Hotel Sector Research

The provided content is a collection of academic papers and articles related to the hotel sector. The papers explore various topics such as hotel managerial efficiency, performance evaluation, forecasting industry turning points, and measuring hotel productivity. Several studies employ data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure hotel efficiency and benchmark their performance. Other topics covered include the impact of information technology on hotel performance, employee labor issues in hotels, and hotel room pricing methods. The content also includes a case study on evaluating a hotel general manager's performance using benchmarking.

Room Division

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
TASK A ..........................................................................................................................................3
a) Legislation and regulatory requirements relevant to room division operations.....................3
b) Analysis of roles and responsibilities of selection of accommodation and reception staff.....4
c) Evaluation of variety of services offered by rooms division .................................................5
d) Assessment of the importance of front house area and accommodation service to effective
management ................................................................................................................................6
e) Planning and management of front of house area and accommodation services....................7
f) Critical evaluation of the main operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance of the front of house area and the accommodation service......................8
TASK B ..........................................................................................................................................8
a) Revenue or Yield Management ..............................................................................................8
b) Analysis of sales techniques used for maximizing revenue ..................................................9
c) Evaluation of usage of forecasting and statistical data in room division .............................10
d) Calculation of performance indicators to measure the success of accommodation sales.....10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Room Division is an important aspect of hospitality sector that plays very crucial role in
the smooth functioning of hotels. It consists of various sub departments such as front office,
reception, housekeeping, concierge and security. Room division effectively contributes to the
profit earnings and revenue management of hotels (Chiang, 2006). The present report features
vital facets related to room division operations and revenue management of Rosewood Hotels
located in London, UK. The second part of the report covers analysis of sales techniques which
can be applied to promote and maximize revenue in the given scenario. In addition to this,
calculation of performance indicators is done to measure the success of accommodation sales in
the given case scenario.
TASK A
a) Legislation and regulatory requirements relevant to room division operations
Legal and regulatory requirement plays significant role in room division operations in
Rosewood Hotels. The government of UK has laid down various regulations and guidelines for
hotel businesses in order to carry out room service operations effectively. These requirements
enable the organization to design proper room services for guests. These include formulation of
rules for daily maintenance of room services such as cleanliness, housekeeping etc. Hotel has to
abide by environmental protection laws set by the government (Ham, Kim and Jeong, 2005). For
example, for cleaning rooms, Rosewood Hotels has to replace harsh chemical based cleaning
substances which degrade environment with more eco-friendly cleaning agents. In addition to
this, wastage of water for washing and cleaning is also taken into consideration by the hotel
management. Apart from this, laws pertaining to employment significantly impact the
recruitment operations of room division staff. These laws enable Rosewood Hotels to follow
good codes of practices while hiring hotel staff and safeguard their rights through their discourse.
It also allows the hotel staff to report any misconduct by the employer or the customers. In
addition to this, laws related to food safety are formulated to monitor the quality of food and
beverages served to customers at Rosewood Hotels. Thus, the hotel needs to maintain quality and
standard of food being served so that customers relish the taste without compromising on their
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health aspect. Another important law that is relevant to room division operations of Rosewood
Hotels is Data Protection Act (Lin, 2002). This act is formulated to keep the customers' private
information safe and secured from unauthorized access during their hotel stay. Besides this,
regulations regarding cost and tariffs monitor the pricing of hotel services. Room division
operations of Rosewood Hotels need to abide by these regulations to provide quality services to
customers and charging them accordingly. The hotel staff needs to display accurate price charts
at their discourse in order to avoid any discrepancies regarding pricing of room division
operations.
b) Analysis of roles and responsibilities of selection of accommodation and reception staff
It can be analyzed that accommodation and reception staff of Rosewood Hotels play
multiple roles in smooth functioning of room division operations. They perform multiple roles
and responsibilities which are discussed in the following points:
 They ensure effective maintenance of accommodation areas and rooms on a daily basis.
 They make sure that rooms are properly cleaned and presentable.
 They ensure that cleaning agents and methods used are as per guidelines of
environmental protection regulations.
 They ensure room decorations and furnishing are managed regularly (Assaf, Barros and
Josiassen, 2012).
 They look into the repairs of room fixtures from time to time.
 They ensure proper compliance of food safety standards to provide superior quality of
food and beverages to customers. They also monitor safety and hygiene regulations to
increase the quality of room division operations.
 They make sure that food inventory is managed properly
 They also control the budget for food and beverage stocks.
 It is one of the major responsibilities of accommodation manager to employ and train
room division staff.
 They also coordinate with other departments to carry out room division operations with
ease and efficiency.
 They ensure that all the room division staff activities are in line with the set
organizational norms and policies.
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 Accommodation managers monitor the performance of employees in order to improve
their productivity which in turn will influence the working performance of Rosewood
Hotels (Huang and Ji, 2013).
