Charlotte Street Hotel: Hospitality Operations Report Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Charlotte Street Hotel's hospitality operations. It begins by examining the nature of hospitality products and services, specifically focusing on the hotel's offerings, including its rooms, restaurant, and bar. The report then evaluates factors influencing demand, such as management style, available facilities, and seasonality, while also comparing customer profiles and their expectations. A key aspect of the report is the analysis of factors affecting average spending power within the hotel. Furthermore, the report delves into the key stages of product and service development, assessing the features that contribute to customer perception and the opportunities and constraints impacting product development. Different merchandising opportunities are evaluated, along with various pricing methods employed by the hotel. Finally, the report explores the factors influencing revenue generation and profitability, including an evaluation of qualitative and quantitative appraisal techniques. The report uses the Charlotte Street Hotel as a case study to analyze the practical application of hospitality management principles.

Hospitality Operations
Management

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is a wide category of sector within service industry which consist of
event planning, lodging, transportation, theme parks, travelling, cruise line and other areas within
tourism industry. The chosen Charlotte Street Hotel provides an excellent quality hotel operation
management service. Constructed on a cultural of empowerment, the hotel operates all important
functions within the industry such as; housekeeping, front desk, maintenance and food & drinks.
The following report will cover nature of the products offered by this hotel, factors that affect
demand within hospitality operations. Apart from this, it will also demonstrate factors affecting
average spending power, the key stages in product and service development applied within a
hospitality operation. Further, it will cover features which contribute towards the customers’
perception of products and the opportunities and constraints affecting product. Additionally, it
will evaluate different merchandising opportunities, and methods of pricing. Also, it will present
the factors which affect revenue generation and profitability of the hotel along with merits and
demerits of qualitative and quantitative appraisal techniques.
TASK 1 – REPORT
AC1.1: Analyse the nature of hospitality product and service areas
The Charlotte Street Hotel is considered as a luxury 5-star hotel which is situated in
London. Furthermore, it is a type of modern boutique hotel furnished with contemporary art and
a Botero sculpture. Also, it serves Oscar Restaurant and has bar service available along with
British cuisine on the ground floor. The hotel’s bar facility opens onto the local street during
summers. There are 2 open plan & spacious drawing rooms on the ground floor & a screening
room with 67 Ferrari leather seats that shows films in the evening. It also provides two meeting
rooms, a fitness room, a library, on the lower ground floor (Xu and Gursoy, 2015).
Here is discussed some basic nature of hospitality services and products discussed as below: Intangible: Intangible service are those services which cannot be touch by customers
which means that they can only feel that service. Core hospitality services of Oscar
Restaurant & Bar is intangible in nature. For example: room services, lounge services etc.
On the other hand, tangible products refer to those which can be feel by touching it.
 Perishable: Perishable services are those services that are not permanent or won't last for
longer. For example, services of allocation of resources to give service in a given time
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period. After that, that service is vanishes when customer receives it. Room amenities of
Oscar Restaurant & Bar contains all 52 individually decorated rooms provided with iPod
docks, free internet, flat screen TVs etc.
AC1.2: Evaluate the different influences affecting patterns of demand within hospitality
operations The management of the hotel: - It has been determined that the style of the management
and structure of the organisations plays a key role in affecting demand for services. When
the management of Charlotte Street is aware of the ethics of the business then there will
be better services (Chathoth, Ungson and Okumus, 2014). Types of facilities available: - The demand within the hospitality industry is also affected
by the nature of the services or facilities that are made available by them. As, Charlotte
has bar facilities then it will experience higher demand than others.
 Seasonality: - It has been discovered that the industry of hotels is characterised by
seasonality that plays a key role in determining customer’s behaviour. Further, seasons
are sub divided as green, low, and high with each related with different demands.
Therefore, it is essential for Charlotte to understand the seasonality of the regions.
There are numerous other factors as well that influence the pattern of demands such as
influence of ethics and economic factors, culture, healthy livings, culture, time of day etc. That
Charlotte Hotel considers as well.
AC1.3: Compare customer profiles and their differing expectations
Hospitality industry is linked with customer satisfaction because the industry creates and
provides guest satisfaction. To understand the expectations of the customers for Charlotte Hotel,
they need to think from customer’s point of view.
 Attention
 Efficient service
 Friendly nature
 Essential courtesies
 To be listened to
Also, the customers get satisfied only when the products offered by the hotel are of good
quality, quantity, price and presentation (Company, Egorova and Vázquez, 2016). The services
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should be on time, efficient, expertise & skilled staff. Additionally, there are basically 4 types of
customers:
Types of customers Spending power Menu Requirements
Backpackers It consists of younger
people and are
considered very price
sensitive customers as
they try to save as
much as possible
(Wagen and
Goonetilleke, 2015).
