Intercontinental Hotels: Accommodation Services Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of accommodation services, exploring various types of accommodation businesses, including commercial and non-commercial entities, and analyzing different forms of ownership. It delves into the roles of front office departments, particularly within Intercontinental Hotels, examining their functions in guest services, reservations, and customer relations. The report also investigates the contributions of the housekeeping department, emphasizing the importance of linen stock forecasting, interdepartmental relationships, and the significance of security and maintenance in ensuring guest satisfaction. The report also discusses the impact of online booking sites and grading systems in the hospitality sector.

MANAGING
ACCOMODATION
SERVICES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Contribution of accommodation sector in industry................................................................1
Various types of accommodation services and difference in between commercial and non-
commercial businesses:..........................................................................................................4
Different forms of ownership applied on accommodation services.......................................5
Grading system and their role play in booking accommodation............................................6
Discussion on what roles does online sites play for their potential customers......................8
The functions of front office in various accommodation provider.........................................8
Analyse the roles that a front office department plays in Intercontinental Hotels.................9
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Key roles which housekeeping department plays in hotels:.................................................10
Forecasting the need of cloth/linen stock required along with other guest supplies in order to
meet demands.......................................................................................................................12
Importance of relationships between housekeeping with other departments.......................12
Critical evaluation of the importance of communication between housekeeping and other
departments...........................................................................................................................13
Importance of scheduling maintenance and repair work to minimise disruption of guests. 13
Importance of security and safety in an organisation...........................................................13
Assessment of roles of maintenance in accommodation services........................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
A service in which management of accommodation services in a proper manner is included is
called accommodation management. Every hospitality sector requires a standard for its
maintenance, hygiene and budget implementation. In order to manage these services
requirements are from public as well as private sectors (Yang., Huang and Shen, 2017). It also
requires development of such conference centres, hotels, ships, hospitals, restaurants etc. This is
major part of tourist industry; it also provides opportunities to a number of other sectors. This
also provides career development and helps positioning in different marketplaces in different part
of world. This provides a comprehensive understanding of accommodation requirements in
hospitality sector. Following report includes discussion on Intercontinental hotels and resorts. It
is a British multinational organisation which has its headquarter in Denham. This group consists
of 5656 hotels all over world in around 100 countries. The report has been classified into two
different parts. First part includes various kinds of accommodation services available in this
industry as well as functions of front office. Whereas, second part includes how housekeeping
department contributes in providing efficient services as well as part of security in
accommodation services.
PART 1
Contribution of accommodation sector in industry
In hospitality industry accommodation service refers to providing place to stay for some
period of time to guests. It includes tourism sector where people travel to places and need a place
to stay at destination.
Facts
Average occupation rate
In order to measure performance in hospitality sector occupancy rate is considered as
prime indicator. In UK occupancy rates generally in LFS, Oxford Economics are improving and
this rate have reached to 67.5 pounds per available room.
.
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Illustration 1: Annual occupancy rate of hotels in the United Kingdom (UK)
Employment tax contribution
In year 2014 employment rate in sector of hospitality was around 2.9 million employment
opportunities which is 8.8% of total employment in UK. From year 2010 this sector have
witnessed a drastic growth in raising employment opportunities and also reducing taxes as
employment kept on rising and rose up to 331000 more in same year (Martin-Fuentes and et. al.,
2018).
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Illustration 2: UK direct hospitality employment – sub-sectors
GDP
The contribution of hospitality sector in Gross Domestic Product of UK have proved that
how important it is for growth as well as development of economy of country. It has a significant
role in economy (Huber, 2017). Every year domestic travel has been contributing around 217
billion of British pounds to economy.
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Illustration 3: Travel and tourism's total contribution to GDP in the United Kingdom (UK)/
Various types of accommodation services and difference in between commercial and non-
commercial businesses:
There are a number of accommodation choices available and it is important to understand
the difference in between various types of accommodation. Some of its types are mentioned
below-
Commercial Businesses
Hostels: Hostels are for wanderers and backpackers who are short of money and who
require an affordable place to stay. In such cases hostels turns out to be best place to stay (Ragab
and Meis, 2016). They are also known as guest house and also of very low costs when compare
to another accommodation services.
