Case Study: Service Unseen: The Hotel Room Attendant at Work

This report examines the case study of 'Service Unseen: The Hotel Room Attendant at Work', analyzing the occupation of a room attendant and the challenges they face. It explores the factors influencing the job, the typical characteristics of room attendants, and compares their role to that of a front office employee. The report also delves into the organizational structures of housekeeping departments in both large and small hotels, highlighting the differences in responsibilities, communication, and service levels.

Assessment 2: - Case Study: Service Unseen: The Hotel room
attendant at work
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1: Read the Supplied article and answer the following questions:...........................................4
1. How do the authors describe the occupation of the room attendant, identify and explain 3
Factors?........................................................................................................................................4
2. Who is the room attendant? What does the article say about the type of person/typical
characteristics of many people working as room attendants? Identify and explain 4
characteristics?.............................................................................................................................5
3. Source a job description for a front office employees. How does this person compare to an
employee working as a room attendant? Make 4 realistic comparisons......................................7
4. Room attendants often work alone, are exposed to hazardous substances and work under
significant pressure. Briefly explain how/why these work situations occur and using the article
and your own research/experiences suggest 2 realistic ways of dealing with the negative
impact of each one.......................................................................................................................9
Part 2 Housekeeping departmental structures................................................................................10
5. Compare and contrast the Housekeeping department’s organizational structure..................14
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
In this report study the case study related to the service unseen within the hotel room attendant
during work has been discussed. For such purpose the critical analysis of the article has been
made using literatures and arguments. The overall assignment has been segregated in two parts
in which part first generally talks about the case scenario of hotel room attendant and on the
other hand, second part focuses on the housekeeping departmental structures and hierarchy. The
organizational structure represented in the second part of the report consists of a large hotel or
resort i.e. Millbrook Resort and the other one is a small sized hotel or motel i.e. Waipoua
Lodge. Both of these organizations have been selected for the assessment of second part.
Conclusion of the report is also drawn at the end of assignment.
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Part 1: Read the Supplied article and answer the following questions:
1. How do the authors describe the occupation of the room attendant, identify and explain
3 Factors?
The job of accommodation involves providing the satisfactory residential services to the
customers and this room attendant plays a crucial role. The accommodation workers have named
it as dirty work that has been denoted as lack of dignity as well as status. Most of the potential
room attendants do not consider the work as reputable and therefore, has named like that. There
are many factors on which the occupation of room attendant is been dependent upon quality,
cleaning and others. But the three major factors are comfort, hygiene and safety in the
delivery of room attendant’s services. The occupation of room attendant is highly based on the
inspection of cleaning measures, meeting of quality standards, fulfilling safety standards,
maintaining audit and others. There work on the regular basis has been checked against these
criteria and from that it is analysed that they work up to the mark or not. These mentioned factors
clearly describe the occupation of room attendant very specifically. In addition to this, the
occupation of room attendant also comprises of the image such as unskilled, low salaried, low
status, repetitive job, physically demanding, dirty and others which are mostly carried out by a
female worker. However, this job is subjective to a high rate of turnover which also involves
seeking for various opportunities and advancements.
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2. Who is the room attendant? What does the article say about the type of person/typical
characteristics of many people working as room attendants? Identify and explain 4
characteristics?
A room attendant is a person who is responsible to provide comfortable services to the guests in
the hotels, motels, resorts, lodges and others and that also ensures that guest room are clean and
hygienic for the living of guests (go2 Tourism HR Society, 2017). Many a times it is observed
that the room attendant is a female who has children and almost one third of them are not going
to school. The approximate year of a room attendant expected to be in between 17-30 years and
not well educated. Typically the room attendant is a female who is often a mother working to
support their household.
The articles has presented of various features and characteristics that a room attendant must
possess in her. Some of them are listed as Friendly in nature, Skilled or semi-skilled manual
worker, Flexible in case of travelling, Compatible with varied working hours, Professional
attitude and others.
From the above identified characteristics four of them are shown below:
 Friendly Nature – It is important for a room attendant to have friendly nature so that
she can communicate effectively with her clients. This is so because in the hospitality
sector communicating plays a vital role.
 Flexible – The room attendant must be flexible in case of her shift timings and also
with her travelling so that quality services can be provided to the customers.
