Rooms Division Report: Management, Legal and Revenue Strategies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the rooms division within the hotel industry, covering a range of crucial aspects. Task A delves into the legal responsibilities, including COSHH, the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Data Protection Act, consumer law, and immigration regulations. It also examines the roles and responsibilities of accommodation and reception staff such as receptionists, porters, housekeepers, and maintenance personnel, evaluating the variety of services offered by the rooms division. Task B focuses on yield management techniques, analyzing sales techniques, and evaluating the use of forecasting and statistical data. The report calculates performance indicators used to measure the success of accommodation sales, incorporating tables to present data on income, occupancy percentages, and other relevant metrics. The study highlights the importance of the front-of-house area and accommodation services for effective management, addressing operational issues and strategies for maximizing revenue and business performance. Overall, the report offers a comprehensive overview of the operational, legal, and financial considerations critical to the success of a hotel's rooms division.

ROOM DIVISION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK A...........................................................................................................................................1
1.3 Legal responsibilities of rooms division...........................................................................1
1.2 Roles and responsibilities of accommodation and reception staff...................................3
1.1, 1.4 Evaluation of the variety of services offered by rooms division...............................5
2.1, 3.1 The importance of the front of house area and the accommodation service to effective
management............................................................................................................................6
2.2, 3.2 Evaluation of the key aspects of planning and management of the front house area and
the accommodation service....................................................................................................7
2.3, 3.3 Evaluation of the main operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance.............................................................................................................8
2.3, 3.3 Evaluation of the main operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance.............................................................................................................9
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Yield management techniques..........................................................................................9
4.2 Analysing sales techniques that can be used promote and maximise revenue..............10
4.3 Evaluation of the usage of forecasting and statistical data in the room division...........11
4.4 Calculation of performance indicators used to measure the success of accommodation
sales......................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
INDEX OF TABLES
Table 1: Income of Five season Hotel...........................................................................................11
Table 2: Room occupancy percentage...........................................................................................12
Table 3: Sleeper Occupancy Percentage........................................................................................13
Table 4: Single room occupancy percentage.................................................................................13
Table 5: Twin room occupancy percentage...................................................................................13
Table 6: Double room occupancy percentage................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Room division is a crucial aspect of hotel management and service range. It focuses on
creating an effective impact on the growth and publicity of the business within the market. It
effectively helps in designing effective business perspectives within the market and enhancing
business development measures (Chen and Schwartz, 2013). The present report creates an in-
depth analysis of different room division aspects and technical details related to the same. It
analyses various aspects of business growth, popularity and enhancement of business
opportunities. The study will discuss the issues that are related to the accommodation and front
end services are also discussed in detail.
TASK A
1.3 Legal responsibilities of rooms division
Hazardous substance and protective clothing (COSHH)
COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002) is the law that
requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health. It states general
requirements on employers to protect employees and other persons from the hazards of
substances used at work by risk assessment, control of exposure, health surveillance and incident
planning.
Substances can take many forms and include: chemicals, fumes, dusts, vapours, mists etc.
COSHH does not cover lead, asbestos or radioactive substances because these have their
own specific regulations.
Example: A company in Bristol was fined a total of £100,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 costs.
They were fined £30,000 for breaching The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and £10,000
for 6 separate breaches of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations for not
making adequate risk assessments, not preventing or controlling the exposure of employees to
chemicals, and for not providing any ‘health surveillance’ of employees ‘at-risk’ (Gayar and
et.al., 2011). Workers at this company were exposed to hazardous chemicals over a four-year
period leading to the onset of a disease called ‘allergic contact dermatitis’ (skin blistering,
cracking, splitting, fingers and hands becoming swollen).
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
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The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA) lays down wide-ranging duties on
employers. They must protect the ‘health, safety and welfare’ at work of all their employees, as
well as others on their premises, including temps, casual-workers, the self-employed, clients,
visitors and the general public (Kang, Lee and Huh, 2010).
