Business Travel Centre: Revenue, HR, and Legislation Report

This report examines the operations of the Business Travel Centre within the travel and tourism industry. It delves into revenue management principles, including rationale and application of tools like revenue management dashboards and rate shopping tools. The report also explores the HR life cycle, highlighting recruitment, education, motivation, evaluation, and celebration stages, particularly for the role of an Executive Assistant. A performance management plan is developed, along with techniques to address negative behavior and staff retention issues. Furthermore, the report explores relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, and the influence of employment, contract, and company law. Finally, the report analyzes various types of financial statements, reporting mechanisms, the importance of budgets, and variance identification within the business context.

THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM BUSINESS
TOOLKIT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Rationale and principles of revenue management..................................................................1
P2 Application of revenue management tools.............................................................................2
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P3 Different stages of the HR life cycle and their importance for retaining and developing
talent.............................................................................................................................................3
P4 Development of performance management plan & apply the techniques to resolve negative
behaviour and overcome the staff retention issues......................................................................4
LO3..................................................................................................................................................5
P5 Exploration of legislation.......................................................................................................5
P6 Influence of employment, contract and company law............................................................5
LO4..................................................................................................................................................7
P7 Various types of financial statements and reporting mechanism...........................................7
P8 Importance of Budget and Identify the variances...................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Travel refers to the activity which involves the movement of people from one
geographical location to another geographical location for the purpose of attending meetings,
enjoying holidays and meeting relatives. Tourism refers to the activity of travelling for the
purpose of attending meetings and for the leisure etc. Many businesses are involved in these
activities and together form Travel and Tourism Industry. Travel and Tourism industry is one of
the oldest and significant industry in hospitality industry. Business Travel Centre is an
international business of UK which was established in year 1994.
The report will highlight the principle of revenue management and its techniques to earn
profits for travel and tourism industry. Report will also tell about the various legislation which is
applied on the travel business and impact of company, employment and contract act on the
decision making of the business. Report will also explain the HR life cycle stages and
importance of developing and retaining talents in the context of the industry. Report will also
develop performance management plan and application of resolve the negative behaviour and
overcome the issues of staff retention. Report will explore the different types of financial
statements and reporting mechanism in the industry. Report will also identify the importance of
budgets and variances in the business.
LO 1
Rationale and principles of revenue management
Rationale: Revenue management is significant in the travel and tourism industry and has
strategic implementation on the forecasting and in depth analytics of the management for
companies. It is mostly represented with price optimization but it is also based on complete
implications in terms of secondary spend and total costs of accommodation and other related
services. The major effect is on adopting the data driven approaches for making decisions and
allow the businesses to grow (Strauss, Klein and Steinhardt, 2018). It has also influenced the
demand cycle along with optimising the availability and utility of perishable products and
services. This sector has boosted revenues by taking an account of hotel's management such as
operational tasks like housekeeping, reception, and distribution channels. Such revenue
management bring reliability and clarity in context to gain a market positioning and help in
maintaining a loyal customer base.
1

Principles of revenue management: There are several principles of revenue management
that ensures customers' expectations by fulfilling the quality and delivery of services on time. It
focuses on selling the required package or tour at the right time to the right customer at the right
price and distribution channel. However, Value is one of the core principles that reflect on the
perceived value of the available product and help the companies to minimise any discrepancies
and bring improvisations. It helps in finding out areas where improvements are required and
value can be generated from it. Another principle is making customer centric services through
robust website management and adopting a seamless software system (Nieuwenkamp, 2016). It
shows how services are been delivered to customers and in what way. It also includes about
forecasting demand that how much there will be increase or decrease in human resources in
next year. Demand forecasting that assist in understanding the demand cycle and role of human
resources to optimise the resources' allocation. Alongside it, revenue management measures how
much direct booking has been done from various sources. Also, how much revenue is generated
through direct booking. It makes it easy to analyze data and take effective decision. Additionally,
it emphasis on measuring the direct booking in order to provide rewards and recognition under
the framework of ethical standards.
Application of revenue management tools
There are several sectors in travel and tourism industry and includes accommodation,
transportation, foods and beverages etc. Thomas Cook strategies has always been proved
beneficial in generating revenues under systematic order for any organisation. However, the
usage of tools and techniques must be in sync with the other sectors for complete attainment of
revenues and resources allocation (Chun and Ovchinnikov, 2018). Here the major parameters
include the pricing strategy, marketing techniques and segmentation to analyse about the
customers' distribution and similar factors that has an impact on the revenues' management. For
instance, Revenue Management Dashboard is one of the systems that is used for Thomas Cook
revenues to have knowledge about competitors and other demand trends through useful
algorithms. This assists in supporting the daily rate decisions and help the manager to take
strategic planning in gaining clients' attention.
In regard to the same, Review Score Tracking, Rate Shopping Tool, Hotelligence etc.
tools might also be helpful in gaining an understanding about the implementation of it for
maintenance of the revenue management. These tools are useful in the determination of pricing
2

