BA (Hons) International Hotel Management: Aide Memoire for Hotel Staff

This report, designed as an aide memoire for hotel staff, addresses the crucial aspects of cultural awareness and effective guest service for international visitors. It begins by highlighting the importance of understanding diverse customs, behaviors, and cultural differences across various countries, including Switzerland, Colombia, Turkey, South Korea, Russia, Iceland, and Germany. The report then offers a detailed aide memoire, recommending strategies for staff training, needs assessment, monitoring, and reporting to ensure consistent service quality. It provides practical guidelines, including initiating conversations, keeping guests engaged, understanding their cultures, respecting requests, and establishing eye contact. The report also outlines key "Do's and Don'ts" for hotel staff, emphasizing the importance of respecting guest privacy, avoiding discrimination, and fulfilling promises. The report emphasizes that providing excellent service to international guests boosts the hotel's reputation and profitability, urging hospitality businesses to thoroughly train their staff on cultural sensitivity and effective communication.

FOREIGN
LANGUAGES AND
CULTURAL
AWARENESS

Table of Contents
Aide Memoire for hotel staff...........................................................................................................3
Countries and cultural differences, customs and behaviour............................................................3
Do’s and Don’ts” for hotel staff.......................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry includes restaurants, hotels, casino, entertainment and other tourism
related services. It is important for hotels in sure that their human resource is competent enough
to manage domestic as well as international guest (Davidson and Liu, 2020). There are a number
of international countries with differences in their customs, behaviour and culture. It is important
for hotels will be start in such a way that they can efficiently manage all their guests.In the report
there are a number of guidelines provided for staff of the hotel to manage international clients.
There is an aide memoire designed for staff in which specifically management of international
guests is mentioned. Along with-it various countries and different cultural and behavioural
practices in those countries are also mentioned. At last this report talks about do’s and don’ts for
hotel staff in order to provide best services to their guests.
Aide Memoire for hotel staff
Findings Recommendations
1. Strategy- Develop various ways
through which international clients can
be effectively.
2. Needs Assessment- Needs to train
employees
3. Training and Development- Develop a
proper plan to build required skills and
qualities in staff
4. Monitoring- Monitor development of
staff while training
5. Reporting- Report the proceedings of
training to executive level
6. Meeting Commitments- Make sure that
employees are trained well enough to
meet all the requirements of
international clients.
 It is recommended that a proper meeting is
held while discussing on strategies in order
to make sure that views from all the
employees are taken.
 It is important to understand what is the
basic need for development of strategy and
list of them.
 It is important that the training and plan
developed for employees are attended by
all the staff and it is designed specifically
to serve the purpose which is serving
international visitors.
 The supervisors are required to monitor the
training procedure from time to time.
 The reports of development while training
procedure is to be made and forwarded.

7. Food Serving- Develop F&B services
with different cuisines serving
international guests.
This will then be evaluated and required
changes if any necessary are to be made in
it.
 All the commitments which hotel make to
their international visitors are to be
fulfilled. They cannot miss on anything
while serving their international guests.
 Other than this it is important to be well
prepared with food for such guests. There
is a need to hire such chefs who are good in
preparing international cuisines to
specifically serve these clients.
Countries and cultural differences, customs and behaviour
There are a number of countries throughout world who have different cultures, behaviour
and customs. In order to serve guests from all these countries efficiently it is required by
management of hotel to know about cultures followed by all these countries. Below mentioned is
a description of different cultures in some of internationally recognised countries-
Switzerland
Switzerland is known for his honesty (Vogt, 2020). The idealism of society can be seen in small
shops of Switzerland as well. It is often seen that they are loyal and honest and even the small
farmers all shop owners in Switzerland do not harm their customers by selling them anything
that is not fresh. This describes the culture of the country and behaviour of people living there.
Colombia
It is often seen that the people in Columbia are very chilled out. This means that they do not
hyper or create tension even about important things. This usually happens because the attitude in
Columbia is that every think will ultimately work out. This is also a result of overwhelming
kindness in the people of Colombia.
Turkey
Turkey it is often seen that Turkish hospitality is highest when compared to that of other
countries. The people in Turkey our best in hospitality. It is required by world to adopt Turkish

hospitality. It is often seen that hosts of Turkey never leave their guests without treating them
well.
South Korea
It is often seen that people in South Korea do not believe in tipping. It would be a different
experience for staff at hotels of United Kingdom. Tipping is considered as a way of showing
gratitude for service but in South Korea people believe that they are given fair wages and tipping
is a kind of bribe to them (Benchekroun, 2020).
Russia
It is a custom in Russia to welcome their friends with vodka shots. This is even expected from
the older generation in Russia. This can be said to be an icebreaker in Russia. While in some
other countries like India it is considered unethical. Russians do this to start friendship and this
practice of Russians is soon becoming trending worldwide.
Iceland
People in Iceland do spend a lot of money on giving themselves a traditional Christmas Eve
look. The culture of Iceland has been preserved in books and even the beautiful Christmas
custom is not followed everywhere in world. In rest of the world people go out looking their best
on Christmas but when talking about Iceland people prefer to stay simple.
Germany
Germany is known for its efficiency. This small custom of Germany can be even seen on buses
and trains running in the country. There are pedestrians made everywhere and every citizen
knows when to cross the road. The traffic in many countries never stop for pedestrians. This is a
cause for accidents in a number of countries. It is required to be adopted by other countries so
that they can be as organized as Germany and the world could be a safer place.
Do’s and Don’ts” for hotel staff
There are a number of factors which are to be taken care of by the staff of hotel while they
deal with international clients. They need to take care of the fact that all these guests are from a
different set of customs and setting (Bora, 2020). They cannot treat everyone same. It is
important for them to learn their culture and tackle them according to their behaviour. Below
mentioned is a description of various thongs which the staff hotel requires to do and not to do
while dealing with international clients:
Do’s

