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Sonal  posted in Fashion

Shivam  posted in History

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How Covid 19 can stimulate healthier Hospitality Leadership


Due to this pandemic, hotel industry faced de-motivation as the major problem amongst their workforce. Mentoring has appeared as one of the finest instruments for the hoteliers, which will help them to instrument the succession planning and retention management post Covid-19 era.
Facing such toughest situation,the hotel industry now needs fresh start to overcome these challenges. Management cannot simply fall back on "we've always done it this way". In the post-COVID-19 marketplace, only different approaches and attitudes will succeed. And the most important is to change mind of employees and to work differently.
Mentoring is one of the way which  can stimulate healthier Hospitality Leadership. As per the Greek mythology, concept of mentoring was first discussed in Homer's classic tale ?The Odyssey?. According to this, Odysseus a globe-trotter, planned an attack against Troy, so he selected one of his reliable friends as a mentor to his son Telemachus. Although in Indian history mentoring existed with classical examples. And one of the relative examples is of Chanakya, he mentored Chandragupta Maurya to intensify his powers. Also, Gurukul based education system act as one of the durable models of mentorship.
?The best investment for being the best hotel is having the best staff?-Steven Belmonte, CEO, Vimana Franchise Systems LLC.

Also, during 1970 & 1980s?, mentoring established his presence in corporates as well as in academic sector.

Hospitality industry is the industry of the people, by the people and for the people. Hotel industry is special. A front desk associate?s attention towards the guest is personalized. The greeting & gesture that the engineering man gives to the guest, walking down to the floor is personalized. The housekeeper?s desire to create luxurious environment in all the rooms with exceptionality is personal. Dedication towards the hotel guest can only be achieved by any organization, when the organization maintains their commitment towards their employees. For any of the organization motivated personnel are the key to success and for the hospitality & tourism industry, happy staff is the only key which helps the organization to bring repeat and happy guests. The hospitality industry requires professionals to ensure the growth of the organization and satisfaction to the guests post this lockdown.


In 1984, Rutherford explained mentoring as an important ingredient in re-achieving the targets of the organization. In comparison to the other service business, employees in the hotel industry evolves the requirements of mentoring program as a basic necessity of Human Resource strategy, which will help the employees on long term career progression and intellectual stability. Kim (2014) explained that workers working in hotels getting advantage of mentoring programs, which advantage the hotel by decreasing the staff turnover.

In 2015, Kim et. al. in one of their surveys on 13 hotels in Seoul, recognize the effect of mentorship on turnover, job behavior and role strain in hospitality industry. In their research they have identified that mentorship helps in reducing employee?s pressure at work. They also noted that the mentoring is a helpful tool in career development, problem solving, job performance, job satisfaction and work commitment. Also, Peltier (2016) specified mentoring program as one of the most effective hospitality programs for human resource strategies.

In one of their presentation about Mentorship Program followed in their organizations, Hyatt hotels claimed that, the mentorship program helped them in drop down the millennial turnover rate by 7% i.e. from 20% down to 13% (Average turnover rate in Hyatt Hotels Corporation-a hospitality company), which will considerably impact on saving time and money of the organization. Also, they acclaimed that mentoring program helps to enhance the positive attitude towards the organizational objectives and goals. It also helps to construct the imp roved relationship, honesty and motivation among the employees.

Post updated on:  Sep 8, 2021 10:18:58 PM

Module 1
Filling of Guest Registration Card
Guest Registration, as the word itself is saying, To register the guest, To record the details of guest at the time of check in. This record is done on Guest Registration Card.
Taking registration of a guest at the time of check in is mandatory for both  the guest as well as hotel. During registration, the guest is required to enter important information on the Guest Registration Card such as guest name, contact number, address, Date of arrival, Time of arrival, Date of departure, Time of departure, purpose of stay at the hotel, and passport and visa details in case of foreign guest. It is the duty of the front office staff not to disclose the guest details to anyone.
Pre-registration Procedure
The GRC is printed one day prior to guest arrival, and then the partially filled GRC is arranged in pigeon holes in alphabetical order. Once a guest arrives, the respective slot has to be looked for to find the guest GRC form.
 
At the time of Guest Arrival
As the guest name is already filled on partial GRC form, and the GRC?s are arranged in alphabetical order, the only task of the person taking a check-in is to, ask for the guest name. For ex. If the guest name is Mr. John Smith. The GRA has to go to pigeon hole "J" and ask for a genuine ID proof.

Verifying Guest's Identity
Since terror attacks on 9/11, the hotels are mandatorily verifying guests' identities. The staff verifies guest's identity first by politely asking the guest's name. The staff member then requests to show a photo ID such as driving license or a valid identity card from a well-known organization where the guest is working. If the guests are from a foreign country, the staff requests them to show passport. The staff member is authorized to ask any verifying questions politely.

The true copies of the passport or ID card are made to verify the guest's identity and to prepare guest record.
Creating Registration Record
The front desk staff hands over the GRC to the guest to fill up the information. In case of VIPs, the staff enters the following details on the card
 
1. Guest Name- Last name, Middle name and First name.
2. Designation- The position of the Guest in his company.
3. The guest Organization's name, address, his/her date of birth, Occupation. Marriage anniversary date- These details are taken for records, for future purpose.
4. Arrived from and proceeding to, proposed duration of stay in India - is for which city the guest has come and where will she/he is  proceeding next. As the hotels has to keep a complete record of foreigners coming to India.
5. Arrival date and Time and Departure date and time is very important as hotels are working on Check-in Check-out basis.
6. Mode of Payment clarifies by what mode guest is making a payment. 
7. Terms and Conditions varies from hotel to hotel. Few Examples of terms and conditions can be
 a. Check-in/ check-out time: 12 Noon.
 b. All valuables and cash should be deposited with the cashier.
 c. We don not accept personal cheques.
8. Nationality, Passport details are noted, after verifying form passport.
9. Room rate , Room Type, No of people.
 
And then the  guest's signature is received on the GRC.

 Establishing Payment Method
Guests can pay in advance or at the time of checking-out. Those who have paid in advance are put under Paid-In-Advance (PIA) list. There are various modes of payment out of which a mode that guest prefers is recorded at the time of registration. Following payment methods are available −
  • Cash Payment (which also include money order, travelers cheque).
  • Credit Card/Debit Card Payment (which are accepted only if the cards have not expired).
  • Cheque Payment (where post-dated cheques are not accepted).
  • Direct Billing.
  • Special Payment such as gift card and voucher.
  • The guests need to select one of the options of payment at the time of registration.

Divya  posted in Front office

Post updated on:  Sep 6, 2021 7:13:21 PM

Tip means To Insure Promptness
 
We all know that Tip is a relatively small amount of money rend from the guest in return of the services provided?. Whereas, this word means much beyond than this.  Tipping should be a thought of first and foremost as a reward for prompt and attentive service. That is also true that guests ensure that we keep ourselves working hard. Basically if you fill the desire of the guest to perfections and leave a kind remark, then you get the higher tip. It is certainly a personal preference of the guest, which is generally received by Valet parking staff, Bellmen, housekeeping Maids, Concierges and Front Desk and Restaurant waiters,  as they often interact with the guests and has the ability to make or break the guest stay.


 

 
Food and Beverage service tips are generally "pooled," or shared between everyone. If guest hand something extra to a person who provides the guest extraordinary service, he or she can keep it. Service-employees at hotels consider tips as a part of their salary.
 
Depending on the timing, tipping can be a reward for goods and service rendered, or a subtle bribe.  As different cultures and customs are part of the traveling process, if a guest lay out a tip for a Japanese waiter, it will be interpreted as a rude and condescending display of the guest wealth. It is also better to neglect the tip in a posh U.S. restaurant as the guest would not be liked to welcome back.
 
Few Organizations feel that it is not only in bad taste, it could be construed as a conflict of interest and the service employees may also be offended at being treated like a servant. Tipping may create a sense of jealousy and competition among the employees. What may appear rude might be nothing more than a simple language barrier. In India, tipping is referred to as "baksheesh" or money for the service.
 
When we talk in a broad scale, Tipping is defined as gratuity, compensation or reward for a well done service. It is but obvious that a guest give tip to you when he finds the service is appropriate and he is actually satisfied. Tips are earned by deserving people who go out of their way to provide personalized or stand-out service.
 
It is a return of the employee?s hard work and personalized service given to the guests. Hotels allow it to keep the employees enthusiasm on, where it should not be misused by providing wrong information to the guest for the sake of TIP.
 
 Tipping is no doubt an art which can be learnt by our own experience. Guests are impressed when they see properly groomed staff, so it should always be a practice to show the guests that we always practice a good hygiene. Hotels are a place where we interact with lots of people in a single day, and may not know the choices and expectation of every guest. For this reading the guests does very essential task, by which we can give the guests what they need without them, have to ask for it.  
 
Getting higher tip is not an easy job, while also it is not rocket science. What we all need is a good attitude, a smile, proper knowledge and Clean Appearance.

 
 
 

Post updated on:  Sep 6, 2021 6:43:46 PM

Classroom Learning Barriers among various types of Student in Hospitality Institutes.

Alike any other field, where one sells a product, In hospitality we sell ourselves by our skills, grooming, knowledge , sense of judgment and not the least a positive attitude. Imparting theoretical knowledge is not the only motive of Hospitality teachers; we make our students fit for the industry. That is why at Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Catering Technology, it is said that "We make Entrepreneurs".

 
In the classroom, we can break down the types of students into a few different categories with regards to effort exhibited in class ie. Srota, Sota, Sarakta, Sarvota. Srota is for the listeners, they get knowledge by listening. Sota are those students who believes in sleeping in the class, Sarakta is actually looking but is mentally absent in the class. Sarvota is the all rounder, who listens and is physically present in the class.
 
It is now us to decide which type we want our students to fall in. By straight up fact, God gave some students much more talent and potential than their peers. But not to say everyone can?t accomplish what they want.
 
Despite the best intentions of both teachers and students, students face a number of barriers in the classroom. These hurdles may range from issues of Student Interests, Teacher Expectations, Classroom Management and Choosing a right role model, etc. While each learning barrier must be addressed individually with an open mind, will help teachers navigate them successfully.
 
One of the most wonderful things to see as a teacher is to break these barriers for students.

 
Students Interests.
Those days are gone, when classroom teaching was considered as the best method of teaching. Now a day?s hospitality students are so manipulative and confident that simple teaching does not work. While educating, it is important to give some desirable knowledge, interests, critical thinking and a positive approach, which most of the times is in the hands of a trainer. Instead of white board teaching, students want new concepts in the lectures.
 
To keep students interested, we must plan lessons that keep them active, such as group activities, Case Studies, Video presentations and situation handling. And such activities should not be repeated in every lecture as it can become boring very quickly. The lecture should include a lot of examples and situations. This procedure holds clarity with the topic and at the same time student does not forget it easily.
 
