Rooms Division Management: A Report on the Lowry Hotel Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the rooms division operations at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester, UK. It begins with an introduction to the hotel, its facilities, and services, including accommodation details and front office offerings. The report then delves into the roles and responsibilities of accommodation and reception staff, highlighting the importance of teamwork and customer satisfaction. It explores legal and statutory requirements relevant to the rooms division, emphasizing guest safety, privacy, and the importance of maintaining high standards of cleanliness and hygiene. Furthermore, the report examines the significance of the front office area in effective management and planning, emphasizing its role in creating a positive first impression, providing quality services, and utilizing property management systems for efficient operations. Operational issues such as overbooking and human resource management are discussed, along with their impact on front office effectiveness. The report concludes with a detailed overview of the importance of the front office, including the role of the hotel receptionist and the impact of operational issues on the effective planning and management of the front office area.

Running Head: HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
ROOMS DIVISION
Name of Student
Name of the University
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Introduction
The Lowry Hotel is a 5-star hotel based in the United Kingdom. Specifically, it is located in
Manchester City on the banks of river Irwell. It is a well-furnished hotel that offers excellent
high-class accommodation services. The hotel has a bed capacity of 165, six suites, and
Charles Forte Presidential suite with is beautifully furnished floor and windows. All the
bedrooms have adequate space with super-king size beds or two single beds which are
beautifully covered with woolen blankets. The rooms also have bathrooms which are
constructed from Italian porcelain. The Hotel suite located at the Riverside has two entrances,
lounge and a dining hall (Winda, 2016). These can suite families which are in a longer stay
and for entertainment purposes because it can be interconnected to an additional room. The
lightly soaked first floor is reserved for the enjoyment of world-class services like massage,
facial care, and beauty therapy. The Lowry hotel is one of the scenic places in Manchester. It
gives a unique appearance from the fact that it is located at the riverside (Nagai,
Benckendorff & Kaczynski, 2018). You will certainly find a real meeting point away from
noise disturbance. With its intimate and quiet environment, it is suitable for meetings and
networking.
Accommodation and front office services for different organizations
Accommodation department is one of the most important areas in an organization that deals
room divisions. The front office is a department that also ‘markets' the rooms and hand it
over to the guest. More specifically, the front office is responsible for developing and
maintenance of up to date record on guest information, guest services and ensuring that
guests are satisfied with the kind of services offered in the hotel (Morris & Kazi, 2014). The
front office is headed by a front office manager whose responsibilities are mainly to
supervise, hire, and train employees. He is also responsible for the preparation of a budget,

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monitoring, and evaluation of employees and to ensure that all complaints are attended to.
Basically, front office and accommodation department and other departments should work
towards a common goal- to ensure the customers are satisfied. Reservation of hotel
accommodation is an important undertaking of any front office department in the hotel
industry (Kruger, van der Merwe, Saayman & Slabbert, 2017). A guest may contact a hotel
receptionist enquiring about the availability of room; thus the potential guest will have the
opportunity to listen to the front office receptionist explaining the types of rooms available.
This will enable the guest to make a choice on whether to visit the hotel or not. There are
many reservation systems that may be used in different hotel industries such as Whitney
system, central reservation system, bedroom journal among others (Santos, Veiga & Águas,
2016).
Analysis of the roles and responsibilities of accommodation and reception services staffs
Accommodation and reception services staffs play a crucial role in the entire management of
the hotel. They are the first line of people that the customers will always come across. In
ensuring that the guests are fully satisfied, these staffs must cooperate and work in a team.
Some of the leading staff in this department includes
i) Accommodation or front office manager
This is the boss of the department and he or she has a range of responsibilities that revolve
around the comfort of the guest. Some of the roles include coordinating all the operations of
the department (Feng, 2017). He or She is responsible for ensuring that the rooms are kept
clean as he supervises the workload during shifts. Generally, he is responsible for attending to
the guests' needs and allowing a favorable environment where guests can easily launch their
complaints and seek clarification. Finally, the manager is responsible for updating group
information besides relaying this information to the relevant officers.

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ii) Hotel receptionist
The hotel receptionist is responsible for providing efficient and unique services to many
people within and outside the hotel (Lazarovich, 2014). This individual is expected to have
the highest level of interpersonal skills and characteristics that will leave a guest with
appreciation and praises. Generally, the receptionist will be responsible for the welcoming of
guests, extending warm recognition to very important customers, providing an accurate and
efficient check in and check out of guests, helping customers during their stay with queries
and concerns. Generally, a hotel receptionist would always assist the front office manager
with smooth running of front office operations. Since, this is the first person that any guest
will always interact with, besides he or she is responsible for answering calls either from
partners or guests.
Discussion of legal and statutory requirements that are concerned with rooms
divisions in Lowry Hotel
The main roles of the accommodation department in hotels and other hospitality
organizations are connected to the sales of the rooms at the organization. The department
will ensure that the guests that visit the facility will be well-taken care and leave the
facility a satisfied lot. The following procedures and roles are prescribed by the room
division management within the hospitality industry by the relevant officers and the
stakeholders:
 The guest must be greeted warmly on arrival. After the rooms have been
allocated, the bellmen would carry the customer’s luggage along with helping the
customer to the room.
 Front office operator would be responsible for the client's related formal
procedures as well as taking care of their accounts.