It provides the legal framework to promote, stimulate and encourage high standards of health and
safety in places of work.
The employers’ duty under HASAWA is to provide a health and safety workplace, and
this includes a safe system of work, safe equipment, plant and machinery, informing workers
fully about all potential hazards associated with any work process, chemical substance or
activity, including providing instruction, training and supervision, carrying out risk assessments
as set out in regulations, and taking steps to eliminate or control these risks, appointing a
‘competent person’ responsible for health and safety.
Employees have responsibilities too. They must take care of their own health and safety and that
of other persons, co-operate with their employers, not interfere with anything provided in the
interest of health and safety.
Data Protection Act 1998
The Data Protection Act controls how your personal information is used by organisations,
businesses or the government.
Everyone responsible for using data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’.
They must make sure the information is used fairly and lawfully, used for limited, specifically
stated purposes, used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive, accurate, kept for no
longer than is absolutely necessary, handled according to people’s data protection rights, kept
safe and secure, not transferred outside the European Economic Area without adequate (Maier,
2012).
Consumer Law
Consumer protection is a group of laws and organisations designed to ensure the rights of
consumers as well as fair trade competition and the free flow of truthful information in the
marketplace.
The laws are designed to prevent businesses that engage in fraud or specified unfair
practices from gaining an advantage over competitors; they may also provide additional
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protection for the weak and those unable to take care of themselves (Nyheim and Connolly,
2011).
Immigration (Hotel Records)
In accordance with the Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972, a hotel must keep each
guest’s details for at least 12 months and have the register available for inspection by a police
officer or duly authorised person at all times.
1.2 Roles and responsibilities of accommodation and reception staff
Receptionist
As a hotel receptionist you will need to have excellent written and spoken
communication skills, strong customer skills, a friendly and professional telephone manner, the
ability to adapt to different guests, patience and tact, the ability to stay calm under pressure and
look after several things at once, good problem solving skills, the ability to use computerised
technology, accuracy and attention to detail.
It may also be useful if he/she speaks a foreign language.
The main duties would include dealing with bookings by phone, e-mail, letter, fax or
face-to-face, completing procedures when guests arrive and leave, choosing rooms and handing
out keys, preparing bills and taking payments, taking and passing on messages to guests, dealing
with special requests from guests (like booking theatre tickets), answering questions about what
the hotel offers and the surrounding areas, dealing with complaints or problems (Rouse, P. and
Maguire, 2011).
The receptionist would usually work shifts, which could include evenings, nights, weekends and
public holidays. If he/she works during these times may be paid extra. Part-time and seasonal
work is often available.
He/she would spend most of the time at a reception desk, using a computer and a
telephone switchboard.
Salaries can start between £12,500 and £14,500 a year.
Meals and accommodation are sometimes provided.
Porter
If you have a polite and friendly manner, and would like working in the hotel industry,
this job might suit you well.
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As a hotel porter, based in reception or at the porters’ desk, he will often be the first person to
greet guests at the hotel.
His work will include helping guests by carrying luggage, advising on hotel facilities,
arranging taxis and booking tickets, running errands, such as taking and picking up dry cleaning,
taking messages, giving directions, responding to safety and security issues, answering queries
and making reservations (Schmidgall, 2006).
If the hotel has a conference suite, he may be responsible for moving and setting up
equipment. He may also cover reception duties when required.
Full-time, part-time and seasonal work is generally available on a shift basis. Split shifts (an
early shift, a break in the middle of the day, and then an evening shift) and overtime are
common.
The porter would spend most of his work time on his feet, both indoors and outside. His
work would be quite physical, as he would need to lift and carry heavy loads such as luggage and
other equipment.
Salaries start from around £12,000 a year. With experience, this can rise to around £16,000.
