Hospitality Report: InterContinental Hotels Guest Service Analysis

This report delves into the dynamic world of the hospitality industry, focusing on service provision, quality management, and the impact of evolving consumer preferences. Using InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) as a case study, the report examines various guest services, including room services, dining, entertainment, and banquet services, and how IHG manages the quality of these services. It explores how the hotel adapts to technological advancements and changing customer demands, such as the shift towards online booking, mobile applications, and self check-in/check-out services. The report further analyzes how these changing consumer preferences impact guest service management, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of these adaptations, including online feedback mechanisms and payment options. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities within the modern hospitality landscape, emphasizing the importance of adapting to meet the ever-changing needs of today's consumers.

Hospitality and Guest
Services

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Identification of it's service provision and quality management.................................................3
Evaluate how the hotel adapts to changing consumer preference...............................................4
How changing consumer preference impacts guest service management..................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality sector is a wide aggregation of field within a services sector that consist
various services like accommodation, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks,
transportation, travelling, guest service and others. Guest services refers to those kind of service
which are provided by the company to its visitors like concierge, room service, laundry etc. This
assignment is based on InterContinental Hotels Group plc. which is a British international
hospitality organisation. This firm was established in Denham, England in 2003 and it offer
offers it hotels and resorts services to its target audiences (Bilgihan and Nejad, 2015). This report
will discuss about service provision and quality management and information about changing in
consumer preference. Further, will explain the impacts of consumer preferences on guest service
management.
MAIN BODY
Identification of it's service provision and quality management
Service provision refers a term which is utilised to define a wide range of actions and
activities, consisting the condition of helpful inclination, renewal services and others. In
InternerContenetal, the are numerous services are offered by the management of its customer and
manage the quality of them in efficacious manner. Some of the services are defined as follows:
Guest rooms services- It refers to to the service in which the administration of the
respective firm offers its clients and consumers like room services related to breakfast, lunch,
dinner etc., dinning, room cleaning services, mini bar, coffee and tea maker in room and others.
To manage the quality of all these services, the management offer different things to its
customers. For example, to mange the quality of food service in the room they provide telephone
so that the individuals provide their order regrading it. It will help in providing information about
their client requirement and they offer this service to them on time.
Workplace and internet options- This hospitality firm provide services according to its
consumers requirement. Business persons, students and working individuals etc. are also the
target audiences of the company so it also offer services according to them. For example

business person and others require internet, work desk with lamp, direct dial phone, meeting
rooms and others so the company provide them these all services (Cassidy, 2015). They provide
wireless internet and various meeting rooms and to manage the quality of the services, they
provide high quality internet services so that the business persons did not face the problem of
buffering during the time of presentation and using internet.
Entertainment services- The management of InterContinetal provide various
entertainment services like 40'Smart TV, Cable. Satellite TV, iPhone and iPad docking station,
Video on demand with in-room movies and charge pay per view system (Davis and Horney,
2015). To manage the quality of these kind of services the administration can take the feedback
and response from its consumers and target audiences to know the information regarding
entertainment services which are provided and offered by the company to its consumers.
Banquet and catering service- The administration of the respective hospitality firm
provide different services to its consumers and catering services is one of them. This service is
provide by the company to its potential clients to celebrate birthday parties, anniversaries and
others. The hotel are located on a special destination so by offering these kind of service it get
attention of numerous consumers. To manage the quality of this service, the firm can get the
feedback and reviews from its customers so that they can provide their response regarding these
kind of services and also offer their suggestion towards theme. The individual belong from
different regions so by providing theme as per that the company can make maximization in the
customer base.
Evaluate how the hotel adapts to changing consumer preference
Consumer preference refer to the subjective taste of individual customers, measured by
their satisfaction with those items after they have purchased by them. It can be an activity which
is affiliated with taste and preferences of the target audiences as per their personal requirement
regarding the products and services. When trends are change customers needs are changes.
Hospitality industry is a field in which change are generated on continuous basis so that the firm
which are operating their business within this sector they can offer different kind of products and
services as per their requirement. InterContinental operate its business globally and fulfil the
needs of its international customers. Due to operate business transnationally, the company adapt
several changes which are occurred in its target audiences needs.

