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

This report delves into the contemporary hospitality industry, discussing the different types of businesses, operational departments, and the skills required for various roles. It also explores the contribution of the industry at local, national, and international levels. The report concludes with suggestions for skill development in the industry.

ABOUT THE
CONTEMPORARY
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Different businesses in hospitality industry.................................................................................3
Operational and functional departments and their interrelationship............................................3
Contribution at local, national and international level.................................................................4
Franchising and licensing agreements.........................................................................................5
Contribution in the economic worth............................................................................................5
Different operational roles...........................................................................................................5
Skills required..............................................................................................................................6
Skill gap.......................................................................................................................................6
Impact of skill gap on hospitality business and suggestions.......................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry includes multiple aspects and types in its operation. Brown’s Hotel is
one of the prominent hotels based in London with great potential to expand internationally. The
present report will evaluate the different types of business and the contribution of industry at
different levels. It will also identify the different operational roles and the skills that are required
for such roles which will be compared with the skills actually possessed.
MAIN BODY
Different businesses in hospitality industry
The term hospitality industry basically indicates the services that are related to
accommodation and food and drinks to the people in return of money (Savitckaia, 2017). There
are a variety of businesses in the hospitality industry as well. These are:
 Accommodation: These are those brands who offer stay facilities i.e. a person can stay
here and are usually provided with all the facilities such as laundry etc. but there are no
food related services here such as diner etc. There are various brands such as Air Bnb,
Zostel etc. that are prominent in this area.
 Restaurants and pubs: The restaurants and pubs are those where the food and drinks
related services are available but one cannot stay here and they have to leave after
spending a considerable number of hours. Starbucks can be categorised into this where a
person can spend only a limited time.
 Events: These involve those companies that are mainly onto the event hosting, giving
catering services etc. to the selected number of people (Lubis, Absah and Lubis, 2019).
These generally includes wedding planners, companies with such services etc. and the
entertainment is also involved in this aspect only.
Therefore, these are the different types of organisations that operate within the hospitality
industry collectively.
Operational and functional departments and their interrelationship
The operational department is the one where the different aspects related to the operation
and management of the hotel are included. It includes departments like housekeeping, front
office, security etc. Functional department represents different segments of organisation that are
categorised on the basis of their nature for duties i.e. HR department, Production Department,
Marketing department etc. Both the departments are equally important for the successful
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operation of any hospitality organizations and there the integration and interrelationship between
them is also of critical importance (Dimitrov, 2019).
The overall communication within the company improves as the front office department is
able to indicate the details related to the guests, their particular demands etc. and the HR
department can send correct personnel who will meet that demand adequately. Similarly,
marketing department indicates the potential number of expected customers and the
housekeeping departments stocks up on the goods accordingly.
Another aspect of interrelationship is indicated by the manner in which this facilitates the
completion of the tasks where front office can give all the relevant and actual figures, the
marketing department can give expected figures of customers and the R&D department can
identify the reason why they do not match etc, thus increasing overall productivity (Repenning,
Kieffer and Astor, 2017).
Contribution at local, national and international level
The contribution of the hospitality sector and the industries operating in it at the local,
national and international level is immense and there are a variety of factors that can collectively
be attributed to the growth of industry at different levels:
 Partnerships: When an organisation gets into deals with any international, national or local
company this is imminent in the overall growth of the company. Development of correct
relationships that help in increasing goodwill and fostering the business as well as positive
outcomes is necessary for the increase in the positions at whichever level the organisation is
operating i.e. local, national or international.
 Value Creation: This is also an important factor where the organisations must offer
something of value gains the money that is being charged from them. The customers must
feel satisfied that they have spent their money against services that were worthwhile as this
is the key behind generation of a loyal customer base who is also satisfied (O'brien, 2019).
This will act as major growth factors for all the three levels as this will uplift the
organisation collectively.
 Improved customer relationships: The basic purpose behind the hospitality industry is to
serve the customer and this automatically leads to the better relationship formulation with
them. It is necessary s well for an organisation to operate successfully at all the three levels
because without customers support, hospitality industry cannot function.
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Franchising and licensing agreements
The franchising and licensing agreements are the techniques that can be used for the
expansion of the hospitality industries at national and international level. This does not involve
too much investment as well and helps in boosting up the overall presence of the organisations
(McGuinness, Pouliakas, K. and Redmond, 2017). The franchising and licensing agreements
have been critical in the growth of the hospitality industry on a global platform as this helps them
in plotting themselves on the international map in number of countries and also reduces the legal
and management related trouble. On the basis of the goodwill that they have already established
they are able to get better returns out of it and target a wider market.
Contribution in the economic worth
The contribution of the hospitality industry collectively is immensely helpful n improving
the GDP growth f the economy. When an organisation operating at the global levels is able to
bring in the necessary foreign exchange and other relevant benefits, they help in fostering the
development. The increase in the revenue generation and ultimately the living standards of
people is the direct impact that this industry has on the economy (Madera and et.al., 2017). There
are many indirect contributions as well in the economic development such as the creation of
employment; encouragement towards skill development etc. and these are more important
aspects as this creates long term growth for the economy.
