Common Accreditation Standards in Hotels - Essay Example

Common Accreditation Standards in Hotels Introduction Tourism is one of the most important features of a country; the government of every country tries to create an environment which would attract tourists. Tourism has many benefits it is an important contributor to economic well being and stability; "to employment opportunity; under achievement; and a significant measure of a nation equality and quality of life". The benefits of tourism not only end here, tourism also helps in spreading of culture and increasing export activities. Hence, it is an easy evaluation that tourism is an essential feature of a country therefore to increase tourism government of a country creates policies. These policies are based on improving infrastructure, affordable and luxuries transport facilities and above all luxuries accommodations. Accommodation is a serious issue because not only tourists, VIP's, foreign government officials, celebrities visiting a country all need hotels for accommodation. Thus the basic criterion to impress visitors, guests or tourists is to provide them with a choice of hotels which maintain certain standard of luxury. UK is one of the territories that attracts a large number of tourists, celebrities, government officials and hence, it needs a variety of accommodations. People from different strata's of world come to visit the United Kingdom. Thus, to improve the standards of hotels and to grade hotels the government of the United Kingdom have deduced a way known as common accreditation standard aimed at grading the UK's hotels. Accreditation Procedure A certification is an external evaluation of a hotel by a third- party to achieve certification by the third party that the organization is providing certain amount of luxury and comfort. This certification is verified by an authoritative body they verify the competence of those doing the certifying or auditing. The accreditation is common of services like health care services, educational services and hotel services. The accreditation process is a procedure which not only focuses that the hotels maintain minimum criteria of comfort and luxury but accreditation model includes several elements that promote quality improvement. (Christine et al, 149) In the case of hotels, the process of accreditations is divided into two sections. The first one reviews the hotels operation's satisfy the specific minimum quality criteria. While the second procedure of accreditation is to check weather training programs satisfy the specified minimum quality criteria. Hotels Operation's The accreditation process evaluates hotels operations from every section and subsection. The location of a hotel is an important aspect the hotel, it should be at a place from were transportation is easily available, located at a place from were all famous sights must be close by. The facade, architectural features and general construction of the building shall have distinctive qualities. Bedroom should be of a decent size, inclusive of bathrooms. There shall be one suite per thirty guest rooms. All rooms must have bathrooms which shall be equipped with fittings of the highest quality befitting a with 24-hour service of hot and cold running water. Then there should be other equipments like telephones, television refrigerator in working conditions. There shall be a 24-hour room service. (Carla and Petty, 38) Housekeeping shall be of the highest possible standard. There shall be plentiful supply of linens, blankets, towels, etc., which shall be of the highest quality and shall be spotlessly clean. The linens, blankets and towels shall be changed daily. Laundry and dry cleaning services shall be available in the establishment. All public and private rooms shall have superior quality carpeting which shall be well kept at all times. There shall be a coffee shop and at least one specialty dining room which are well-equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained, serving high quality cuisine and providing entertainment. Availability of a bar with an atmosphere of comfort and luxury is also a vital thing. "The kitchen, pantry and cold storage shall be professionally designed to ensure efficiency of operation and shall be well equipped, well-maintained, clean and hygienic; the crockery shall be of elegant design and of quality". Then there are recreational facilities, there shall be a well-designed and properly equipped swimming pool. There shall be at least one recreational facility or a tie-up with one within the vicinity of the hotel. There shall be saloons, and if possible casinos. Maintenance of all sections of the hotel (i.e., building furniture, fixtures, etc.) shall be of superior standard. There shall be centralized air-conditioning for the entire rooms. There shall be adequate lighting in all public and private rooms. There shall be a high-powered generator capable of providing sufficient lighting for all guest rooms, hallways, public areas/rooms, and operating elevators, food refrigeration and water services. It should be secure from all kinds of man made disasters an example of which the availability of fire prevention facilities. Then there shall be special facilities like valet parking, outdoor area, shops, business center, limousine service and airport transfers. These are certain features of accreditation process. Training Programs Accreditation is aimed at study programs for restaurant cooks, waiters/waitresses, room service assistants and hotel receptionists in the field of hotel and restaurant services. To pass accreditation tests there is an eligibility requirement that include certain specifications by the employees. Which include that receptionist of a hotel in addition to possessing the general basic skills should be well groomed, presentable, well versed. Receptionist should be able to handle all the regular duties of a hotel and should be capable of selling hotel products and services to customers. They know how to attend to meeting services and serving tasks in a comprehensive