Analysis of the UK Hospitality Industry: Hilton Hotel Case Study

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The Contemporary Hospitality Industry
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Examine the current structure, scope and size of hospitality industry...............................4
LO2 Explore current and anticipated skills requirement in the hospitality industry.................8
LO3 Review the internal and external factors that impact the hospitality industry and how
they relate to current issues facing the hospitality industry.....................................................11
LO4 Analyse the current and potential trends and developments affecting the hospitality
industry.....................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16
Reference list............................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
The hospitality sector was created to make the lives of customers easier through means of
accommodation, food, travelling, and other means. It is crucial that the hospitality industry
exists so that there is a lower degree of unemployment in the society and more productivity
and output is created. In this particular report, Hilton Hotel has been considered for the study.
This enterprise has branches in over 570 places spanning over six continents. The
organisation has over £10 million in revenue and over 80,000 employees as the year 2018
(hilton.com, 2019). In this study, various types of businesses, departments within the
hospitality industry will be explored. Following which, a PESTLE and SWOT analysis will
be performed in the case of Hilton Hotel. Finally, the implications of the recent and
upcoming trends when it comes to the hospitality industry with specific illustrations will be
provided.
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LO1 Examine the current structure, scope and size of hospitality industry
P1 Explore the different types of business within the hospitality industry and the diverse
products and services they offer
The hospitality industry is a wide sector that consists of various businesses that make up a
multi-billion dollar market. The different types of businesses within this industry include
enterprises such as food and beverages travel and tourism, accommodation, and customer
recreation (Robinson et al., 2016). All of which have been enlisted and explored here down
below
 Food and beverages
This is the largest sector in the hospitality industry, here multiple food variety of different
cuisines from assorted parts of the world are provided through means such as buffet, fine
dining, bed and breakfast and other services (Davis et al., 2018).
 Travel and tourism
In this sector, tour operators and managers mostly populated this section by assisting
travellers to select destinations that are appropriate for them. They help in determining which
places they should visit with their level of budget.
 Accommodation
Here there are several independent enterprises such as hotels, motels and other forms of
lodging locations that help people spend their time relaxing in a room when they are not
travelling and exploring different parts of an area. Through facilities like this, travellers are
able to have a safe place where they can spend several nights without any worry.
 Recreation
There are several businesses, which primarily focus on giving more relaxation, enjoyment
and rest towards the consumers. Services here range from products such as museums, theatre
spectator sports, movie experiences and other variations of recreational activities.
P2 Examine a range of operational and functional departments within a chosen
hospitality business
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Within a well-known establishment such as the Hilton Hotel, there are several types of
functional and operational departments. These help in optimising the effectiveness and
performance of the organisation. All of these departments have been illustrated there down
below:
Executives: These are the managerial heads of particular department within Hilton Hotel that
make strategic decisions about the direction in which the company will on better for there
being better productivity in sections such as marketing, front desk, accounting and others
(Solnet et al., 2016).
Front Desk Services: The people hired in this section help customers with issues such as
booking hotels tickets or transportation managing their tour plans and providing general
answers to problems, they have. It is imperative for people in these positions to have
impeccable communication skills so that higher revenue comes within the enterprise and
better relationships with the customers are built (Lopes, 2016).
Housekeeping: Within the Hilton Hotel housekeeping are personal that help in maintaining
the rooms toiletries and other aspects of the hotel so that there is a certain level of cleanliness
and decorum to the entire enterprise.
Marketing and Sales: The marketing and sales staffs within the Hilton Hotel help the
company to grow branding in the market and assists there in there being higher goodwill so
that more consumers come within the organisation. The method with the utilised for doing
this includes aggressive marketing through television campaigns, social media posts and
other forms of advertisement.
P3 Discuss the contribution of the hospitality industry to local, national and
international economies
The hospitality industry of UK has been found to account about 17% of the total UK
economy among year 2010 to 2014. This indicates that hospitality sector is contributing a
substantial portion in the private and public job sectors. Hospitality industry of UK is
representing as fourth biggest industry in terms of employment. The contribution of GDP in
estimated as £57 billion that is 4% of the total GDP of national economy (Bha.org.uk, 2019).
