Managing Accommodation Services: A Comprehensive Report

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MANAGING ACCOMODATION SERVICES
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1............................................................................................................................................4
LO2............................................................................................................................................7
LO3............................................................................................................................................9
LO4..........................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14
Reference list............................................................................................................................15
Appendix..................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
Hospitality sector plays a major role within the service industry so that desired service can be
provided to the targeted customers. In addition to that, the sector provides flooding, lodging
and recreation to customers so that they can be attracted towards organisations. Moreover,
hospitality industry depends upon disposable income and leisure time of the customers. Some
of the hospitality units are amusement parks, restaurants and hotels. Some of the employees
that are associated to the hospitality sector are housekeepers, porters, kitchen workers and bar
tenders. Moreover, some of the departments associated to hospitality organisations are
Human Resource, Marketing, finance and management.
The present study will shed light on the trend of hospitality industry in order to analyse their
market scenario. In addition to the ownership of the hospitality industry, will also be
discussed. Finally, the role of security department will be surfaced.
Hilton Hotels and resorts are considered as a global brand providing service to the customers
so that their satisfaction level can be boosted. Since, 2017, the venture has expanded their
function in 85 different countries and 6 continents (hilton.com, 2019).
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LO1
P1Provide an introduction to the hospitality industry and an explanation of how the
accommodation sector contributes to the industry as a whole
Hospitality industry refers to a broad field, where services are provided, which includes
foods, lodging, and event planning, and travel services. There are hotels, tourism
organisations, which comes under this category. Travel agencies are a major part of this
industry and they provide tourism services such as air ticket booking, transportation,
accommodation and many more. A major segment of this industry is dominated by hotel
industry and organisations under this category give foods and lodging services. These hotels
come under resort hotels, budget hotels and Condo hotels. Resort hotels focuses on servicing
vacationers, budget hotels provides services at cheap rates and the hotels are condominium,
which are used as hotels. Accommodation sector contributes to the UK hospitality in major
level. They are a key role player, which is making this industry sustain by generating lot of
revenue in UK. Hotels come under this and they have been a key contributor in national
economy of UK.
Figure 1: Occupancy rate in UK hotels
(Source: pwc.com, 2019)
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The occupancy in UK hotels has risen significantly due to visits from travellers, who are
coming from different countries. This is making some major positive impact on economy of
UK, as hotels are generating more revenues. They rate of occupancy in London at 2018 is
about 82 percent, which is very positive. If Rev-par is considered, then the rate for UK is 162
Euros. This is a major reason for the growth in hospitality industry and UK hotels are the
main force behind it. Provincial hotels are having a major average daily rate since 2013. This
rate has grown to 1.3 percent in 2018. It is predicted that in 2019, the ADR rate will grow to
1.2 percent. This industry is contributing to the hospitality industry in some indirect ways too.
They are spending huge amount of capitals on new construction and purchasing items from
international market and domestic locations, which is enriching UK economy as well as
hospitality sector. Many job opportunities are created because of this, which increasing
income per capita of UK people (pwc.com, 2019).
P2Explain the different forms of ownership applicable to accommodation services,
using examples throughout
Private hotels
These kinds of hotels are owned privately and by a single person. In some cases, it is owned
by a company and has many investors. Full autonomy goes to the owner and that person or
company is free to take any management decisions in it. Investors can have consensus but the
final decision lies upon the owner. Hilton Hotel in UK is a privately owned hotel and every
decision lies on owners (hilton.com, 2019).
Leased hotels
In this case, an owner leases the hotel to a company or some hotel chain. Financial
responsibility lies to lessee. As the new owner, the person will have to pay rent on regular
basis. Some owners ask for share of revenue from the lessee. This kind of hotel is owned
privately but the main difference is that the physical hotel actually belongs to new lease. The
Sandy Duck is such an example of hotel (Thesandyduck.co.uk, 2019).
Managed hotels
Some owners give responsibility of their hotels to a management company. The owner is
liable for any financial obligations but the responsibility of managing salaries and other
maintenance work lies upon the management company. Hotel owners usually find a brand
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and gives responsibility to them. Milestone hotels & residences come under managed hotel
category, which is managed by IHG and it is based in London (milestonehotel.com, 2019).
Franchises
A franchise hotel is franchisee of another brand. This kind of hotels usually takes franchisee
of a recognised brand and they depend on brand name of the main company. The franchised
hotel will have to follow rules set by the hotel chain and the owner cannot take any decision
according to his or her choice. Holiday Inn is a franchise hotel, which is under IHG (ihg.com,
2019).
