Contemporary Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

Contemporary Hospitality Industry Stefan Nemski ID Number: 21782 Submitted: Dr. Sam Chi Mont Rose Collage of Management and Sciences 1./P1 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 3 Benefits of Hospitality Industry 3 TYPES OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 5 TYPES OF FACILITIES 7 TYPES OF OWNERSHIPS 8 1.2./P2 HOSPITALITY ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE 9 1.3./P3 HOSPITALITY RELATED ORGANIZATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES 11 2.1/P4 TYPE OF STAFF AND DEGREES NEEDED FOR HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS 12 2.2/P5 TYPES OF DEGREES, QUALIFICATION, NEEDED FOR HOSPITALITY STAFF 15 3.1./P6 PESTEL ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS 15 3.2./P7 Mainly CSR ISSUES 17 4.1/P8 GLOBALIZATION, TECHNOLOGICAL, DEVELOPMENT, CHANGING OF FOOD HABIT 18 4.2/P9 THE WAY FORWARD FOR HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 19 CONCLUSION 19 REFRENCES 21 Table of Contents 1.1./P1 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 3 Benefits of Hospitality Industry 3 TYPES OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 5 TYPES OF FACILITIES 7 TYPES OF OWNERSHIPS 8 1.2./P2 HOSPITALITY ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE 9 1.3./P3 HOSPITALITY RELATED ORGANIZATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES 10 2.1/P4 TYPE OF STAFF AND DEGREES NEEDED FOR HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS 12 2.2/P5 TYPES OF DEGREES, QUALIFICATION, NEEDED FOR HOSPITALITY STAFF 14 3.1./P6 PESTEL ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS 15 3.2./P7 Mainly CSR ISSUES 16 4.1/P8 GLOBALIZATION, TECHNOLOGICAL, DEVELOPMENT, CHANGING OF FOOD HABIT 17 4.2/P9 THE WAY FORWARD FOR HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 18 CONCLUSION 19 REFRENCES 20 1.1./P1 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY Hospitality is one of the most admiring, interesting yet challenging industries. Unlike other businesses, hospitality industry is filled up with businesses that are established just to cheer up, relax and welcome people in different circumstances (Walker, 2010). The hospitality industry is an industry composed of businesses that are providing a temporary/short term or transitional lodging with and without food. The hospitality industry is a must have industry for a strong and stable economy, therefore, in all the countries around the world hospitality industry is known as one of the crucial and highly job providing industry. Hotels, café, motels, restaurants, pubs, bars, night clubs, event planning, cruise line, resorts, lounges, lodges and theme parks are the key components of a hospitality industry. However, it is not important that each region or country in the world has all the above mentioned components in their hospitality industry. Benefits of Hospitality Industry The Hospitality industry is one of the most beneficial industries therefore; it has a long list of benefits for which one should choose this industry to build his/her career. The Biggest provider of Job The Hospitality industry is composed of businesses that cannot be run by a few people, therefore, hotels, motels and restaurants are usually giant providers of jobs in a region. Depending on the size of a hospitality unit/business one will need to have a number of people to build a hard working crew (Powers & Barrows, 1999). They need to have managers, accountants, cooks, sweepers, staff for laundry facility, dishwashers, waiters, security guards, staff for providing room service and so on. The larger the business unit the more it requires man power. Low Educational Barriers One of the biggest benefits of this industry is that it has a number of positions for people with less or no education. For example, staffs for washing off laundry, utensils and sweepers do not require having higher education. Moreover, if a person has enough capital, but no higher education, he/she can also get a start in the hospitality business. Moreover, many managers do not need to have a degree in marketing, management or IT to serve hospitality industry because it has been observed that many managers have started out as a staff member of a hotel while working in another department and due to his/her interpersonal skills they have filled a management position. Though, it is a benefit of this industry, but can become a serious threat when it comes to competent staff. In many well reputed and elite class hotels, motels and restaurants the situation is totally different. Mobility in Geographic Territory Mobility is another benefit of working in this industry, especially when a person chooses to work with a hospitality company, which has a chain of hotels or restaurants in different parts of the country or the world. In this regard, the hospitality industry is an ideal industry for those who love traveling. Working in such companies means higher chances to get rotated during the job as job rotation is a key component of their policy. For such transfers, the hospitality industry is paying extra to an employee, while providing different facilities at the new location. This is a plus point of this industry because it offers a job flexibility and mobility which is hard to find in any other industry. Flexible work hours The Hospitality industry is offering flexible work hours to its workforce, allowing them to choose one that suits their routine or personality. The purpose of hospitality industry is to welcome people while offering services for their comfort and relaxation. Therefore, it is important for the crew of the hospitality industry to have a fresh and relaxed mood and a tired person with tough schedule cannot offer such services. Hospitality workforce has a choice to work in morning, afternoon or evening. In some hotels and hospitality business they usually have two shifts, i-e morning and evening while others have three or four shifts depending on the size of the business. Introduction to different cultures