and other parameters to measure the data or algorithms. Moreover, it provides analysis and
complete assessment to understand the ongoing trends in order to gain competitive advantages.
In context to the chosen company, it must adopt a PMS system with advanced rate management
options to make records of all the daily activities at one place. It also highlights the necessity of
taking the competitors strategies and give an advantage over them to maintain their existing
customers and attract the new clients.
LO2
P3 Different stages of the HR life cycle and their importance for retaining and developing talent
Job Role in Business Travel Centre : Executive Assistant
This role is important in terms of maintenance and management of the operations at this
tourism and travel company. One of the major significance in staff retention is establishment of
an organised Human Resource Department to recruit the skilled individuals and manage the
strategic talent management by overcoming the barriers and challenges in an organization.
Herein the Human Resource (HR) life cycle is crucial to understand the entire assessment of
hiring and developing the seeker into an asset. This cycle highlighted the relationship between
HR department and stages of an employee and its contribution at both individual and
organisational levels to maintain the productivity and effectiveness (Jacoby, 2016). There are
five stages that are included in this cycle.
Recruitment- This is important for the recruitment process of organization by HR and here the
major focus is on building a staffing plan to maintain the workplace environment. Here, the
Executive Assistant helps this department in right hiring of suitable candidates who might help in
company's productivity and growth.
Education- It is important in educating the taskforce about company's policies, legislation and
rules by the HR department to maintain the decorum under professional context. The Executive
Assistant might help in taking induction sessions to make the new joinees aware about the same
through direct communication.
Motivation- HR focuses on building opportunities to maintain the environment and engage
employees through rewards or recognition. However, Executive Assistant might support through
reviewing the candidates without any partiality and give fair platform for gaining promotion,
hike or incentives.
3

Evaluation- This is a supervisory stage where the employees' are measured on the overall
performance on the basis of discipline, time management and responsibilities. Here Executive
Assistant must offer training and take monthly meetings to give feedback to the manager and
other higher authorities.
Celebration- It is the last stage where the staff is motivated through extrinsic factors like
keeping milestones, giving flexible working hours, additional paid time etc. The Executive
Assistant finds ways to connect with the employees and motivate them and lead ahead in making
them feel empowered by fulfilling the duties with sense of responsibility.
These five stages are crucial in understanding the role of Human Resource and are
beneficial in reviewing the operations of company. Here recruitment and motivation go hand in
hand and HR with Executive Assistant must impart training and conduct evaluation to gain
knowledge about the ongoing practices and performance management of chosen company. This
would help in celebration and maintain the revenues, profits and employees' engagement at
optimum levels.
P4 Development of performance management plan & apply the techniques to resolve negative
behaviour and overcome the staff retention issues
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR TRAVEL EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
EMPLOYEE'S DETAILS
Name – John Sinc
Position – Executive Assistant
Years/Months employed in this position – 2018/03
Date of this review – 22nd April 2019
Reviewer (name and position title) – Vinie Joe
PROGRESS TOWARDS GOALS IDENTIFIED IN LAST PERFORMANCE REVIEW
GOAL ACTION TAKEN TIME COMMENTS
Help executives in
achieving sales target
Focus on promotional
and marketing
strategies
1 YEAR Strategies was
implemented
effectively within the
4

expected budget.
Help front line
managers in various
tourism events
organized by
Company.
Focus on the
communication and
making working
environment friendly
9 MONTHS Open communication
system were
implemented and
motivated employees
through various
incentives which is
based on their
performance.
(Shields and et.al., 2015)
SMART OBJECTIVES
Specific
Goal is specific for the travel executive assistant which are as follows -
 Achieve sales target
 Organised proper events
Business Travel Centre will achieve these specific goals by organizing theme based events, offer
discounting packages, make famous personalty as a sponsor and take ideas from the customers
regarding organizing events.
Measurable
Both goals can be measure by various aspects such as
 Sales can be measure by profits or by no. of customers Events can be measure by customers' satisfaction
Attainable
Both goals can be attained with the help of proper planning, proper implementation of
correct strategies and co-ordination between various departments of the company.
Relevant
These both goals are relevant for the company as increase in sales will increase in
profitability. Organisation of good event will enhance the brand image of the company.
Time Bound
5

