Regulations Governing Room Division Operations in the UK - Coursework Example

Lecturer: Introduction Hotels are focused on ensuring that rooms are fully occupied and that satisfaction is accomplished to maintain competitiveness. Room division is an important component of hotels. Proper housekeeping is significant to the profitability of hotels as the greatest revenue is generated from room bookings. It is important for room managers to understand the needs of guests and also ensure that security is guaranteed for the guests and their property. Most of the staffs involved in the room division do not necessarily interact with the staff but they play an integral role in customer satisfaction. This research focuses on room division operations with reference to Nadler Soho, which is a strategically located hotel off Oxford Street. The Tottenham Court Tube Station is situated 400 meters from the hotel while the British Museum is less than 1 kilometre away. In the neighbourhood are several bars and restaurants. The Nadler Soho offers state of the art accommodation facilities comprising well-designed rooms installed with Wi-Fi for guests, global digital newspapers and an LED television set. The rooms comprise modern shower rooms and a hair drier to ensure maximal convenience. Guests are also provided with a small food cupboard and a laptop computer safe. Aspects of Legislation and Regulatory Requirements There are a set of legislation in the UK that directly influence the room operations for hotels in the UK. The law of civil rights requires that disabled people be treated equally as other guests. Access to rooms must be provided equally and ramps must be built for use by people with disabilities. Toilets should also be disability friendly among other aspects of the room division. The equality act is against discrimination of any kind including disability, gender, marital status, race, religion and sexual orientation among other social aspects that are predisposed to discrimination (Clark & Chen, 2007). The fire safety regulations of 1988 require room division to guarantee safety for guests and employees. Fire exits must be clearly marked and adequate information provided to the guest in case of a fire outbreak. All such exists are required to open outwards to maximize efficiency of exit in case of fire. Fire fighting equipment need to be installed and marked clearly. Fire retardant furniture and fittings are a statutory requirement. Fire drills are required regularly to assess the effectiveness of response to fire accidents. Guests should not be exposed to health hazards such as electrocution, falling debris and falls among other health hazards. Gas Safety Regulations of 1994 must be adhered to in all gas installations and applications. Hygienic conditions are required in all room operations even though it is also an important strategy to enhance customer satisfaction as guests will tend to choose hotels with highest hygiene standards (Knox & Nickson, 2007). Roles of Selection of Accommodation and Reception Staff Receptionists or desk clerks are in charge of offering guidelines to guests to communicate their needs. The first impression created by the receptionists and accommodation selection staffs to the guests is significant determinants of the level of satisfaction. They are therefore supposed to be knowledgeable people with vital information concerning all the services offered by the hotel. Clients come with different needs while others have prior experience in the hotel and may need to book the same room they stayed in last or different ones depending on the level of satisfaction. Dissatisfied customers usually complain to the receptionist regarding problems encountered in the rooms booked. It is the duty of the room selection attendant to avoid such complaints by ensuring that the guest is offered the room that matches his/her desires. Receptionists and room selection staff need to work hand in hand for successful customer satisfaction. The room selection personnel communicate to the receptionist regarding the status of rooms thereby ensuring that guests find a well prepared room rather than some activities being carried out in their presence (Zainal & Radzi, 2012). Receptionists receive calls for reservations and together with the selection staff work ensure that the available rooms are effectively managed. Calls to the front office and other departments are usually re-directed by the receptionist and therefore he/she needs to be knowledgeable regarding the interplay between the various departments in the hotel. Room selection or the receptionists ensures that keys are arranged in a manner that is easy to retrieve once guests arrive. They also ensure the rooms are locked when not occupied. They make arrangements for transfer of guests’ baggage to the rooms whenever necessary. Receptionists also help guests in the checking out process. Receptionists also receive payments for rooms and therefore need to possess basic accounting skills and the application of various payment methods such as credit cards. Surcharge to the guests for damaged items is also the work of the receptionist (Clark & Chen, 2007). Services Offered by Rooms Division Room division is significant in the provision of services desired by guests during