A Report on Business Skills and Personal Development in Hotel Industry

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the essential business skills required for success in the international hotel industry. It begins with an introduction that defines key skills such as customer service, communication, and flexibility. The main body includes a detailed SWOT analysis of an individual's current academic and employability skills, highlighting strengths like theoretical knowledge and IT skills, as well as weaknesses such as interpersonal skills and multitasking abilities. Opportunities for career development and potential threats are also identified. The report then presents a personal development plan, outlining specific skills to be improved, activities to undertake, and resources needed. Finally, the report addresses risks within the hotel industry, such as data protection and health and safety, concluding with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for professional development in the hospitality sector.

BUSINESS SKILLS FOR
INTERNATIONAL HOTEL
INDUSTRY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
SWOT analysis for current academic and employability skills...................................................1
Personal Development Plan.........................................................................................................3
Risk to be considered at Hotel industry.......................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business skills in Hotel industry refers to all the required elements and quality in an
individual in order to pursue his career in the hospitality industry. Hospitality industry falls under
service sector organization that involves providing leisure services in relation to the food,
accommodation and other amenities for the travellers. In order to work and establish career in
Hospitality sector, one must posses all those necessary skills that fulfil the requirement of
particular job. These skills may include different components such as- Customer service, as it is
the important element in Hotel, networking, communication skills as the vital requirement in
service industry, Flexibility in working with the shifts, multitasking skills to perform different
tasks at a time, Language skills, cultural awareness and other technical and mathematical skills
etc. All these skills posses the basic requirement criteria for career at luxury Hotel. This report
will highlight the Strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats being identified in his personal
skills along with comparing them for the requirement of Hotel. The report will include a personal
development plan for an individual to match the skills requirement at luxury Hotel. This report
will also include the legal legislative risks being considered by managers and employees at Hotel
such as- data protection, health and safety, food hygiene, licensing, key provisions within Hotel
Proprietors Act 1956.
MAIN BODY
SWOT analysis for current academic and employability skills
The following SWOT analysis an individual strengths in which he is capable and posses
some good skills that are required while working in the Hotel, weaknesses that he needs to polish
and the areas which he lacks, opportunities where he can improve and develop himself a better
skill person, threats which could be harmful and create difficulties in his career in Hotel industry.
Strengths Weaknesses
 Theoretical knowledge in relation to the
Hospitality studies and the functional
areas in a Hotel(Silva and et.al., 2019).
 Knowledge in operations including the
basic understanding in concepts of
accounting, human resource
 Lack of interpersonal skills that is
managing the stress situations and
handling the pressure related situations
in work. This due to lack of work
experience. The individual has the
hesitation from being patient and
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management, cost control etc.
 Financial management and analysis,
able to read and evaluate financial
reports of the company, revenue
management and other financial
activities.
 Better technical and IT skills and the
knowledge related to the software and
computer operations in financial
management and other activities.
 Communication skills and the way of
interacting with the people and
influencing them to understand the
personal point of view and agree on
it(Hertzman and et.al., 2015).
 Better and deep knowledge in
management theory subject including
the basic steps for management in
Hotel, overview for the Hotel industry
and the requirements of skills while
working in Hotel industry.
making decisions in the complicated
situations or being calm to listen the
things carefully although they are
against their integrity.
 Lack of Leadership skills and ability to
lead the people through directions and
influencing them to work along. The
individual is not able to lead people in
his directions or influence them to
work along as per his instructions and
this is due to lack of experience and
practical knowledge of managing the
people within the organization.
 Lack of flexibility and multitasking
ability. The individual is unable to
work in different shifts and timings
which is also an important activity in
Hotel industry as to work along with
different timings and be flexible to
work. Next is that the individual is not
able to perform different tasks at a time
as again due to lack of experience and
practical work performed.
Opportunities Threats
 The individual has better opportunity in
developing career in Hotel industry as
he consists better communication and
interaction skills. Hospitality industry
provides services which is intangible
and can be seen only when the
customer is satisfied with the staff
 Due to lack of interpersonal skills and
patience during problems will create a
lot more difficulties and threats during
the critical situation. Hotel is the place
where there are lot of critical
circumstances and changing nature of
the guest which turns out to be
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behaviour and interactions as well as
his service, so the individual has chance
to opt for this opportunity using his
strengths of communication and
interaction.
 Better opportunity for establishing and
qualify for admin job as the individual
has good IT and technical skills and
good hands at operating computer
software, which is the initial
requirement at Front desk or Back
office job to record the data and analyse
them accordingly.
 Opportunity in the financial department
at Hotel as mentioned above the
financial management and analysis is
one of the strengths of the individual.
 Better opportunity for career in Hotel
management as the individual has
better theoretical knowledge on
management and practice at Hotel,
which could be easy for him to
transform he academic theory into
practical activities and tasks at the
Hotel.
responsibility for the staff to handle
those situations and have the patience
even if the situation is against their
ethics and integrity so lack of patience
and stress management will turn to be
threat during these
situations(Adeyinka-Ojo, , 2018).
