Intercontinental London Hotel: Operations, Economics, & Development

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the contemporary hospitality industry, using the Intercontinental London Hotel as a case study. It examines the various types of businesses within the hospitality sector, including food and beverage, travel and tourism, lodging, and recreation, highlighting their diverse products and services. The report details the significant contributions of the hospitality industry to local, national, and international economies, focusing on employment generation, income creation, and foreign direct investment. It outlines the range of operational and functional departments within the Intercontinental London Hotel, such as housekeeping, food production, human resources, and marketing, emphasizing their interrelationships and dependencies. Furthermore, the report discusses the influence of franchising and licensing agreements on the global development and economic worth of the hospitality industry. It also addresses the range of operational roles, skills required, and current skills shortages within the industry, analyzing the impact of these skills gaps on hospitality businesses and proposing solutions to address them. Desklib provides access to this and many other solved assignments.

Unit 1 the
Contemporary
Hospitality Industry
(GB)

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Types of business within the hospitality industry and the diverse products and services that they
offer..................................................................................................................................................1
Contribution of the hospitality industry to local, national and international economies.................3
Range of operational and functional departments within intercontinental London hotel restaurant
..........................................................................................................................................................4
Interrelationships of the operational and functional units within intercontinental London hotel
restaurant..........................................................................................................................................5
How the use of franchising and licensing agreements has influenced and contributed the global
development and economic worth of the hospitality industry.........................................................6
Range of different operational roles within the hospitality industry...............................................6
Skills required for roles within the hospitality industry and current skills shortages......................7
Skills gaps within the hospitality industry in relation to a range of different operational roles......8
Impact that skills gaps have on hospitality businesses and make valid solutions for addressing
these skills gaps................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Hospitality industry can be defined as the relationship between the guest and the host.
Services are reception and entertainment of guests along with the visitors and strangers are
provided by the host. The hospitality industry is considered as the broad category of different
domains which includes the lodging and food and drink service. It is a service industry which
also provides accommodation, event conducting and theme parks along with travel and tourism.
Moreover, hotels and tourism agencies along with the restaurants and bars are included in the
hospitality industry (Ali, Park, Kwon and Chae, 2019). Organisation chosen is the
intercontinental London hotel established in Park Lane, United kingdom. The following
discussion is based on the types of business along with the products and services offered by the
hospitality industry. Discussions are also made on the contribution of the hospitality industry to
local, national and international economics. Range of operational and functional departments
along with the interrelationships are also discussed. Discussion on the use of franchising and
licensing agreements contributed to the hospitality industry is also made. Range of different
operational roles within the hospitality industry along with the skills required and skills gaps are
also covered in the report. Impact of skilled shortages on hospitality business and its solutions
are also mentioned in the report with conclusion.
Types of business within the hospitality industry and the diverse products and
services that they offer
There are basically four types of businesses within the hospitality industry which provide the
diverse range of products and services. They consist of a large product and services portfolio
which are offered to the customers.
 Food and beverage business is one of the types which are one of the largest segments of
the hospitality industry. According to the research it is estimated that it provides 50% of
all the meals eaten in the US nowadays. It contains the different development majorly
engaged in the snacks and beverages along with the preparation of meals and immediate
consumption in or out of the premises. Restaurant is one of the powers of the hotel which
provides the services that improves the experience of the guest in order to provide the
excellent food and top class servicing to the customers. It is also considered to function as
other parts of the businesses for example in the bowling alleys or any movie theatres.
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 Travel and tourism is another type of business in the hospitality industry. This type of a
business deals with the services which are associated with moving people from one place
to another. It involves the buses and cars along with the planes and ships, trains and many
more. All these are part of the travel industry. Leisure travel is one in which an individual
spends their money on accommodation and food and creation. The motive of travelling
and tourism of the people is to take a vacation trip for a business traveler where people
move for work or for entertainment. Travel and tourism has a major function that
encourages people to travel because when an individual travels they spend money on
hospitality which is the income for the business (Filimonau and Brown, 2018).
 Lodging is also one of the types of business in the hospitality industry. Lodging is
defined as the accommodation for the people at a particular place in order to spend nights
and days for a specific period of time. It includes the fancy hotels and youth hotels along
with the elder and campgrounds. Motels and other businesses which provide the place for
an individual to sleep and spend the days and nights are involved in the lodging industry.
This type of business is responsible for marketing the other segments of markets. For
example, the business travelers and nature travelers along with the long stay travelers and
budget travelers. Moreover, special travelers such as people who are working with the
government, airlines and military are also promoted because of the lodging business.
 Recreation is also another type of business in the hospitality industry. Recreation is
defined as the activity which an individual performance for the rest and relaxation is
along with the enjoyment and any entertainment. The motive of this type of business is to
refresh a person's body and mental state so that they can gain peace from routine life.
Entertainment businesses are also included in the recreation type of business in the
hospitality industry. This renders the services for entertainment of the people for example
movie or theatre. Moreover different places which are the attraction of special interest
such as museums and zoos, spectator sports and participatory sports are all the areas and
domains of recreation business (Baum, 2019).