In current era, technology is an essential aspect and which generated change in the
demand so the customers. It help in making things easy and comfort or people like comforts so
they fastly adopt the technology due to which there are various change are generate in their
needs, taste and preferences (Dogru, Mody and Leonardi, 2018). When people take the benefits
of the services which are provided by the hotel during the time of travelling, they prefer effective
services which are able to provide satisfaction to the demands. For example, for booking the
hotel and take the advantages of its services, they book their room by standing in a queue which
is a time consuming process. So people want a service through which they can easily complete
their booking (Dzhandzhugazova and et. al., 2016). Due to which change are occurred in the
needs and demands of the customers. So by analysing this change in customers needs, hotel and
hospitality organisation adapt it easily and fulfilling this want they adopt technology so that they
provide satisfaction to their target audiences.
With the help of which, they developed company website and provide online booking
service through people can take the advantages of the services in form of booking the hotel. This
adaptation is beneficial for the company because it help in time saving and the employees can
utilise their time on other business growth actions and activities. Now these days hospitality firm
provide mobile application through which people can complete their booking and monitor all the
services which are provide by the company to them.
Another change are occurred in the needs of customers regarding payment any have
needs of easy pay services. The company also adopt this change and use the technology in it and
provide and option in mobile application and company website regarding payment. With the use
of these kind of application and social sites, consumer can easily make their payment. In
InterContinenetal, the management of the company also provide feedback form online or its
mobile application so that customers will not face problems regarding it and they can easily
provide their review in context of services which are offered by the company to them.
When individuals think about to take the benefits of the respective hotel's services then
they more conscious about the security. Then a change are generated in their need regarding it
and to fulfil or adapt this change the company provide self check-in and checkout service to them
so that they did not feel worry about its. Within this service, in InterContenetal, target audience
can create their reservation and arrive at the hotel and the confirm their check in on self service
machine (Gibson and Parkman, 2018). It beneficial fro both company as well as employees

because it help in reducing the fear of security and the workforce of the company can save their
time and invest it in other business activities and operations.
How changing consumer preference impacts guest service management
Change in consumer preference affect guests service management in differentness like
favourably and unfavourably. Guest services indicates to those kind of benefits which are
provided by the employees and workers of a hotel to its potential customers in different way. In
InterContinental, the re are various services like room service, food service, booking, check-in
and check out service, cleaning services and various others are offered to its target audiences
(Hulse and Duke, T., 2015). The effective administration of these services or if the services are
provided in structure way by the company, is known as guest service management. When
changes are occurred in consumers need then the management also adopt them to fulfil their
needs. These changes in consumer preferences impacts guest services in different manners, some
of them are defined as beneath:
Self check-in and checkout- Self check-in has a great advantages because guest select
the time they use it at their comfort. It refer that they can pick out a calm instant to register and
check-in to confront the hectic rush in front of the reception desk. To offer guests with cell phone
applications that accept them to check in with mobile phones and the respective company clutch
the option. It positively affect the guest service management because by offering self check-in
option to the guest, the employees will make their focus on other services which can be essential
for the customer like resolving queries and giving the answers of the questions of them etc. This
service help in saving the time of the management and they can utilise this time to manage other
guest management services.
Online booking and payment- It is another change in consumer preference which affect
the guest service management. In InterContinental, the administration of the company offer
online payment service of mobile application pay service which is beneficial to the employees as
well as organisation. Because if the company do not provide this service then customers have a
fear regrading carry cash. So with the help of this, the target audience of the firm can easily make
their payments by transferring fund account to account. Online transactions can be automatic
which can be convenient for the customers and company also. These kind of transactions quickly
provide feedback by message to the clients and organisations (Ionel, 2016). It also create some
negative impact like curiosity concerns, disputed transactions etc. When people make these kind

