Managing Accommodation Services in Holiday Inn

This report evaluates the management of accommodation services in Holiday Inn, including the front office department, housekeeping department, and security. It discusses the organization of front office functions, key roles within the departments, significance of forecasting linen stock and guest supplies, and interrelationships between departments.

Unit 7 - Managing
Accommodation Services
(Part B: Report)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
Organisation of front office functions in Holiday Inn.................................................................3
Key roles within the front office department for Holiday Inn.....................................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................5
Key roles within the housekeeping department in Holiday Inn..................................................5
Significance of forecasting linen stock and guest supplies to ensure sufficient supply to meet
demand.........................................................................................................................................5
Significance of interrelationships between housekeeping and other departments within
Holiday Inn..................................................................................................................................6
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................7
Importance of scheduling maintenance and repair work for reducing disruption to guests........7
Significance of security within Holiday Inn................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Accommodation services are one of the largest sectors in the tourism industry which
comprises of various infrastructural services for staying and lodging in buildings, rooms that
provide a shelter for a traveller or person to stay. Management of accommodation services
involves planning, organisation, directing, controlling and evaluating operations of
accommodation services in various places like hotels, motels, bed and breakfast, resorts etc. This
report will evaluate the management of accommodation services of the hotel company Holiday
Inn which is a UK owned brand of hotels and a subsidiary of intercontinental hotels group. This
is one of the largest hotel chains in the world with more than 1000 active hotels and over
200,000 rentable rooms. The headquarters of the hotel company is in Denham, Buchinghamshire
(IHG, 2021). This report will address the front office department in the accommodation services
of the holiday Inn, evaluate contribution of housekeeping department and assess the function of
security and facilities in the accommodation services.
LO 2
Organisation of front office functions in Holiday Inn
The front office of the Holiday Inn hotels is considered one of the most important areas
of the entire organisation. This is because the employees that work with this department
represent the establishment as they are the first people that visitors encounter and interact with.
This is the most visible department of among various accommodation operations in the hotel.
The front office department is involved in various functions like processing and handling the
transactions between the customers and the hotel, receiving and welcoming the guest, handling
their requests, guiding and helping them out, processing payments and arranging things,
communicating the activities with other departments like housekeeping to arrange the room as
soon as guests arrive etc (Soelton, 2018). The front office department in holiday inn includes the
front desks, uniformed services, front office accounting system, concierges, private branch
exchange. The major responsibilities of these front office are creation of the visitor database,
managing the guest accounts, coordination with the visitor service, selling and promoting in
house services, ensuring the customer satisfaction, managing the in-house communication
through private branch exchange. In Holiday Inn the front office is divided into two categories,
front house and back house operations. The front house interacts with guest, uses the customer
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relationship management system, collects details and registration process, issuing
accommodation keys, settling check outs. The back house operations include determination of
the types of guests via customer database, ensuring the preferences and personalisation in the
services, generation of reports etc. the various resorts and hotels have different organisational
structures for the front desk as per the size of the organisation, but the primary roles remain the
same (Nguyen, 2018).
Key roles within the front office department for Holiday Inn
The primary roles that the employees of the hotels perform and are categorised tend to be
on the basis of the front and back house operations they do. The front office of called the nerve
centre of the Holiday Inn and is generally located in the foyer and the lobby area of the hotel
property. The primary roles include guest registration functions being performed by:
 The front desk agent who acts as the agents for registration who have the duty of
maintaining information pertaining to availability of the rooms.
 The cashier role in the front office department performs functions like maintaining and
settling the guest portfolios, and to check out the guests appropriately.
 The night auditor role performs the clerical job like accounts receivable management and
preparation of daily reports to the higher management such as the revenue reports and the
occupancy reports (Bhautik, 2020).
 The mail and information clerk role the employee perform is involved in taking
messages, providing the directions to the visitors, guiding them and maintaining the mail.
 The telephone operator performs the job of management of switchboards and
coordinating the wake-up calls.
 The reservation agent has to perform the role of responding to the reservations requests
as well as creation of reservation records.
 The Uniformed agent service role performs the role of handling the luggage of the
visitors of the hotels and resorts of the Holiday Inn and escorts the guests to their rooms
and all the information in general that might be requested by the guests (Bhautik, 2020).
The functions of the front office det includes reservation, guest and service, inquiry, check-in,
check-out, foreign exchange, assigning rooms, finance and cashiering, telephone operation etc.