Housekeeper
A housekeeper is responsible for organising staff at a hotel. She will make sure that all
the rooms are kept clean and tidy and will need to be able to encourage and motivate staff, so she
must have strong communication skills. She will also have to cope with problems and
emergencies.
Her work would involve preparing shift rotas and allocating daily cleaning duties to room
attendants, inspecting rooms to make sure that standards have been met, recording any faults or
damage and making arrangements for repairs, recruiting, training and supervising staff, liaising
closely with other department heads and the general manager (Dredge and Whitford, 2011).
She may also manage a budget, buy supplies and keep records of costs.
Usually she would do shift work, including weekends and public holidays.
Housekeepers can earn between £16,000 and £24,000 a year.
Maintenance
There are many factors to consider when applying for hotel maintenance jobs. You will
need to have previous experience, ability to prioritise work and take own initiative, flexibility to
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work different shifts including early mornings, evenings and weekends, excellent attention to
detail, proven planning and organising skills.
The work would involve daily maintenance and upkeep of the hotel including plumbing,
electrical, basic paintwork and heating, to record and prioritise maintenance work that needs to
be carried out, to ensure all work areas are made safe for guests and staff, to ensure all
maintenance storage areas are locked at all times, report any hazard or damage to property to
relevant manager, to comply with company policy and legislation at all times, including all
health and safety procedures (Urry and Larsen, 2011).
Salaries can start between £17,000 and £22,000 a year.
Hotel maintenance jobs may come with the following benefits: full uniform and meals on duty,
use of hotel leisure facilities for free or discounted rates, discounts on overnight stays.
1.1, 1.4 Evaluation of the variety of services offered by rooms division
There are many accommodation types and there’s certainly one to fit every budget and taste.
They fall into many categories and vary widely in size, style, services and characteristics. Hotel: An establishment that provides travellers with paid accommodation (in individual
rooms) and other guest services (some hotels offer breakfast as part of the price, some
may also have business facilities such as conference rooms or Internet hook-ups
available, some have their own restaurants and bars). Depending on size, location, and
amenities, hotels are generally rated from one-star to five stars. An example of the hotel
is Aparthotel. Aparthotel: A smart choice for long-term (but also short-term) accommodation,
aparthotels combines the comfort and independence of a private apartment with the
services of a hotel. Aparthotels typically include soft-furnishings and cooking utensils,
and have all the services like housekeeping, front office, parking and others included in
the price. Advantages: more space, a convenient configuration for family or group travel
– you can often find apartments with several bedrooms and bathrooms, and this can work
well for couples traveling with children or with another couple; everyone has their
privacy/space but can still hang out together in the shared lounge room, a kitchen, the
price – which is often cheaper than an equivalent hotel. Disadvantages: security level is
lower.
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 Cottage: In today’s tourism sector, the term cottage is used to describe a small vacation
house, typically in a rural area. Advantages: can provide more floor space, increased
freedom of movement, greater level of solitude, budget savings, kitchen facilities.
Disadvantages: some cottages may not contain towels and linens and in all such
instances you must bring these things along, they rarely offer cleaning staff or maid
service, in addition you will need to create your personal travel arrangements, as there
isn’t going to be a front desk staff or concierge services. Hostel: Ideal for budget travellers and backpackers, a hostel is an inexpensive type of
accommodation, usually with shared bedrooms and communal facilities. Chalet: It is a small wooden house found in mountain areas (typically found in the Swiss
Alps) used by holidaymakers, forming a unit within a holiday complex (Wang, 2012). Boutique Hotel: Often furnished in a themed, individual style, boutique hotels are
intimate in size and focus on providing guests with high-quality, personalised
experiences. Bed & Breakfast: A B&B is an intimate, independently run lodging establishment, where
breakfast is included in the room rate. Yacht: A type of luxury recreational boat offering every modern convenience. They are
classified as sailing yachts, and are available in a vast range of sizes, styles and functions. Guesthouse: It is a private house offering inexpensive accommodation to tourists (often
with a cooked breakfast included in the price). Guesthouse accommodation is rated from
1 to 5 Diamonds on the basis of progressively higher levels of quality and customer care
(Boo and Bernick, 2013).
