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Hotel management
Hotels can be operated in one of the following ways:
-Independently owned and operated
These can be independent hotels, with no affiliation, that are being managed by the-owners of the properties
-Management contract
Management contracts are hotel management companies which operate properties owned by other entities. In some cases, the hotel owners may arrange to run their properties through a management contract with a company that specializes in managing hotels.
Hotel management
The reason for this is that the owner may not:
-Have the necessary expertise;
-Desire to become involved in the operation of the hotel;
Benefits for the hotel management company:
-Little or no up-front financing or equity involved
-Manage the property for the contract period such as five, ten or twenty years
-Receive a management fee during the contract period
Hotel management
-Franchising
Some investors prefer to use the franchising concept in running the hotel. Franchising in the hospitality industry is a concept that:
-Allows interested investors to use a company’s (the franchisor)
Name and business
-Is made up of properties where the franchisees guidelines set by the franchisor
-Allows a company to expand more rapidly by using others’ capital
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Functions of major hotel departments
Rooms division
Rooms Division
Front Office Department Housekeeping Department
Figure 3: Organisation of the rooms division
Functions of major hotel departments
The three main functions of the front office are as follows:
1. Selling rooms
2. Maintaining balanced guest accounts
3. Providing services and information to guests
The front office department is headed by the front office manager (FOM) whose main duty is to enhance guest services by constantly developing services to meet guests’ needs.
Functions of major hotel departments
The FOM performs the following duties:
-Monitoring reservation status
-Looking over market mix and preparing occupancy forecasts
-Determining rate structures and supervising implementation of rate policies
-Reviewing previous night’s occupancy and average room rate
-Reviewing arrivals and departures for the day and the next day
-Making staffing adjustments needed for arrivals and departures
-Reviewing the VIP list, checking VIP rooms, meeting VIPs and entertaining them