Importance of Public Relations in Accommodation Operations

This essay discusses the importance of public relations in the field of guest-facing industry, its essential components, and its application in the hospitality industry. It also highlights the shortcomings of the argument and provides practical examples from various international hotels.

Running head: ACCOMODATIONS OPERATIONS
ACCOMODATIONS OPERATIONS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Introduction
Public Relations is defined as the maintenance of a favourable public image by using
agencies or promoting their deeds by an institution or person or a concerned sector
(Rinrattanakorn 2012). The importance of Public relations in the modern day world is huge as
without the impact of a good public relation, it becomes difficult to maintain the customer
relation in a world where every act of customer dealings is to be done in terms of the
relationship based. The primary aim of the research essay is to understand the importance of
the public relations in the field of guest facing industry and thereby understand the meaning
of the concept, the essential components of the concept and its underlying application and
relevance in the field of hospitality industry. Moreover, the essay will be supported by certain
examples which will support the arguments being made and support the given set of
arguments by identifying its advantages as well as disadvantages.
Discussion
According to Rice and Atkin (2012), the public relation process is one of the major
strategic communication process theory that helps to build the amount of strong and flexible
relationship between the different sects of the customer and the dealer.
Importance of public relations and its functions
The importance of public relation sector lies in the fact that without the working of
the public relation in a customer-satisfying industry, it becomes difficult for the people
working in the concerned sector to attract and retain the customers in the concerned sector
over the period of time (Morris and Goldsworthy 2016). The promotion of good will of the
organization as well as communicating between the two parties in some way or the other is
done by the public relations in the concerned sector. Public Relation is one of the major
marketing strategies that can be used by the concerned people of the organization to make a

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strong and sustainable relationship with the customers and retain them for the longer period.
Legrand, Chen and Sloan (2013), state that it is one of the major ways to increase the
reputation of the organization and the person in the concerned period of time.
There are a number of major functions of the concept of public relations in the major
period of time which are as follows –
Public relation is one of the major ways to engage the employees and the customer
together. (Smith 2013). Moreover, the second function of public relation is to develop the
trust of the public who are working with the organization and the people. Thirdly, Public
relations aims to develop the Four Step process function of the organization for the promotion
and the marketing of the same in the sector which is unknown to them. The four step function
involves the process of Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. Lastly, the
public relation agents are assigned to manage the issues that are there in the organization and
to make sure that the customers do not face these kind of repetitive issues in the future and to
stop the function of the same.
The application and importance of Public Relations in the accommodation industry
The hotel and accommodation industry is one of the pivotal industries that applies the
concept of public relations in the whole management process and also makes sure that the
customers who are coming to the hotel are getting their whole benefits out of the same. As
stated by Grunig (2013), the importance of public relation in the hotel industry is there for the
longest time as it is one of the most competitive industries in the accommodation sector
which has to deal with the public in the longest time and to retain their loyal customers to
themselves. The importance of public relations in the hotels and accommodation sector are
stated in the given section.

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Public relations helps to engage more public in their business is one of the major
works that are done by the public relation agents in the course of time. Pearson (2017) has
said that the hotel industry typically wants to have more customers in their business and for
that they need to attract more customers by various process including having a good public
relation strategy in the same.
It assists the hotels to give the loyal customers some kind of benefits so that they
become returning customers and the rival hotels and accommodating sectors cannot provide
them any sort of lures to get their work done(Dozier, Grunig and Grunig 2013). The loyal
customers are one of the major aspects of any hospitality sector which makes the hotels
wanting to keep them for the longest period of time.
Moreover, public relations is also concerned with the task of retaining the old
customers as it is one of the major challenges that are being faced by the hotel industry in the
global circle as the old customers are the ones that promotes the hotel and the services to the
people of the world and also make sure that the new customer can trust the reviews and
ratings and can make their planning based upon so.
Additionally, in order to change the perception of the customers if there are any
negative impacts on the staffs of the hotel and the working of the hotel industry, public
relations can come in useful. The role of the public relation is to make sure to ward off the
negative comments that the rival companies and the haters make for the stated hotel.
Stacks (2016) stated that along with the above stated importance of public relations, it
also offers great travel tips to the customers is one of the major work of the public relation
people and the workers who are assigned the task. The customers and guests of the hotel
majorly travel for leisure issues and they demand to get apt travel tips for the same. It offers
great discounts and lifestyle when the guests come to the hotel either for the first time or for

