Hotel Room Division and Yield Management

The assignment provides an analysis of hotel room division and yield management, using the Hawkwell House in Oxford as a case study. It highlights the significance of front office planning and discusses operational issues in the hospitality industry.

ROOMS DIVISION
OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Various kinds of accommodation and front office services are essential for offering and
functions has been analysed of reception service and accommodation staff..............................1
1.2 Evaluating the types of services given by rooms division department in range of facilities
of accommodation and statutory requirements which are applied in room division operations
in UK...........................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Assessing the responsibilities and functions of the department's front house in the
effective management of business of hospitality and different aspects of planning for new
operations related to hospitality..................................................................................................1
2.2 The key operational issues by front office that affect the performance of the business.......2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
3.1 Analysing the role and significance of development and design of property interiors which
consist of functions for effective management of the operations related to hospitality..............3
3.2 Major aspects of planning and management of accommodation service function and
operational issues affecting effective management for new property of accommodation service
.....................................................................................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
4.1 Explaining the revenue / Yield management activities with respect to maximising the
occupancy and room revenue and different sales techniques by staff of room division for
promoting and maximising revenue in hotel...............................................................................5
4.2 Significance of statistical and predicted data within the division of rooms .........................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The initial aspect of hospitality management industry is to satisfy the needs of customers.
The main concern of this industry is to give various services to customers in same duration so
according to these different functions has to be undertaken and it is considered as one of the most
important function as rooms division management (RDM). The environment of rooms and
campus of hotel has been taken care by RDM so customer can stay with comfort.
In the present report, there is a brief discussion about rooms’ Division Management at a
Four Star Hotel, i.e.Oxford Hawkwell House Hotel which is located at Oxford and it ihas been
operating from 19th century which is situated in 3 acres of private gardens in quaint village of
Iffley. It consists of 77 bedrooms which are designed according to surroundings and luxury.
TASK 1
1.1 Various kinds of accommodation and front office services are essential for offering and
functions has been analysed of reception service and accommodation staff
The hospitality industry is classified in two segments that are reception and
accommodation. Housekeeping and Engineering are major functions of accommodation.
Reception includes Bell service, Cashier, Front office, Mail and information, night
auditors and concierge (Quintana-García, Marchante-Lara and Benavides-Chicón, 2018. ). The
main objective of accommodation is to provide luxurious environment to customers and there
stress should be relieved easily. Housekeeping has major contribution such as an arrangement
related to accommodation has been monitored, inventories must be traced for kitchen and other
areas, monitoring health and safety with proper hygiene. Communication is maintained within
department.
There are various functions that an engineering department must take care such as
equipments should be checked and maintained and daily routine tools like water supply,
electricity supply, air-conditioned etc within the hotel.
The major important aspect of every hotel is reception which consists of cashier, mailing
department, front desk, bell service and night auditors. Front office has to follow specific roles
like maintaining satisfaction level of consumers, deep analysis of target market and to predict
demand and supply scenarios and targets needs to be ensured. The clerk must maintain a
database of customers and proper accounts, occupany of rooms has to be ensured and to observe
the status of occupancy, arrangements related to value added services to each and every
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customer. Boarding and departure has to be arranged, working schedule has to be recorded of all
working staff. Staffs which are involved in services like bell services, clericals, and lobby
managers must be managed properly as they are part of team.
The extra services have to be maintained and monitored by these people and their major
responsibilities for appropriate functioning is information related to mail is maintained by
clerks, luggage and escorting services by bell man, greeting to guest by doormen and concierge
has been indicated as extended part of front desk.
The main functions are described as: Ticket Booking, arrangements for sightseeing and tourism
has been properly ensured. Guidance to customer at every step if possibleandproviding help to
the clients regarding services of mail and cashiers have to manage various functions as cost
which has incurred has to be managed. Along with this, customer balance and daily records of
book keeping account on specific time period has to be maintained.
1.2 Evaluating the types of services given by rooms division department in range of facilities of
accommodation and statutory requirements which are applied in room division operations
in UK
The main objective of accommodation department as university campus, hotels, camps
etc is linked to selling of room. This department ensures that consumers who arrive at facility are
satisfied at the most possible extent (Lei and Liu, 2018).
