Free essay on commercial cookery: looking at management of physical assets

Think Australia Hospitality Limited (TAHL) new hotel will be located right in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. The hotel will be less than a minutes’ walk from Southern Cross Station within the Melbourne.
The complex consists of 50 room boutique hotel, al fresco restaurant and events center. The hotel will be able to hold up to a capacity of 90 clients at a time. Twenty five clients will be accommodated in the indoor rooms and the 65 other accommodated in the al fresco style.
The hotel is located within a safe location, which is a thriving downtown shopping district of Melbourne along the busy freeway with good client traffic. It will have an ample parking space so as to accommodate all the seats. Furthermore, there exists a public parking space just close to the hotel location. The hotel will be completely accessible to pedestrians and motorists due to its conducive location. Finally, the hotel will be clearly visible as there are no extreme tall and long structures that will obstruct the hotel. In addition, the fact that it will be facing the main street junction will give it an upper hand over the other nearby hotels.
The target market for the hotel will be particularly the locals and tourists. We will also target the clients who are after good food and in need of a fascinating atmosphere.

The expected clients to the hotel will be:

The Business Men: These individuals work the whole day and need accommodation for the night. Since they have made money this group are expected to spend more on food and drinks, as they will be enjoying themselves.
Families: The ambient location and design of the hotel will favor families to come for family dinners. The hotel intends to avail accommodative menu at friendly prices.
Singles and Couples: The romantic, sophisticated and an intimate atmosphere that will be created by the hotel will offer a one-stop point for the happy couples. It will be the best place for both the dating, young and aged, and or meeting points.
Tourists: Melbourne city is one of those attractive cities in Australia for vacations during the summer months. As a major destination, the hotel expects to have a good share of the tourists in its list of clients.

The restaurant’s Floor Plan

Details:
The restaurant will consist of 25 indoor rooms and external capacity for 65 clients.
Kitchen Area
The kitchen area will have the following items; Scullery Sink, Hand Sink, Ice Machine, Prep Table, Convection Oven, Refrigerator, Cooler/Freezer. It is the most essential section for the food servicing. The space will be enough for storage of kitchen equipments used to cook and preserve foods. It will also accommodate the cooks who will manage and prepare the foods.

Dining Area

Planning your dining area forms an important line between having adequate room to accommodate maximum number of patrons, while giving adequate space so that people can have food comfortably.

Restrooms

The presence of restrooms for customers and the staff is a compulsion. It does not have to be huge; however, cleanliness and maintenance of hygiene is the most crucial aspect.

Bar Area

If guests are required to wait for their turn to sit at tables, the presence of the bar area will be an excellent way to increase the sale of snacks and drinks before the actual dinner. It also proves advantageous in keeping the guests’ mind busy while they are waiting for their turn.

Staff Quarters

The staff of any restaurant works very hard and hence having a place for them to relax can prove to be an essential aspect if you want to keep them happy and spirited about the job they are into.

Payment

Every person wants to be paid for the hard work. The restaurants have an accountant right at the first step of every restaurant, which has adequate space to comfort customers who are arriving and the ones who are leaving. No one would like to lose new guests if the entrance of the restaurant is highly busy with guests who are waiting to pay for their meals.
The Tap House floor plan in the following sections, describes how arrows are adopted in the sample plan to display how employees must move inside the premises of the restaurant to ensure that the traffic inside the restaurant is efficiently managed and cleared.
While good food and high customer services are essential for recurring business, the environment of the restaurant is equally crucial. An owner always wants customers to feel pleasant and enjoy their feast. It is how you present the restaurants outlook that sets that touch of great memory for the customer. The exotic tables, stylish dishes, and lovely cups are what create a lasting experience.

Creating Beauty at a Sitting

A hotel’s design should effectively create a welcoming aura within its customers. In fact it should appeal not only by its sitting capacity but also in customer satisfaction. Both the desire to have a hotel full should not deprive the customers of their comfort. Therefore ambiance, comfort, sitting capacity, or even the desire of the hotel to get continuous profits should be well balanced.

