Management Assignment: A Reflective Journal on Room Division

Question

Task

The Reflective Portfolio is a means to review what you have learnt during the unit. How the theoretical concepts relate to your past/current experiences and how they could be applied to enhance your performance as hotel leader.

You will be required to write four entries in your Reflective Journal on management assignment (approximately 700-800 words per entry). The topics you will write the four entries on will be:

• Front Office Management: Guest cycle, Complaints, Conflict Resolution, Performance appraisal
• Housekeeping Management: Sustainability, Inventory control, Labour cost & Staffing
• Guest services Management: Customer experience, WOW factor
• Night Management: Night audit, Safety & Security, Financial reports

Answer

Management Assignment Entry #1: Front Office Management
In this entry, I will discuss the front office management. I will discuss the entries using a reflective journal and apply them to the concepts of hotel management. The first entry is a guest cycle and I feel that hotels must embed guess cycles in the operation of hotel management. I have learned that the guest cycle is essential for every hotel management and planning. The guest cycle can be described in four stages. I have learned that the first stage, is concerned with the pre-arrival of guests. In the pre-arrival stage, the hotel needs to take care of enquiries from potential guests, help in the reservation process and offer pickup services if requested by the clients. Pre-arrival is most critical in maintaining guests and forming a positive brand reception among customers (Heyes, 2017).

I have learned about the second stage which is arrival. It consists of handling guest luggage, client registration, allocating rooms and issuing keys and welcome kit to customers. I feel that if hotels prepare well in this stage, it can satisfy customers and make the customers seek their services again (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2000). The occupancy stage consists of a customer staying at the hotel, they take services like currency exchange, take services, managing transportation and using hotel services offered. I have learned that hotels must focus on providing a clean and safer environment to customers to visually appeal to them. The last stage is departure where customers make payments, do the check-out procedure and hotel staff is in charge of handling luggage and offer drop services (Markovi? & Gjuraši?, 2020).

I will discuss complaints in the front office management section. Managing and resolving complaints is very essential for hotel management. The customers can raise complaints regarding room allocation, room service, hotel services, food and cleanliness of the room and nearby environment. I feel that customer satisfaction is a very integral part of hotel management and very difficult to achieve (Zheng Youn & Kincaid, 2009). Often customers register complaints regarding hotel staff behaviour. I have learned that it is important to give proper training to staff to behave in a professional and ethical manner which can give utmost customer satisfaction. Customers are dissatisfied with poor customer service and unfriendly staff (Hu et al., 2019). I have learned that unsatisfied customers are more likely to visit competitors due to low customer satisfaction. I feel that handling guest complaints are necessary and staffs must listen to their concern with empathy.

Conflict resolution is a challenging task for the hotel industry. I have learned that there must be mediating relationships between the hotel staff and hotel executives. I feel that conflict resolution is a vital part of the hospitality industry (Kim & Cha, 2002)). I have learned the way to successfully mitigate conflicts through communication and active listening. Communication is helpful to resolves disputes and through active listening, all the parties involved in the dispute can exchange dialogues and present their perspective. Managers are responsible to end the conflict (Nicolaides, 2010). I think that it can be successfully navigated when options are reviewed and a solution that benefits everyone must be implemented. I have learned the concept of establishing a common goal that can address the conflicts and provide a successful solution for everyone.

Performance appraisal is a powerful tool in managing employees and providing quality evaluation. I feel that performance appraisal is an integral part of human resources and plays a decisive factor in the success of organisations. I have learned that through performance appraisal the hotel staff can be evaluated against their performance based on their job roles and responsibilities. Performance appraisal can impact the career development of employees and motivate them to perform well (Dewi et al., 2019). Through performance ratings, the HR department can address employee performance and evaluation. I think that having trained and excelled employees in housekeeping, front-office management, and different managers contribute to excellent customer service and promote customer satisfaction.

Performance appraisal is done by establishing performance standards and measuring performance based on the criteria for appraisal. I agree with the parameters set by most employers to measure performance. It consists of attendance, innovation and creativity, leadership, communication skills, customer handling, problem-solving, time management, and teamwork. Performance appraisal and psychological contracts are related which explains the high employee turnover in the hospitality industry (Eyoun et al., 2020).

Entry #2: Housekeeping Management
Inthis entry, I will discuss the housekeeping management process. Sustainability is a concept that is recognised everywhere. I have learned about the importance of sustainability and the practice of eco-friendly products used by hotels. Sustainability is a greater concern and implicates the hospitality industry. Through sustainable approaches, I feel that hotels can improve their operational functions and improve their financial resource (Kimball, 2019).

I have learned through the modules that sustainable housekeeping management will promote green practices in maintenance and services to reduce waste and save energy by reducing energy costs. Although sustainability is needed to be implemented, it is not an easy task. I have experienced that in most cases in hospitality management, the stakeholders are not readily on board to implement it. The housekeeping staff can help to save resources and I have tried to do that. I think that it is not easier to regulate resources efficiently.