The different functions need to be performed in the hospitality industry are the most
initial service has been given to the customer is greeting and welcome in decent manner and after
room finalization customer is been helped by bell man to reach at their room and luggage has to
transferred at that room. All formalities are completed by customers with the help of front desk.
The customers get proper guidance from concierge about planning their trip and important places
to visit. Spa and pool sessions are also managed by them and if there is a need along with these
facilities for indoor games, music and related functions etc.
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The most important concern is of food and beverages are also considered.
The Room Division Management keeps record of all the scenario that has possible
regulations and rules aremust be followed within hotel premises or not. According to this, guests
are not allowed to forbid rules and regulations which are formed by them. Security and decorum
of hotel is maintained by RDM and along with customer satisfaction has been also taken care of.
The main objective for operations of RDM and keeping track in hospitality are as follows:
 Security of guests who are staying in the campus of hotel. This is the major aspect should
be considered very seriously by RDM department.
 The privacy of consumers who are staying in hotel must be maintained very strictly as
any personal information related to them or any relatives who are linked to them should
never be leaked to any person or a personnel which is unauthorized.
 If there is any loss with respect to keys or any other personal thing should be taken care
by Front Office Executive and any third person should not be allowed to enter room
without guest’s permission.
 Security is a major concern and CCTV cameras should be rigged everywhere in hotel so
if any misbehaviour cannot happen in the premises of hotel.
 Last but not least, hotel rooms must consist of environment which is hygienic and
cleanliness should be maintained properly (Heo and Lee, S., 2011).
TASK 2
2.1 Assessing the responsibilities and functions of the department's front house in the effective
management of business of hospitality and different aspects of planning for new operations
related to hospitality
As it has been said that first impression is last impression so in this context only layout
and design of the hotel gives first impression to any consumer. The most attracting attribute to
any customer will be well planned and clean layout of the hotel and from time to time it should
be developed. The quality of hotel and its services reflects an overall cultural and quality status
and the front office reflects very positive impact on customer with respect to quality and service.
The consumer are satisfied and most important concern is that they are directly dependent on
various services such as concierge services, travel bookings, cab bookings, query handling, sight
seeing and planning and information gives total enhancement to the customer service.
The major characteristic of management and planning of front office area such as ;
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 Point of sale management
 Property management
 Reservation and room management
 Safety and security
 Management of guest account
 Yield management
 Communication
 Responsibility planning
 Data mining
Point of sale management : It refers to reservation of front end management of admin
and it will indicate that very captious service has been delivered which will be giving huge
impact on retention of customer and it is directly handled by software platforms.
Property management systems : There is presence of several functions such as tour
operations, managing human resource, finance and infrastructure can be directly handled online
with different IT platforms, if all these services are managed properly then in turn it will be
giving quality service (Denizci Guillet and Mohammed, 2015).
Reservation and room management : Bookings and cancellation related to hotels are
managed by different IT platforms.
Safety and security : The most challenging aspect to any hotel and if it is 4 star hotel
like Hawkwell House is safety and security of infrastructure and guests as well.
Data mining : All the information related to customer and guest should be updated and major
information should be retrieved even at the last stage but it is important.
2.2 The key operational issues by front office that affect the performance of the business
The front office is the core part of the hotels and get first chance of the interaction with
the guest. They focus on the seeing the all the activities of the guest so that the guest don't feel
that they are ignored by the staff. The front office main work is to welcome the guest with the
smile on the face. The manager of the front office looks after the all the activities of the guest
and solely responsible for the guest if having the problem. The front office has to make the VIP
guest his first preference. The hotel staff looks after the many things like the cleanliness of the
rooms as well the hotels which are including the lobby area and look after the whole things. The
staff of the hotel particularly the front office arranges all the things for the customers. They
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provide the best services which they can provide to the customers. They appoint and train the
staff of the front office that how to behave to customers. The front office faces many issues that
are problematic to the performance of the business. Some of them are:
 Excessive booking - the hotel can't give more facilities which they are not having. By
this the customer get more issues. They will talk bad about the hotel and this will come
the affect the popularity of the hotel. The hotel staff or the person who are responsible
should take care the bookings and make sure in this type of the situation they just stop the
bookings (King, Funk and Wilkins, 2011).
