Imperial Hotel Management Report: Front Office Issues and Solutions

This report provides an analysis of the management challenges faced by the Imperial Hotel in London. It focuses on the issues encountered by the new manager, Peter Farnsworth, particularly within the front office department. The report identifies key problems such as poor guest services, high employee turnover, lack of coordination, ineffective use of the property management system, and conflicts with other departments. It investigates these issues in detail, exploring their impact on various aspects of the hotel's operations, including housekeeping, conference and banqueting, and reservation systems. Furthermore, the report discusses relevant management theories, including behavioral, human development, and modern management theories, to propose effective solutions. It emphasizes the importance of employee development, conflict resolution, and the strategic use of technology to improve overall performance and customer satisfaction. The report concludes with recommendations for improving front office coordination, utilizing property management systems effectively, and fostering a positive work environment to address the identified issues and enhance the hotel's operational efficiency.

Introduction to Management
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Introduction to Management
Executive summary
This report will examine the issues faced by the Peter Farnsworth, new manager at Imperial
Hotel, London. Imperial Hotel management is facing major issues like poor guest services,
high rate of employees turn over in the year, poor coordination of the department, poor front
office coordination and poor property management system. This report will discuss about the
issues facing in the front office department reason of the lack of the coordination among the
front office staff and will suggest the ways to solve the issues. This report will discuss the
importance of property management system and significant steps to develop the effective use
of the property management system. This report is based on the problems arising in front of
the manager of the Imperial Hotel. This report will study about the management theories
helpful for the manager to solve the issues of the management and the employees.

Introduction to Management
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Front of house staff issues..........................................................................................................4
Lack of proper coordination...................................................................................................4
Ineffective use of property management system....................................................................4
Conflicts with other department.............................................................................................5
Housekeeping department issues........................................................................................5
Conference and banqueting department.............................................................................5
Reservation and room booking issues....................................................................................5
Hotel service and amenities....................................................................................................6
Issue regarding rude behaviour..............................................................................................6
Billing issues..........................................................................................................................6
Management theories to solve the issues...................................................................................7
Behavioural management theory............................................................................................7
Human development theory................................................................................................7
Behavioural science theory.................................................................................................8
Modern management theory...................................................................................................8
Quantitative method............................................................................................................8
Systematic method..............................................................................................................8
Contingent method..............................................................................................................8
Effects of the management theory..............................................................................................9

Introduction to Management
Neat and professional appearance..........................................................................................9
Problem solving skills............................................................................................................9
Ability to stay calm in pressure............................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

Introduction to Management
Introduction
Human resources are the most important source of providing facilities to the customer; they
represent the hotel at every stage whether it is the entrance to the hotel, food zone or any
service area. Imperial Hotel, London is facing a variety of management problems and Peter
Farnsworth has to work in order to attain high employee performance and high customer
satisfaction. First duty of Peter Farnsworth was to list the major issues he listed five issues.
They are;
 Poor guest satisfaction
 High staff turnover
 Poor working culture
 Front office issues and poor property management system
 Back house staff issues
Front office especially reception is the very first area a guest visits, it needs to be open for 24
hours and the staff available there needs to be active and updated with every situation.
Employee turnover is the serious issue in front of the Peter Farnsworth as hiring new
employees and training them is very time consuming and it also cause the increased expenses
to management (Boella, 2017). As the renovation is also required in the hotel it will also lead
the increase in the expenses and renovation will cause problems in the customer’s services as
well. This study is about to find the methods to reduce the employees turn over, resolve
conflicts among the inner department, resolving issues of the front office reception
department and to manage technology update with managing property management system
(Simón et al., 2016). Front office have coordination with all other departments of the hotel so
any kind of problem arose at the front office may affect other departments as well so handling
the matter relevant to the front office department is the priority for Peter Farnsworth.

