Managing Accommodation Services

This report examines the accommodation services sector within the hospitality industry, covering topics such as scale and size, ownership models, grading systems, online reviews, and front office organization. It uses Marriott as a case study to illustrate the key roles of the front office department in hotels.

MANAGING
ACCOMMODATION
SERVICES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Scale and size of the accommodation services found with in the hospitality industry..........1
P2. Explain the different forms of ownership available to accommodation services.................5
Purchase Options.........................................................................................................................6
P3 Discuss the role that, grading, classifications systems and online review sites play when
potential guests look for and book accommodation....................................................................7
P4 Explain the organisation of front office functions within a variety of accommodation
services........................................................................................................................................9
P5. Key roles of front office department in hotels....................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The accommodation sector is one of the biggest sector in the tourism industry and it will
provide different type wealth opportunities to work in a changing sector. It is a part of hospitality
industry and in this includes different types of facilities which are provided by hotel to their
customer. It is a different forms of ownership and classification systems (UK Hotel Market
Statistics. 2018). The present report is going to make a discussion on about various types of
accommodation services with in hospitality industry. This hotel has been based on Marriott
which is a multinational business concern and has a franchised a quite vast portfolio of hotels
and related lodges as well. It was founded in the year 1957. This assignment is going to explain
scale along with size of the accommodation services. Apart from this different forms of
ownership, role, grading, classification system and online review for potential guests. In addition
role of front office and their operations of selected hotel to achieve mission and objectives in
respect of accommodation services.
PART 1
P1 Scale and size of the accommodation services found with in the hospitality industry
1. This analysis covers a consistent sample of 649 hotels across the UK (totalling over 82,000
rooms), with supporting monthly data since 2010. British hotels continued to grow for the
seventh consecutive year in 2016.
UK Hotels CAGR
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Occupancy 74.4 76.5 77.6 78.4 77.8
Year-on-year growth (%) 2.80% 1.40% 1.00% -
0.80%
1.1
AARR 89.22 88.8 91.55 95.8 97.28
Year-on-year growth (%) -0.50% 3.10% 4.60% 1.50% 2.2
Rooms Yield 66.4 67.96 71.03 75.08 75.64
Year-on-year growth (%) 2.30% 4.50% 5.70% 0.70% 3.3
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Fig : Performance of UK Hotels for the year 2012-2016
Interpretation : In 2016, the daily rooms yield for the UK rose by 0.7% to £75.64. The
marginal growth experienced by hotels in the UK was the result of a slightly weaker
performance in occupancy, marginally down by 0.8% to 77.8% and a small increase in AARR,
up by 1.5% to £97.28
2. Summary performance of London Hotels for the year 2012-2016.
London Hotels CAGR
%(2012-
2016)
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Occupancy 81.4 82.8 82.6 82.8 81.6 0.1
Year-on-year growth (%) 1.80% -0.20% 0.20% -1.40%
AARR 89.22 88.8 91.55 149.7 151.45 0.5
Year-on-year growth (%) -0.80% 0.90% 0.90% 1.10%
Rooms Yield 120.65 121.75 122.61 124 123.58
Year-on-year growth (%) 0.90% 0.70% 1.10% -0.30%
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Interpretation: London hotels’ performance remained flat during 2016. Occupancy was
down by 1.4% to 81.6%, affected by the continuous influx of new supply. The modest increase
in AARR, up by 1.1% to £151.45, could not raise the overall performance, resulting in rooms
yield marginally down by 0.3% to £123.58 (UK Hotel Market Statistics, 2018.)
