Hotel Operation Management free essay sample

Hospitality is an undeniable aspect of the civilized world as testified by various literatures from all over the world. A warm and friendly reception of guests is considered as mandatory by many cultures around the world. Albeit, the face of hospitality changed drastically according to changing times to become more financial oriented, the basic aspect of hospitality still remains the same. With the growth of travel the hospitality industry grew by leaps and bounds. This essay tries to look at the hospitality industry from its humble beginnings to the ultra modern hotels and mind boggling technologies of the future. At the same time it also tries to identify the growing problems that the industry managers are increasingly forced to handle on a daily basis. The contemporary trends to attract customers and the challenges while doing so are the other main aspects of the essay. Hospitality in its most basic form would mean providing service to others and the art of being hospitable. The hospitality industry has its roots right in the ancient times. Right since the ancient Greek and Roman times there have been instances of travelers and also guest rules and facilities. The middle ages gave birth to the idea of inns that provided safety, security, food and accommodation to the guests. But, these were typically in private homes. The concept of established and institutionalized hospitality can be traced back to the opening of the Savoy Hotel with Cesar Ritz as its General Manager. However, it was after the Second World War that travel boomed. The other main reason for the drastic increase in travelling was the emergence of globalization that necessitated the concept of frequent travelling. Along with this, the cross-continental travel, facilitated by the Trans-Atlantic flights, was another important reason for the boom in the international travel which resulted in the rapid growth of the hospitality industry. Hospitality would mean receiving and treating strangers as guests in a warm and a friendly way. This would entail welcoming the guest and providing consistent and quality service. The hospitality industry performs a similar function, albeit in an institutionalized manner. Although many a times, the economic aspect of the hospitality becomes the primary driving force of the industry; the first motive should ideally be providing excellent and affordable service (Hogan 2008). The business dictionary defines hospitality as, ‘hotels, motels, inns or such businesses that provides transitional or short-term lodging, with or without food (Business Dictionary 2013). This definition encompasses the two main aspects of the hospitality industry; lodging and boarding. However, the most important aspect of the hospitality industry is its inclination towards guest satisfaction; indeed, to provide a service of a ‘home away from home’. This can be only achieved by providing exemplary service that focuses on exceeding the expectations of the guests. The hospitality industry may be widely regarded as an institution providing food and beverage; but, the greatest profits for the hotels are from the sales of rooms which is a service and not a product as it is resold daily and if not sold is a perishable commodity. Service is an essential part of and industry. Providing quality service is of utmost importance especially in the context of the hospitality industry, which is primarily regarded as a service industry. Service can be defined as a type of economic activity that is intangible, is not stored and does not result in ownership. Service is consumed at the point of sale (Investorwords 2013). This means that service is not just a product that can be pre-packed and sold over the counter. It involves a human aspect that makes the delivery of consistent and efficient service such a difficult task. This aspect of intangibility along with inseparability is a practical problem for the managers. Because, different people respond to different situations differently and the service that takes place between the consumer and the provider is generally irrevocable by nature. This makes the task of the managers very difficult in their endeavor to meet rising customer expectations. This phenomenon of rising customer expectations is a direct result of the growth of the global hospitality industry. The rising competition dictates that the competing hotels constantly try to outsmart each other in providing excellent guest service to ensure repeat guests. The physical aspects of the hotels cannot be changed: but, the service standards can be constantly raised to create a niche for the hotel. The current global scenario of the hospitality industry dictates that the customer is king and due to this rising competition one of the main concerns of the contemporary manager is the aspect of differentiating ones hotel from the competition to emerge as the winner in the race to attract customers and win their loyalty. Providing excellent customer service by meeting guest needs is not the only thing expected at present. The current demand is to exceed customer expectations by anticipating their needs and working towards fulfilling them (Scribd 2012). The other main factor that fuels this tendency is the fact that the contemporary customer is not really brand loyal as of old. They will have a set budget and due to the rising number of hotels will choose the hotel that provides the guest with the maximum value for money. Therefore, proactive measures to increase the efficiency of the service staff to be more empathetic towards the needs of the guests are required. At the same time adding value to the stay of the guests by providing them with various facilities and amenities like high speed internet connections and Wi-Fi zones in the rooms and other public areas of the hotels, spa services, gym and fitness centers, multiple fine-dining options are considered mandatory by hotels to achieve complete guest satisfaction (Victorino et al.2012). However, care should be taken to ensure that the services being provided are the ones that tackle the core necessities of the guests; otherwise, there is a possibility of the