manner. Hotel receptionists must have good interaction or communication and co-operation skills. They must also take an active interest in current affairs. (Edita Prima Oy, Helsinki) Then there are cooks of hotel, cooks are an essential asset of a hotel as they can please customers in a fascinating way. The cooks should be competent of cooking delicious food for a number of people at a time, they should be able to cook a variety of dishes like continental and chin ease. They should be able to serve food, including planning of portions, presentation of food, as well as storage of foodstuffs. Cooks should also have knowledge of balanced diets and international requirements of gastronomy. They must know how to act economically and profitably and they must have aesthetic insight. Then the cooks must be able to work with a group of other cooks and assistants. In addition to restaurant terminology used in their own country, they must also understand English and French restaurant terminology. (Edita and Helsinki, 8) Waiters/waitresses and room service assistance even are require to have basic skills of cleaning making beds and providing customers comfortable and luxuries services. They must be able to function in serving, sales, cash register and other customer service assignments at licensed restaurants. They must be familiar dealing with customers and patiently bearing their moods and be able to actively satisfy customers. They must have good communication, sales, interaction and human relations skills and sufficient language skills to provide customer service. (Edita and Helsinki, 9) Hence after a thorough evaluation a hotel ok UK is given accreditation which enhances the image of that hotel and provides them with popularity and an increase in business. Common Accreditation Standards and Controversies The United Kingdom always has a great attraction for the tourists and the hotels are focal point for the tourists for their stay. There is always a need for a system that can evaluate the quality standards of UK hotels. In order to carry independent assessment of UK hotels, tourism bodies including "AA, RAC, Visit Britain, Visit Scotland and the Wales Tourist Board" have designed certain standards which had been followed to assess the hotel standard. These standards are consisting of the criteria that are set by the authorities in order to determine the star rate of a hotel by assessing. This system of accreditation was formulated in the year 2006 and in 2007 the guidebook containing all the standardized grading system for all hotels in Scotland, England and Wales is released. (Vicky, n.p.) The standards described in this system are followed by all the main tourism bodies like Visit Britain, Visit Scotland, Visit Wales and the AA and it is aimed that by the year 2008, all the hotels will upgrade themselves according to the standards called "National Quality Assurance Standards". The new ratings will be phases in by January, 2008. (Web, n.p.) According to this system the assessment of the hotels will be done in a manner that all the aspects of the accommodations will be monitored and if it is found that any property did not meet the standards of that level then it will be graded in to a lower level. That low rated hotel will be recommended to the people by the tourism bodies through their website and in this way they have made some arrangement for promoting even those hotels that didn't meat certain standards and called as non-accredited hotels. The hotels were rated on the based of their property and service quality. This monitoring is done by the inspector who will not disclose his identity and make a complete tour of entire premises. In order to make sure that the hotel is following the standards, annual inspections of the hotels will also be done. There are certain standards that have been decided by the planners to be followed by the hotels to com under specific star rate. The system proposed to rates the hotels in one start to five star hotels, in following manner. The One Star Hotel is supposed to be a small hotel which is usually established by any independent owner. Such hotels usually possess family atmosphere. In this standard of hotel there are limited facilities available to the guest or tourist and they receive somewhat informal service from the staff. There is a possibility that the guests don't have the servings of lunch and dinners in their rooms however it is still very necessary that the hotel should be very clean, well maintained and comfortable so that the guest feel that he is getting some level of quality service from the hotel. The Two Star Hotel is usually a small to medium sized hotel. As compared to the one star hotel the guest or tourist can have more and better level of facilities available to them. There are usually en-suite bath/shower rooms with the guestrooms and in this hotel it is also supposed that the hotel staff will have a professional way to dealing with the guests and tourist. The guest can also expects better level of care and service in this hotel. The guestrooms of the hotel should be clean, comfortable and well-equipped. In the Three Star Hotel, the guestrooms are highly equipped and the guest can have a wider range of services and facilities. The rooms should also equipped with hair dryer, trouser press, direct dial telephone and color TV. The room service is also limited in this level of hotel. The Four Star Hotel provide a higher quality of service and luxury to their guests and they have a expert professional approach towards the guest care and serving. They also offer 24 hour room service to the guests. The Five Star Hotels offer the guests higher and refined level of luxuries and services. The staff should be professional, efficient, active and sympathetic towards the guests. The accommodation must be equipped with quality fixtures, fittings and equipment. The tourism bodies of the United Kingdom have taken a long way to agree upon a common standardizing system that can rate the hotels and that rating could be declared in the industry. After