Reflective Portfolio: Management of Rooms Division (MRD403) Insights

This portfolio reflects on the student's learning journey in the Management of Rooms Division (MRD403) course. It covers key aspects of hotel operations, including front office management, guest experience strategies, housekeeping department functions, and the importance of safety and security. The student explores various management theories, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and stakeholder theory, and their application in motivating staff and creating value. The portfolio also delves into financial costing and management within the hotel context, including operating expenses, profit and loss statements, and controllable expenses. The student analyzes the impact of technology, communication, and conflict resolution on room division management. Furthermore, the portfolio examines the role of the night team, night audit processes, and the significance of safety measures, including fire safety, evacuation plans, and risk assessment. The student also includes insights on how hotels manage costs and design budgets to gain a competitive advantage.

Management of rooms
division
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Table of Contents
Week 4........................................................................................................................................3
week 5..........................................................................................................................................3
week 6..........................................................................................................................................4
week 7..........................................................................................................................................5
week 8..........................................................................................................................................5
Week 9.........................................................................................................................................5
Week 10.......................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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Week 4
in this week my topic was operations of front office of hotel. I also learned about various security
and safety strategies. I got to know that functions of front office are to receive and welcome
guest, assign rooms, register guest details and many other things. there is theory of guest cycle
which is followed in it. there are 4 stages in it by which customer experience is measured. thus, I
learned that how cycle helps in measuring customer experience. in this week I studied about
procedure of various functions (Arnold and Sableski, 2020). I gained knowledge about room
allocation procedure, payment process, etc. Thus, from arrival to departure of customer
systematically all info is entered along with details of guest. this is useful in evaluating their
experience. moreover, I studied about benefit of use of technology in room division. the
technology used in it is artificial intelligence, internet of things etc thus, I realised that
technology has made it easy in maintaining security and safety of rooms. furthermore, staff
training is given on how to use it and they are motivated through it. therefore, I think that
motivation theory of Maslow is applied here. it consists of framework in which human needs are
categorised into 5. they are psychological, safety, esteem, self acutalisation and love needs. thus,
by fulfilling all these needs in structure way employees can be encouraged. it is a basic theory
which is applied to motivate them. I learned that in all these the needs differ in it. but for all
individual they are same. therefore, it is most essential theory used in motivation. moreover,
Herzberg to factor theory is also applied in it. in that there are two factor of motivation that are
hygiene and motivating.
week 5
here, in this week I learned about ways in which hotel can create and manage guest experience
with help of communication. thus, I gained knowledge of online presence and rating on basis of
which customer experience is managed. on basis if it, improvement is made in communication
process. i made a structure of front office department in which there are many levels. all people
are having various role and responsibility (Mughal, 2020). I learned that under chief concierge
there are 3 persons like concierge, porter and doorman. this department operate with switchboard
unit. I found that responsibility of this department is to perform various tasks such as reservation,
booking of hotel and transport etc. basically, they are those services which is related to customer
experience. so, it requires an effective communication with guest in order to satisfy them.
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Along with it, I learned on role of switchboard operator. he is responsible for several things like
answer phone call, info transfer, managing of equipment. I learned many things on customer
experience. so I think that here dissonance theory can be applied. It suggests that a person who
expected a high-value product and received a low-value product would recognize the disparity
and experience a cognitive dissonance. That is, the disconfirmed expectations create a state
of psychological discomfort. the existence of dissonance produces pressures for its reduction,
which can be attained by adjusting the perceived disparity. It state that post exposure ratings are
primarily a function of the expectation level. moreover, I studied about benefit of use of
technology in room division. the technology used in it is artificial intelligence, internet of things
etc here it is used in room division. the technology used was social media engagement. I realised
that it helps in establishing a communication channel between department. for it, various social
sites are used like Facebook, Intsagram, twitter etc (Fenton and Kidd, 2020)
week 6
the topic for this week was housekeeping department. I realised that it is main department in
hotel as success depends on it. also, all activities are interrelated to this unit. it is an integral part
of it. I learned that there are some core functions performed. the chart of this department consists
of few people. they are executive and attendant supervisor. executive housekeeper performs
different task that are training, laundry, inventory control, cleaning etc so, his role is crucial in
entire hotel. I gained knowledge on factors which determine room cleaning. they are hotel rating,
training provided, nature of guest, design of room etc. these all factors state how many rooms
can be cleaned by attendant. room inspection is activity of checking of rooms cleanliness,
evaluation is done in it. I gain knowledge that in training room attendees are shown techniques of
cleaning, safety precautions, which are to be followed in it. I learned that technology is used in it.
this allows in performing housekeeping tasks. besides that, efficiency is maintained through it.
usually, sustainability is maintained with help of several practices. they are use of green
products, energy saving system (Barnes and Ushaw, 2020). I got to know about that there are
some environmental certificate and rating given to hotel on basis of their sustainable practices
which are taken by them. these are having certain criteria on basis of which certificate is given to
them. for instance they are green key global, national Australian built environment rating. thus, it
helped me in gaining knowledge on those and what procedure is followed in it. besides that, I
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learned various other things in it. here, stakeholder theory can be applied which state relation
with customer, suppliers, society etc to create value for them.
week 7
in this I learned about types and ways of communication. also, on how hotel manager is able to
manage and handle all employees. this is done via communication. I found that there are many
ways through which supervisor communicate with staff. they are professional communication, e
mails, active listening and many others. with this manager easily interact with staff. however, I
found that there are several barriers in active listening such as physical, personal, language, etc.
