Analyzing Business Communication Strategies at The Oberoi Mauritius

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of business communication within The Oberoi Mauritius, a 5-star hotel. It begins with an introduction to communication's importance in the hospitality industry, followed by an overview of The Oberoi Group and its Mauritius resort. The report then delves into the various departments of a hotel, with a specific focus on the front office and its crucial role in guest interaction and interdepartmental communication. It outlines the front office's responsibilities, operations, and interactions with departments such as housekeeping, food and beverage, and sales and marketing. The report also explores different communication strategies, including internal communication, marketing communication, and stakeholder communication, while also addressing the elimination of communication barriers to ensure smooth operations and guest satisfaction. Finally, it concludes with recommendations for improving business communication within the hotel.

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BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
2023PREPARED BY: JAY PANDYA

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INDEX
1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….……………2
2 About the Oberoi Group ……………………………………………………………..……………3
3 Departments of Hotel ………………………………………………………….……………………4
4 Front Office Department …………………………………………………………….……………5
5 Communication between front office and other departments .. 7
6 Communicating business information …………………………………………..…………10
7 Eliminating Communication Barriers ………….……………..……………..……………….13
8 Conclusion and Recommendations …………….……………..……………..………………13
9 References ……………..……………..……………..……………..……………..……………..…14

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Introduction
Nowadays, Communication is becoming more important as it is used not
only in business purpose, but also used widely in our daily life. While in
hospitality and tourism industry, communication not only is use between
customer and staff, but also use within the staffs in the organization. Besides
that, communication also can be used to train staff in the hotel. If the
communication did not go well in both conditions that are stated above,
problems will occur and will also cause inconvenience to the hotel. This
might bring up the problem of customer complain or mistake occurring
when the operation of the hotel is going on.In any business, the key to
success is communication.(Avijit, 2018) The basic functions of management
(Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling) cannot be
performed well without effective communication. Whether you actively
recognize it or not, the communication system you put in your place for your
business greatly impacts your long-term success.
In this assignment we will discuss about The Oberoi Mauritius (5-star hotel)
and its departments, front office department communication with other
departments, communication barriers, positive and negative effects of
communication and its recommendations and much more.

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About The Oberoi Group & Hotel
The Oberoi Group founded in 1942, operates 32 hotels and resorts. The Group
is presence in seven countries under the luxury ‘Oberoi’ and five-star ‘Trident’
brand.(The Oberoi Hotel & Resorts, 2021. Our Story) So, we will discuss about
The Oberoi Beach Resort, Mauritius that is offering various facilities to its
customer since 2001.
This report explains how the company and employees absorb different
cultures, leadership style, communicating business information, eliminating
communication barriers, team work and resolving conflicts between the
team members.
The Oberoi Beach Resort Mauritius. Available from google images [Accessed 20 October 2021]
To achieve the organisational goals effective communication paly major
role. So there should be guidelines to the staff and the management to run
the operations smoothly while delivering exceptional service to their
customers.

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Departments of Hotel
Figure 1, Departments of Hotel (Available from https://setupmyhotel.com/train-my-hotel-
staff/securityandloss/765-departments-that-make-a-hotel.html#front-office) [Accessed 20
October 2021]
In above figure we can see the main departments of hotel, and several
departments coordinate together to run hotel operations smoothly. Below
are the major departments of the hotel.
1. Front Office Department
2. Housekeeping Department
3. Food and Beverage Service Department
4. Kitchen or Food Production Department
5. Engineering and Maintenance Department
6. Accounts and Credits Department
7. Security Department
8. Human Resources (HR) Department
9. Sales and Marketing Department
10.Purchase Department
11.Information Technology (IT)

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Front Office Department & It’s Importance
The Front office is also called the nerve centre of hotel. It is the first and the
last department where a guest interacts. As this department is located
around the foyer area of the hotel and is visible to the guests, patrons and
visitors, they are collectively called “Front Office”.
This department directly interacts with the customers when they first arrive
at the hotel. The main function of this department is Reservation, Guest
service, Check-in, Check-out, Telephone, Finance & Cashiering, Foreign
Exchange, Room Assignment, Inquiry etc. It involves in providing valuable
services to the guests during the entire guest cycle consisting of Pre-arrival,
Arrival, Occupancy and Departure.
Front Office Organizational Chart
Figure 2, Front Office Organizational Chart
Above Figure 2 is showing reporting relationships, the span of management,
and staff/line functions.. The organization chart differs as per the size of
hotel.
Front ffice
Manager
Reservation
Reservation Staff
Reception
Reception Staff
Guest Service
Guest Staff
Concierge
Bell Staff
Accounts
Cashier
Night Auditor
Communication
Switchboard
Operator

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Basic Responsibilities of Front Office Department
1. Creating guest database
2. Handling guest accounts
3. Coordinating guest service
4. Trying to sell a service
5. Ensuring guest satisfaction
6. Handling in-house communication through PBX
Front Office Operations
1. Guest Registration
2. Guest Service
3. Guest History and records
4. Guest Database
5. Update room status
6. Reservation
7. Postage & Parcels
8. Telephone
9. Finance and Foreign Exchange
10.Inquiry
11.Bell Desk and Concierge
12.Reports etc