Introduction to Management
Front of house staff issues
Issues related to the staff are very important because all activities are driven by them in a
hospitality industry. If the employees are performing poor at the job it will create a negative
impact on the future project of the industry (Manoharan & Singal, 2017). Imperial Hotel at
London has a large staff with highly skilled head of the department but they internally have
conflicts among them. Major problem issues faced by the manager can be listed as
Lack of proper coordination
Imperial Hotel has 8 hours working shift for the front office staff as it is essential to operate
the reception department for 24 hours, here every shift staff have their own supervisor but
they are not in effective coordination about actual number of guest check-in, check-out and
the other relevant information regarding the payment and reservation of the rooms (Brett &
Thompson, 2016). So this lack of coordination results in the great conflicts among them and
put a negative impact of the reception service to the visitors.
Ineffective use of property management system
PMS is a software application used by the hospitality industry to keep the recorded data of
the day to day operation of the hotel. This is a computerised system include record of
bookings, check-in and check-out, point of sale integration, food and beverage coasting,
reporting of key performance indicators, security and room locks and information related to
the hotel inventory supply management. Imperial Hotel facing great turnover of the
employees so it needs a high technical update staffs to update the PMS system properly but
turnover affects the system negatively (Simón et al., 2016).
Conflicts with other department
Hospitality industry is run by the human resources, working in different department with a
great coordination because the key factor behind the success of the hotel industry is the

Introduction to Management
proper coordination among different departments (Folger et al., 2017). Imperial Hotel
manager is in great problem with the complaints regarding the non-cooperative behaviour of
the reception staff with other departments. Issues are like;
Housekeeping department issues
Imperial Hotel manager Peter Farnsworth is in problem with some staffs are in conflicts with
the house-keeping staffs and b they are providing wrong information regarding the check-in
or check-out of the guest. This create great effect on the room cleaning service of the house-
keeping department and sometimes guests have to wait for a long time and this put a wrong
image of the hotel facilities. Manager here needs to find out the reason of the conflict and
approve the coordination among the staff (Awan & Hafiz, 2016).
Conference and banqueting department
Conference and banqueting department is responsible for the organising and managing
activities of the hotel. Imperial Hotel is one of the oldest and prestigious hotel of the London
and it get conference of the VIP meetings of the city. Hence wrong delivery if information
regarding number of guest cause serious issue in the service quality of the Conference and
banqueting staff. This happened due to the improper working behaviour of the reception staff
(Elsemore, 2017).
Reservation and room booking issues
The front desk or reception area is where mostly interaction among the staff and guest take
place. Front office department handle the queries, room allotment and reservation issues.
Reservation is the process of allocating a particular room to the particular person. Sometimes
front office staff, reservation agent or sometimes the guest can make a mistake in the
reservation process. Imperial Hotel is facing this issue because their front office staffs are in
conflicts with the shift staffs (Folger et al., 2017).

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Hotel service and amenities
Reception and front office department is the point of the all queries regarding the facilities
provided by the hotel. Reception is the reflection of the hotel industry guest here consults
their doubt regarding the room availability, food rate and spa or many more facilities.
Imperial Hotel locating in the centre of the city has a number of guest and the queries in front
as well as on calls but staff of Imperial Hotel is not appropriately active towards the
information regarding services and amenities of the hotel hence sometime they fail to answer
on time (Gao et al., 2016).
Issue regarding rude behaviour
Hotel industry is all about treating the guest with humble and polite behaviour whether the
guest is wrong on some point but the hospitality industry train its employees to make the
customer feel that he is right. But in case of the Imperial Hotel lots of complaints were there
regarding the rude behaviour of the reception staff with the guest and this is the most serious
issue in any hotel industry. Hence manager needs to build the values of the organisational
behaviour among the staffs.
Billing issues
At the time of check-out a guest demands the end bill at the front desk office. It includes the
details of the charges charged by the hotel for its services and amenities. Front-desk staffs
need to be updated with the total billing details of the customer. Sometimes they have to
explain the change and taxes of the services. Guest in the Imperial Hotel found huge mistakes
with their billings and they lodged complaints against the front desk of the hotel. Supervisor
knows the improper coordination of the staff was the main reason of such mistakes (Gupta,
2013).