On the other hand, the international contribution of hospitality industry of UK shows that, it
has contributed £41 billion in year 2014. Based on the research of World tourism, it is found
that about 1% of total investment done for upgrading the hospitality industry. Moreover, in
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2014, the gross capital investment done by this industry is estimated as £5 billion. Hence, it
can be said that contribution of hospitality industry is quite high in terms of local, national as
well as foreign economies. As examined by MEDLIK and INGRAM (2016), economic
contribution of UK hospitality industry has changed from year 2010 and it is found that this
industry contributed 8.8% of the UK direct employment.
Figure 1: Contribution of hospitality industry of UK towards employment of youth
(Source: Bha.org.uk, 2019)
The employment of hospitality industry has rising by more than 333000 since from 2010
which indicates that this industry alone accounts 8.8% of the total employment. Moreover,
the job opportunity in this sector has grown over 663,000. This illustrates that a lump sum
amount is contributed from this sector towards national and international economies. On the
basis of region, London and South East are having largest share where earnings in terms of
employment. The major impacts of hospitality sector among the economy are mentioned
below:
Direct impact: UK hospitality sector is advanced in providing huge employment
opportunities in different sections and subsections. As for example, Hilton hotel, UK has
provided jobs to more than 169,000 people in its worldwide locations in 2018 (Bha.org.uk,
2019). This indicates that this hospitality company of UK is strongly contributing to local,
national and international economies.
Indirect impact: As employment and activity of hospitality sector has increased, it has
provided a scope to the UK suppliers to sell goods and services to this sector. For examples,
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jobs opportunities job for manufacturer of food and beverages, business services, agriculture
and communication got enhanced.
Induced impacts: Increased opportunities of employment and other activities in hospitality
industry have enhanced the direct supply chain that has spent a huge proportion of their
income on goods and services of consumers (Horng et al. 2016). This shows that it has
stimulated the economic activities in context of retail and other leisure sectors as well.
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LO2 Explore current and anticipated skills requirement in the hospitality industry
P4 Investigate a range of different operational roles within the hospitality industry
Figure 2: Different operational roles in hospitality sector
(Source: Created by learner)
A variety of operational roles is supplemented within the hospitality industry. Some of the
roles are described in the below points:
Executive administration: Based on the size and operations of the company, executives are
the ones those are responsible for deciding the management functions including accounting
functions effectively.
Customer services: These subordinates are having a special role, as they are responsible for
contacting with the guests and handling the bookings. As stated by Solnet et al. (2015), the
exact needs of the guests or business tourists are met by the front desk services in order to
gain customer satisfaction from them.
Raw material suppliers: Raw material suppliers have a huge role in sourcing the raw
materials in the business. For example, Hilton Hotel is in touch of their suppliers closely in
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ExecutiveadministrationCustomerservicesRawmaterialsuppliersMarketingandsalesmanagementTechnologymanagement

order to attain the best products. This helps them to provide their customers the best
experience which ultimately increases their hotel ratings and positive reviews from guests.
Marketing and sales management: In hotels such as Great Eastern Hotel, London, it is
found that marketing and sales department is having effective responsibility as they spread
the brand message about the hotels to the target audiences. Moreover, they set latest
marketing channels including social media and content marketing to gain more guests in their
hotel business.
Technology management: In today’s world, it is important to keep the hotel clean and
hygienic as guests are in search of elegant atmosphere. As for example, the best quality
utilities and electronic gadgets that are provided to the visitors in hotel such as TV,
Computer, game consoles can get malfunctioned. Hence, Solnet et al. (2016) commented that
maintenance and housekeeping services are having key roles for keeping these tech systems
up-to-date.
P5 Examine the skills required for roles within the hospitality industry and current
skills shortages
Current skill shortage
A big area of UK hospitality is affected due to Brexit issues. A recent study indicated that
141 hotel businesses in UK are concerned about the shortage of skills (recruitmentbuzz.co.uk,
2019). Most of the medium sized businesses are facing big problems as they are not able to
hire EU staffs as the staffing sources got disappeared. As the employees need to work for
long hours without having much support, the skills of these employees gets low. As, there are
various temporary career moves in this field, employees are paid low where not training is
provided. This is the main reason of skill shortage among these personnel. In additions,
Zorpas et al. (2018) mentioned that training team is not present in most of the hotels of UK
for which employees skills and knowledge are not upgraded.
