Rooms Division Operations Management - Assignment Example

 Rooms Division Operations Management Table of Content TASK A 1. Introduction 2. Aspects of legislation and regulatory requirements relevant to room division operations 2.1 The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Equality Act 2.2 Health and safety commission 2.3 Protective clothing 3. Roles and responsibilities of a selection of accommodation and reception staff 4. Services offered by rooms division 5. Importance of the front of house area and the accommodation service to effective management 6. Aspects of planning and management of the front of house area and the accommodation service 7. Conclusion TASK B 1. Introduction 2. Revenue/yield management activities to maximize occupancy and rooms revenue 3. Sales techniques used to promote and maximise revenue 4. Forecasting and statistical data in the room division 5. Performance indicators used to measure the success of accommodation sales 5.1 Occupancy 5.2 ADR 5.3 REVPAR 6. Conclusion Bibliography TASK A 1. Introduction The hospitality industry is a service industry which deals with welcoming visitors with good food and offering them accommodation comfortably. The hospitality industry is characterized by generosity on the part of the management and staff in enhancing that their quests are highly satisfied by the services they are given so as to come back in the future. Room division management deals with management of the front office alongside other services as well as housekeeping services. Effective room division management has a high influence in the level of success of the hospitability business under perspective. The study of room division management in this case will take under perspective the Five Seasons Hotel in Hampshire, England. The Five Seasons Hotel is a five star hotel which is located in Hampshire, England near Winchester. This strategic location has made it possible for the hotel to enjoy a favourable base for sporting and concert events especially during holidays and weekends. The hotel offers a combination of contemporary and traditional style to a diverse market. The hotel has air-conditioned lavish rooms which are designed and decorated with state of the art technology. The guests in the hotel as treated to a wireless internet connectivity, gym in a fitness centre, sauna, and spa treatment. The hotel has a very nice impression because it has comfortable beds which are large enough for comfort. The staff is very hospitable and welcoming whose charm motivates their guests to visit them again and again. Regular refurbishment is done in order to keep the facilities up to date with the changing trends in the industry (Kasavana, & Richard. 2005). 2. Aspects of legislation and regulatory requirements relevant to room division operations Rules and regulations are set by the government in this industry in order to govern the operations of the business and also regulate the treatment of the guests, employees, food, beverages and the environment. With regards to room division, the followinglegislation and regulatory requirements apply. 2.1 The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Equality Act The Disability Discrimination Act was established in 1995 as a civil right of disabled people to enjoy the hotel services without discrimination on the basis of their disability. This act was replaced in 2010 by The Equality Act. This allows for the hotels to install facilities and services which cater for disabled persons in terms of hearing, mental, learning or dyslexia illness. The Five Seasons Hotel complies with this regulation by treating disabled persons as other able persons. The hotel admits all kinds of persons since they have good facilities, staff and services put in place to cater for all types of disabled persons. Some of the facilities witnessed in the hotel include wheelchairs, baby access services, audio tapes, interpreting persons among others(Vallen, & Vallen, 2005). 2.2 Health and safety commission Health and safety commission is a regulation with the mandate to protect the safety, health and welfare of employees working in the hospitality industry and the public who may suffer risk due to the activities they are exposed to inn the hotel environment. This regulation is implemented to enhance risk assessment of the employees and reduce accidents and hazardous incidences in the hotel. This is done by application of measures and strategies which allow for appropriate work arrangement; employment of skilled employees and trained work force with has the capacity to mitigate the effects of harm. The Five Seasons Hotel complies with this regulation by implementing basic health coverage to its employees to improve the safety and health of the employees, improvement of safety by handling such issues as proper ventilation, heating, seating and working environments, lighting and workstations. Machines equipment’s and facilities are regularly checked, implementing first aid services and facilities, training employees on first aid services and making sure that machines are working safely. 2.3 Protective clothing This regulation is implemented in the hospitability industry in order to protect the health and ensure safety of the employees. Personal protective equipment is also worn by the employer in order to ensure his/her safety. This special cloth protects the eyes, hands, feet, ears or face. Protective clothing ensures safety of staff by protecting parts of their bodies which can be harmed. For example, using gloves and masks when cleaning with harsh detergents protects the face, hands and most pert of the body (Walker, & Lundberg, Donald. 2005). 