Hotels: In hotels private rooms are provided to guests. Along with rooms they also
provide a number of services to their guests in order to make their stay luxurious and develop
loyalty in them. There are a number of range amongst them which varies in terms of budget style
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as well as luxury. They are best for tourists who need accommodation while travelling. They
have facilities of sports, food, bars, swimming pools, wellness area and so on along with.
Bed and Breakfasts: They are small guest houses which generally comprise of not more than 10
rooms. They try to provide good places to stay, warm beds in winters and home cooked meals.
Initiating a bed and breakfast requires just a little start-up money which can be returned after
sometime of opening itself (Celata, Hendrickson and Sanna, 2017) . They have been growing
rapidly because of warm and welcoming atmosphere they provide to their guests.
Motel: Such hotels usually have a demographic target and usually focus on travellers
who are from distant places. They are very similar as hotels but provide less services when
compared to them. They have parking which allow easy come and leave facilities to guests. They
are also less in costs as they only provide stays for night.
Non-commercial Businesses
Rental houses and individually owned units: These are non- profit units’ people pay
rents and then own the houses. They are individually owned by individuals who may also
use it for their commercial businesses and run businesses in them. They also play
accommodation to students as well as residential care facilities for students who stay out
of their houses.
Different forms of ownership applied on accommodation services
Ownership Type Definition Examples
Privately owned hotels Here a single person is owner
with the help of some
investors. This is very
beneficial for person who
owns it as he has autonomy in
decision making and
management.
Example can be Wedgewood
hotel which is situated in
Vancouver. It was founded by
Eleni skalbania who now co-
owns it with her daughter
Elpie (Cvelbar, Grün and
Dolnicar, 2017) .
Leased hotels In this there is an arrangement
of private owners who lease it
out to a corporation then lessee
will be responsible for every
Example can be Love hotel
Leases.
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financial activity. This is a
risky method as revenues are
received a long time after
expenditures.
Managed hotels When property of hotel is
limited and is not working
properly in hospitality field
then it decides to hire a
company for its management.
An example of hotel
management company is
SilverBrich. They manage
independent hotels of a
number of franchise brands.
Franchises They usually purchase or
develop a hotel under same
brand name rather than leasing
them. They then become part
of same group under a
franchisors name.
Examples are Radisson,
Marriott, Hilton etc.
Fractional ownership It is known for developing
financial hotels by selling
some portion of it. Owners use
their shares in rental pools and
also gets returns from it (Lee,
Hu and Lu, 2018) .
For example, we can use
Penticton lakeside resort and
sun peaks ski resort.
Full Ownership Strata Units This is called as financial
model in which hotel
developers build new hotels
with a sale of full ownership.
Examples can be taken of
Rosewood hotels, Fairmont
pacific rim, Hotel Georgia etc.
Grading system and their role play in booking accommodation
System of Grading Definition System Example
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1 star Practical
accommodations are
offered by these hotels
with a very limited
facilities including
only food and
beverages.
They operate at a
small level and are
usually privately
owned. Services are
delivered by owner or
his family members.
School House Hotel.
2 stars They are hotels with
mid-range. Services
are better than that of
1 star hotels as they
include good quality
mattresses, wall
coverings etc.
These hotels are from
small to medium in
sizes. They are also
well equipped and
provide a comfortable
stay.
Tartan Lodge
3 stars 3 star hotels provide a
number of services
with a number or
additional services
such as swimming
pools, alarms and also
offer average range of
services
. They have better staff
for housekeeping and
customer services.
Their receptions are
spacious with better
spacious
arrangements. Staff
here know different
foreign languages and
also offer good room
services.
Ramada Hounslow
4 stars It consists of a number
of excellent quality
services. There are a
number of services
like laundry, valet
Marriot Group of
Hotels.
Edinburgh Grosvensor
Hotel
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facility etc.
5 stars They provide best
services and luxuries
to their customers.
There are a number of
staff to provide guests
with every need of
theirs.
Accommodation in
these hotels are very
luxurious and spacious
then others. They
provide best
international facilities.