Averting Problems by Design

In an ideal restaurant, there can never be a bad table for a customer. Whereas, some restaurants can avoid having any type of problem areas in the dining room. Some of the usual areas where customers do not like to be seated- include sitting space that is near the entrance of the kitchen, toilet or entrance of the restaurant. Tables that are located in the center of the dining area are not liked by dining customers either. Doing away with such problems may not be easy. However, with few tricks such as using dividers, wooden partitions, screens or plants can be helpful. One way to point out problematic areas ahead of the opening day is to be seated in every chair in the restaurant. You should then judge the view from every seat. You can see that you might have direct viewership of varied aspects.

Restaurant Music

The presence of silent atmosphere is not appreciated in majority of the restaurants. Music is bound to set the right atmosphere in a restaurant, as can the menu or the paintings around. One should avoid the play of music that is repetitive. So be innovative, have other entertainment plans such as karaoke, stand-up comedies, live bands and performances, recitals. Such can appeal to many customers. In fact, many hotels employ this to keep a constant customer flow.

Restaurant Heating and Ventilation

Restrooms
A good hotel design does not just end by the bar, the counter, the sitting space or the kitchen. Rather it goes up to the restrooms. Restrooms should be strategically placed and given a routine check. Clean restrooms are usually a point that will constantly keep the customers at the door.

Developing an Asset Register

Merits and Use of an Asset Register
It is one of the most important virtues in a restaurant business. According to Remenyi, Money, and Bannister developing and keeping an accurate asset register is very important to any organization. It requires a high level of good organization and a tight procedural discipline that most organizations find hard to maintain (Remenyi, Money & Bannister, 2007).
Notably, it assists the facilities manager to manage the organization’s assets. It is a list of information on various aspects of the asset, a collection of facts that enable data to be referred to whenever the need arises. (Groenewald, Erasmus & Ferreira, 2009). Therefore, it creates harmony in data storage and retrieval.
An asset register is also vital because, without an asset register, most assets can be bought without proper corporate organizations and thus not entered into the organization’s record. Or they can simply be purchased under the wrong expense heading (Remenyi, Money & Bannister, 2007).
But it’s a tool or a management resource that assists the industry to have adequate knowledge of its assets. Therefore in case change in management is inevitable, the new employee or manager will be able to handle the assets with the required ability. Its values will effectively improve stewardship and general management (Pettit & Nudds, 1997)
In fact, people are frequently surprised that the task of taking stocks in an organization can be quite cumbersome. That other asset can be mislaid, lost, or stolen from the hotel. However with a good asset register this can be effectively put in check. It will be so since there will be constant reporting on the maintenance or the performance of the asset. This constant act ensures that the asset is in place. Take for instance, the small freezer that our hotel will be using. It can be easily stolen if no one puts a constant eye on it. However, with a software program that keeps tabs on its performance, care is implemented while handling it. Also, no one would dare to steal it for fear of being noticed.
Above all, an asset register can equally be used to assess the long-term performance of the asset. It will allow the hotel to assess the complete turnover of the asset. It will in fact allow the hotel to decide whether to replace the asset or to maintain it in use (Pettit & Nudds, 1997). For instance, an asset such as the 6 burner stove is frequently used. By keeping its register, the hotel will be able to see if it has outlived its warranty and effectively served the hotel. First there will be a specific personnel who will attend to it, keep tabs on its performance, ensure that maintenance and servicing is done at the right time, and reporting any mechanical problem that may affect it. By being handled by one expert, misuse is minimized and, therefore, the six-burner stove will last or effectively assessed in terms of the performance to the company.

Asset Pricing

Financing Options
The ambiance of the hotel is but the tip of the iceberg. It is of a great value to achieve a neat, pleasant and appealing outlook for the hotel. The products that we will use to achieve this are, therefore, imperative. In fact it is how the hotel is furnished that impacts its overall operations, success, and constant customer flow (Walter, 2004)
Transportation of visitors and clients is an all important aspect in the hotel industry, it points to the awareness of management to its customers’ needs. Purchasing a bus for the hotel as an additional service to transport customers is therefore of great benefit. However in purchasing such various financial options as such must be considered, outright purchase, lease, bank loan, and hire or rent.