 Shortage of the employees - the shortage if the employees is very common because this
type of the industry is not regular or ongoing so the staff of the hotels decreases all the
time. The hotel authority should make the arrangement of the employees in advance so
that they not have to face the shortage of the employees. It affects the popularity of the
hotel. Due to the shortage of the employees the working of the hotel gets affected very
much.
 Failure of the electricity supply- the electricity and water supply are the basic things
which the hotel must supply. The failure of these things affect the image of the hotel.
These are the problems which are unavoidable in any case. Many a time the hotel face
these issues which are not controllable and then the customer has to bear the problems.
From these things bad things will in the market about the hotels by the customer.
 Task of having the minimization of the cost- the overhead cost is the biggest issue
which are faced by the industry. The manager should take care of the cost as well as the
satisfaction of the customers. Manager should take care whether the cost is not increasing
by their any activities performed by them. They continuously look after the cost of the
hotel. They are working for the customer satisfaction only.
TASK 3
3.1 Analysing the role and significance of development and design of property interiors which
consist of functions for effective management of the operations related to hospitality
Customer gives more preference to the hotels whose interior designing and maintenance
has been properly ensured. The hotel's interior should be very delicate and architecture should be
complimented by everyone. There is always battle between modern and pre historic times, so in
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this context architecture, designs and layout must reflect equal status. And if it is four star hotel
then it should provide best services with proper comfort and luxury (Cohen and Olsen, 2013).
Along with these, the staff of hotel management has to take decisions while keeping in
mind about safety, cleanliness across whole premises of hotel which includes, rooms, canteen,
lobby etc with the appropriate infrastructure ready and air conditioned. Each and every customer
should be satisfied and most glorious thing is that customer repeat that is objective of each and
every hotel and it will be giving best and excellent services of accommodation and quality of
hotel staff and management must be provided.
3.2 Major aspects of planning and management of accommodation service function and
operational issues affecting effective management for new property of accommodation
service
There are various aspects for managing and planning with respect to accommodation
service are:
 Building regulations
 Regulations of consumer
 Room service
 Developing data
 Physical conditions
 Application of technology
 Marketing and sales
 Quality and experience staff
 Growth in market
Building regulations : For achieving customer satisfaction and repeat of customer
should be ensured by proper regulations regarding building designs and for services related to
accommodation.
Regulations of consumer : For achieving all kinds of grievances, there should be proper
planning of customer handling procedures and protocols for operations in advance.
Room service : There has been proper facilitation of operations management and in
comprehensive manner design should be planned in advance for optimising and utilizing the
location of different amenities.
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Developing data : The database may be qualitative or quantitative which has been
developed on the basis of comprehensive approach of the customer record which will attract the
customer.
Application of technology : There should be proper planning of all the latest
technologies such as Email, telephone, printers so this will lead to more customer satisfaction.
In the same series there are various operational issues on the basis of accommodation
which are as follows:
Physical conditions : The success of hotel is directly dependent on resource planning
such as physical conditions like value of property and technology is very huge (Ching and
Binggeli, 2018).
Marketing and sales : It has very important contribution for generating revenues of the
hotel via branding and promotions which give more margin.
Quality and experience staff : The great success of the hotel is directly linked to overall
experience, quality and quantity of the staff of hotel from the level of satisfaction of customer.
Growth in market : The activities which are competitive in nature and there positioning
in the market will be giving outcome as the growth of hotel. It is usually dependent on many
folded iterations.
TASK 4
4.1 Explaining the revenue / Yield management activities with respect to maximising the
occupancy and room revenue and different sales techniques by staff of room division for
promoting and maximising revenue in hotel
The amount of money which is produced from the sales of availability of total room in
any of the hotel which has been particularly specified in given duration is referred as total
revenue. The given table gives us the total revenue which has been identified with availability
300 rooms.
Room rent Product Number of rooms
Type A x Type A Outcome
Type B x Type B Outcome
Type C x Type C Outcome
Revenue SUM
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The justified and comprehensive technique of forecasting of availability of rooms for optimizing
demand and supply and it leads to profit maximisation which is termed as Yield management
(Budaiwi and Abdou, 2013). The various techniques of sales and pricing for increasing the
revenue are:
 Promotional markdown
 Price bundling
 Suggestive selling
Promotional markdown : Giving discount with the context of seasons and pricing has
been enhanced in each and every festivity (Testa and Sipe, 2012). So this strategy of promotion
will lead to increment in booking of rooms.