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LO 3
Key roles within the housekeeping department in Holiday Inn
Housekeeping is that operational department of the Holiday Inn that is responsible for the
overall maintenance, cleanliness, aesthetic keeping up of the rooms and the common areas,
public area maintenance, the front and the back areas and the surroundings. The hotel tends to
rely on the sale of the rooms and other services for the revenue as it is the main product of the
organisation, therefore its continuous maintenance is a vital part of the hotel (Grobelna and
Tokarz-Kocik, 2017). The housekeeping is a primary operation that directly impact the
experience of the guests during their stay in the hotel and in general there are high executions
and promptness expected from the ancillary housekeeping department. This operation is one pf
the 24X7 operations of the Holiday Inn and various function like laundry, carpeting, cleaning
floors and walls, use of special equipment for cleaning, maintaining rooms and changing linens
and beddings etc. the major departments in the Holiday Inn are executive housekeeper who does
the administrative work of the housekeeper, control desk of housekeeping which remains
accessible 24 hours and the staff reports as per their shifts over here. The laundry department is
responsible for washing, ironing and dry cleaning the clothing and linens of the entire hotel and
the guests. The key employee roles are of floor supervisor, public area supervisor, uniform room
supervisor, night supervisor, linen room supervisor, and the attendants that work under theses
supervisors (Kumar, 2020).
Significance of forecasting linen stock and guest supplies to ensure sufficient supply to meet
demand
Supply chain and inventory management is one of the most important functions in the
housekeeping department of the Holiday Inn hotels and resorts. Forecasting may refer to an
imperfect science that is based on the estimation of the supply material that might be needed in
the potential future in the regular operations of the hotel. Proper forecasting helps in ensuring
that enough supply of all line stock and other guest supplies will be available according to the
demand, and it is used in housekeeping for estimating demand for weeks in advance (Nimri and
et.al., 2020). It is highly important as it prevents the shortage of supplies when required and also
make plans for occasions like minute orders, getting extra linen sheets or personal hygiene
products etc. The right supply estimation of hotel products are done through proper calculation
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and the number of bookings that have been made to get an idea of the number of visitors that will
be present at Holiday Inn rooms weeks before. There is also a problem of high inventory due to
overestimation in demand, or the factors like cancellations of bookings which are generally
managed by holiday inn through increasing their storage capacities for non-perishable items and
finding effective use of extra items. To avoid the shortage of supply, inventory management
occurs periodically and a supply management software is adopted to facilitate the entire process.
The software helps in synchronisation of the demand and supply through real time information.
Along with these highly skilled housekeeping staff tend to use their experience to estimate and
assist in the process (SEVER and KAĞNICIOĞLU, 2020).
Significance of interrelationships between housekeeping and other departments within Holiday
Inn
The entire business operation of the holiday inn hotels works like a wheel where there is
24X7 coordination either directly or indirectly amongst all departments. The team work in
employees is what keeps the entire hotel working without any hazards. Housekeeping
department has to coordinate with all major departments of the hotel as it is responsible for the
maintenance and cleanliness of the entire infrastructure and also because they provide quality
provisions and services through effective coordination (Hoppe, 2017). Housekeeping and the
front office needs to closely coordinate as the housekeeping is responsible for the preparation of
the rooms after the saes at the front office and also, when a guest check outs, housekeeping has
to be informed so that they prepare the room for the next arrival. The housekeeping coordinates
with the food and beverage services like outlets, banquet and restaurant as they constantly
require clean table cloths, napkins and also clean uniforms on a daily basis and the department
has to communicate effectively so that they get cleaned before the arrival of guests.
Housekeeping also coordinate with security to prevent things like gambling or illegal activities
by effectively communicating and alerting security. Housekeeping also coordinates with
purchase or procurement department as major supplies like room stationaries, guest supplies and
different cleaning agents that they require have to be communicated with the purchases for
inventory management (Yeh, 2019).
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LO 4
Importance of scheduling maintenance and repair work for reducing disruption to guests
Although there are chances that the holiday inn hotels would require emergency repairs
to various equipment and things like the fabric of the building, preventative measures and
scheduling periodical repairs is highly necessary for the overall maintenance of the facilities and
to keep them safe and secure for usage. Maintenance scheduling needs to be conducted after the
consultation of the clients in order to minimise the disruptions to their workflows and business
process (Longart, 2020). A planned maintenance scheduling is the upkeeping of the entire
building from a range of activities like servicing of the air conditioner to repairs the aesthesis of
the hotel. In a planned maintenance scheduling, a time that suits the needs of the guests as well
as the maintenance staff is chosen as per daily running and requirement of equipment. The major
benefits in adopting this approach the entire process remains proactive and ensuring the hotel
operations remain successful through minimisation of the potential problems. The benefits of this
approach are cost savings, longevity and reduction in potential issues, no problems in continuity
of business and it remains smooth, easy incorporation of the budgeting etc (Mutlu Öztürk and
Öztürk, 2019).