Contribution of the hospitality industry to local, national and international
economies
Hospitality industry has contributed to the local, national and international economics in
different ways.
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 The Hospitality industry creates employment which is considered as one of the biggest
contributions to the economy of the country. This is because it creates and hosts new
jobs. It supports the country in providing direct opportunities. For example vacancies in
tour guides and tour planners along with the operators and travel consultants. Moreover,
there are different vacancies in hotels and restaurants along with the resorts. Major
domain vacancies include the human resource and finance department along with the
marketing and many more departments. Furthermore, employment in different other
related industries such as Cruise industry, airlines, event management, amusement parks
and many more (Horng, Liu, Chou and Hu, 2018).
 The hospitality industry helps the economy in generating income in a variety of ways
which also increases the national income and gross domestic product of the country. This
is because there are various travelers and tourists who invest a lot of money in their
business roles and also for enjoyment as well. This helps in the growth of the industry in
terms of any accommodation and food and beverages and so on. Tourists also spend
money on transportation and clothes which also supports global trade.
 Hospitality industry contributes to the benefit of foreign direct investment in different
countries. This also preserves the traditional industries like handicrafts and the culture of
a nation.
 The Hospitality industry has contributed in the development of diversification in different
backgrounds of the people. Lucrative industries such as farming and mining along with
the manufacturing are all dependent on the hospitality sector for diversification and
reduction of risk.
 One of the most important contributions of the hospitality industry is the building of the
attractive infrastructure of the nation. This is done so that the tourist can get attracted
towards the place and the business can generate more and more income to accelerate
growth and development of the organization (Ann and Blum, 2020).
Range of operational and functional departments within intercontinental
London hotel restaurant
Intercontinental London has different ranges of operational departments.
 The Housekeeping department is one of the operational departments which directly
impact the experience of the guest. It involves cleanliness and operation of the guest
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room, restrooms, common areas and any other public area. This department always
makes sure that the Intercontinental London must maintain its high standards
(Kloutsiniotis and Mihail, 2020).
 The Food production and kitchen department is also one of the operational departments.
It is responsible for the real-time preparation of food items. It includes important job
roles such as chef, cook and kitchen Manager. This department makes sure that the
cooking of the food must be in a hygienic environment. It follows the food safety
regulations in a strict and appropriate manner.
 Food and beverage service department is another operational department. It is responsible
for the servicing of the customers to serve them the food and drinks. Job responsibilities
included are the waiters, waitresses and the person as per the needs and requirements of
servicing.
 Front office department is also another operational department. It is responsible to attend
to the guests and welcome them in a friendly and professional manner. Also this
department directs the guest as per their bookings and receives complaints in order to
improve the same (Jones and Comfort, 2020).
Intercontinental London has different ranges of functional departments.
 The Human resource department is one of the functional departments. It is responsible for
hiring and recruitment of the talents within the Intercontinental London. They are
accountable for the talent management and performance appraisal of the employees
working within the restaurant (Kim, Woo, Uysal and Kwon, 2018).
 The Accounting and finance department is also one of the functional departments. It is
responsible for the decision making and budgeting and financial resources. This is
because it helps in the future with the help of financial data so that analysis can be made
in an appropriate manner.
 The Purchase department is another functional department. It is also known as a
procurement department which is responsible for rendering the best quality of raw
materials and equipment. Intercontinental London assesses the competitive prices in
order to operate efficiently and helps in competitive advantages in the marketplace.
 The Marketing department is also another functional department. It is responsible for the
promotion and advertisement of the hotel so that the maximum number of customers can
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attract towards the brand. Intercontinental London uses the traditional as well as the
online form of marketing to better reach the target customers and maximize their sales
and revenues (Gupta, 2019).
Interrelationships of the operational and functional units within
intercontinental London hotel restaurant
There are interrelationships between operational and functional units within an
intercontinental London hotel restaurant.
 For example, it is important to hire talented employees for the Intercontinental London. It
is the responsibility of the human resource department so that they can manage the
operational departments.
 Without the marketing department, customers will not be able to attract and hence
operational departments working will get disturbed.
 Without budgeting, it is impossible to purchase raw materials and perform other
operations as well.
 If the operations department will work in an appropriate manner then automatically
customers will attract towards the restaurant. This helps the marketing department and
human resource as well. The reason being is that the stakeholders will get impressed by
the working of the Intercontinental London.
 This is how there is a relationship between the operational and functional department of
the Intercontinental London are dependent on each other's working (Hassi, 2019).
