Work Experience Report: IHG and Hilton Hotels Industry Analysis

This report details a student's work experience, focusing on roles at IHG and Hilton Hotels. It begins with an introduction to work-based learning and the student's interest in a receptionist position. The report covers researching and evaluating suitable organizations, negotiating with supervisors, and recognizing business constraints. It outlines tasks, responsibilities, and a work plan, analyzing the benefits of proposed activities for both the business and the learner. The report includes fulfilling placement requirements, systematic record-keeping, and making suggestions for improvement. It concludes with monitoring progress, evaluating performance, and reflecting on the learning experience, offering recommendations for enhancement. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the student's practical experience within the hospitality industry, highlighting key learnings and challenges faced during the placement.

Work Based Experience

Work Based Experience
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Researching and evaluating suitable organization that could provide industry experience. .3
1.2 Negotiating with work and academic supervisors a proposal for the work experience.........4
1.3 Recognizing the business constraints on the work experience offered..................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Agreeing and prioritizing the tasks and responsibilities involved in the work experience. . .6
2.2 Producing a plan for the work experience.............................................................................6
2.3 Analyzing the benefits of the proposed activities to the business and the learner.................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Fulfilling specified requirements of placement conforming to all related codes of practice.9
3.2 Producing a systematic records of work undertaken...........................................................10

Work Based Experience
3.3 Revising the initial plan as required.....................................................................................11
3.4 Making suggestions for improvement and review these with appropriate supervisor.........11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
4.1 Monitoring progress against original proposal....................................................................12
4.2 Evaluating the quality of own performance.........................................................................12
4.3 Analyzing the learning which has taken place during the work experience using suitable
reflections...................................................................................................................................13
4.4 Making recommendations on how the experience could have been enhanced...................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

Work Based Experience
INTRODUCTION
Work based learning (WBL) is a strategy that provide an individual in develop his/her
skills accordingly. The major purpose behind such learning is to expose individuals future
options as well as to provide opportunities for there skill development (Hussain and Cambria,
2015). This is because all work based learning includes interactions with desired industry or
community professional that guide individual in middle way to reach the his/ her individual
objectives. WBL includes four different phases that are are of career awareness, career
exploration, career preparation and last career training (Work-Based Learning, 2016). Further the
report is based on an scenario where I had applied for receptionist job at IHG and Hilton Hotel.
And accordingly trying to prepare myself for the particular job. For this the report will include a
brief explanation and evaluation of the IHG and Hilton to get the industry experience. Also will
recognize the business constraints that are offered at workplace. Later will also produce a plan to
go through the work based experience. Also will fulfill specified requirements of placement

Work Based Experience
conforming to all related codes of practice. At last the report will include monitoring progress
against original proposal as well as will also evaluate the quality of own performance.
TASK 1
1.1 Researching and evaluating suitable organization that could provide industry experience
Under this I am going to research for various work placements that the I can get in travel
and tourist industry. Travel and tourism industry is a industry that are directly or indirectly
involves various business within it. Such as airline, cruise taxicabs, hospitality services as well as
entertainment venues (Lönn, Cates and Gallagher, 2016). Hospitality services includes
accommodation, hotels, motels resorts, etc. I am looking forward to hospitality work based
placements of IHG and Hilton. I have applied as Receptionist for two hotels, that are Marriott
Hotel & Resorts and Intercontinental Hotels Group.
1. Organization Name: Hilton Hotel & Resorts

Work Based Experience
Company name: London Hilton on Park Lane
Address: 22 Park Lane, London, UK
2. Organization Name: InterContiental Hotels Group.
Company name: InterContinental Hotel
Address: 1 First Ave, Burton-on-Trent DE14 2WB, UK
The London Hilton on Park Lane is a 4 star hotel situated on Park Lane, overlooking
Hyde Park in the exclusive Mayfair district of London. It is 101 meters 331 ft tall, has 28 storey's
and 453 rooms including 56 suites. The following hotel is considered as best business hotel I UK
as per the report given by Business Traveler Magazine. Also according to the report ODF
German Business Travel Magazine it had considers the London Hilton on Park Lane hotel as a
best hotel of Europe. Also the hotel has been awarded by the world travel awards Europe.
However, InterContinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG) is a public organization which has
been headquartered in Denham, Buckingham-shire, England. Firm operates in hotel industry and