 Reception staff plays important role in greeting customers and helping them out with
their queries.
 They keep the record of customers staying at their hotel and allocate rooms and services
to them.
 Cashiers sitting at reception desk take care of checking in and out of customers and make
a note of point of sales and bill transactions.
 The reception staff helps in handling customer’s complaints and provides them feasible
solutions.
c) Evaluation of variety of services offered by rooms division
There is a broad range of services offered by room divisions of any hospitality business.
The two major functions of room division are Accommodation and Front Office department. In
order to evaluate various services of room division following points can be discussed.
Accommodation service department performs multiple functions in hotel businesses but the most
important function is to maintain and repair room property (Morey and Dittman, 2003).
Management of office space is very important for all organizations but it is of prime importance
for hospitality businesses. Accommodation services include broad spectrum of services such as
housekeeping, laundry and linen, interior decoration and maintenance of rooms. In addition to
this, safety and security procedures are also included in these services.
The second vital function of room division operations are Front Office department. It is
the face of hotel business as the staff directly interacts with customers for resolving their queries.
The staff performs essential activities such as providing important information to customers and
making reservations. They also facilitate room allocations to guests and keep records of client’s
details. It is one prime responsibility of front office employees to resolve the grievances of
customers and provide them practical solutions. Besides this, they also make sure that the
qualities of services are up to the set standards in order to ensure comfortable stay of customers.
Apart from this, front office staff keeps a track of customers checking in and out cycles and take
care of billing of customers invoices. It can be evaluated that front staff is directly involved in
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communication with customers (Sahida, Rahman, Awang and Man, 2011). Hence, staff needs to
have excellent communication skills to interact effectively with guests. In addition to this, they
also consider their body language while communicating with customers. It is also important to
have cooperative behavior to improve the satisfaction levels of customers. Thus, for better
customer satisfaction and revenue generation both accommodation and front office department
services of hospitality firms need to be meliorated in order to achieve organizational goals in the
long run.
d) Assessment of the importance of front house area and accommodation service to effective
management
The importance of front house area and accommodation service to effective management
of Rosewood Hotels can be elaborated in the following points:
Importance of Front House Area
The front house area can be referred to the place where the customers first enter into the
hotel premises. This area should be well built and maintained as well as decorated to create a
positive impact on visitors and guests. The interior decoration of front house area need to be
done tastefully in order to create an attractive ambiance. Attractive and vibrant wall patterns and
colorful flowers can be used to create a charming front house area. Besides this, the welcome
are of the hotel need to have proper lighting and sitting arrangement for effectively
accommodating large number of visitors (Sigala, 2004). In addition to this, the area also posses
front office desk for staff for effectively performing their operations. The front office as
discussed in the previous passage play very important role in facilitating communication with
walk in customers and guests throughout their stay in the hotel. The front office employees make
reservations and allocate rooms to visitors in the front house area. Other than these operations,
records of guests are also maintained at front desk of Rosewood Hotels.
Importance of Accommodation Services
Accommodation services play very crucial role in the effective management of
Rosewood Hotels. The accommodation services include housekeeping, laundry and linen,
interior decoration and maintenance of rooms. The interior decoration is one of the vital factors
that influences the satisfaction level of visitors (Steed and Gu, 2005). It has been observed that
combination of vibrant colors and attractive designs of the layout create a positive impact on the
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minds of customers. On the contrary dull and shabby designs negatively affect the moods of
guests. In addition to interiors, quality of housekeeping services significantly affect the efficacy
of management operations. The cleanliness of rooms elevate the satisfaction levels of guests of
Rosewood Hotels. Besides this, use of well designed fabrics, linens and fragrance in rooms
create positive impact on the moods of customers and they feel relaxed during their stay.
e) Planning and management of front of house area and accommodation services
Varied aspects are required to be taken care while planning and managing the front of
house area and the accommodation service in case of rosewood hotels. In case of front house
area, the need is to properly manage he check in activities of guests. This applies to the guests
who come with or without reservation. Hence the need is to properly plan and manage the
reservation system. The front staff office staff should be property trained for the same. Prior
planning is also required to be done with respect to sale of a room to a special guest, checking on
room availability as well as maintaining guest account.
Same applies to carrying out a proper planning and management for accommodation
service in rosewood hotel. Planning is required to be done on how proper space of rooms can be
utilized. There are times when guests come with a lot of luggage. Here issues may arise in
moving the luggage back and forth (Wu, Liang and Song, 2010). Issues can further arise in
ensuring towards proper storage of personal belongings within the cabin. The passengers further
have a tendency to compare accommodation on board and hotel accommodation ashore. The
need is to be prepared towards meeting the consumer expectation who become a part of
Rosewood hotel. Planning is required to be made with respect to style of rooms, space constraint.