Choosing a Role Model.
Role models are important. They help us become the person we want to be and inspire us to make a difference. Choosing wisely means that we are influenced correctly and it will help to be the best person we can be. If I give a ball to a film star and ask him to teach Cricket. He may know all the theoretical concepts and rules of the game but may not be able to teach it appropriately because of no practical exposure of Cricket. Whereas it would be best to make a role model from the cricket team itself for ex. Kapil Dev.
 
After all Newton?s law also came from practical.

 
Classroom management.
A Classroom should be managed in such a way that every student is under the eye of the faculty. It is wisely said that under each faculty, there should be not more than 15 students.  Otherwise Student misbehavior and outbursts force teachers to deviate from the lesson to deal with the disturbance and hindering student concentration. A good classroom must be away from echo and climatic disruptions, and must have adequate ventilation and fitted technology (eg. Projector, Screen, Audio Visual?s, Speakers, etc.). If a classroom is well managed, then a teacher can anticipate in teaching without disruption.
 
Teachers Expectations
Like no two rooms, no two hotels are same, how can we expect teachers to be same. They have their own style of teaching and their own sense of understanding students. Expectations of teachers can be many, but the priority is building relationship of trust and respect with the students. We follow a mentorship program at BCIHMCT, where every faculty handles 15- 20 students with their personal and professional problems. This makes a home like feel to them and it is noticed, they are more adjustable with the faculty than their parents.
 
Of course, Teaching is not a rocket science. It involves not only the science of teaching but the art of building complex relationships that establish trust, engender respect and encourage young people to take risks in order to grow and to learn continually. The learning space of the 21st century is not a classroom; it is more like a studio where learners engage in ?ensemble pieces? either alone or in groups in collaboration with the teacher.
 
Therefore I love the quote said by Richard Elmore.
"Teaching is not rocket science. It is, in fact, far more complex and demanding work than rocket science."
 

Post updated on:  Sep 6, 2021 6:38:57 PM

Ethics -  In Hospitality.
 
It is very wise to say that "Hospitality is all about being a Good Human Being. In Bhagwad Gita, it is very beautifully taught by our greatest Management Guru " Lord Krishna that a good human being can be identified by attitude towards people, all other living beings, and towards the entire environment and attitude towards one's own Path to the Perfection.
 
The great philosophers of the past have placed a great deal of emphasis on ethics not only in their lives, but also in their work.


Hospitality industry is a human centric industry; human resource plays an important role in providing services which contains interactions with guest. As all the operations contains intensive face-to-face interactions with clients: managers, supervisors and staff confront many ethical dilemmas in their day-to-day operations.
 
What is ethics?

Ethics are the principles and values used by an individual to govern his or her actions and decisions. Ethics and values are not confined to textbooks, their use in the hospitality industry is of immense magnitude. Ethics tries to create a sense of right and wrong in the organizations and often when the law fails, it is the ethics that may stop organizations from harming the society or environment.

Ethics are very important in an organization, it plays vital role in managing hotel services which can be achieved by:

1.  Satisfying Basic Human Needs:   It is good for staff for morale to work in an open culture, with possible benefits of increased productivity and staff loyalty.  An organization known for fair and responsible practice is likely to attract high quality employees .
 
2.  Good relationships with Guests based on a commitment to honesty and transparency will enhance a company's reputation. And so increase in revenue by making a long term relationship.
 
3.  Competitive advantage- Hospitality is faced major challenges in terms of competition, In such a competitive world where hotels have all the facilities from products to software and technical implementations. There are certain ethical qualities that any hospitality professional must have :
Honesty , integrity , trustworthiness, loyalty, fairness, concern for others, commitment for excellence , leadership , reputation & accountability.
 
With the increase in competition there have been many unethical practices being followed in hotels , be it over booking of rooms to menu frauds. Etc.
Concern in the industry should not be to   how to find these kind of individuals it must be, but how to inculcate these values and ethics in hospitality person.

This is where role of human resource comes in. Although the role of Human resource department has moved from just being a recruiting and selecting department to training , but still we find that most of the hotel don't take sessions on ethics for their employees.
Catering colleges can also play their part by inculcating ethics as a subject in the curriculum and it should not just be confined to our religious scriptures.
With the growth of hospitality industry and competition in the market, timely and paramount service becomes a necessity to the guest , which creates a lot of pressure on the staff, therefore to meet these expectations ethics in services and operations are always kept on stake.
with all the hotels sharing same technological advancements and procedures the only sense of competition can be the ethical employees.


 
 
 
 

Divya  posted in Hospitality.

Post updated on:  Sep 5, 2021 3:11:32 AM

Being Green: Making system healthier

New technology ensures increase in efficiency of the hotel, in terms of increased revenue or  guest satisfaction. Changes being important part of every system, experienced housekeeping managers still rely on the same archaic procedures and tools as when it was years ago. As the housekeeping department is responsible for bringing in the largest share of profit to an accommodation operation, but this fact is hardly acknowledged and consider  a thankless job.
In the modern era, where hotels are planning to implement cloud computing, robots and we talk about innovative technology to make hospitality services faster and more user friendly, and when it comes to housekeeping, each and every guest would like to be attended by an employee and not robots who can listen to them and can provide them with personalized services.



In this competitive scenario generating revenuel is very tough and satisfying guest is even tougher. Because of increase in foreigners visit and increased competition among hotels, guests and management have realized the importance of housekeeping services. And so Housekeeping managers have started thinking of operations as more scientific and mechanized. Efficiently managed Housekeeping departments ensure the cleanliness, safeguarding and aesthetic entreat of the hotel.
There have been noteworthy innovations in housekeeping over recent years, which are now gaining ground in hotels around the world. Whereas, the best innovation found in the past few years is the ? Eco Hotels? And Green hotels has become a new and a unique concept to fetch guest and side by side maintaining its eco friendly value.
 Eco hotel has made important environmental improvements to its structure in order to minimize its impact on the environment. The basic definition of a green hotel is an environmentally responsible lodging that follows the practices of green living. These hotels have to be certified green by an independent third-party or by the state they are located in. Traditionally, these hotels were mostly presented as Eco Lodges because of their location, often in jungles, and their design inspired by the use of traditional building methods applied by skilled local craftsmen in areas, such as Costa Rica and Indonesia.
Today, eco hotels also include properties in less "natural" locations that have invested in improving their "green" credentials. For example The Ecotel, Uppal Hotel in Delhi, is based on five areas of environmentalism, which are referred to as the ?cornerstones of environmental responsibility? or simply as ?Globes?. These Globes are Energy conservation, water conservation,Solid waste management, Employee environmental education and environmental commitment.
  
Don't you think Green technology has given Hotel many options to make their Suites and rooms look different?
With the focus progressively on green practices, there is much more to being ecologically friendly than reusing sheets and towels. i.e. to save water, save energy and reduce solid waste, Improving air and water quality and Increasing the efficient use of natural resources.
Eco practices are one of the most spectacular emerging trends in hotel housekeeping. ?Going green? is a trend of the day and environment sound policies increases the monetary health of a property.
Green hotels follow strict green guidelines to ensure that their guests are staying in a safe, non-toxic and energy-efficient accommodation. Here are some basic characteristics of a green hotel:
Housekeeping uses non-toxic cleaning agents and laundry detergent
100% organic cotton sheets, towels and mattresses
Non-smoking environment
Renewable energy sources like solar or wind energy
Bulk organic soap and amenities instead of individual packages to reduce waste
Guest room and hotel lobby recycling bins
Towel and sheet re-use (guests can tell housekeeping to leave these slightly used items to reduce water consumption)
Energy-efficient lighting
On-site transportation with green vehicles
Serve organic and local-grown food
Non-disposable dishes
Offers a fresh-air exchange system
Grey-water recycling, which is the reuse of kitchen, bath and laundry water for garden and landscaping
Newspaper recycling program


 
There is an increasing awareness to use eco-friendly amenities, commodities and practices. Housekeepers are developing and adopting new ways to conserve water and energy. According to American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) hospitality industry spends $3.7 billion in a year on energy. AHLA estimates that reducing energy use by 10% industry would save $ 285 million.
Usage of energy consuming appliances. i.e. compact fluorescent lamps which saves energy. Ceiling motion sensors are used in meeting rooms,conference rooms and public areas to reduce energy waste. Housekeepers are looking for products and equipment that help in conserving energy.
Bamboo is an environmentally sustainable material for uniforms, toweling and sheeting and is gaining popularity as its cost is coming down.
Nano technology used in surface coating makes it dirt and dust resistant. The product works by using the nano particles that fill in microscopic fissures in surfaces, creating a perfect seal that repels water, grease, bacteria and dirt.  It is used in Korea and Japan for years, they are now showing up on other continents.
Microfibre as a cleaning system has been in use in hospitals for years and is now slowly adopted into housekeeping departments around the world. Not only it is environmentally friendly but is also cost effective and also produces better cleaning results. It?s a cleaning cloth made of polyester, nylon or polyamide strands that are many times finer than a human hair. The fibres are wedge shaped so their edges van cut through and move soil off an object. It is non abrasive and can be used without chemicals or with water.
 
The Professional Housekeeper?s Association of New South Wales commissioned laboratory analysis of cleaning hygiene, comparing the effectiveness of 5 methods of cleaning bathroom glasses. The tests showed that all 5 methods; using dish washing liquid, microfibre, a sterilizing tablet, all purpose cleaner and using a dishwasher were effective in removing bacteria and mould present.

Various institutes and organization are also planning workshops and training events for promoting Green technology, To get new ideas and concepts of green technology not only in hotels but worldwide.

Timely and professional housekeeping management is at the epicenter of the guest experience and therefore the heart of a successful hotel operation. Being green means guests, staff and management are healthier. There is no doubt that when odors, fumes, soot, droplets and residues of toxic, poisonous chemicals are not in the air, on our food or on anything we touch, we are not absorbing or breathing them, WE ARE HEALTHY.


Post updated on:  Sep 3, 2021 12:34:08 AM

Role of Bollywood in promoting Tourism
Divya Thakur
Asst. Professor
Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, New Delhi 110019
 
Indian Cinema has contributed immensely to promote tourism in India and even abroad. Bollywood has unintentionally and effortlessly portrayed some of the most popular tourist destinations in India on the screens. Tourists are getting influenced with various tourist destinations. The biggest film industry in the world has contributed to the tourism industry by shooting at some of the finest and vivacious destinations of India.
However the continuous growth in travel and tourism industry, there are many trends where the industry is flourishing at a fast rate. The tourism industry of the country has undergone various changes over the time and Bollywood is one of the factors which are also gaining popularity amongst commoners. 
According to a recent survey, Bollywood is estimated to enjoy viewership of 14million people on a daily basis. This amazing fan base and an incredible mass appeal have significantly influenced the Indian culture at large scale. It is not just restricted to the culture but it has highly influenced the choices of Indian travelers as well.


In a country where people treat their favorite Bollywood celebrities as Gods, they make it a point to visit the places where their favorite Bollywood actor/ actress have shot for their movies. Darjeeling became one of the most favored romantic destinations after the release of Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore starer ?Aradhna? which featured some of the stunning and alluring scenic beauty of the surroundings.