They prefer fast food
menu.
They require bars,
gym and gaming
services.
Families Families plan their
trips in advance and
this can be a great
chance for the hotel to
offer great value with
not cost. It has been
observed that families
with higher income
spend more.
They prefer to have
both main course and
snacks menu.
They probably plan
trips in advance, so
Charlotte allowing
them to register for
tours & pay directly
with the hotel will be
greatly appreciated.
Seniors They are supposed to
spend less.
They are little health
conscious so prefer
healthy food.
The hotel must
provide pickup
services to seniors.
Business travellers These are less price
sensitive & put more
value on convenience.
They highly prefer
drinks
They need conference
room services.
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AC1.4: Analyse factors affecting average spending power (ASP) in hospitality businesses
For the Charlotte Hotel, numerous products like food & drinks are presented at varied
cost which informs the average spending power of the consumer. The factors that influence ASP
are: Level of income- The income earned by the guests determined their ASP, hence, the
higher the income of target market, the higher the spending. Status: - It has been observed that an individual spends depending upon its status,
therefore, the superior the status will the higher they will pay out. If Charlotte Street hotel
provides gym, this leads to increase in the revenue.
 Economic situation: - People whose earnings are less tending to book rooms when the
season is cold so that they can obtain discount. Thus, economic situation of country
influences the purchasing power of public so as company's customer.
AC2.1: Evaluate the key stages in product and service development applied within a
hospitality operation
The Charlotte Street is developing a new menu for business class people. This is because
their taste and preferences are different.
 Generation of idea: - In this stage, idea of modification or NPD is developed by
restaurant. Identifying the need of the menu or service is confirmed by Charlotte Street
hotel based on the results of market research and requirement of business travellers. Screening process: - It refers to the process that involves the gathering of ideas based on
a related product in the market (Sterman, Oliva and Bendoly, 2015). For example, the
Charlotte can do screening of different hotel's menu to prepare its new one. Evaluation: - It is done when the anticipated profit, financial gain and the prices included
in creation of the hotel and provided that various services are analysed & market research
is a significant feature of it. For example, The Charlotte Street can look to other hotel's
which will assist in evaluation of the new idea. Product development: - This occurs after evaluation of the development product is done,
i.e. when the actual creation of the Charlotte Street hotel's menu begins and the testing of
it happens.
 Commercialisation process: - It refers to the process by Charlotte hotel to promote its
product through advertisements and marketing to the public.
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AC2.2 Analyse the features which contribute towards the customers’ perception of products and
services.
It has been determined that the customer’s sensitivity is affected by various other aspects
like; designing, plan, services and costing. Furthermore, once these features get in touch with the
Charlotte with guests then satisfaction, worth for money, first impression of the hotel, also
interaction with hotel staff and furnishings in the room will be enhanced. Customers always
remember the services that they receive during their stay and all workers whether they perform
in the front end or back end in Charlotte Street, this ensure customer satisfaction at all times.
Moreover, layout, design, prices and service are considered key in the development of the
hospitality industry since it is considered as the first point of guest interact with the hotel and it
holds a permanent impression (Davis, Lockwood and Pantelidis, 2018).
AC2.3 Assess the opportunities and constraints affecting product and/or service development
within a hospitality environment
The chances & limitations that influence the improvement of the product are the
accessibility of assets such as human, finance & physical is considered as a significant part for
the development of a product. Furthermore, it has been determined that for any product to be
introduced, it is vital that there are large opportunities which can be utilised and raise the brand
awareness of the Charlotte Street hotel. This can be done by telling about how food is made out
of organic vegetables & fruits. Apart from this, special support for the senior adults must be
provided by the hotel like a transportable service can draw theses customers. Additionally,
objective resources such as locality of the hotel and its visual beauty and the area surrounding it
can be a central opportunity for Charlotte Hotel (Shukla, 2018).
AC2.4: Evaluate different merchandising opportunities for hospitality products and services.
Merchandising term is considered as a practice or process of displaying & selling
products to consumers. It has been observed that many opportunities of merchandising is
available for the hotel like intensifying the share in the market to its consumers. However, the
hotel should make sure to maintain a brand faithfulness within its buyers and steady efforts of
enhancing it. It can also open an in-store shop of various accessories such that it can contribute in
revenue. Moreover, it can also improve the reputation & interior of its restaurants, bar and gym
in order to advance its merchandising possibilities. According to the existing economic
condition, the number of business travellers have also raised so by providing characteristics such
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as high internet speed, outstanding phone connectivity by the side of business centres with
conference halls and meeting in the hotel as this can lead to merchandising opportunity (Hjalager
and Madsen, 2018).