People working in hospitality industry have a chance to get introduced to different cultures because hospitality industry has a direct link with tourism. The workforce can observe people from different countries, religions and cultures and now with the help of technology they can get opportunities to expand their friends circle by making personal relations with their guest/customers. TYPES OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY There are three major types of hospitality industry or in another world, hospitality industry can be divided into three broad categories (Walker, 2010). Food and Beverages/Catering This is the biggest and most important part of the hospitality industry, which includes hotels, resorts, restaurants and bars that are offering food and beverages with and without accommodation and other facilities. Food and beverages include traditional, local and modern food and beverage items, fast food and catering establishments. Usually a restaurant that is part of a hotel or motel is offering food and beverages to refresh their customers and to enhance their experience. It is not necessary that a food and beverage business in the hospitality industry should also offer other facilities to their customers. Accommodation The second most important category is accommodation. As the name implies, the category is designed to accommodate its customers while ensuring comfort, convenience and quick services. Hotels and resorts may offer both accommodation and food or may offer only accommodation to their customers. The focus of this category of the industry is to provide a lodge or resort where their customer feels comfortable and relaxed. The category of accommodation includes hotels, motels, youth hostels, bed and breakfast, camping grounds, resorts, farm stay, serviced apartments, huts, pubs and cabins. Spa services are also offered in some hotels and resorts that are offering accommodation. The aim to provide superior quality service is to increase the number of repeat customers while attracting new ones through words of mouth (Powers & Barrows). Tourism and Traveling Tourism and traveling is another part of the hospitality industry linked with transportation. This is a little confusing, but it is one of the most important categories of this industry. The staff that is serving their customers in trains, airlines and cruise comes under this category. They are serving their customers with food, beverages and other services to ensure a safe and comfortable journey unless they reach to their final destination. Many airlines and cruise companies have contracts with hotels and resorts therefore, they offer hotels and resorts to their customers as part of their packages. The reason for adding tourism and travel in the hospitality industry is that people usually consider the services of flight attendants, train attendants and cruise staff as a plus point of a traveling company (Ferguson, 2010). TYPES OF FACILITIES The businesses operating in the hospitality industry are offering a wide range of facilities to their customers, including food and beverages, transportation, accommodation, room services, meeting and conference facilities for businesses, event management facilities, reception facilities, Spa, pool and fitness facilities, laundry facilities, dry cleaner facilities, shopping and entertainment facilities. TYPES OF OWNERSHIPS The Hospitality industry has four types of ownership that are as follows. Franchises A Franchise is a privately held ownership, but the owner of a franchise has no concern with the assets of a business in the hospitality industry. Franchisers pay a specific amount of fee to the owners of a business, says a hotel owner, and the hotel owner will grant them a license to use the name of the hotel. Franchises are usually small business counterparts that are fully established by franchise owners without the help of the hotel owner. However, the biggest advantage with a franchise is an access to a well known brand name. Privately Owned This is the most common type of ownership in the hospitality industry. Under such an ownership, the ownership right and structure is in the hands of one person, while it may be possible that the hotel has some investors in it. In such an ownership, the owner is liable to make all the decision regarding the internal structure, external strategies, management and staff, growth and operational structure. Such businesses have to establish its brand name and market recognition from the scratch. Leased Leased hotels and restaurants are owned by a company or a person, but are offered on lease to another company to set up an operational structure. Hotels and restaurants that are offered on lease are usually buildings not a fully established hotel business. This is for those owners who have a short of capital and cannot purchase or construct a building for starting a hospitality business. Managed Managed hotel is a type of partnership between a privately owned hotel with a well known, experienced and successful hotel. The privately owned hotel signs an agreement with the experienced hotel to manage day-to-day operations for them. In some cases the hotel that manages the operational structure of the privately owned hotel also grants their brand name to them to ensure their success. 1.2./P2 HOSPITALITY ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE Similar to other businesses and industries, hospitality business also has the proper organizational structure to manage their daily tasks and operations in an effective, scheduled and organized manner. Every hotel and restaurant has its own organizational structure according to their size, operations and numbers of departments. A hotel with lots of departments and huge size needs to have a number of departments, including Finance and accounting, Engineering, Food and Beverage, Bar, Restaurant, sales and marketing, Housekeeping and human resource. Every department has its own manager or executive manager with a workforce specialized in the concerned area. According to the organizational chart shown in appendix 1, it is clear that an organizational structure of a hotel or restaurant is a blend of operational and functional area. There are managers and executives who are responsible to manage a particular operational unit or a functional unit. Though, all the operational and functional departments are dependent on each other for performing their tasks effectively and for the success of hospitality business, but there is no relation between them while they are performing their duties. 