of transactions then the personal information is shared with the receiver which can be a problem
for the individual. Another issues can be affiliated to disputed transactions which can be
occurred due to internet problems that affect the giver and receiver in negative manners and
influence the guest service administration.
Online feedback- It another change which is adopt by the company towards consumer
preferences. In past days, hospitality firm take the feedbacks from their customer by providing
them a paper or feedback form which is time consuming and the guest who is in hurry, does not
fill it due to lack of time (Manhas and Tukamushaba, 2015). Due to which there are need
generated in the need of customer because they want to inform the firm about their bad services.
So get the response of its all customers and visitors, the company adopt this change which is
occur in consumer preference by adopting technology and offering them online feedback
providing service. This create positive impact on guest service management because the
management get feedback online and save its time. The consuming can be invest by the
employees on improving the services regarding which they get review and response. For online
feedback, they provide feedback from on their company website and mobile application. It can
also unfavourably affect the company because when a new customer visit the company site and
saw negative or bad responses and reviews of the customers then the individual will not prefer to
take the advantages of the organisation (Ong and Wookey, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above information, it can be analysed that there are different services are
provided by a hospitality firm to its guest like room services, entertainment services, food
services and others so that they effectively fulfil their needs and expectations. There are different
changes generated in customers need cause of issues like lack of time and time consuming
services of hospitality. In which technology ply an essential role and by company adopt these
changing consumer presences easily by providing them ways of solution with the help of
technology. These changes impact the guests service in different manner by making their
booking, payment, check0in and check-out easy.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bilgihan, A. and Nejad, M., 2015. Innovation in hospitality and tourism industries. Journal of
hospitality and Tourism Technology. 6(3).
Cassidy, B. G., Guest Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd, 2015. Hospitality media system that
avoids network congestion and server load while providing media experience within
guest room, and computer server and method thereof. U.S. Patent 9,179,181.
Davis, T. R. and Horney, N., 2015. Guest feedback and complaint handling in the hospitality
industry. In Proceedings of the 1988 International Conference of Services
Marketing(pp. 246-260). Springer, Cham.
Dogru, T., Mody, M. and Leonardi, C., 2018. Blockchain Technology & its Implications for the
Hospitality Industry. Boston University.
Dzhandzhugazova, E. A. and et. al., 2016. Innovations in hospitality industry. International
Journal of Environmental and Science Education. 11(17). pp.10387-10400.
Gibson, P. and Parkman, R., 2018. Cruise operations management: Hospitality perspectives.
Routledge.
Hulse, D. and Duke, T., Guest Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd, 2015. Hospitality media
system employing virtual set top boxes. U.S. Patent 9,003,455.
Ionel, M., 2016. Hospitality industry. Ovidius University Annals: Economic Sciences
Series. 1(1). pp.187-191.
Manhas, P. S. and Tukamushaba, E. K., 2015. Understanding service experience and its impact
on brand image in hospitality sector. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. 45. pp.77-87.
Ong, D. T. and Wookey, J. M., Guest Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd, 2017. Allowing guest of
hospitality establishment to utilize multiple guest devices to access network service.
U.S. Patent 9,608,998.
Pechlaner, H., Nordhorn, C. and Poppe, X., 2016. Being a guest–perspectives of an extended
hospitality approach. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality
Research. 10(4). pp.424-439.
Sipe, L. J. and Testa, M. R., 2018. From satisfied to memorable: An empirical study of service
and experience dimensions on guest outcomes in the hospitality industry. Journal of
Hospitality Marketing & Management. 27(2). pp.178-195.
Todasco, M. C. and Skorupski, J. R., PayPal Inc, 2015. Systems and methods for hospitality
services using beacons. U.S. Patent Application 14/291,413.
Online
How will changing consumer attitudes impact hotels. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.coylehospitality.com/hotels-resorts-inns/how-will-changing-consumer-
attitudes-impact-hotels/>.