Different operational roles
There are a variety of operational roles that are categorised under the hospitality industry
and in the Brown’s Hotel as well, there are a variety of roles which can be categorised as
follows:
 Front Office Department: This includes the entire area of receptionist, booking keepers;
guiders etc. and collectively contribute an important part in the overall management of the
hotel. In Brown’s hotel, the duties of the front office department is mainly related to the
welcoming onboard of the customers in the hotel and then ease the entire process of
checking bookings etc. and delivering the customers as well as their luggage to their
respective destinations.
 Back Office Management: The back office on the other hand is actually the backbone of
every hospitality organisation where they store all the paperwork and other necessary details
(Daif and Elsayed, 2019). They are the ones who resolve the major issues that arise during
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the visit of the customers and also incorporate the duties related to settling in of the different
accounts, the clearance duties, maintaining records etc. so that the work of the front office
can be facilitated and assisted.
 Housekeeping: This is another department in this field where the operational managers have
to ensure that the different duties that are required to be performed by the staff such as
laundry, providing fresh bed sheets, towels etc., providing tea, coffee water etc., resolving
other issues such as leaky tap in bathroom or faulty fridge AC etc. all are to be resolved by
the housekeeping department only.
Skills required
There are a variety of skills that are required for completing the different roles that were
evaluated such as ability to perform multiple duties at the same time, having proper knowledge
about different roles that are to be performed, time management i.e. knowing how much time is
to be apportioned on each activity, problem solving where the person should develop the solution
to any problem as soon as possible and collectively reduce the waiting time (Bavik, 2016). The
actual skills that are currently prevailing in the organisation i.ein Brown’s Hotels shows a serious
lack of problem solving abilities and multi skilling as well where the employees are adequately
trained and skilled but they don’t understand how to utilise those skills in multiple manner and
are not quick in generating correct solutions and implementing them in the hotel.
Skill gap
The skill gap is said to be the difference that exists between the skills that are required and
the actual skills that are possessed (Barhate, 2016). In the Brown’s hotel, the skill gap is
prominent in the operational roles of the hotel where the skills that are required to be portrayed
by the employees and the ones that are actually portrayed are quite different.
The back office as well as the front office employees are not multi skilled and lack the
skills of time management that often leads to an increased waiting time adding on to the
restlessness of the customers. The interpersonal and communication skills are although used
satisfactorily by the front office but the housekeeping department again fails to properly
communicate and resolve the problems that are being faced and solve them on time which is
again unpleasant for the visitors.
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Impact of skill gap on hospitality business and suggestions
The impact mainly leads to the creation of a negative experience of the customer and this
in turn reduces the overall number of customers that are attracted towards the hotel. This creates
a negativity and loss of revenue as well as goodwill. In order to minimise such impact, the
management of Brown’s hotel can implement some significant changes. The employees at hotel
are adequately skilled but they simply need to learn the ability to multi task and this can be
taught to them (Ali, Amin and Cobanoglu, 2016). Additionally, some of the staff which is older
has become lazy and they must be replaced by young, energetic and talented staff so that the
problems can be addressed quickly. Additionally the skill audit must be conducted by Brown’s
hotel at regular intervals so that the management can review those employees who lack the
proper skills and either train them or remove them so that inefficiency in any form can be
avoided.
CONCLUSION
The research conducted in the report above indicates that the hospitality industry is very
wide and covers multiple numbers of aspects. Different types of hospitality organisation were
evaluated and their impact on local, national and international level was ascertained. The
operational roles within Brown’s hotel and the skills that are required were critically analysed
and appropriate suggestions were made regarding skill development.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, F., Amin, M. and Cobanoglu, C., 2016. An integrated model of service experience,
emotions, satisfaction, and price acceptance: an empirical analysis in the Chinese
hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. 25(4). pp.449-475.
Barhate, B., 2016. Perception of Software Employees towards Human Resource Development
Roles, Functions, and Professionals.
Bavik, A., 2016. Developing a new hospitality industry organizational culture
scale. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 58, pp.44-55.
Daif, R. and Elsayed, K., 2019. Viral Marketing Impact on Tourism and Hospitality
Industry. International Journal of Research in Tourism and Hospitality (IJRTH). 5(3).
pp.34-41.
Madera, J.M and et.al., 2017. Strategic human resources management research in hospitality and
tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
McGuinness, S., Pouliakas, K. and Redmond, P., 2017. How useful is the concept of skills
mismatch?.
O'brien, J., 2019. Category management in purchasing: a strategic approach to maximize
business profitability. Kogan Page Publishers.
Repenning, N.P., Kieffer, D. and Astor, T., 2017. The most underrated skill in management. MIT
Sloan Management Review.
Dimitrov, A., 2019. Current trends in e-commerce development in hospitality, 8(3), pp.119-127.
Lubis, T.W.H., Absah, Y. and Lubis, A.N., 2019. Analysis of Restaurant Business Strategy in
Developing Business using SWOT Analysis.
Savitckaia, I., 2017. The use of local farm products as the restaurants competitive advantage.
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