Goals should have time bound. Without time bound, no goals can be effectively achieve.
Thus, for the sale target, company take 1 year and for the events' organisation, company choose 9
months.
TECHNIQUES TO RESOLVE NEGATIVE BEHAVIOUR
There are various techniques which help company to resolve negative behaviour in the
organisation. Managers and employers should talk personally and listen effectively to the
employees personally. Also, they should organize weekend cultural and sports programs to make
employees happy and behave properly with another employees. Alos, company should apply
open communication system so that employees can talk with anybody easily and shares problems
with anybody (Notelaers and et.al., 2019).
OVERCOME STAFFS RETENTION ISSUES
There are various actions which can be adopted by Business Travel Centre to overcome
with the issue of staffs retention. Company can use Participative leadership style in which
employees are involved in the decision making process of Business Travel Centre. They also are
encouraged to employees to give ideas and perception which can improve the business
performance. This made employees feel important for the company. Also, Company can use
incentive programs in which employees are given various kinds of incentives on the basis of
better performance. This lead employees to motivate to do better performance and not to leave
organisation (Bussin and Mouton, 2019).
LO3
P5 Exploration of legislation
There are various legislation which must be followed by Business Travel Centre. These
legislations are as follows -
Equality Act 2010
According to this act, Employers and Company itself cannot discriminate between its
employees on the basis of following nine protected characteristics. These characteristics are as
follows – Gender Reassignment, Pregnancy and Maternity, Age, Sex, Race, Disability, Sex
Orientation, Marriage and Civil Partnership and Religion or belief. This act protects the interests
and rights of the employees of the company on the basis of Payment, Opportunities and
Treatment from the company.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
6

According to this act, employers and company must have to take care of their employees
at the work place. They must provide training and proper tools and techniques regarding safety at
workplace to the employees so that in the case of accident at work place, employees can save
themselves as well as its customers too. Also, company should take care of the employees and
take actions against the people who harass and bullied them and try to harm them at workplace.
Data Protection Act 2018
This act protects and controls the personal information of clients used by the
organisations. Business Travel Centre has to follow the guidelines of data protection act in which
they can't share the personal details of the travellers such as name, contact no, family
background, financial position, family members details, address, credit or debit card details and
bank details etc. with another third parties (Nieuwenkamp, 2016).
Employment Act 2008
It deals with so many aspects which is related to the employees. One of the section in this
law deals with the Disciplinary & Grievance Procedures. This aspect imposed on the business for
the employees-employers relationship. This act state the whole procedures for handling
grievance for the company in case of any disputes or complaints.
National Tourism Policy
It deals with the travel and tourism industry of the particular nation. According to this
policy, Business Travel Centre Company must have to encourage the travel industry by doing
proper work and conduct the business in a legal and systematic way.
P6 Influence of employment, contract and company law
IMPACT OF EMPLOYMENT LAW ON BUSINESS
Employment law includes various regulations, rules and guidelines which must be
followed by the employers of Business Travel Centre. It also guides the employees-employers
relationships and protects the interests of employees too. Basically it includes various laws such
as Transfer of undertakings regulations act, National minimum wages act, Trade union and labor
relations act, Working time regulations act, Health and safety at work etc. act, Equality act,
Pensions act, etc.
Company and its all the members must have to follow all the employment legislation
which is beneficial for the company. If they try to breach or broke them, then Business Travel
Centre will have to face a lot of legal actions, government actions, public actions and
7