these all can highly affect on communication and deliver of message. there are many ways to
become a active listener. by non verbal communication listening can be enhance. with help of
signs and symbols it is easy to listen things. I learned about role of front office in
communication. there is communication between inter department. the front office interact with
HR, housekeeping, marketing etc (Peeters, and Sexton, 202)
I gained knowledge on performance management strategies which is useful in reducing
staff turnover. there are some features of it like formal interaction between superior and sub
ordinate, potential of staff is identified, performance is enhanced, etc. there are some practices
which is applied in it they are doing it on regular basis, integrating it into goal setting, particular
criteria is mentioned in it. I studied that there are different methods of resolving conflict. it
depends on manager that what type of method is chosen. in this long and short methods are there.
in short they are avoidance, negotiation, third party whereas in long they are political approach,
changing behaviour etc I learned about staff motivation, retention and organisation culture. so,
theory which can be applied is Charles handy theory in which culture is divided into four types
that are power, task, person and role culture.
week 8
this week was about topic of importance of night team in hotel that is responsible for safety
and security. here, I learned about role of night team and how they are responsible for
maintaining safety and security. besides that, I got to know role of night auditor is to balance
night transaction and front desk for night shift. the night audit process is followed in which there
are several steps in it. this enables in preparing report on basis of task done in night. I gained
knowledge on importance of night audit that it helps in overcoming operational problems. also,
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safety is maintained of guest and their luggage. a report is prepared which include details of
booking, financial transaction, check in check out etc. the occupancy management formula is
applied to find out number of rooms to be reserved with 100% occupancy. so I enhanced my
mathematical knowledge as well from it. thus, I learned night auditor and how it is useful in
hotel. there are many functions performed which allows in balancing of operations. he also
ensure guest comfort by fulfilling their needs at night. I can also say that health and safety
management is other important function as guests prefer to visit and go in hotels that are safe and
they can feel safe. Safety and health department make sure that all employees are safe at
workplace by implementing safety and health policies, tools and techniques. Maintaining
recording and report keeping system for monitoring injuries and illness.
Week 9
In the week 9, I have learned mainly about the importance of safety as well as security
within the room division. The lecture in the following week has taught me that safety as well as
security are the two important pillars in room division and thus plays a great role in the comfort
and care of guests. The various case studies like case of the missing jewels, wheelchair vs stairs
has made me aware about the various safety measures which hotels should take (Boholm, Möller
and Hansson, 2016). For example- in the case study of wheelchair vs stairs, I learned that
development as well as creation of evacuation device for people who mainly uses wheelchairs is
highly necessary for providing them a safe environment. The hotels should use this devise due to
fact that people using wheelchair are last one to be evacuated from the burning building. Along
with this, throughout the lecture I came to know about the fire safety. Maintaining as well as
identifying the various risk measures is highly important for the hotels. Each and every room
should be equipped with a fire safety alarm and along with this, hotels should ensure the safe
handling of flammable materials. While moving in the process of room division, each and every
room should have smoke detectors, heat detectors and EWIS. Along with this, I also came to
know that hotels should have a well-through evacuation plan and should make guest's aware
about the various exit routes, exit signs, pressurized stairwells etc (Straut and Nelson, 2020).
Besides this, I also learned that it is highly essential for the hotels to identify risks as have a
broad approach. Hotels should analyze the risk in terms of likelihood as well as severity.
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Week 10
Week 10 has basically provided me the great knowledge about financial costing as well
as management that how hotels manage their overall costs and expenses and thus designs their
budget in order to gain competitive advantage. The whole lecture throughout the week 10 has
taught me a lot about financial costing and has helped me to understand various terminologies. I
came to know that there are mainly two types of the assets fixed assets and operating assets. The
overall expense is basically based on these two assets. I got the in-depth knowledge that
operating expense budget corresponds to cost of doing the business (Patiar, 2016). The operating
expense budget basically includes various expenses like salaries, rents, depreciation etc which
hotels calculate in order to measure their overall profitability ratio. Along with this, the lecture
helped me to understand the importance of profit and loss statement. Managers of the hotels
usually uses this statement for monitoring as well as improving day to day operations of various
departments. Besides this, hotels during room division also incurs some controllable expenses.
These are basically the expenses on which company has the full authority like labor costs. Along
with this, I also came to know about the various factors which largely impacts departmental
profits in hotels like production units, overhead costs etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Arnold, J.M. and Sableski, M.K., 2020. Building Reflective Practices Through a Digital Literacy
Portfolio in an Online Context. In Effective Practices in Online Teacher Preparation for
Literacy Educators (pp. 45-64). IGI Global.
Barnes, J. and Ushaw, G., 2020, January. Designing a Portfolio-Oriented Curriculum using
Problem Based Learning. In Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Computing Education
Practice 2020 (pp. 1-4).
Boholm, M., Möller, N. and Hansson, S.O., 2016. The concepts of risk, safety, and security:
applications in everyday language. Risk analysis.36(2). pp.320-338.
Fenton, K. and Kidd, K., 2020. Reflective practice groups in a mental health inpatient
setting. Mental Health Practice, 23(1).
Mughal, A.A., 2020. A visual model of reflective practice for the analytically minded
dermatologist. Clinical and experimental dermatology, 45(1), pp.136-137.
Patiar, A., 2016. Costs allocation practices: Evidence of hotels in Australia. Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Management.26.pp.1-8.
Peeters, M.J. and Sexton, M.E., 2020. Use of reflective writing within interprofessional
education: a mixed-methods analysis. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(3), pp.307-
314.
Straut, C.M. and Nelson, A., 2020. Improving Chemical Security with Material Control and
Accountability and Inventory Management. Journal of Chemical Education.
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