 Professional attitude – It is significant that the room attendant must have a
professional behaviour with her clients and does not mix her professional life with
personal life.
 Skilled or Semi-Skilled Worker – The room attendant must have some degree or
qualification to deal with the potential customers as they are the front head of company
(go2 Tourism HR Society, 2017).
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3. Source a job description for front office employees. How does this person compare to an
employee working as a room attendant? Make 4 realistic comparisons.
Job description for a front office employee
Title – Front Office Employee
Job Purpose – Accountable and reporting to the Rooms Division Manager and supervises of the
reservation as well as allocation of bedrooms along with the executive housekeeper
(Jobsinhotels, 2017).
Key Responsibilities –
 To supervise daily billings and payments
 To manage and monitor the quality of welcoming the extended guests
 To recruit, motivate and train members of his or her team
Key Skills –
 Hospitality
 Good relationship building
 Discretion
 Self-sufficiency
Qualification –
 1 year experience in the same industry and field
 A professional degree (Jobsinhotels, 2017)
There is significant difference in between the job roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for
both the front office employee and a room attendant. The comparison for both the positions has
been made below in a tabular presentation.
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Comparison
Front Office Employee Room Attendant
1. The front office employee has the
responsibility of managing the daily billing and
payment of company.
1. The room attendant is responsible for
cleaning, safety and other quality service
delivery to the customers occupying the
bedrooms.
2. Seeks to take care of the calls, reservation
and other role (Boyum, 2017).
2. Handing customer queries, receiving
maintenance and cleaning calls and other roles
are played by the room attendant (Boyum,
2017).
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4. Room attendants often work alone, are exposed to hazardous substances and work under
significant pressure. Briefly explain how/why these work situations occur and using the
article and your own research/experiences suggest 2 realistic ways of dealing with the
negative impact of each one.
It is true that often room attendant work all alone and empower themselves in order to serve the
customers and enhance their staff responsiveness. In doing so the room attendant has been
exposed to various types of hazardous substances that may lead to creating significant pressure
on them. Working with pressure and stress leads to causing the decreased work performance that
also impacts on the staff responsiveness also. Along with the positive aspects there are some
negative aspects of room attendant at work such as hard and tiring, heavy, low pay scale,
repetitive, fussy and others. All of these create a sense of dissatisfaction within the room
attendant and effect on its performance (Hunter & Watson, 2006).
Some of the hazardous substances at work are as follows:
 Personal safety and security – The room attendant are often exposed to the safety as
well as security hazards at the work. For example – cleaning of product, breaking down
of a glass due to which a girl was injured and others are reflecting on some of the
personal safety as well security measures.
 Pressure of Work – The time provided on a room depends upon the check-in, checks
out and occupied order. The room attendant has to maintain the quality standard and
furnish amenities to the customers. This leads to creating pressure on the room attendant
to work fast and with the due quality. This creates pressure on them and leads to arising
of various issues (Hunter & Watson, 2006).
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Part 2 Housekeeping departmental structures
Millbrook Resort
It is selected as one of the large hotel and resort for the assessment which has more than 150
beds. Millbrook Resort is among the luxury resort which is situated near by Queenstown, New
Zealand. The resort has been spread over hundred of hectares and is providing various amenities
to its customers (100% Pure New Zealand, 2018).
Figure 1: Millbrook Resort
Source: (100% Pure New Zealand, 2018)
Organisational Structure
The resort Millbrook has a complex and matrix shaped organization structure which comprises
of various hierarchies and relationship among the employees and employers. As the company is
operating on the large scale and comprises of large number of beds which creates higher
occupancy for the visitors. The company has its chain across various other economies also. The
structure shown below reflects of the organizational hierarchy of the company look alike.
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Figure 2: Organization Chart of A Large Hotel – Hotel Management | Grade XI
Source: (Harry, 2017)
The above graph reflects over the department organizational structure of the large resort and
hotel. The structure of Millbrook resort also look like this and has been segregated in the
following levels.
Waipoua Lodge
This lodge has been selected as the small sized hotel or motel for the assessment of hotel room
attendant case scenario during the work. Waipoua Lodge is a luxury accommodation providing
small sized hotel in the New Zealand. The organization offers the feeling of exotic and refreshed
to the customer’s coming there to visit the hotel. The company is also providing various types of
services to the customers that include native forest, air conditioning and others. In addition to
this, the organization has been recognized as one of the best small hotel in the New Zealand and
South Pacific.
