Front desk job of any hotel is very important from hotel sales point of view. Marketing and sales department is called revenue generator. Front desk job is part of the marketing department so it’s directly linked with revenue generation activities of a hotel. An employee working as front desk employee is having direct interaction with the guests. So it becomes very important for that employee to have all the chief characteristics of a good salesperson. A good sales person can convert first time guest in to repeat business guest by make him or happy and achieve customer satisfaction. This is the hospitality and customer demand only that can be kept in mind while handling customers at front desk that will bring customer satisfaction. Desired hospitality and less cumbersome process of check in and checkout will bring customer satisfaction. Working as a Front office manager or staff, first of all he or she should consider the available resources of the hotel concerned which need to be focused to the materialization of the business.
Good salesmanship is all about selling own product with acceptance of the customers. Whatever product one have, a good salesperson will sale that product and make feel to the customers that this is the right product he/she was looking for. This is simply quality of a sales person that he or she will find out the budget of a customer while conversation and offer the product that give within the budget feel to the customer. While conversation it is the quality of a salesperson to explain the facilities of the product to the customer that will again give feel of the right product customer was looking for. ( Abbott, P and Lewry, S (1999))
Customer relationship management is new concept in the field of any business. So it is the quality of a good salesmanship that helps in effective implementation and management of customer relationship in the hotel organization. In this competitive world getting new business, is a big challenge, so hotel organization believes in repeated business from the same clientele. With the help of knowledge and smartness in work of a salesperson-customer relationship is possible. These days it is being managed by ecommerce so knowledge of ecommerce to the front desk employee can be added quality of a good salesmanship and it will bring the business from existing clientele.
If an organization utilizes the available resources properly, Implementation of yield management will make major changes in the hotel. It will bring maximum market shares of the city concerned. Guest generally always looks for the comfortable stay and the luxury facilities for their money. It is the quality that always speaks better than any other advertisement. So if front desk employee gives proper feedback to the hotel, hotel can maintains the quality towards the tariff and the interiors which will bring the maximum revenue within a short period. So it is the benefits of the good salesmanship. So as conclusion author would like to say that good salesmanship is very important while performing duty of front office department of hotel industry because it helps hotel not only to get good business but maintaining relationship with customers and feedback to the hotel for up gradation of its quality of product and services as well.
Q. 1 (2) Explain, with examples what selling techniques you might use when checking in a guest.
Overall selling technique depends upon salesmanship and kind of guest but in general a front desk person has to apply his or her selling skills keeping in mind normal procedure of check in. Selling techniques for checking guest is nothing but a quality of good salesperson. A salesperson should be very friendly and caring to the guest so that customer will be satisfied. Sales person should use up sell technique first while explaining price of the available rooms, followed by prestigious pricing and cut rate pricing. Along with this salesperson should explain how brilliant the facilities are within the room to justify the price of the room.
There may be a case that same room can be sold at different price. It is the duty of a good salesperson to find out the level of desire of the customer for the product he or she is asking for and charge price accordingly. During heavy demand of the accommodation it totally depends upon front desk employee-salesperson to maximize the yield of accommodation by selling the same product at different prices as per the customer profile and need. Being a good salesman a front office employee can suggest various pricing techniques-top down pricing, prestigious pricing, cut rate pricing etc, to the hotel to maximize its yield. So it is the quality of a salesperson to identify and recognize the level of demand and ability of a customer to pay for the same accommodation and fixed the price accordingly. (Abbott, P and Lewry, S (1999))
For example if there is arrival of guest first of all front desk person should handle the guest with friendly approach, asking for the kind of room he/she is looking for then explain the kind of room available with its pricing. First of all salesperson should try to sell the room at higher price than depending upon the negotiation skill of the salesperson and the budget of customer price can be prestigious or if required and supported by the market sentiment it can be cut rate price be fixed. After this negotiation skill guest should be registered and room should be assigned promptly. As per the situation if needed guest will be assisted in completing registration process. Then there will be verification of method of payment to be made by the guest-whether cheque, cash, card or payment by company etc. and then guest will be escorted to the room
