Hotel Handbook: Cultural Differences in Guest Service Management

This report presents a Hotel Handbook designed to guide hotel staff in managing guest service experiences for international visitors. It focuses on two countries: the United Kingdom and China, highlighting key cultural differences, customs, and behaviors relevant to the hospitality industry. The report explores the importance of globalization and its impact on multinational hotel corporations. It details the distinct cultural approaches to guest service in both countries, including leadership styles, employee motivations, and the significance of cultural values. It also provides specific 'Do's and Don'ts' for hotel staff in each country, offering practical guidance for interacting with guests. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural nuances to enhance guest satisfaction, attract international visitors, and improve overall hotel performance. The report discusses the use of technology, training, and management strategies in both countries, and provides a comparative analysis of these aspects. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the need for cultural sensitivity in providing excellent guest service.

Hotel
handbook

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
a list of international countries and identify key cultural differences, customs and behaviour...1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Hotel Handbook can be defined as that standard of work document which can act as a guide
to increase the guest experience and service experiences for international visitors. It provides a
detailed over look on the policies and procedures which needs to be followed by employees in
hotel so that the experience of guest can be improved. It sets clear expectations related to
workers about what they need to achieve. This handbook will also define the cultural values
which needs to be followed by the hotel staff. It will also provide the details about the perks
which will be provided to guest in order to increase their guest experience. It also explains the
rights and responsibilities of employees related to increasing the experience of guest. Present
report will lay emphasis on two different countries one will be from Europe and the other one
Asia.
MAIN BODY
a list of international countries and identify key cultural differences, customs and behaviour
Globalization has become a common strategy for businesses to achieve advantages in a
competitive environment. Accordingly, multi-national hotel corporations increasingly recognize
its importance for strategic growth. The country which is been selected for the present report is
United Kingdom and China. The report will have provided details about their key cultural
differences, customs and behaviour so that to help manage guest service experiences for the
international visitor. It includes the following:
Hotel Handbook for China: It has been analysed that Chinese employees are deeply
connected with their culture and also their behaviour is different. It has been analysed that the
China power bases also differs (Blal, Hodari and Turner, 2016). In China autocratic leadership is
been followed and also they have been involved in following the hierarchical organizational
structure. Both of these are been provided respect over there. It has been analysed that in China
decisions are been taken by the managers and employees are bound to follow it. These are there
ways to attract international visitors. This can be explained with the help of Hofstede's four-
dimension theory and is applicable in every behavioural concept of China. It has also been
analysed that there is been a contrast of philosophies in China and Britain. There has been
individualism versus collectivism. China is being involved in following the collectivism where
the group of people work together to achieve common goals. In this culture the role of leadership
is to harmonise the group efforts and to also foster a supportive environment so that goals and
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objectives can be achieved. This is the way which can help an individual in managing the guests
and international visitors successfully in China. In China leaders working in hotel has provided
with the role to safe guard the interest of their employees and also to enhance their well-being
and also it demonstrates the significance of social responsibility in employees. The hotel staff in
China is also been involved in analysing the needs and demands of the guests. This has also
helped them in managing and attracting more international visitors which is really necessary for
the hotels operation in China.
The Chinese tradition works on philosophies and cultural belief; they make sure that their
culture is been demonstrated in every step they take. They have been involved in following the
Confucianism. It provides the ethos related to social and political and is been followed in the
majority parts of China. It still makes the part in cultural and beliefs followed by the China. All
the rules and policies which will be followed by the staff are based on it. It provides the details
about the Ethos which needs to be followed. Thus, it will help in smooth functioning of business
and when the business performs smoothly it become really easy to attract and manage more
international visitors. The Chinese employees are highly work oriented and they have an idea
about the goals and objectives which they want to achieve in near future. The leaders in hotels of
China makes sure that harmony exist in their work places and also they motivate people to work
together and be productive (Magnini and Simon, 2016). One of the most important factor for
Chinese employees are income and promotional opportunities. China is also being engaged in
providing the employees with tourism training and educational program which has helped the
employees in successfully enhancing the satisfaction level of workers. This has also supported
them in attracting more travellers to the country which has helped country in growing and
increase their gross national income. In the culture of China, the rewards based services are
highly appreciated and managed by the staff who are working in hotels over there. It has also
been analysed that to attract international visitors, the hotels are being involved in providing
exquisite services to the travellers which has helped the hotel industry in China to increase their
productivity as well as revenue (Dixit, 2017). They are also involved in following and making
use of the automation services so that they can increase the satisfaction level of people travelling
to the country. This has helped them in successfully managing the travellers and also it has
helped the travel and tourism industry of country in gaining the competitive advantage. It has
supported the hotel industry in growing and achieving their set target and objectives. It has also
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been analysed that supervisory and managerial training is not been provided to employees
working in hotel, this is a gap which needs to be fulfilled by China so that they can engaged in
increasing the experience of guest. This will also help them in creating loyalty of travellers who
are visiting their place. They have also been involved in motivating employees by providing
them rewards and incentives.
List of Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s Don’ts
In this the hotel staff needs to be involved in
making sure and asking travellers about if they
have eaten their meals (Vila and et.al., 2020).
They also need to be punctual and making
proper time management. The staff also needs
to greet whenever any senior person arrives.
The hotel staff cannot get angry in front of
