Lodging Management And Operations PDF

LODGING MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS CHAPTER 4  OBJECTIVES 01 02 03 04 Describe the basic Describe ways the Identify the major Analyze strategies for organizational hotel industry can pieces of e...

LODGING MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS CHAPTER 4  OBJECTIVES 01 02 03 04 Describe the basic Describe ways the Identify the major Analyze strategies for organizational hotel industry can pieces of equal determining structure of a hotel reduce its turnover opportunity break-even points including the types rate legislation and and room rates. of positions available analyze their effect and the on hotel responsibility of management and each. employees. Basic Management Structure ▪ Hotels and motels, regardless of size, are organized to provide lodging and related to guests. ▪ All share some organizational similarities as they strive to fulfill this mission. ▪ Figure 5.1 shows the sample organization chart for a large hotel while key hotel management position shown in Table 5-1 ▪ The front of the house staff refers to those individuals or department who have direct contact with the guests. ▪ The back of the house staff are those individuals who operate behind the scenes to make a guest’s stay pleasant and safe. FIGURE 5.1 Sample Organizational Chart for a Large Hotel Property TABLE 5.1 Sample Organizational Chart for a Large Hotel Property  Administrative 01 Departments  Administrative Departments ▪ The general manager is the chief of operating officer of the hotel, with responsibilities in 3 main areas: a) Relating to guests and employees b) Overseeing operations c) Increasing profitability d) facility maintenance and appearance. ▪ Supervises and organizes all other departments within the hotel and, therefore, must be familiar with the operations of each area. ▪ Armed with a thorough knowledge of management principles, they delegate authority effectively and emphasize a team approach to problem-solving and service ▪ Numerous managerial duties are carried out by department heads and other managers who report directly to the general managers. ▪ The resident manager commonly supervises front office operations and reservations as well as housekeeping.  DEPARTMENTS FRONT OF THE BACK OF THE HOUSE HOUSE 1. The operating Department 1. The administrative Department 2. Deal directly with guests 2. Very necessary to the hotel 3. Revenue producing 3. Nonrevenue producing  ▪ Hotel accounting functions come under the supervision of the controller or head accountant who has the significant prior experience in both accounting and the hotel industry. ▪ The controller manages the accounting department and all the financial dealings of the hotel and participates in long-term financial planning and projections. ▪ The accounts payable department is responsible for verifying and paying bills incurred for the purchase of materials and services. ▪ The accounts receivable department records all money received by the hotel and may oversee credit, billing and cashiering functions. ▪ Large hotels may also employ a credit manager, whose Accounting responsibilities include validating and authorizing guest credits and collecting overdue accounts. ▪ A paymaster may head a large payroll division within a hotel. Human Marketing/Sales Resources ▪ Interviews, hire and train the ▪ A large marketing departments may hotel’s workforce and manages coordinate the efforts of various the hotel’s employee benefits professionals including those of director program and monitors with laws of advertising, director of public in hiring and promotion. relations, director of sales and various sales representatives ▪ Specific responsibilities of the marketing department within any hotel may include: ▪ Sales of hotel rooms and facilities to individuals and groups. ▪ Advertising in print and media sources ▪ Managing public relations to maximize the image of the hotel ▪ Establishing contacts with travel agents and tour guides. ▪ Managing electronic distribution channels  ▪ To provide lodging to guests, all hotels are organized around four basic functions: 1) Front desk operation Service Departments 2) Housekeeping 3) Food & beverage 4) Building maintenance/ engineering 5) Security  Front Desk Operations ▪ The front office oversees room availability, registers guests, processes reservations, supervises check-out and assigns rooms and keys. The front office answers guest questions about hotel activities and resources and provides information about nearby restaurants and attractions. Lobby Area Reservation ▪ Reservations can be booked in a number of different ways, including through a local reservation clerk, sales or marketing department and hotels’ centralized reservation system. ▪ Overbooking is where hotels book 10 to 15 percent more reservation than they have available. Check-in ▪ The room clerk is the individual at the front desk who greets and registers hotel guests. ▪ Most hotels use a computerized property management system to store information about reservations, room availability and room rate. ▪ Smaller establishment may maintain this information on a room rack which posts cards showing the status of all guest rooms. ▪ After registration, the room clerk makes a room assignment and provides a key or key card to the guests. Check-out ▪ The check-out procedure is managed by the front office staff, and often is the duty of the same people who handle registration. ▪ Check out is usually a simple process as most hotels require Greeting advance payment for rooms or at least advance credit card verification. ▪ The bell captain or his staffs is often the first individual a guest meets upon arrival. He trains and supervises all bellhops, those who usher arriving guests to their rooms and carry their luggage. ▪ The bell captains supervise the hotel’s door attendants and valet parking crew.  