P3 Discuss grading and classification systems and evaluate the role they play when
potential guests look for and book accommodation; include examples of grading and
classification system used in a variety of countries.
Grading of hotels and classification refers to rating of these accommodation places. There are
various websites, which have this feature for rating hotels by customers and experts. Star
system is used for classifying hotels, the lowest rating is one star, and the highest one is five
stars. It signifies the features inside hotels and quality of their services. If the rate is high,
then the number of amenities a hotel provides is high. UK uses star system to rate their hotels
and higher star signifies more amenities. It does not mean that lower starred hotels are bad, it
only lacks in amenities provided by five start hotels. In UK, Visit Britain is one such
organisation, which is considered authentic for rating. In USA, Forbes is considered one of
the authentic sources for rating hotels, as they invented this method. There is not much
difference in grading system (Tefera and Govender, 2015).
TRIPADVISOR is one such website, where people can see rating of hotels. There are both
positive and negative sides of online rating. Reviews give public a clear idea about hotels,
which clears doubt during booking. They can read about it and see if specifications are
matching with their criteria or not. Therefore, this is a positive side of online reviews, as
customers gets to know about quality of services provided by these hotels. Sometimes online
reviews can be faulty and customer biasness may play a huge part. This will misguide
customers and they will not feel satisfied with services of these hotels. Therefore, this is a
major negative aspect of online review (tripadvisor.co.uk, 2019).
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LO2
P4 Functions of front office within variety of accommodation services
The function of front office has been discussed below:
● Reception of the guests
As per the comment of Mody et al. (2018), the main role of front desk employees is to
receive guests. In addition to that, they are also responsible for solving queries of guests in
order to improve the quality of service. In budget hotels, members of front desk are
responsible for fixing the price of rooms for the customers. They also respond to the calls of
visitors in a pleasing tone so that they can be attracted towards the organisation. In a resort,
members of front desk are responsible for taking the booking for the guests so that timely
service can be provided to the customers. In a condotel, the front desk manager is responsible
for meeting the needs of customers (Picazo et al. 2019).
● Housekeeping
The members of housekeeping are responsible for distributing tasks among the employees of
housekeeping department in order to keep the hotel premises clean and tidy. In resorts front
desk employees suggests housekeeping employees to cater the needs of the customers. In
condotels hotels the housekeeping department take care of the customers’ hygiene so that
their preference can be boosted (Marcoz et al. 2016).
P5 role of front office in the chosen organisation
Creation of guest database
In Hilton hotel, front desk members are responsible for maintaining database of the customers
accommodated in their organisation so that they can serve them in an improved manner.
However, quality of accommodation differs as per the price of the room. Front desk members
are responsible for interacting with the customers in order to handle their accommodation
issues (Marcoz et al. 2016). For instance, guests seeking accommodation in luxury hotels will
receive high standard facilities as compared to budget hotels. Moreover, front desk agents of
Hilton hotels and resorts are responsible to assist front office functions on a daily basis so that
the organisation can provide better service to their guests. Front office of HiltonHotel
believes in the concept of first impression. Therefore, they try to provide prompt service to
the customers. As per the comment of Pan (2015), high level of customers’ satisfaction will
increase the profit earning of the venture.
Managing front office operations
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Management of front office interact with the customers so that they can provide them best
accommodation service. Moreover, quality of service is highly dependent on the type of
hotel. For instance, in luxury hotels customers pay high charges. Therefore quality of service
is also better. However, in budget hotels variety of facilities gets reduced because of the price
(Parmar and Dalal, 2017). In Hilton hotel, front office members checks accommodation for
the guests and assign them as per their preference. Moreover, front desk of Hilton hotel
shapes experience of customers so that in future their business can prosper on global level.
Maintaining customers information
Members of front desk are responsible for collecting information of guests during guest
registration so that their privacy can be maintained (Kimes, 2016). In the Hilton hotel
management of front desk, use centralized data system for storing information of the
customers so that in future they can serve them as per preference level. This system will also
help to improve competitive position of the organisation in the market.
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LO3
P6 Role of Housekeeping department
Role of housekeeping department have been discussed below:
Operational function
The housekeeping department is operational in its nature because its member cleans rooms of
the hotel premises. Moreover, management of organisations need to keep the hotel rooms
clean and tidy so that customers can get attracted. Both Guests and management thinks that
cleanliness of the hotel needs to be maintained in order to get a fair price and repeat business.