Q. 2. Discuss the type of check in system that you would expect to see at the turner Hotel.
Hotel Turner is a big chain of Hotel with 297 rooms hotel located in Central London. It is part of a well reputed group of hotels with 12 hotels running successfully in London and other major European cities. 42% of its clientele is corporate. Only 8% and 14% amount to walk-ins and leisure guests respectively. For this type of hotel, front office system should enable reception staff to make sure of keeping record of all bookings, position of accommodations, detailed about guests and amount billed and received as well. Hotel Turner would also require a system that should provide way to communicate with all travel agents and activity operators linked to the online reservation system.
Hospitality management systems are the applications/ modules that smoothens a hospitality business. From the room service system in a restaurant, to online reservation and an easy and fast check in procedure, it enables efficient communication and management of operation, eventually growing business and revenue. (www. wikianswers. com)
Features that Hotel Turner should possessed are includes:
Date wise arrival and departure reports.
Details of reservation and Guest ledger which should contains notes on special activities etc.
Feature should make sure the availability of printers to print the guest cards to provide to guest.
Provision to arrange different room to the guest.
There should be a perfect system to integrate the bill of different department like-restaurants, spa, gift shop, etc.
While check out all the possible payment option should offer to the guest so that inconvenience could be avoided.
Hotel Turner should have a system that can be efficiently used for online reservation system. This type of software package is essential as per the hotel’s cancellation and Guarantee policy.
Q. 3how would the check in procedures differ when dealing with?
(a) A guest with a reservation
Usually guest check in procedure for reserved guest and chance guest is same except for slight variations. Check in procedures for a guest with a reservation will be as follows:
Receive the guest with a smile, and greet according to the time.
Check if he/she is holding reservation
Get the guest registration card and fill it up with all the necessary and required details of the guest.
Fill up the key and the welcome card
If the guest is a foreigner, get the C form and fill it up.
Allot the accommodation
Fill the arrival register
Preparation of information slips and then the same has to be sent to the different departments like telephones, room service and housekeeping etc.
Open guest folio
In case of VIP, etc. inform all the departments
Pre-registration also involves room and rate assignment and creation of guest folio apart from producing registration card.
There are many steps of registration process, because its little differs from hotel to hotel but mainly these are the six steps common to all the hotels:
Course of action that is to be done before registration.
Formality of making registration record.
Offering the room.
Then payment options could offer and fixed as per the convenience of the guest.
Once above has been done then room key can be given.
(b) A “ chance” guest
In the case when guest is a chance guest the process of check in would almost be same except some cases. Like as guest is a chance guest so there will be no earlier reservation done for the guest so in this case first of all as process front desk person should check for availability of rooms and there will be efforts to create room for him or her. Rest of the process like fill up the key and allotting the accommodation escorting till the room will be similar. There may be a case that in case of a chance guest a front desk employee has to utilize his or her negotiation skill for the price of the room as per the level of need of the room by the guest. This is the skill of the employee to materialize the opportunities then and there. So overall the difference in check in procedures for a guest with a reservation and a chance guest is not much- the only thing is role of a front desk person becomes very important because while negotiation and first interaction a materialization of an opportunity can happen.
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Q. 4. Explain the necessity of overbooking and its legal implications in relation to Turner Hotel.
The term overbooking is concerned with a situation which shows booking of the room have done excessively than the actual available room with the hotel. In general hotel does this because of reaching 100% occupancies. Hotel books over rooms than the available one with historic information and trend which includes unexpected cancellation. It is the synonyms of over commitment and oversold.
