Rooms Division Operations Management - Report Example

Rooms Division Operations Management (Unit 6) Stefan Nemski ID Number: 21782 Submitted: Tsitsi Marima Mont Rose Collage of Management and Sciences Y 1.1.INTRODUCTION 3 1.2.ANALYSIS OF THE KEY ASPECTS OF LEGISLATION AND REGULATORY REQUIREMNETS RELAVENT TO ROOMS DIVISION OPERATIONS 3 Environmental Law 4 Employee Rights 4 Food and Beverages 4 Price and Tariff 4 Data Protection 5 1.3.ROLES AND REPONSIBILITIES OF A SELECTION OF ACCOMODATION AND RECEPTION STAFF 5 2.0.EVALUATION OF THE VARIETY OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ROOMS DIVISION 6 2.1.THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ACCOMODATION AND FRONT OFFICE STAFF 6 Accommodation Service Department 6 Front Office Service Department 7 2.2.Evaluation of Services offered by Rooms Division 7 3.0.IMPORTANCE OF THE FRONT OF HOUSE AREA AND THE ACCOMODATION SERVICES TO EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 7 3.1.Front of house area 7 Accommodation Services 8 3.2.Evaluation of the Key Aspects of Planning and Management of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services 8 3.3.Critical Evaluation of the main Operational Issues Affecting the Effective Management and Business Performance of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services 9 REFFERENCES 10 Table of Contents Y1.1. INTRODUCTI 1.2. ANALYSIS OF THE KEY ASPECTS OF LEGISLATION AND REGULATORY REQUIREMNETS RELAVENT TO ROOMS DIVISION OPERATIONS 3 Environmental Law 4 Employee Rights 4 Food and Beverages 4 Price and Tariff 4 Data Protection 4 1.3. ROLES AND REPONSIBILITIES OF A SELECTION OF ACCOMODATION AND RECEPTION STAFF 5 2.0. EVALUATION OF THE VARIETY OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ROOMS DIVISION 6 2.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ACCOMODATION AND FRONT OFFICE STAFF 6 Accommodation Service Department 6 Front Office Service Department 6 2.2. Evaluation of Services offered by Rooms Division 7 3.0. IMPORTANCE OF THE FRONT OF HOUSE AREA AND THE ACCOMODATION SERVICES TO EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 7 3.1. Front of house area 7 Accommodation Services 8 3.2. Evaluation of the Key Aspects of Planning and Management of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services 8 Planning 8 Access to latest technology 8 Security and Safety 8 Hygiene and Maintenance 8 Customer Feedback 8 3.3. Critical Evaluation of the main Operational Issues Affecting the Effective Management and Business Performance of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services 9 Presence on Electronic Media 9 Bundle of responsibilities 9 Increasing customer demands 9 REFFERENCES 10 1.1.INTRODUCTION 3 1.2.ANALYSIS OF THE KEY ASPECTS OF LEGISLATION AND REGULATORY REQUIREMNETS RELAVENT TO ROOMS DIVISION OPERATIONS 3 Environmental Law 4 Employee Rights 4 Food and Beverages 4 Price and Tariff 4 Data Protection 5 1.3.ROLES AND REPONSIBILITIES OF A SELECTION OF ACCOMODATION AND RECEPTION STAFF 5 2.0.EVALUATION OF THE VARIETY OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ROOMS DIVISION 6 2.1.THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ACCOMODATION AND FRONT OFFICE STAFF 6 Accommodation Service Department 6 Front Office Service Department 7 2.2.Evaluation of Services offered by Rooms Division 7 3.0.IMPORTANCE OF THE FRONT OF HOUSE AREA AND THE ACCOMODATION SERVICES TO EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 7 3.1.Front of house area 7 Accommodation Services 8 3.2.Evaluation of the Key Aspects of Planning and Management of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services 8 3.3.Critical Evaluation of the main Operational Issues Affecting the Effective Management and Business Performance of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services 9 REFFERENCES 10 1.1. INTRODUCTION The term hospitality management is actually the study of the hospitality industry. Hospitality alludes to the liberality and amiable conduct towards visitors and guests. The businesses operating in the hospitality industry are catering guests with food and accommodation. The most vital piece of this industry is guaranteeing high client fulfillment and giving best helps to them through best services therefore, it is also known as a service industry. Room division administration is a critical division of hospitality industry where great housekeeping is ensured alongside overseeing front office and other operational activities. To deliver effective services and responsibilities, hospitality business requires having responsible, active, educated and highly skilled staff, managers and supervisors. For a successful hospitality business and effective and well balanced room division management is essential. Room division operations vary from hotel to hotel and are closely related to the size and type of hotel and its services. There are a number of hotels that are offering different levels of accommodation and the room division management is responsible to provide effective and acceptable services according to the level chosen by guest/customer. Hilton hotels and resorts is an international chain of hospitality business offering food and accommodation facilities to its visitors/guests and it is a flagship brand of hospitality industry across the globe. The chain was founded in 1919 and today it has more than 530 hotels and resorts under this brand name in 78 countries. Its worldwide chain is using almost all types of hospitality categories and hence its hotels and resorts are owned by, franchised, managed by and operated by independent operators. The Waldorf Hilton, London is one of the favorite places of the visitors and guests in London. The hotel is located in Aldwych, London, UK and is one of the favorite places to stay at of many people. The head of the room division of Hilton hotels and resorts worldwide is Mr. Rob Palleschi (Hiltonworldwide). 