Rooms Division Operations Management at Le Meridian Hotel

This report discusses the Rooms Division Operations Management at Le Meridian Hotel, including the services provided by the Front Office and Housekeeping Departments, roles and responsibilities of two Rooms Division positions, major legal and statutory regulations, and analysis of yield management/revenue management.

Rooms Division and
Operations
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Services provided by the Rooms Division (Front office and Housekeeping Departments)...1
Roles and Responsibilities of two Rooms Division Positions (One from Front office and
another from Housekeeping)..................................................................................................3
Major Legal and Statutory Regulations in the Business........................................................4
Analysis about Yield Management/Revenue Managements..................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Operations management can be referred to as the management of activities of different
functional units within an organization. Hospitality industry is a very big industry and it consists
of many businesses like bars, restaurants, clubs, travel and tourism, leisure, etc. The rooms
division is a very important function within every hotel or restaurant in the world because it is
involved in providing services and products to the rooms which are leased to their clients for
respective durations to stay. The following report will be demonstrating the room division of Le
Meridian Hotel which is an upscale and beauty oriented international hotel brand, founded in the
year 1972 and is headquartered at Maryland, United States. The hotel is famous for its diversity
of services which consist of its culinary services, beautiful rooms, beverage options, etc.
Moreover, this report demonstrates various services that are provided by the room division and
its front office and housekeeping departments. Along with this, the report will be providing an
elaboration of rules and responsibilities of one position from the front office and another from
housekeeping. Furthermore, it demonstrates the legal and statutory regulations that must be
complied by the business in order to function smoothly. In the end the report will be analyzing
the yield management and revenue management along with its elements and various tactics of
yield management that revenue management applies in Le Meridian Hotel to increase Average
Daily Room demand.
MAIN BODY
The hospitality industry is very huge and is constantly expanding, which includes not only
the restaurant business but also bars, night clubs, travel and tourism, hotels, etc. One of the
segregated characters of this industry is its ability to give more choices to its customers
according to their various needs. There are mainly two departments under the room division of a
hotel or restaurant that are front house and housekeeping department (Deale and et. al, 2018).
Services provided by the Rooms Division (Front office and Housekeeping Departments)
The services that are offered by Le Meridian Hotel in terms of its housekeeping and front
office department are elaborated below.
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Front office department plays a very important role in providing accommodation and
serving the customers from their entrance into the hotel to their check out. The main role of his
department is to welcome the guests warmly and greet them with politeness and eagerness to
serve them in the best possible manners so that they feel comfortable and at the restaurant or
hotel. It is assumed in Le Meridian Hotel that the customers make their first contact with the
people in this department and choose whether it is reliable to stay with them or not. Therefore,
the front office department can be said as the face of the hotel that is responsible for increasing
the number of customers and their loyalty for the hotel or restaurant. The other departments are
of no use if the front of his department fails to enhance the experience of the customers and
retain them (McCartney and McCartney, 2020).
The front office is among the most crucial departments to communicate with the customers
at all the time and fulfill their requirements. The front office department has the responsibility of
making room reservations for the customers, providing room key and stay locations, smooth
check in and check out formalities, preparation of bills and taking payments, addressing
customer feedback and suggestions, etc. The front of a department requires a managerial expert
with delicate skills to manage the activities of the front desk and the staff members in it.
The front office department also plays the role of reservation of the rooms for their
customers on their arrival or for their pre-bookings (Oflaç and et. al., 2021). They fulfil the
requirements of their customers for room reservation by understanding the type of the room as
per the number of customers and the vacancies available. The front of his department takes care
that the rooms for the customers are reserved on the particular date and time before the arrival of
customers by staying in contact with them on a regular basis.
Housekeeping department provides short stay and long stay accommodations to its
customers according to their requirements for the stay. The hotel provides various
accommodation options to the customers by implementing and defining the working procedures
for accommodation. The housekeeping department also takes care of the requirements of their
guests in the rooms such as linen, etc.
Housekeeping is also known as uniform service which consists of the people who are the
members who are liable for maintaining cleanliness within the rooms and well equipped the
room for the stay of customers. They are formed for special services such as attending the phone
call of the guests on their behalf, taking care of their needs and acting as a travel guide for them.
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The housekeeping staff in Le Meridian Hotel attends the guests in general services which is
directly controlled by the front office department.
The housekeeping department activities vary from hotel to hotel but their main function is
to manage the rooms and enhance the customer comfort and satisfaction with their stay (Jaswal,
2019). The housekeeping staff is reasonably skilled and has experience to handle the customers
effectively and efficiently. The most important purpose of this department is to provide the
customers with a better experience by providing basic amenities with a good environment and
comfortable place to stay in the hotel. Housekeeping department keeps track of all the
requirements of the customers while they stay in the rooms.