TASK 2: QUESTIONNAIRE
AC3.1 Evaluate different methods of pricing considering additional pricing considerations
a) In Charlotte Street Hotel, there are mainly three methods of pricing taken into
consideration:
 Cost oriented pricing: - It is a type of approaches in which some amount of expected
profit margin is contributed to the cost of the product to acquire the final price. The
Charlotte Street hotel takes this pricing method into consideration because it involves
simple calculations.
 Market oriented pricing: - It is also known as competition-based pricing strategy in
which the hotel considers the price based on the product of the competitors. The hotel
set its products price lower than its competitors and attract customers through it. This
method is used because it avoids price competition that can harm the hotel.
b) If any of the methods above is not applicable, you must explain the reason why not.
 Service Charge: - This method is not used by this hotel as they do not provide delivery
fee charges for room service or gratuity. This is because they want to serve the best at
affordable prices.
 Minimum Charge: - Minimum charge fee is applied by various hotels on items in the
mini-bar. But Charlotte does not use this method as it is sometimes annoying for
customers (Shcherbakov and Larsson, 2016 ).
 Cover Charge: - A cover charge refers to an entrance fee that is charge in bars,
nightclubs, or restaurant in the hotel. Charlotte Street Hotel does not this method of
pricing because it does not find it necessary to charge and it is also not mandatory
(Bowie, Buttle and Mariussen, 2016 ).
AC3.2: Assess the factors which affect revenue generation and profitability in hospitality
operations.
Answer of a and b are:
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 Labour Intensity: - As Charlotte Street is a labour-intensive hotel, then any increase
in labour and will have a direct impact on the profit of the hotel.
 Shelf Life: - It is vital for the hotel that to have the shelf life of its products in the
hotel must be high because a shorter period means faster worsening that will
influence revenue of Charlotte Street.
 Elasticity of Demand: - It affects the profit making as the demand in winters is less
for rooms therefore, it is a crucial factor for influencing profitability of Charlotte
Street.
 Portion Control: - It is considered essential for keeping menu items consistent.
 Price: - Changes in inflation rate, leads to changes in cost of labour and so it will
affect the pricing strategy of the hotel which in turn affect the revenue of Charlotte
Street.
 Procurement: - Procurement in a hotel play a very important role in profitability
performance of the hotel. This relates to the purchasing of goods and services for
hotel. This affects revenue as it involves responsibilities such as contract negotiation,
payment terms etc.
TASK 3: INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH
AC4.1 Apply a range of performance measures and appraisal techniques to individual
aspects of hospitality operations, the product and the whole operation.
A process of gathering, analysing and reporting data about the performance of employees
is known as performance measure. It has been observed that there is one way of measuring
performances is that conducting surveys among customers who have already stayed and received
services at the hotel and providing them with feedback forms. This is because it will allow
judging the various features of the hotel such as room, stay, food, housekeeping, reception area,
gym, bar etc. Moreover, a self-assessment sheet is also been provided where they fill in the
details about their thoughts and informs areas of betterment. Further, according to that directions
are build to offer solutions to deal with difficult problems. Therefore, measuring performance
employees on timely basis can be assessed weekly. They also create usage of approaches known
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as the 360-degree feedback that can be utilised which to provide a feedback to the other
members and includes a self-assessment.
This method involves a wide employee contribution which enhances the interaction
among staff members and makes it efficient in attaining the objectives of the hotel. If the surveys
taken by the customer and the workers that are graphic rating scale, narrative easy, and
management by the objective scale. Hence, these scales are been utilised by hotel for the basis on
which appraisals are done. Financial measurement is performed by the investigation of financial
ratios & their analyis by finding the figures from balance sheet, profit and loss statements and
cash flow (Pine, Zhang and Rich, 2016).
Quality in hotel industry means constant transfer of products or services based on the
anticipated needs. Further, delivery quality services in Charlotte hotel is considered as the
biggest challenge that hotels are facing in recent years. Moreover, the survey stated that the
hotel always has a space for more betterment of the services. Other outcomes of the research
discovered that the major factors for Charlotte's future are customer contentment, guest holding
and word of mouth advertising.
Excellent customer service is considered as very important aspect in the hospitality
industry. Moreover, it is the first point of interaction, the hotel guest and the agent of the hotel. It
is the first opportunity that the hotel uses to impress & create a permanent great impression.
Often it happens that Charlotte hotel does not monitor sales effectiveness when things
are going well. Most of the hotels track their sales performance. Therefore, regular tracking of
sales is necessary to maintain accuracy.