Inventory control is important in housekeeping management. It helps to check the stocks, involves purchasing, storage of inventories, requisition and helps to prevent losses and theft (Mishra & Prasad, 2006). I have learned that inventory control helps housekeeping management to track products acquired from different vendors. I think it is very challenging for hotels to manage inventory control. Using green supply chain management, they can achieve the task of inventory management and track the performance of vendors and order management (Sherman, 2007). Inventory control can be regulated through a minimum level of inventories and deciding the re-order o order level by maintaining pricing, distribution, order systems and forecast budget.

Labour cost and staffing is the biggest component of cost in any hotel. I think it is required to maintain a proper system to regulate labour costs and staffing. I feel that it is important to utilise staff to their fullest potential and give them proper training for flexibility and adaptiveness. It can be very challenging when regulating all the employees and I think that a payroll analysis must be performed (Wood, 2001). It is necessary to monitor over time as it can drain the budget of housekeeping. Performing payroll analysis will help the housekeeping department to analyse the number of rooms cleaned, VIP customers served, check-outs, and other schedules.

Entry #3: Guest services Management
Inthis entry, I will discuss guest services management. Customer experience is a critical factor for hotels. Based on the room management and divisions, I feel that maintaining customer experience is very important. Depending on the services received, a customer can have a good and bad experience. I feel that customer experience is a very challenging aspect for organisations. I find it challenging and motivating to develop my own strategy to deliver a good customer experience. I think it is important to deliver good customer service for customer retention (Berry et al., 2002). However, often challenges are trying to provide good customer service. experience consists of an organisation’s ability to offer the best quality of customer care. They advertise the company’s products and services, features, ease of convenience, and reliability. It is true that customer experience is internal and is based on direct or indirect contact with the organisation. I feel that customer experience is subjective (Meyer & Schwager (2007).

I have learned that experience plays an important factor to determine the success of an organisation. It is necessary to create the right environment for customer experiences. I have learned that organisations must focus to create value creations (Gentile, Spiller &Noci, 2007). I feel that customer experience is based on overall quality and how customers perceive the interactions with an organisation. There are incidents where I feel that hotels are unable to keep up with the expectations of customers. This is because often what business advertise do not match with what they are providing. Customer experience has become an integral part of the business strategy used by organisations (Batra, 2019).

I find it challenging and motivating to understand the customer experience. it is related to customer mapping and businesses tend to focus on that aspect. To manage a positive customer experience, I feel that collaboration between different divisions like sales, marketing, design, human resources, housekeeping, front office management, and social media and technology will enhance the customer experience (Kandampully, Zhang, &Jaakkola, 2018).

The Wow Factor is very challenging and rewarding in itself. I feel that organisations try their best to provide the “wow factor” through their products and services through digital transformation. This can be further explained as hotel rooms are equipped with Wi-Fi, TV, and electronic aspects like charging stations for laptops and other features. I think that these factors try to capture the wow aspect for customers. However, I think that not all hotels can provide them in rooms as it requires maintenance, knowledge and it can increase the financial burdens on an organisation. contrary to this belief, I feel that heightening customer experience through quality services and meeting their requirements can influence customer expectations and promote customer satisfaction. I have learned that the wow factor is correlated with customer satisfaction and customer expectations (Méndez-Aparicio et al., 2020). I feel that during the pandemic, customers seeking self-isolation rooms in hotels can be compelled from the wow factor when they get rooms that are equipped with everything during the isolation. The customer gets satisfaction and their expectations are met (Kumar, Malhotra & Srivastava, 2021).

Entry #4 Night Management
Inthis entry, I will discuss night management. Night audit is a part of night management. based on my learning experience and when I visited a hotel, I was curious to find about night audits. Night audit is essential for hotels. The process of night audit consists of reviewing financial activities done in one day. The night audit process is conducted at the end of the day. This includes reviewing the list of transactions made by the guests and the records retrieved from the front office. In my experience, it is a very challenging and meticulous task.

I have learned that it comprises managing reports and information about daily reports and archives, get employee information to check which tasks were performed. Night audit is helpful to keep in sync with all the departments (Rahat & Kabir, 2018). I have learned that the night audit process consists of guests and non-guests accounts. It is challenging to make audit reports. The task requires maintaining the statements of accounts, monitoring the credit accounts, and documenting the correct accounts’ settlements every day. It is a very challenging and taxing job. I have learned that the night auditor has to fulfil outstanding postings and check any discrepancies in room status. All the departmental accounts are checked and room rates are verified.