employment tribunal claims. Employment law provides company to run its business practices
fairly and properly in UK legal framework of business so that employees can work in systematic
manner and no one can harm them as well as their rights. Happier, healthier and efficient
employees result in better working environment of company amd gives their 100% in
performance. It also helps in decreasing the turnover rate of employees in company and build
the good image of company as well as nation. (Taylor and Emir, 2015).
For Example – in national minimum wage act, there is clearly mention of working hours and
accordingly pays so company has to pay that amount mention in law and compulsory completion
of working hours of the employees.
IMPACT OF CONTRACT LAW ON BUSINESS
Business Travel Centre deals with its clients through contract, thus it plays an important
part in company. Mostly commercial and business relationships of company with its all th
stakeholders are creating through contracts. Contract law help company to save from big loss
which can be done by any misuse or breach of contract.
In company, there are so many transactions occur such as sales, purchase, re-sale, re-
purchase, credit sale and credit purchase transactions. For each and every transactions, Business
Travel Centre does contract with respective party so that company ensures about the specific
price, specific quantity, specific place, specific quality and specific terms and conditions
regarding its all the transactions which is stated in contract (Beale and et.al., 2018).
Also, when any party who is connected with the company is trying to terminate or breach
any terms and conditions stated in contract, which can lead Business Travel Centre to face huge
financial loss and negative impact on its brand image. Then Contract law is the one which can
save company to going through these unfair path due to mistakes of another party.
For Example – Company has done contract with Mechanic for the repairing of the company's
commercial vehicles, in case, Mechanic refuse to do repair of buses, this will impact the
company's working activities as for the finding of new mechanic and do contract with him, it will
take a lot of time.
IMPACT OF COMPANY LAW ON BUSINESS
Company law creates Business Travel Centre as a separate entity from its owner. So that
in case any disputes arise in the future, both company and its any of the member can sue on each
other. Company law also provide guidelines to the company in related to the funding and capital
8

which protects the shareholders' interest and make company financial stable. Company law also
help investors and its stakeholders to know about the company's position, policy, constitution,
administrative and meetings which makes the trust of stakeholders on company strong
(Hannigan, 2018).
Company law helps company to run its business in a legal framework without harming
any rights of its stakeholders. There are so many regulations related to the company's aspects
which must be fulfil by the company's members in order to avoid the legal actions.
For Example – According to the company law, company has to prepare article of association
and memorandum of association and registered them with corporate house. Thus, Business
Travel Centre has to prepare and registered its article of association and memorandum of
association.
LO4
P7 Various types of financial statements and reporting mechanism
DIFFERENT TYPES OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
There are various kinds of financial statements that are being used by Business Travel
Centre for the measurement of financial position and fulfilment of accounting standards. These
financial statements are as follows -
Balance Sheet
It is the major financial statement used by Business Travel Centre. It is also known as
Statement of Financial Position. It is a statement which states the assets, liabilities and
shareholders' equity for a particular period (generally for 1 year). It is basically a snapshot of the
company's financial health and position (Easton and Sommers, 2018).
Company make its balance sheet at the basis of quarterly, half-yearly and annually.
Income Statement
An income statement is one of the three important financial statement. It is also known as
Profit & Loss statement. It is a statement which states the revenue and expenses generated by the
company in an entire accounting period which is generally for the 1 year. It also assesses the
financial position of the company by calculating net income or net loss at the end of financial
year.
This company issues their income statements in every three months and in every six
months in their financial year.
9

Cash Flow Statement
A cash flow statement is an important financial statement which states all the information
regarding all the cash inflows and outflows of the company during particular period. In short, it
summarized the cash and cash equivalents amounts in the company. In this statement, the
activities of the Business Travel Centre are divided into three categories -
OPERATING ACTIVITIES
It refers to the activities that comprise the main activities of business. It reflects the total
cash generated by the company during financial year.
INVESTING ACTIVITIES
It refers to the investment activities that comprise the purchase and sale of assets and loan
made by another party or loan made by company.
FINANCING ACTIVITIES
It refers to the activities that comprise the activity regarding investors and shareholders. It
includes dividend paid, interest paid, issues of shares & debentures and redemption of shares &
debentures.
Company makes its cash flow on the basis of weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and
annually in order to make control on their budget and funding mechanism.
FINANCIAL REPORTING MECHANISM
It refers to the system in which concepts and principles are there to support in the
preparation of financial statements. It acts as the guidelines for the accountants and Business
Travel Centre to prepare the financial statements such as Balance sheet, income statement and
cash flow statement. It helps accounting bodies of the company to set the accounting standards
and accounting policy which is essential for the company and its stakeholders itself. It creates the
base for the financial reporting of the company for its accounting bodies (Koo, Ramalingegowda
and Yu, 2017). It also helps creditors, suppliers, shareholders and government to understand the
interrelationships of financial statement and interpret the financial conditions of the company by
reading financial statements. Therefore, it helps them to better understand the Business Travel
Centre's financial performance.
P8 Importance of Budget and Identify the variances
BUDGET AND ITS IMPORTANCE
10

