This division helps to attract large number of customers.
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Human resource department: The division which is mainly responsible to hire skilled
individuals according to vacant posts in the entity is known as HR department. This division of
Marriot makes sure that skilled, knowledgeable and experienced staff members are recruited so
that they can contribute in the attainment of business goals (Chon and Zoltan, 2019).
Discussion of contribution of hospitality industry to local, national and international economies
Hospitality industry is very large and it is contributing in the growth of local, national and
international economies. For example, if the tourists from different countries will spend more
money for restaurants, entertainment and hotels then it will result in improved growth of local
economy. All the organisations such as Marriot which are carrying out operations in hospitality
industry also contribute in development of national and international economy by generating
higher revenues from the visitors.
Interrelationship between the operational and functional units within a hospitality organisation
In Marriot different operational and functional departments are working an all of them
are working for common goals which is growing the organisation. Some of the operational units
are housekeeping, food and beverage, kitchen, front office divisions etc. The functional units are
accounts, marketing, security and human resource departments. All of them are interrelated with
each other because the HR division is responsible to hire staff members for all the operational as
well as functional units (Hassi, 2019). On the other hand, all the employees get salaries from the
accounts department. Front office and finance divisions are also linked with each other because
the receptionist resolves all the queries of clients and then they collect the charges of room and
provide it to the accounts department. It shows that all the divisions of the hotel are interrelated
with each other.
The way in which use of franchising and licensing agreements had influenced global
development of the hospitality industry
Franchising: Under this type of business expansion an entity opens its franchise in a new
country to reach all its long-term goals and objectives. With the help of it, the main entity offer
assistance in training, marketing, managing and merchandising the business for a money
consideration.
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Licensing: According to this agreement an entity allows another enterprise to operate
business in their country by using its name. For this purpose, a license for a specific period is
provided to the licensee (Jones, Hillier and Comfort, 2016).
Franchising and licensing both are very beneficial for global development of hospitality
industry because by using it organisations such as Marriot have expanded their business in
different nations. By expanding business in various countries, they are able to generate higher
revenues which help to grow the hospitality industry.
Analysis of the way in which global growth, franchising and licensing developments have
contributed to the economic worth of the hospitality industry
Hospitality industry is currently growing with a massive rate all around the world and it
has contributed in the economic worth of whole industry. With the help of franchising and
licensing most of the hotels, restaurants, fast food chains etc. are able to expand their business in
different countries. Which helped them to improve their performance, increase profits and
revenues. The positive outcomes of global growth, licensing and franchising development have
contributed in the economic worth of hospitality industry Currently it is contributing a very high
percentage in the global income because of its higher worth (Kandampully, Zhang and Jaakkola,
2018).
Investigation of range of operational roles within the hospitality industry and current skills
shortages
Hospitality industry is mainly focused with delivering different types of services that are
offered to the clients. Apart from this, there are various businesses that are carrying out
operations in this sector. These are hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, aviation companies,
theme parks etc. Due to this, the number of operational roles in the whole industry is very high.
Some of specific roles in the sector are discussed below:
Event planner: It is one of the main roles in the hospitality industry. The individuals
who is responsible to take control over a whole event whether it is a conference, or a marriage
function is known as event planner. All the planning, organising and managing related activities
are performed by this person.
Chef: In all the hotels and restaurants various cooks are working who are supervised by
the chefs. It is also an operational role of hospitality industry and main responsibility of the
individuals working as chef to guide all the cooks to prepare meals properly (Ozturk, 2016).
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Housekeeper: In most of the hospitality organisations it is one of the key roles and main
responsibility of this role is to clean all the rooms of hotels properly and make sure that hygiene
is maintain in all the rooms for guests.
Current skill shortage: It is one of the main issues which are faced by hospitality
industry. The individuals who are working in the sector are having skills shortage. Some of the
main shortages are communication, decision making, problem solving, lack of focus etc. Due to
this, all the hospitality organisations such as Marriot are not able to carry out all the operations
properly.
The skills gap within the hospitality industry in relation to a range of different operational roles
Skill gap can be defined as the difference between the qualities that are required for a job
and the skills of the individuals working for the same job. There are various types of operational
roles in the hospitality industry which are having skill gap. One of them is chef and the required
skills for a chef is leadership and communication. The level of it which is required is very high
and the chefs are not able to match the level and it results in skill gap. On the other hand, event
planner is required to have problem solving and decision-making skills and the shortage of them
create the skill gap for this role also (Wang, 2016).
Analysis of the impact that skills gaps have on hospitality businesses and valid solutions to
address the gaps
Skill gap leaves negative impact upon the hospitality businesses because it results in lack
of focus of individuals towards their jobs. Apart from this, due to this they will also not able to
perform all their tasks successfully which creates the situations of weak performance of
enterprise. Some of the specific solutions which could be focused to address the gaps are as
follows:
 It is very important to provide proper training to all the staff members before allocating
them jobs it will help to improve their skills and knowledge of them about their jobs.
 The entities in hospitality industry should conduct orientation programs as it will help to
enhance skills of newly appointed staff and the skill gap will be filled.
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TASK 3 AND 4
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that, hospitality industry is involved
in different types of services that are rendered to the customers. Some of the businesses that are
operating business under it are accommodation, travel and tourism, entertainment, food and
beverage etc. Some of the specific operational and functional departments in hospitality
organisations are housekeeping, front desk, security, account, human resource, marketing etc.
The operational roles in the industry are chef, house keeper, event planner etc. The skills that are
required by them are communication, leadership, decision making and problem solving. Lack of
them results in skill gap which is an issue leaving negative impacts upon operations of the
industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Afsar, B., Shahjehan, A. and Shah, S. I., 2018. Frontline employees’ high-performance work
practices, trust in supervisor, job-embeddedness and turnover intentions in hospitality
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Cheng, J. C. and Chen, C. Y., 2017. Job resourcefulness, work engagement and prosocial service
behaviors in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management.
Chon, K. K. S. and Zoltan, J., 2019. Role of servant leadership in contemporary
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Hassi, A., 2019. Empowering leadership and management innovation in the hospitality industry
context. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D., 2016. Sustainability in the hospitality
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. C. and Jaakkola, E., 2018. Customer experience management in
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Ozturk, A. B., 2016. Customer acceptance of cashless payment systems in the hospitality
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Wang, C. J., 2016. Does leader-member exchange enhance performance in the hospitality
industry?. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
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