1.2. ANALYSIS OF THE KEY ASPECTS OF LEGISLATION AND REGULATORY REQUIREMNETS RELAVENT TO ROOMS DIVISION OPERATIONS Rules and regulations are usually set by the government of a country in order to ensure smooth, fair and effective operation of a business. Rules and regulation are a set of principles recognized by law of a country for a particular business or industry. The Waldorf Hilton hotel is located in London therefore, the rules and regulations that the hotel and its room division operations are obliged to impose by European government. The laws laid by European government about hospitality industry include laws related to guests, labor rights, environmental safety, food and beverage laws and employee safety at work. Most of the laws designed for the hospitality industry are almost same for the rooms division operations industry (Yu, 1999). Major laws that are in practice in almost all European countries, including the UK are as follows. Environmental Law As the name suggests, the environmental law emphasis on the protection and safety of environment and rooms division operations management is liable to follow this law. In case of violence the European government imposes penalties on the hotel. Under this law, the rooms division operations are responsible to keep the environment of the hotel or resort clean and healthy. To clean rooms, washrooms and other areas of the hotel, they should use a proper amount of a superior quality and environment friendly detergents. They should also consider the waste of water and its effect on the environmental safety to avoid pollution. Employee Rights Under this law, rooms division operations are liable to clearly state the minimum working hours, remuneration, conditions for firing an employee and proper job description for each position in agreement papers. The rights should be same for all employees for a particular position, irrespective of race, gender, class, nationality, religion and ethnicity. The law provides a protection to employees so that they can complain about employer in case of any misconduct or discrimination. The law is also protecting employees from getting low remuneration while working in a less popular region of a state. For example, it is observed that people working in a village or a backward area is usually getting low pay for their work compared to those working in large cities. The law eliminates all sorts of discrimination. Food and Beverages European government has set some standards for healthy food and beverages and all the businesses of hospitality industry including rooms division operations are liable to follow this law. The rooms division management is responsible to keep a close eye over the quality and nutritional values of the food served in their hotel or resort. Price and Tariff A set of laws set by the government there are characterized cost of services for diverse sorts of hotels and hospitality businesses. The room division staffs need to keep up their quality level and charge the clients in like manner. They cannot charge more for not giving a specific profit. For staying away from future disparities it is the obligation of these staffs to show their value graph/price chart correctly. They should also clearly mention any specific privileges that they are offering for corporate customers or others to ensure a smooth and proper functioning of the business. Data Protection In the vast majority of the nations the Intellectual Property Law is made against the burglary of information and data. This is a crucial thing that a company needs to have particularly in hospitality industry it become a bit more important. In hospitality industry hotels and resorts have details of the personal information of their customers and it is the responsibility of the room division staff to comply with the rules and secure this data. There are also some other laws regarding different activities of a room division or other hospitality business, however, the purpose of all these laws has been just to ensure a better functioning of the system. 