Hospitality Industry Overview PDF

Overview of Tourism and Hospitality Industry HOSPITALITY Overview Hospitality is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. The hospitality industry includes the hotel and motel, or lodging, trade. As defined by the Council on Hotel, Restaurant and In...

Overview of Tourism and Hospitality Industry HOSPITALITY Overview Hospitality is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. The hospitality industry includes the hotel and motel, or lodging, trade. As defined by the Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education, it also includes food services, recreation services, and tourism. The hospitality industry provides accommodations, meals, and personal services for both the traveling public and permanent residents. Establishments in the hospitality industry are divided into five categories. Transient, or commercial, hotels make up three-fourths of the hotel business in the United States and cater to commercial travelers, businesspeople, salespeople, and tourists. Motels, or motor inns, are generally located near highways and airports and in small cities; residential hotels provide permanent or semi-permanent housing on a weekly, monthly, or sometimes yearly basis; resorts are hotels that offer recreational or social activities in addition to lodging; and convention hotels and centers are used as meeting places for large groups or businesses, or for major exhibitions. As well as providing lodgings for the conventioneers, convention hotels and centers must have state-of-the-art audiovisual and technical equipment among other services to stay competitive and attract business. Regardless of an establishment's category, all require staff to fill similar positions. The range of employment opportunities in the hospitality industry is vast. All positions, from bellhops to executive managers, share the same goal: serving the public. The primary responsibilities for those who work in the hotel and lodging sector include making sure that guests’ needs are attended to, their accommodations are comfortable, and that general hotel operations are running smoothly. Front office, service, marketing and sales, and accounting workers fill front-of- the-house positions, or those jobs most visible to the public. Less visible, back-of-the-house jobs include those in food and beverage, such as bartenders, chefs, and wait staff, as well as housekeeping, and engineering and maintenance. Most establishments in the hospitality industry also operate on a three-shift system, providing 24-hour service for their guests. CAREERS IN HOSPITALITY If you're looking for a job in an industry with continued job growth, here are 10 jobs to try your hand at: Hotel general manager Responsibilities: Directs everything involved in the operation and financial result of the property; creates standards for personnel administration and performance, service to patrons, room rates, advertising, publicity and food selection. Hotel clerk Responsibilities: Performs an assortment of services for hotel guests, such as guest check-in and check-out, assigning rooms and answering inquiries to hotel services. Bellhop Responsibilities: Escorts incoming hotel guests to rooms; assists with luggage; offers information about available services and facilities of hotel and entertainment attractions; inspects guest's room to make sure things are satisfactory. Meeting and convention planner Responsibilities: Plans meetings and special events of various sizes. Coordinates such logistics as budgets, speakers, entertainment, transportation, facilities, technology, equipment, logistical requirements, printing, food and beverage, and other related issues. Concierge Responsibilities: Assists guests with everything from making restaurant reservations to acquiring tickets to special events to helping with travel arrangements and tours of interesting places to visit. Executive chef Responsibilities: Oversees all kitchen activity, such as menu creation and staff management; utilizes food surpluses and leftovers; tracks popularity of various dishes; estimates customer food consumption; tests cooked foods by tasting and smelling them; creates special dishes and recipes. Reservation ticket agent Responsibilities: Answers phone or e-mail inquiries; offers suggestions and information about travel arrangements, such as schedules, rates and types of accommodation; quotes fares and room rates; makes and confirms transportation and hotel reservations. Maids and housekeeping cleaner Responsibilities: Such light cleaning duties as making beds, replenishing linens, cleaning rooms and halls, vacuuming, emptying wastebaskets and restocking bathroom supplies. Gaming dealer Responsibilities: Operates table games such as craps, blackjack and roulette; provides dice and dispenses cards to players; determines winners, calculates and pays winning bets, and collects losing bets. FORCES AFFECTING GROWTH AND CHANGE IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY Demand: An economic principle that describes a consumer's desire and willingness to pay a price for a specific good or service. Demographics: The study of objectively measurable characteristics of our population such as age and income. Baby Boomer: A person born in the years following WWII, when there was a temporary marked increase in the birth rate.  Generation X: The generation born after that of the Baby Boomers (roughly from the early 1960s to the late 1970s) often perceived to be disaffected and directionless. Diversity: A feature of a mixed workforce that provides a wide range of abilities, experience, knowledge, and strengths due to heterogeneity in age, background, ethnicity, physical abilities, political and religious beliefs, sex, and other attributes. Dependency Ratio: A measure showing the number of dependents, aged zero to 14 and over the age of 65, to the total population, aged 15 to 64. It gives insight into the amount of people of nonworking age compared to the number of those who are working age. Two-Income Families: A family that gets money from two separate incomes, meaning that both the husband and wife have jobs. Empty Nesters: Parents whose children have grown up and left home Single-Person Households: A household that includes just a single person, meaning that they are unmarried and have no kids. MEETING GUEST NEEDS Special events are filled with memories that last a lifetime. Every guest wants their wedding, anniversary, birthday, graduation, retirement, or family celebration to run smoothly while creating lasting happy memories for all who attend. To help you with your special events, we’ve compiled the top four tips for a successful event planning. Begin Planning Early One of the worst mistakes any guest can make when planning a special event is procrastination. Putting off the details until days before the event is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Encourage guests to begin planning their event early, and not to wait for the week before to start planning. Be accommodating with guests. Provide physical access to facilities to help them plan decorations, seating arrangements, and even the guest list. Provide packaged forms for your guests that include checklists and planning guides for common special events such as weddings. You can also provide your restaurant rules and regulations well in advance to avoid any miscommunication and last-minute changes due to compliance issues. This improves the guest relationship and makes for a pleasant experience for all involved. Delegate Tasks Delegating tasks is crucial for larger events. The smart private dining manager takes this information and uses it to the advantage of the restaurant. Providing resources to help guests delegate tasks shows attention to detail and personalized service are a priority with your restaurant. Provide a delegation planner or verbal instruction for your private dining guests based on the following model. Delegation Planning Delegation begins with sorting tasks into categories. Tasks are assigned a letter, A, B, or C, depending on the importance of the task. For example, booking a pastor or justice of the peace for a wedding would be an A task, while ordering the wedding cake would qualify as a B task. A tasks are vital to the event, B tasks are important, and C tasks are optional niceties. This helps ensure that all vital and important tasks are completed in a timely manner. Next, sort all tasks into a timeline. This will help determine when to ask for the most help. You will most likely need many helpers the day of the event, but there may also be a timeframe when the workload is too much for a single person to handle. Planning ahead helps avoid the last-minute crunch. Stay Organized Organization can single-handedly determine the success or failure of any special event. Disorganized planning and execution often result in missed details, unexpected disturbances, and unhappy guests and participants. If your guests are receiving help from several people, consider utilizing an online Banquet Event Order to keep everyone informed and on the same page. Using an online format provides instant access from any computer or Internet capable cellphone. This is especially useful during the busy days and hours just prior to the big event.  Stay Calm When planning a special event, it’s easy to get caught up in the details and lose sight of the real purpose of the special day. When unforeseen problems arise, encourage guests to remain calm and try to keep unimportant details and problems from creating stress and strife. Relaxation opportunities such as soft music, dim lighting, and a warm smile can make the difference between a harried experience and a pleasant dinning environment. An essential requirement, for both business and leisure travelers staying in limited-service or luxury properties, is that the guest room be clean. The essential department of housekeeping is as much a production department of a hotel as the front desk and bell staff is service departments.