Managing Hospitality Resources - Essay Example

? Managing Hospitality Resources Task: Managing Hospitality Resources Summary Currently, technology is not a new term among many people. This is due to the emergence of technology from the past generation where people could not access such systems. It is in this regards that various hospitality facilitates are transforming their systems to online basis, where customers get services from the internet. Developing a website is difficult; however, for the Royal Garden Hotel to develop website, various considerations must be given a priority. For example, hotel information should be in the website. In as much as the website will give a competitive advantage over other hospitality facilities, there are various challenges the hotel will experience while maintaining the site. Introduction The premeditated use of technology in marketing services has created many opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry. Consequently customers are always not satisfied with what they receive and desire innovative alternatives. Since the 1980s, the information communication technology has transformed dramatically, the management and outlook of many hospitality industries resulting into computer reservation systems, which later transformed into global distribution systems in the early 1980s and finally the currently used internet. The invention of the internet has caused a shift in many operations changing operational practices and a general paradigm shift in the market (Moutinho 2011, pp 108). It is in this regards that many hotels are developing computer systems to meet the demand of their customers. The Royal Garden Hotel is a five star hotel that need improvement in technology since technology is a driving force towards growth of many economies. In addition, technological advancement in a hotel facilitates efficient internal operations and improvement in service quality. Body When the Royal Garden Hotel develops technology and systems in their operations many services are likely to be improved. To start, the management will be able, to create automated guest histories. By having the guest history available, defining the customer mix to come up with the services salient for each customer will not be a challenging factor. From this perspective customer satisfaction gets enhanced, this leads to retention and in turn maintaining loyalty. Secondly, the development of the E- business strategy at the Royal Garden Hotel will provide transaction centric solutions (Shin 2003, pp 76). This leads to efficiency and proficiency in administrative procedures (property management systems) and internal operations. The core function behind the improvement of management is in the provision of guest folio, a factor important in the provision of services to the guest. In as much as this is not a primary goal of introduction of technology in Royal Garden Hotel, it is an indirect benefit, which accrues to the net yield of the hotel. One means of using technology to reach customers is by websites. This is because customers are increasingly applying voice recognition mechanisms and call routing technologies. They access hotels through websites where they speak to computers routing their calls to relevant departments. A website proposal for the hotel, therefore, would target various audiences. For instance, various company executives can access the website and check various services offered by the Hotel. This is because company executives often have meetings in hostels with partners from overseas of internal customers (Leong 2001, pp 201). Tourists also remain a central segment of the targeted audiences who book online through various websites before arriving at their destinations. To prevent customers who access the site from being bombarded with run-of-the-mill products the website developed by the hotel, must meet all requirements as well as expectations of customers to gain the competitive advantage. It is from this perspective that Royal Garden hotel management should employ the automated system, which can impart on the business positively. Customers have the authority to change or maintain use of hotel services; therefore, it is the role of hotel managers to come up with easy and realistic websites. According to warren Buffet, it takes 20 years to build a relationship, but the reputation gets destroyed within five minutes. It is in this regards that an appropriate system is needed for the Royal Garden Hotel. It is, therefore, necessary to practice integrity while developing technology for satisfaction of customers. When loyalty gets maintained within a customer, satisfaction gets reached and hence relationship orientation. Visual design qualities such as attractive pictures of Royal Garden Hotel would play a significant role in attracting customers. The pleasant picture of rooms and other accommodation facilities remain a significant factor in attracting customers. There are several functions that will be included in the website based on the priority and targeted group. A promotional strategy is extremely vital; however, a promotional strategy, which is profit centered and not service oriented, is disastrous. This is because customers will not be offered the much needed services, yet they pay. It is in this regards that a superb promotional website must contain the following. To start, front line data is vital in a website. This is because the data offers information a customer’s requires to complete registration (Ranganathan & Ganapathy 2002, pp 460). A reputable website contains relevant information for all customers. The Royal Garden Hotel website; therefore, should have software, which gives room for obtaining customer information for both security and emergency reasons. In addition, to manage the guest folio, the information a website should have include, name, address, nature of room required, length of time to stay, not forgetting the means of payment. The information is also imperative for administrative purposes as it prevents confusion, which might arise due to overcrowding or missing information. The website should also have provision for other relevant information from customers, for example, transportation services. Consequently, the information enables the hotel management to know the nature of customers whether tourists or executives. Websites gets evaluated from three perspectives, evaluation by phases where a website should