facilities to become mere add-ons having little or no relevance to the needs of the guests, therefore having no positive impact on the guests. The proposed new facilities should also stand the test of financial feasibility. In spite of all this, it remains a fact that service innovation is very important not only to meet guest needs but also to exceed guest expectations and provide a unique and amazing experience to the guest; this will ensure repeat customers and inspire brand loyalty. The changing landscape of the global hospitality industry tends to inspire imitation of the successful strategies employed by the competing hotels. In such a scenario, the upcoming hotels have the strategic advantage of bringing in better facilities than the existing competitors. However, this can be countered by ever increasing service standards by the method of service innovation. This has been hailed as the most comprehensive way to deal with the increasing changes (Wood and Brotherton 2008). Service innovation was comprehensively defined by Forfas (2006) by defining service innovation as a new or considerably changed service concept, client interaction channel, service delivery system or technological concept that individually, but most likely in combination, leads to one or more (re)new(ed) service functions that are new to the firm and do change the service/good offered on the market and do require structurally new technological, human or organizational capabilities of the service organization. This definition throws light upon the various functions that the concept of service innovation plays in the hotel’s evolution towards being a model of guest satisfaction. Service innovation can be in something as little as garlanding the guest when they enter or providing the guests with facilities for in room check-ins that will nullify the need of long queues and also add the personal touch and warmth of human interaction to the otherwise mechanical aspect of guest check-ins. Introduction of new services by product development like the usage of advanced technology in the form of I-Pad controlled rooms are another aspect of service innovation that can be utilized effectively to add value to the stay of the guests. Another way that the new innovations can be used to please guests is by combining them with existing services. For example, newspapers are traditionally provided by hotels to their guests on a daily basis. Along with this, electronic copies of international journals can be provided to the guests on demand; thus, effectively increasing the guest satisfaction without increasing the costs incurred. The existing facilities like the pool, spa, fitness center and the transport services can be combined in innovative ways to cater to the needs of the different customer segments. Other innovations that are not capital heavy like flexible check-in and check-out potions and childcare facilities require minor adjustment in the staff working and other policies; but, can have a huge influence on the psychology of the guests. Making the stay of the guests a memorable one can be achieved by using technologies like customized room decor. All of these measures are driven by a continuous need of the hotel to innovate and achieve guest satisfaction (Victorino et al. 2012). But, the main problems of trying to achieve guest satisfaction by service innovation are the possibility of redundancy or financial infeasibility. Therefore, the managers have to be very careful that the focus of the hotel remains as the satisfaction of the guests and not just continuous innovations. The hotels have to understand the needs of the guests by using various techniques like their feedbacks and also utilize surveys to ascertain the most necessary facilities and services and then implement them. Development of a target market will be a huge boost to the strategy of the hotel as it will allow the hotel to develop its services according to the needs of this target clientele (Karmakar 2004). The rapid spurt in technology is another main reason for the need for continuous change in the service requirements of the hotels. Technology is the most recent form of innovations and it forms an indispensable part of the hospitality industry. Technology is present in all the aspects of the hotel and is rapidly developing each of its functions. This is apparent in the quick addressal of guest needs by an intranet network that allows the staff to promptly take care of the guests’ needs. New technological developments in the kitchen like molecular gastronomy can work towards the complete guest satisfaction. But, in spite of all these technological advances in all the fields, the most important development has been that of information technology. Information technology has impacted all the aspects of the hotel and affects all the functions of the hospitality industry like guest relations and marketing. Information technology has become an indispensable part of the hospitality industry by restructuring every aspect to achieve maximum efficiency (Highbeam Business 2012). Customer segmentation, defining and forecasting consumer flow and thereby the marketing strategies of the hotel, and regulating the workforce are all achieved in an optimum way with the help of information technology. Thus, the widespread use of information technology has been the most important innovation in recent times. The hospitality industry can benefit a lot from this growth in the information technology. They can utilize various tools like websites, blogs, and social networking sites to promote their hotel and carve out a place for themselves in the market. The traditional modes of advertising have given way to the quicker and more efficient way of modern day marketing. Online advertising has many benefits like a global reach and also helps in cost cutting. Online reservations and ticketing have opened up seemingly unending vistas for the growth in the modern day travelling. It has increased the ease and at the same time has helped the hotels by increasing their client base. Customer feedback is also sought online and this helps the hotels to continuously innovate, improve and modify their service offerings