 Threat of performing more than one
task at a time. This is due to lack of
multitasking ability by the individual as
discussed in the weakness portion.
Hotel is the place where there are lot
more activities to be performed at a
time as such serving the guests,
managing the communication between
the staff, ensuring that guest is satisfied
with the service as well as addressing
their problems and handling the critical
situations. Lack of multitasking ability
by individual will make him unable to
work with these kinds of situations and
activities.
Personal Development Plan
From the above SWOT analysis there are various strengths and weaknesses are been
identified from an individual and on the basis of these weaknesses identified, the personal
development plan is being prepared and which shows the skills of individual that needs to be
developed and what all activities are to be performed by him to develop that specific skill. It also
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includes the priority of the skills to be developed and the time duration for the activities to be
performed to improve particular skill. It will also include the evidence for the completion and
improvement from different persons to make sure that the activities were effective and
improvement is made.
Developmen
t of skill
Priority Activities undertaken Resources Duration Evidence of
completion
Multitasking
skill
High  Making to-do-
list and
mentioning all
the important
activities in it
which will act
as a structure
for conducting
the activities.
 Set a reminder
for all the
activities to be
performed.
 Make the
priorities
among the
important tasks
and try to
perform them
with the small
tasks as this
will improve
the
multitasking
ability(Alhelal
at, 2015).
 Work in time
blocks to
complete the
activities
before the
deadline.
 Avoid the
distractions
and diversion
of attention
while
performing any
Money,
Stationary
and other
equipment.
30 days
practice
required.
360 degree feedback,
review from
colleagues etc.
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specific tasks
and try to add
on more task
during the time
in performance
list.
Flexibility Medium  Make out a
mindset
towards
working with
different
timings as per
the
requirement.
 Read articles
and collect
information
from internet
regarding how
to plan out
things and
adjust the
priorities in
different
timings(Cetin
and et.al.,
2016).
 Observe the
other
departments
and how they
manage the
work in
different shifts
and collect the
information
from the
persons
already
working with
time changes
and shifting.
Computers,
Internet
etc.
20 days Collection of reviews
from Colleagues and
peers.
Leadership
skill
Low  Design the
strength and
weakness
No
resource
other than
90 Days Collection of reviews
from the peers,
classmates and other
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elements in
personal skills
and identify
what elements
will be driving
towards the
improvement
of leadership
quality and
skills.
 Use
communicatio
n skills as a
main weapon
to interact
others and
influence
through the
words which
will help
further in
developing the
leadership
ability and
influencing
others to make
work.
 Learn to work
in a team and
adjust as per
the viewpoints
and
consideration
of the team
members and
try top lead the
team for
specific goal
by motivating
the members.
time of
individual.
people.
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Risk to be considered at Hotel industry
Risk factor are the unexpected circumstances and situations that are been arise at
workplace in Hotel industry. The risk probability is always higher in case of service
organizations and hence the managers and employees must be prepared to overcome these risks.
The following are the factors that managers and employees needs to be considered-
Data protection- Hotels often have complex ownership structure in their organization in
which then company has franchisor, owner or group of owners across different countries. Every
unit may use different computer systems for storing the data and information, and the
information is being passed on across the systems most frequently. This makes the Hackers to
easily access the information and gain information related to corporate networks, customer data
and other financial information related to the Hotel(Moreo and et.al., 2018). In order to avoid
and prevent such malpractices, Hotel staffs and the managers must initiate different preventive
measures to protect the data. This may include encryption of card payment and information
which will block the access of the third party and prevent the data of the customers. Managers
must initiate a continuous training program in cybersecurity for maintaining the well-trained
employee workforce, The managers must ensure the use of cybersecurity measures such as
firewall, network monitoring, traffic filtering and anti-virus software in order to protect the data
stored in the system, create a local backup on cloud for ensuring the preventive step against the
loss of data.
Health and Safety- Hotel industry faces several challenges in improvement of health and
safety of its employees. Most of the risk is for the house keeping department employees as they
have to perform their major work through physical activity and which leads to more risk of
injuries such as slips, trips and falls. However, there are several effective measures and
preventions to avoid such risk and prevent its outcomes as well (Gibbs and Slevitch, 2019). The
managers must strengthen the housekeeping training and guide them regarding the safety
measures to perform their tasks without any risk. The managers must ensure safety standards are
been performed in the Hotel in relation to the staffs at duty and find out different solution for the
problems arised for the safety of the employees. The risk also include for kitchen chefs that are
involved in food preparation and working with fire and electrical appliances. Managers must
conduct a equipment audit and make sure that all the equipment used are safe and suitable for
daily use as well as repair those equipments which may result in hazards for the staffs.