“ No show has been a major cause of concern for the hotels all over the world. It amounts to major loss of revenue. However, no-shows and the early departures of the guests still continue to cost hotel money. Although reservation guarantee through the credit cards compensates hotels for only one night’s stay in the case of a no-show, but the hotel still needs to recover for a loss of revenue incase that no-show guest had a multiple-night reservation”. (http://www. entrepreneur. com/tradejournals)
Because of this panorama of no-shows and early departures, the hotel turner must unavoidably engage in some level of overbooking to help ensure that those potentially unsold rooms are filled. As we all know, hoteliers who occasionally overbook might have to walk guests once hotel is full. (http://www. entrepreneur. com/tradejournals)
Overbooking is very important element of the yield management. Generally hotels overbook to create backup of cancellations and no-shows. It is a kind of compensating the unexpected loss of the hotel. “ For this very reason, it is mandatory to forecast cancellations and no-shows. Inefficient overbooking generally results in unsold and unutilized inventory (rooms) while on the other hand excessive overbooking results in penalty cost which includes both the financial and prospective loss of the future revenue from the same customer and others due to customer dissatisfaction and the subsequent bad word of mouth. The optimal level of overbooking is where the anticipated cost of overbooking for the next unit to be sold is equal to the expected marginal revenue from that unit.” (http://www. decisioncraft. com/dmdirect/revenue_management. htm)
While the hotel industry attempts to portray overbooking as an economic necessity and legitimizes the process by attempts to provide guests with alternative accommodations, the hotels have failed to address the true effect and implicit costs association with the practice. Primarily because it is left to the individual state authority’s to regulate the industry. (http://legaldefinition. us)
As far as Turner Hotel is concerned from the view point of overbooking, it is advisable not to go for overbooking because there will be breach of contract between hotel and its guests. But from the view point of business and maximizing revenue, it the only way to proceed little aggressively to achieve 100% occupancy. This is because after advance booking there is chances of cancellation of reservation as well, even if payment has been made in advance hotel organization has to bear loss for the foregone opportunities in case of booking not done. So keeping in mind these things and profit maximization it can be done equal to the normal trend of cancellation. Hotel Turner must find a room for everyone who has a reservation and shows up on time to save themselves from any legal complications.
Q. 5 a) Explain the benefits to a hotel of accepting group bookings?
Group booking is simply acceptance of bulk business. In group bookings both the parties-customers as well as hotel can be benefitted. Customer gets benefit of low rates of the rooms due to the bulk booking and on the other hand hotel gets bulk business at a time so even at a less room cost per person hotel welcomes this kind of deal to get instant business and achieves its 100% occupancies.
A group reservation is for a block of rooms in a hotel. The block of rooms can be for a convention, a meeting, a special event, a tour group (as in present case of hotel turner), or various other reasons. A group reservation can be as small as 5 rooms to thousand rooms depending on the size of the hotel. Usually every hotel has different norms and parameters for considering a booking as group booking, which generally depends on the number of rooms booked. By booking rooms in large quantities, the group receives a lower rate. Hotel is benefitted in this as they get business in bulk and their occupancy percentage increases giving them a competitive edge over their competitors. Group booking also makes the reservation process easy and hassle free for both; the guest as well as the front office associates. Usually when a group reservation is made a code is generated which is specific to that group and each reservation should include this code. To ensure that reservations get coded to the proper group and that correct rates are offered, the person taking the reservation should always inquire if the guest is part of that particular group.
Bulk booking is beneficial to the hotel that is similar to any other business organization where organization gets benefits of bulk business. It is the deal that gives instant cash but per head cost becomes cheaper for the customer and organization both. But from organization point of view it is the instant cash that attracts bulk business and so to the hotel organizations.
Other benefit of bulk booking is that there will be less chances of cancellation. In case of individual business if there is cancellation of the booking it is completely loss to the hotel organization. Buta chance of this kind of loss due to cancellation is very less because of concrete plan of the entire group. In group bookings even if one or two persons are not coming there will be almost no impact to the business because of the compact deal for the entire group-this may depends upon case to case, bulk booking is definitely good for the hotel organization.