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 In big hotels like the Lowry hotel, front office operators help guests with
entertainment, sports, music, and games functionalities.
The room division department ensures that the front office employees always observe the
rules and regulations concerning ethics and professional conducts. The guests must be
governed by the rules and policies of the hotel that were enacted when the hotel was formed
or those rules that are in conformity with the guidelines of fundamental ethics of hotel
industry. There are certain facts that underlie the principle of operation of room division
department in the hotel industry (Ivanov, Stoilova & Illum, 2014). The first thing that the
department is responsible to do is to ensure the safety of the guests residing in the hotel. The
safety and the well-being of the clients are fundamental to the growth and the public relations
of the hotel. It is also important that hotel management should take care of the privacy of the
customers. Protection of personal information of the clients who reside within the hotel is
fundamental. The information must be guarded against leaking to outsiders at all means. The
Lowry Hotel management ensures that its customers are given the utmost protection of its
guests' information. To make this a success, all the employees of Lowry Hotel are well
informed about the consequences of the breach of disclosure of information about the
customers.
It is important to note that the security of the guests is enhanced by always ensuring that the
doors and windows are safely lockable. Talking about enhanced security of the Lowry Hotel,
there are installed functional CCTV cameras that are used to monitor the activities within the
hotel. Finally, the rooms in the hotel are supposed to be kept as clean as possible and the
hygiene of the environment should be upheld at all times.

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Importance of the role of front office area to effective management and planning
The importance of the front office area of Lowry Hotel is described below:
The design of the front office area gives the first impression of the hotel to the customer. The
customer would be able to judge even before entering the hotel or getting served by the
waiters. It gives the hotel facial expression (Cassidy & Guilding, 2010). It can be noted that a
well-planned, clean and attractive front area will always be attractive customers.
 For any hotel organization, the quality of services offered is extremely important to
the customers and will usually give an overall quality of services that the customer
should expect within while he or she stays in the hotel.
 Every customer wishes to experience the best services from the hotel, therefore, it is
important to incorporate other services that would go together with other important
features to ensure that the customers get inclusive and high-level services they
deserve as well as value for their money ("Hotel Meeting Rooms and Floor Plans:
Alphabetical by Hotel", 2014). Additional services such as booking of the cabs, travel
bookings, handling of queries would make the customer services be better.
The important aspects of front office planning and management include property
management systems. Many functions of a hotel such as human resource management, tour
guides, finance and infrastructure administration can be easily managed by online systems by
the assistance of IT systems. Front office area can also adopt a point of sale management.
Front office management of Lowry Hotel is organized in such a way that some of the front
office operations are properly automated to enhance and speed up the service delivery to
customers. Reservations and room management in Lowry can also be done through
automated systems hence there is efficiency and improved quality services ("Boston hotel
uses air purification to ‘prep’ rooms", 2010). Management of guest account is another critical
responsibility of the front office area in Lowry Hotel. Since the hotel receives very important

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guests, the hotel management must ensure that their accounts are carefully managed and the
confidential information is properly guarded.
Since the guests are at the heart of the management of the Lowry Hotel, their security is
always one of the topmost considerations and must always begin at the front office area. The
guests must be safe and their belongings must be secured as long as they stay in the hotel. At
the front end of the hotel, the manager is also responsible for allocation of duties and
responsibilities to workers who will then carry out these responsibilities to the expectation
and ensure that the guests are satisfied with the kind of services offered (Fawzy, 2010). The
hotel receptionist is responsible for providing efficient and unique services to many people
within and outside the hotel. Generally, the receptionist will be responsible for the welcoming
of guests, extending warm recognition to very important customers, providing an accurate
and efficient check in and check out of guests, helping customers during their stay with
queries and concerns. Generally, a hotel receptionist would always assist the front office
manager with the smooth running of front office operations (Sani, 2016). Since, this is the
first person that any guest will always interact with, besides he or she is responsible for
answering calls either from partners or guests.
Important operational issues that will affect the effective planning and management
of front office area for operations of a given hospitality
The operational issues that are connected to the front office area are as explained under:
 Overbooking: This involves booking excessively and beyond the capacity of a
hotel. This problem can lead to serious dissatisfaction of customers because it will
mean the excess customers must be refunded their money and look for alternative
accommodation in other places. The use of efficient demand and supply tools can
be deployed to deal with this problem.