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Food hygiene and safety- Food safety is one of the important measure for the hotel
industry as it is related to the legal compliances and government intervention in it. The Hotel has
to make sure that the customers are consuming the food which is prepared in safe and hygienic
conditions and also ensue that the food prepared contains the fresh ingredients that may not
cause harm to them after consuming it The managers must ensure that various measures must be
undertaken in the Hotel and be applicable for staffs to initiate the food safety and hygiene. One
of the most important measures include personal hygiene. The person preparing the food, adding
the extra ingredients and the person serving it to customer must have proper hand wash and
ensure their personal hygiene before touching the food elements. Next thing is to ensure the
cleaning and disinfection in food preparation areas and make sure that the areas where food
prepared are been cleaned on timely basis(Yumatov and et.al., 2017). They must also monitor
that the food is prepared as per the food safety standards of the hotel industry. The equipments
such as oven, knife, utensils, grinding machines, and juicing machines must be washed properly
and be cleaned regularly for maintaining the food hygiene. They must be timely disinfected to
prevent the bacteria from growing which may further result in food poisoning.
Risk Management- An effective risk management is essential element in Hotel
administration. This component helps the employees and the managers to identify, evaluate,
asses, and avoid or prevent the risk occurring in the Hotel from different sources. Risk may
include number of activities such as financial issues, legal complications, internal accidents, data
breach or loss, and other risks (Lugosi and et.al., 2016). It is necessary for the management of
the Hotel to brief and guide the staffs about the risk occurring and train them for the risk
management activities. They must be provided with the safety measures and manager must
ensure that the various activities such as food preparation are been conducted as per the
established standards of the hospitality industry.
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License: this is one of the most familiar term that is used in business world. Business license is
requires in order to open and operate any business in United Kingdom. This license legitimized
new businesses as legal entities (Luggage and belongings, 2019). License must be obtain before
the commencement of the business. The hospitality industry is highly regulated by various state
and local authorities often requiring complex and detailed licensing. Every hospitality
establishment, from restaurants to hotels and bars needs to be properly licensed before it can start
operating. Then main intention of trade license is to restrict people to control the activities of
business location from starting any kind of business from the resident areas through maintaining
the environment of business as well as locality environment.
The type of license required in hospitality industry are as follows-
Business License
Liquor License
Food Service License
Food handler permit
Employee Identification Number (EIN)
Sign permit
Importance of License are as follows-
It helps to bring protection to the organisation, customers as well as employees. By
having the accurate licence it will make sure that the personal assets of the hotel organisation are
protected in case of a lawsuit as well as providing protection for any damage to the organisation
(Lin and et.al., 2017).
It also helps to keep the private information and it includes all the information right from
the personal information of employee to the financial information of the company.
It will also aid in gaining trust from customers as customers are said to be the most
valuable weapon of the company.
Hotel proprietors Act 1956
The government of UK formulated the Hotel proprietors Act 1956 in order establish the
rights and duties of hotel towards its customers (Luggage and belongings. 2019). The act
contains several rules and regulations that makes the hotels of UK to maintain minimum quality
in the foods, drinks and other accommodations provided to their customers.
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In addition, the act also provides some rules and guidelines for hotels in order to make
them aware about their responsibilities towards any damage loss suffered by hotels at the time
enjoying the hospitality and other accommodation services provided by the hotel.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is summarized regarding the required academic and
employability skills for enhancing the career at Hotel industry by an individual. The report
presented the SWOT analysis for the individual skills which included the strengths and how it
will be converted in the opportunities. It consisted of how the weaknesses turn out to be threat
for the individual during his employability. The report also stated the personality development
plan for the identified weaknesses in the SWOT analysis. The PDP plan consisted of the
activities that could be used to develop the skills and the time duration required to follow the
activities. The report concluded by presenting the various legal risks being occurred at the Hotel.
It included several factors such as data protection, health and safety, food hygiene etc and
included the preventive measure that managers and employees must undertake to avoid the risk
outcomes as well.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Silva and et.al., 2019, March. ICT Skills in Hospitality. In 2nd International Conference on
Tourism Research (p. 321).
Hertzman and et.al., 2015. Career planning strategies and skills of hospitality management
students. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. 14(4). pp.423-443.
Adeyinka-Ojo, S., 2018. A strategic framework for analysing employability skills deficits in
rural hospitality and tourism destinations. Tourism management perspectives. 27. pp.47-
54.
Alhelalat, J.A., 2015. Hospitality and non-hospitality graduate skills between education and
industry. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly. 6(4). p.46.
Cetin and et.al., 2016. Meeting revenue management challenges: Knowledge, skills and
abilities. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 57. pp.132-142.
Moreo and et.al., 2018. What certifications are important in the hospitality industry?. Journal
of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 17(1), pp.121-135.
Yumatov and et.al., 2017. Problem-based learning methods for training staff for tourism and
hospitality clusters. Eurasian Journal of Analytical Chemistry. 12(5b), pp.803-812.
Lin and et.al., 2017. Experiential learning in hospitality education through a service-learning
project. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education. 29(2). pp.71-81.
Lugosi and et.al., 2016. Work (ing) dynamics of migrant networking among Poles employed
in hospitality and food production. The Sociological Review. 64(4). pp.894-911.
Gibbs, L. and Slevitch, L., 2019. Integrating Technical and Emotional Competences in
Hospitality Education. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education. 31(2). pp.99-110.
Online
Luggage and belongings. 2019. [ONLINE] Available through
<https://www.visitbritain.org/business-advice/luggage-and-belongings>
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