Analysis of Room Division Operations in Hospitality

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ROOM DIVISION OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
1

Table of contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Task 1.............................................................................................................................. 4
Task 2.............................................................................................................................. 7
Task 3.............................................................................................................................. 9
Task 4............................................................................................................................ 11
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 14
Reference list................................................................................................................. 15

Introduction
Hotel industry is one of the most growing industries in the present scenario. With the
development of the economic condition, businesses and tourism sector, the demand for hotel
and accommodation services has increased by a higher percentage. The high profit margin of
this industry is also attracting new investors and entrepreneurs. Considering the current growth
rate, it must be stated that the industry will be one of the most sustainable industries in the
coming years. In this study the discussion will be made on different types of accommodation
provisions and along with that the requirements of the accommodation services will also be
discussed.

Task 1
1.1 Discuss accommodation and front office services for different organizations
In the present scenario, accommodation services are provided not only through hotels, but also
through different other types of accommodation provisions. Some of the most popular types of
accommodation provisions are discussed below:
 Hotels – This is one of the most popular accommodation provisions in the present
market scenario. Hotels can be of different types and the divisions are made based on
the availability and quality of services. The hotels, where each facility along with high
quality services are available are known as five-star hotels (Bould et al., 2018).
Generally, in the five star hotels luxurious accommodations are available. Apart from the
five-star hotels, luxurious accommodations are also available in the other types of hotels.
 Holiday home – This is another type of accommodation provision. In this type of
accommodation the accommodation facility is not like, four star or five star hotels.
However, the quality of services and the accommodation facilities are standard
(McPherson et al., 2018).
 Motel – an accommodation provision is known as motel, when it is situated at a long
distance from a city or village. Generally, motels are available on highways and in a
motel, the rooms are connected to each other. The facilities available in a motel are not
like a hotel; however, good quality services are available in motels (Bould et al., 2018).
In an accommodation provision, different types of front offices services are required. For
example, in a hotel, the required front office services are – reception services, housekeeping
services, sales and marketing services and restaurant services.
1.2 Analyze the roles and responsibilities of a range of accommodation and reception
services staff
Accommodation and reception service staffs play a major role within an accommodation
provision like, Marriot International. The major roles and responsibilities of the accommodation
and reception services staffs are stated below:
 Providing information to the guests – One of the key responsibilities of reception
staffs of Marriot International is providing accurate and complete information about the
accommodation and other services to the customers or guests of the firm. Front office

staffs are the representatives of the firm; hence, they must have all the information
(McPherson et al., 2018).
 Receiving customers’ complaints – It is the duty of an accommodation and reception
staff of Marriot International to receive any kind of complaint of the guests and
communicate that problem to the respective department.
 Reservation – At Marriot International, the accommodation and reception staffs are also
responsible for making reservations for the customers as per the demand. The
reservations must be done as per the specifications mentioned by the customers or
guests (Putra, 2018).
1.3 Discuss legal and statutory requirements that apply to rooms division operations
In order to operate a successful business in the accommodation industry, the management of
Marriot International has followed the specific legal guidelines, which are applicable to the room
division operations in the United Kingdom. One of the most important legal requirements is
maintaining health and safety of the employees. In order to fulfill this particular requirement, the
management has followed the Health and Safety at Workplace Act 1974 (Sigala, 2018). Another
important matter is protecting the information regarding each guest as well as staff of the
company and in order to fulfill this requirement, the company has followed Data Protection Act
1998. At the same time, the company has also maintained the necessary provisions under the
consumer law of the country. Along with all these, the Equality Act 2010 has also been followed
for maintaining equality and diversity within the workplace.
1.4 Evaluate services provided by the rooms division in a range of hospitality businesses
At Marriot International, different types of room division services are provided to each guest.
Some of the most important room division services provided by the company are as follows:
 Front office reservation – This is the most important service provided by Marriot
International. The guests can reserve or book their accommodation with the help of this
particular service.
 Housekeeping – This is another important room division service provided by Marriot
International. The housekeeping services of the company include – cleaning services
and laundry services (Tussyadiah and Pesonen, 2018).
 Complaints receiving services – This is also an important service provided by the
company. The guests can make any complaint to the staffs in the reception area and the

reception staffs communicate the same time the respective departments, which solves
the problem on immediate basis.
 Security services – This is the most important service for every guest at Marriot
International. The company provides strong security guard services for each guest.
Along with that the company has included required provisions for safeguarding the
guests and staffs from fire (Juvan et al., 2018).