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Inadequate human resource: Hotel industry is one of the industries which may have dynamics
in terms of labor required to carry out duties effectively (Dornier & Selmi, 2018). This is
because during festive seasons there are more visitors who may wish to visit the hotel such as
those in vacations (Barnett, 2013). With the increased number of visitors, there is a need for
increased human resource or labor to cope with the increased number of visitors. It is evident
that during peak seasons, Lowry Hotel receives more guests to an extent there is even a need
for more workers to help in the day-to-day operations.
Power shortages: In many industries, there may be disruption of electricity or water supplies.
If this takes place, the industry suffers a great loss since some operations that use electricity
or water must stop (Hassan, 2018). It may also lead to increased expenditure since the
management must look for an alternative means. For example, if it is electricity, there must
be a standby generator set to supply power.
 Containment of the cost: Every hotel and tourism industry is faced with a
challenge of containing the overhead cost and running costs. The stakeholders
must always strive to ensure that the costs are at a favorable level and at the same
time consider the satisfaction of customers.
The importance of property interiors and design, cleaning, maintenance, and security to
effective management
Besides the services offered at the front office area, interior design plays an important role in
raising the confidence level as well as attracting guests. Beautiful interior design will always
raise the preference of customers (Gumaste, Bhagwat & Thakkar, 2015). A close look at the
interior design of Lowry Manchester Hotel, the inside of all the rooms is given a beautiful
finish that makes the customers feel high as they enjoy their stay. The interior design of a
hotel should be complementing the architecture of the hotel. The Lowry Manchester hotel can
be noticed to be having a modern interior and the exterior furnishing corresponds to what is

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inside. To ensure that the hotel's architecture and design is maintained, the hotel staff should
ensure that;
 Cleanliness is maintained at all times and keeping all the other infrastructures
operational and clean ready for a day’s work. For example, air conditioners should be
kept operational all the times.
Customer satisfaction is one thing that every hotel management is concerned about. This can
only be proved when a customer repeats visiting the hotel. To achieve customer satisfaction,
the hotel staff must be up to the task to ensure that they excellently do their work (Purnomo
& Kurniawan, 2019). This is one of the main objectives of the Lowry Manchester hotel; the
management has made it possible through enhancing the working environment for the staff
hence the staff would ensure that the accommodation and other services offered are to the
perfection.
 The outside infrastructure of Lowry Manchester Hotel is painted with beautiful
colors; the presence of a swimming pool which is not hidden makes it possible for the
guests to have a glimpse of what they would meet if they choose to stay in the hotel.
In addition, the landscaping is quite attractive with ample parking space for small and
large vehicles.
Important aspects of planning and management of accommodation services at Lowry
Manchester Hotel
The critical aspects of planning and management of accommodation services at Lowry
Manchester Hotel have one objective to achieve; that is to give the customers quality services
always. These key aspects include:
 Regulations of buildings: The building designs should be made to conform to the
regulations. This will help to win the overall satisfaction of the customer and
consequently, there will be repeat customers to the hotel.

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 Regulations of customers: It is important to handle the customers professionally and
procedurally. Upholding the rights of customers is a crucial aspect that all the staff
must adhere to. Privacy of customers is equally necessary for hotel and that is the
reason why in Lowry Hotel, all the staffs are qualified individuals who understand the
professional ethics and procedures for handling customers.
 Development of data: There should be complete and comprehensive methods of
developing a database for qualitative and quantitative measures of customers. This
software can be used to improve the operation of different departments within the
hotel. It is important to have an operational database for records of the customer as
this will win their confidence.
 Service of the rooms: Ensuring that the rooms are well-serviced is an important aspect
of planning and management because it is the one that really goes to the heart of the
customers. Customers would always to be happy with well-arranged and organized
rooms. The kind of room organization in the Lowry Hotel is quite appealing to the
customers.
 The use of technology: modern technologies have improved the operation of the hotel
in many ways. For instance, communication has become easier through telephoning,
fax, and Emailing. Additionally, computers and printers make the work easier and the
result is a satisfied customer.
Issues of operation that are related to accommodation can are discussed below:
 Physical conditions: The success of any hotel depends on the proper planning of
resources that will see that the correct resources to relevant areas of support.

