Location, Marketing, and Empowerment for Hospitality Operations and Management - Essay Example

Running Head: HOSPITALITY OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT. Hospitality Operations and Management Name Institution Date Hospitality Operations and Management Introduction Hospitality is the connection between a visitor and his or her host. Hosts who are hospitable kindly show care and compassion to their guests. The facilities in the hospitality industry includes: hotels, restaurants, casinos, and membership clubs among others. Hotels are the commonly used as they offer services extra from what the other facilities offer therefore most of the travelers find them more comfortable. These facilities offer basic needs for the travelers or tourists like food, shelter, and safety. They act as their homes away from home and for a short period of time. There are so many things that people should put into consideration when putting up a hotel to ensure comfortability of the guests. The major ones include location and management then after the hotel is put up other considerations like marketing will come in. The paper explores how location and marketing or the relationship between them can affect hospitality operations and management (Sommerville, 2007). Location A hotel is a building, so it is not flexible in terms of its movement. If it has to move it means that a new building has to be constructed but not moving the old. Thus the site of the hostel should be the key factor to think about even before design and construction. Location gives the insight of all what to include and has an important effects on the targeted market. For example nearness to an attraction site where people will tour hence needing accommodation or big business premises to offer board rooms. The building should also be located on a firm ground not a swampy one so as to last for long (Jack, 2000). The first thing that people will consider when choosing a place to stay is safety, which is the security of the environment. As mentioned earlier, a hotel should be like a home away from home and nobody can agree to reside in an insecure home. The hotel should be sited where the guests can be guaranteed security for both their life and property. Insecurity may bring a loss to the management where it is forced to compensate for lost items or pay for body injury (Drummond & Ensor 2005). Location also helps the management should know the type of guests to target and their requirements, for example, if to hotel is near a learning institution the targeted guests should be learners. This makes it easier for the management to know what to provide for the comfort of their guests. For instance, learners may expect a cool and quiet place but others like the tourists may need some entertainment (Axler, 1976). The management should be aware and always updated on what goes on in the surrounding of the hotel. This helps them to update their status or change them completely. For example, if a tourists attraction site which was bringing them guests is abolished or a new site is available the, location of the hotel should either be changed or its services improved to suit the needs of the new guests (Crane 2000). The supplies should be another thing to consider when locating a hotel. These are the goods that the guests will require such as materials or foods. The management should consider how easily it is to get the supplies of the hotel. This does not necessarily mean that the hotel is near a shopping area but how convenient it is to supply the materials. This should be looked at in terms of transportation; the means of transport should be perfect in case of urgent supplies. The means of transport should also be good for the guests to comfortably move to their places of interest and back to the hotel without causing inconveniences (Mill, Kamra & Kaushill, 2000). The hotels should be located in areas free from any kind of pollution so as to be comfortable for the guests. For example, it shouldn’t be near an industry for air pollution or a noisy place like a market and clubs. Means of communication is another factor which should be considered when selecting the place to locate a hotel. Communication is the key issue in the society and that’s why as the technology is advancing it concentrates so much on it even the distribution of the mobile phones as a communicating device supports the facts that everybody wants to be part of the communicating networks. Most of the hotels are located away from the busy urban centers where land lines may not be available thus their managements are forced to consider whether other wireless networks are available for convenient communication (Kappa, 1997). Marketing So as to be successful in marketing a hospitality operation the management should built a good marketing plan which fits the objectives of its business. The behavioral forces and the marketing components should be well analyzed and combined to form a reasonable marketing mix (Rutherford & O'Fallon, 2007). These marketing components includes: product-service mix, presentation mix, communication mix, pricing mix and distribution mix. These components are further classified to offering and process variables. The offerings include product, services, brand, pricing and packaging, and the process variables include: advertising, public relations, sales promotion, marketing research and distribution channels. They are called process variables because unlike the tangible products they are services which people experience the time they are receiving them, for instance, advertising is a service which people only hear but cannot see it or touch it (Ashley 2001). Product-service mix is a combination of the products and services available in a hotel, for example, provision of the board room, the facilities available in the room and the security offered. These services should be having something special to distinguish them from the usual ones offered by the other hotels. It is advisable