Flims Like ?Dor? and ?Dil Chahta Hai? had set a surprising change in the tourism industry of Rajasthan and Goa. The brilliant city theme based movies like Kahaani, Delhi-6 and the Kai Po Che had flooded these cities with great number of tourists.

There are still few places which were not so popular before we watched them on silver screen like Marble rocks in Jabalpur. The gorge along the Narmada River is a truly spectacular sight. The splendid marble rocks give the place a surreal look. The beautiful song ?Raat Ka Nasha? in the Shahrukh Khan starrer ?Aśoka?, was shot there.
Remember that gorgeous waterfall from the film Chennai Express? Its name is Dudh sagar Waterfall and it is located in the Goa state of India. Dudh Sagar Waterfall is one of the highest water falls in India, and among the hundred highest waterfalls in the world. It lies in the southern part of Goa at Mollem, towards the border with Karnataka state. Dudh Sagar, literally means a Sea of Milk in the local Konkanni language, and gets its name as it appears like an overflowing sea of milk. It has a total height of 306 meters and a width of 30 meters.
Bollywood not just promoting the tourist destinations but also it promotes few travel portals which may provide sponsorship in movies like in ?Yeh Jawani hai Diwani?, where Ranbir and friends set out on a group trek to Manali organized by none other than MakeMyTrip, and the movie Jab Harry Met Sejal was also associated with Cox and King.
The young people who can afford holidays are not watching television or reading newspapers. They are consuming content online. When a celebrity is shown living an experience it becomes aspirational and Instagram posts are way more personal. Social media offers reach and engagement that a celebrity brings with his/her millions of followers which cannot be matched by traditional media.
Tourism has been leveraging Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh?s social media following. The actor who has seven million followers on Facebook?s photo-sharing app Instagram and over eight million on Facebook has been promoting the offbeat destinations and adventure activities that the country offers through candid pictures and videos. Bollywood actors also endorse for famous travel portals like Alia Bhatt and Ranvir singh endorse for Make My Trip, however Deepika Padukon promotes Goibibo.com and Ranbir Kapoor is the brand ambassador of Yatra.com Pvt. Ltd.


Hence, Bollywood movies and celebrities play an important role in promoting tourism of India. There are few celebrities also promotes state tourism in India, like Amitabh Bacchan is the Brand Ambassador of Gujarat Tourism (Khushbhoo Gujarat Ki), Shah Rukh Khan is the Brand Ambassador of West Bengal Tourism(, Kajol and Ajay Devgan promotes Madhya Pradesh Tourism and so on.
 

Post updated on:  Sep 2, 2021 12:16:24 AM

De motivating factors while choosing right career option for hotel management graduates.

Taking decision of their own career is the most important thing in a student's life. It is found that even graduates from recognized educational institutions in India face major gaps, resulting in them being unprepared for their careers.
It becomes difficult for a hotel management student to choose one department and stick to it till he/she retires. While doing a survey of hotel management students, a very surprising finding is noticed that students face peer pressure, teachers, mentor, parents pressure, parents who are under peer pressure (they are more worried about the neighbor's child). Most of the students do not get the guidance they need from home because their parents did not get similar opportunities. Rather than putting our ambitions on their shoulders, parents must always understand that every child is born with his/her own talent and interest.

However,  Students self-efficacy and occupational aspiration  should be the most important factor to influence the students career decision,  followed by tradition and cultural value, career guidance, support from parents  and external consultation.
When a student join hotel management, in most of cases student and their parents have least idea about the course. Students actually understand the industry when they undergo training of 6 weeks in second year of their curriculum. This is the time when a student realizes if hotel management is fit for them or not. But at the same time it?s too late for them to quit too. Then in the last year, they face many de motivational factors in choosing the right career option for themselves.
Hospitality is very different from other Industries as far as its education is concerned as it has training in its curriculum. An internship is a form of experimental learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application. It helps students to gain valuable applied experience and make connections in professional fields and give them opportunity to understand and live a Hotel life, and also to choose an area of Interest for them. At the same time training does not show the true picture to the students as too much work assigned to trainees, makes the students de motivated . Hoteliers must understand that students as trainees are not substitute labors and must provide a platform to learn skills on supervision of a staff.


When students join a hotel management Institute, majorly they want to choose Food production as their career option but it changes when they join the Industry. There has been seen many cases, where students change and make up their mind during the training in Hotels and choose a relevant area for them, and of course develop a passion toward it. It has been noted that majority of students keep Front office, Sales and Marketing and Food and Beverage Service as their right Choice due to Salary, lively environment and growth.
It is very surprising to know, that there can be few people in the life of a student who can be de-motivating ie. Parents, Academicians and Role Models. This is possible in the cases where parents have a very little idea about Hospitality, and so it is very important to educate them as soon as a student starts his/her career in hospitality.  It is very important for academicians and Hoteliers to understand that some ones objective should not be changed rather should be helped in achieving the same. If a student wants to choose Front Office as their career option, he should be trained rather than de motivating him/her to choose any other department.
 Interviews are considered to be the most de-motivating in choosing the right career option as the feeling of rejection makes them think about biasness of the basis of gender or looks. There have been many cases where a front office student is offered a job in housekeeping department, and a food production person is offered job in sales and marketing or front office. Here the passion of a student fails.
It has been find out that perception of female students is altogether different from male students. On an average girls want a future where there is work Life Balance, keeping salary as not the major point,  they need a secured and stable job with general timings, they would like to grow in the same field for long. At the same point and time they will never change their area of interest (passion). Whereas boys generally keep a secondary area of interest and as they want to grow with handsome salary. They want to see themselves at a good level in the early stages of their career and to be an Entrepreneur later. Each and every student has to be dealt in a different way, keeping in priority their own wishes, their demand from career and passion.
 There is no place where a child cannot be motivated, changed, learnt. The only change, we must do is to understand them and work on them.


Post updated on:  Sep 2, 2021 12:16:01 AM

Choosing right career option for hotel management students
Divya Thakur
Asst Professor
Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management.

Everyone has a dream of what he/she wants to be, in the early stages of their life.  We might have heard from a lot of kids that they want to be a doctor as their father is from the same profession. But as they grow up, they realize the changes in their interest and diversity in choosing their career path.
To choose the best option for them, one has to face a great deal of pressure from families, colleagues, education system and culture. It seems very difficult that one has to pick one career path and stick with it until he/she retire. They need a right advice to find a job that does it all: engages the talents, makes plenty of money, opportunity to grow and maintaining work life balance.
 In a country, like India, where parents celebrate their child's achievements, why do over 60 per cent of our graduates feel anxious about their future?
In a research conducted on Harvard Business School (HBS), It is found that even graduates from recognized educational institutions in India face major gaps, resulting in them being unprepared for their careers.
In most of the professions, students are not exposed to internships through-out their college experience and so they are not able experiment, gain mentorship, and learn practical skills on the job. This makes the students first job the first time they have ever worked. Whereas in hospitality, students undergo six months of industrial training and sometimes vocational training, which helps them to choose their area of interest. They understand the work pressure, learn professionalism, choose the best department for them and they can fit themselves to be the master of one stream.


When students join a hotel management Institute, majorly they want to opt Food production as their career option but it changes when they join the Industry. There has been seen many cases, where students have changed and make up their mind during the training in Hotels and choose a relevant area for them, and of course develop a passion toward it. And also, majority of students keep Front office, Sales and Marketing and Food and Beverage Service as their right Choice due to Salary, lively environment and growth.

Whereas it has also been found that students treat training and interviews conducted by hotels as the most demotivational factor, in finding the right career option. The training should be planned in such a way that students are exposed to all the departments rather than putting them as per the department?s requirement. Students must be allowed to stand at reception, take orders in the restaurant, make rooms and work in the kitchen, so that they can find out the right area of interest.


The gap leads students unplanned about their future and asked to join another department in the interviews. Hotels and Hospitality institutes must train the students like Hoteliers and must provide a platform to learn skills on supervision of a staff. We must develop the personality of students and make them realize their goal, which not only suits their personality but help them to become a good hotelier too.
 
 
 
 

Post updated on:  Sep 2, 2021 12:14:56 AM

HR in Room Division Management
 
 Recruitment, Selecting, Hiring-Preparing, Job Descriptions of staff, Orientation, Staff Scheduling



Recruitment and Selection is an important operation in HRM, designed to maximize employee strength in order to meet the employer's strategic goals and objectives. It is a process of sourcing, screening, shortlisting and selecting the right candidates for the required vacant positions.
Hiring process refers to the process of finding, selecting and hiring new employees to a company. Since the process requires strategic and pragmatic thinking while staying humane there are certain steps to follow to make it successful. 
Hiring process steps
1: Identifying hiring need
2: Planning.
Creating a sufficient plan for your hiring will not only make you more efficient but also help you have a good understanding of the current as well as the future needs of the company. For that purpose it is beneficial to specify starting dates and other technicalities with your hiring team. 
3: Creating a job description.
When creating a job description, make sure to include the following elements: company description, job requirements, duties and responsibilities and ultimately  cover letter. Besides mentioning all the important details within your job description, make sure to make that text as eye catching as possible. 
4: Recruiter and hiring manager intake meeting.
The purpose of a hiring manager recruiter intake meeting is to have a clear understanding of all the needs and expectations of the new hire, including the technicalities revolving the role. This meeting takes place prior to posting a job opening online and its purpose is mainly to define all important details about the future position.
5: Posting and promoting job openings.
Posting jobs online became one of the essential ways of making sure that people see and apply for the position. For that reason companies are oftentimes trying to spread the word as much as they can by posting their job opening on various job boards, different social media or some online portals. 
6: Applicant screening.
After the applicants finished their application it is time to look into their application forms and evaluate their CVs, cover letters or any other type of document they might have attached to the application. The process of screening results in eliminating candidates that are a clear mismatch for the role, moving forward to the following stages with the ones that are more qualified.  
7: Job Interviews.
When planning a job interview, there are several thing that you should always take into account prior to conducting it. Job interviews require planning and preparation. Firstly, you should create a list of interview questions. Afterwards you should determine how interview process is going to look like. Whether you will be conducting a live or a phone interview, how long will the interview last for, and what type of knowledge will you be examining during the interview. 
8: Applicant talent assessment.
Applicant talent assessment are tests designed to help employers evaluate the skills of their job candidates and employees. Using the skills assessment test helps companies ensure that the job candidates, as well as their current employees, have the required skills to successfully perform their jobs. When designing an assessment make sure to think of all skills and the knowledge essential for the role. 
9: Background check & Reference checks.
Background and reference checks refer to a recruiting process method used by hiring managers/recruiters to get more information about a candidate by contacting his/her previous employers, schools etc. Conducting a reference check helps recruiters not only check the validity of information but also make decisions based of a conversation with a person that used to work with your potential future colleague. 
10: Pre-employment testing.
Pre-employment assessments are simple, quick and fun for recruiters, interviewers, hiring managers, as well as candidates. Generally, it takes too much time and effort to a recruiter or hiring manager to interview each candidate and select the best person for the open position.
11: Decision.
Finally, after all assessments and checks, it is decision time! Evaluating which candidate will be the best cultural fit while satisfying all requirements is never easy.
12: Job offer.
A formal job offer letter/email is a document which employer sends to the selected candidate in order to offer them a job for a certain position at their company. Making all the aspects of a job as clear as possible to the new hire is extremely important for both candidates and companies. This is why is necessary to send a formal job offer letter/email to your chosen candidate.
13: Hiring.
Only when your candidate decides to accept your offer and signs the contract can you talk about hiring.
14: Onboarding.
More and more companies are starting to understand the importance of a good onboarding. Even more so, once a company hires a new talent, some believe this is only when the job starts. Onboarding the candidates means introducing them to the culture and the people as well as giving them all important information and training to be able to excel at their job as soon as possible. 

