Unit 6 Rooms Division Operations Management Assignment Solution

Hospitality industry is an extremely big and growing industry, which consists of not only hotels but also includes pars, nightclubs, membership clubs and events in its purview. One of the unique characteristics of the industry is its uniqueness and its ability to provide multiple options and variations under different circumstances. Rooms division is an integral part of every hotel in the world because it involves the management of products and services related to the rooms that are rented out to people for a few days to maybe a few months.
Thus, one of the finest hotels in the United Kingdom, the Milestone Hotel, London, has been chosen for analysis purposes in the study here. The history of the hotel goes way back into 1689 and is one of the finest boutique hotels in the UK. The hotel is known for its array of services offered, which includes a butler, several dining and drinking options like Cheneston’s Restaurant, Stables bar and Conservatory. In addition, facilities like gym, pool, sauna and a car to roam around the city are also available. The hotel offers a range of room types, which includes deluxe guest room, suites and even apartments to suit the needs and requirements of people. Special amenities for kids and pets are also provided by the hotel, thus making it A grade in terms of facilities and services (Milestone Hotel, 2014). The review here thus examines the various services, facilities and operational excellence offered by the rooms division of the hotel.

Task A- analysis of the rooms division of the organization

Being a part of the service industry, the hotel needs to make sure that the basic legislative and regulatory requirements and rules are all taken care of while offering their services to the guests. The key aspects of these requirements specific to rooms’ divisions operations that Milestone Hotel focuses on are discussed as below.
Health and Safety: Health and safety is one of the most important aspects of legislative requirements of the rooms’ division operations. A hotel needs to ensure that the guests face no safety issue whatsoever. The Milestone hotel ensures complete hygiene in the rooms and the food and beverages served to ensure good health. Provision of spas and fitness centre is also a part of ensuring good health. Security of the rooms with special lock services and fire escape and extinguisher provision also helps in ensuring safety (Seifert et al. 2006).
Hazardous Substances: Another regulatory requirement is to make sure that there are no hazardous substances used in the hotel premises. Use of anything that can cause fire or any form of skin or health damage to the guests is strictly prohibited (Barish, 2001).
Price Tariff and Display: It is also regulatory required by the hotel to make sure that the details of its tariff for each category of rooms and the photographs displayed for the same are genuine and not misleading to any guest (Seifert et al. 2006).
Data Protection: One of the most important legal requirement of Milestone or any other hotel is the protection of data by the rooms division. When customers are booking rooms, they need to provide their personal details and identification proof. Hence, it is mandatory for hotels to make sure that no detail or information of guests is misused or leaked to a third party (Barish, 2001).
Immigration Records: Milestone hotel is also legally required to maintain immigration records and information of the guests staying in the hotel at any given point of time to ensure that no illegal activities are taking place (Seifert et al. 2006).

The main roles and responsibilities of the main posts among the accommodation and reception staff are discussed here.

Accommodation Staff: The accommodation staff can be easily into two broad categories, i.e. housekeeping and engineering, the different roles and responsibilities of which are:
Housekeeping Staff: They are responsible mainly for the cleanliness of the hotel. The housekeeping staff in the Milestone hotel not only cleans the rooms but also makes sure that the kitchen, dining and other areas of the hotel are clean. They are also responsible for keeping the storage area clean and as per the requirements of the food items present there. Providing supplies to guests such as toiletries, towels etc. is also an important role and responsibility of the staff members. They are also responsible for ensuring the delivery of laundry to guests (Schneider and Tucker, 1989).
Engineering Staff: The Engineering staff has two major sets of roles and responsibilities; one is to meet the daily electrical requirements of the hotel like electricity, hot water supply, air condition etc. Whereas the other set of responsibilities include other major works from maintenance to repairs etc.  (Siu, 1998).
Reception Staff: The main roles among the reception staff include front desk, mail and information, concierge and bell service. While the concierge needs to man the door at all times to allow people to move in and out of the hotel, the bell service staff is responsible for general operational activities. Front desk is the most important part of reception staff because the staff members in front desk are responsible for everything related to the guests. They need to handle the procedures of check-in and check-out of guests. Other roles and responsibilities include welcoming the guest, fulfilling their needs, answering phone calls, paperwork, client relationship management and collecting payments from the guests (Bardi, 2011).
Thus, it is observed that the accommodation and front desk service staff members have significant and important roles and responsibilities, which are important for the smooth functioning and operations management of the hotels.