There are instances where customers make reservations but cancel or do not show up. The night auditor is responsible to verify reservations that were cancelled or guests did not arrive. It includes making documentation for room rates and taxes, cash receipts, report distributions and clearing or backing up the system (Liu & Liu, 2021). As per my understanding, the night audit report consists of transaction reports, financial reports, adjustment reports, payment ledger reports, and notes reports (Simangunsong & Metekohy, 2019). It includes daily reports, revenue reports, tax reports, and other important reports to complete the audit. I feel that it is a very responsible task and it facilitates coordination, sync between departments, and gives a clear idea of how the operational functions are working for an organisation.

The next component of night management is safety and security. I have learned that it housekeeping department and safety personnel coordinate to ensure the safety and security of the guests. Safety and security here mean the status of the environment where the guests stay. Safety and security play a crucial role in the hospitality industry. If there are any safety or security issues, it can lead to customer dissatisfaction (Chauhan, Shukla, & Negi 2018). Based on my experience of staying at a hotel, I feel that it is the duty of the hotel to ensure that the environment they provide for guests has proper safety measures installed. The engineering department is responsible to check on faulty wires, sockets, electric appliances and other safety measures like installing fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. Any faulty machinery must be replaced to ensure that there are no accidents or organisational hazards (Prabhu & Tyagi, 2020). As a customer, I feel that having a bad experience along with a threat to safety and security will compel them not to visit the same venue again. The housekeeping department must ensure that the public areas are properly maintained. Maintenance jobs must be done timely like repairing air-conditioning devices, changing fuses or faulty bulbs, malfunctioning plugs, repairing boilers to provide hot water supply and fixing plumbing works. I have learned that providing safety and security is the ultimate goal of the hotel. They deliver quality services by ensuring the safety and security of the customers. It is not limited to safety aspects but constitutes safety and security from crimes, hazards and accidents like compliance with fire safety (Wszendyby?-Skulska & Zawartka, 2018).

Financial reports play an integral aspect for any organisation. I have learned that financial reports are essential for organisations to track the financial situation. Based on the financial situation, hotels can formulate strategies to ensure that they retain profit and generate revenue. Managers must pay attention to how the cash flow is generated (Stice, Stice & Stice, 2017). I have learned that financial reports are part of the night auditor’s job and some of the reports they prepare help to develop the overall financial report like forming tax reports and calculating necessary tax the entity has to pay.

Maintaining tax reports gives them the ground to exercise ethical duties and this can help the entity to avoid penalties. The financial reports consist of balance sheets. The balance sheet is a financial document that helps the entities to document the assets, liabilities and equities of shareholders. It shows and represents the finances of a company. The financial report consists of income statements. I have learned that financial statements are very important and represent the transactions done in a period of time. I have learned that the night auditor prepares the financial report every day. Based on the financial reports, income statements can be reported. The cash flow statements describe the net operating cash flow a hotel has after deducting taxes except for income tax.

The taxes include insurance, salaries of employees, utilities, expenses used in operations. I feel that the financial report presents insights into cash operating from different activities like investment, financing activities and operating activities. The daily financial reports prepared in night audits are similar to reports prepared by the managers. This has made me reflect that financial reports are vital for hotels to properly operating. I have reflected on my understanding of the account balance report and learned that it is very similar to the ledger balance report of guests, however, it is different. This report is used to monitor the daily activities undertaken to understand the outstanding balance due.

References
Batra, M. M. (2019). Customer experience: trends, challenges, and managerial issues. Journal of Competitiveness Studies, 27(2), 138-151.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Madan-Batra/publication/341606008_Customer_Experience--Trends_Challenges_and_Managerial_Issues/links/5ec9e1bea6fdcc90d6939c07/Customer-Experience--Trends-Challenges-and-Managerial-Issues.pdf

Berry, L. L., Carbone, L. P., & Haeckel, S. H. (2002). Managing the total customer experience. MIT Sloan management review, 43(3), 85-89.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lewis-Carbone/publication/266277275_Managing_the_Total_Customer_Experience_Managing
_the_Total_Customer_Experience/links/55929abc08ae16f493ee285f/Managing-the-Total-Customer-Experience-Managing-the-Total-Customer-Experience.pdf

Chauhan, A., Shukla, A., & Negi, P. (2018). Safety and security measures adopted by the hotels and their impact on customer relationship management. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 6(1), 118-125.https://www.granthaalayahpublication.org/journals/index.php/granthaalayah/article
/view/IJRG18_A01_1039

Dewi, P. E. O., Astawa, I. K., Ernawati, N. M., &Suarta, I. K. (2019). The impact of hotel staff appraisal to career development. International Journal of Green Tourism Research and Applications, 1(1), 73-84. http://ojs.pnb.ac.id/index.php/IJOGTRA/article/view/1632

Eyoun, K., Chen, H., Ayoun, B., &Khliefat, A. (2020). The relationship between purpose of performance appraisal and psychological contract: Generational differences as a moderator. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 86, 102449. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278431920300013