3. Roles and responsibilities of a selection of accommodation and reception staff The accommodation department provides the hotel with daily utility services which are required by the guests such as maintenance of the spa, fitness centre, hot water and steaming services, repair and maintenance and air conditioning. This department aims to provide the clients of the hotel with comfortable, charming and attractive environment which are very clean (Kasavana, & Richard. 2005). The reception department is divided into five areas which are Front desk, Bell service, Mail and information, Concierge, and Cashier and night auditors. The Front desk serves as the first impression as it is the first place the guests see when they enter the hotel. The staff in this area handles payments of booking services, answering questions which are of interest to the clients. Since the hotel environment is new to the clients, they take the role of familiarizing the customer with the hotel making them feel warm and comfortable (Walker, 2006). Bell services in this hotel responsible for carrying the luggage of their guests into the hotel after welcoming them at the door. Other bell staff in the hotel includes the elevator operators which help the clients with services in the elevator, lob porters to help with carrying issues, clerks and employees in charge of packing in the rooms. Mail and information staff is concerned with taking care of information regarding clients’ mail before they arrive at the hotel, during their stay in the hotel and after they leave. These clerks are in charge of the key to the rooms and most importantly answer the client’s questions regarding the hotel, rooms and other facilities. Concierge staff is uniformed staff that takes care of errands needed by the clients such as escorting the client to town, to the stations or to concerts around town. Cashier and night auditors take care of the financial aspects of the clients such as payment, billing and receipt maintenance (Walker, 2010). 4. Services offered by rooms division There are a variety of services offered by the accommodation department for a wide range of hospitality businesses ranging from pre arrival services up to departure. Pre arrival services are services offered to the customer format the time they call to enquire about their impeding visit to the hotel. This includes preparation of guest folios and pre-registration records. Arrival services are then offered to the customer after arriving at the hotel, and include services such as registration, welcoming, carrying baggage among others. Occupancy services are offered to the customer during their stay at the hotel. This is where most of the services are offered such as bar and restaurant, spa, warm rooms, wireless internet, sauna, room services, call services among others. Departure activities are offered to the customer as and after checking out of the hotel. The cashier clears the billing status of the clients as they baggage are carried to their cars or to the station (Upton-Smith, 2012). The front office division also offers a variety of services to the customers. This is the department which receives and welcomes the guests to the hotel and therefore plays a major role in ensuring a good impression of the hotel. The front office is in charge of luggage carrying and escorting the guests to their rooms after arriving at the reception. They also sell the accommodation of the hotel to the clients, handle any issues related to complaints, handle advance reservations, handle communication issues, attend to information and in-coming and out-going mails, and maintain effective communication and coordination between department (Vallen, & Vallen, 2005). 5. Importance of the front of house area and the accommodation service to effective management The front office aids in the management of the hotel since it is the department where communication links other departments. Each department connects effectively with the front office making it easy for the effective management. The hotel interior design has very distinct colour which is decorated with state of the art technology. The pattern and texture are effectively designed to incorporate flowers, lighting in floorings and walls. The front office and accommodation department maintains data and details of historical nature which allowed the marketing and sales department to effectively handle future issues on what to provide for what guests in case of future need. The front office and accommodation departments are the source of financial summaries of the hotel during a certain period of time which helps the management to access such information in case of auditing needs. The billing and cashier departments also rely on this information in order to make major decisions regarding the accommodation services. The front office department in very important when implementing changes in the hotel. This is because the front office provides information on the occupancy of various rooms as activities such as repairs and fitting cannot be done while there are guests on occupancy. Thus, they provide the information of the occupancy of the rooms for services such as plumbing, air-conditioning, lighting or heating to be installed or repaired. In the Five Seasons Hotel, the front office department coordinates with the maintenance department in order to ensure that the room is fixed before the arrival of the customer in order to avoid inconveniences (Walker, & Lundberg, Donald. 2005). The front office plays a major role in ensuring the safety of the visitors in the hotel. This is done by maintaining a good relationship with the security department where customers’ safety and security is maximized through adequate fire safety measures, alarms and investigation routines to identify any odd occurrences. The front office and accommodation department play a major role in determining the quality of services offered to the customers upon arrival into the hotel. This is because the front office works directly with the customers during their reservations to identify the type of foods they want. They then coordinate with the food and beverage department to ensure that the food is prepared precisely (Walker, 2010). 