The differences in services offered by different hospitality businesses in terms of accommodation and front office department are discussed below.
Hotel
Hotels like Milestone of any cadre provide the below mentioned services.
Accommodation Department

• Provision of short-stay and long term accommodations. Other hospitality businesses like motels and inns also provide cheaper accommodation options to the guests.
• The definition and implementation of working procedures is also done by the accommodation department.
• The accommodation department provides services good accommodation environment.
• The department also takes care of additional requirements of the guests such as linen etc. (Gonzalez and Leon, 2001)

Front Office Department

• It provides the service of advance, telephonic or personal reservations for the hotels.
• Also offers and manages discounts on tariffs or up-gradation of rooms in special circumstances.
• The front office department also provides the service of collecting payments via different modes and providing bills to the customers.
• They also provide special services like cars, chauffeurs etc. to the guests. (Bardi, 2011)

University Campus

• Front office department provides service for room allotment, collection of fees or rent, ensuring that the rules and regulations of the university campus are being followed, collecting data of students etc.
• Accommodation department provides housekeeping options and also tries to ensure that there is no use of hazardous substances, drugs etc. (Prideaux et al. 2006)

Backpackers Hostel

• Services offered by front office department include room allocations; manage reservations, providing information, managing discounts and tariffs etc.
• Services offered by accommodation department include provision of extra beds or linens etc., cleaning the rooms, providing cooking and washing areas, fixing electrical problems. (Prideaux et al. 2006)

Front of House Area: The front of house area is extremely important for the effective management of a hotel because it is the key to the development and maintenance of an appeal to the hotel. It is important because it provides the first impression and has a visual impact on the guests or clients. The design and layout can impress the guests or can leave them not wanting to come back. The ambience created in the front of house area, the heating and lighting maintained and even the flowers that are kept in the area; all have significant impact on the guests. Thus, front of house area is extremely important for providing impressive services and for maintaining cleanliness and security in the hotel (Bardi, 2011).
Accommodation Service: The accommodation service is also important for the effective management of the hotel because they take care of all the functions and efficiency of the hotel. They ensure durability and that the space, heating and airflow and similar factors are well utilized and well provided to the guests. Not only are they responsible for ensuring comfort of the guests in terms of fabrics, furnishings etc. but they also contribute towards making stay in the hotel friendly, amicable and agreeable. Mobility inside the hotel and providing access to different facilities also contribute towards making the entire management of hotels much more efficient and simple (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000).

The key aspects of planning and management of front of house and accommodation services of the hotel are discussed below.
Front of House Area

• Departmental Plans: This is an important planning aspect, which ensures the development and communication of plans for different departments to ensure that they work efficiently.
• Use of technology: the use of technology for different services and aspects of hospital management must be managed well to achieve higher efficiency and accuracy.
• Operational constraints: The front of house area also needs to evaluate and eliminate operational constraints present in the hotel.
• Pricing: Pricing is also an effective aspect of planning for the front of house area because the price needs to be decided on the basis of different factors and needs to be changed from time to time. (Rutherford and O’Fallan, 2006)

Accommodation Department

• Business Plans: The accommodation department also needs to contribute towards business and departmental planning. As it is one of the most important aspects of a hotel, the division needs to ensure that the plans are made according to the requirements of guests and also the availability of resources.
• Operations: operational planning and management is a must for the department because the department is responsible for several operational activities and hence ensuring that there is enough supplies and materials and adequate planning to minimise errors is an integral and important aspect of operational planning.
• Procedures: The department must also focus on the establishment and implementation of different procedures in the hotels. Use of procedures for carrying out activities and using checklists help in ensuring higher levels of accuracy and low error or mistake rates for the hotel. (Rutherford and O’Fallan, 2006)