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Communication Between Front Office & Other Dept’s
Front office interacts with various departments of the hotel, including
marketing and sales, housekeeping, food and beverage, banquet, controller,
maintenance, security, and human resources since the guest inquire about
reservation through the entire guest cycle up to the guest’s departure.
These departments view the front office as a communication liaison in
providing guest services. Each of the departments has a unique
communication link with the front office staff.
In order to maintain the desired level of service, the front office department
communicates with the following department of the hotel
Figure 3, Front Office Interdepartmental Communication.
Figure 3 shows the various departments in a hotel that interact with the
front office. The front office is at the center of this diagram to illustrate the
many interdepartmental lines of communication that exist.
FRONT
OFFICE
Human
Resourses
Management
Sales &
Marketing
Finance
Controller
Food &
Beverage
Housekeeping
Banquets
Engineering &
Maintenance
Switchboard
Security
Accounts

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1. Communication with Human Recourses Department
• Front Office department is engaged with the HR department to
interview, help shortlist them, and select the most eligible employees.
It also contacts the HR department for employee training and
induction programs, salaries, leaves, dues, and appraisals.
• The HR department works in close coordination with the front office
department to procure quality personnel for the front desk and to
impart training to the employees to keep them UpToDate with the
latest happenings in the hotel industry.
2. Communication with Sales & Marketing Department
• Sales and Marketing department highly relies upon front office inputs
about the guests. The guest history compiled by the front office
department is an excellent source for segmenting the customers,
prepare customer-oriented packages, and plan and execute the
campaigns.
• It is also the front office’s job to make a good first impression on the
public, to relay messages, and to meet the requests of guests who are
using the hotel for meetings, seminars, and banquets.
3. Finance Controller
• The front desk provides a daily summary of the financial transactions
after night auditing to the finance controller. The information provided
by the front desk helps the finance controller to make budgets and to
allocate resources for the current financial period. The front office
provides the controller the financial data for billing and maintenance
of credit card ledgers.
4. Food & Beverage Department
• The front office department informs about the arrival & departure of
guest which helps them to plan their work schedule and staff
requirement.
• Setting up bars in VIP rooms, Special arrangements like cookies, fruit
basket and assorted dry fruits, etc.

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5. Housekeeping Department
• The housekeeping department prepares an occupancy report, which
is sent to the front office department where it is tallied with room
status record of front desk.
• The housekeeping personnel should inform the front office about any
unusual circumstances that may indicate a violation of security for
the hotel guest.
• Guest may request for additional or special amenities during their
stay like blanket, towel, soap, shampoo, etc. When such request is
received at the front desk, they should be immediately conveyed to
the housekeeping department.
6. Banquets
• Coordinates with banquet for putting information on bulletin and
placing directional signals for particular function. Receives the
function prospectus so as to be updated what is going on in the hotel.
• The Banquet department sends FP Sheet (Function Prospectus Sheet)
to the front desk, so that if any communication from the parties
hosting the functions reaches the front desk, the same may be
transferred or replied promptly.
7. Engineering & Maintenance Department
• The maintenance or engineering department and front office
communicate on room status and requests for maintenance service.
Maintenance employees must know the occupancy status of a room
before attending to plumbing, heating, or air-conditioning problems.
If the room is reserved, the two departments will work out a time frame
so the guest will be able to enter the room or be assigned to another
room. Cooperative efforts produce the best solutions to sometimes
seemingly impossible situations.

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8. Switchboard Department
• A vital link between the prospective guests and the hotel itself is
switchboard operator who represents the hotel. When the customers
call the hotel, the call first arrives at the switchboard operator.
9. Security Department
• When a guest has security concern like fire, robbery, theft, and any
other emergency, the front desk should explain the emergency
procedure to the guest while calling security personnel to resolve the
problem.
10.Accounts Department
• As front office department handles guest accounts with a complete
responsibility, the staff needs to often interact with the back-office
accounting colleagues regarding payment settlements or dues of
guests or non-guests, discount offers, and coupons settlement. It also
needs to sort out and get actual status of night auditing with
accounts.
Communicating Business Information
Communication plays a major role in any organisation, as we work in
hospitality industry where we will handle different guest, internal
communication plays major role to deliver the service. To be successful in
the industry each and every employee should be aware of different
communication methods and to know which one to be used effectively
according to task required. The different types of communication used in
hotels are face-to-face communication, emails, notice boards, team
briefings, departmental meetings etc.
Oberoi Beach Resort will try to ensure that staff are communicated well with
the company’s vision, mission, its objectives and taking there company a
level ahead. The communication strategies that can use at Oberoi Beach
Resort, According to (Cerović, 2003) effective communication are as
followed.

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1. Internal communication
2. Marketing communication
3. Communication with stakeholders
4. Monitoring Nonverbal messages
Internal communication:
In this strategy the organisation has to communicate with their employees,
managers and contractors. Jargons should be avoided in emails, notice
boards and letters considering the level of knowledge of from bottom level
employee to top level. Employees can give feedback or ask any question for
the information they received from management.
Figure 4, The Importance of Internal Communication. Available from:
https://www.happeo.com/internal-communications-essentials [Accessed 20 October 2021]