6. Aspects of planning and management of the front of house area and the accommodation service Planning is a very important aspect of management of the front of house area and the accommodation services. Planning activities starts with planning and formulation of room rates based on the expected return on investment of the hotel. Planning in the front office area is significant in hotel operations as it gives the hotel a sense of direction and focus. Planning helps the management of the hotel to arrange their operations consistently in line with the goals of the hotel. The front of house area plans for its operations by setting goals and defining them in a way they can be achieved by the hotel through coordination of different departments. The goals guide the activities of the hotels by guiding in formulation of specific, measurable, achievable and time-bound objectives. This is also intertwined with the need to formulate strategies which will ensure achievement of the set objectives (Walker, 2006). Management of the front office requires for operations and activities to be arranged in a way that meets the set objectives. This is done by organization of the staff to perform different tasks which is delegated to them. Resources and capabilities of the hotel are planned so as to ensure coordination in task achievement. Discipline is also very important in management of the hotel as it influences the rate at which the objectives of the business are achieved. Thus, measures are put in place to ensure employees follow the set procedures.  Operational issues affecting the effective management and business performance of the front of house area and the accommodation service include: The problem of overbooking especially during the peak season; In case of sporting activities or concerts around Winchester, the bookings of the hotel tend to go up by a high margin. This leads to overbooking given that technology has opened up to online booking. Sometimes there is collision at the front office when a client who has booked through online booking or a travel agent gets that all the rooms have been occupied and the hotel is fully booked to capacity (Vallen, & Vallen, 2005). Negligence of tasks; this occurs especially due to work shifts where the reception who checks in a customer will not be able to offer the services requested by the customer because he/she will be out of shift and another person who may not be brought to notice about the service ends up not delivering the service at all. Such services include wake-up call which is not done by the front office despite the request by the customer. This can cause serious issues with the customer in case they have major commitments. High levels of stress; the front office requires the clerks to handle all types of persons, those who are calm and those who are unhappy and angry. When the client is unhappy, there are high chances of being dissatisfied with the services offered by the hotel no matter how quality the servicesare. Thistransfers negative energy to the clerks leading to stress. Telephone and other equipment breakdowns; this can be very disappointing and inconveniencing especially because customer need to call to place their reservations. When the telephone breaks down, most of the operations of the front office departments become paralyzed. 7. Conclusion The hotel industry is regulated by legislations which govern the conduct of the hotels in terms of the operations of the business and also regulate the treatment of the guests, employees, food, beverages and the environment. This ensures safety and security of both customers and workers of the hotel. As seen in this report, there are several services offered by rooms division during pre-arrival, arrival, during occupancy and departure. The accommodation and the front office departments are the core of the room division management as they are the first impression the customer gets when he/she visits the hotel and therefore it aids in the management of the hotel. Thus, we can conclude that the front office determines the effectiveness of the room division management. TASK B 1. Introduction This section deals with methods and strategies which are adopted by the hotel to maximize their profits or revenues. The hotels need to increase their revenue by promoting the increase of their occupancy level since increase in occupancy leads to increase in revenue. This section also looks into forecasting and statistical data in the room division which projects the sales which are expected in the hotel in the future and the importance of such forecasts. 2. Revenue/yield management activities to maximize occupancy and rooms revenue Revenue/yield management activities are undertaken by the management of the hotel in a bid to understand and influence the booking behaviours of their customers. This is directed towards maximizing the profits from hotel resources. The hotel needs to provide the services and products which are highly demanded by their clientele in order to maximize their profits. The right products and services should be linked to the right place and the right type of customers discriminatively in order to maximize the resources. This strategy is known as market segmentation where different services and products are offered to only those customers who need them the most (Culbertson, 2007). The hotel can also maximize their profits through adoption of different marketing strategies which will improve the brand image of their products and services compared to their rivals. Marketing strategies are implemented in the hotel with a view of making more sales and attracting a diverse market share. This will in turn increase the profits generated by the hotel. Another activity will be to implement pricing strategies. While lowering prices has the tendency of raising the sales of the hotel, it may not necessarily lead to increased profits unless the costs of production are reduced. As such, the hotel should endeavour to reduce their costs of production in order to increase their sales through pricing strategies such as discounts (Culbertson, 2007). 