Significance of security within Holiday Inn
Hotel security within the hospitality industry is highly necessary as the security system in
put in place for the protection of the guests, staff and the assets or physical resources of the
holiday inn hotels. The physical assets comprise of the appliances, equipment, belongings of the
visitors and the grounds of the hotel. The security and safety measures in the hotel are crucial.
For instance, the security needs to inform the hotel staff regarding the management of emergency
situations like an event evacuation and fire hazards and also major events of risk like a terror
attack (Binns and Kempf, 2020). In order to improve the security, the hotel security staff
constantly update their locks and passwords, especially in cases where there have been security
breaches or change over of the employees. The constant upgradation is highly necessary and the
security needs to keep the best interest in the mind. Guest safety is one of the top priorities of the
hotel security at Holiday Inn due to the rise in terrorism and high chances of fire hazards and
global disasters. In order to ensure guest safety, the security team needs to assess and mitigate
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the security risks and threats, like certain venues can be of higher risk unlike others. The study of
all potential threat’s and devising mitigation strategies and tactics could help in the prevention of
the threat or minimisation at the time of occurrence. Another way to ensure safety that Holiday
Inn employees’ practice are the registration and cross checking, verification of documents,
checking visitors, scanning the luggage for detection of any threatening equipment etc. Also,
major events are kept private in the hotel for higher security with high door security and
regulations like guest lists and invitations. Overall, security in the holiday inn hotels is very
important and makes the operations smooth and threat or risk free (Chauhan Shukla and Negi,
2018).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that management of accommodation services
involves planning, organisation, directing, controlling and evaluating operations of
accommodation services in the hotels and resorts of the Holiday Inn hotel chain. The major
operations that were evaluated in this report were the front office, the housekeeping and the
security. The front office department is involved in various functions like processing and
handling the transactions between the customers and the hotel, receiving and welcoming the
guest, handling their requests, guiding and helping them out, processing payments and arranging
things. The housekeeping is responsible for the overall cleanliness of the entire hotel from
rooms, the hotel grounds, public areas etc. and also has to perform various operations like
maintenance, supply forecasting etc. The hotel security works for the protection of the guests,
staff and the assets or physical resources of the holiday inn hotels. All these departments are
responsible for the smooth operations of the hotel.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhautik, P., 2020. Role of Front Office Department.
Binns, C.A. and Kempf, R.J., 2020. Safety and Security in Hotels and Home Sharing. Springer
International Publishing AG.
Chauhan, A., Shukla, A. and Negi, P., 2018. Safety and security measures adopted by the hotels
and their impact on customer relationship management. International Journal of Research-
Granthaalayah, 6(1), pp.118-125.
Grobelna, A. and Tokarz-Kocik, A., 2017. Relationships between job characteristics and
organizational commitment: The example of hotel housekeeping employees. Economic and
Social Development: Book of Proceedings, pp.491-500.
Hoppe, D., 2017. Multiple commitments and behaviors: a mixed concept approach. Journal of
Product & Brand Management.
Kumar, M.H., 2020. A Study on ‘’Recent Trends in Housekeeping Department in Hotel
Industry’’.
Longart, P., 2020. Understanding Hotel Maintenance Management. Journal of Quality Assurance
in Hospitality & Tourism, 21(3), pp.267-296.
Mutlu Öztürk, H. and Öztürk, H.K., 2019. Maintenance and maintenance management systems
in accommodation. Journal of Achievements in Materials and Manufacturing
Engineering, 96(2).
Nguyen, M., 2018. Cross-training for front-line employees in hotel industry. Case study: Holiday
Inn Helsinki City Centre.
Nimri, R., and et.al., 2020. Realizing dignity in housekeeping work: Evidence of five star
hotels. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 19(3), pp.368-387.
SEVER, M.M. and KAĞNICIOĞLU, C.H., 2020. A New Information System for Inventory
Management in Hospitality Industry.
Soelton, M., 2018. How culture, training standard and discipline on the employee performance
affect hotel management. European Research Studies Journal, 21(4), pp.378-385.
Yeh, C.M., 2019. The relationship between tourism involvement, organizational commitment
and organizational citizenship behaviors in the hotel industry. Tourism and hospitality
management, 25(1), pp.75-93.
Online
Holiday Inn, IHG, 2021. Available through: <https://www.ihgplc.com/en/our-brands/holiday-
inn>
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