Whitemead Forest Park and the Contemporary Hospitality Industry

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the contemporary hospitality industry, focusing on Whitemead Forest Park. It examines various business types within the industry, the operational and functional departments of Whitemead Forest Park, and the contribution of the hospitality sector to local, national, and international economies. The report also explores the interrelationships between different departments within the hotel, the role of franchising and licensing in the global development of the hospitality industry, and the impact of these practices on economic growth. Furthermore, it identifies various operational roles within the industry, the skills required to perform these roles effectively, and the existing skill gaps, along with potential solutions to bridge these gaps, providing a holistic view of the industry's dynamics and challenges.

Contemporary
Hospitality Industry

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Various types of businesses in hospitality industry and their offered products and services......3
Operational and functional department of Whitemead Forest Park............................................3
Contribution of hospitality industry for local, national and international economies.................4
Interrelationship of departments of Whitemead Forest Park Hotel.............................................5
Role of Franchising and Licensing in global development of hospitality industry.....................5
Franchising and licensing contribution toward a economical growth within hospitality sector. 6
Different operational roles within hospitality industry................................................................6
Skills required in hospitality industry..........................................................................................7
Skill gaps within hospitality industry..........................................................................................8
Solution of skill gaps within hospitality industry........................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing industries in today’s scenario. It has
many services to serve for their targeted customers. Hospitality industry is known for their
service providing facilities to their customers hence it is essential for them to provide better
services and make strategies according to their business operations and their business aim so that
they will achieve their organisational goal on time (Soelton, 2018). Whitemead Forest Park is the
famous hotel in UK which is established in 1971. The following report covers different types of
business in hospitality sector, operational and functional department in Whitemead hotel,
contribution of hospitality industry for the growth of local, national and international economies,
interrelationship of operational functions of mentioned hotel, role of franchising and licensing in
global development of hospitality industry, different operational roles and required skills and
talents to perform them and at the end this file covers skill gaps in hospitality industry and their
solutions.
Main Body
Various types of businesses in hospitality industry and their offered products and services
Travel and Tourism- This sector of hospitality industry covers to attract tourists across
the world and provide those facilities like staying, food, travelling, suggesting good and
attractive destinations and many more. These are the hotels that analyse the needs and wants of
their targeted tourist and work accordingly to gain their satisfaction.
Lodging Accommodation- These are the hotels which provide staying area for their
customers (Ushakov and et. al., 2020). Here, hotels provide luxurious as well as non luxurious
rooms to their customers according to their payment structure.
Food and Beverages- This sector is one of the most demanded sector of hospitality
industry where customers get food and drinks to consume. Here, customers like to spend their
weekends with families, they come and have the foods and drinks of their choice then they make
payments and left the hotel. Here, it is necessary that these hotels will focus on providing tasty
and hygienic foods to attract more customers.
Operational and functional department of Whitemead Forest Park
Housekeeping department- This department is responsible for keeping the hotel clean
and tidy for customers. The employees of this department in Whitemead Forest Park clean

rooms, bathrooms, dining area and the most important part of this hotel is its park area which is
full of greenery with grasses and plants. They make sure that their work will impress customers
and there will be no issues regarding cleanliness of hotel. It is essential that hotels will be clean
and hygienic because customers prefer to visit those hotels only which are clean and healthy to
spend some time there for customers.
Front Office department- This is the department which is seen first when customers enter
the hotel (Kukreti and Dani, 2020). Here, customers can ask their queries like about the hotel,
payment structure, facilities offered and many others. Whitemead Forest Park hotel have their
front office department which is responsible for clearing all doubts of customers. They also
attend the calls and accept booking for their customers.
Finance department- This department cover all activities related to finance. In context of
Whitemead hotel, their finance department employees are responsible to provide them a good
working budget to other departments, they make financial statements for the hotel, and they
record all expenses and incomes and suggest senior authority of hotel to take some good
strategies regarding their financial conditions. In short they control financial activities of the
hotel by recording all those activities which cover inflow and outflow of cash.
Contribution of hospitality industry for local, national and international economies
Hospitality industry plays an important role in the growth of an economy at local,
national and international level (Gao, 2020). In context of local level, they provide many benefits
like providing employments to needy people, fulfilling the needs and wants of those customers
who demanded for local products. They also help the local customers to develop their standard of
living.
In context of national growth of UK then hospitality industry is one of the biggest
industries which contributed a good amount of profit generation for the UK economy. They
contributed in increasing their GDP growth rate, employment rate by providing employment to
unemployed people and many others. They also help the nation to maintain the flow of their cash
in their economy which also control inflation. It also helps the country to develop from
infrastructural side. More luxurious and non- luxurious hotels will develop the country’s
infrastructure. Hence, hospitality industry is essential for a nation’s growth.
In context of international level hospitality industry of any country that is operating on
international level represent their country and its success. Secondly, hospitality industries at