• Marketing and Sales: Marketing and sales are the biggest operational issues affecting the front of house area. As it is responsible for managing the occupancy and tariff for the hotel, marketing and sales form a big part of it because occupancy would increase with marketing and sales. Even the accommodation service department needs to contribute to marketing and sales to ensure 100% occupancy rate (Jones, 1999).
• Financial management: As the front of house area is responsible for managing the payments from guests, it needs to make sure that financial management is strong to increase revenues and profits. The accommodation service department needs to ensure that the incurred costs keep going down to maximize profits. Obtaining cost effective and high quality supplies is an example of how accommodation service can resolve this operational issue (Jones, 1999).
• Human Resources: Human resource management of employees and staff members is also an operational issue faced by the department because inefficient management of employees can lead to inefficient services for guests. As housekeeping and other services offered by the accommodation department, it also faces a huge operational challenge of maintaining its staff members for ensuring that they give their best performance (Jones, 1999).
• Quality: quality management is a must for a hotel because a customer pays the price for the quality of products and services offered by the hotel and a compromise in quality can lead to loss of customers (Jones, 1999).

Thus, these operational issues must be taken care of while making business and departmental plans for Milestone or any other hotel because addressing these issues in advance can help in resolving various challenges and problems that the hotel might face.

Task B- Practical task

Yield management is a new concept, which has gained utmost importance and in the hospitality industry. Yield management refers to the entire umbrella of strategies that can help in obtaining maximum revenues from the hospitality services under the given constraints. Forecasting the demand for the products and services and then selecting the right distribution channels for the hotels are important parts of revenue or yield management of a given hotel. One of the most important things or activities that the hotels need to consider or employ while managing their revenues is the usage of differential rates and tariff structures in order to maximise the rates of occupancy in the hotel. The hotels can also make use of different booking horizons in order to maximise yield. The revenues of a hotel would be maximised when the occupancy rate is 100% at the best tariff structure. Adoption of suitable marketing and sales strategies is also important for increasing the yield management of the hotel (Jauncey et al. 1995).

Sales techniques that can be used by hotels for maximising revenues are discussed below (Siguaw et al. 2003).

Market-Based Pricing: The hotel can evaluate its services offered with respect to its direct competitors and can determine its prices by comparing their offered prices and services.
Negotiated Rates: Provision of special negotiated rates for seasonal or corporate packages or for delegations of different conferences and events can also be helpful in increasing sales.
Overbooking policy: The hotels can also make use of overbooking policy because the application of no-show and cancellation rates also adds to revenues.
Customer-Loyalty programs: Customers get redeemable points or special discounts under these programs, thus increasing repeat sales.
In addition, strategies like use of agents, tying up with airlines and inclusion of extra services are also good techniques for maximising revenues.

A hotel makes use of forecasting and statistical data for different purposes in their rooms division. Some of the common points of usage are:

• It can be helpful for determining the variance between the actual performance and the forecasted performance of the hotel.
• It helps in devising marketing and sales strategies depending on the estimates on past and forecasted demand, prices etc.
• The statistical data also presents a clear and concise view of the financial and operational performance of the hotel. (Magnini et al. 2003)

The room breakdown for a month for Five Seasons Hotel, Winchester is given in the table below.

The performance indicators for the hotel have thus been calculated as shown below.
Room Occupancy Percentage (Occupancy Rate) = Total number of occupied rooms/Total number of rooms*100

The performance indicators as shown in the table above present an idea of the performance of the Five Seasons Hotel (Harris et al. 2001). It is shown that the occupancy rate and the double/twin occupancy percentage is quite high for the hotel. Even Sleeper occupancy percentage is quite high. This shows that the accommodation sales of the hotel are successful, though it can make use of some more strategies to increase to 100%. As May is a holiday season, 100% occupancy rate is achievable.

Conclusion

The report has clearly illustrated the significance of the rooms division in a hotel. The front desk and accommodation services both are found to be extremely important for the overall success and performance of a hotel. Thus, any organisation in the hospitality industry must focus on all its aspects, including rooms division for increasing its efficiency and performance.

References

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