Outright Purchase

It is where the hotel will go to the seller and directly buy the bus by paying for it fully and thus acquiring full ownership. The advantage will be the bus will belong to the hotel, and they have full control over it. However, the disadvantage is the price might be high, and the bus might not give fast or complete returns (Renner, 1999).

Lease

Here the hotel acquires a bus for a specific duration and has partial ownership till the end of that duration. However, if the lease expires, it rescinds the ownership. It has additional costs depending on the lease agreement.

Bank Loan

It will involve taking a loan and servicing it after buying the bus. But it will not be effective because mostly the bank rates might change depending on the financial laws.

Hire/Renting

It involves taking bus only at the time when the need arises. However, its final costs might be high. In addition, it will not be convenient because the hotel might miss the bus at times.
Different financial options have different merits and demerits. However, the influences of great financial options can guarantee great returns to the hotel. WorldatWork notes that with a great strategic review, the management gets to evaluate the best funding or financing option that may assure it of a practicable aggregate stop-loss level (WorldatWork, 2007).
However, it will be most appropriate to use outright purchase as this will allow the hotel to possess a bus, that they have full control on, that will work at their convenience and which they will be able to manage to full utility.

Other Assets

Water Tank
It will be vital in storage of water. The hotel requires a constant water supply. Therefore having a water tank guarantees this.

Generator

We will also require constant power supplies for our boilers and lighting options in case of the power outage. A generator will be an alternative.

Policy and Procedure in Asset Management

In the hotel, industry inspections and tests are done on a daily basis to the various equipments. Assets such as computers will require either planned maintenance or routine maintenance (Walter, 2004). Practical policies will be such as.

Daily assessment of the server system to ensure full internet coverage

Ensuring that all the computers that are not in use remain switched off
Using the computer for work related issues only
No carrying of computers back home by any employee
Reporting any malfunction of the computers.
Benefits of implementing preventative maintenance program
Preventive maintenance program relates to the scheduling and performing or regular maintenance functions, from inspections through overhauls or replacements. It should be a routine or a necessity to keep the operations of the industry at full capacity (Renner, 1999)

Environmental Sustainability

The hotel industry is by far the most vital industry in human health development. Apart from just making its customers feel at home and have great services, it is important to ensure that the environment in which the hotel is situated is well maintained and taken care of. There should be a cordial relationship between the hotel and the people living around it. In every way, the hotel should adhere to ensuring that its activities underscore environmental sustainability.
Quoting the 1987 World Commission for Environment and Development, Manzini and Vezzoli say that development meets the needs of the people and the environment at present, in such a way that it does not compromise the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs and those of their environment in general (Manzini and Vezzoli, 2008). Our company will therefore consider the following.

Property Design

Our hotel will be built as per the required construction standards. The building will suit both the environmental standards and acoustic to prevent noise pollution during music

Waste Management

Both the waste from the hotel’s raw materials or leftovers will be disposed accordingly. We will use eco-friendly wrapping papers and cups. We also have well-designed human disposal drainage pattern that will be built to serve.

Recycling and Energy

In recycling the disposables, we will employ health mechanisms such as constant health inspections. The energy however will be through electricity and generators. The generators will be maintained and built for ducts.

CONCLUSION

If we adhere to all the above factors as portrayed, we will have a great hotel in the hospitality industry.

Bibliography

Groenewald D, Erasmus A. W & Ferreira E. J. (2009) Administrative Management. Juta and
Company. Cape Town. South Africa
Manzini Ezio & Vezzoli Arnaldo Carlo. (2008). Design for Environmental Sustainability.
Pettitt William C, & Nudds John R. (1997) The Value and Valuation of Natural Science
Collections. Geological Society Publishing House. UK
Remenyi D, Money A. & Bannister F. (2007). The Effective Measurement and Management of
ICT Costs and Benefits. Published by Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, UK
Renner Barbara. (1999). Hands On Water and Wastewater Equipment Maintenance, Volume 1.
Technomic Publishing company.
WorldatWork. (2007). The WorldatWork Handbook of Compesation, Benefits & Total Rewards.
Walter W. Robert. (2004). Financing Your Small Business. Hauppauge, New York. NY