 

Job Description

Job description is an informative documentation of the scope, duties, tasks, responsibilities and working conditions related to the job listing in the organization through the process of job analysis. Job description also details the skills and qualifications that an individual applying for the job needs to possess. It basically gives all the details which might be good for both the company and the applicant so that both parties are on the same page regarding the job posting. Basically, job analysis is bifurcated into two components namely job description and job specification.

Employee orientation is the process of introducing newly hired employees to their new workplace. It provides the basic organizational information employees need to feel prepared for their new team, department, and role within the company. Effective employee orientation makes employees aware of company policies and expectations, handles essential paperwork, and answers any questions or concerns they may have before they transition into their new positions.

Why Orientation Is Important for New Employees

Orientation is important because it signifies the beginning of the relationship between employee and employer. The first day of work is the most important, as new hires are seeking to affirm their decision to accept your offer of employment.
A smooth transition into a new role benefits both new employees and their new managers and colleagues. By clearly communicating expectations and responsibilities to a new employee, they can start being productive quickly. As part of an effective onboarding process, a thorough and engaging orientation can also help reduce new employee turnover due to misunderstood or unmet expectations. Additionally, a clear policy for employee orientation will ensure that all new team members receive the same training and information.
Staff Motivation
Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company's workers bring to their jobs. Whether the economy is growing or shrinking, finding ways to motivate employees is always a management concern. Competing theories stress either incentives or employee involvement (empowerment).
 
Employee Motivation Techniques

Gifts and Prizes and Awards

Awarding your employees and sending them valuable gifts on occasions like Christmas, cutting team cakes on birthdays are some of the good motivating ways for employees. Employees continue working with equal zeal and enthusiasm if their work gets applauded. This is why companies are paying special attention to rewards and recognition at work.

?         Appreciation and recognition

Appreciation and recognition are the two very important and major factors of employee motivation to keep striving towards their goals at work. They want to aim higher and better to be applauded by hikes and increase in pay scales. By applauding employees in front of friends and colleagues, it is the greatest motivation one can get to do better anytime.
Appreciation and recognition are the two very important and major factors of employee motivation to keep striving towards their goals at work. They want to aim higher and better to be applauded by hikes and increase in pay scales. By applauding employees in front of friends and colleagues, it is the greatest motivation one can get to do better anytime.
 Employee appreciation catering to any kind of work the employee does can be great for employee motivation. Praise for the deliverables met on time, for work done efficiently before the deadlines are points to be praised for. Appreciate the employee and make him feel how well he is doing. Appraise him. Identify high performers and mention out their outstanding efforts, contributions and how they are a valuable asset to the organization.
One of the methods of staff motivation is also cross training, in which employees are trained to work in the more than one department. The aim of this is to make an employee capable of doing more than one type of work, and in return in gives a sense of confidence in employee.
 

 

 
 
 

Post updated on:  Aug 31, 2021 5:31:01 PM

Lord Krishna Theory of Management in Hospitality.

Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya, Glanirva Bhavathi Bharatha,
Abhyuthanam Adharmaysya, Tadatmanam Srijami Aham



This is a very renowned 'Shloka' we have all listened since our childhood days. At that time when we asked our parents what it actually meant, they told us that whenever there is the decay of righteousness and a rise of unrighteousness, then Lord Krishna came into existence. Lord Krishna is one of the greatest Management Gurus, whom we can emulate without a second thought. 

He was great in knowledge, great in emotion, great in action, altogether, he is the Mentor of Mentors, Coach of Coaches and Guru of all Motivational Gurus. We have heard many stories of Lord Krishna's bravery, confidence, decision-making, enthusiasm, intelligence, leadership, and communication, which leaves a message behind. All of them were used to deliver the appropriate concept to management.

What is Management?
In order to define what do we mean by Management "The conclusion from various studies says that" Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives, efficiently and effectively. It comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. There were several theories generated related to management till date, but several writers created modern management theories, which includes Chanakya's Artha Shastra, Adam Smith?s The Wealth of Nation, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince.

The modern management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. It initiates the issues from the grass-root level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results.

We never heard Lord Krishna Theory of Management, as a part of modern management theories. Whereas, western universities have introduced the subject 'Lord Krishna Theory of Management' to teach the concept to their students.  And also training departments of various enterprises, conduct their training sessions by giving examples of Lord Krishna skills. The Bhagavad Gita, written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious state of affairs in place of conflict, tensions, poor productivity, and absence of motivation, and so on.

Lord Krishna's theory of management has become a part and parcel of an organizational structure. He had made two concepts on which whole management is based i.e. how to dance and how to make others dance. As he knows, how to be effective and whatever situation will be, how to be a winner.

Whereas when we talk about the hospitality industry, it requires, interacting with people, addressing their needs, and skill of tact, combined with knowledge and flexibility. Therefore management in hospitality looks for challenges with a positive attitude in employees. 

Employees in the hospitality industry need to possess managerial skills and are supposed to be innovative, good planners, manipulative, confident, good decision-makers and shall possess excellent communication skills and be a good leaders.

Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou Kada chana,
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani


 
This verse is from the Bhagawad Gita. And it is really something that we have always tried to follow in the hospitality industry:
Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou Kada chana? You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of actions

Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani ? Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities and never be attached to not doing your duty.

In simple terms it means: Keep on performing your duties without expecting any reward in return, leading a selfless life? this it what it is all about. We can also conclude it in the way that actions, which is both efficient and effective, focused mind, self effort without expectation are few of the points incurred by Bhagavad Gita in management.

Few of the practices it implies are:
One of Lord Krishna's famous saying:

?A leader is not the one who walks but the one who leads walking ahead of others.?

Lord Krishna was perfect host and had great hospitality skills. To unveil this statement, every one had heard the storyline about his childhood friend, Sudama, who was hungry, impoverished and in rags, arrived at his palace. Lord Krishna personally washed his feet and fed him with his own hands.

The Bhagavad Gita was delivered by Sri Krishna to boost Arjuna's declining morale, motivation, confidence and to increase its effectiveness interpersonal conflict, which was to fight and not to fight the war at Kurukshetra, he played the role of teacher, HR trainer, guide developer, to revive Arjuna's motivation.

His communication skills are evident in every word. Lord Krishna during his negotiations, to avoid war between Kauravas and Pandavas demonstrated perfect communication skills. As he doesn't want to avoid war between them, he manipulated his words and tried to instigate fear motivation in Duryodhana by way of illustrating the greatness of Pandavas on and off the field of war.

Lord Krishna gave not only spiritual enlightenment but also the art of self management, conflict management, stress and anger management, transformational leadership, motivation, goal setting and many other aspects of management, which can be used as a guide to increase Human Resource Management (HRM) effectiveness. Unlike the western approach to HRM, which focuses on exploring the external world of matter and energy the Bhagavad Gita recommends a HRM approach, which focuses on exploring the inner world of self.


Krishna as a CEO of the World Organization

In current world, Krishna's leadership is a most fascinating and useful. He had demonstrated leadership of very high quality, which had made him a significant leader. That is why he is followed by millions of disciple still today, in his absence. Bhagavad Gita contains many leadership lessons that are similar to contemporary leadership theories and practices. Consider some of these lessons embedded within the Gita as a sermon are as:

Leaders should embrace rather than avoid challenges because they bring out the leaders' greatest strengths. They should be resilient in their actions and should not be weakened by pain and pleasure. Effective leaders do not lead by fear or anger. Character is core to effective leadership they need to be aware of the self and the surroundings .

Other sermon says:

"Whatever the leader does, the followers will follow and whatever standards or example the leader sets people in general will follow."

In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna defines three specific disciplines that are required for effective leadership: discipline of learning, discipline of speaking properly and discipline of equanimity (steadiness of mind under stress).  All these are important for effective leadership. Today's leadership authorities also agree that effective leaders have to be effective learners. Leadership is not only about teaching people to follow a certain path or to do a certain thing, but it is also about learning things to be taught. Likewise, without effective communication skills, leadership cannot become effective. Krishna says, the most important part of communication is to communicate with honesty and with respect toward others.

Setting Organizational Culture
Manager should be good in Direction and Controlling. Controlling an army of 1.53 million soldiers and warriors to fight against a bigger army was not an easy task for anyone. This was all made possible with the help of Lord Krishna's great Managing and Controlling Skills. A sermon from Bhagavad Gita says:

In the chariot of the body, the five horses represent the five senses (tongue, eyes, ears, nose and skin), the reins, the driving instrument, symbolise the mind, the driver is the intelligence and the passenger is the self.


Managers should use their intelligence to control their mind, they should not let the mind to be control by the senses.

Motivation- Satisfying lower order needs of workers - adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in motivation. However, it is a common experience that the dissatisfaction of the Top and of the Lower is identical -- only their scales and composition vary. It should be true that once the lower-order needs are more than satisfied, the Top should have little problem in optimising his contribution to the organisation and society. This situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded in Bhagavad Gita.

An article in The Hindu in 2008 mentioned:
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) focuses on 'sticking to ethics in the workplace.'

DMRC does not believe in intense vigilance nor does it rely on hidden cameras to plug leaks and nab wrongdoers. Instead the organization has turned to Bhagavad Gita to stem corruption, lethargy and negligence.

Putting the accent on 'sticking to ethics in the workplace, the organization is attempting to instill the values of honesty, moral virtues of hard work and diligence as preached in Bhagavad Gita, which has now emerged as a guidebook for motivating numbers-driven managers. So to help enhance the spiritual quotient of the employees and to ensure that they steer clear of dishonesty and vice, there are frequent  talks and lectures by motivational gurus and a handbook with relevant message.

E Sreedharan, Managing Director, DMRC is a believer of the values that the Bhagavad Gita preaches. DMRC officials say Sreedharan's messages to his employees are peppered with references from the holy book.

Asked if the exercise in spirituality has produced tangible results, a senior official says, "The feedback so far has been positive. The workforce has benefited from the sessions and lectures. There is positive energy, team spirit and no instances of financial bungling, missed deadlines, and de-motivated workers,' adds a senior official of DMRC.