have layers and phases. A website containing many layers gets considered a more experienced in E-commerce and richer. There five main levels based on company aims, the first is a website where only emails exist. Level 2 provided real product information while level three provided initial online presence. Level four, on the other hand, includes business integration, which provides information about clients and suppliers. Level five gives the features of business transformation beneficial for all visitors (Lim 2005, pp 89). Royal Garden Hotel; therefore, should choose integration of all levels considering it is a five star hotel. Apart from offering front line data, the Royal Garden hotel website should also contain descriptive information about the hotel. The website should have persuasive and convincing languages that guarantee the customers of what to expect. The website should contain a description of the rooms in terms of facilities (Ryals & Knox 2001, pp 540). Different guests like varied facilities, the description, therefore, provide an avenue for comparison where the customers are able to choose the best. The website should also have a location of the hotel, whereby the position of the hotel with intermittent features like buildings and airports gets availed. It is also the website, which provides information on other luxury facilitate such as swimming pools and nature walk parks that are likely to be experienced by visitors, who visit the hotel. Since Royal Garden Hotel is a first class hotel, its website should have sufficient information, which draws pictures on the minds of customers before attending the real trip. The availability of such information on the website enables the hotel management to gather intelligence about the customers (Kirk & Pine 1998, pp. 214). Last but importantly, the website should also contain priorities for receiving customer complaints for improvements, this is important in the competitive world of hotel marketers who give no room for mistakes. There are various problems Royal Garden Hotel, is likely to meet while transforming its system to match ICT standards. This is because maintaining and creating the system remains a challenging task among various companies and organizations. To start the high cost of installation always leaves hotels with an option of disregarding installation of a website. It is in this regards that the Royal Garden Hotel should have sufficient funds to order to efficiently implement and install the website. In as much as creating, a website full of desired features remains an expensive task; consideration into the many benefits must also be given an upper hand (Enz 2009, pp 45). The current world is full of hackers who get into other people systems accessing private information. This is a challenge the hotels is likely to affect the privacy of customers as many people like to maintain their secrecy. Hotels whose systems are probable to hacking by an outside individual pose high risks to customers (Law & Huang 2006, pp 242). It is, therefore, crucial that the hotel management provide sufficient security to the systems, whereby only desired permitted people access confidential information. Since the hotel, industry is full of competitors who can use any means to bring down others. It is the role of the hotel management to formulate various mechanisms for protecting the site against information, which instead of building the name of the hotel diminish (Buhalis 2003, pp. 161). Website upgrades are also a challenging factor in maintenance of a website as monotony of features in a website demotivates customers. It is, therefore, essential that the management make upgrades on the website. At times, it becomes extremely difficult to upgrade as continual changes attract high charges. Recommendations Considering the emergence of technology from the previous stages where one had to book for a room in a hotel to the current world where people book for rooms online, there are various recommendations for Royal Garden Hotel. The hotel should first collect funds to establish the website Generic market communications are extremely valuable; therefore, secure connections are vital The hotel should also introduce instruments such as CCTV to help in the management To efficiently, install the website the management should ensure flexibility and adaptability to new situations in order to prevent stalling Conclusion In conclusion, websites get evaluated based on effectiveness and features. The practical relevance of a website should prevail in the customers, as this favor desired commercial outcome. In addition, functionality and usability remains a key are of concern as poor design shuns people away while efficient designs attract people. In the modern world, a hotel website should not be a brochure ware, but a straightforward and efficient system. In addition, the website should provide services such as instant confirmation, online reservation and secure payment methods, which offer security to all clients. References Buhalis, D 2003, E-Tourism Information Technology for Strategic Tourism Management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Enz, C. A 2009, Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey. Kirk, D& Pine, R 1998, ‘Research in hospitality systems and technology’, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 203-17. Law, R & Huang, T 2006, ‘How do travelers find their travel and hotel websites?’ Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 11 no. 3, pp. 239-246. Leong, C. C 2001, ‘Marketing practices and Internet marketing: A study of hotels in Singapore’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 7 no. 2, pp. 179-187. Lim, W. M 2005, ‘The role of the Internet in the marketing of independent hotels in the UK: Work-in-progress’. Retrieved from http://www.esade.edu/cedit2005/pdfs2005/papers/lim_wai_mun.pdf Moutinho, L 2011, Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI, Cambridge. Ranganathan, C & Ganapathy, S 2002, ‘Key dimensions of business-to-consumer web sites’, Information & Management, Vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 457-465. Ryals, L & Knox, S 2001, ‘Cross-functional issues in the implementation of relationship marketing through customer relationship management’, European Management Journal, Vol. 19 no.5, pp. 534–542. Shin, B 2003, A case of data warehousing project management. IT Management Select, Vol. 9 no.1, pp. 51–62. Read More