Melbourne Marriot Hotel: Hospitality and Tourism Industries - Assignment Example

Melbourne Marriot Hotel: Report Introduction Hospitality and tourism industries have witnessed a boom as a result of the significant growth in travel and business sectors. While hospitality deals with accommodation and food, tourism deals with transportation, accommodation, and leisure. Event industry is the third and recent addition that intends to promote tourism in an area. A look into the features of the three proves that they all are interlinked and mutually beneficial. Evidently, all the three fields are service oriented where the host-guest relationship plays the important role. In all the sectors, the quality of service is vital for sustainability. Melbourne Marriot Hotel is one of the most admired firms in the region that has been deploying all the possibilities of hospitality, tourism, and event industries for its business growth. Melbourne Marriott: An Overview The Melbourne Marriott hotel is one of the distinguished franchisees of Marriott International, Inc. The hotel located in Melbournes central business district is unique for its personalized services and exceptional amenities. Melbourne Marriott constitutes the perfect stay for the people who visit the city. Melbourne Marriott hotel is the franchisee of Marriott International, Inc founded by J. Willard Marriott in 1927. Marriott was aware of the potentiality of hospitality industry and its scope in Melbourne. He later expanded his venture into a chain of restaurant and hotels over 74 countries with more than 3800 properties. Major Amenities The Melbourne Marriott Hotel has 185 guest rooms and 19 luxury suites, and all are uncommonly spacious and airy. Its lobby area is exceptionally elegant in style and facilities in rooms may surpass the wildest expectations of the visitors. One important feature of the hotel is its 100% non-smoking policy in its premises. Other important facilities include but not limited to heated salt water swimming pool, spa and gymnasium, conference hall, event facilities, bar, dry cleaning, and currency exchange. All bedrooms contain ‘one queen or two double beds and separate change area’ (Melbourne Marriot Hotel, visitvictoria.com). it also contain writing desk, phone, voice mail, TV, coffee making facility, iron, toaster, newspaper, Wifi access, porter bell, pull-out sofa bed, custom duvets, rollaway bed etc. Its reception works 24 hours and allows luggage storage ensuring extended customer service in every possible way. 24 hour room service, secure parking, and wheelchair facility also make the service incomparable. The Melbourne Marriott hotel is well known for its Business Center as well. It also works 24 hours, and has facilities like high speed internet, personal computers, and administrative services. The hotel provides private meeting rooms and evening drinks. It has facilities to offer catering service up to 250 professionals at a time. According to scholars like Andrews, hospitality has four essential attributes. Firstly, there is a relationship between people who are always destined to play the roles of guests and hosts. Secondly, this relationship is either private or social, and thirdly, its success is based on the degree of pleasure it presents to the guest. Lastly, it includes three processes of arriving, receiving service, and departure (17). Melbourne Marriott has made use of all these relationships. Fitness & Attraction When considering the amenities of the hotel, the nearby attractions also have to be counted toward its competitiveness. The Hotel situates just 5 km away from the Port Melbourne Beach and 3 km from South Melbourne Beach. It has a number of golf courses nearby such as Malvern Valley Public Golf Course, Yarra Bend Public Golf Course, Brighton Public Golf Course, and many golf clubs. Other local attractions include but not limited to Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Zoo, Crown Casino & Entertainment Complex, Melbourne Museum, Victorian Arts Centre, Chinatown, and Yarra River (marriot.com). With regards to costs, the hotel offers Buffet breakfast at 35.00 AUD and Continental breakfast at 24.00 AUD. The hotel’s current average per night rate is 219 AUD. Competitive Strategies Citadines is one of the main competitors of Melbourne Marriot Hotel. This hotel is fully equipped and its kitchenette contains” a cooker hob and hood, convection microwave oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, glassware, crockery, cutlery and utensils” (citadines.com). Other amenities include ‘Broadband internet access along with direct dial telephone and IDD service, cable TV, DVD, CD and iPod player’ (citadines.com). Like Marriot, Citadine also has 24 hour front desk and room service, safe parking, restaurant facilities. Despite the growing competition, Melbourne Marriot Hotel has its unbeatable role in the hospitality industry. The firm has its website, customer comment cards, and loyalty programs all which ensure business promotion through customer interaction. The website offers online booking and ordering facility. The customer comment cards collect names, addresses and other details of the customers, and the data will be utilized for making customer portfolio that will be used for future businesses and customer retention strategies. The success of any business firm largely depends on its product quality and service efficiency. However, high quality products can be designed, produced, and delivered only if high quality people are employed. In hospitality business that offers customized services, factor like employee recruitment, selection, and retention are particularly vital to meet customer satisfaction. While analyzing Marriot’s recruitment and selection policy with reference to related practices such as training and development, staff turnover, and rewards and benefits, its policies seem strategic. To illustrate, the organization uses effective and extensive recruitment and training approaches to attract, identify, develop, and retain potential staff that would best suit Marriot’s long term business interests. For instance, Mr. Harry Singh who joined Melbourne Marriot 2001 as a Management Trainee, now is the Director of Food & Beverage. He has been experiencing a steady career growth since he joined the firm, for he also took up the roles of Banquets Manager, Food and Beverage Manager, and Operations Manager during this period (“staff profiles”). Conclusion As Barrows and Powers remind, the present-day customers are not like the customers of the baby-boom who only looked for leisure. Now, the clients look for everything from transportation facilities, accommodation, food, attractions, and other activities. In addition, there are various specialized groups of customers ranging from the so-called green customers, the adventurers, the family travelers and so on (25). Admittedly, Melbourne Marriot Hotel has identified this shift in customer needs and interests. The hotel has put its full potential to facilitate all essential requirements for entertainment and comfort. Works Cited Andrews, Sudhir. Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality Industry. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 2007. Print. Barrows, W. Clayton and Powers, Tom. Introduction to the Hospitality Industry. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,2009. Print. citadine.com. (n.d.). web 27 Jan 2014 “Melbourne Marriot Hotel”. Visitvictoria.com. web 27 Jan 2014. marriot.com. (n.d.). web 27 Jan 2014. “Staff Profiles”.marriot.com. Web. 27 Jan 2014. Read More