international level also help other country population to take the benefits of their facilities and
improve their life standards (Gebreslassie, 2020). It also promotes globalization, hospitality
industry help to maintain a good relationship between two or more countries by having business
in another country.
Interrelationship of departments of Whitemead Forest Park Hotel
Housekeeping department and maintenance department- It is essential to main
maintain a good communication within these two departments because housekeeping department
is responsible for cleaning of whole areas of hotel whereas maintenance department is
responsible to maintain their hotel and keep repairing damaged items. When housekeeping
department clean the rooms and other essential areas of hotel then they recognize the damaged
furniture or damaged items in the room then they convey the message about damaged items to
maintenance department which immediately repairs the item. Hence, that’s why interrelationship
with these two departments in important.
HR department and front office department- HR department is responsible to make
strategies and manages employees in such a way that their performance will help the company to
reach their goals and front office department deal with customers and also analyse requirement
of employees in the hotel of Whitemead. Hence, front office department convey message to HR
about any requirement of new job role to HR department and HR department start processing the
process of recruiting and selection. Front office department also share the information such as
needs and wants of clients and their expectations to HR department so that they can make some
powerful strategies for their business growth (Jian-Zhen, 2018).
Role of Franchising and Licensing in global development of hospitality industry
Franchising is the way of international growth of company where there are two parties
involves, first is franchiser who is the main company in its home country and second is
franchisee who is taking franchising permission to use their brand name and pursue their
business in different countries. All decisions are made by franchisor and franchisee just needs to
follow the instructions only. In context of hospitality sector, Whitemead Hotel is suggested to
investigate those local hotels of different country who is not much popular and whose business is
not earning that much profit which is expected by its owner. Hence, Whitemead can influence
them to take their franchising for the benefit of both Whitemead and other hotel. Whitemead get
benefit by expanding their business and other hotel who is taking Whitemead franchising get

benefited to gain m ore customers and earn more by using brand and popularity of another
famous hotel. Hence, franchising helps to develop those hotels which have less scope to develop
and it also develop hospitality industry at worldwide level.
In context of licensing, it is the legal permission from main hotel as well as government
to pursue the hotel activities in a lawful manner (Jiahui, 2019). Providing licensing to hotels
means they have legal permission to perform their business activities. Here, customers believe
those hotels and restaurants more where they get licensing because of its legal permission.
Hence, customer’s perception toward licensed hotels is that they will provide best facilities with
less risk of unhygienic food or any other issues. Hence, licensing also plays an important role to
develop hospitality sector because after licensing customers are more loyal toward the hotel due
to which hospitality industry grow well.
Franchising and licensing contribution toward a economical growth within hospitality sector
Franchising and Licensing plays an important role in the development of an economical
condition. Franchising help the country in development because franchisee are those hotels
which has less scope of development by their own brand name. Hence, they use another brand
name from their permission for business and they pay fees for this. This helps the hotel to grow
more and employee more people from their area. It also develops the life standard of another
country people by using the products and services of international hotel. Infrastructure of the
country also develops because franchising has the rule of adopting same business as its
franchisor has. Same kind of building, same interior, same uniform of employees, same services
and etc. franchisee is the copy of franchisor in different country. Hence, it also helps the
economy to grow well their infrastructure. On the other hand licensing also helps the economy to
grow well (Johnson, Huang and Doyle, 2019). With the help of licensing they can influence their
population to use the facilities which get permitted by the government. Hence, here people get
more aware about their rights and other facilities which they have from government side.
Therefore, licensing help the economy to create a trust among customers toward a brand which
further helps the country to develop the mindset of their population toward the high standard of
living.
Different operational roles within hospitality industry
Waiter/ waitress- This job role is responsible for maintaining good relations with
customers and they are the employees who serve food to customers. They take orders from