Bhagavad Gita is easily the best treatise on management, which has solution to several practical issues like redesigning the organization, setting directions, developing people.

Whether it is human behavior, organizational behavior, group theory, motivational theory, game theory, management by objectives or line of control, all facets of modern management can be discovered in Lord Krishna theory of management.

Nobody is perfect, even Lord Krishna. He also acted like human being in many situations. To help mankind without any selfish motive, one can lie here and there and can manipulate if the situation demands. Krishna took some decisions only to prove this point. That is why Lord Krishna is a complete man and an apostle of life skills. And thus, we can call him. The Greatest Manager in the World?. To succeed in professional and personal life, one has to learn and try to emulate Lord Krishna. Today it has found its place as an alternative to the theory of modern management and also as a means to bring back the right path of peace and prosperity for human being.

Divya  posted in Hospitality.

Post updated on:  Aug 31, 2021 5:20:17 PM


The presentation has to be shared or presented on the day of practical examination.
X Batch
S. No Enrollment  No Name Presentation Topic's Remarks Journal Remarks
1 00211002217
Explain the numerical Calculate the occupancy percentage for a 350 rooms hotel which sells 245 rooms On a certain date if 25 rooms were blocked for spring cleaning and 25 rooms for renovation. Checked
      Design a brochure for different packages offered by a:    
2 00311002217
Resort  on a beach   Checked
3 00411002217
Business Hotel in a city   Checked
4 00511002217
Hotel in a Pilgrimage City   Checked
5 00611002217
Create a duty roster for front office department of a 4 star hotel having 200 rooms Make it in Excel. Checked
6 00811002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Merchant) Make PPT . Refer Online Travel agency Models 
Checked
7 00911002217
Designing chart-New strategies in hotels towards revenue enhancement. Combined task Checked
8 01011002217
Checked
9 01111002217
Collect two situations of handling guest complaints and how to deal with it. Combined task Checked
10 01211002217
Checked
11 01311002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Opaque) PPT Checked
12 01411002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Agency) PPT Checked
13 01811002217
Explain the numerical ( Numerical no 1) https://imgur.com/a/6cBjLCp

 
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14 01911002217
Explain the numerical ( Numerical No 2)
                         https://imgur.com/a/6cBjLCp
 
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15 02211002217
Plan a training schedule for 15 employees of front office department of a five star hotel.   Checked
16 02311002217
Case study  Explain the case and answer Q1  from the mentioned blog- An effective methodology for front office training: Case study method Checked
17 02411002217
Answer the rest question from the above case. Checked
18 02511002217
Auditing of bill statements Combined task- Link for reference  -  Auditing of bill statements      Checked
19 02611002217
Auditing of bill statements Checked
20 02711002217
Write a regret letter to a guest who is not satisfied with some parts of services. Make a guest complaint and prepare a regret letter.  Checked
21 02911002217
Explain Six Sigma PPT Not Checked
22 03011002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 1 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
23 03111002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 2 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
24 03311002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 3 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Not Checked
25 03411002217
Present few live examples of Employee Empowernment Make a video Checked
26 03511002217
Environment friendly Practices followed by hotels.   Checked
27 03611002217
ARR and RevPar Make it in Excel. Not Checked
28 03811002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Merchant) Make PPT . Refer Online Travel agency Models. Checked
29 03911002217
Designing chart-New strategies in hotels towards revenue enhancement. Combined task Checked
30 04011002217
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Collect two situations of handling guest complaints and how to deal with it. Combined task Checked
32 04311002217
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Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Opaque) Make PPT . Refer Online Travel agency Models. Checked
34 04511002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Agency) Make PPT . Refer Online Travel agency Models.  Checked
35 04711002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 2 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
36 04811002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 3 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
37 04911002217
Plan a training schedule for 15 employees of front office department of a five star hotel.   Not Checked
38 05011002217
Case study  Explain the case and answer q1  from the mentioned blog- An effective methodology for front office training: Case study method
Checked
39 05111002217
Answer the rest questions of the above case Checked
40 05211002217
Auditing of bill statements Combined task- Link for reference   -   Auditing of bill statements Checked
41 05311002217
Auditing of bill statements Checked
42 05411002217
State the advantage of sending a regret letter to a guest who is not satisfied with some parts of services.   Not Checked
43 05511002217
Explain Six Sigma PPT Checked
44 05611002217
Numerical no 4 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
45 05711002217
Numerical no 5 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Not Checked
46 05811002216
Explain Employee Motivation techniques Make PPT Refer : Front Office Checked
47 05811002217
Why Orientation Is Important for New Employees Make PPT Refer : Front Office Checked
48 05911002217
Explain Job Description and Specification in Front Office department Make PPT Refer : Front Office Checked
49 06011002217
Hiring process, Recruitment and selection Make PPT Refer :  Front Office Checked
      Design a brochure for different packages offered by a:    
50 06211002217
Heritage property for business purpose   Checked
51 06411002217
Business Hotel in a city   Checked
52 06511002217
Hotel in a Pilgrimage City   Not Checked
53 06611002217
Create a duty roster for front office department of a 5 star hotel having 400 rooms   Checked
54 06711002217
TQM Practices followed by hotels. PPT Checked
Y Batch
55 06911002217
Explain the numerical Calculate the occupancy percentage for a 350 rooms hotel which sells 245 rooms On a certain date if 25 rooms were blocked for spring cleaning and 25 rooms for renovation. Checked
56 07111002217
TQM practices followed by hotels   Checked
57 07211002217
Design a brochure for different packages offered by a Resort  on a beach   Checked
58 07411002217
Design a brochure for different packages offered by a Business Hotel in a city   Checked
59 07511002217
Design a brochure for different packages offered by a Hotel in a Pilgrimage City   Checked
60 07911002217
Create a duty roster for front office department of a 4 star hotel having 200 rooms Make it in Excel. Checked
61 08011002216
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Merchant) Make PPT . Refer https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622127837335/online-travel-agency-models- Checked
62 08011002217
Designing chart-New strategies in hotels towards revenue enhancement. Combined task Checked
63 08111002217
Checked
64 08211002217
Collect two situations of handling guest complaints and how to deal with it. Combined task Not Checked
65 08311002217
Not Checked
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Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Opaque) Make PPT . Refer https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622127837335/online-travel-agency-models- Checked
67 08511002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Agency) Make PPT . Refer https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622127837335/online-travel-agency-models- Checked
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Explain the numerical https://imgur.com/a/6cBjLCp  Checked
69 08711002217
Explain the numerical https://imgur.com/a/6cBjLCp  Checked
70 08811002217
Plan a training schedule for 15 employees of front office department of a five star hotel.   Not Checked
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Case study  Explain the case and answer q1  from the mentioned blog- https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/BLUR2351624430225491/an-effective-methodology-for-front-office-training--case-study-method
Checked
72 09011002217
Answer the rest questions of the above case Checked
73 09211002217
Auditing of bill statements Combined task- Link for reference      https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622048546652/auditing-of-bill-statements Checked
74 09311002217
Auditing of bill statements Checked
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State the advantage of sending a regret letter to a guest who is not satisfied with some parts of services.   Checked
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Explian Six Sigma PPT Checked
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Explain the numerical- Numerical no 1 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
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Explain the numerical- Numerical no 2 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Not Checked
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Explain the numerical- Numerical no 3 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
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Present few live examples of Employee Empowernment Make a video  Checked
81 10111002217
Environment friendly Practices followed by hotels.   Checked
82 10211002217
ARR and RevPar Make it in Excel. Checked
83 10311002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Merchant) Make PPT . Refer https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622127837335/online-travel-agency-models- Checked
84 10411002216
Designing chart-New strategies in hotels towards revenue enhancement. Combined task Checked
85 10511002217
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86 10611002217
Collect two situations of handling guest complaints and how to deal with it. Combined task Checked
87 10711002217
Checked
88 10811002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Opaque) Make PPT . Refer https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622127837335/online-travel-agency-models- Checked
89 10911002217
Explain the concept of Commissioning : OTA Model-(Agency) Make PPT . Refer https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622127837335/online-travel-agency-models- Checked
90 11011002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 2 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
91 11111002217
Explain the numerical- Numerical no 3 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
92 11211002217
Plan a training schedule for 15 employees of front office department of a five star hotel.   Checked
93 11311002217
Case study  Explain the case and answer q1  from the mentioned blog- https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/BLUR2351624430225491/an-effective-methodology-for-front-office-training--case-study-method
Checked
94 11411002217
Answer the rest questions of the above case Checked
95 11511002217
Auditing of bill statements Combined task- Link for reference      https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351622048546652/auditing-of-bill-statements Checked
96 11611002217
Auditing of bill statements Checked
97 11711002217
State the advantage of sending a regret letter to a guest who is not satisfied with some parts of services.   Checked
98 11811002217
Explain Six Sigma PPT Not Checked
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Numerical no 4 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
100 12011002217
Numerical no 5 https://imgur.com/a/nhqRPtY Checked
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Explain Employee Motivation techniques Make PPT Refer :https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351625539227362/front-office- Not Checked
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Why Orientation Is Important for New Employees Make PPT Refer :https://www.connectclue.com/article/details/TTUR2351625539227362/front-office- Checked
103 12211002217
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Post updated on:  Aug 14, 2021 1:58:35 AM

Still wondering what to wear this Rakhi?
Sometimes, it can be tricky to choose the right outfit that perfectly radiates the festive vibes.
It's time to ditch the same old ideas as I have some quirky Indo-Western as well as traditional outfit ideas for you to rock this festive season.
 
You may opt for a crop top with a pleated skirt, focusing a little show off of naval point. With or without Shrug, the dress is going to look amazing. To get it stitched by your favorite tailor is the best choice. So what you have to do, is to search a nice color cotton fabric for yourself.



 
To add the perfect amount of glam to your look, add a silver chunk pair of earrings with a nice pair of matching closed shoes and you are good to go!
 
Also, a set of Palazzo and a crop top has proved to be very trendy, for heighted girls. Palazzo has to be little short, and the dress will look its best a heeled closed shoes.
 

 
 
And another way to stand out from the crowd could be if you coordinate your outfit with your favorite.
Now it is not easy, either the color has to match or the print of cloth. Sometimes, the same style too.


 
 
If you are someone who prefers comfort over style, we have got you covered too. You could pick cotton Indo- western long dresses, with a little mirror work. Rain and humidity go hand in hand, so opting for lightweight and comfortable wear, like dresses in pastel colors and bright floral prints will not only help you stand out but also feel free during the humid weather.


 
Accompanied with a stylish pair of shoes and matching danglers.
 
No wonder, you are the best designer of yourself.

Divya  posted in Fashion

Post updated on:  Aug 2, 2021 1:48:10 PM

Time management-
Peak performance, cost effectiveness, overtime, shifts, duty roasters, staff allocation, and crisis management, Effects of inter and intra departmental communication and co-ordination on performance.
 
 
Peak Performance: The ability to do one?s best, in one?s best physical state.
 
Peak Performance occurs when activities are done to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Peak Performance can focus on ensuring consistent performance of the organization, a department, processes to build a product or service, employees, etc.
 