Initiate conversation: It is required by the staff of Hotel to make sure that the initiate a
conversation with international clients as they visit the premises of hotel. It is obvious that the
languages in which they speak might be different. English can be taken as a basic language to
start conversations with such clients. They do not even understand English then it is duty of hotel
staff who are you someone who understand their language. Whichever way they choose it is
important to engage them in a conversation.
Keep them engaged: It is important that hotel staff take care of the fact that international visitors
are not left idle. Whenever they find them idol they can suggest them is different ways to stay
busy with your hotel premises or in the city. In this way they can help them in getting to know
about your place and learning about new culture as well.
Understand their culture: It is duty of hotel staff to understand and learn different culture and
behaviour of international visitors. It is often seen that there is a number of difference in culture
of both the places. It is important that staff respect different culture and in anyway so not hurt
their beliefs and thinking (Zand-Moghadam and Adeh, 2020).
Taste before serving: The taste of international visitors is often different from local food. The
staff need to take care of the fact that whatever they serve to their clients is tasted before serving.
It is often seen that there are visitors who do not like much spices such aa those from Japan.
Whereas those from Mexico like much spices. These factors are required to be taken care of by
the hotel staff.
Respect their requests: Every request of visitors is the first thing that the staff must fulfil their
need to make sure that they make everything available which is requested by the guest. They
could not fulfil what the guest have requested it is necessary that they politely tell them this and
mention the reason why those requirements could not be fulfilled and ask for apology.
Follow up on guests: It is required by guests to take feedback of guests. Those feedbacks are in
case negative it is important to ask for apology from the guest. It is also required by staff to work
on the points mentioned by the guest.
Establish eye contact: It is always necessary to keep an eye contact with the guest. This will
make them feel important. It is the basic rule of a conversation that full attention should be paid
towards international guest and they should not fee ignored by staff.
Don’ts

Do not disobey: What ever the guests asked for is most important to be followed. At any point
while serving an international client restart of hotel cannot disobey or disrespect the guest. Doing
this will hamper brand image of Hotel in the international market. This will also lead to negative
word of mouth. It is important that guest are provided utmost importance and then any other
factor.
Do not hamper their privacy: It is often seen that a number of guests in a hotel or a very private
with their personal and professional life. While making conversations with guest it is important
that staff understand they do not cross the line or ask too much about their personal lives. Also
while there is stay it is important to keep in mind that they must be provided with all the
necessary privacy they require.
Do not skip training and development sessions: there are a number of training and development
sessions provided by the management of hotel for staff. It is specifically designed to train the
staff on how to treat the guest and clients of hotel (Fernández, 2020). It is necessary by every
staff to attend all these training sessions. Any employee working in organisation could not skip
this session as it will help them develop skills and qualities required to do their job efficiently.
Do not insult guests: while making conversations with guest it is important for staff to keep in
mind that they do not insult the guest of hotels in any way. Due to difference in culture and
believes it is often seen that a guest might get offended by something that you think is normal.
Therefore, while in a conversation with the guest staff should always keep it in back of their
mind to not say anything that is inappropriate.
Do not promise impossible: Although it is important to fulfil all the requests and requirements of
a guest. But it is also necessary for a staff to understand that they must not make a promise to the
client which they cannot fulfil. It is also necessary to make sure that all the promises they make
are in their authority to do. They should not make a promise for which hotel do not give them
authority.
Do not discriminate: It is often seen that even the staff of Hotel discriminate on guests on the
basis of their caste, religion, sex, colour, creed etc. It is a foul practice and staff must have to face
wrath of management if found doing so.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is very important for businesses in
hospitality sector to make sure that their staff is well trained to deal with international clients.
There can be an Aide Memoire created in order to make sure that no mistakes are made by staff
while serving these clients. Such clients hold a great profit for hotels as the reviews they provide
after they attain service will be moving globally throughout the world. There is an Aide Memoire
provided for the staff of hotel which will help them in treating these guests with utmost
efficiency. The report also mentions various different customs and behaviour of people from
different countries. Along with this at the end of this report the do’s and don’ts for the staff of a
hotel is mentioned in order to treat and serve international clients. Following all these steps a
hotel can efficiently train their staff to deal with overseas guests.

REFERENCE
Davidson, R. and Liu, Y., 2020. Reaching the world outside: cultural representation and
perceptions of global citizenship in Japanese elementary school English
textbooks. Language, Culture and Curriculum. 33(1). pp.32-49.
Vogt, K., 2020. Teaching practicums abroad: Increasing the professionalization of preservice
foreign language teachers. In Multicultural Instructional Design: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1490-1527). IGI Global.
Benchekroun, R., 2020. Promoting Cultural Competence in Times of Crisis.
Bora, S.F., 2020. Performative didactics: tapping into learners’ attitudes towards text-and
performance-based approaches in foreign language learning. Innovation in Language
Learning and Teaching. 14(2). pp.150-163.
Zand-Moghadam, A. and Adeh, A., 2020. Investigating Pragmatic Competence, Metapragmatic
Awareness and Speech Act Strategies among Turkmen-Persian Bilingual and Persian
Monolingual EFL Learners: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Journal of Intercultural
Communication Research, pp.1-19.
Fernández, S.S., 2020. Using NSM and “Minimal” Language for Intercultural Learning.
In Studies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural
Communication (pp. 13-32). Springer, Singapore.