They have a number of
facilities such as
internet, personalised
gifts to welcome
guests and an elegant
furnishing and
flawless services.
Discussion on what roles does online sites play for their potential customers
Convenient for customer: These are all those sites which are convenient for their customers.
They provide a number of services like online booking as well as cancellation policies which
saves time of customers (McDaniels, Harley and Beach, 2018). They provide with online sites
which are more productive and are becoming very popular among customers as services can be
availed on just one click.
Changing preferences of customers: There are a number of sites such as tripadvisor,
makemy trip etc. These sites play an important role in showing the customers where are they
actually going to stay. They also post views of various customers which then helps in building
trust. They provide detailed pictures of rooms, outer view, restaurants with description of all the
services and amenities available at hotel.
The functions of front office in various accommodation provider
Main function of front office manager is to attend visitors when they arrive at hotel. It is
required for them to be of a humble and polite nature. They manage basic day to day functions
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and also look over availability of rooms. Other than this they look for arrivals and departures of
guests. They also take care of various requirements and demands of visitors.
 Hotel
There are a number of services provided by hotels which differ in different hotels ranging
from 1 star to 5 stars. They take reservations and other facilities which are related to it. In
good and reputed hotels, they hire a receptionist based on communication skill. It is
required of a receptionist to have proper knowledge of hotels and each and every facility
available at hotel. They also develop good relation with guests in order to have visits
from them in future.
 Guest house
There is a reservation department present at guest houses who take in calls and answer all
the doubts for their potential guests. It is their job to make notes on what a customer
requires, preferences of their rooms etc. It is duty of front desk to look after customer
arrival, greet customers and also look after their departure facilities.
 Bed and breakfast
They are very small in size. Bed and Breakfast only provide overnight stay facilities and food
facilities for breakfast. These are usually a family of 4 to 10 people who come together and
provide these facilities to visitors. They usually have a night auditor who plays a very important
role at the front desk. Their job includes functions such as checking in of customers, greeting
them and looking after payments at the time of check out (Medina-Muñoz, Medina-Muñoz and
Sánchez-Medina, 2016) . They also look after complaints from customer if any and providing
them with whatever they require.
Analyse the roles that a front office department plays in Intercontinental Hotels
Front office is face establishment for hospitality in intercontinental hotel and resorts. They
are first of those who will interact to guests directly. It is their duty to make a good first
impression on guests. They are accountable to manage queries and requirement of guests.
It is their duty to pass on customers’ orders to other department of hotels. Some major
roles of front office are mentioned below-
Security: This includes primary staff who are available for security and safety of guests and
hospitality property. In intercontinental hotel and resorts security and safety staff are well
organised and alert to maintain a safe environment for their guests 24*7 (Kim and Lee, 2016) .
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This department is headed by a head of security who has other employees working under him. It
is his job to manage need of staff for his department, technology as well as budget in order to
control security in hotels.
Front office: In this department visibility to customer and interaction with themis
maximum. They are the first face of hotel which a guest has a look on. They act as first
impression on minds of customers. It is considered as centre point for any query or
doubts of guests and visitors. It is centre of communication for everyone in hotel
premises. Hotels spend a lot on these to make it look luxurious and appealing in order to
attract more customers. Front office plays an important role in building image as well as
reputation of a hotel.
Housekeeping: Front office works in cooperation with housekeeping department. It is
important for them to work in coordination in order to achieve success. Housekeeping
department makes sure that each and every room fulfils all the required standards before
a guest enters it. It is also responsible for cleanliness, maintain hygiene, making products
and services available for guests etc. in intercontinental hotels and resorts this department
is responsible for checking status of rooms as well.
PART 2
Key roles which housekeeping department plays in hotels:
An organisational chart for housekeeping
It is duty of this department to provide a clear line of management, authority, roles and
responsibility and channels of communication in a hotel. This does not only provide a line of
management but also help employees to save employees from being directed from more than one
authority. This chart clearly mentions how employees in Intercontinental take orders and the
supervisors from whom they take orders. The copy of this chart is also posted in an area in order
to remind staff of their duties, responsibilities and roles in organisation.
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