also to understand the type of the guests that the hotel is dealing with, for instance, a conference for politicians cannot be offered similar services as that of clergy people (Miller, Walker & Drummond, 2006). Presentation mix is the environment at which the services are offered. This includes the nature of the facility and surrounding. The hotel should be appealing and comfortable, this includes being clean and having enough space for free movements of the guests and surrounding should also be calm for example free from noise and any other kind of atmospheric pollution. The person offering these services should also be considered; he should have a good relationship with the guests. He should be welcoming and friendly. This ensures that the guests not only receive high quality services but also receive them in through the best way possible (Kandampully & Mock 2001). Services are not only rendered by people and also through devices like electronics, for instance, providing guests with a television or a telephone in the room so as to watch programs or communicate. The goods offered goes along with their concerned services and in a better way, the guest is ruined if he or she is provided with a smart room after along arguments with the operation over the number of days to occupy it (Jones, 2007). Before deciding how to deliver the services, it is essential for the operations to study the guests and familiarize with their points of interests. By mastering their interests they will be able to know the atmosphere at which the services should be delivered. For example, the young people may enjoy staying in an environment with enough entertainment and even most of them will not mind sleeping in a room with loud music. On the other hand the older people will prefer having moderate entertain or sleeping in a completely quiet place. It is advisable to consider the interest of both groups of people since it is difficult to decide which group to host or have an identified group. Most of the time the guests will be mixed and they all expect to feel at home. This calls for strict attention of the operations to ensure that all the guests are comfortable (Jones, 2002). Communication mix involves all the marketing operations taking place between the operations and the consumers or the hosts and the guests. These include advertising where the operators makes the consumers informed of their services or public relations a voice that speaks on behalf of the hotel. The other types of communication aspects include word of mouth, casual contact, and operational communication. These communication systems are necessary as they ensure a good connection between the hosts and the guests. In a hotel where there is good interaction among those involved, the guests are so comfortable that they built a good rapport even among themselves. Good communication for example through advertising can attract so much attention of the consumers but this needs the back up of the contact relationship between the consumer and the operations. If there is a good relationship, both will benefit where by the management will be able to analyze the consumer’s perceptions hence will know where to improve their performance (Powers, Powers & Barrows, 2002). Advertising and trade promotion are important activities in marketing. They help to increase sales by creating awareness of new commodities to the public. When a new service in a hotel is launched the advertisers should make use of it to capture the attention of the consumers even though this depends on the techniques used. The management should ensure that their advertisers and sales people have excellent communication skills. This is necessary because they have a direct contact with the consumers hence should be able to hold them and attract them to the firm. They should be aware of the stiff competition in the market and work hard to be the best (Jones, 2007). Price changes affect the sales negatively. The marketing manager should be informed of the possible outcome when setting the prices of the commodities. If the prices are too high it means that only few people will afford it and if it is below the standard it means that the products and services offered are of low quality hence the sales will reduce. Pricing mix entails the factors put in place when deciding the price of a specific service. These factors include examining the understanding of the target consumers and the new product as well as the producer’s price (Brown 2009). Distribution mix is a combination of the location and specifically where the services are delivered, for example, if the consumers want to buy food from a hotel they go to the accountants and pay the bill then the goods are delivered to them. This mix should be well done so as to prevent inconveniencing the guests. The management should organize their firms in a way that their consumers will have easy time accessing all the services (Mullins, 2007). A good marketing program generally entails knowing the type of the products or services the firm specialize with, setting a convenient price; Choosing a better marketing tool, for example, advertising or sales promotion which informs the potential consumers about a product and deciding on the best channels or means of distribution like hotels, casino and so on(Adams, 2006). The physical evidence is also important for successful marketing in hospitality operations and management. These are the material cues of services and include people and process. In hospitality industry human beings are the most important elements to deliver services because they have the capability of considering the interests of the guests as they offer the services, also because they have the social skills to be able to relate well with the other people. The processes are the services that the guests receive as their interests are being fulfilled. For example, as they are informed of a new product, the service of advertising takes place. This is a service offering other