Q. 5 b) what factors should the turner Hotel Front Office manager consider when deciding whether to accept the reservation request from Excelsior Tours?
Group revenue management is evolving quickly. Revenue managers typically set guidelines for size and rate objectives based upon projected demand for higher – valued transient demand. These criterions should be regularly reviewed and revised in hotel Turner. Even if a group request falls outside the preset parameters of the hotel, managers should still evaluate the request. (http://tutor2u. net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-price-discrimination. html)
The basic objective of revenue management is to maximize yields. Acceptance of group bookings would be a great contribution towards achieving the basic objective of revenue management. So first of all Front office Manager of turner hotel should consider the objective of maximizing revenue of the hotel so keeping in mind this objective he or she should accept the offered group bookings.
While deciding whether to accept the reservation request of 40 double occupancy rooms for 3 nights 4 days from Excelsior Tours, Hotel Turner should look into the room rate, which is currently GBP 300 on single occupancy.
Among the major advances in Revenue Management technology is the incorporation of demand price- responsiveness for any property at any time period and for any market segment, including group. Other than the group being considered, front office manager must consider that this hotel might only have transient demand for these three days. Assuming that even if the forecasted demand shows that hotel can pick up 145 transient rooms each day at an average rate of GBP 320, which would give the 95% occupancy. Considering these assumed factors we can plot a line that shows incremental contribution at any given price point. From this hypothetical analysis, one can see that there will be break even (no profit no loss situation) with the group at a GBP 230 rate, and that one could generate an incremental contribution. This approach says all about the factors of accepting a group at a requested rate.
Some more information is required to decide whether group booking should be accepted or not? This information is present occupancy level of the hotel. This information would have very helpful in deciding the acceptance of the deal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbott, P and lewry , S (2002). Front Office Procedure, Social Skill, Yield and Management , 2nd edition , Burlington; Elsevier
Hotel Front Office Management By James A. Bardi
Hotel Management and Operations by Michael J. O’Fallon, Denney G. Rutherford,
International Encyclopedia of Hospitality Management by Abraham Pizam
Robert. J, (1993), Marketing for the Hospitality Industry, kent, hodder& Stoughton ltd.
The Cornell School of Hotel Administration Handbook of Applied Hospitality Strategy by Cathy A. Enz, Sage 2010
Verginis, S. and c. wood R. (2002) Accommodation management perspective for the international hotel industry , London (U. K) ; Thomas
Yeomand, I and ingold, A (1997) Yield Management Strategies for the service industries, great Britain.
http://tutor2u. net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-price-discrimination. html) accessed on 27/11/2010
http://www. entrepreneur. com/tradejournals) accessed on 02/01/2011
www. wikianswers. com)accessed on 2/01/2011
HOUSE KEEPING Question Part B
Question No. (1) Role, duties and importance of housekeeping department.
Housekeeping department is the most important part of any hotel. Housekeeping is responsible for maintaining the cleanliness, maintenance and the up keeping of all the rooms and the common areas in a hotel. No one wants to live in a hotel which is dirty hence this function has great importance for generating business. Since the hotel industry is highly competitive hence excellent service and cleanliness has an ever lasting impact on the guests and determines whether they will come again. Housekeeping aims to keep the hotel clean and comfortable so that the guests keep coming back again and again. M. N. Ahmed (2005)
A hotel guest spends about one third of his stay in the room. The design and layout of the room and the furniture in the room is very important in comfortable stay and a good impression. Cleanliness of the room, linen, room supplies, comfortable bedding etc. are the main functions of the department. Besides the room housekeeping also has to look after the other area like bathrooms and toilets, stairways, common rooms, floral arrangements, laundries and dry cleaning, maintaining gardens, hotel walls and boundaries and other public areas. Medlik & Ingram (1980)
The layout of the housekeeping department varies from hotel to hotel and it depends on the size and physical space. It also depends on the anticipated business. The largest workforce of the hotel belongs to the housekeeping department. The housekeeping department can have the following staff depending on the size of hotel, executive housekeeper, assistant housekeeper, uniform room supervisor, uniform room attendants, helpers, linen room supervisor, linen room attendant, floor supervisor, public area supervisor,
Executive Housekeepers
Assistant Housekeepers
Linen keeper
Florist
Floor Housekeepers
Assistants
Linen maids
House porters
Valets
Room maids
Staff maids
Cleaners
www. city-of-hotels. com
Executive Housekeeper manages the entire housekeeping function of a hotel. This is a very responsible position. An executive housekeeper has to cooperate with other department heads hence; the person must have a good rapport within the organization and must possess good organizing skills. An executive housekeeper must have an eye for detail and be committed to the various training and development needs of the people working under him. [www. city-of-hotels. com]
The various duties that an executive housekeeper needs to perform are:
Responsible for cleanliness and appearance of hotel rooms and common areas in the hotel. Neat and clean appearance of employees, facilities, corridors, linen, shopping area, gardens and the area outside of the hotels.