3. Performance by hotel category segment.
Segment (AARR) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Deluxe (>£150) 4.50% 0.10% -1.80% 0.80% 1.60%
Superior deluxe (>£200) 5.90% 0.10% -3.30% -1.50% 4.10%
International deluxe (£150-
200)
1.70% 0.40% 1.40% -0.80% 4.70%
First class (£100-150) 3.20% 1.90% 2.80% -2.30% 0.00%
Business class (£75-100) 1.10% 3.50% 4.10% 6.60% -14.00%
Tourist (<£75) -4.70% 1.70% 9.90% 7.50% -1.50%
Town house/boutique (>£100) 3.00% 2.00% -0.50% 4.10% 7.90%
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Interpretation - 2016 was a positive year in terms of AARR growth for both London
and the regions; however, occupancy has been tempered as a result of the influx of new supply,
particularly in London. As previously stated, town house and boutique hotels experienced the
best performance among the capital’s hotel segments with rooms yield up by 7.9% as a result of
the good mix in occupancy (up by 1.5%) and AARR (up by 6.2%). In contrast, business hotels
saw a decline in rooms yield of 14.0% as a result of the negative performance of both occupancy
and AARR
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4. Mid market rooms yield growth rate for regional hotels.
Rooms yield growth regional hotels
Segment(AARR) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Country House
>£80 2.10% 6.00% 5.50% -0.90% 1.00%
£70-£80 0.20% 4.00% 8.40% 7.00% 4.70%
£60-£70 1.40% 3.80% 9.20% 5.90% 6.40%
£50-£60 2.20% 2.80% 10.70% 8.50% 7.70%
<£50 - 4.10% 5.00% 17.90% 14.00% 5.30%
Interpretation- The regional market painted a more positive picture with all segments
experiencing a robust performance. The mid-market segments experienced the highest growth
with rooms yield up by 7.7% for £50-£60 hotels and up by 6.4% for £60-£70 hotels.
P2. Explain the different forms of ownership available to accommodation services.
Types of Ownership/
Purchase method
Description Advantages Disadvantages
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Sole Trader Sole trader is a type of
business where overall
business operations are
owned managed and
controlled by a single
individual (Rogerson
and Rogerson, 2019).
These people are self
liable for their funds
Management and
controlling falls in the
hands of one single
person which makes it
quite quick and easy.
One major
disadvantage of sole
proprietorship is that
raising higher amount
of funds is quite
complex and difficult.
Association Associations are
generally formed by a
group of persons who
have common interest
and purpose as well.
Examples of
businesses that run as
associations are gyms,
clubs, welfare
societies etc.
These business entities
work towards growth
and welfare of their
members.
Debts and their
personal responsibility
is the only
disadvantage that an
association carries with
itself. Members are
personally liable for
any such debts.
Partnership Partnership refers to a
formal arrangement of
business where two or
more individuals pool
their funds and
resources to run a
business.
Higher amount of
funds and resources
are available in a
partnership business
as compared to sole
proprietorship
(Wikhamn,
Armbrecht and
Remneland Wikhamn,
2018).
Partners are liable for
their relevant and
significant partners
acts and deeds.
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Purchase Options
Purchase method Description Advantages Disadvantages
Family Loan Family loan refers to a
practice where money
is provided by family
members or relatives.
Main benefit in this
case is that interest
rates are lower and
there are no official
documents required.
A drawback of this
method is that it may
many a times it may
even harm or damage
relationships.
Bank Loan A bank loan is an
important method by
which funding is done
by banks (Wood,
2017). Loans are
further classified into
3 categories small
medium and long
term.
It is a safe and secure
method of raising
funds. Also it helps in
building credits for a
business concern.
It combines a quite
lengthy and complex
documentation
process.
Franchise It is a business
opportunity which
helps a franchisee in
using someone else's
thoughts and ideas.
Success or growth rate
in context of franchise
is quite high.
There may also be
certain restriction on
sale and purchase of
goods and services.
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P3 Discuss the role that, grading, classifications systems and online review sites play when
potential guests look for and book accommodation.
Every guest will have their own set of expectations while they are booking hotels.
Requirements of customers will depend upon their spending ability. Also managers of the hotel
should be well aware about what services are being provided to their clients (Losada and et. al.,
2017). Online reviews are an important tool which helps in setting expectation standards of their
customers. Five major benchmarks or classifications in context of hotels have been mentioned as
under:
Basis Description Examples
Essential Under this type of hotel
various important elements are
included which every hotel
should have. The ambiance of
hotel should be friendly and
full of positivity.