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Figure 3: Waipoua Lodge
Source: (Motel Association of New Zealand, 2018)
The above picture is of the view of Waipoua Lodge and its surroundings.
Organizational Hierarchy
Figure 4: Hotel Organizational Chart – Introduction and Sample
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Source: (Org Chart, 2018)
The above representation of the small hotel or motel reflects of the Waipoua Lodge
housekeeping departmental organizational structure. The company has various hierarchies and
levels as shown in the above graph.
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5. Compare and contrast the Housekeeping department’s organizational structure.
The comparison of both the hotels has been made below with the help of a tabular representation.
Basis Millbrook Resort Waipoua Lodge
1. The division of
responsibility
The segregation of responsibility is
comparatively higher in such type of
hotel. According to the position the
responsibility is divided.
The division of responsibility
is done in accordance to the
respective skills and
performance of the staff.
2. lines of authority There is more number of lines of
authorities due to the involvement of
more employees at the managerial
level.
In this hotel the line of
authority starts of board of
directors and has
comparatively less personnel
at the middle level
management.
3. service level and
guest expectations
The service level is very high in the
large resorts as they target premium
customers who want quality services.
Moreover the expectations of guest are
also high.
The service level is medium to
moderate. Also, the guest
expectation is moderate in the
small sized hotel.
4. staffing level The appropriate staffing level is
majorly emphasized in such resort so
that right person can be recruiting at
right position and at right time.
The organizational budget is
comparatively lower than that
of large organizational so
recruitment is done internally
and through referrals.
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5. inter-
departmental
communication
Strong internal department
communication system through digital
media and others.
Moderate as less number of
employees are the part of
department.
6. range of task,
including laundry
Cleaning, laundry, attending calls,
supervision, managing billings and
others.
Cleaning, washing, serving
guests and others.
7. the out souring of
services
The company does its outsourcing of
services.
There is limited or no
outsourcing of services
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Conclusion
On the basis of the overall report study, it is concluded that the study of room attendant helps in
gaining the larger perspective of issues and concepts relating to the hotel management.
Moreover, it is also analysed from the study that there has been gender segregation is been made
in this occupation where women are paid low and preferred to be a room attendant. It is also
observed from the report that the main role and function of room attendant is to supervise the
quality aspects, safety, hygiene and other factors of the room so that customers are fully satisfied
with the services.
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References
 100% Pure New Zealand. (2018). Millbrook Resort. [Online] newzealand. Available
at: https://www.newzealand.com/uk/plan/business/millbrook-resort/ [Accessed: 4 May
2018].
 Boyum, P. (2017). What are differences between a front desk officer and a
receptionist and a guest relation in hospitality industry?. [Online] quora. Available at:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-differences-between-a-front-desk-officer-and-a-
receptionist-and-a-guest-relation-in-hospitality-industry [Accessed: 4 May 2018].
 Go2 Tourism HR Society. (2017). HOUSEKEEPING ROOM ATTENDANT.
[Online] go2hr. Available at: https://www.go2hr.ca/careers/housekeeping-room-attendant
[Accessed: 4 May 2018].
 Harry, V. (2017). Organization Chart of A Large Hotel – Hotel Management | Grade
XI. [Online] merofuture. Available at: https://merofuture.com/organization-chart-large-
hotel-hotel-management-grade-xi/ [Accessed: 4 May 2018].
 Hunter, P., & Watson, D. (2006). Service Unseen: The Hotel room attendant at work.
Hospitality Management, 25(2006), 297-312.
 Jobsinhotels. (2017). Hotel Front Office job descriptions. [Online] jobsinhotels.
Available at: https://www.jobsinhotels.co.uk/hotel-front-office-job-descriptions.html
[Accessed: 4 May 2018].
 Motel Association of New Zealand. (2018). Waipoua Lodge. [Online] nzmotels.
Available at: http://www.nzmotels.co.nz/motels/book-online/waipoua-lodge [Accessed: 4
May 2018].
 Org Chart. (2018). Hotel Organizational Chart – Introduction And Sample. [Online]
orgcharting. Available at: http://www.orgcharting.com/hotel-organizational-chart/
[Accessed: 4 May 2018].
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