How the use of franchising and licensing agreements has influenced and
contributed the global development and economic worth of the hospitality
industry
Franchising and licensing agreements have greatly impacted and contributed the global
development and economic worth of the hospitality industry. This is because it produces greater
revenue and higher margins as compared to the non franchise hotels. Financing is the major
factor to build the hotel. It is important to franchise the brand with good finance so that the future
of franchising is exceptionally bright for both the franchise and the franchisor. All these
formalities required the licensing systems. It is considered to strictly follow the laws and
legislation of licensing the hotel within the hospitality industry. Franchising and licensing is
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highly responsible in the development of the hospitality industry. This is because it provides the
opportunity for better growth to the hotels to expand further not only nationally but also on the
international basis (Menicucci, 2018).
Range of different operational roles within the hospitality industry
There are different ranges of operational roles within the hospitality industry.
 Executives are one of the roles who are the decision makers of the business. It includes
the department heads and managers along with the directors. They are also responsible
for the other department operations such as accounting and marketing and even the front
desk services (Wang and Xie, 2020).
 Front desk services are another role that is in constant contact with the customers and
handling their bookings. These are the detail oriented people who have all the
information about the combination of the customers and guide them accordingly.
 Housekeeping is also one of the roles responsible for the cleanliness of the rooms. It is
possible to maintain the room and have the knowledge about each and every essential of
the room.
 Maintenance is also another role that is responsible for the utilities and electronics within
the hotel. Maintenance of technical devices is important so that customers cannot
complain about it. Maintenance of not only the electronics and Technology but also each
and every area of the hotel.
 Other important roles include the accounting, marketing and sales along with the kitchen
staff and many more as per the needs and requirements of the hotel (Miao, Humphrey and
Qian, 2021).
Skills required for roles within the hospitality industry and current skills
shortages
There are different skills which are required for different roles within the hospitality industry.
 Teamwork is one of the most required skills. This is because the roles within the
Intercontinental London require collaboration among the people because they are
interdependent on each other.
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 Multitasking is another required skill. This is because every day is not the same in
Intercontinental London. Everywhere requires different functions in order to carry out
multiple activities at a time with efficiency.
 Flexibility is also one of the required skills. This is because the Intercontinental London
highly requires the staff to work long and difficult shifts to attend. Therefore, if some
days there are a long shift staff must not be reluctant to do it (Majid, Yasir, Yousaf and
Qudratullah, 2019).
 Attention to detail is also another required skill. This is because it provides excellent
customer service with the relevant information of the customers and other operational
functions within Intercontinental London.
 Industry awareness is also one of the required skills. It includes the hospitality news and
trends in the marketplace on a current basis. This helps in formulating the strategy and
operating within Intercontinental London accordingly.
 Time management is another required skill. It requires us to manage all the activities in a
systematic manner as per the requirement of deadlines.
 Other important skills which are required are the communication skills, interpersonal
skills, problem solving skills and hazard awareness.
There are also current skills shortages within the hospitality industry.
 Such as computer engineers and software developers along with the doctors and other
professionals list are difficult and hardest to find for the Intercontinental London. These
shortages are growing day by day.
 Shortages of chefs and waiters along with the cooks are also faced by the Intercontinental
London (Afsar, Shahjehan and Shah, 2018).
Skills gaps within the hospitality industry in relation to a range of different
operational roles
Skill gaps within the hospitality industry have various causes in terms of labor shortages. There
are different factors involved in the labor shortage and skill gaps.
 Wages are one of the reasons where the laborers and employees are paid less according to
the function they play especially in operational departments. Such as production and
kitchen services (Arasli, Altinay and Arici, 2020).
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 Technology is another reason. It is important to adopt the advanced technology but there
are old employees which are at least familiar with using it. Using new electrical
appliances in kitchen and working with the raw materials requires high technical skills to
use it.
 Generation factors also have a contribution in labor shortages. Example, older employees
do not have the current trends knowledge and skills required to function.
 Other reasons can be the anti-social hours of work and political crisis along with the
women in restaurant openings. Moreover misconceptions and failure in adopting
advanced technology can also be the major reason for labor shortages (Murphy, Torres,
Ingram and Hutchinson, 2018).
Impact that skills gaps have on hospitality businesses and make valid solutions
for addressing these skills gaps
Impact of skills gaps have on hospitality businesses are such that it will negatively affect the
functioning of the business.
 Operational department will get affected as it can shortages in skills can lead to the
reduction in productivity.
 Functional department can suffer the lack in customer and employee retention as well.
There are solutions to address the skill gaps in the hospitality industry.
 Training and development of the employees is one of the most effective solutions to deal
with the current skills shortages. Although, it is a time consuming process it can solve the
large problems within the organization. It is required to have the supervisory and
managerial training programs. This is because creating cultural awareness and a work
environment can be less stressful and friendly in nature (Hole and Snehal, 2019).
 Hiring the students can also give a good solution. This is because it provides flexible
work opportunities and short-term effectiveness to the restaurant.
 It is important for the organization to retain the talented employees. This can be done by
providing flexibility in timings and work. This helps the employees in spending the time
with family and friends who can be expected but they can handle difficult customers and
solve the problems strategically.
 Organization must focus on the acquiring of the skills which are difficult to find in the
marketplace. Such skills are the technical skills along with the customer services skills
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