Human resources are further required to be trained for the same so that they can give the
accommodation survives in the best possible manner. Further the need is to ensure that all the
needed physical resources are in place and there is no shortage of the same.
f) Critical evaluation of the main operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance of the front of house area and the accommodation service
It can be critically evaluated that poor performance of front house area and
accommodation services can negatively affect the efficacy of management and business
performance of hospitality businesses. As discussed, front house area is the first point of
interaction between hotel staff and visitors (Toh and Dekay, 2002). Therefore this area need to
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be carefully planned, designed and decorated to create positive impression of the hotel on the
customers. The interior decoration should be done tastefully by combining attractive wall
patterns, color schemes, beautiful flower arrangements, beautiful upholstery fabric and matching
linen. Other than this, accommodation services need to be in place in order to reduce operational
issues in hospitality. The front office staff need to be trained properly to handle customer issues
in order to make their stay comfortable and relaxing. Accommodation services should be in line
with organizational policies in order to avoid any discrepancies related quality and code of
practices in room division operations.
TASK B
a) Revenue or Yield Management
Revenue or yield management can be explained as a process of understanding,
forecasting and influencing behavior of customers in order to increase revenue or profits. In
other words, it can be elaborated as a pricing tactic implemented by hotel businesses to maximize
profits from fixed resources such as room reservations (Chiang, 2006). There are three vital
facets of the application of revenue management in hospitality businesses. These are :
1. Resource should be perishable in nature.
2. Resources should be cyclical.
3. Demand for services
A hotel room is a perishable product due to the limited number of rooms. Therefore
satisfaction level of customers greatly depend on the pricing and promotional activities of hotel
businesses which directly impacts revenue management. The demand for hotel rooms is
managed by distribution channels and promotional activities. There are two distribution channels
employed by hotel firms. One channel directly interacts with customers such as promotion
through internet. The other channel is the use of intermediaries such as tours and travels agencies
for promoting hotel brands. In order to maximize the profits, it is very crucial to have effective
pricing strategies for hotel products and services. The tariffs need to be set as per the quality and
standard of room division operations (Barros, 2005). In addition to this, pricing policies need to
consider the peak and slump seasonal demands. Another way of increasing revenue is by
evaluating and anticipating current reservations made by customers.
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b) Analysis of sales techniques used for maximizing revenue
There are several sales techniques that can be used to promote and maximize profits in
hotel businesses. These are discussed briefly in the following points: Pricing structures: It is very crucial to set the rates of various hotel products and services
prior to customers' arrival as this will help in dealing with any discrepancies related to
rate structures. The hotels need to carefully select the tariff structures based on the
business environment of the markets they operate in. Negotiation over rates of hotel rooms: The hotel firms need to negotiate over the rates of
hotel services with customers before making final agreement. The room charges can be
increased during peak seasons as more number of rooms are occupied during that time.
Also high net worth customers can be charged premium for their hotel stay and additional
personalized services can be provided to them to increase their satisfaction level (Ham,
Kim and Jeong, 2005). Up selling to existing clients: Another sales techniques which can be employed by sales
staff to maximize hotel revenue is by up selling upgraded services to existing clients. Customer loyalty initiatives: Converting satisfied customers into loyal consumers
through various loyalty programs is very beneficial for hotel businesses.
 Generating sales lead: Existing satisfied customers do mouth publicity about the hotel
services which in turn provide referrals to hotel firms through feedback forms. Therefore
it is very important for the hotel management to properly evaluate these feedback forms
to convert referrals into potential customers who can increase the sales and profits for
hospitality businesses.
c) Evaluation of usage of forecasting and statistical data in room division
Forecasting refers to the estimation of the number of hotel rooms which will be available
for use in future. Forecasting is done by analyzing statistical data collected by hotels. The
statistical data is collected in the form of survey formats from the satisfied visitors. It can be
referred to the process of comparing projected estimation and actual performance of hotel
operations. The usage of forecasting and statistical figures can be evaluated in the following
points:
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 Forecasting helps in optimizing the growth of room division services by setting goals for
room reservations that the staff need to achieve in order to meet organizational
objectives.
 The forecast helps the front office staff in making reservations and booking processes as
per customers demand.
 The management of hotels can plan staff and resources on the basis of forecast of room
occupancy (Morey and Dittman, 2003).
 Forecasting is also beneficial for accommodation managers as they can keep a track of
required stock and inventory according to number of visitors and store them effectively to
reduce the wastage.
 The projections are also useful for storing the right amount of food and beverages
according to the number of guests so that there is no wastage.
 Managers can effectively take operational decisions based on the statistical data collected
from surveying satisfied customers and improve their performance.