entered customers then convey the order to chef and their assistant and when the food is prepared
by the kitchen department then they take the food dishes and reaches to customer’s table. They
are also responsible to ask whether their customers need anything else or not. They take feedback
from customers that whether they likes or dislikes the food dishes then they convey the message
to kitchen department so that they can make changes in the taste of their dishes according to the
feedback of customers.
Chef and chef assistants- Chef is the person who prepare dishes for their customers and
have good ideas of inventing new dishes with their skill and talent (Yang and Han, 2021). Chef
assistants are those people who help the chef in the kitchen to prepare the dishes for the
customers. A single chef is unable to handle all orders together. Hence, they have assistants who
follow the instructions given by chef to prepare the dishes according to them. The main
responsibility of chef and their assistants is that they must provide tasty and hygienic food to
their customers which will satisfy them and influence them to come again at next time.
Event manager- It is the person who manage whole event which is going to happen and
which is happening in a hotel. Event manager manages all require resources and analyse the
invitees needs and wants for the event that which kind of event they like the most by having
conversation with them (Bhat and Sharma, 2021). They arrange the human resources for
handling and managing other activities of events like serving food and drinks, welcoming guests
and etc. The main responsibility of event manager is to satisfy their invitees with their
arrangements.
Skills required in hospitality industry
Hospitality industry is a combination of product providing as well as service providing
company where skills matters a lot. Various skills are required in hospitality industry and some
essential skills are mentioned below-
Communication skill- This is the skill which is required to communicate well with other
employees at hotel. It consists to listen carefully what others are saying and giving back feedback
for their conversation. Sometimes not only words but body language, signs and many other
things is used to communicate. In Whitemead hotel their employees show thumps up sign to say
“okay everything is fine” and many others. Here, employees do not hesitate to say their point of
view. Hence, communication skill is one of the most required skills by hospitality sector.

Time management skill- It is another important skill required in hotels. In Whitemead
hotel their staffs always makes sure that their services will be served on time to customers. In
case customer ordered to clean the room within 20 minutes then it is the responsibility of
housekeeping department that the room should be cleaned within 20 minutes. Time management
is also considered as important skill to attract customers. In food and beverages areas time
management skill is most important (Aydin, 2020). Here, chef has to prepare food dishes on time
which is said by their waiter to the customers.
Skill gaps within hospitality industry
Decision making skill- This is the skill which is required in every business but companies
are lacking behind to adopt this skill. In hospitality industry, most of the hotels are lacking
behind to adopt this skill in choosing good growth strategy. Most of the hotels are unable to
choose their suitable growth strategy for their business. Sometimes, many hotels did not able to
manage their available resources within their hotel for their best usage. Hence, most of the hotels
are lacking behind to take good decisions for the benefit of their hotel.
IT skills- Hotels are considered as service providing organisations where most of the
employees are hired in service sector (Simillidou, Vrontis and Christofi, 2019). They did not
focus to hire IT expert in their hotels. Today most of the hotels adopt new technologies and uses
digital devices in their hotels. Hence, in case of any issues in these devices IT expert will help to
sort out the issues but due to lack of IT skill employee’s hotels have to ask help from outside IT
agencies and have to pay a large amount of fees to them. Hence, lack of IT skills employees is
dangerous for hotels.
Solution of skill gaps within hospitality industry
Hire IT skill employees- It is essential for hotels to hire IT skill employees also to manage
the software and hardware issues within the company to save the huge amount which is to be
paid to IT agencies for solving the issues. Hence, hiring IT employees and having their
department is a good idea to eliminate skill gap within hospitality sector.
Analyse the marketing situations- It is important for hotels to analyse their marketing
situations and trends before making any decision (Simillidou, Vrontis and Christofi, 2019). Here,
it is essential to analyse the external and internal business environment before choosing a growth
strategy. Hence, the only solution of the issue of lack of good decision making skills within
hotels is that hotels must analyse their existing marketing environment and the impact of their

findings on their business before taking any decisions and they are also suggested to make a
report of their analysis for future use.
Conclusion
From the above information it is concluded that hospitality industry is having various
businesses to perform. There are various departments within hotels whose interrelation with each
other is essential for the smooth functioning of the hotel. Franchising and licensing plays an
important role in them growth of hospitality industry and also in the growth of economy. There
are various skills in hotels and some hotels are lacking behind to adopt some essential skills for
the growth of their hotel. Hence, solving the issues of lack of skill is essential for each
organisation.

References
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