3. Sales techniques used to promote and maximise revenue There are different methods which are adopted by hotels in order to market their rooms. The most common method is increasing the rates of the room during the peak season as the demand of the rooms is very high. Other methods include; Utilizing cooperate membership; this method is applied to those guestswho regularly visit the hotel for a couple of times in the year. This maximizes revenue since the hotel is sure such people will visit the hotel several times in the year. Appreciating business customers; these are people who stay in the hotel as they carry out their business activities around the town. Appreciating the business people can be done by offering them the right services to allow them to come back more times. Tour operates; tour operates can be given special attention where people book their reservations through travel agents. In this case, such people are given special offers in order to increase their attendance. Promotion and marketing of the hotels’ products and services; this is the right strategy to create awareness to the customers about the products and services offered by the hotel in order to the customers to have a choice in ordering the products. 4. Forecasting and statistical data in the room division The statistical data for the sales can be used as a feature of yield management in order to forecast the sales which are expected in the hotel in the future. Foretasting is important in the hotel as it gives the management of the hotel direction and focus in decision making in line with strategies which improve the performance of the hotel. Accurate forecasting of sales is an effective tool for hotels to develop ways of maximizing their sales and hence profits. Forecastingshould be used effectively to take care of the expectedoutcomes by allocating resources and capabilities where they deem to produce strengths to the hotel. Resources should be strategically located such the forests increases the volume of customers since the more the customers, the more the revenue generated by the hotel. The personnel of the hotel should also be allocated with the view of maximizing their input in areas where the hotel shows potential of improving profitability (Upton-Smith, 2012). 5. Performance indicators used to measure the success of accommodation sales To maximize the revenue of the hotel, the hotel needs to maximize the occupancy level by implementing several strategies. Maximizing profits of the hotel requires the hotel to not only look at pricing issues but also look at the selling strategies and inventory allocation. 5.1 Occupancy Occupancy is the percentage of rooms out of the available room capacity of a hotel which has been sold out or occupied by the clients within a specified period of time. Occupancy Percentage = (Total Number of Rooms Occupied / Total Number of Rooms Available for Sale) * 100 Beds occupied= 260 Beds available = 355 Occupancy = 260/355=0.732 x 100% 73.2%. 5.2 ADR ADR is abbreviated for Average Daily Rate and measures the average rate paid for rooms sold. The room revenue in divided by the number of rooms sold. ADR = Room Revenue / Rooms Sold Average daily rate $32, 250 Number of bed sold= 260 ADR= 32250/260 =$124 5.3 REVPAR REVPAR is an abbreviated form of Revenue per Available Room and it is the total revenue generated from the room divided by the total number of rooms the hotel holds. While ADR only accounts for the rooms which have been sold to the clients, REVPAR accounts for the unoccupied rooms REVPAR= Occupancy x ADR = 73.2% x $124 = $90.796. 6. Conclusion The analysis of the profit maximization of the hotels through various methods reveals that hotels services and products need to be promoted and strategies implemented in order to increase the occupancy levels. As such, different customers should be given different treatment in terms of prices and products depending on their loyalty level with the hotel. This is one way the hotels guarantees that regular customers maintain their royalty with the hotel. Different selling activities are responsible for promoting maximization of revenue such as advertising, appreciation of business customers, tour operates, and promotion of member ship. It is imperative to note that forecasting is an effective tool of ensuring that resources and capabilities are directed towards the right direction of achieving the best outcomes for the hotel. Bibliography Culbertson,M., 2007. Hotel Yield Management How Corporate Business is Evaluated, Global Account Executive Marriott Global Sales Marriott International. Kasavana, M. L. & Richard M. 2005. Managing front office operations, Educational Inst. of the Amer Hotel; 7 edition Seventh edition. Upton-Smith, V. 2012. Front Office: Rooms Division Management. International College of Hotel Management. Walker, J R., & Lundberg, Donald. E. 2005. The restaurant: from concept tooperation. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Walker, J R. 2006. Introduction to Hospitality. United States: Prentice Hall Walker, J. R. 2010. Introduction to Hospitality, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall. Vallen, G K & Vallen, J. J. 2000. Check-In Check-Out. United States: Prentice Hall Vallen, G. K., & Vallen, J. J. 2005. Check-in, check-out: managing hotel operations, 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Read More