Peak Performance in the current scenario:
The Indian hospitality industry's rapid growth is being derailed owing to high attrition and fickle loyalty of its most important resource -people. Today the hotel appears to be a punishing environment, it demands exceptional performance from employees, while promising great rewards, career opportunities and job enrichment. The skill sets required by an employee have evolved over the years, transforming their linear roles to multi-functional operations.
 
Ensuring Peak Performance
?        Motivational Techniques like performance appraisals, rewards, incentives, perks, benefits.
?        Good working environment, supportive colleagues, encouraging & understanding supervisors
?        Delegating challenges & new tasks.
?        Participation in events, contests etc.
?        Training to develop the right skills needed.
 
Financial Incentives:
?        Increasing motivation through financial rewards is a method that is most common when businesses rely on the quantity of the output of employees. In front office incentives are given to those who manage to rise above the expected monthly revenue.
?        Introducing fringe benefits instead of increasing wages or salaries such as company cars, private health, or interest-free loans from the business.
Non Financial Incentives:
?        Money may not be an effective motivator, although it may have some effect in the short term: employees may also see factors aside from money as prime motivators.
?        Motivation may be increased by giving employees more responsibility so that they feel their contribution is more valuable to the business and that their role is of higher importance. They also may be promised that the chance of promotion exists if they reach a certain standard or target.

Job Enlargement:
This involves expanding the job of an employee that has them doing more work of a similar nature to what they already do. This may be allowing them to complete the whole task instead of just part of it, for example, taking guest reservation as well as processing room charges. This process ideally removes the boredom out of the job by eliminating the repetitiveness out of tasks and allowing them to complete the whole process, further increasing their responsibility.

Job Rotation
This involves allowing employees to change the nature of their job periodically. In front office, a front desk assistant can be rotated into departments like Bell Desk, Reservation, Cashier, Telephone etc
The purpose of this is that the employee, again, is satisfied by reduced boredom and also motivated by the achievement of increased skills.

Job Enrichment
Similar to job enlargement, you can enrich an employee?s job by expanding their tasks to give a higher level of responsibility in the nature of work they do.
For example The Task list can be expanded to include tasks like promoting the hotel?s restaurants through guest interaction, upselling, handling guest complaints etc
 
Training
 
?        Hotels have management training programmes, such as Taj?s  IHCL, EIH of Oberoi, and The Park, which serves as an apt training ground. Once an individual has entered the system, they are given an induction and subsequently trained, a stepping-stone to ensure peak performance. Perhaps one factor which requires utmost attention initially is training an employee to understand the corporate philosophy and culture of a property and brand, says Andrew Mensforth, general manager, Park Hyatt Goa, without which an employee can never completely integrate himself as a part of the other associates, and be completely in and comfortable sync with the hotel's unique service style.
?        Developing the synergy between appraisals and training helps in retaining right people at right place on right time
 
Numbers and Hours:
How many Front Office Executives are needed? One Executive should be able to handle 50-60 occupies rooms. If he/she was also was taking care of cashiering then the ratio would have reduced. This depends upon:
?        The occupancy rate
?        Average length of stay: long stayers lesser burden
?        The pattern of activity: Departure and Arrivals peaks could mostly be in early morning and afternoons. Airport hotels may have more even distribution of arrival departure patterns.
?        The amount of personal Contact required: This could be reduced by preregistering groups, taking care of Groups by Group Organisers, Automated check-in, check-out. FITs may welcome these innovations but others may still want the personal touch.
?        The character of Hotel: A few minutes wait may be ok in smaller town leisure hotel, but not in busy city centre environment.
?        The technology being employed: manual methods more expensive because of clerical work.

Activity patterns of the main front office areas:
1.     Booking requests for a large international hotel may come in at any time of the day or night, but mainly during normal business hours.
2.     The telephone operators will also be busiest during business hours.
3.     The desk should be staffed throughout the 24 hour period but least during the night shift. The main peaks will come during the check-outs (7.30 -10.30 am) and arrivals (1.00 to 7.00 pm)
4.     The control process should go on all the time, but the natural time for general review is the middle of the night. Known as Night Audit.
This activity pattern calls for a series of shifts. With a normal working day of 8 hours, the 24 hour period can be divided into three consecutive and overlapping shifts namely:
?        Morning Shift starting between 6.30 to 7.30 hrs.
?        Afternoon shift from 14.30 to 15.30 hrs.
?        A night shift (graveyard shift) from 22.00 to 23.00 hrs.
Sometimes a general shift from 9 am to 6 pm is also given to few employees which is the normal business hours. Employees in this shift are able to attend to many back office activities during this period. It may be more suitable for older, experienced person with a family, or could be introduced as a part of the rota scheme to allow staff a ?normal day? at regular intervals.

Duty Roaster and Staff allocation:
Arranging staff rotas is one of the most challenging duties of the front office manager. Following considerations need to be made for this:
?        Holiday entitlements
?        Advance preparation of rota
?        Right mix of youth and experienced staff
?        Occupancy forecasts need to studied before preparation of a rota.

Overtime
Minimum work hours are 9 hrs as per factories act 1948.  An employee working more than 9 hours is eligible for payment as over time or compensatory off  as per company policies. (Implemented in hotel industry from 2009 onwards).
Crisis Management:
Crisis Front Office Management should develop property specific procedures for responding to emergencies such as fires, natural calamities, medical emergencies, crimes, terrorist activities, threat or attack. Regular review of Crisis Management must be done by Management. Front Office staff who react quickly and efficiently to an emergency situation may help in preventing the damage.

Interdepartmental Communication
Pivotal role in delivering quality service.
The Front Office communicates guests? requirements to other departments which work in close coordination and cooperation to deliver required products and services. Communication of Front Office with following departments is maintained for desired service standards:
Housekeeping:
The FO and Hk department communicate with each other for the following information:
Room Status: Both these departments must coordinate on the room status report. Hk department prepares an occupancy report which is sent to the front office department where it is tallied with room status records. This helps to:
?        Update room status
?        Find Sleepers (a room from which the guest has checked out but is showing as an occupied in front office status records).
?        Know the exact house count
?        Coordinate in guest room change.
Security concerns: Housekeeping personnel must inform the front office in case of any suspicious activity.
Special Arrangements: Guests request for additional or special amenities during their stay like extra blanket, soap, shampoo, iron to the front desk which must be conveyed at the earliest to the hk department. For special guests extra amenities? request like flower arrangement, bath robe etc must be conveyed by the reservations or front desk to housekeeping. Special arrangements for VIPs, groups and crews also need to be conveyed to housekeeping.

Food and Beverage Department:
The Front Office department informs the F & B department about the arrival departure of guests, which helps them to plan their work schedule and staff requirement. It also informs F & B about special food arrangements and parties. The Front Desk sends information about:
?        The arrival and departure of guests
?        Setting up bars in VIP rooms
?        Special arrangements lile cookies, fruit basket, and assorted dry fruits.
?        In-house and expected VIPs, and corporate guests.
?        In house and expected groups
?        In house and expected crews
?        The scanty baggage in house guests; all points of sales are notified to receive all payment in cash from these guests.
?        Groups and guests with bookings of specific meal plans.

Sales and Marketing Department:
Front Office department coordinates with S & M for the following information:
?        Guest histories
?        Room reservations records
?        Current room availability status
?        Group, corporate and crew bookings
?        Setting the transient and bulk room sales.
Front Office must keep information on room availability status and guest histories accurate and updated. This helps S & M dept. to make packages to sell in the future period.

Engineering and Maintenance:
Front Office communicated with E & M dept. for proper upkeep of systems and equipments installed in the department. Front Office also informs E & M of any repair work in an occupied guest room, they also work put a schedule so that the maintenance work is carried out in the absence of the guest in the room. Such complains are logged in repair work orders? book. A request from the guest regarding maintenance is always followed up by the Front Office staff and time of completion is also noted.

Security:
The Front Desk is a link between guests and other departments of the hotel. When a guest has security concerns like fire, robbery, theft, or any other emergency, the front desk should explain the emergency procedure to the guest while calling on security personnel to resolve the problem.
Finance Controller
The front desk provides a daily summary of the financial transactions after night auditing to the finance controller. The information provided by the front desk helps the finance controller to make the budget and allocate resources to the current financial year. Financial data for billing and maintenance of credit card ledgers is given by front desk. High balance report etc help F. controller to formulate policies and strategies to recover the money from the guest and companies.
 
Human Resource
For growth and development of front office employees, a close coordination between the two departments is necessary. The front office informs HR about the requirement of new staff, training requirement for the new staff, fresher training for the existing ones, and cross training requirements. The Front IOffice prepares the guidelines for the selection of its employees.
Banquets:
Front Office coordinates with the banquets for putting information and placing directional signals for various functions happening at the hotel. The Banquets department sends the function prospectus to the front office so that in case any communication is received by the FO of the hosting parties, it may be sent to the Banquets.
 
Thus besides communicating with guests, the front office also communicates with internal customers who are the other departments of the hotel.
 
 

 
 
 
 

Post updated on:  Jul 18, 2021 3:41:14 PM

What is Management? Is it a science or art or a mixture of both. Whatever we are learning is a mixture of both because of its dynamic nature. When we develop a concept- It is science, we simultaneously develop the system of delivery - Which is art.

Front office management being an objective oriented subject, involves planning, decision making, innovation, revenue maximization, controlling and customer focused services. It is all about great ideas, people and achievement and therefore requires the mixture of both; art and science.

A front office personnel plays a key role in meeting the guest?s needs. He/ she effectively meet various challenges which help the hotel to satisfy its guests and when their training is conducted inefficiently, after completion it seems as if the trainee?s have donated their blood and they are completely drained out. Nowadays, trainees demand innovation in learning.

Case studies are a pace to move forward to advance teaching. It presents a new dimension to the trainees by giving broader concept of the operations. From the time a guest makes a reservation and arrives at a hotel through the time he or she departs, may form various cases. For example, guest turning to front office with questions, requests, comments and complaints. It brings together the theoretical inputs and hand on practical exercises and divert the trainee?s mind beyond their thinking level.

A case study is a puzzle that has to be solved to achieve best possible option in respective situation. A good case study makes the trainees realize as if they are the part of the scenario and commence them to think for more innovative ideas. The case should have enough information in it that readers can understand what the problem is and after thinking and analyzing the information; the readers should be able to come up with a proposed solution. Mostly real case studies put more strength than fictitious cases as they are the real examples of an organization which includes the relevant data and adds to the trainee?s interest. which includes the relevant data and adds to the trainee?s interest.

Just Imagine, if a trainer says, ?This is my real life example when I was with XYZ hotel, please tell me what you would have done if it ever came to you?. Don?t you think they would provide us more innovative ideas to defeat us?

Before conducting a case study in the training, it is very crucial to properly select a case. Should the case study be related to Customer Service, PMS, Reservation of a group or welcoming a walk-in? We must try to relate it with the previous topic discussed as well as with the current one. It will help the trainee?s to recall and brush up all the topics with a LIVE example. Case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research.