Hiring and training of the employees. Maintaining discipline among the employees and motivating the employees so that they perform their job well. Having a good knowledge of labour relations so that the employees do not overburden with work as per the regulations. Proper training of the employees so that they follow all the guidelines and give the best service to the customers.
Executive housekeeper is also responsible for developing the standard procedures which has to be followed in the hotel. A standard procedure helps to prevent confusion, maintain discipline among the employees and also helps in performing all the activities smoothly without error.
Maintaining good relations with other departments. Housekeeping is dependent on other departments like sales to anticipate future demand, purchasing to get the equipment etc. Hence a good relation with other department heads will help in smooth functioning and prevent last minute surprises.
Executive housekeeper is responsible for personally inspecting the entire facility. This inspection has to be on a regular basis withoutfailure. Surprise inspections are also required to keep things in order. He/she is responsible for inspecting all the areas, linen in the hotel. He/she has to pay special attention for maintaining a pest free and hygienic environment.
Executive housekeeper has to work closely with the General Manager and update him on the day to day activities in the hotel and also on the plans for any special events in the hotel.
Executive housekeeper also has to keep a track of the lost and found items in the hotel. These items can be normal to very expensive. These have to safely kept and also handed over to the owner in the best condition.
Executive housekeeper is responsible for preparation of the annual housekeeping budget and then submits it to the general manager for approval.
Executive housekeepers also need to manage the suppliers of the housekeeping items and recommend the good suppliers to the purchasing department.
Apart from the above the executive housekeeper also needs to check the incoming orders, inventory of the items, quickly attend to complaints, having the preventive maintenance of all the housekeeping items, and always motivating his employees to give their best. [Hotel house Keeping training manual, Sudhir Andrews, TMH 2005 ]
Question No. (2)
Summary of the main requirements for- Honeymooners, Retired Couples, Disabled customers, Families, Business travellers.
The needs of the guests in a hotel are very individualistic. They vary from each other. The hotels classify the guests in various segments so as to cater to their specific needs. The hotel must have a good knowledge about each segment and their special needs. This knowledge will help them to have the facilities in place to cater to the needs as and when they arise.
Honeymooners – This segment consist of the couples aged between 25 to 39 years. This segment has their own unique needs. This segment focuses more on the comfort solutions that can be enjoyed by them during their stay with the hotel. [www. tourism. australia. com]. the people in this segment look out for an unforgettable experience. Apart from the stay they also look forward to visiting places and sightseeing. The hotel has to specially plan for this segment like royal room accommodation arrangement, flower decoration, romantic dinner night, access to special recreational facilities, sightseeing city tours and most importantly; taking care that they have minimum disturbance from the housekeeping staffs during their stay. Apart for all these any special needs also have to be catered so that the people have a nice stay. (www. honeymooninindia. com. )
Retired Couples – This segment consist of couples whose age is about 60 years. This segment has specific needs which vary widely from other segments. Although this segment has a good spending power still it is price sensible and wants value for money. They want a good place to stay with peaceful environment. They do not want nightlife instead prefer to have a walk in the morning and evening. The hotel has to take care of their food recreation requirements. They might need special food due to health reasons. They also might need a doctor during their stay. The housekeeping also has to regularly check with them so as to cater to their needs. The facilities also have to be arranged in a different way so that the usage is not a problem.