their period of stay in a hotel. The division is core to the profitability of hotels and is considered to be the highest revenue generator compared to other departments. It is comprised of the front office and the housekeeping department. The front office is regarded as the hotel’s nerve centre as it is the main source of information and services that a guest needs in the period that he/she stays at the hotel. The first impression of the rooms division is therefore critical to a hotel’s capacity to maintain and attract more customers (Luo & Milne, 2014). Front office staffs have regular contacts with guests than any other department. They are comprised of room caretakers, parking and bell attendants, as well as transport staff. Guest services are coordinated from the front office and include guest room sales, guest registration and allocation of rooms. They also offer guests financial statements as well as monitoring of guest accounts and credit. Guests acquire information regarding the hotel and its surrounding from the front office through concierges. The department is in charge of evaluating customer satisfaction. It also organizes for outside catering services for guests when they are engaged in activities outside the hotel. This may include arrangements for travel services and transport of baggage (Sherif & Litteljohn, 2013). The accommodation department has a responsibility of ensuring that customers are offered value for their money. Housekeeping plays an important role of maintaining clean and relaxed environment that is reassuring and secure for guests. It is also in charge of ensuring conformity to sanitary requirements of the health regulations. Housekeepers safeguard the original beauty of the building, equipment and fittings to ensure maximal value for customers. They maintain cleanliness of guest rooms and the neighbouring facilities as well as attending to guest requests. In the hospitality sector, aesthetic qualities are among the aspects that customers expect to provide with. Housekeepers ensure that the bedding and overall arrangements of guestrooms are perfect (Beaverstock et al. 2010). Importance of the Front of House Area and the Accommodation Service The first impression for customers by the hotel staff is will certainly influence their overall satisfaction in the end. Guests arrive with a lot of expectations and the front house areas needs to uphold the anticipation for good service. Procter & Gamble referred the first impression as “the first moment of truth”. It is a great opportunity for a hotel to promote its brand in the contemporary hospitality industry as technological advances in internet technology allows customers to evaluate, select and make reservations online. This is done on the basis of online reputation and therefore guests arrive with a preconceived impression that needs to be maintained (Berezan et al. 2014). The front office needs to promote hotel reputation through ensuring customer satisfaction. Negative comments by guests from an inappropriate interaction with front office staff meant a lot to the ability of the hotel to retain customers because it is common that such a customer will influence others who may be accommodated alongside him/her or others who might have sought services from the hotel, especially with the current developments in social networking through Facebook and Twitter among others. A hotel might suffer significant loss of reputation in a situation where a customer shares a complaint on Facebook, such as the customer’s complaint regarding food served to him in Virgin Airlines that ended up being shared by over 70,000 Facebook users. The front house area and accommodation service need to promote business through referral marketing by guests. Satisfied customers have the capacity to influence friends and acquaintances to seek services from the same hotel (Zainal, & Radzi, 2012). Front of house area is the core area that hotels can enhance reputation and is directly linked to profitability as customers seeking accommodation services must encounter front office staff. Their decision to stay is significantly influenced by such encounters. The impact of effective accommodation service on guest satisfaction needs to be understood. Accommodation is the ultimate service sought by guests and it has to be reassuring and comfortable. It is one of the core services where a hotel needs to emphasize quality. Competitors use accommodation as a marketing feature and hence a hotel needs to ensure that guests feel that they have paid for the best accommodation. Accommodation services need to make the customer to feel needed. Purchase of other hotel services are significantly influenced by accommodation. If customers extend their stay, the hotel is guaranteed of greater sales (Busquets, 2010). Aspects of Planning and Management Front office and accommodation services involve assisting guests by addressing their needs with esteem and in a judicious manner. The planning process needs to highlight the needs and wants of guests. It is necessary to establish important planning tools that act as a guideline to the accomplishment of the organizational goals. Front office managers need to set a vision, mission statement and long-term strategy. Business and marketing plans are important