The members of house housekeeping department is responsible for plan and service the room
in order to improve first experience of customers (Banerjee and Chua, 2016). Moreover,
equal cleanliness needs to be maintained in budget and luxury hotels for the safety of
customers.
Basic functions
The primary function of housekeeping department of Hilton Hotel and resort is to provide
clean and satisfactory service to the customers in order to enhance customers’ retention rate.
In addition to that, 50% sale of hotel’s accommodation depends upon the efficiency of
housekeeping department (Wood, 2017). They not only maintain sanitation of hotel room but
also keep things in order in order to attract new customers. For instance, if the external look
of the hotel is clean and tidy then customers will automatically get attracted.
Supervisory functions
The house-keeping members are responsible for looking after the function of the team
members in order to provide clean and tidy service to customers. In addition to that,
customers are free to complain against service quality of housekeeping department to
improve market position. The housekeeping supervisor has the responsibility of making duty
roster for employees so that timely service can be provided to the customers (Mehmood et
al., 2016).
Maintaining customers retention rate
The customers’ retention and accommodation rate will be enhanced if customers receive
quality service on a regular basis. However, if customers do not receive clean and tidy service
they will have a tendency to shift to a different hotel. Thus, competitive position of the
organisation will witness a downfall.
Some of the skills that are required by housekeeping members have been discussed below:
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● The housekeeping members need to possess honesty because they access customers’
valuable while cleaning rooms.
● The house keeping members need to posses supervision skills in order to see whether
all the works are been done properly (Mody et al., 2018).
● They are also responsible for preparing duty rosters for the house keeping members
P7 Importance of linen supply in hospitality organisation
In hospitality, the housekeeping department does organisation linen maintenance in order to
fulfil the preference of customers. In order to provide better service to the customers’ linens
need to be supplied on time. The, linens need to be produced as per the needs of the
customers. The main motive behind supplying linen to customers is that to reduce their
burden while travelling.
As per the comment of Pan (2015), list of linen supply depends upon the arrival of guests in
hotels. The housekeeping members need to ensure that linens are being supplied in adequate
numbers in order to track the guest list. List of other supplies in guest rooms have been
discussed below:
The management of hotels need to provide furniture in order to provide basic amenities of
life. In addition to that, bedding materials include bed sheet, mattress, pillow, blanket and
pillowcases. They also need to supply non-slip mats near the washrooms in order to prevent
accidents caused due to slippery ground. They also provide sanitation equipments in order to
maintain basic standard of life. However, if the guest fails to provide minimum charges in
hotel quality of linen witness a deficit. Thus, competitive advantage of the business venture
will also get affected.
However, Parmar and dalal (2017) has mentioned that linen is considered as the second
largest expense hotel of hospitality organisation. Therefore, members of laundry need to be
maintained in an effective manner. After washing, they need to be stored effectively so that
they can be long lasting. Lastly, number of linen needs to be produced in order to meet the
needs of the customers. As per the comment of Kimes (2016), if, large number of linens is
produced in hospitality organisations customers’ satisfaction level will also be improved.
P8 Interrelationship within departments
In hospitality sector, every department and its functions are important so that demand of the
customers demand can be fulfilled. In addition to that, members of all departments need to
coordinate with each other so that they can function effectively. The workers of the
department need to be trained in order to boost their level of skills. For instance, in Hilton
hotel intercommunication system has been launched so that departments can interact to each
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other and provide quality service at the time of need. Front office members are linked to
housekeeping. For instance housekeeping department need to communicate with the
housekeeping manager in order to know the status of the room. Moreover, guests have the
right to complain to the front desk if they find any of the luggage missing. Moreover, the
luggage are also been tracked by the members of the front desk. The team of housekeeping
members need to communicate to the front desk so that grievances of customers can be
solved. Communication between security department and front house is very important
because they both look after the safety of the customers. In addition to that, both the
department can maintain the security of the customers so that they can keep on visiting the
hotel after regular interval (Wood, 2017).
Emergency communication between security office and front desk can mitigate emergencies
such as fire accidents. Further, security officer interact to front office on regular intervals that
they can investigate any accidents. For instance, in the Hilton hotel constant interaction is
maintained between security and front desk through inter communication process. The
concerned process is beneficial for the organisation because they sole issues of customers
instantly. The members of front desk need to communicate to maintenance department in
order to provide quality service to the customers. After providing quality service to
customers, competitive position can be boosted. Maintenance members need to know the
status of the room and confirm it to the front desk members so that they can register guests’
name.
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