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Hence here the front-office supervisor and the manager both are in a crucial situation of the
management they both have to deal with the all challenges and have to make useful and fast
steps to solve the issues with in a proper time.
Management theories to solve the issues
Peter Farnsworth, new manager at Imperial Hotel is in need to overcome the issues related to
the poor performance of the staff and also with the changing customer expectations, keeping
up with the latest technology, long and irregular working hours and maintenance and
renovations in the hotel (Nieves & and Segarra-Ciprés, 2015). Management theory is the
process of making decisions to develop performance level of the employees, allocation of
resources, and managing the day to day activities (Hayes, 2018). Management theories
suitable for the development of the Imperial Hotel’s Manager are as follows;
Behavioural management theory
This theory is also known as the human relation focusing theory as it primary focus on the
human development circle of the work. Manager using the behavioural theory as
management believes to understand the human behaviour and needs firstly (Jiang & Tahira,
2015). This theory majorly deals with the development of human behaviour, motivation,
reducing conflicts and result in improved productivity.
Human development theory
Hotel industries consider the employees as a group of social entity. This theory deals with the
development of human using the emotional and sensitive support to the employees as money
alone is not sufficient to satisfy the employees need but a positive working environment.
Moral values are developed for training the employees to become social and supportive.

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Behavioural science theory
This theory combines different elements like psychology, anthropology and sociology to
provide scientific base to identify the factors that leads the development of the human in an
organisation. Imperial Hotel is in need to identify the need of the employees and implement
their development in the management.
Modern management theory
Modern management focuses in using the systematic techniques to analysing and
understanding the relation between management and the employees in all phase. This theory
focuses on the satisfaction and happiness with good living standards of the employees. Main
approaches behind this theory are;
Quantitative method
It applies all the efforts in using statistical form and systematic techniques to solve the
complex management problems and major issues in the management. Peter Farnsworth is
facing very serious issues and he have to calculate the risks to the management and benefits
from the modern management theories.
Systematic method
System is a set of components that regularly interact with each other as a whole unit. A
systematic method is goal oriented with specific components where any change affects the
whole system. Peter Farnsworth can use systematic approach to the management of the
employees and to develop them in order to understand the system followed by the
management and to apply the systematic approach of the management in their behaviour
(McEwan et al., 2017).

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Contingent method
The contingent approach of the management deals with the dynamic nature of the
organisational functions, this approach is based on the concept that there is no universal law
or approach to be followed by the organisation but it need to change the management system
according the needs and demands of the employees and the organisation. This is properly
based on the situation and need to change the situation (Panagiotopoulos & Karanikola,
2017).
Modern management systems are very systematic and cover the all issues appearing in the
management system. This will be very helpful for Peter Farnsworth in solving the employee’s
related issues. Here management is affected by the internal and external environment as well.
Effects of the management theory
Using appropriate management theory is essential for the manager to control the currently
occurring in the management of the Imperial Hotel internally as well as the externally. These
theories will lead the manager to achieve a managed and systematic organised staff and the
organised staffs is the biggest strength of the hotel industry. Management theory will help the
Peter Farnsworth in various ways like;
Neat and professional appearance
Manager Peter Farnsworth can lead the front office staff towards good organisational
behaviour by using management development strategies. Front office staff needs to be
presented in the neat and clean professional appearance so it will put a very positive impact
on the guest.

Introduction to Management
Problem solving skills
Manager using management development theory can lead the employees in building problem
solving skills of the staff members. Systematic approach of the management here helps the
manager to identify the potential and skill of b the employees and develop them in proper
order.
Ability to stay calm in pressure
Hotel industry staffs handle pressure in compare to any other industry because here the guest
service is the only motive if the employees hence they deal with great pressure and
sometimes they lose their Patience. Imperial Hotel is facing this problem so the behavioural
management approach will help to develop their organisational behaviour (Sucher & and
Catherine, 2015).
Conclusion
This report concludes the role of a manager in solving the issues in the management. This
report is based on the study of the challenges faced by the Peter Farnsworth in managing the
front office and other staff of Imperial Hotel, London. This report includes the details of the
challenges and the reason behind the issues occurring in the management. This report will
give detailed information about the methods to make the management in the hospitality
industry. Suitable theories for the hotel industry are systematic management theory and the
behavioural management theory. Both theories help the manager in solving the issues and
making the employees organised and detail oriented, able to work in flexible schedule,
improved guest service, effective written and verbal communication, and Computer literacy
about the property management system. Imperial Hotel is facing challenges in poor guest
services, employee’s internal conflict and many more issues related to the goodwill of the
company. This report is focused on the problem relevant to the front office staff performance