planning tools. An operating budget also helps in the effective utilization of the available resources (Nelson, 2008). Upholding a quality culture is one of the significant aspects necessary to accomplish guest satisfaction. It comprises unfailing provision of products and services in line with the anticipated standards. Managers need to plan and ensure that quality standards are adhered to in all he activities. They have a duty to ensure that employees are empowered to accomplish their tasks effectively. Quality measurement systems are necessary to monitor the critical control points. Constant quality improvement enhances guest satisfaction by ensuring that their expectations are met or exceeded. The hotel also establishes better and cost effective strategies for service delivery through continuous quality improvement. Satisfied guests will return or recommend others to the hotel and therefore front office managers need to focus on enhancing guest experience (Lockyer, 2008). The management needs to establish benchmarks that represent best practices and evaluate if they have been achieved. It is important to ensure that guests have nothing to complain about in all the services offered. When present, complaints need to be addressed in a timely manner. The management needs to ensure employee accountability in all levels of service delivery. For this to be accomplished, they need to be empowered to understand their roles and to acquire the necessary skills to effectively take care of guests. The front office management needs to act as an example to the staff. It is important to uphold strategic human resource practices that enhance employee satisfaction, which has a direct impact on guest satisfaction (Haves & Ninemeir, 2012). Operational Issues Front office operations are faced with several issues that affect effective accomplishment of goals. Overbooking is one such issue that may lead to customer dissatisfaction if not adequately addressed by the front office management. Current technological advances allow customers to book hotel rooms well in advance. Online booking needs to be harmonised with physical bookings by customers to ensure that already booked rooms are not sold out to different customers. Customers may lose confidence in the hotel as they may not be sure if their booking will be honoured. Inattentiveness among front office staff is also an operational issue that may affect effectiveness in service delivery. Customers may place requests or reservations and the person in charge forgets. By the time the guest reports little can be done to quell their dissatisfaction. It is important for front office management to ensure clear documentation of customer interactions and requests to avoid embarrassments associated with forgetfulness (Jones et al. 2014). Late cancellation and postponement of booking presents a major problem for the front office operations. Accommodation may not be utilised by other guests leading to loss of revenue, especially for loyal customers for whom the management may be faced with a dilemma of surcharging. Security of guests and staff is an important issue especially with the rising cases of terrorism. It might not be easy to differentiate between the guests who pose threats to other customers and staff or vulnerable guests. Front office management needs to invest in expensive security apparatus to curtail threats of any kind. Once such threats prevail, the hotel loses revenue due to negative publicity, destruction of property and compensation of guests (Busquets, 2010). Conclusion There are several regulations governing room division operations in the UK. They include the equality act, fire safety regulations of 1988 and Gas Safety Regulations of 1994 among others. Receptionists play a significant role in the room division. They are in charge of offering guidelines to guests, maintaining an updated status of rooms and maintaining effective communication flow. The room division is in charge of satisfying guest needs and wants. Housekeeping plays a key role of ensuring clean and reassuring environment for the guests. Front office needs to uphold reputation as it is vital to the success of operations. The culture of quality needs to be entrenched in the objectives of the rooms division. Quality benchmarks need to be established to ensure customer satisfaction. Overbooking, late cancellation and postponement of bookings are among the major issues affecting the effective operations of the front of house and accommodation services. References Beaverstock, J., Derudder, F. & Witlox, F. 2010. International Business Travel in the Global Economy, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited. Berezan, O., Millar, M. & Raab, C. 2014. “Sustainable Hotel Practices and Guest Satisfaction LevelsInternational”, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 15, 1, pp. 122-122 Busquets, J., 2010. Accommodation and consumption diversification in the sector of tourist accommodation and restaurant industries, and its effects on labor relations, study commissioned by the ILO. Clark, A. & Chen, W. 2007. International Hospitality Management: Concepts and Cases, Burlington, MA : Butterworth-Heinemann Haves, D. K. & Ninemeir, J. D. 2012. 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