Report: Contemporary Hospitality Industry Challenges and Trends

This report delves into the contemporary hospitality industry in the UK, addressing operational, managerial, and legislative challenges. It examines issues such as staff turnover, skill shortages, and minimum wage compliance, illustrated by case studies like Park Plaza Hotel County Hall. The report also analyzes the current image of the industry, potential trends like increased technological usage and fusion foods, and their impact. It includes discussions on organizational structures, change management, and the importance of customer service. The conclusion emphasizes the multifaceted nature of the industry's issues and the influence of emerging trends on its overall functioning. This report is a valuable resource for understanding the dynamics and future of the hospitality sector.

Contemporary Hospitality Industry
Task 3 and 4

Introduction
• Operational, managerial and legislative issues
faced by hospitality industry.
• Current image of the hospitality industry
• Potential trends and developments in
hospitality.
• Impact analysis for the predicted trends and
developments.

Operational issues affecting the hospitality
industry
Change management in Novotel due to issue of decreasing profit.
• adoption of competitive strategy so that its overall operational cost
can be reduced
• reducing the pricing in order to increase the overall hotel occupancy.
• new co-presidents with complementary personalities were
appointed.
• flatter organisational structure to aid in better organisational
management.
Structural changes in intercontinental group of hotel
• hiring of new CMO.
• starting a cloud based reservation system

Managerial issues affecting the hospitality industry
• Staff turnover is a key issue of around 31 percent which is
double the average rate in comparison to other industries.
• adds to recruitment cost thereby leading to high
productivity.
• costs the sector around 272 million pounds on an annual
basis (Mullen, 2016).
• high skill shortage of around 60,000 per year.
• unemployment level is quite low of 4.3 percent
• severe skill shortage after freedom of movement across
Europe will take an end by 2019

Legislative Issues
• minimum wage act but a few of them are not
adhering with it.
Case of Park Plaza Hotel County Hall
• did not paid enough to its cleaning staff.
• No paid break and even if they took one then they
were asked to leave the job the very next day.
• Official policy is there but harassment as well as
bullying activities is carried out by supervisors and
the trainers who are in power.

current image of the hospitality industry
• Carries an image of being of huge importance to
UK economy due to size and job creation ability.
• required to shed the image of the one that offers
part time jobs rather long term career option.
• the sector is facing cost pressures hence it may be
difficult for it to maintain current growth rate if no
support is received from the government.

potential trends and developments in
hospitality.
• increased technological usage like mobile apps
for confirming there check-ins.
• new fusion foods that are innovative and imbibed
with continental delicacies.
• health conscious foods in demand.
• going to crucial consumers.
• aggressiveness in the Customer service as clients
have started expecting more from these
departments.

impact analysis for the predicted trends and developments.
• providing a good consumer service should be the
top priority of the firms.
• The staff members must be trained to assess the
consumer requirements.
• firms must make themselves acquainted to the
innovations.
• provide services to consumers in an easy manner
through the use of technology (Yilmaz and
Yilmaz, 2016).

Conclusion
• From the above report it can be concluded
that many kinds of operational, legal as well as
managerial issues are faced by the hospitality
industry in UK. There is also a presence of
many trends such as increased technological
usage ; new fusion foods ; aggressiveness in
the Customer service has also put an impact
on its overall working.

References
• Heiens, R.A., Leach, R.L., Newsom, P. and
McGrath, L.C., 2017. The impact of advertising,
goodwill, and other intangibles in the retail
foodservice industry: Do intangible investments
bite into investor returns?. Journal of Foodservice
Business Research. 20(2). pp.177-191
• Yılmaz, H. and Yılmaz, S., 2016. Corporate Social
Responsibility in Hotel Businesses. Anadolu
University Journal of Social Sciences. 16(1).

References
• Mullen, 2016. How to tackle employee turnover and
retain your staff. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.thecaterer.com/articles/369298/how-to-
tackle-employee-turnover-and-retain-your-
staff>[Accessed on 24th June 2018].
• Roberts, 2015. Britain’s hotel workers – bullied, underpaid
and with few rights. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/30/h
otel-workers-bullied-underpaid-few-rights-uk>[Accessed
on 24th June 2018].