Tourism And Hospitality Operations Management

Tourism and Hospitality Operations Management

Introduction

Tourism and hospitality operations management reflects towards the work done in various departments of the hotels. Operations of the hotel facilitate the interaction between staff and visitors (der Wagen and Goonetilleke, 2015). In regard to this, this report discusses about the “Tourism and Hospitality Operations Management” with the help of operation and respective issues which are affected by the organization in serving tourist. In last, this paper presents effective solutions for issues related to operation management that are faced by the tourism organizations.

Operations of Tourism and Hospitality Industry

The application of materials, resources, technology and equipment are important part of the operations of hospitality management companies. These operations are managed by operations manager by developing and delivering a service or product to clients in accordance with their requirements. The responsibilities in operations management include dealing with a variety of strategic issues and putting in place an information technology network structure (der Wagen and Goonetilleke, 2015). These operations can be divided into two categories that are:

Room Facilities: In the hospitality sector, the accommodation to the visitors is most important aspect as it helps the visitor to get relief from leg lock from long-journey. In regard to this operation, the quality is an important aspect that directly influences the satisfaction level of the customers (Dhiman and Chauhan, 2019). the operation related to accommodation includes room services, clean and hygienic place, bathroom facilities, bed and storage areas etc that are required to a person to stay in a room in a nigh without taking any fear.

Food and Beverage: The operation related to food and beverage influence the satisfaction of the tourists during their visit to the hotel. The operation related to the food and beverage is based on the quality aspect because the problem related to the food or beverage may cause dissatisfaction among the customers or visitors.

Important Operations

Front Office

The front office is an important section of the hotel. This is the section that greets and assists guests. In regard to this, front operation manager oversees all front office operations and trains the front office staff. To maintain the quality, operation manager hires people who are simple to teach and fast learners. In regard to this, operation manager needs to work with professionalism and great manners. Operations related to front office services includes reception, switchboard, reservations and guest relations that are organized in an attractive manner to improve satisfaction of customers after their first entry in the hotel premises.

Reception Areas

The operation related to reception is managed by receptionist who is responsible for checking in guests and informing them about the hotel’s departments. “A smooth greeting creates a positive first impression on the visitors of the hotel. This enhances the hotel’s reputation and image and encourages future visits. Receptionist is also managing the collection of important information about the customers from them during the selection of room (Metti, 2008). With the help of this process, receptionist shares the information about the customers in regard to allocated room, room services and other kinds of services related to accommodation with the staffs of hotel to increase the sped of service delivery process.

Reservation

In the hotel, the process of reservation is most important operation because it is directly influence the sustainability of the organization in the highly competitive marketplace. In the present business environment, when internet is a backbone of the people, the reservation process is done by many ways such as e-mail, web site, social media pages, telephone, and walk in. the front desk staff of the hotel manages such service of the hotel to facilitate the customers to select the room and room services as per their taste and wants.

Check-in and Out

In the hospitality industry, the check-in and check-out are two important operations. For implementing this service, receptionist of the hotel need to see the passport of the visitors along with other documents to create duplicates for making part of hotel’s customer data base. After this, the Check-out process takes place when visitors want to leave the hotel (Neidhardt and Wörndl, 2019). During this service, hotel staffs looks to room facilities and make sure that every important object placed at right place. After this, Check-out process is performed.

Financial Operations

This operation is managed by the financial manager of the hotel. Financial operation in the organization takes play after the payment made by the customers for the consumption of the products and services. The main aim of this operation is to set the payment mode for the customers to ensure hassle free payment in the hotel through offline or online mode. Financial operation of the hotel includes the payment made by credit cards, vouchers of travel agency, cash, and traveler’s checks and payment made to service providers to hotel such as suppliers. Further, the financial team of the organization conducts the audit to verify the total payment and earning.

Housekeeping Operations

The operation managed by housekeeping staff that inspects the hotels for laundry purposes to ensure the cleaning of the staffs’ uniform, bed sheets of visitors room, curtain, cushion and sofa covers. Through their operation, hotels manage the industry standards that help in improving brand image and rating in the market. Hence, it is also responsible to develop hotel’s economy.

Cleanliness

Operation related to the cleaning is also important as it helps the customers to feel safe from the bad impact of the dirty places. This operation is managed by cleaning department staff of the hotel that is responsible of keeping the bed sheet, bathroom, floor of room clean. But the cleanliness is other areas such as bar and kitchen areas are managed by bar tender and kitchen staffs of hotel. With the help of two types of cleaning team, hotels ensure the different types of the cleaning to meet expectations of the customers.

Issues related to Operation Management

1. Lack of the money is a main issue as it affects the daily to daily business operation and hampers the ability of operation management. Such situation increases the possibilities of the debt to the organization.
2. Hospitality industry has high flow of the employees that affects the availability of the skilled employees for operational activities of the organization. Due to this, operation management cannot ensure the achievement of daily business objectives.

Strategy for Resolving Issues

• For resolving above presented issues, an operations manager should be handled the issues effectively by timely interviewing the responsibilities of operation department’s staff and customers’ demand. Such method will help potation manager to tackle the issues before being sustainability issues.
• Further, operation manager’s plan must be developed with an objective to present standards of its services to customers. Such process shall improve the engagement of customers in the operation of hospitality organization that may increase consumption of services (Metti, 2008).
• Lack of coordination between staff a management causes problems to operation department. Therefore, an operations manager should make two ways based communication plan that would be useful for increasing the flow of information sharing that will enhance coordination among them.
• Development of healthy interactions between employees and customers is vital for hospitality sector. It would be done by selecting educated staffs.

References

der Wagen, L. and Goonetilleke, A. (2015). Hospitality Management, Strategy and Operations. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Dhiman, M. and Chauhan, V. (2019). Handbook of Research on International Travel Agency and Tour Operation Management. IGI Global.

Metti, M. (2008). Operation In Hotel Management. Anmol Publications Pvt. Limited.

Neidhardt, J. and Wörndl, W. (2019). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020. Springer Nature.