Communication ▪ Electronic voice-mail systems ▪ Voice mail allows a caller to leave a message for delivery to a guest room phone. ▪ By dialing a coded number, guests can retrieve their messages at any time, sometimes from either within or outside the hotel. ▪ Guest messages via television. ▪ Messaging systems, videoconferencing, mobile technology, and e-commerce have advanced to the point where the flat-panel television in the guest room ▪ Wireless Internet service. ▪ Long-distance and local calls service. ▪ Wake up call Information Services ▪ Most large hotels provide a concierge who answers questions, solve problems, and performs the services of a private secretary for the hotel’s guests. ▪ Positioned in the front lobby area or on a luxury floor, this individual may furnish information about a city’s restaurants, theaters, and tourist attractions, book restaurant reservations, or obtain theater tickets for guests., hailing taxis and limousines or arranging for the purchase and delivery of flowers, candy, or other gifts. ▪ In the smaller hotel, the front-desk clerk, manager, bell captain, or bellhop should be prepared to provide directions. Housekeeping ▪ The housekeeping department is headed by the executive housekeeper who handles hiring, training, supervising of staff and purchasing of cleaning supplies & equipment. ▪ The responsibility of the housekeeping department is to keep guest rooms and other lodging facilities clean, well stocked and in good repair. Room preparation ▪ Cleaning guest room involves changing bed and bath linens making beds, dusting vacuuming, and scrubbing bathrooms. ▪ In addition, trash can are emptied, supplies of toilet paper, soap, shampoo, and tissue are replenished; and lights, television, radios are checked to be sure they are working. In-rooms bars and refrigerators are restocked as well. ▪ Individuals who perform the daily room cleaning are called room attendants. ▪ Floor supervisors and assistant housekeeper who supervise the day-to-day work of room attendants. Hotel Laundry ▪ Providing clean linens for both guest room and bath is a major part of the housekeeping function. ▪ The laundry manager supervises laundry room attendants who wash dry, iron and fold the laundry. ▪ Other lodging facilities own their own linens but pay to have the washing, ironing, and folding done by a commercial laundry service. ▪ Commercial linen services rent clean towels and sheets to lodging establishments. ▪ Uniforms worn by hotel staff are sometimes cleaned and maintained by hotel laundry departments. for guests ▪ Hotels have been expected to offer laundry and dry-cleaning service for their guests. ▪ Many hotels contract with commercial laundries and dry cleaners outside the premises to clean and press guest clothes. ▪ Larger hotels may operate these services in-house. Building Maintenance / Engineering ▪ Large hotels may have their own staff of painters, plumbers, electricians and carpenters, working on both repairs and preventative maintenance tasks. ▪ Often housekeeping and engineering work together to plan and implement the long-term upkeep of guest rooms. ▪ The engineering department is supervised by a chief engineer, sometimes called the plant manager. ▪ An important function of the chief engineer of a large property is to implement and maintain water and energy conservation measures for the hotel. Security ▪ Responsible in providing guest protection and loss prevention is essential for any lodging establishment, regardless of size. ▪ Today, most hotels have at least one professionally trained security officer, and larger hotels have a security department headed by a chief of security. ▪ The chief of security has extensive training in law enforcement, as well as civil and criminal law. ▪ Security staff develop catastrophe plans to ensure staff and guest safety and to minimize direct and indirect costs from disaster. ▪ Possible disaster scenarios might include fire, bomb threat, earthquake, flood hurricane or blizzard. Security (continued) ▪ Advances in technology help the security officer perform her regular duties. E.g., the two-way radios, closed-circuit television cameras, smoke detectors and fire alarms increase guest and staff safety. ▪ Electronic key cards. ▪ The security department usually works with the hotel’s human resources director to minimize employee theft. ▪ Security staff develop catastrophe plans to ensure staff and guest safety and to minimize direct and indirect costs from disaster. ▪ Possible disaster scenarios might include fire, bomb threat, earthquake, flood, hurricane, or blizzard. Food & Beverage Operations ▪ The primary components of the food service operation in a large property includes banquets, catering, restaurants and room service. Room service ▪ Room service is a highly