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 Professionalism, experience, and skills possessed by the staff: If the staff is highly
experienced and professionals, the quality of services offered would be improved
and the customers will be satisfied at the end of their stay.
 Sales and marketing: Marketing and sales form one of the most important aspects
of an organization and especially in the hotel industry; it plays an important role in
improving the general outcome in terms of revenues. Sales and marketing are
done through promotions and branding; all intended to increase the profits.
 Market growth: Considering the competitive activities and the entire positioning
of the market makes any hotel to grow. The hotel management should ensure that
the activities associated with the hotel are those that help the hotel achieve its
goals and satisfy the customers' needs. In Lowry Hotel-Manchester, the
management has ensured that promotional and advertising activities focus on
winning the customers’ hearts and view the hotel as the option for quality services
and satisfaction.
Revenue and yield activities to maximize occupancy and rooms revenue
Revenue is the total of money generated from the sales of all rooms that are present in any
hotel over a specific period of time. The table below shows the type of room, number of beds,
number of rooms available, rooms occupied, and the occupancy in the Lowry Hotel:
Room Type Number of Rooms Number of Beds Rooms Occupied Occupancy
Single Rooms 65 70 50 50
Twin Rooms 62 125 50 104
Double Rooms 70 150 60 103
Total 197 345 160 257
The total revenue can be calculated from the formula below:

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Room rent of type A room * Number of rooms of type A room + Room rent of type B room *
Number of rooms of type B room + Room rent of type C room * Number of rooms of type C
room.
This is the formula applied to calculate total revenues in the Lowry Hotel. It is an accurate
method because, in this hotel, there are different types of rooms available for different classes
of guests. These different rooms have different accommodation costs ("HOTEL news",
2012). It is important to note that the costs vary due to sizes and what is contained in the
rooms.
A complete and comprehensive forecasting method of the availability of total rooms, supply
and demand optimization so as to realize higher profits is called Yield Management.
The different methods of sales techniques used by Lowry Hotel Management to achieve
maximum profits are discussed below:
 Bundling of price: Price bundling is a situation where two or three commodities are
sold with the price that only a single one could cost. In a hotel, it can be put on buffets
and recreational services to improve sales. It also acts as a promotional strategy to
enhance the sales of particular commodities.
 Individually based variable pricing: This is used to judge the individual pricing of
commodities which are charged as per the individual. This enables the management to
know the total revenues arrived at after booking all the rooms.
 Promotional Markdowns: This involves seasonal price levy on commodities and in
our case, accommodation costs. This is done mainly during festive seasons when there
is an influx of guests visiting the hotel. These promotional activities would improve
the profit margin of the hotel because it is one way of attracting and retaining the
customers.

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Selling suggestively: Suggestive selling involves selling products to potential customers in
any hotel where products or offerings are sold to the customers depending on their
requirements including up-selling or cross-selling (Bousri, 2018). This strategy requires a
huge effort by salesmen such as building a relationship with the customers.
The purpose and importance of forecasting and statistical data within the rooms
division
Statistical data can be used applied in many ways in dividing the rooms. The details of this
are explained below:
 Statistics used to calculate occupancy ration is highlighted
 The statistical software that is used in demand forecasting techniques in demand
prediction and delegation of rooms to customers.
 The software has the ability to analyze the trends and times of the year when different
types of rooms are completely occupied.
 Total revenue realized is also calculated plus the construction of similar rooms.
There are also crucial indicators that reveal the performance and indicate the success of
accommodation sales as described below:
 Occupancy percentage: This is revealed when total rooms occupied are divided by the
total rooms available.
For Lowry Hotel, the occupancy percentage 180/125 = 0.84
 The mean daily room rate: If the room rent is recovering the cost, i.e. there is a good
return on investment, the formula below can be used to calculate it:
Average Daily Room rate = Total Rooms Revenue/ Total Rooms sold
 Double occupancy percentage = It is found by dividing the difference of the total
number of guests and the number of rooms occupied by a number of double occupied
rooms.

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For Lowry Hotel, Percentage of Double Occupancy = 260-180/140 = 0.5714
Conclusion
Rooms division and hospitality management are among the crucial aspects of the hospitality
industry. To evaluate the success of any hotel, proper strategies must be laid down and
implemented. The Lowry Hotel in Manchester city is one of the oldest 5-star hotels in
Britain. The aspects of management, regulatory, and legislative requirements with respect to
rooms division have been highlighted in this text. The roles and responsibilities of staff that is
found in the rooms' division department have also been discussed. They include
accommodation and reception staff besides the management staff. The Lowry hotel is one of
the scenic places in Manchester. It gives a unique appearance from the fact that it is located at
the riverside (Nagai, Benckendorff & Kaczynski, 2018). You will certainly find a real
meeting point away from noise disturbance. With its intimate and quiet environment, it is
suitable for meetings and networking. In this report, we have also looked at the front office
area of Lowry Hotel with respect to functions it entails that makes a success. The revenue and
yield strategies have also been discussed in this assignment. The fact is that Lowry hotel has
unique abilities in handling its customers besides being a world-class hotel visited by people
from across the sphere. Its reputation is therefore known all over the world.

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