and standards. The growth in the field of information technology, though very good for the hospitality industry, has its own drawback that has to be considered. The continuous development in the technology means that the larger hotel chains that have tremendous resources at their disposal can continuously innovate and implement the latest technological advances (Victorino et al. 2012). But, this has negative implications for the smaller hotels as they have to  cope up with the rising customer expectations but will not be able to financially support the upgrades. At the same time, technology, though efficient, has the tendency to remove the human element out of the guest operations that can severely impact the guest perception about the hotel. Therefore, the hotels have to continuously strive to achieve a correct balance between the efficiency of the automation and also the warmth of the personal touch while dealing with the guest needs. Service customization is a recent development in the field of service innovation. Service customization dictates that the services of the hotels should be altered and streamlined according to the needs of the guests. Examples of service customization will be the personalization of the room decor according to the specific demands of the guests or providing the guests with meals that have been prepared according to their instructions and using the ingredients of their choice. Providing pet care options is another example of service customization where the guest is provided with the services of his choice. But, it is not easy to implement service customization as it will require very flexible staff and customer policies and may also require extra staff to take care of the specific needs of the guests. Though the concept of service customization can result in high levels of guest satisfaction, it has also many problems that need to be considered. Implementing new methods of service customization will entail making drastic and sweeping changes to the operational strategies and may result in challenges like problems in shift timings and the requirement of more skilled workforce. These have to be carefully looked into by the individual and an assessment needs to be done into the financial and operational feasibility of the proposed change before implementing them. Along with these there are various industry and government guidelines, like HACCP, that have to be considered before introducing the new policies. Contemporary tools like six sigma can be used to add value and also evaluate the new policies. Service innovation and service customization along with modern day technologies are of utmost importance to achieve guest satisfaction and also to ensure loyal customers. It is only with their successful implementation that the hospitality industry can meet rising customer expectations. The guests visiting the different hotels look for an experience that is ‘home away from home’. The guests and the hotels share a relation that can be related to the concept of a host and his guests. If the only defining aspect is the financial one then the hotel stands to lose the guest who will seek a more personal experience (Lashley and Morrison 2000). This requires the hotel staff to be proactive towards the fulfillment of the guest needs and also exceeding their expectations by being attentive and also anticipate the needs of the guests. This will ensure that the guests will be surprised by the warmth of the hotel and will want to come back for more. Therefore, along with technological advances, having a competent staff is very important for the hotel to achieve guest satisfaction. In the pursuit of achieving excellence in the area of guest satisfaction, the hospitality industry can ill afford to neglect the needs of the staff. It is said that the amount of guest satisfaction will be equal to the amount of employee satisfaction, because only an employee who is happy with his work can deliver a positive guest experience. Therefore, the hospitality industry has to employ active human resource management policies that will ensure the employee satisfaction and commitment towards the satisfaction of the guests. There are many ways in which the employees can be made to work proactively towards the goals of the hotel. One of the main method is to empower the staff by making them a part of the decision making process (Spinelli and Canavos 2000). This will have a tremendous impact on the employee morale and at the same time will help the management to recognize the needs of the guests because it is the frontline staff that deals with the employees. In addition to these measures, the employee complaints should be actively taken into consideration and tried to be resolved effectively. Employee reward schemes will have a positive impact on their performances if they are linked to the guest feedback and are implemented transparently and fairly. Employee attrition is another major challenge that the faces the contemporary managers in their efforts to achieve excellence (Ravikumar 2012). Well trained staff is imperative to achieve guest satisfaction and the rising attrition leads to the shortage of adequately trained staff. When the staff leaves then the new employees have to be trained according to the standards of the organization and this results in the increasing costs. This has a direct impact on the profits and severely hampers the growth of the hotel. This leads to the hotels being forced to increase the salaries, which increases the operational costs. The recent skyrocketing of the costs of the raw materials has an Impact on the  satisfaction of the guests as it requires the funds that could have been utilized for improving guest facilities to be diverted elsewhere. All of these adversely impact the quality of the service provided to the guests. The very existence of the hospitality industry depends on the experience of the guests when they visit the hotel and it is of paramount importance for the hospitality industry to continuously work towards the fulfil lment of the needs of the guests. As mentioned earlier, the focus should not be on merely meeting the guest expectations; but, on exceeding them.