It is a good practice to distribute the case study at the end of the session and ask them to go through and discourse it next day, which will help them to grasp more and more ideas. As per a research, a case study requires a minimum of two hours to hash out.

Before starting to refer a case, first think of several important ?design? questions:
What are theories or concepts of hospitality you are going to teach through the case?
How would trainees react to the case? Is it sufficiently challenging and interesting?
Is the case relevant for all the theoretical inputs required to learn a topic?
Would the case help in brain storming of the trainees?
Do we have the proper solution to the questions of the case?
Will the case study help the trainee?s in relating it with other topics as well?
Case will need a conclusion. Rather than putting answer in the case, leave the trainee?s with some more questions. It is not about correction in the answers given by the audience, as everyone has different skills to handle a situation. And since no two guests, two hotels are ever the same and so no manager has the same qualities; they have their different opinion about a situation and different strength to handle it. The variety of talent and skills are needed to satisfy guest needs which makes to front office work exciting and challenging.

The case method is a powerful approach to teaching and learning hospitality subjects. Its main advantage is that it is ?problem-oriented?, as opposed to solution-based, approach to teaching and learning. It allows trainees to participate in ?real-life? decision making processes by first identifying the major ?problem? in the case before formulating appropriate solutions.

Seeing the nature and importance of front office department, case study is one of the best methodologies to produce empowered staff, who can take correct decisions in different situations.

Case Study:

Is overbooking important than frequent-stay guest?

Occupancy has been so high that year, that the hotels had regretted a large number of reservations.

In 2006, a group of eight men from a leading MNC group did not agree to check in, due to poor efficiency of front office department to reserve rooms for them. Seven single rooms were booked for these guests, one month prior to the date of arrival at a corporate rate. When they reached the hotel for check in at the reception at 2 am, the hotel refused to provide accommodation to four of the guests, due to non-availability of room.

The guests from the same company refused to check in, as the reservation was made for the entire group and not for four of them. The condition was worse because they were Frequent-Stay Guest (FSG) and this was not expected from the hotel.

The only suggestion the duty manager could give was to accommodate four of them in a double deluxe room (two double beds in a room). The guests were irritated and asked to call front office manager, who was not available. They started shouting, ?We had already received confirmation from you. Does it make no sense to you? We are not going to check in, till your manager comes to the hotel.?

They all sat in the lobby, waiting for the front office manager to come. The front office manager was called by the duty manager in the night, and he spoke to the guest, apologised for the same and somehow the guests were accommodated in the same suite room and assured that they will be shifted to their reserved status room early morning and the check in was made accordingly.

The problem arose due to overbooking of rooms, due to which all rooms were occupied and led to guest dissatisfaction.

Questions
What do you think the front office manager would have said the guests?
Was the management failure here; if so what?
What further long-run action should management take?
What measures can you take to avoid the situation?
What should be the action of night shift staff for morning shift?



    Post updated on:  Jul 14, 2021 9:17:46 PM

    Total Quality management in Hospitality
     
    Total means each and every person of the hotel, Quality is the degree of excellence of products or services and management is an art of dealing with or controlling things or people.
     
    And so, TQM describes a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. It is a continuous process of improvement of Quality and Processes.
    The concept of TQM was originated after World War II, when US completely destroyed the economy of Japan by the A- bomb. Americans sent their best scientist William Edwards Deming (1900-1993) to Japan.  He was a statistician and business consultant whose methods helped hasten Japan's recovery after the Second World War and beyond.
     
     
    Hospitality is a very unique Industry, a hotel must adopt TQM practices to be at the top, one must keep implementing new strategies to be unique form others. There are various examples where Hotels have proved themselves to be adopting various Quality measures like Installing Solar panels in ITC Grand Chola, following employee empowerment in Ritz Carlton, etc.
     
    Five Pillars of TQM:
    1.       Product/ Service- A hotel must have functional products and exceptional services. It is important to upgrade products from time to time and to train employees to provide the world class service to their guests.
    1. Organization- Every company has a big hierarchy. And it is very essential to build a strong organisation by hiring good and experienced employees and to train them from time to time.
    2. Commitment- Everyone from top to bottom objective must be to achieve the goal of the organisation.
    3.  Process- Hotels follow standard operating procedures for every work. If everyone follows the procedure provided by the employee, the system will be error free.
    4. Leadership- The hierarchy must have good leaders. Mostly companies are known by good leaders and vice versa.
     
     
    Practices of Total Quality Management
    1.     Japanese 5- S practice
    2.     Business Process Re-Engineering
    3.     Control Circles.
    4.     Employee Empowerment.
    5.     Six Sigma.
    6.     Benchmarking.

     
    Japanese 5 S practice
    Seiri (sort): It means sorting the equipment?s of the workplace and removing not required and defected pieces.
    Seiton (systematize): Putting all the sorted items in their place and providing easy access so that they are ready for use when needed.
    Seiso (sanitize): An action to clean the workplace daily (equipment, work area, mind, preventive maintenance)
    Seiketsu (standardize): Involves creating guidelines for keeping the workplace organized, orderly and clean.
    Shitsuke (self-discipline): Involves training and discipline, to ensure that everyone follows the 5 S standards.

    Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR)
     
    BPR is through rethinking of all business processes, job definitions, management systems, organization structure, work flow, and underlying assumptions and beliefs.
     
    BPR's main objective is to break away from old ways of working, and redesign of processes to achieve improvements in critical areas (such as cost, quality, service, and response time) through in-depth use of technology. 
     
    It challenges managers to rethink traditional work methods and commit themselves to customer focused processes.
     
    It uses recognized techniques for improving business results and questions the effectiveness of the traditional organizational structure.
     
    Benchmarking
     
    Another method, companies implement for continuous improvement is by following footsteps of the organisation they admire (practices of companies considered best in class). For example, Park Group of hotels want to work on their customer satisfaction, they will start looking for a company which is best in customer satisfaction. Let?s say, they find The Oberio group of hotels the best. Park hotel will start following all the rules and policies used by Oberoi hotels. Also they can follow Amazon International, as Benchmark Company does not have to be in the same business, as long as it excels at something that the company doing the study wishes to emulate. 
     
    Team Approach/ Quality Circles
     
    TQM stresses that quality is an organizational effort. To facilitate the solving of quality problems, it places great emphasis on teamwork. The use of teams is based on the old adage that two heads are better than one. Using techniques such as brainstorming, discussion, and quality control tools, teams work regularly to correct problems. The contributions of teams are considered vital to the success of the company. For this reason, companies set aside time in the workday for team meetings.
     
    Teams vary in their degree of structure and formality, and different types of teams solve different types of problems. One of the most common types of teams is the quality circle, a team of volunteer production employees and their supervisors whose purpose is to solve quality problems. The circle is usually composed of eight to ten members, and decisions are made through group consensus.
    The teams usually meet weekly during work hours in a place designated for this purpose. They follow a present process for analysing and solving quality problems. Open discussion is promoted, and criticism is not allowed. Although the functioning of quality circles is friendly and casual, it is serious business. Quality circles are not mere talk sessions. Rather, they do important work for the company and have been very successful in many firms.
     
    Employee Empowerment
     
    One of the best strategy is to empower all employees to find a better solution themselves. With the old concept of quality, employees were afraid to identify problems for fear that they would be reprimanded.
     
    This new concept of quality, Employee Empowerment, provides incentives for employees to identify quality problems. Employees are rewarded for uncovering quality problems.
     
    Ritz Carlton luxury hotels and resorts are practicing employee empowerment from long. As per this, they allow their employees to handle customer complaints themselves, and not to seek permission from senior. And so, Ritz-Carlton luxury hotels and resorts, are very famous for providing outstanding services to their guests and treating their employees as Internal customers.
     
    Workers are empowered to make decisions relative to quality in the production process. They are considered a vital element of the effort to achieve high quality. Their contributions are highly valued, and their suggestions are implemented. In order to perform this function, employees are given continual and extensive training in quality measurement tools.
     
    To further stress the role of employees in quality, TQM differentiates between external and internal customers. External customers are those that purchase the company's goods and services. Internal customers are employees of the organization who receive goods or services from others in the company. For example, the packaging department of an organization is an internal customer of the assembly department. Just as a defective item would not be passed to an external customer, a defective item should not be passed to an internal customer.
     
     
    Six Sigma
     
    Six Sigma is a statistical concept of Total quality Management, wherein Company says thy will produce Zero defects in their products. It means a company is focusing on upgrading their products and side by side challenging on producing zero defects.
    Six Sigma has only recently been introduced to the hospitality industry, though, when Starwood Hotels adopted it into their hotels in 2001. Six sigma is a statistically based business strategy that companies attempt to apply to help in reducing defects in products and services. In the case of the hospitality industry, in theory, it could be used to improve services from hotel check-in to waiting times for tables in restaurants. Starwood was the first hospitality company to introduce it. They have implemented a fully developed program that starts at the corporate level and identifies key people at the unit level to champion it

    The six steps of achieving Six Sigma are as follows:
    •     Creating and identifying strategic business objectives 
    •     Creating core and sub processes
    •     Identifying process owners
    •     Creating and validating performance measures
    •     Collecting data on performance measures
    •     Determining and prioritizing projects for improvement.


    • Implementation of the Six sigma philosophy on the Front Office department of the hotel are:
    Reduce wait time during peak check-in time
    Reduce wait time during peak check-out time
    Eliminate billing errors and improve accuracy
    Accuracy of information
    Increase customer delight at the Executive Club
     
    Implementation of the Six sigma philosophy in the food and beverage area of a hotel or a restaurant:
    •     To maintain optimal inventory
    •     Minimize wastage/pilferage
    •     Standardized output of Food and Beverage
    •     Reduce the time from order to service
    •     Optimal utilization of current product mix (F&B/Outlets) to increase revenue.
     

    Post updated on:  Jun 23, 2021 2:49:55 AM

    Online travel agency models
    OTA acts as 24/7 appointed salesman for the hotel. It can be said that they are one stop solution for all hotel bookings for end customer.

    1. Merchant Model

     The main characteristic of a Merchant Model OTA is that OTA's purchase rooms in bulk due to the contract between OTA and hotels to sell base number of rooms.
    In this case hotels give the OTA a net rate, to which a mark-up is applied to determine the sell rate to the end consumers. Generally the mark-up or margin for the OTA is determined by the agreement between the hotel and the OTA.
    The guest pays the OTA at the time of booking a room, and the OTA afterwards pays the hotel when the actual stay occurs.
    Examples of OTA's using merchant model are Expedia, Priceline, Agoda and Getaroom.com. On these websites the hotels obtain a preferred (direct) listing, and the hotel property is placed above product sources from other providers.
    Beside the BAR (best available rateMerchant Model OTA also offer additional promotional rate levels, for hotels to attract more demand. Examples are discounts for dynamic packages, allowing the OTA to bundle the hotel room together with a flight or car rental, creating competitive offers.
    Advantages of Merchant model are:
     1. Good bargain power due to bulk purchase leading to higher profit margin.
    2. Can select rooms usually preferred by the guest.
    3. OTA can package hotel with other offers such as flight/car.
    Disadvantages of Merchant model are:
     1. May not be preferred by hotel owner due to huge profit margins of OTA.
    2. May need bulk investment if contract is prepay payment to hotel.
     