Roles and Responsibilities of two Rooms Division Positions (One from Front office and another
from Housekeeping)
The accommodation or the front office department place an important part in satisfying the
customer by fulfilling their needs and providing best hotel services. The front office department
is considered as the face of the hotel because it directly communicates with the customers on
their arrival and during their stay until their check out. The front office managers in Le Meridian
Hotel are responsible for providing a comfortable environment for the customers in the hotel and
helping them to find the best suitable stay for them. They are also responsible for listening to the
customer complaints, addressing customer feedback and suggestions (Grobelna, 2018). They are
also responsible for the services provided within the rooms and keeping a record of the hotel
regarding the bills, occupied rooms and vacant rooms for the customers. Different office
departments are responsible to perform the billing activities for the customers and take payment
from them as per their stay terms and conditions. The front office is also responsible for the
reception activities and they are an important part performing any activity for the guest. They
need to handle the overall rules and responsibilities of welcoming the guest, maintaining a good
relationship with them, collecting payments, etc.
The housekeeping staffs are required to provide certain utilities in the rooms and the
overall Hotel premises. The housekeeping staff mainly has two separate categories or
subcategories which are room keeping and engineering. The engineering staff looks after the
activities such as maintaining a healthy condition of the electrical and mechanical system of the
rooms, installation and repair of the broken items. They are involved in taking care of the
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machinery such as air conditions, cooling, electricity supply, steam generators, Wi-Fi, lighting
etc. The housekeeping department in Le Meridian Hotel takes care of the rooms, lounge and the
overall recreational facilities and campus of the hotel. The role is to ensure the proper condition
and maintenance of the rooms and continental grounds to maintain a good environment for the
customers to stay in the hotel. The housekeeping in Le Meridian Hotel is also responsible for
keeping the dining area and Hotel clean along with the room services to the customers. This
supplies the guests with the required toiletries, towels etc. to maintain a responsible laundry
service to the customers (Riley, 2018).
It is observed that different office and housekeeping departments have significant and very
important roles and responsibilities that are needed for the smooth operations in functioning of
Le Meridian Hotel.
Major Legal and Statutory Regulations in the Business
The Le Meridian Hotel creates income from a variety of customers like tourists,
businessmen, families, and bureaucrats etc. who arrive at the hotel. There are many people and
employees who are working within the hotel premises and it needs to comply with the
employment laws and regulations. It is the legal responsibility of Le Meridian Hotel to provide
safety and security to employees at the workplace. The company must also comply with the law
for not disclosing the customer with any risk like hazards or theft within the hotel (Koc and Boz,
2019). It is important for the hotel to provide safe and secure rooms and maintain the safe
environment of the hotel premises by managing it effectively. The Le Meridian Hotel must
comply with the safety measures such as fire extinguishers within the hotel, secure locks, CCTV
cameras, security check, ambulance facility etc. There are laws which determine the nominal
charges or fees must be taken by the hotels and overcharge must be avoided to comply with the
law.
The employees are the liability of the hotel because they also need to perform the equality
act 2010 to protect the employees from any caste, race, gender, disability, creed, age, religion
and other discrimination of the employees at the workplace. The act for fair wages to the
employees states that the employees must be provided with equitable wages for the same job
(Della Lucia and Giudici eds., 2021). The health and safety act, 1999 ensures that the risks at the
workplace are reduced and proper health and safety to the employees is provided. The provision
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for work equipment regulations 1998 keeps the track of safety measures of the machinery and
equipment that are used to ensure that safety of the employees and guests is maintained in the Le
Meridian Hotel.
The price telephone display regulations of the hotel ensures that the hotel management
maintains a detailed tariff for each type of rooms and displays the photographs of those rooms in
the same manner without any misleading content so that the idea to the customers can be
provided.
With the help of the data protection act which is one of the most important legal
requirements in the Le Meridian Hotel provides the protection of data and customer identity at
the hotel. It is mandatory for the hotel to make sure that the details and information about the
guest and their substances must not be leaked or misused or stolen by any third party.
Immigration records are also legally required to maintain the information about the guests
so that any misleading guidance or illegal activity may not be performed by the customers (La
Lopa and Gong, 2020). The le Meridian Hotel maintains the proper immigration reports of their
customers so that the activities of the organization can be carried smoothly without any
casualties.