Under this, various techniques of qualitative data are applied by hotel. It included;
weighted checklist method in which employees gets familiar with the jobs and a big list of
descriptive statement is created to see effectiveness of employees. Moreover, a 360-degree
employee evaluation technique is also applied by using feedback from a worker’s subordinates.
Big data is referred to a set of unstructured data from digital as well as traditional
sources inside and outside the organisation, and that represents a source for in progress
analysis. The hotel uses this analysis to enhance its operation, strategies and occupancy rates.
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AC4.2 Usefulness and limitations of the various quantitative and qualitative appraisal
techniques
Quantitative method is the technique that uses numbers for interpreting data. Further, it
has been observed that this tool is utilised to investigate a large group of people. Qualitative data
is used through interview, focus group & questionnaires but the constraint is that it’s typically
costlier and at the same time, cannot be implemented to a bigger part of the people. Moreover,
360-degree feedback is considered as an assessment technique which enables the Charlotte Street
hotel with two-way interaction between the workers and the manager. It allows the hotel to
estimate the interaction level between them. Also, the kind of collaboration they demonstrate to
other employees according to which it can assess the workers. Apart from this, the process of
receiving feedback from unknown generation may not be a very valid form of feedback of
appraisal for many. However, 360 degree is considered as the very ordinary feedback system
which is utilised in hotel, also it is considered as not a good idea to use it often as it is difficult to
build confidence within employees on feedback that is performed in anonymous way
(Mahadevan, 2015).
Qualitative appraisal refers to process of evaluating performances of employees in the
Charlotte Street hotel and is done by various methods of qualitative evaluation. One of the
methods is checklist. Conducting the inspection of the hotel site is an essential part of any event.
To do this, room inspection checklist is used by housekeeping supervisor in Charlotte hotel. It is
useful as it helps in identifying problems while monitoring the entire services and products.
Limitations of using checklist are; staff may struggle with a large set of items on a checklist and
might need other tools in order to assist them focus on what they need to do, and also organising
it can be time consuming process (Hospitality – Hotel Operations Management, 2018).
AC4.3 Approaches to business analysis, evaluation and planning appropriate to hospitality
operations, making proposals for action
Business analysis is referring to practice of allowing change in an organisation. It is a
kind of research discipline of finding needs of the business & determining solutions to business
problems. Further, when it comes to discussing about the performance of the Charlotte Street
hotel, there are few words that are highlighted through this such as; competitive advantage,
business survival and globalisation. Moreover, all these three features in hotel industry point out
in one direction i.e. raise in the level of competition is faced by all hotels. A business evaluation
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refers to an analysis or review of the whole business and which is conducted to find out the entire
operations of the business before it is sold by the owner. Further, it may also cover the internal
functioning of the business. Moreover, it has been determined that the planning is done by
owners to start a business. Business planning is considered vital as it provides a road map for
wherever the proprietor wants take its business. Further, a business analyst analysis data of hotel
and then demonstrate strategies and forecasts which assist the Charlotte Street Hotel to keep
ahead of competition (Pearcey, Bradbury-Squires and Button, 2015).
CONCLUSION
The overall report demonstrated that hospitality products/services are inseparable,
perishable, tangible/intangible in nature. Apart from this, it also concluded the different factors
that affect patterns of demand within hotel operations. Further, it is evaluated factors affecting
average spending power in hotel business and characteristics that contribute towards customer’s
perception to the product or service. Moreover, a company can apply a range of performance
measures and appraisal techniques to individual aspects of hospitality operations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Company, R., Egorova, V. and Vázquez, C., 2016. Finite difference methods for pricing
American put option with rationality parameter: Numerical analysis and
computing. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 304. pp.1-17.
Davis, B., Lockwood, A. and Pantelidis, I.S., 2018. Food and beverage management. Routledge.
Hjalager, A. M. and Madsen, E. L., 2018. Business Model Innovation in Tourism: Opportunities
and Challenges. The SAGE Handbook of Tourism Management, pp.373.
LePine, M. A., Zhang, Y., and Rich, B. L., 2016. Turning their pain to gain: Charismatic leader
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Mahadevan, B., 2015. Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education India.
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muscle soreness and recovery of dynamic performance measures. Journal of athletic
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Shcherbakov, V. and Larsson, E., 2016. Radial basis function partition of unity methods for
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Shukla, Y., 2018. Emerging Opportunities In Inventory Control In Hotel Industries. Journal of
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Online
Hospitality – Hotel Operations Management. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.centennialcollege.ca/programs-courses/full-time/hospitality-hotel-
operations-management/>.
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