services (Pizam & Holcomb 1997). Location marketing Location marketing can also be known as place marketing or simply refer to the act of creating awareness of the site or location to the public through advertising its attractiveness and creating a preferred image to ensure a successful future of whatever is cited in the area. To ensure the targeted level of the performance of the investment is achieved or directing the investment to the right fields and much attention has to be drawn on the international industry of tourism and inhabitants who give the place a real strength (Mudie & Pirrie 2006). (Keegan 2003) argues that location marketing is divided into three general classifications based on the area concern: investors or entrepreneurs, potential and current residents and the tourists. Each of the classes has different levels or subdivisions which facilitates the success of the marketing process by following the stages of the subclasses. It does not only create awareness of the existence of an investment but also help to find market for their exports (Withers & Vipperman 2007). Place marketing is a global phenomenon reinforced by the stiff competition in the companies, investors and the rising needs of the visitors or the tourists, all the locations whether in Europe, Asia, America or in Australia calls for special or unique appearance so as to fit in the market. Tourists are attracted to places which are well maintained or bearing a good public reputation like the biggest ship park in the world but not the ones with the negative reputations like insecurity, untidiness and so on (Dacko 2008). Many of the existing firms are trying to face their appearances to replace their negative images with the ones which are more appealing to the consumers and this goes along with the branding, so as to be certain that the firm is completely different from the previous one. Just like the products and services, places also need to be marketed with the relevant marketing tools. When an infrastructure is put up in an area, with the identified target group, for example the tourists; it is the duty of those concerned with place marketing to transfer the assumed identity to be understood by the targeted group and capture their attention (Czinkota & Ronkainen 2007).This is achieved when the image of the place is planted in the minds of the consumers even before they see it. This calls for more creativity in formulating the marketing factors for it is an aspect to be integrated in the economic development of an area or place. Thus each place requires having its own solutions to be victorious and visions as a guidance to the development policy (Bruhn & Georgi 2006). New ideas are needed to for place marketing to give locations a new set of tools. Brands are the centre of concentration for most of the markets as it facilitates the place to decide the most necessary contents of marketing. When an area decides its brand it works hard to make services, appearances and messages reliable with the chosen brand of identity. Thus branding is one of the aspects of location marketing and it is mostly related to nation and countries of origin or with the products and services it offers (Withers & Vipperman 2007). Location marketing is a business term used to describe complex packages of goods, services the way consumers perceive things or a combination of these they set the goals of the business other than the monetary targets because the contribution of the location in the success of the firm is not measured in terms if the amount of money that it produces but in terms of what it holds. There is a wide agreement in the modern place marketing concerning the likelihood of efficiently using marketing tools in the development of a place (Drummond & Ensor 2005). Conclusion The facilities in the hospitality industries should be looked at from a perspective of a social place than a business premises. The owners and operators should not be satisfied by the huge amount of money but by the quality services they offer their guests. They should ensure that they built a good relationship with their guests so as to improve their sales and easily do a research of the perception of the customers towards the performance of the firm(Drummond & Ensor 2005). There are many things that should be put into consideration so as to guarantee the management an output of ideal services but management, marketing and location are the most sensitive areas which should be put into consideration so as to easily achieve the goals and objectives of the firm. The location of the firm is so essential because everybody likes staying in a conducive environment (Bruhn & Georgi 2006). Most of the hospitality facilities are business operations, the owners are after making money. As much as they run homes for the travelers, their services are not charity based, by this I mean they work for money. Before deciding on the services to offer the management should do a marketing research. They should plan the product to offer, the standard prices to set, where to offer them and how (Kappa, Nitschke & Schappert, 1997). This kind of business involves individual interactions between the host and the guest. The mood of the place is always set by the host since he or she welcomes the gests and as the saying goes when you go to Rome you do as the Romans do, the guest is expected to behave like the host. This calls for the management to ensure that the operators are comfortable with their work since they are the ones with direct contact with the guests (Keegan 2003). All the personnel should be included in forming the strategies of running a firm. This is to ensure that all the factors are considered so as to form a manageable program. The togetherness also makes everybody feel as part of the firm hence works hard to see its success. The location should be well marketed to ensure that the consumers are well informed of the existence of a firm (Dacko 2008). 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