Introduction
Hotel management is one of the key aspects of ensuring that a hotel retains its position at the market by delivering excellent products and services to its customers. Delivering customer experience depends on how the guests are treated through a process usually referred as guest cycle. This paper sheds more light on the concept of hotel management. The paper briefly discusses some of the duties carried out by different departments in ensuring that customers have a great customer experience when they book in to a hotel.
The guest cycle
This refers to the organization of all the processes that occur from the time a potential customer reports to a hotel to the time the client leaves the hotel. A guest cycle, therefore, can be viewed as all the time that a client spends within the hotel facilities.
Pre arrival
This is the beginning of the guest cycle whereby customers make reservations which can be online or by presenting themselves at the hotel. At this level the reservists either does the work online if the hotel has online facilities or processes the reservations when the guest has arrived (Henning 2008, p. 72).
Arrival
This is where the guest physically arrives at the hotel premises. The reception process is done by a concierge and the doormen who welcome the guest to the receptionist whose role is to carry out the registration by taking down the details of the guest and assigning the room or any other service the guest may need. The concierge also does the issuing of keys and handles the luggage while directing the guest to the assigned room (Henning 2008, p. 72).
Occupancy
This represents the period in which the guest uses the services and the facilities of the hotel which may include lodging and meals among others. The telephonist has the role of facilitating communication between the guest and management of the hotel.
The concierge facilitates the efficient flow of information to and fro the guest and also delivers services such as mails (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). The front desk cashier offers the services of currency exchange, does safe deposits and maintains guest accounts. The cashier may also facilitate processing of credit cards (Baker, Huyton and Bradley, 2001, p. 21).
Departure
This is the last cycle where the guest leaves the premises of the hotel. The cashier has the obligation of ensuring that bills incurred by the customer are settled. The concierge facilitates the baggage handling and transportation for the guest while the receptionist may do enquiries about how the guest found the service and welcoming the guest for a future time (Pitt, 2009, p. 1).
Role of room division personnel and house keeping staff
House keeping supervisor ensures that all the accommodation facilities are in order, well attended to and ready to use. The guest relations staff ensures that all personal needs, requirements and preferences of the guest are attended to.
The concierge serves the guest in terms of handling the baggage, giving directions and other functions such as mail delivery; he can be seen as the overall caretaker of the premises. The porter’s role is mainly to handle the luggage and hotel supplies and may even have the role of guarding the entrance of the hotel. The security officer ensures that security issues as pertains to the guests are not compromised (BLS, 2009, p.1).
Housekeeping and laundry
This is arguably the most important and sensitive department. Malhotra argued that housekeeping is very significant as it helps a lot to create a great customer experience (Malhotra, 1997, p. 165).
This department is mostly led by an executive housekeeper who delegates different duties to different housekeepers. The laundry work is attended by a laundry supervisor who oversees all the laundry work. Cleaning of the rooms and arrangement of clothing and house setting may be assigned to the maids under an overall supervisor (Jones, 2007, p. 30).
The housekeeper and the laundry may be in different departments in some large hotels; however, the two must work in unison. Sanitary and utility also may be in the housekeepers department. Maids may be assigned the duties of supplying sanitary ware to the rooms.
In some hotels housekeeping also encompasses a technical department whose role is to ensure all the mechanical and electrical instruments and gadgets, such as air conditioning systems, are in perfect working condition (Miller, 2011 p. 1). Some modern hotels have even implemented housekeeping software management systems which provide a platform for communication of all participants in the housekeeping department (Bardi, 2010, p. 430).
It is also suggested that training in all departments should be carried out to ensure that all the hotel personnel are able to serve all caliber of clients. Andrews also argued that since housekeepers are usually the direct contacts and service deliverers to the customers they should be well organized; dress appropriately and most importantly cooperate effectively both within various departments and the different levels of management (Andrews, 2007, p. 174).
Blue Ribbon hotel
The problems in the guest cycle for Blue Ribbon hotel arguably began with the front office Manager who is said to have problems with forecasting the occupancy levels. Under forecasting may drive the hotel into financial losses whereas over forecasting may cause customer overflow than the hotel can handle thus affecting the guest cycle either way.
The executive housekeeper is said to be illiterate and thus may have problems dealing with modern dynamic hotel industry such as computerized housekeeping applications and thus not be in a position to handle guests effectively (Bardi, 2010, 79).
Room attendants are reported to work on fixed shifts with little or no incentives and this is likely to demoralize them thus negatively affecting their work output both in quality and quantity hence disrupting the guest cycle (Sogno, 2008, p. 1). Training of all the housekeepers is very important in ensuring timely and effective housekeeping service delivery and this is not provided at the hotel. This may lower the quality of service delivery thus negatively affecting guest cycle (Pitt, 2009, p. 1).
Conclusion
Understanding and application of an effective guest cycle in any hotel is very important in that it ensures that customers are attended to in all aspects of their experience as guests in and out of the hotel. The cycle begins with pre-arrival, the actual arrival, occupation and finally departure with different employees attending to every aspect of service delivery.
Different workers have different roles to play as individuals and most importantly they should always work as a team. Hotel management should be carried out with a lot of sensitivity as what draws customers back to a hotel is the experience that they encounter.
References
Andrews, (2007). Textbook of hotel housekeeping management and operations. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Baker, A., Huyton, F., and Bradley, N., (2001). Principles of Hotel Front Office Operations. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Bardi, J., (2010). Hotel Front Office Management. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, (20101). U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition. Web.
Henning, J., (2008). Effective Guest House Management. South Africa: Juta and Company Ltd.
Jones, T., (2007). Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Malhotra, R., (1997). Encyclopaedia of hotel management and tourism, Volume 1. New Delhi, India: Anmol Publications PVT. LTD.
Miller, S., (2011). How to Build an Effective Hotel BSC in Minutes. Web.
Pitt, M., (2009). Effective Hotel Management. Web.
Sogno, A., (2008). The importance of effective communication in the Hotel industry. Web.