Gentile, C., Spiller, N., &Noci, G. (2007). How to sustain the customer experience:: An overview of experience components that co-create value with the customer. European management journal, 25(5), 395-410. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0263237307000886

Heyes, A. (2017). 5 Hotel front office. Hotel Accommodation Management, 57. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aFgPEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA57&dq=guest+cycle+pre-arrival+stage&ots=CWplkAc6PY&sig=irMxR6PYsjjk4OSa529siUma8iY&redir_esc
=y#v=onepage&q=guest%20cycle%20pre-arrival%20stage&f=false

Hu, N., Zhang, T., Gao, B., & Bose, I. (2019). What do hotel customers complain about? Text analysis using structural topic model. Tourism Management, 72, 417-426.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261517719300020

Kandampully, J., &Suhartanto, D. (2000). Customer loyalty in the hotel industry: the role of customer satisfaction and image. International journal of contemporary hospitality management.https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09596110010342559/full/html

Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. C., &Jaakkola, E. (2018). Customer experience management in hospitality: A literature synthesis, new understanding and research agenda. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2015-0549/full/html

Kim, W. G., & Cha, Y. (2002). Antecedents and consequences of relationship quality in hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 21(4), 321-338. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278431902000117

Kimball, S. (2019). Sustainability in the Housekeeping Department of a Lodging Facility.https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/shsrs/2019/poster/15/

Kumar, A., Malhotra, R., & Srivastava, A. (2021). OYO’s Dilemma: Customer-Based Brand Equity and Marketing Strategies during COVID 19. Developing Resilience in Disruptive Times: Insights from Strategic Management.https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=O8AqEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT67&dq=customers+and+self+isolation
+rooms+in+hotels&ots=0fvPnHhTPB&sig=_slVlAPNbITcHVEjA9XcxzIMJ9o&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Liu, X., & Liu, X. (2021, May). On the Structure and Modules of Hotel Management Information System of Reception. In 2021 2nd International Conference on Computers, Information Processing and Advanced Education (pp. 953-958). https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3456887.3457113

Markovi?, S., &Gjuraši?, M. (2020, October). CREATING PERSONALIZED GUEST EXPERIENCE JOURNEY IN LEISURE HOTEL. In Fourth International Scientific Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology, Tourism, Economics, Management and Agriculture (p. 31).https://www.bib.irb.hr/1126096/download/1126096.ITEMA-2020_Selected-papers_FINAL.pdf#page=45

Méndez-Aparicio, M. D., Jiménez-Zarco, A., Izquierdo-Yusta, A., &Blazquez-Resino, J. J. (2020). Customer Experience and Satisfaction in Private Insurance Web Areas. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2591.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.581659/full?&utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&
utm_campaign=Email_publication&field=&journalName=Frontiers_in_Psychology&id=581659

Meyer, C., &Schwager, A. (2007). Understanding customer experience. Harvard business review, 85(2), 116. https://idcexed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Understanding_Customer_Experience.pdf

Mishra, B. K., & Prasad, A. (2006). Minimizing retail shrinkage due to employee theft. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09590550610710228/full/html

Nicolaides, A. (2010). Conflict Management–the role of Hotel Managers. In International Research Symposium in Service Management, South Africa.https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1076.9324&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Prabhu, A., & Tyagi, M. H. (2020). Basic Rooms Divisions.http://www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter4770.pdf

Rahat, M., & Kabir, S. (2018). Role of Night Audit on the Perspective of Hotel Bengal Blueberry.http://dspace.daffodilvarsity.edu.bd:8080/handle/123456789/3118

Sherman, R. (2007). Chain management issues and good housekeeping procedures to minimise food processing waste. In Handbook of Waste Management and Co-Product Recovery in Food Processing (pp. 39-58). Woodhead Publishing.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9781845690250500037

Simangunsong, C. R. B., &Metekohy, E. Y. (2019). Exploring the Needs of Parties in Church Management in Building Knowledge Management System of Financial Reporting. Journal of Applied Accounting and Taxation, 4(2), 165-183. https://jurnal.polibatam.ac.id/index.php/JAAT/article/view/1658

Stice, D., Stice, E., &Stice, J. (2017). Cash flow problems can kill profitable companies. Available at SSRN 3057698.https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3057698

Wood, D. F. (2001). Hotel housekeeping operational audit (Doctoral dissertation).https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/301243/Thesis-2001-W874h.pdf?sequence=1

Wszendyby?-Skulska, E., &Zawartka, M. (2018). Safety and security as the basic determinants of quality of hotel services. European Journal of Service Management, 25(1).https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=943719

Zheng, T., Youn, H., & Kincaid, C. S. (2009). An analysis of customers' E-complaints for luxury resort properties. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 18(7), 718-729.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19368620903170240