World of hotel managemen
Chapter 3
Hotel management – viewed from above
Introduction
- The general manager is the head executive responsible for the overall operation of an
hotel establishment, including its financial profitability. The GM makes the final
decisions and reports to the owners directly.
General management
- What the job of a GM is, depends on the size of a hotel; in a big hotel the GM won’t
have much contact with the guests but will interact more with other departments to
monitor, coordinate and lead better.
- 3 important conclusions according to Nebel and Ghei:
1. GM must be able to successfully carry out short-run, intermediate-run and long-
run time frame issues.
2. A GM is required to perform a large variety of managerial work roles. They must
develop a wide variety of skills necessary to perform the role of leader, monitor,
entrepreneur and resource allocator.
3. It is important that a GM can communicate well. Every job function and every
managerial work role carries with a communications requirement.
- All the responsibilities: taking full responsibility for the performance of the hotel,
coordinating the activities of all hotel departments, leading the staff, participating in
determining the hotel’s policies and strategies, providing leadership.
Competences required of a hotel General Manager
- Determining relevant competencies and skill sets has helped human resource
managers improve hiring and selection practices, develop strategies to retain
managers and set up career planning initiatives.
- As the hotel GM is the leader of the property.
- He/she should be able to transfer newly gained knowledge to their subordinates
through practical means in order to improve service to their guests and enhance their
profitability.
- Despite the differences in their jobs and in the way they carried them out, they all had
two activities in common; agenda-setting and network-building.
Other members of executive team
- Executive committee is made up of all senior managers of the functional areas
reporting directly to the GM. They are responsible for directing, coordinating and
implementing the vision and objectives of the hotel.
- Room department manager: answers to the GM for the effective leadership and
smooth operations of all activities performed by the departments that make up the
rooms department. He takes over the job of the GM if he’s absent. Must have
organizational skills, excellent time management and technical skills.
, - F&B director: overall supervision, planning, control and coordination of activities and
personnel.
- Human resource manager: developing and maintaining very good team spirit and an
excellent working environment. Need to have strong procedural and administrative
skills, and must be able to effectively generate action plans and long term human
resource strategies.
- Sales and marketing manager: hotel creates new business, and also generates and
increases levels of awareness, interest, desire and action among potential customers.
They need to monitor and motivate the sales and marketing department to increase
revenues.
- Financial controller: monitoring the financial activities. Planning and organizational
skills, strong leadership and training skills with the ability to multi-task and work under
pressure.
- Chief engineer: state of the physical property of the hotel as well as with related
security issues of both guests and staff. Takes care of the repairs and engineering
works so equipment, machines etc. works well.
- Information technology manager: advises the hotel on information technology
solutions that will help the hotel to grow. Need to see solutions, explain in easy
language, operate with budget.
- Revenue manager: planning, establishing, implementing the strategies of the hotel
that will help maximize revenues.
Property management system
- Management should be able to obtain all data or reports needed for their decision-
making activities in one system(PMS – property management system).
- A hotel PMS is software used to automate its operations.
- As information technology(IT) is assumed to create value for hospitality companies.
- A needs analysis is the process of identifying and evaluating needs in a community of
people. In this analysis, all processes the hotel requires from its PMS have to be
documented and factors like location, target groups etc. will affect it.
- Some crucial considerations for the right pick of a PMS: security concerns, answers
to specific requirements and needs, compatibility, contractual terms, ROI etc.
- A well chosen PMS can provide a hotel with standardization of its processes and
procedures on a single platform.
- A PMS is organized into modules which are at the core of the hotel’s ability to deliver
excellent service to its guests.
- Protel Air is a PMS. It’s a web-based hotel management solution that supports all
areas of front office work and saves staff valuable time to focus on their most
essential assets: rooms and guests.
, Chapter 4
Rooms department
Introduction
- Hotels have a common denominator: rooms that need to be sold and cleaned.
Guest journey
- Booking: distribution channel, reservation department
- Arrival / check-in: front office
- Rooms department plays an important role. How hotels organize their RM depends
on hotel size and level of outsourcing. Front office and housekeeping are the two
main components.
Reservation (foto blz. 121)
- Reservation department responds to reservation requests and creates reservation
records. Sometimes then centralize activities.
- Cluster reservation office(CRO): hotel chains with several hotel properties in a
geographic area may choose for a cluster reservation office to serve one specific
destination instead of the entire hotel company.
- There are 2 CRO’s: global distribution system(GDS) and internet distribution
system(IDS).
- GDS are travel agents, IDS is an electronic system that facilitates purchases of
hospitality products like booking.com.
Reservation process
- For the guest its important that there is a room available and ready. Its starts with
identifying what identifying the guests needs.
- Revenue management: trying to ell the right room to the right guest, for the right price
at the right time. The main purpose is to maximize revenue and profit.
- Yield management: revenue management is the same. They do pre-selling, demand
is changeable during the year etc.
Room rates
- To be able to attract different market segments, hotels need to offer different rates:
- Rack rate: full price / highest price.
- BAR: best available rate, lowest price.
- Corporate rate: reduced price for rooms that are offered to companies or
organizations.
- Group rate: a special rate offered to groups.
- Tour operator rates: reduced rate for tour operators and travel agencies.
- Day rate: guests who use a hotel room for a few hours per day.
, - Complementary rate: free stay. Sometimes to compensate for a complains etc.
Key figures
- Occupancy: percentage of available rooms sold during a specific time period.
o Demand / supply
o Rooms sold / rooms available
- ADR: measure of the average rate paid for rooms sold during specific period.
o Revenue / demand
- Yield percentage: percentage indicating the realized percentage of revenue achieved
in relation to the protentional maximum revenue.
o Rooms revenue / potential rooms revenue x 100
- RevPAR
o Revenue / supply
- GOPPAR: compares gross operating profit for a certain period to rooms available
during that period.
o Gross operating profit for period / available rooms during same period.
Front office
- The front office is the core of hotel operations. It’s the most important access point for
guest complaints, information and requests and it’s their first and last encounter.
Department and positions in FO
- The organizational chart of the Rooms Department depends on several factors: size,
type and location. They always have 2 departments: front office and housekeeping.
- Rooms Department Manager or Director is responsible for the daily operations of
the rooms department of the hotel and reports directly to the hotel property’s general
managers.
- The front office manager is responsible for the daily operations of the front office.
He needs to think about the schedule and he ensures a proper, efficient and
profitable functioning of the front office.
- The front desk manages room inventory, assigns rooms to newly arrived guests
according to their personal preferences and manages the check-in (and check-out)
processes. Another task is to answer all the questions and to maintain room
availability information.
- A concierge is specialized in providing personalized service to guests. He must know
where the hotel is located and have knowledge of local specialties, touristic
attractions, unique selling points, restaurant and events. He is a destination specialist.
- The concierge is part of the uniformed services: a high visibility department in full-
service luxury hotel properties.
- PBX is short for private branch exchange. It takes care of telecommunication within
the hospitality property.
- The guest relations desk is in the lobby area. They deal with complaints
immediately and they can give time to carefully listen and try to provide a solution.
- The night auditor work in shifts at the front office(early, late, night). Who audits and
ensures the accuracy of transactions that have taken place during a period at front
office. They make up the financial accounts and checks the room status because