1.3./P3 HOSPITALITY RELATED ORGANIZATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES For the betterment and success of the hospitality industry, many government and non government authorities have shown their personal interest by offering professional institutes to those working in this industry. Such institutes are offering degrees to graduates in different levels of the industry. These organizations are helping them in learning good communication skills, management skills, teamwork and ability to act in a flexible way. Some example of such institutes and organizations are: British Hospitality Association: It is a non-government representative for hotels, restaurants, clubs, leisure outlets and outlet forms of hospitality organizations in the UK. The aim of the organization is to promote the interest of the industry to the superior government bodies and to the media. They are promoting the interests of their members from the hospitality industry. For membership a hospitality business must be within the UK (cited at bha.org.uk). People 1st: People 1st is a charity which aimed to develop leading skills and workforce for the employers in the hospitality industry. It is helping the employers of the hospitality industry in finding, recruiting, talent management and training solutions. They have their own consultancy department, training companies, employment academies and all the essential things that are required for successful hospitality industry (cited at people1st.co.uk). Institute of Hospitality: It is a professional body of managers working in the hospitality industry, including all types of leisure and travel and tourism sectors. The organization has members from more than 100 countries where it is promoting high standards of education and quality in the hospitality industry. The members of the organization will get professional support from the organization throughout their career regardless of the geographic boundaries (cited at instituteofhospitality.org). British Institute of Inn keeping: Established in 1981 and is headquartered in Camberley, Surrey. It is a professional body within the licensed retail sector, which aimed to deliver high standards, social responsibility and job practices within the industry/sector. It is a privately owned company with a registered charitable status (cited at bii.org). 2.1/P4 TYPE OF STAFF AND DEGREES NEEDED FOR HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS Regardless of the size of a hotel or restaurant or any other type of hospitality organization, it is a people business because its motive is to serve people for which it requires to have competent people. Good services are the key to success in this industry for which the organization of this industry needs to have access to good, competent, skilled and devoted people/staff. On the basis of the required services the staff of hospitality industry can be divided in three categories (Tanji, 2014). Executives (Skilled people) Executives are the people who are not directly involved in the functions and operations of an organization in the hospitality industry, but they have the power to affect the decision making process and strategies. Executives are the top bodies, including hotel/restaurant/bar owner, investors and head of the departments. Their responsibility is to set goals and design strategies for the organization while considering their available resources, market conditions, competitors, opportunities and threats. Therefore, executive positions are filled by highly skilled, experienced and educated individuals. Executives are full time employees because they just meet once a month or once after a specific period to review the progress of the organization. They don’t have a concern with the operational staff and are only meeting with top managers. Top Managers (Skilled people) Top managers are usually the head of the departments who are responsible to ensure the smooth and effective flow of operations within their department. Managers need to have the proper skills according to their concerned department because only then they would be able to guide their subordinates to perform their tasks effectively. Managers need to have a proper know how of the hospitality industry and of their department. For example, a chief engineer manager needs to have a bachelor or masters degree in engineering to direct his maintenance staff to fix repair work such as boilers, plumbing repair, air conditioners, electricity, unclogging drains etc., while ensuring customer convenience and safety for both staff and guests. Similarly, a manager of marketing department needs to have a management degree in marketing or business management to ensure smooth operations and functions. They are the full time employees of a hospitality organization and their responsibility is to assess operational staff as well as to perform office work and documentation. Top managers are making policies and strategies for their department, which are then approved by the executive committee. Mid level managers/supervisors (Semi-skilled) Mid level managers are supervisors and managers who are responsible to supervise and guide operational staff of a hospitality organization. Such managers have low qualification and to be effective in the hospitality industry, they usually attend short courses and diplomas such as HNC, HND, NVQ qualification and other short diploma courses in hospitality management. Supervisors and mid-level managers are mostly learning through training offered by the organization to its employees