Work Based Experience
provide services at international level (Meier, Elfering and Odoni, 2016). It has 4602 hotels out
of which 3934 operates under the franchise agreements, 658 hotels are separately owned and 10
are directly owned by IHG. It employ 7311 employees which are rendering different services to
the customers. There are number of department which comprises human resource department,
finance department, purchase department, sales department, services department etc. Both the
hotels hired number of employees includes cashier, bar boy, receptionist, waiter, housekeepers,
servers, chef, hosting etc.
By going through the features of both the hotel I have founded that IHG Group is more
suitable organization with better working environment. Along with that it is one of the successful
global brand in the hotel industry which provide better industry experience to the individual. So
by working with this, I can enhance as well as develop my skills and knowledge to a greater
extent to what I will get from the Hilton Hotel. It will provide better opportunity for the future
growth and development (Helyer, 2015).

Work Based Experience
1.2 Negotiating with work and academic supervisors a proposal for the work experience
Date: 27/07/2016
Name:
Nature of Employer: IHG Group
Nature of Business: Travel and shipping
Name of supervisor:
Title of position: Receptionist
How this work will benefit me: Working as a receptionist over here will give me very good
start for my academic progress and also will help me gaining industrial experience and insight to
work in a travel organisation especially on the area of providing customer service which is my
area of interest. This placement will improve my career and make me more viable to adapt in the
industry in future (Ife, 2012). This work with a variety of tour arrangements that the organisation
has will be very enriching for me as it will enable me to understand what the factors that are

Work Based Experience
responsible for guest satisfaction. Also, how can the respective hotel retain as well as develop
loyal customers. These fundamental aspects will benefit me in any job scenario as guest are the
crux of all organization.
My role in travel way
 Dealing with bookings by phone, e-mail, letter, fax or face-to-face.
 Completing procedures when guests arrive and leave.
 Choosing rooms and handing out keys.
 Preparing bills and taking payments.
 Taking and passing on messages to guests.
 Dealing with special requests from guests.
 Answering questions about what the hotel offers and the surrounding area.
 Dealing with complaints or problems (Kolb, 2014).

Work Based Experience
Negotiating refers to the process of communication between employer and employee so as to get
some beneficial outcomes. There are various methods of negotiation like integrative and
distributive negotiation. Integrative negotiation refers to win-win situation in which both the
parties will negotiated. It helps to build good working relationship at workplace. While, in the
distributive one party negotiate terms hence, also called win-lose situation (Mols and et.al.,
2009).
1.3 Recognizing the business constraints on the work experience offered
As a receptionist, I have been assigned with the duty of dealing with booking on the basis
phone, e-mail, fax etc receive customer order and comply with rules. There were several
business constraints which I faced while performing the job of receptionist in InterContinental
Hotel. I am not only responsible for booking but also responsible for taking payments and
passing the guest and also to deal with their constraint if any as per the standards, answering
questions about what the hotel offers and the surrounding area etc. Stress is one of the most

Work Based Experience
common difficulty through which I go through while offering services to the guest. It was often
arisen while dealing with rude customers who did not behave well with me (Nishikawa and
Osaki, 2015). Moreover, working for long hours and serving high number of customers impose
burden on me which results in stressed mind. Along with this, sometimes, my co-worker also did
not provide proper support to me. It resulted business constraints while handling multiple dishes
to serve customers at single time. As a receptionist it is my duty to deal with complaints and
negative feedback form the guests (Savery, 2015). I am responsible to make customer better
feeling, relaxation and comfortable. Thus, in this regard, I have to always keep smiling and
behave friendly with the guests even I am in bad mood. Further, workload, adherence to fulfill
quality requirement, fully trained, material cost, limited staff, customer satisfaction and supervise
my subordinates created working problems. All the constraints had been experienced by me
while performing the job of waiter in IHG.

Work Based Experience
TASK 2
2.1 Agreeing and prioritizing the tasks and responsibilities involved in the work experience
I have made a list of activities on the basis of priority to fulfill my role and responsibility.
That further help in fulfilling my task on time with effectively and efficiently. I managed my
work with the help of setting priorities. Through this, I determined valuable tasks which needs to
be completed prior to the others. For this I have managed my work or have prioritized the work
on the basis of hour, week, monthly etc (Mariani and Turner, 2016).
This help in finishing my task on or before the deadline. While making time scale, I
decided fixed time to complete each activity and strictly follow it. In addition to this, classifying
work into several stages make me able to achieve desired goals. In the routine operation, I
focused on consistent interaction with the customers very politely to deliver quality services to
them (Wareing, 2016). It provide assistance to attract more and more clients to the IHG hotel.