 Capsule: A big hit in Japan, capsule hotels are box-like sleeping compartments near
airports and railway stations and represents cheap alternative to rooms to overnight
guests.
2.1, 3.1 The importance of the front of house area and the accommodation service to effective
management
Front house area is a significant part of the hotel industry. It creates an effective and wide
impact on the growth and development of the business. Front house management develops an
effective and valid impact on consumer’s choices and demands within the business. Managing
the front office effectively should be a primary business objective. If the front office clerk,
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receptionist or administrator, is unwelcoming and not customer service oriented, they could be
driving customers away. It develops a basic communication measures for the business growth
and development. The front office employees need to effectively convey the message in an
appropriate manner in order to develop a positive impact on the service users. Front house
services are the first and most significant part of the business unit which creates first impression
on the prospective consumers of the hotel. It helps in yielding higher sales and demand within
the market.
The guest cycle is the complete experience that a guest goes through in a hotel. It is made
up of the stages the guests go through before they arrive at a hotel, during their stay, and after
they leave (Getz, 2013). Typically, these stages are described as Contact or Pre-Arrival, Check-
In, Occupancy, and Check-Out. Front house service plays a significant role in developing
positive impact on guest cycles. It is the source of consumer query, feedback and information.
Inefficient and incompetent employees in front house may develop low quality impact which
affects the overall brand image of the business. Hence, they deliver significant services to the
consumers.
Aparthotel as discussed earlier provides accommodation services with wider space and its
own privacy measures. Well designed rooms and effective and front house services helps in
developing an effective and impressive impression on the service users. It motivates them to
revisit the hotel and develop a loyal behaviour for mentioned services. Hence, it can be
determined that well managed and effective services results in delivering well managed and
effective organizational services.
2.2, 3.2 Evaluation of the key aspects of planning and management of the front house area and
the accommodation service
The hotel group avails front house office operations to its clients and guests in very
effective manner. This area of management directly deals with eminent guests of Hilton Hotel.
Some key elements for planning and managing front house area operations and accommodation
services are as follows: Front house area: The main platform for inquiries, exchange of information, entry and
exit of Hilton is its front area. It should be huge in space so that it accommodates bulk of
visitors at the time of weekends and holidays. The place should be attractive enough to
impress and fascinate welcoming guests.
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 Accommodation facilities: Being a global luxury hotel chain, Hilton facilitates
comfortable and deluxe level accommodation provisions to the clients. Exotic restaurants,
bars, gym and swimming pools are attractive key features of the hotel group (McLean
and Elkind, 2013). The company even organizes concerts and seminars on special
occasions like Christmas. Housekeeping services: It is essential and well-known fact that hotels should take strict
measures to maintain cleanliness in their service areas. Guest rooms, pantry areas,
rooftops and every corner of Hilton should be cleaned and checked daily. Food and beverages: The managers and kitchen staff ensures that food served should be
fresh and mouth watering. A large percentage of guests are food-lovers so the menu card
should avail maximum dishes. Few of them are health conscious so there demands also
needs to be fulfilled by mentioned hotel group. Communication skills: Proper and good communication skills needs to practiced by the
front house area managerial staff. Information and queries should be resolved in with soft
spoken communication skills.
 Training and development: Hilton Hotel should avail training and development
programs to its manpower at regular intervals (Spigel, 2013). This will benefit
organization to accomplish its goals and objectives in prominent manner.
2.3, 3.3 Evaluation of the main operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance
Operational issues derails different plans and procedures of routine business activities
and hampers business performance and productivity. Hilton hotel's front area house is also
mislead by different operational issues which are discussed briefly below:
Hilton hotel is a huge business entity that requires good amount of funds to undertake
various hospitality services. Finance is the foundation stone for an organization to establish itself
in the market. Lack of funds hinders growth prospects of the mentioned company as it will not be
able to invest in new ventures and maintain its existing hospitality services.