as well as through their experience. They can be full time or part time. Operational staff (Semi-skilled to unskilled) Operational staff is the low level staff of a hospitality organization that is responsible to perform different tasks while ensuring smooth flow of daily operations. Operational staff includes kitchen staff (chefs, dishwashers), laundry staff, room service staff, maintenance staff, waiters, waitress, sweepers, gardener, food server, security guards, telephone operator, receptionist etc. Operational staff is composed of semi-skilled and unskilled people. For example, chefs, maintenance staff, gardener, security guards, receptionist and telephone operator are semi-skilled and there are certain requirements that they must have to meet while applying for a job. On the other hand, dish washers, sweepers, laundry staff, waiters/waitresses and room service staff can be unskilled because their job title does not require having specific types of degrees, skills and qualifications. With the passage of time people are becoming more educated and civilized, therefore, the hospitality industry is also giving priorities to educated people. The recruitment policy of a hotel or business in hospitality industry also considers the type of clients that their organization would serve. In this regard the selection of workforce/staff, their experience and qualification varies from organization to organization. Operational staff is comprised of full time, part time and casual workers. 2.2/P5 TYPES OF DEGREES, QUALIFICATION, NEEDED FOR HOSPITALITY STAFF People who are assumed eligible for an executive post must have higher education, such as management degrees, bachelors in hospitality, PHD and other degrees and short courses necessary for a particular position. Along with their qualification experience is a must have component in their resumes. For other posts in the hospitality industry, the needed qualification and degrees may vary with the variation in job positions. People with simple management, bachelors and masters degrees can also apply for a job however, to employ their skills properly they are required to attend some short courses such as HNC, HND, SA, NVQ etc. 3.1./P6 PESTEL ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS PESTEL analysis is a tool that helps in understanding the external environment of the industry to organization(s) operating in that industry. A PESTEL analysis of a single industry varies from country to country due to a variance is culture, economy, political conditions and laws, etc. In this report a PESTEL analysis is done in regard of the UK hospitality industry. Political environment of the UK is quite stable and the government has a great support for the tourism industry, which has a direct relation to the hospitality industry. The support towards tourism is offering opportunities for hospitality organizations. Although, the UK market is free and has a stable political environment, however, the government has a close eye over the private sector to ensure that the private sector is performing well for the best interest of the country. They have certain rules and regulations that would change with a change of government. Economic condition of the UK is strong and there is a high competition in the industry among different organizations in the UK’s hospitality industry. Hotels and restaurants are competing with each other on the basis of price and services. UK government increased spending on tourism which further promoted the economic situation of the industry and in 2009 the spending by tourists reached to 10.5 billion which was a record spending. Socio-Cultural environment of the US very healthy and people of the country are open to entertainment, games and technologies. UK has been involved in different event management and hosting activities which supported its hospitality industry and offered lots of opportunities. United Kingdom will host 2014 Commonwealth games along with Scotland and Glasgow that will be held from 23rd July-3rd August. Technology has become the backbone of any successful industry, so is the case of the hospitality industry. Hospitality organizations are now offering technologically advanced features in their packages to their customers such as access to free Wi-Fi connection, phone services, email and fax, TV and other services. Latest technology made it very simple for hospitality organizations to make reservations for their international customers. Environment has no direct impact on the operations and performance of hospitality organizations however; hospitality organizations can easily improve their brand image by improving their corporate social responsibility. Legal factors of the UK are changing time to time, which can greatly affect the operations of hospitality organizations. UK has well defined labor laws and boundaries for every industry and for hospitality industry, it is important to have proper knowledge about the laws. Key laws include laws regarding race and gender discrimination, equal pay, disability discrimination and working time regulations. 3.2./P7 Mainly CSR ISSUES Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an assumption according to which organizations should perform their operations in a socially responsible manner by following ethics. The Hospitality industry has been focused on the importance of socially responsible activities by focusing on environmental concerns, efficient use of energy and effective and productive use of technologies. Unfortunately, the hospitality industry has certain serious CSR issues that they are required to consider for building a positive brand image. Technology is one of the important factor and need of the modern world, therefore, hospitality organizations are offering free access to the internet as part of their service. However, they have no control on the usage of their internet connection and some customers are using such connections for illegal activities. Another issue is the adoption of common CSR concerns such as environmental concerns, workplace and marketplace concerns. There are some other issues that hospitality organizations could use to enhance their CSR image such as AIDS, education programs, diversification, humanity (by removing gender, race, nationality and religious discrimination) and sex tourism etc. (Jones, Comfort, Hillier, 2006). Usually top management and executives of a hospitality organization have information about their CSR responsibility while the mid-level and operational staff has no information about their organization’s CSR policy. It is important to inform the entire staff of the organization about the CSR policy to ensure a uniform culture and behavior. 