Analysis about Yield Management/Revenue Managements
The yield management activity can be elaborated as the extraction of maximum amount of
profits from a fixed source by using various methods and plans according to the changing market
needs and customer behavior. The Le Meridian Hotel should apply various plans and
frameworks to maximize the average room of fancy and increase the overall profits in a
particular duration. For larger amounts of revenue and increasing the average daily room rate or
ADR the rooms must be allotted according to the needs of customers and their requirements or
particularities for staying at the hotel. For instance the person who requires two people can be
allotted a single room by making reservations and offering a reduction in cost for room sharing.
Another example that can be taken into consideration is that if the available rooms are 100 and
30 rooms are vacant that can be allotted to the single people only along with the 60 rooms which
are for the stay of 2 to 3 people are also allotted to single people or dual people only. Also there
are 10 rooms that are made for the family and groups to hang out together which are given to
only three or four people. It creates efficient use of space within the hotel rooms. Therefore, the
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distribution of rooms must be done according to the number of people wanting to stay in the
given rooms. The main elements of yield management include the forecast of demand for the
services and rooms in the hotel industry and the prevailing conditions of the market and choice
of the customers. The Le Meridian Hotel can use managing the payments, structuring the room
allotment system, and using different booking options in order to maximize their yield. With the
help of adopting suitable marketing and sales strategies by the hotel the yield management can be
increased (Elbanna and et. al., 2022).
The tactics that can be used to maximize the occupancy and average daily room rate or
ADR are discussed below.
The market research and competitive pricing can elevate the chances of the hotel to attract
the maximum number of customers and understand their competitors to determine the most
suitable prices and best services to the customers.
The Le Meridian Hotel should also negotiate the prices so that sales can be increased and
maximum numbers of rooms can be allotted to the customers.
Overbooking policy is a general tactic that is used by hotels to create better average daily
room rate or ADR which reduces the impact of cancellations on the business (Farmaki., 2018).
Le Meridian Hotel can also utilize customer loyalty programs such as redeemable points,
club cards and special discounts to the regular customers or on the next visit of the customers.
Use of forecasting and statistical data can also help Le Meridian Hotel to determine the
deviation between their actual performance and the forecast at performance and make such
strategies that can provide clear and concise operations and performance of the hotel.
CONCLUSION
It has been obtained from the above report that in any hotel industry the front office and the
housekeeping play a very important role in enhancing the customer experience and raising the
overall profits of the organization. Moreover the report has been discussing various services such
as check in check out formalities, addressing customer feedback and suggestions, linen services
etc. that I provided by the front office and housekeeping department within a hotel. Along with it
the roles and responsibilities such as maintaining record of the rooms, performing reception
activities, engineering support, good environment, etc. were also elaborated in the report.
Furthermore, major legal and statutory regulations such as equality act 2010, health and safety
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act 1999, equipment regulation act 1998, data protection act, etc. were caused that much be
followed by a hotel to carry its operations smoothly. In the end the report has provided the
analysis about yield management and revenue management, its elements and various tactics of
yield management that can be applied in the hotel to increase average daily room rate or ADR.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Deale, C.S. and et. al, 2018. Perceptions of ethical issues in hospitality and tourism
research. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 30(4). pp.203-214.
Della Lucia, M. and Giudici, E. eds., 2021. Humanistic management and sustainable tourism:
Human, social and environmental challenges. Routledge.
Elbanna, S. and et. al., 2022. An investigation of the causality links in the balanced scorecard:
The case of the Gulf Cooperation Council hospitality industry. Tourism Management
Perspectives, 41. p.100934.
Farmaki, A., 2018. Tourism and hospitality internships: A prologue to career intentions?. Journal
of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 23. pp.50-58.
Grobelna, A., 2018. Effects of individual and job characteristics on hotel contact employees’
work engagement and their performance outcomes: A case study from
Poland. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Jaswal, R., 2019. Banquet Sales Procedures.
Koc, E.. and Boz, H., 2019. Emotions and developing emotional intelligence in tourism and
hospitality businesses. Emotional intelligence in tourism and hospitality. pp.15-35.
La Lopa, J. M. and Gong, Z., 2020. Sexual harassment of hospitality interns. Journal of
Hospitality & Tourism Education, 32(2). pp.88-101.
McCartney, G. and McCartney, A., 2020. Rise of the machines: towards a conceptual service-
robot research framework for the hospitality and tourism industry. International Journal
of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Oflaç, B. S. and et. al., 2021. Examining the impact of locus and justice perception on B2B
service recovery. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Riley, M., 2018. Managing People in the Hospitality Industry. Routledge.
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