To most people, the hospitality industry consists only of hotels and restaurants. However, the Oxford English Dictionary defines hospitality as the «reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers with liberality and goodwill», and according to the Macmillan Essential Dictionary it is «friendly and generous behavior towards visitors». It means that the hospitality industry also includes a wide range of businesses, such as small guest houses, snack bars and fast-food outlets.
It is common to our Uzbek culture being friendly and generous to any guest.
Uzbekistan is a vast country with innumerable tourist destinations. These ancient towns are sure to please your senses with the rich culture of ancient Uzbekistan. Anyway with such a rich history and culture need to manage skills and manners of hotel resources.
The hospitality industry provides services for people who are away from home for short or long periods of time. Therefore, it is important that hotel staff must be able to identify the various needs of their customers and be able to act and provide the services expected.
In order to provide a wide range of services efficiently to its guests, a hotel is usually divided into different departments, each being responsible for certain functions and duties. It is vital that the various departments understand each other’s work.
Hotel departments can be divided into the front-of-the-house and the back-of-the-house departments. Front-of-the-office departments are those in which employees have extensive guest contact, such as reception, cashiers, concierge, restaurants, room service, bars, recreational areas, etc.
Back-of-the-office departments are those in which the staff has little or no direct contact with guests, such as housekeeping, personnel (human resources), accounting, and the engineering departments.
Figure 1. Major departments of a hotel
− Reservations -Food Production -Employee Recruitment -Assistant Controllers -Sales Managers
− Front Office -Food Services -Benefits Manager -Finance Operations
− Housekeeping -Room Service -Training -Purchasing
− Laundry -Beverage Manager -Storeroom
− Security -Convention & Catering -F&B Controller
− Engineering -Stewarding -Credit Systems
− PBX.
The first and the last place in which the guest comes into direct contact with the hotel staff is the front desk, it‘s one of the most important departments in a hotel. A hotel’s front office is where guests are greeted when they arrive, where they are registered and assigned to a room, and where they check out. Usually, the telephone operator, other guest communications functions, and the bell staff or those employees responsible for delivering luggage and messages and attending to special guest requests are also included in the front office department. The reservations department takes and tracks the hotel’s future bookings. It is crucial that the staff in this depatment is well trained, good-mannered, responsible, polite, communicative and active.
The hospitality industry operates in a very competitive environment with rapidly changing consumer requirements. In order to meet these consumer trends a lot more emphasize should be given to the hotel staff. Hotel staff’s behavior should say they care about and respect their customers, colleagues and employees. In customer's mind, there is often little difference between one hotel and the competitor's. What make the hotel stand out are the professional touches—the manners. Manners are a form of communication. The slightest lapse can cost money. Good business etiquette equals higher revenue.
Here are examples of good manners successful professionals display:
− Address clients formally, be polite and smile.
− Dress appropriately for customers.
− Understand the customs of international guests.
− Turn cell phones off.
− Send brief e-mails that are clear and spelled correctly.
− Do not «overindulge» at company or industry events.
− Do not criticize co-workers in front of clients.
− Do not tell potentially offensive jokes in front of customers and co-workers.
− Attend industry functions to focus on the customers, not for the food and drink.
Hotel services are based primarily on people, not on computers or other equipment. It is very difficult to meet the standard of zero defects in service. Today customers expect a consistent and predictable level of service wherever he or she traveled, that is the standard, not the exception, as is the expectation of sophisticated technology in hotel rooms to support business needs.
Today’s hotel organisation must recognize the need for visionary leadership. A focus on leadership in ideas, information, inspiration, vision, and teamwork is more applicable todays than the old command-and-control model of leadership.
Being in the information fast lane is critical. The role of information technology is not only in back office support for accounting and reservation systems. Information technology today influences all aspects of business from corporate strategies to organisational structure. Information technology must enable organisations to react faster to market needs and fulfill the customer demands both quickly and accurately. Information technology delivers, but it has to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time.
References:
- Denney G. Rutherford, Michael J. O'Fallon. Hotel management and operations. John Wiley and Sons, 2006. ISBN 0471470651, 9780471470656.
- Jeremy Huyton, Sue Baker, Pam Bradley. Hotel management and operations. Cengage Learning EMEA, 2001. ISBN 1844800903, 9781844800902.
- R. K. Malhotra. Encyclopedia of Hotel Management and Tourism. Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 1997. ISBN 8174884882, 9788174884886.