4.1/P8 GLOBALIZATION, TECHNOLOGICAL, DEVELOPMENT, CHANGING OF FOOD HABIT The advancement of technology and the increase in facilities have greatly affected human behavior and priorities. The change in human behavior has exerted a great impact on the hospitality industry and has changed the overall operational and functional style of the industry. Food habits of the people are changed and they prefer hotels and restaurants for a new and modern taste. As a result hotels, restaurants and bars have to offer a variety of food, including healthy food for health conscious people, fast food for youngsters, ethnic food, festival food, traditional food and food from other traditions such as Italian, Chinese, Asian and African etc. Such change invented new forms of organizations in the hospitality industry and as a result the industry went through a long and never ending development process while taking the help of advance technologies. Globalization is another factor which made changes in the traditional hospitality industry and as a result hospitality organizations are operating in different countries regardless the concern of geographic limits. Hotel companies need to learn different types of management skills to manage a diverse group of employees. They have to understand future impacts, environmental changes and concerns and international trade and business laws. Globalization on one hand is an opportunity for the hospitality industry, but on the other hand it poses some threats such as intense competition, price war, difficulty in brand positioning, cross boarder employee training, and resource allocation. People are rapidly getting aware about the importance of green energy and hence hospitality industry needs to take initiatives to use green energy while ensuring energy saving initiatives such as by introducing energy meters, use of environment friendly and recyclable products, and investment in charities, sustainable food, organic menus and campaigns for increasing awareness among people about their social responsibilities. Most of the hospitality organizations have their own green policies, a unique food menu and policies towards globalization. 4.2/P9 THE WAY FORWARD FOR HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY It is difficult to predict the future of the hospitality industry, however, from the current trends and its comparison with the past it can be predicted up to some extent. It can be assumed that the future of the hospitality industry will be more modern, educated, globalize and dependent on technology. They will need to have a multi-talented and educated staff with knowledge of different languages. The priorities will be remaining same, however; the nature of the priorities will change with a change in trends, fashion and customer preferences. Hospitality businesses will require offering specialized services and products to their customers to create a feel of uniqueness and superiority. Only then they will be able to remain successful in the industry. For a successful hospitality business, the management of hospitality organizations should increase the involvement of customers/guests in designing policies and strategies. They should invest their time in conducting business impact analysis. This can be done through questionnaires, surveys and interviews with the customers. CONCLUSION After a thorough analysis of the hospitality industry, it is concluded that the hospitality industry is one of the most interesting and successful industries. Currently, the industry is enjoying its best and golden period that is expected to last for a coming few years. The Hospitality industry is currently assumed as the biggest employer of a region where there are less educated and skills barriers. However, due to rapidly changing trends, soon the industry will hire only educated and skilled people to build a competitive edge. Political and legal factors have a great impact on the operations and functions of this industry and to remain successful in the future, hospitality organizations should have a close eye over the two. Hospitality industry can be a good option for people to build their career in it. REFRENCES Brotherton, B., (2000). Introduction to the UK Hospitality Industry: A Comparative Approach. Oxford: Butterworth–Heinemann. Ferguson, Kirkwood., (2010). Hospitality and Tourism: Welcome Aboard. United States: America Star Books. Judy L. Holcomb,Randall S. Upchurch,Fevzi Okumus,. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: what are top hotel companies reporting?.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 19 (6), 461-475. Peter Jones, Daphne Comfort, David Hillier, . (2006). Reporting and reflecting on corporate social responsibility in the hospitality industry: A case study of pub operators in the UK. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 1 (18), 329-340. Powers, T. F. & Barrows, C. W., (1999). Introduction to the Hospitality Industry. 2nd edition. Online: John Wiley & Sons. Tanji, Hotelier., (2014). Hospitality Career Opportunities: Learn Secrets to Get Jobs in Hotel, Restaurant & Cruise Industry. Online: Createspace.  Walker, J. R., (2010). Introduction to Hospitality. 2nd International edition. London: Pearson. Walker, J. R., (2013). Introduction to Hospitality. 6th International edition. London: Pearson. http://www.people1st.co.uk/about-us/who-we-are/our-industries http://www.bha.org.uk/about/ Read More