Examples of essential grading
restaurants are cleaner rooms,
comfortable beds, friendly
staff members, a positive
ambiance etc.
Basic After essential next type of
grading is basic which fulfils
almost all basic needs and
requirements of guests who
are arriving (Gupta and
Sharma, 2016). Customers
should be provided details
regarding breakfast on bed is
complimentary or not. Also a
nice lightning facility should
be provided to customers.
Meal preferences,
snacks( breakfast and brunch),
lightning facilities, excellent
quality customer service etc.
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Nice-to-have Nice to have hotel is a grading
or benchmark that is provided
to hotel which provide an
effective quality of services to
their customers that too at
quite cheaper prices.
Features of nice to have hotel
are laundry, Wi-Fi, excellent
quality room services, wallet
parking, restaurants etc.
Luxury A hotel that provides 3 star or
4 star services to their
customers are known as
luxury hotels (Ðurkin and
Kolaric, 2016).
Facilities provided by Marriott
include safety for female
guests, cinema, spa, pick and
drop facilities etc.
Hyper-luxury Hyper luxury hotels are type
of hotels that provide 5-7 star
facilities to their customers.
Facilities provided by hyper
luxury hotels are golf course,
private check in, private pools,
sky taxi etc.
P4 Explain the organisation of front office functions within a variety of accommodation services.
Front office happens to be the most important as well as visible area in a hotel. Every hotel
whether it may be large or small has this area known as front office irrespective of their size (Puig
and et. al., 2017). It is a connecting l,ink between management of hotel as well as guests in a hotel.
Management in each hotel spends a quite higher amount of funds to make their front office
attractive and lively. Various departments or organisational functions in context of front office
department has been mentioned as under:
Sections of Front office Description Equipment
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Reservation This function handled the
request of the potential guests
for reserving accommodations.
In this the reservation
employees of hotel, front
office interact with the
potential guest most
(Mohammad, 2016).
There is a telephone on the
front office desk for the
facilities of the guests, if they
have any query then they may
ask the front desk manager
through telephone. In this the
guest phones should be
answered within three things
and the manager should use
low voice pitch while talking
to the customers
Reception In this function, when the
guests arrive, the clerks on front
desk check in them, and assign
their names into the register of
facilities, assign them their
room and answer their basic
questions or requests which the
guests may have throughout
their stay.
These includes equipments like
fax machine, computer,
printer, etc.
Concierge A concierge is an employee of
a multi-tenant building, such
as a hotel or apartment
building, who receives guests
(Mody, Suess and Lehto,
2017). There position can also
be maintain by a security
guard over the late night shift.
Equipment used in this is a
luggage trolley for dropping
the guest luggage in their
rooms.
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P5. Key roles of front office department in hotels.
Front office department in a hotel is quite important and helps in effective or smooth
functioning of a hotel. Main job of this department is to undertake various administrative, staffing
and guests related queries as well. Front office in a hotel performs various functions and roles. In
present context there are a number of departments and roles performed by front office department in
Marriott such as front office manager, check in desk clerk, guest services assistant etc. Marriott is
considering an important strategy where it wishes to reduce one ineffective role from this
department and further improve its efficiency and effectiveness by great amounts (Tisca and et. al.,
2015). After examining front office department of this hotel various roles within front office
department are check in desk manager( check in desk clerk 1 and 2), night porter, front office
manager, concierge, guest services assistant etc. This will save the cost of hotel. However, the
manager will need to make changes in the structure and work assigned as number of employees will
be reduced.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it has been concluded that management of
accommodation services is a quite important factor in hospitality sector. By managing
accommodation facilities comfort and safety of customers can be effectively ensured. This report
throws light on various statistical data in context of UK along with various forms of business
concerns. Also this report focusses on various grading systems that are relevant in hospitality sector.
Along with this various functions and department of front office department in hotels have also
been mentioned here.
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