Task 2
2.1 Assess the importance of the front of house area to effective management
Front of house area is very important for a company like, Marriot International. If the front of
house area of Marriot International is considered, it will be noticed that the front is visually very
attractive. Making the front of house visually attractive is very important for attracting the guests.
In the present scenario, most of the customers or guests book their rooms by searching online;
hence, to attract those guests, a visually soothing view is very important.
On the other hand, the layout of the front must be very simple, so that the new guests do not
face any difficulty. A simple layout helps the guests finding out their services and departments
easily, which is important for better customers’ satisfaction (Tussyadiah and Pesonen, 2018). At
the same time, the front of house must be clean. In case of Marriot International, the cleaning
department always takes care of this matter because the management believes that a clean
ambience is important for satisfying the guests and this is important for better customer-
management.
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be understood that the front of house area is very
important not only for attracting guests, but also for satisfying them properly and if the guests
are satisfied, effective management becomes easier.
2.2 Discuss the key aspects of planning and management of the front of house area for a
given hospitality operation
The key aspects of planning and management of the front of house area of Marriot International
are stated below:
 Technological aspects – This is very important aspect of planning and management of
the front of house area of the hotel. Using the advanced technology, the hotel can
provide quick services; for example, they can solve the queries of the guests quickly,
which is important for better customer management (McPherson et al., 2018).
 Departmental aspects – This is also an important aspect of planning and management
of the front of house area. In order to develop effective plan and practice efficient
management, the front office department needs to be active enough and must maintain
proper communication with the other departments (Juvan et al., 2018).

 Safety and security – This aspect is also an important aspect for better planning and
management of front of house area. Proper security and safety must be available for
better management.
2.3 Critically discuss the key operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance of the front office area for a given operation
The operational issues, which are affecting effective management and business performance of
Marriot International are as follows:
 High cost – It is one of the biggest issues that Marriot is currently facing. Due to the
high level of cost, the firm is unable to make necessary updates of technologies and
employees’ knowledge and skills. This is affecting effective operational management
and the level of wastage is increasing.
 Inadequacy of skilled labor – The organization is suffering from inadequacy of skilled
labor at the ground level. Due to the issue of high cost, the company is unable to
arrange training session on monthly basis, which is also causing lack of skills among the
ground level staffs (Tussyadiah and Pesonen, 2018).
 Lack of updated technology – This is another major issue that the company is facing
currently. Due to lack of updated technology the hotel is facing issues in providing
services to a large number of guests at one time.

Task 3
3.1 Analyse and assess the role and importance of design and development of property
interiors, including functionality to the effective management of the hospitality
operations
An effectual interior design is necessary for effectively managing hospitality operations as well,
since the interior design creates the first and the last impression to guests and visitors (Ching
and Binggeli, 2018). In order to have a good impression on guests, Marriott International
ensures a luxurious interior. It ensures that its interiors are clean, decorated and tidy and are
able to have a visual impact on people. The organization uses not only soothing colors but also
excellent floral designs, flowers, lighting, and others to decorate its interior.
According to Grimley and Love (2018), having an interior, which is well designed and attractive
in nature, helps a company in various ways. For example, in Marriott International, the design
and development of its interiors help in improving its sales, since it helps in serving travelers
easily. Accessing services such as health care, disability and others becomes easy due to
proper interior designing in Marriott International. The customer service desk can be easily
identified and things are in their place, making it easy for guests to identify them. Thus, in these
ways, design and development of property interiors is important for effectively managing
hospitality organisations.
3.2 Discuss the key aspects of planning and management of the accommodation service
function
According to Gray et al. (2015), both planning and management of accommodation services is
an important function in a hotel. However, there are several aspects of this planning and
management. They are as follows -
 Procedure - The management authority of a hotel must be ensuring that its procedures
are being executed effectively. Staff must be given an understanding of how different
procedures in it such as customer service, solving issues faced by customers and such
other procedures are handled with care and within time. Technology must be integrated
in order to help the company in case of its bigger procedures, as it will help in saving
time yet delivering an effective accommodation service.
 Operations - Operations is another key aspect of planning and management of
accommodation services. Starting from training employees, the check in or check out