the efforts of so many years this common accreditation system is approved and implemented by the tourism bodies but even this system is facing certain criticism and some experts feel that it is not going to work effectively as many flaws are present in this system. Many people think that just like several other system that were proposed previously, this system also cannot be implemented through out the United Kingdom. as the international Hotels and International Restaurant Associations follow their own standards and they take care of their own reservation, it is possible that they might not accept this accreditation system because it seems to be quite impractical and the feasibility of the system is also questioned. There are certain categories that are mentioned in the system in order to examine the quality of the hotel but there is a thought that a hotel is not a commodity that can be categorized on any base. It is also believed that a hotel quality cannot be qualitatively measured because they are many factors related with the quality and standard of a hotel that are based on the personal perception and past experiences of the people (Ward, n.p). It is not necessary that one guest of the hotel will agree from the opinion of another guest regarding any particular service and in this way there could be a difference of opinion even on a single point. The perception can also differ on the basis of cultural and ethnic diversity as people belonging to different races and different cultural background have different way of thinking and interpreting certain thinks. In this type of situation it is not practical that someone go for the evaluation of a hotel in quantitative manner and this common accreditation system seems to be meaningless under certain circumstances. A hotel can be evaluated on the basis of public opinion in a better way rather going for a rating system that allots a numeric value to each hotel like 3, 4 or 5. Instead having a check box system for numbering a hotel it would be better if the hotel management gather the opinion of their guest through the feed back forms, Trip Advisor, or Hotel Chatter. By gathering this information they can have a better picture about the image of their hotel and they can also take some effective steps in order to make their service better then before (Hirst, n.p) due to all these controversies that are surrounding the common accreditation system, it seems that the credibility and acceptability of this system will not be establish on strong grounds. Another argument against the system is based on a point that if any hotel has succeeded in setting a particular standards for its services and quality of property and the hotel is also maintaining it in well manner then it really doesn't matters for a hotel that what star the hotel gets from the rating. In this way the trustworthiness of the star rating system is also questioned. (Ward, n.p) It is also argued that if a hotel gets a low star in the rating then what is the guarantee that the marketing strategies of the hotel will be affected by this rating. The hotel may not accept the ratings and promote its services as it was doing before (Hirst, n.p.). There is also a possibility that if a hotel is not properly rated and it gets a star more then it deserve then the hotel can impose the high prices and service charges however the quality of their service may not meet the high standards. The above arguments of the experts' shows that the common accreditation system has many flaws and there is still need of a comprehensive and compact system that can work to measure the quality standards of a hotel. Apart from all this criticism of this system the people who have formulated and aiming to implement this system are very much hopeful for its success. They believe that this system is facilitating the guests and tourist to make a difference between a four and five star hotel and they can easily make their choice for the one they want (Vicky, n.p). The system makes a clear distinction between hotels of different standards and allows a guest to exactly know that what level of service and what quality of accommodation he will get from a particular hotel (Lorna, n.p). This system enable the guest to be assured that the specific requirements will be available for him in the hotel that he is going to book. So these were the arguments that have been made from both the sides. There are many experts in the authorities and tourism bodies who have taken a part in the formulation of this common accreditation system to evaluate the quality of a hotel but on the other hand there are considerable numbers of people who are making their arguments against this system. These critical arguments are based upon solid logic however the planners of the system are defending their system very well too. This scenario is leading the people towards confusing points where they cannot actually decide that as a tourist or as a guest what would be better for them. The hotel management is also not very much hopeful regarding the implementation of this system and the coming time will show the positive and negative impacts of this system over the hotel industry tourism department. Works Cited William Revill, (2003), Kerr Tourism Public Policy and the Strategic Management of Failure, publisher Elsevier, (Page 4) Edita Prima Oy, Helsinki, (2002), Accreditation Model for Study Programs in Hotel and Restaurant Services, page (8, 9, 10) Christine L. Williams & John Buswell, (2003), Service Quality in Leisure and Tourism, CABI Publishing, (page 149,150) Carla H. Dempsey, James D. Petty, (1991), Laboratory Accreditation and Data Certification: A Guide for Successful Laboratories, CRC Press, and (page 38) Vicky Baker, New UK hotel rating system goes public, Thursday January 11 2007 Hotel Pricing & Ratings Explained http://www.everybody.co.uk/pricrate.htm Accessed May 31, 2007 London Hotels, UK http://www.milesfaster.co.uk/ Accessed May 31, 2007 Hotel on the Park http://www.hotelonthepark.com/Luxury-Hotels.aspx Accessed May 31, 2007 Read More