desired service, but rarely adds to the profitability of the hotel. Room service operation often run at a loss. ▪ Staff's needs are greeter in room service than in restaurant dining rooms, since it takes longer to transport a meal from a hotel kitchen to a guest room several floors above. ▪ Volume of room service sales is typically lower, and the hours of service are often extended beyond those of the hotel dining room. ▪ Even though room service itself may lose money, it is offered because hotel guests such as business travelers, tired hotel guests and unaccompanied travelers have a high demand for such service. ▪ The room service department is headed by a room service manager. Room service operators take orders over the telephone. Servers transport the food from the kitchen to guest rooms. ▪ Breakfast is the most commonly ordered room service meal  Vending machines ▪ The vending machine has always offered an alternative to both restaurant and room service. ▪ Some hotels upgrade the quality and selection of vending machine offerings by stocking fresh fruits, yogurt, and prepared sandwiches in addition to the standard vending machine fare. ▪ Sophisticated vending machines now exist that offer gourmet meals, iPods, and other trendy high-tech items for guest consumption, effectively replacing gift shops.  Turnover Rate Human Resources ▪ The term 'employee turnover rate' refers to the Management Issues percentage of employees who leave an organization during a certain period of time. ▪ A turnover rate is calculated by dividing the number of workers replaced in a given time period by the average number of employees needed to run the business. ▪ Turnover may be especially high in this industry Personnel Needs because of inadequate methods of recruiting, screening, and hiring new employees; The hotel and restaurant industries, as inadequate training and supervision of well as the travel and health care employees; the high numbers of jobs requiring sectors, are growing more rapidly than relatively low levels of skill; poor wages and the general population. benefits; and the perception that there are few Due to that, there is tremendous opportunities for advancement. competition among service industries to attract and retain good employees. Addressing the turnover issue ▪ Hotels have begun implementing programs that reduce employee turnover. ▪ Many helpful methods for reducing turnover exist such as accurate job description which help set clear performance standard. and empowering employees to make routine decision ▪ Establishing incentive programs will increase employee satisfaction. Many hospitality companies offer bonuses, guaranteed raises, and paid vacation to employees who remain on the job for pre-established period of time. Hotels also operate incentive programs to reward desired behavior. ▪ Perhaps the most important method is simply knowing employees needs. ▪ Benefit packages ✔ Medical and life insurance ✔ Social security pension program ✔ Child or elder care ✔ Employee assistance programs  Family And Medical Leave Act Of 1993 Equal Pay Act Of 1963 Title Vii Of The Civil Right Act Of 1964 Protection From Sexual Harassment The Age Discrimination In Employment Act (Adea) Of 1967 Human Title 1 Of The Americans With Disabilities Act (Ada) Resource Immigration Issues Legislation Union Referrals and Referral Associations Ratings Systems ▪ A referral association may provide the independent hotel with increased In their effort to improve overall visibility, marketing and buying power, occupancy rates, hotels and without the necessity of giving up control motels are always interested on or ownership boosting advance room ▪ Hotels and motels within a referral reservations. Ways to association share a centralized accommodate this include: reservation system and a common image, logo, or advertising slogan. ▪ Hotels and motels pay an initial fee to join the referral association and an annual membership fee. ▪ The largest referral association is Best Western, which has more than 4,200 hotels in eighty countries. Reservation Systems Since the 1980s, the computerized reservation system (CRS) has gained importance in the travel industry. A computerized reservation system is a complex database that provides information about many travel options, including airline flights, car rentals, and hotel, motel, and resort rentals Interested participants purchase access to CRS program, which allows the agent or clerk to receive information directly over the computer without talking to a telephone reservationists. The CRS is an interactive system that allows the agent to obtain up to the minute hotel availability and rate information. Before booking the reservation electronically. CRS bookings save money and time since telephone calls to reservation are not necessary.  In the years before the growth of franchises and referral chains, travelers depended on rating guides to direct them to hotels or motels Hotel ratings are still important, and the American Automobile Association (AAA) are among the most influential. In international travel, hotel guides and ratings remain very important. Rating System  Hotel star ratings are systems that rank hotels according to quality. Star rating systems are intended to serve as guidelines for guests who are making hotel reservations. Rating System (Continued)