The front house office of Hilton is responsible to respond their guests and clients with
effective communication skills. If the mangers deal with rigid and introvert manner it hampers
clients behavior. Soft spoken words makes positive impact on the minds of visitors that
ultimately benefits the organization in gathering influential responses from its clients.
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The HR team should hire qualified, skilled and extrovert nature manpower in Hilton
hotel. Human resources should be utilized effectively and efficiently. Untrained and unskilled
front house employees won't be able to clarify the doubts of visitors properly. Due to which
manipulation of information will take place. Therefore, Hilton hotel needs to focus on its front
house area human resources.
Apart from proper communication, coordination is also required element present in
operational activities. The front house area managers have to perform various activities in a
precised period and to meet these targets they need to coordinate with their colleagues and
customers (Urry and Larsen, 2011). Each and every visitors should be given proper responses to
their respective queries. These operational issues need to be figured out and resolved efficiently
within given period to accomplish organizational goals.
2.3, 3.3 Evaluation of the main operational issues affecting the effective management and
business performance
TASK B
4.1 Yield management techniques
Every business units operate within the market in order to earn high profits and sales
within the economy. It creates an effective impact on the growth of the business unit. Different
measures or techniques are adopted by the business units in order to attain high sales and
profitability (Abbott, 2014). The yield management measures for the present case can be: REVPAR: Revenue per available room is a simple and most effective technique used by
the hotel. It represents the ration or profit margin earned on each room available in the
hotel. It effectively considers the service range and associated cost of the room
occupancy and relatively calculate the cost and profit for the business. This method helps
in determining profit per room for the business. ADR: Average daily rate is another measure used by the business unit to determine
average occupancy rate of the business for a given time frame (Yield Management
Strategies: The Right Hotel Room Pricing, 2012). It indicates the average realized room
rental per day. Business units calculate this in order to analyse and flexible revenue
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management techniques. ADR is generally combined with REVPAR in order to attain the
effective sales for the business and develop effective budgeting measures. It helps in
calculating and managing the profit margin and sales planning of the business.
 Room occupancy percentage: This is a matrix which represents room occupancy
percentage of the hotel for determining sales projections and revenue generation
measures as well (Inkson and Minnaert, 2012). It is a well developed and effective
measure to analyse the business performance in the competitive market, in addition to
this, the stated measure helps in creating a wide impact on business development.
The above stated techniques represents the basic measures that the businesses adopts in
order to enhance sales within the market and create a wide and effective impact on the business
growth and development. The demand within the market for rooms variates on the basis of
seasonal impact. During travelling season the occupancy percentage of the rooms are high which
effectively helps in attaining ADR of the business. Hence, and REVPAR is high during this time
frame in oredr to attain high profitability. In contrary to this during off seasons the Occupancy
rate is low thus prices per room is cut to meet ADR and attain business objectives.
4.2 Analysing sales techniques that can be used promote and maximise revenue
Sales techniques which can helps the business unit in order to enhance market ales and
profitability for the organization are: Online marketing: This is one of the most effective technique for enhancing sales and
development of the business unit. It targets the modern and digital media who seeks time
saving measures for booking their tickets and planning effective trips. Advertisement
using google add words, SEO, Third party websites etc. for planning and targeting
consumers (Dredge and Whitford, 2011). Social media: Using social media to target socially active consumers and enhance
publicity of the company is a common means. Social media websites such as Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram are the most widely used measures. Developing page and indulging in
two way communication and posting advertisement helps in promoting products and
services and generate market demand for the same. Sales promotion: Developing attractive campaign through organising or sponsoring an
event to enhance use of services is an effective measure. For example developing hotel
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