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the remaining number of times (Grunig 2013). The discounts and the lifestyle tips when
provided by the managers of the public relation process to the guests, make them happy
which in turn make them returning clients to the hotel in future. The discounts make sure that
they get less amount of money invested in the process which also makes them have more
hopes for the hotel.
Lastly, to make the customers aware of the benefits of staying at the hotel is one of
the prime tasks of the public relations process. The staying at a specific hotel has a number of
benefits for the customers who get all the desired discounts and the facilities that the hotel
provides (Qrunig and Qrunig 2016).
Hence, it can be stated that the importance of a good public relations in the business
especially in the hotel and hospitality sector lies in the fact that it increases the sales of the
hotel and in turn increases the profit of the concerned industry which is the ultimate goal for
any business organization (Heath 2013).
Shortcomings of the argument made
In the previous section, several arguments in support of the argument for the
importance of the public relations in the accommodation industry have been made which lay
down that public relations enhances the relationship of an accommodation firm with the
different customers and thereby helps in the growth of the different hotels. However, there
exists certain shortcomings of the stated arguments and moreover, although public relations is
very useful for the accommodation sector, there are various shortcomings associated with it.
Firstly, public relations is cost exhausting in nature. Hotels already have a large cost
base associated with their daily operations and on top of that the activities of the public
relations increase the expenses of the hotels which thereby has to be borne by the customers
in form of increased prices (Grunig 2013). Moreover, not all public relations is positive in

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nature and instead of having a positive impact on the customers, the activity can bring the
hotel under the bad light. Hence, the use of public relations in the accommodation industry
has to be made after consideration of various related aspects.
Practical examples from various international hotels
According to Screenpilot.com. (2018), over the past few years various hotels have
made use of various Public relations technique which has brought about success for them.
The Warner Leisure Hotels made a PR campaign which aligned with their travellers
preferences. They analysed the most popular drinks which the customers make use of and
came up with the concept of Anti-Agin which was a drink with anti-ageing properties. The
campaign became fairly popular. With this, The Marriot Group of Hotels also made use of
the public relations aspect by conducting an eight day tour with virtual resort booths and
make the customer experience the stay at Marriott’s at various locations artificially. It aimed
to satisfy the whimsy fantasy of different demographics.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that hotel and hospitality industry is one of the major
customer service industries of the times and so a proper customer relationship is necessary for
the same. The various kinds of facilities as provided by the public relations employees of the
firm make up for the increased sales of the firm with greater customer satisfaction that in turn
makes the whole process of relation building a success for the same.

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Reference
Dozier, D.M., Grunig, L.A. and Grunig, J.E., 2013. Manager's guide to excellence in public
relations and communication management. Routledge.
Grunig, J.E., 2013. Furnishing the Edifice: Ongoing Research on Public Relations as a
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Grunig, J.E., 2013. Excellence in public relations and communication management.
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Legrand, W., Chen, J.S. and Sloan, P., 2013. Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry 2nd
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Morris, T. and Goldsworthy, S., 2016. PR-a persuasive industry?: Spin, public relations and
the shaping of the modern media. Springer.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Qrunig, L.A. and Qrunig, J.E., 2016. Toward a theory of the public relations behaviour of
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https://screenpilot.com/2017/10/5-cool-hotel-pr-campaigns-to-inspire/ [Accessed on: 03
September. 2018]

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