    2. Agency Model- In this model, OTA's work on commission basis. Here the guest pays the hotel directly when the stay occurs and the hotel pays the OTA commission after the stay has taken place.
    In this case a Hotel provides the OTA a final sell rate, over which a commission is paid to the OTA by the hotel after the booking at the hotel has been consumed. The commission level has been agreed upon prior in the distribution partnership agreement between the Hotel and OTA. ( generally from 15- 30 percent)
    A key advantage of the Agency or commission OTA Model is that the Hotel sets the final sell rate directly. It will allow hotels to create a transparent price positioning to consumers, taking rate parity as a strategy into consideration.
    The very well known example of agency model is Booking.com.
    Advantages of Agency Model:
    1. No upfront huge capital investment is required
    2. Preferred by hotel owners due to more control over final selling price.
    3. As its east to collaborate with many hotels, end customer gets wider choices.
    Disadvantages of Agency Model:
    1. It has less bargaining power for OTA.
    2.  It has less profit margins for OTA.
    3.  Its cannot be packaged with other offers.
     
    3.Opaque Model: An Internet sales method in which consumers "bid" an amount they are willing to pay for a room on a specific arrival date and the third party: Web-site operator matches that bid with a hotel willing to sell a rooms) at that rate.
    Opaque Sites are booking channels and OTA websites where the hotel remains hidden until after the purchase is complete. The customer sees only the product category (destination, star rating of the hotel) and the price but not the brand.
    Usually it doesn't accept refunds, changes or cancellations.
    It is basically a non-transparent discount offer. The sites are called opaque because the supplier remains hidden during the booking process.
    This segment is popular in the travel industry. It is used to sell unsold hotel rooms, airline seats etc.  The pricing strategy helps hotels to sell empty rooms without damaging their brand integrity and price positioning. It allows the hotel to reach out to a price conscious audience in addition to their usual target group. An advantage is the guaranteed revenue the hotel has, as the reservation can't be modified after purchase.
    The best known Opaque Travel Websites are Priceline and Hotwire.
    Many OTAs have also introduced their own version of Opaque Pricing:
    • Travelocity / Lastminute / Top Secret Hotels
    • Getaroom.com / Unpublished Rates
    • booking / Hidden hotel
    • GTAHotels.com / Mystery hotel
    • hotel.de / hotel Roulette
    • HotelsCombined.com / hotel Roulette
    • TravBuddy.com / hotel Roulette
    • Easyclicktravel.com / Off The Record
    • HotelDirect.co.uk / Hidden Gem/ Hotels
    • BookIt.com / Mystery hotel
    • SuperBreak.com / Mystery Hotels
    • Wotif.com / Wot hotel
     
     

    Post updated on:  May 28, 2021 5:58:48 PM

     
    Managing Quality and measuring guest satisfaction
    Managing Quality
    Hotel industry has a fixed room inventory; hence the industry cannot focus on the products production. The industry can only work on improving their service quality.
    Quality is the ability of a product or service to meet a customer's expectations for that product or service. 
    Before purchasing or using a product or service, customers always have their personal expectation about its performance. After buying or using a product or service, if the result is equal to or better than expectation, it means the expectation has positive confirmation. Whereas, with the increase in number of competitors, the organization need to improve their services from time to time.
    Service quality in the hospitality industry becomes one of the most important factors for gaining a sustainable competitive advantage and customers? confidence in the highly competitive marketplace, and therefore service quality can give the hospitality industry a great chance to create competitive differentiation for organizations. 
    Dimensions of Service Quality
    Performance indicates the performance in relation to the prime objectives of the product. The hotels primary characteristics are to have good rooms and nice food.
    Reliability  means how much you can rely on a product. It is the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
    Sahara Airlines, an upcoming domestic air carrier within India, has been striving to protect itself as a reliable airline. It hopes to differentiate itself from other airlines Indian Airlines. To protect this reliability, Sahara Airways has a scheme of full refund plus a coupon of Rs.3,000 to every passenger on delay of flights by more than 59 minutes.
    Responsiveness:
    It is the willingness of the Hotel staff to help customers and to provide them with prompt service. The customers may have queries, special requests, complaints, etc.
     
    Example ? A customer calls room service to find out if they would pack a Jain lunch. It is not the hotel?s normal policy to cook such specialty and customised meals. However, the customer being very religious minded would be very pleased if the hotel could pack it for him to carry and eat. This may impose some strain on the kitchen. However, the hotel may be rewarded in two different ways if it agreed to provide the meal. The customer would be very pleased with the service and is very likely to recommend the hotel to his friends and acquaintances.
     

    Assurance:

    It defined as the ability of the company to inspire trust and confidence in the service delivery. This dimension is considered vital for services that involve high risk as customers may not be able to evaluate all the uncertainties involved in the process by them.
    Example- Provision of Medical services to the guests, financial securities for credit card authenticity,  legal affairs in relation to BTC Guests and Travel Agencies, etc., demand this service quality dimension.
     

    Empathy

     
    It refers to the caring, personalized attention to each customer. When service provider puts himself in the shoes of the customers, he may see the customer?s viewpoint better. When customers feel that the provider is making his best effort to see their viewpoint, it may be good enough for most. 
     
    Example, a lady customer with a young child arrives slightly late at the check-in counter and requests the agent for a seat along the aisle and near the toilet.
    Even if all such seats have already been taken up, the agent and the airline may make even effort to request another passenger to exchange seats and meet the customer demand. The lady passenger would be delighted if her request could be honoured despite the last minute checking in, and even if she does not get such a seat, she would be grateful for their effort.
     

    Tangibles:

    It refers to physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of a service firm?s employees.
    For Example:
    Usage of best company machines, Highly qualified staff in an Hotel, etc
     
     When a patient in the waiting room of a clinic sees the doctor?s certificate, he becomes aware of the quality of service he is about to receive.
     
    Measuring Guest Satisfaction
     
    In a hotel persistent quality standards results in loyal guests who use the services consistently and share this experience with acquaintances. Toda the hotels have realized the importance of regular guests and retaining these guests is one of the prime focuses of every hotel.
    For the same purpose it becomes necessary for the hotel to understand the needs of expectations of the guest and utilize their valuable feedback for the continual development of their services and products. For a hotel to maintain their commitment to the quality of their products, the opinion of the guest is necessary. A few yardsticks of measurement taken up by the hotels to ensure guest satisfaction are:
    Guest history card: A record of the guests who have stayed in the hotel is maintained by the front office department. This includes the guest name, address, contact number, room history, guest preferences. A complete record of guests likes & dislikes, any particular preferences or allergies etc are maintained. This process is helpful with respect to regular guests. The guest history card is a measuring tool for guest satisfaction and adhering to quality standards.
    E.g. ? Mr. A is a regular guest of hotel XYZ. He prefers # 110and is allergic to feather pillows. The hotel FO and Hk staff checks the guest profile in the arrival list and takes care of his preferences during pre-arrival.
    Guest satisfaction tracking system: A quarterly or half yearly tracking is done. A detailed questionnaire examining every service area of the hotel ranging from checkin, room hygiene, food and beverage quality, staff behaviour and attitude, timely delivery of services and products are covered. A percentage rating is achieved which is then used as a benchmark for future performance goals.
    Lately, questions are asked from guests to rate the hotel against their competitors in the market. This allows the management to derive both internal and external rating of where the hotel stands in the market.
     Internal Audit: Internal auditors, especially in chain hotels are sent from one property to another. The true identity of these auditors is withheld by the management. The auditors check in as guests, avail all the services of the hotel. An audit report is made by the auditors giving a percentage rating along with feedback of every operational department of the hotel. The departmental heads are responsible for presenting the audit report to their team members. A plan of action is made and put into immediate practice to overcome the stated discrepancies resulted from audit.
    Mystery Guest: Similar to the internal auditor, an incognito auditor is hired by the corporate management to check the services and products of the hotel. Generally after every six months each hotel receives a mystery visitor to inspect the property and assess the personnel in relation to the predetermined service delivery standards. The hotels then receive percentage performance rating which is then used as a benchmark for future performance targets. For some hotels these ratings are the main criterion in the employee bonus and increment scheme. The auditor?s report is presented to each employee from entry level to managers. A plan of action is devised to overcome the shortcomings mentioned in the report.
    Room Sales Department: The room sales department of the hotel plays an important role in collecting feedback from travel agents, corporate and forwarding it to the management for corrective actions.
     
     
     
     

    Post updated on:  May 27, 2021 2:05:55 PM

    ISO 14001
    The ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard series is a set of intentional standards that focus on environmental management. This series focuses, not on the actual product, but how the product is produced. Its origins can be traced all the way back to the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in 1972. It took another 20 years, however, before the standards and guidelines were actually put into place at the Rio Summit on Environment in 1992.
    What is ISO 14001?
    ISO 14001 is the most well-known standard in the ISO 1400 family. Unlike many other quality control standards, the ISO 14001 standard does not have any exact measures. Instead it serves as the framework of control for businesses and establishments to create their own Environmental Management Standards; it focuses on how the standards can be applied in a business or organization to meet the guidelines and standards. Each business must establish its own targets and performance measures.
    The ISO 14001 Standard is also the only standard against which businesses and establishments can achieve certification from a third party. Achieving certification is based upon meeting all three of the components of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standards; minimizing how business operations negatively impact the environment, complying with the regulations and laws outlined in the EMS and continual improvement.
    ISO 14001 Principles
    The ISO 14001 Standard is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology, which is a system based on a concept of continual improvement. It encompasses a total of 17 elements that are grouped into five phases. 
    1.     Environmental Policy (Plan): Review processes and products to identify the current elements of operation and how those elements impact the environment. Future operations are also assessed during the plan phase to determine how they may impact various environmental aspects. Impact may be direct (manufacturing process) or indirect (raw materials).
    2.     Planning (Do): Identify the resources that are required and document all procedures. Communication and participation are essential to ensure success, especially in top management positions.
    3.     Implementation and Operation (Check): Measure and monitor processes. Report data and results.
    4.     Checking and Corrective Action (Act): Ensure that objectives are being met through a planned management review. Data gathered in step 3 is used to determine if any corrective action is needed. Make necessary changes. 
    5.     Management Review (Continual Improvement Process): Based on three dimensions that gradually move the business from operational environmental measurement towards a more strategic approach when dealing with environmental concerns and challenges. Dimensions include: 
      • Expanding the Environmental Management Standards to more and more businesses areas
      • Enrichment by managing more and more processes, products, resources and activities
      • Upgrading to improve the organizational and structural framework of the EMS.
     

    Post updated on:  May 25, 2021 1:39:35 AM

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