 The management of hotels can craft future marketing strategies to increase revenue on
the basis of current forecasting and statistical data.
d) Calculation of performance indicators to measure the success of accommodation sales
Room division operations of Five Seasons Hotel can be effectively managed and
controlled by using several performance indicators. The calculation of performance indicators to
measure the success of accommodation sales in the given scenario can be done by taking out
room occupancy percentage (Sigala, 2004). The percentage is calculated by dividing number of
rooms let in Five Seasons hotel with total number of rooms in the hotel and them multiplying
with 100.
The data given in the case scenario to calculate room occupancy is featured in the following
table :
Room Type Number of Rooms Number of Beds Room Occupancy
Single 75 75 55
Twin 60 120 50 rooms are occupied
by two persons and 5
occupied by one
person
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Double 80 160 30 occupied by two
persons and 40
occupied by one
person
Total 215 355 180 rooms let and 260
sleepers
Room Occupancy percentage is 180/215*100= 83% Thus the room occupancy
percentage of Five Seasons Hotel is 83%.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that room division operations play very important role in the
successful management of hospitality businesses. It has been learned that there are two vital
functional departments of room division are accommodation and front office department. The
personnel of these departments perform multiple roles and responsibilities in carrying out
business operations effectively. The front house area of hotels need to be planned, designed and
decorated tastefully in order to create positive impact on the minds of visitors. Apart from this,
hotel firms need to provide superior quality of accommodation services in order to provide
comfortable stay to their customers. Besides this, yield management systems need to be
evaluated regularly and effectively to maximize the profits for hospitality businesses.
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REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Assaf, A. and Cvelbar, L.K., 2010. The performance of the Slovenian hotel industry: evaluation
post‐privatisation. International Journal of Tourism Research. 12(5). pp.462-471.
Assaf, A., Barros, C.P. and Josiassen, A., 2012. Hotel efficiency: A bootstrapped metafrontier
approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 31(2). pp.621-629.
Barros, C.P., 2005. Evaluating the efficiency of a small hotel chain with a Malmquist
productivity index. International Journal of tourism research. 7(3). pp.173-184.
Barros, C.P., 2005. Measuring efficiency in the hotel sector. Annals of Tourism Research. 32(2).
pp.456-477.
Chen, C.F., 2007. Applying the stochastic frontier approach to measure hotel managerial
efficiency in Taiwan. Tourism Management. 28(3). pp.696-702.
Chiang, W.E., 2006. A hotel performance evaluation of Taipei international tourist hotels–using
data envelopment analysis. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research. 11(1). pp.29-42.
Choi, J.G., Olsen, M.D., Kwansa, F.A. and Tse, E.C.Y., 1999. Forecasting industry turning
points: the US hotel industry cycle model. International Journal of Hospitality Management.
18(2). pp.159-170.
Ham, S., Kim, W.G. and Jeong, S., 2005. Effect of information technology on performance in
upscale hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 24(2). pp.281-294.
Huang, Z. and Ji, Y., 2013. Design and demonstration of room division multiplexing-based
hybrid VLC network. Chinese Optics Letters. 11(6).
Lin, S.C., 2002. Exploring the relationships between hotel management courses and industry
required competencies. Journal of teaching in travel & tourism. 2(3-4). pp.81-101.
McDowell, L., Batnitzky, A. and Dyer, S., 2007. Division, segmentation, and interpellation: The
embodied labors of migrant workers in a greater London hotel. Economic Geography. 83(1).
pp.1-25.
Morey, R.C. and Dittman, D.A., 2003. Evaluating a hotel GM's performance A case study in
benchmarking. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 44(5-6). pp.53-59.
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Sahida, W., Rahman, S.A., Awang, K. and Man, Y.C., 2011. The implementation of shariah
compliance concept hotel: De Palma Hotel Ampang, Malaysia. In 2nd International
Conference Humanities, Historical and Social Sciences, Singapore.
Scherzer, T., Rugulies, R. and Krause, N., 2005. Work-related pain and injury and barriers to
workers' compensation among Las Vegas hotel room cleaners. American Journal of Public
Health. 95(3). pp.483-488.
Sigala, M., 2004. Using data envelopment analysis for measuring and benchmarking productivity
in the hotel sector. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 16(2-3). pp.39-60.
Steed, E. and Gu, Z., 2005. An examination of hotel room pricing methods: Practised and
proposed. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management. 3(4). pp.369-379.
Toh, R.S. and Dekay, F., 2002. Hotel room-inventory management: an overbooking model. The
Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 43(4). pp.79-90.
Wu, J., Liang, L. and Song, H., 2010. Measuring hotel performance using the integer DEA
model. Tourism Economics. 16(4). pp.867-882.
Online
Rosewood Hotels, 2016. [Online] Available through:
<http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/london?gclid=CIzlqo_Eo8oCFdSKaAod_LsC9w>.
[Accessed on 12th January 2015].
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