process or anything that is a part of Marriott International’s operations, is a key aspect of
the planning and management of its accommodation service function.
 Decision-making - Decision-making is yet again another part of a hospitality
organization’s planning and management of accommodation services (Alsoboa et al.,
2015). In order to optimize its accommodation services, the decision-making of the hotel
requires being optimized to the best possible extent.
3.3 Analyse the operational issues affecting the effective management of the
accommodation service function for your new property
Various operational issues are faced by hospitality businesses due to which its effective
management of accommodation services is affected (Ivanova et al., 2016). For example, in
Marriott International, various issues have an effect on its performance, a few of which are as
follows -
 Issues related to seasonal demands
 Limited capacity during seminars and events held in it
 Lack of maintenance of proper cleanliness, hygiene and interiors
 High cost of maintenance, repairs and infrastructural development
 Ineffectiveness of the technologies applied by the hotel in its complex
 Complexity of the technologies applied
 Lack of motivation and skills of employees
 Poor data management
 Shortfall of services during peak season

Task 4
4.1 Explain how you would perform revenue / yield management activities in order to
maximize occupancy and rooms revenue
The measurement of the yields or revenues of a hotel can be measured through the yield
calculation. The yield from a hotel can be evaluated in two aspects - one if from the potential
revenues of the hotel and second is the actual revenue it has earned. In order to maximize both
the rooms revenue and the occupancy of Marriott International, both these activities can be
used. According to Erdem and Jiang (2016), the potential revenue of a hotel is assumed as the
amount of sales that it will be generating through selling the total number of rooms in it at a rack
rate. Therefore, the hotel’s yield helps in the derivation of the expected outcome percentage
accomplished by it during a specific time. In these ways, yield management activities will be
performed in Marriott International for maximization of its rooms revenue and occupancy.
On the other hand, revenue management activities in a hotel help it in different ways (Denizci
Guillet and Mohammed, 2015). For example, in Marriott International, revenue management
activities will help in achieving higher customer satisfaction along with helping it competitively
pricing its products and services in the marketplace. The main revenue management activity of
the hotel will be formulating a competitive pricing strategy, with which it will determine the lowest
cost of its services in the UK business environment.
4.2 Discuss what sales techniques that rooms division staff can use to promote and
maximize revenue in your hotel. Provide example using the case scenario.
There are different kinds of sales techniques that can be used for the promotion and
maximization of revenue in a hotel (Koseoglu et al., 2016). For example, in the new branch of
Marriott International open in UK, there are different sales techniques that have been
introduced. These techniques include overbooking, negotiated rate, handling no shows and
such others. The negotiated rate technique has been adopted in the hotels through introduction
of seasonal packages to guests. However, discounts of repeated services have also been
adopted as a sales technique to maximize the revenue of the hotel.
Overbooking is also a sales technique that Marriott International uses. This technique has been
adopted since there are various guests who cancel their bookings even at the last moment.
However, due to overbooking, Marriott International is able to manage the losses incurred from
the bookings that have been cancelled. On the other hand, in case of no show of guest, Marriott

International charges penalties on the cancellation, which is yet another technique for increasing
its revenues. The following is the sales plan showing the techniques that Marriott International in
the UK can be using for promotion and maximization of revenue -
Type of rooms Number of
rooms
Price (in £) No. of beds No. of occupied
rooms
Single occupancy 60 54 60 50
Double
occupancy
40 90 100 36
Twin occupancy 50 85 75 40
Total 150 235 126
Table 1: Forecasted sales for Marriott International
(Source: Created by the learner)
Particulars Occupancy percentage (%)
Single room occupancy 83.33%
Double room occupancy 90%
Twin room occupancy 80%
Average room rate 1.53
Table 2: Calculated occupancy rates and average room rates
(Source: Created by the learner)
4.3 Discuss the importance and use of forecasting and statistical data within the rooms
division in your property
According to Kimes (2016), rooms division analysis can be conducted through indicators such
as average room rates, number of available rooms, total rooms or beds sold, and average
sleeper rates. These indicators can be used in the newly opened Marriott International in the UK
through determining its performance based on the total rooms available, total rooms or beds
sold. In this property, the statistical and forecasting data is used for determining its