1.3. ROLES AND REPONSIBILITIES OF A SELECTION OF ACCOMODATION AND RECEPTION STAFF There are a number of roles and responsibilities that accommodation and reception staff of a hotel or resort has to perform. The Waldorf Hilton hotel’s accommodation and reception staff have also such responsibilities that they have to perform on a daily basis. Like other hotels and resort’s accommodation staff, Waldorf Hilton’s staff is also like the backbone of the entire system (Waldorf Hilton Hotel). They are responsible to keep the accommodation area clean and well maintained so that they can present it to their customers. They are also responsible to align budget for stocks and keeping up the inventory of food and other essential supplies to their guests. They oversee in keeping up repairs and the room ornamentations and decorations to increase the appeal of accommodation area. They assess and guarantee that the accommodation is in consistence with legitimate cleanliness and safety measurements. It is the duty of the accommodating managers to select and provide proper training to room chaperon staffs and to organize with different divisions to deliver exceptional performance and ensure high customer satisfaction. They are responsible to provide a neat, clean and soothing environment to their guests for whom they are responsible to arrange laundry services and are changing room linen frequently. They are also responsible to respond quickly to the queries and complaints of customers. The level of exact responsibilities of the accommodation and reception staff varies with the variation in size and positions of an organization. The reception staff of a hotel or resort is also known as front office staff because these are the people who serve their customers immediately after their arrival to a hotel/resort/restaurant. Just like the accommodation staff, reception staff of the Waldorf Hilton hotel has also some well defined duties and responsibilities that are as follows. They help in handling the guests booking reservation queries in the hospitality industry and are responsible for keeping a record of the visitors in different organizations. They are responsible for the allocation of rooms to customers while keeping a close eye over the facilities to guests. They are also responsible to manage the cycle of checking in and checking out. Front office staff is the one who is responsible to listen to the queries and complaints of their guests while ensuring a suitable and satisfactory solution to them. Reception staff has a member known as an accountant or cashier who is responsible to provide billing details to the customers while performing other sales and promotional tasks. The reception staff is responsible to take care of the accurate transaction process. They have contacts with concerned departments to call them in an emergency, for sending special housekeeping requests and for other information. In short, the overall purpose of the reception staff is to create a bond between all the departments and staff members of a hotel/organization to boost up the fulfillment and satisfaction level of employees. 2.0. EVALUATION OF THE VARIETY OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ROOMS DIVISION 2.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICES OFFERED BY ACCOMODATION AND FRONT OFFICE STAFF Rooms division of a hospitality business has a central position in an organization/hotel/resort. The key wings of room division are accommodation and front office department (Kandampully, Mok and Sparks, 2008). Accommodation Service Department The primary role of this office is to keep up and repair the accommodation zone or property. This is the key administration of the workplace, lodgings, hotels, restaurants, camps and so on. It is an ameliorated type of service for all the organizations with a building facility, however, for the hospitality business it is of most extreme significance. Accommodation services incorporate housekeeping, clothing and material, interior decoration, maintenance and security procurement, support and a much more. Front Office Service Department They are the main face of an organization because guests visit them before reserving a room or for getting any sort of information. Front desk staff has to perform a number of activities, therefore, it is important for them to have knowledge about different activities such as making reservations, room allocation, execution of a fair billing process and information to provide relevant information on the demand of a client. It is important for the front office staff to have excellent communication skills, effective non-verbal communication and friendly attitude to increase customer satisfaction. For the effective functioning of a hospitality business, it is important to have coordination between the two departments while a focus on a mutual goal. 2.2. Evaluation of Services offered by Rooms Division Rooms division services have a key role in the hospitality industry and most of the tasks are performed by the managers of this division. For a business that has a diverse environment like hospitality businesses, therefore, without rooms division it is impossible to run a hospitality business effectively. The responsibilities of this division in The Waldorf Hilton hotel include planning and evaluation of the functions of the overall business. Other services include maintenance and allocation of accommodation area, inventory control, coordination and teamwork with other departments of the business, planning, recruitment and training arrangements for staff members and they are responsible to have an effective front office staff for quick response to customers and fair transactions. The rooms division functions in restaurants and other hospitality businesses are almost same with a slight variation due to the difference in operations. 