Price bundling : If various goods or products are clubbed and they are offered to the
consumers as a bunch at given specific price is termed as price bundling. In Hawkwell House it
is used as clubbing of dinner meals and spa at given price.
Suggestive selling : Customer relationship should be defined in very prospective manner
and in hotels it will lead to offering and selling of the products to the consumer on the basis of
requirements which consist of cross and up selling.
Type of rooms Number of rooms Quantity of bed Occupied rooms Occupancy
Single 70 70 58 58
Twin 50 100 42 89
Double 180 360 150 170
Sum 300 530 250 317
4.2 Significance of statistical and predicted data within the division of rooms
There are various ways for dividing the rooms and even they can use predicted and statistical
data and it has been justified below ;
For identifying the statistics which are uses for occupancy ratio is elaborated as
techniques for forecasting demand are used for forecasting demand so rooms can be delegated to
customer. There can be brief analysis of the trend and time of the year that what type of rooms
are reserved or occupied. The revenue which has been generated from the type of per room and
even calculation of same structure of room has been constructed (O'Neill, 2011). For measuring
the success of sales accommodation key performance indicators are used:
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Occupancy percentage : total rooms occupied / total rooms available
: 250 / 300
: 0.83
Average daily room rate : Total rooms revenue / Total rooms sold
Double occupancy percentage : total no. of guests and no. of rooms which are occupied
by rooms which are double occupied.
: 317 – 250 / 230
: 0.29
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that room division and hospitality
management is represented as very essential aspect in the industry of hospitality. The
performance has been evaluated by applying the strategy of yield management. One of the oldest
4 starred hotel the Hawkwell House in Oxford. The above report gives brief description about
room division and hospitality management in this hotel. At the front office planning and
management is very necessary and operational issues are also elaborated in this report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Budaiwi, I. and Abdou, A., 2013. HVAC system operational strategies for reduced energy
consumption in buildings with intermittent occupancy: the case of mosques. Energy
conversion and management. 73. pp.37-50.
Ching, F. D. and Binggeli, C., 2018. Interior design illustrated. John Wiley & Sons.
Cohen, J. F. and Olsen, K., 2013. The impacts of complementary information technology
resources on the service-profit chain and competitive performance of South African
hospitality firms. International journal of hospitality management. 34. pp.245-254.
Denizci Guillet, B. and Mohammed, I., 2015. Revenue management research in hospitality and
tourism: A critical review of current literature and suggestions for future
research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(4). pp.526-
560.
Heo, C. Y. and Lee, S., 2011. Influences of consumer characteristics on fairness perceptions of
revenue management pricing in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. 30(2). pp.243-251.
King, C., Funk, D. C. and Wilkins, H., 2011. Bridging the gap: An examination of the relative
alignment of hospitality research and industry priorities. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 30(1). pp.157-166.
Lei, H. S. and Liu, J. T., 2018. APPLICATIONS OF NETWORK DATA ENVELOPMENT
ANALYSIS TO EXPLORE THE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES OF
INTERNATIONAL FIVE-STAR HOTELS. International Journal of Organizational
Innovation (Online). 10(3). pp.64-87.
O'Neill, J. W., 2011. Hotel occupancy: Is the three-year stabilization assumption
justified?. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. 52(2). pp.176-180.
Quintana-García, C., Marchante-Lara, M. and Benavides-Chicón, C.G., 2018. Social
responsibility and total quality in the hospitality industry: does gender matter?. Journal of
Sustainable Tourism. 26(5). pp.722-739.
Testa, M. R. and Sipe, L., 2012. Service-leadership competencies for hospitality and tourism
management. International journal of hospitality management. 31(3). pp.648-658.
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ONLINE
Hawkwell House, Oxford. 2017. [Online]. Available through
:<https://www.hawkwellhouse.co.uk/?utm_source=affilired>.
Occupancy rate. 2018. [Online]. Available through :<https://www.revfine.com/what-is-an-
occupancy-rate/>.
Yield management. 2018. [Online]. Available through
:<http://smartehotels.com/blog/2012/09/28/yield-management-strategies-right-hotel-room-
pricing/>.
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