public in China. They can also not address the
visitors with their first name. This is
considered as disrespectful in China and they
can also not talk upon politically sensitive
technique.
Hotel Handbook for United Kingdom: In order to attract international visitors at hotels in
United Kingdom, there are various ways which can be used. The United Kingdom culture is
totally different from that of China. In this the employees of UK have lower level of certainty
level. They are not being engaged in taking much risk and the employees are being involved in
perfuming what is been ask to them. The country is being engaged in making use of media to
make travellers aware about the places which they can visit in United Kingdom. This also has
assisted them in attracting more number of travellers to their place which has helped the
hospitality industry in growing (Camisón and et.al., 2020). Travel agents and tour operators with
expertise in providing outbound travel options to travellers and prospective travellers. They are
also making travellers aware about the cultural aspects which has been followed by the UK hotel
industry. The United Kingdom has been involved in following the culture of individualism. In
this they have been not involved in harmonizing the team efforts. The management style which is
been followed in UK is based on task accomplishment. The leaders in hotel over there believes
that motivation is been gained by the employees working with them by the materialistic things
and not by enhancing quality of life.
The leaders over there is also have the role to promote the bottom line profits. They are also
being involved in providing the employees with monetary benefits. The United Kingdom is also
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being involved in mitigating the regional differences among staff members. They also provide
variety of food cuisines to travellers who have been involved in visiting their place. This has
been done in order to increase the consumer satisfaction and also to increase the consumer
loyalty. The United Kingdom in their hotels are making use of more open and progressive
approach. They have also been involved in promoting the cultural diversity so that more open
and broad ideas can be explored to enhance the expand business. In this they have also been
involved in implementing the cross cultural perspective in multinational hotels, so that they can
create a diverse culture in the organization (Nogin and et.al., 2018). This has assisted the
hospitality organization in United Kingdom to enhance the experience and satisfaction level of
visitors who have been engaged in visiting the place. This has also helped the travel and tourism
industry in gaining the competitive advantage. The hotels in United Kingdom are also been
involved in providing employees with the professional development programme so that their
skills and efficiency can be increased and also this will help them in managing and attracting the
international foreign visitors. This has also supported the hotels in enhancing the profitability as
well as revenue. This approach was responsible for the growth of the industry. In United
Kingdom the hotels are also promoting inbound tourism. They are also lay focus on their needs
and demands in order to increase the guest experience. In United Kingdom culture of
individualism is been followed, here the leaders are being involved in making sure that
employees get success at their individual level. The hotels in United Kingdom are also offering
freebies and complementary services to travellers. This has assisted them in attracting large
number of travellers and also it has enhanced the experience of guest. Different management
approaches have been used by leaders in the hotels (Ivanova, Ivanov and Magnini, 2016). This
has helped them in managing the staff so that better services can be provided to guests staying
with them. The UK culture is totally different from China but one thing is common in both of
them. Here the hoteliers are being engaged in making sure that respect is been served and also is
been given to individual cultural values. Culture has helped the employees of United Kingdom
hotel in enhancing their skills and also to find out better opportunities for their growth. The guest
experiences are also being related to the brand of hotel and it also increases their profitability.
The United Kingdom is also being involved in providing their employees with supervisory and
managerial training to employees, in comparison this type of training is not been provided to
employees in China (Gursoy, 2017). This helps in increasing the guest experience and also it
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helps in better management of them. It has also been analysed that United Kingdom hotels are
also making use of automation and artificial intelligence to increase the satisfaction level of
travellers. They have providing them variety of facilities so that needs and demands of travellers
can be fulfilled. This has helped the hotels in country in growing and also increasing their
profitability as well as revenue. They have also been broadcasting their services through
advertisement and also by making use of promotional strategies (Huang and Chen, 2020).
List of Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s Don’ts
Respect needs to be provided to every traveller. The staff members are not allowed to ask
personal questions to travellers
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that there has been a huge difference between
the cultural aspects and behavior followed by the China and United Kingdom hotels to manage
and attract more international visitors. It has been evaluated from the report that in China leaders
working in hotel has provided with the role to safe guard the interest of their employees and also
to enhance their well-being and also it demonstrates the significance of social responsibility in
employees. The United Kingdom has been involved in following the culture of individualism. In
this they have been not involved in harmonizing the team efforts. They have been involved in
making use of artificial intelligence in order to attract more travelers and also this has helped
country in increasing their revenue related to hospitality organization working over there.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ivanova, M., Ivanov, S. and Magnini, V.P. eds., 2016. The Routledge handbook of hotel chain
management. Routledge.
Magnini, V.P. and Simon, C.J., 2016. A Hotel Manager's Handbook: 189 Techniques for
Achieving Exceptional Guest Satisfaction. CRC Press.
Blal, I., Hodari, D. and Turner, M., 2016. Selecting a partner hotel by the chain (No.
CHAPTER). Routledge, 2016.
Nogin, S. and et.al., 2018. A Platform for the Promotion of Energy Efficiency and Monitoring in
Hotel Units. In Handbook of Research on Technological Developments for Cultural
Heritage and eTourism Applications (pp. 420-448). IGI Global.
Vila, N.A. and et.al., 2020. Online Reputation of Porto Hotel Supply, Northern Region of
Portugal. In Handbook of Research on Social Media Applications for the Tourism and
Hospitality Sector (pp. 349-366). IGI Global.
Gursoy, D. ed., 2017. Routledge handbook of hospitality marketing. Routledge.
Dixit, S.K. ed., 2017. The Routledge handbook of consumer behaviour in hospitality and
tourism. Taylor & Francis.
Huang, S. and Chen, G. eds., 2020. Handbook on Tourism and China. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Camisón, C. and et.al., 2020. The effect of hotel chain affiliation on economic performance: The
moderating role of tourist districts. International Journal of Hospitality Management.87.
p.102493.
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