3.0. IMPORTANCE OF THE FRONT OF HOUSE AREA AND THE ACCOMODATION SERVICES TO EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 3.1. Front of house area The front of house territory is the spot where the guests and visitors first enter and it provides them the initial introduction of the services staff of an organization. The decoration, designs and outlines ought to be appealing. The welcome zone ought to be legitimately lighted with flawless ventilation, so that numerous visitors might be obliged and served in the meantime. Floral arrangement, color scheme and overall look ought to be charming and beguiling. The front of house area must have accessible office division where the clients are allowed to make different types of correspondence all through their stay. The customer cycle is kept up by the front office staffs and for the clients they make the essential booking reservations by arranging with them over telephone and electronic media. They keep up the subtle elements and visitor records (Kienast and Turner, 1994). Accommodation Services The building premises of any accommodation business ought to be overall kept up. The accommodation services include both front area services and room services offered by the staff of a hotel to its guests. They are required to keep the rooms clean by arranging laundry and changing linen. They are also responsible to check that all the facilities offered in a room are working properly including facilities offered in bathroom, etc. Accommodation services staff has a responsibility to respond immediately when a customer demands for room service (Kienast and Turner, 1994). 3.2. Evaluation of the Key Aspects of Planning and Management of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services Every hotel/restaurant has a different way of planning and management of the front of house area and accommodation services. In the same manner, planning and management of these two areas are a key element in the Waldorf Hilton hotel. Being an international chain of hotels and resorts, the front of house area and accommodation services of this hotel is pretty much strong and organized. The key aspects are as follows. Planning: Each department at Hilton hotel is responsible for complete planning work while working in a group. The key departments in the Waldorf Hilton hotel are housekeeping, catering, finance, human resources, marketing etc. The front office is responsible to keep all the departments in connection while effectively communicating with them. Access to latest technology: To ensure a quick and effective customer service, Waldorf Hilton hotel has access to the latest technology. They are using an effective and advanced software for customers billing and POS (point of sales). Security and Safety: The Waldorf Hilton hotel has technologically advanced security measures both for its customers and for the valuable data of their organization. Hygiene and Maintenance: For effective accommodation facilities, the staff of the Waldorf Hilton hotel is taking great care of customer’s hygiene. They are changing bed linens frequently, arranging laundry, cleaning room with environment friendly detergents and are providing safety for their customers and employees. Customer Feedback: This is an essential part of both front of the house area and accommodation services. The staff is getting feedback from customers about their reviews and is trying to identify a potential opportunity, weakness and threat. On the basis of such feedback the management then makes strategic decisions. 3.3. Critical Evaluation of the main Operational Issues Affecting the Effective Management and Business Performance of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Services Presence on Electronic Media: Unfortunately, Waldorf Hilton hotel has no active website on the internet. This made it really difficult for the customers to get information about this particular hotel in the UK. Though, there are trip advisory companies who are working effectively in promoting the hotel, but for effective marketing, customer feedback and increase in sales, it is important to have an online website with 24/7 customer assistance. Bundle of responsibilities: The Waldorf Hilton hotel is facing some financial crises because the hotel has a number of responsibilities to perform for which it has a wide employee base whereas the only source of income is customers. Along with internal financial burden, the hotel has to pay to the government in the form of taxes and has to invest in the hotel building to keep it well maintained. Increasing customer demands: Increase in competition has automatically increased customer demands. The Waldorf Hilton hotel is facing serious issues in meeting the demands of customers for which they need to have an intense market survey to understand the changes their customers are demanding for. Apart from these operational issues there are a number of other issues that are irritating the management of the Waldorf Hilton hotel, but the key to eliminate such issues is team work and coordination (Rutherford and OFallon, 2007). REFFERENCES Kandampully, J., Mok, C. and Sparks, B. (2008). Service quality management in hospitality & tourism. 1st ed. Mumbai: Jaico Pub. House. Kienast, A. and Turner, M. (1994). Hotel front office training manual. 1st ed. [S.l.: s.n.]. Rutherford, D. and OFallon, M. (2007). Hotel management and operations. 1st ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley.   Yu, L. (1999). The international hospitality business. 1st ed. New York: Haworth Press. Read More