Hospitality Quality Management Essay

The standards in hotel management that could be established include the standards related to house-keeping of the hotel. “The main responsibilities of the house-keeping department lie in the need to ‘provide clean and serviced bedrooms on a daily basis to the agreed standards’,” as indicated in the study by Rawstron (1999, p. 114 cited in Frapin-Beauge, Verginis & Wood, 2008, p. 394).

This means that clean rooms are must for the hotel and managers should establish standards for personnel involved into cleaning rooms in accordance with which they would have to do their job.

In accordance with the information introduced in the report by United Nations Environment Programme (2009), the following standards can be established and further assessed in hotel management practices: “documentation, internal audits, employee training, and continuous improvement” (p. 32).

As reported by Boella and Goss-Turner (2005), the customer satisfaction standards are based on the following cycle suggested by Sheraton: the company hires personnel that meets its basic requirements, the employees undergo training to meet all standards of the company, the customers are satisfied with the work of personnel, the customers/manager rate the work of employees, and recognition of employee’s meeting standards (p. 39).

This means that the training can be another way for reaching the standards established because the employees that undergo training are more capable of performing the requirements more accurately and in accordance with the established standards. The management itself can be considered another standard to be established and measured.

Quality management is the best standard which demonstrates performance (Olsen & Zhao, 2008, p. 551). As indicated in the study by Jones and Lockwood (2002), business should fulfil “statutory obligations including rates, taxation, health and safety standards, employment standards” (p. 7), and a number of other standards that may influence the quality of services provided.

Yo (1999) reports about the importance of selecting managers for overseas representation because the process of managing a hotel should be performed in accordance with the common standards for the domestic and foreign allocations (p. 276). In this respect, the taxation and safety of employees and customers as well as management performance are viewed as important ways to see if the management is effective.

According to the study by Mullins (2001), the assessment of hotel keeping standards and their carrying out are performed using the five-star system of evaluation (p. 457). To sum up, the standards that can be established include the following tools:

1. housekeeping – clean rooms;
2. taxation – appropriate tax statement;
3. safety and health – insurance and security systems;
4. food and beverages – quality and cost ratio;
5. quality management – timely and adequate decision-making;
6. customer satisfaction – rating by customers.

To control the purchasing, the manager should take into account the standards and variances with regard to possible backup plans. “The control process was described as having four steps: establishing standards and standard procedures, training staff to follow those standards…, monitoring staff performance…, and taking remedial actions as needed” (Dittmer & Keefe, 2008, n. p.).

In this respect, the control should be performed in accordance with the established standards. The techniques that can be used to control purchasing costs include some of the best practices for this purposes suggested in the study by Institute of Management & Administration (2006).

As such, it is possible to use “return of supplier base reductions” (Institute of Management & Administration, 2006, p. 306) which would serve as one of the ways of reducing purchasing costs. Besides, foreign suppliers can be used if the terms of delivery and pricing are reasonable compared to domestic suppliers.

However, this does not always concerns the facilities that operate using foreign products only; for instance, many sushi bars use Japanese products which means that they are not able to operate without their suppliers. Using software to buy and manage goods can be considered cost-efficient as well as development of supply web to save costs.

Some cost control standards are suggested in the study by Ojugo (2009) who analyses the cost of food and beverages and practices that can be used to influence and control the costs; “Actual food cost is how much you actually spend on food” (p. 194).

In this respect, controlling the recipes, the quality of overall services and products, the process of cooking (if this concerns food), the process of maintaining the goods (if this concerns facilities, commodities, and other items related to hotel).

Dopson and Hayes (2010) review product specifications as one of the methods to make sure that the purchasing costs are not wasted on irrelevant issues. “The purchase price variance for a buy item represents the difference between the item’s standard cost (for value-added material) and the PO purchase price at time of receipt” (Hamilton, 2003, p. 335).

Albrecht, Stice, Stice, and Swain (2007) suggest that measuring variances includes the procedure of comparing the “original budget with the total fixed overhead costs that were actually spent” (p. 972). In other words, the manager should establish standards concerning the purchasing techniques and processes and compare the final costs with the standards.

References

Albrecht, W. S., Stice, J. D., Stice, E. K., & Swain, M. R. (2007). Accounting: Concepts and applications (10^th ed.). London: Cengage Learning.

Boella, M. J., & Goss-Turner, S. (2005). Human resource management in the hospitality industry: An introductory guide (8^th ed.). Kidlington, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Dittmer, P. R., & Keefe, J. D. (2008). Principles of food, beverage, and labor cost controls (9^th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Dopson, L. R., & Hayes, d. K. (2010). Food and beverage cost control (5^th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Frapin-Beauge, A. Verginis, C., & Wood, R. C. (2008). Accommodation and facilities management. In R. C. Wood & B. Brotherton (Eds.), The Sage handbook of hospitality management (pp. 383-400). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Hamilton, S. (2003). Maximizing your ERP system: A practical guide for managers. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Institute of Management & Administration. (2006). Cost reduction and control best practices: The best ways for a financial manager to save money (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Jones, P., & Lockwood, A. (2002). The management of hotel operations. London: Cengage Learning EMEA.

Mullins, L. J. (2001). Hospitality management and organisational behaviour (4^th ed.). Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education.

Ojugo, C. (2009). Practical food and beverage cost control (2^nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning.

Olsen, M., & Zhao, J. (2008). Handbook of hospitality strategic management (2^nd ed.). Kidlington, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

United Nations Environment Programme. (2009). The Kyoto protocol: The clean development mechanism, and the building and construction sector. London: UNEP/Earthprint.

Yu, L. (1999). The international hospitality business: Management and operations. Binghamton, NY: Routledge.