A budget is a financial plan for a particular period (it can be weekly, monthly, quarterly,
half-yearly and annually) for the fund allocation, fund expenses and savings for the future of the
business. It is prepared by Business Travel Centre for the fund allocation and intended
expenditures in order to meet with the objectives of company.
Budget is very important for the Business Travel Centre because of following reasons -
 It acts as a financial security for the company in order to prevent from spending all the
funds allotted to the business (Ahmed, 2019).
 It helps Business Travel Centre to make wide use of investment which can improve the
efficiency of performance.
BUDGET VARIANCE
A budget variance is the difference between expected budget and actual budget. It can be
favourable and unfavourable. Actual budget is less than expected budget, it is considered to be
favourable because here actual revenue is higher than expected and actual expense is lower than
expected expenses. On the flip side, Actual budget is higher than expected budget, it is
considered to be unfavourable because here actual revenue is lower than expected and actual
expense is higher than expected expenses of Business Travel Centre (Arnold and Artz, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarised that Revenue is an important part of the
organisation thus, it is an essential part for an organisation to do revenue management so that
company can save for the future. Financial statements and budget help company to plan for the
future and know about the present financial position and resource available. Without financial
statements, company can't run for long time because company might to face legal action and
stakeholders of the company stop supporting the business. Also, budgets play a crucial role in
company to manage its operations as well as financial resources properly so that company can
run properly without any wastages of the funds. HR plays an important role in managing
company by providing employees so that company with the help of them, can achieve its target.
HR life cycle stages provide guidelines to employ the employees in corrective manner without
doing any mistakes. Travel Executive Assistant plays an important role in the company by
assistance manager in the management of company and employees. Various business legislations
helps company to run its business in legal framework of the nation and protects the employees-
employers relationships with the rights and interests of employees.
11

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmed, R., 2019. Budget Allocation. In Cloud Computing Using Oracle Application Express.
(pp. 261-269). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Arnold, M. and Artz, M., 2019. The use of a single budget or separate budgets for planning and
performance evaluation. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 73. pp.50-67.
Beale, H., and et.al., 2018. Cases, materials and text on contract law. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bussin, M. and Mouton, H., 2019. Effectiveness of employer branding on staff retention and
compensation expectations. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences.
22(1). p.8.
Chun, S.Y. and Ovchinnikov, A., 2018. Strategic consumers, revenue management, and the
design of loyalty programs. Georgetown McDonough School of Business Research Paper,
(2606791).
Easton, M. and Sommers, Z., 2018. Financial Statement Analysis & Valuation, 5e.
Glanz, J., 1994. Redefining the roles and responsibilities of assistant principals. The Clearing
House. 67(5). pp.283-287.
Hannigan, B., 2018. Company law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Koo, D.S., Ramalingegowda, S. and Yu, Y., 2017. The effect of financial reporting quality on
corporate dividend policy. Review of Accounting Studies. 22(2). pp.753-790.
Nieuwenkamp, R., 2016. Legislation on responsible business conduct must reinforce the wheel,
not reinvent it.
Notelaers, G., and et.al., 2019. Measuring bullying at work with the short-negative acts
questionnaire: identification of targets and criterion validity. Work & Stress. 33(1). pp.58-75.
Shields, J., and et.al., 2015. Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices,
strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Strauss, A.K., Klein, R. and Steinhardt, C., 2018. A review of choice-based revenue
management: Theory and methods. European Journal of Operational Research.271(2).
pp.375-387.
Taylor, S. and Emir, A., 2015. Employment law: an introduction. Oxford University Press, USA.
Online
Jacoby,M., 2016.Stages of the Human Resources Life Cycle in Need of Improvement. [Online].
Available through:<https://www.mjms.net/blog/human-resources/5-stages-human-
resources-life-cycle-need-improvement/>.
12