Disabled customers – This segment has very special needs. They need lot of care and attention. The hotel needs to understand their disability and give respect and great attention to their needs. They might need a wheelchair and a doctor. These customers generally come with family member or helper so the need to the assistant also has to be taken care. The devices like television, washing and toilet equipments might have to adjust so that the customers can use them without any difficulty.
Families – value for money and affordability are the needs of this segment. The customers in this segment consist of husband, wife and kids. The customer looks for good and healthy meal for them and their kids. Recreation facilities for the kids like games and various sports for kids.
Business Travellers – The business travellers represent a large chunk of customers for the hotel industry. This segment includes people who travel on business representing commercial, industrial and governmental organizations. In case of business travellers the peak business demand is experienced from Monday to Friday nights. The reasons for visiting is for conducting business with a local company or for recruiting, training, management meetings, and stopping over between destinations. This segment needs special food, beverage and desserts, nightlife and good facility for meetings and conferences. The hotel also needs to have facilities for video conferencing, Wi-Fi facilities with good bandwidth.
Female business travellers – The needs of female business travellers are similar to the male business travellers. The special need of this segment is around safety. The ladies might have to travel at night. The hotel has to provide a cab which takes them to their destination safely. The hotel staffs also need to have a good idea about the city so that they can guide the lady if she wants to see places. The hotel can also look at having lady staff for catering to these customers. It is generally observed that the housekeeping staffs are common for the hotel rooms. By keeping lady housekeeping staffs for female customers would help in proper differentiation of the hotel. This would help to showcase that the hotel tries to cater to even the smallest of the details.
Question No. (3). Suggest some strategies which the hotel might use to identify the needs and wants of its customers.
Today’s business environment is very turbulent, aggressive and highly competitive. The hospitality industry is characteristized by intense competition, constant changes, and a relatively high incidence of failure. These factors not only decide the firm’s profitability but also decide its survival. There is intense competition in terms of quality, price and market share, and environmental factors. To increase the market share the hotels need additional expenditure. At times the business might need to look at mergers. The hotels have been forced to relook at their existing managerial techniques, assumptions and philosophies. The hotels are not only looking at innovative sales and marketing strategies but are also looking at improving the operational efficiency. During the growth stage the hotels might do well without investing properly in service quality and marketing. The second stage is the maturity stage where the hotels have to deal with intense competitive environment. In this stage the survival requires to deal with intense competition, acquiring customers and to become more effective and efficient. ‘ In addition to the increasing concentration, there seems to be a trend towards upgrading quality and maintaining market share, while divesting out of problematic properties. In 1979, Holiday Inns and Sheraton, both among the leaders of the industry, were less concerned with growth and more concerned with improving the quality of properties’. (Wyckoff and Sasser, 1981). This proves that the hotels have to develop innovative strategies to gain market share and redefine competition in terms of brand image and quality.
The few things that a hotel can do to identify the needs and wants of its customers are objective setting, environmental analysis, organizational analysis, assessment, GAP analysis, Strategic choice and implementation. The hotel apart from improving the operational efficiency and marketing also needs to understand the needs and wants of its customers so that it is easier to get these customers.
The hotel experience for a customer starts right from the moment he attempts to do the booking for the stay. The booking can be online or physically at the hotel. In case of online booking there are few important things that must be considered. All the details related to the hotel must be available on the website so that the customer can plan better. The transaction must be safe and quick. The customer must also be acknowledged on confirmation of booking. Every hotel must have CRM enabled s