Skills required enhancing hospitality industry
Certain range of skills must be developed among the employees of hospitality industry of UK
in order to gain customer satisfaction rate. As the number of hotels is going on increasing,
there is a strong need of skills update. As presented by Dzhandzhugazova et al. (2016), good
communication skills are core important element that required to be updated among staffs
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and management team of hotels. In order to gain success in this field, both oral and verbal
communications practice are required to interact with the customers on time. On the other
hand, Zorpas et al. (2018) opined that multitasking skills should be treated as major skill that
can aid in handling two or three simultaneous tasks at a time. This is because a time may
arise when the hotel managers have to handle 100 customers together. Moreover,
interpersonal skills of the hotel employees need to be upgrade so that they can plan any event
effectively in a proper and planned manner.
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LO3 Review the internal and external factors that impact the hospitality industry and
how they relate to current issues facing the hospitality industry
P6 Assess the political, economic, social, technological, legislative and environmental
factors that affect the development of organisations operating within the hospitality
industry
PESTLE analysis is a technique through which the outer environment of the hotel industry is
assessed in the case of the Hilton Hotel. Six key factors that are included in this type of
analysis include political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental aspects:
PESTLE
Political
There is an elevating degree of tension growing within the United Kingdom as the
location is going to gigantic events like Brexit through which the UK is desiring to you
withdraw itself from the EU (Clarke et al., 2017). Owing to an event like this, political
parties that are functioning within the European nation are having a lower level of
direction and discretion because of which there are higher uncertain in policy making
which is spreading more negatively in the hospitality businesses.
Economies
Ever since the economic recession that had occurred in 2008 there has been an elevated
rate of unemployment that has lead there to be more prospect for hospitality businesses
to have employees at a lower rate, through which there is increased rate of profit and
reserve (Allen, 2016).
Social
With the rise in social network platforms, interpersonal dynamics have altered and
more people are having conversations online rather than through the face to face
medium, this gives big hospitality companies to directly engage with the consumer
through a digital platform and directly market their products and services to them
(Perrin, 2015).
Technology
As there is more progress, higher advancement in technology is being made and through
which machines and robotics organisms are present now that help in higher levels of
automation that lower human effort and maximize productivity. The more automation is
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present in the hospitality industry there is less need for the wage fuelled employees that
would help reduce the cost of the hospitality companies.
Legal
Multiple laws and regulations are present in the United Kingdom that assists hospitality
industry companies to perform better and be in the ethical bounds that are prescribed
by the government. Some of these laws include The Employment Act, The Competition
Act, Trade Union Act Data Protection Act And Discrimination Act and others
(Mazaroff and Horn, 2018). All these regulations help accompany treat is employees
and consumers better.
Environmental
Multiple negative phenomena in the environment cause harm to humans as well as animals
these include ozone depletion greenhouse effect global warming and similar events. Big
multinational hospitality corporations produce a high level of waste in addition to this that
increases the quantum of unnecessary products in the environment.
Table 1: Pestle analysis
(Source: Created by Learner)
The influence of the PESTLE analysis in the case of Hilton hotel has won elaborated hair
down below:
 The company can incorporate corporate social responsibility events within is a
business framework to help the level of impact on the environment.
 Hilton Hotel can hire a government and governance professional that will help in
improving the compliance rate of the company so that there is better law adherence.
 The company can adopt multiple marketing strategies such as social media posting,
blog advertisement, and other new marketing strategies on the internet.
P7 Undertake a SWOT analysis for a hospitality business and review how this can
inform the decision-making process
A SWOT analysis is a framework that helps in assessing and understanding the internal
workings of an organisation and the capabilities, which the company has. It has four aspects,
which include change weaknesses opportunities and threats.
SWOT
Strengths
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