Managing Room Division in Hospitality

Managing Room Division in Hospitality 1.0 Introduction: Room divisions is the heart of any hotel as it is the most revenue generating department in the hotel (Chon Sparrowe, 1995). Room division comprises of front office, housekeeping, Maintenance and security. This all department work in hand in hand for the smooth functioning of the organization. several components in room division contribute to having a profitable hotel. The main focus of the hotel is a revenue goal in which the majority revenue comes from selling of rooms. Especially the front desk agent, housekeeping are heros in the room division department as they can lead to better customer service and higher revenues for the hotel. 2.0 Room Division Supervisory Function: Room division is a combination of front office, housekeeping, Maintenance and the security. There-fore the room division supervisor should have the experience in all this department and should have the skill required for this job. He should be able to communicate with all these department to carry out the day to day activities. Albona (Jan 2008) stated that training of staff in the workplace is vital. As a supervisor, he need to take a proactive approach to training and developing the employees and not being reactive. Reactive means that we train the employees when there is an emergency or when we are forced to. Thinking it through making a good plan, a good place to start are based on the annual goals and objective for our organization and for our department and starting from that point you have a good plan and vision and you could see well if this is going to happen. Formulating a training plan that is proactive when looking at skill to develop also we want to look at both hard and soft skills. how they communicate with us and others, this are becoming more and more crucial especially as we develop or want to develop more teamwork because team work requires people to be able to work together to grow to solve problems together and the more that they interact more we allow them to make decisions. Marketplace is becoming competitive so we could be competing globally, nationally or locally but having a better develop work force a better trained workforce gives us that competitive advantage (Lenehan, 2000). Proper training should be provided to the staff to work efficiently and smoothly and they know about the work place safety and procedures. It is the duty of the room division supervisor to conduct training programs frequently as training is considered to be an ongoing process. He should develop guidelines and the standard procedures to carry out the plans. Controlling the cost is one of the major responsibility as this department has the largest staff employed. Employees should be crossed train in order to overcome any inadequacies. He should create plans to maximize the average daily rate and the percentage. Handling customer complaints is important because the quality and style of service is a major factor in providing an enjoyable, relaxing and satisfying experience for the guest. He must be up to date with the events taking place in the market, in market segments, and in the competition Maintenance, decoration and furnishing: As most of the rooms are sold 365 nights a year, they need regular attention and inspected by the supervisor. Freshing up and refurbishment is required on a regular basis. This may mean that rooms are decorated, painted and refurnished by a regular team of people or contractors. Maintenance team under the supervision of room division supervisor will make sure all the structural problems are dealt with swiftly and efficiently and that all the equipment and machinery are working well. 3.0 Cost control and the necessary resources for room division In response to Learning Outcome of cost control and the necessary resources for room division, the author has learnt number of cost control method used in the room division department new ideas developed and learned which lead to green practices and sustainability which can indirectly lead to cost control. The following practices are followed in the room division to cut down the cast which can add up to profit for the organization 3.1 Labor cost: Room division is the department where large numbers of staff are required. Labor cost can make huge impact on the overall profit of the organization (Rees, 1974). Managers need to manage the staff based on the forecast report. Managers are looking to improve the effectiveness of the management of the labor, the time management making sure that we had the right amount of people, the right shifts, making sure the minutes per room were being done. Labor management tool helps managers to schedule right amount of people for the required day thus saving labor cost by overstaffing. Cross training of employees is other way of cost control where same employee can be trained to get the desired skill in different section and can be used whenever needed 3.2 REUSE OF LINENS TOWELS Many properties have adopted a more environmentally friendly linen change policy to avoid the wastage practice washing on a daily basis. Although there is no common standard linen change policy in most cases bed linens can be replaced every two or three days and of course when soiled to ensure the program operates smoothly. The head housekeeper must keep control to indicate room list which bed require full linen change. A simple alternative to two day linen change program is the top to bottom method in which the bottom sheet covering the mattress is removed and replaced by the top sheet and then new bedsheet is used as a top sheet to finish making the bed Accommodation unit often change guest room towels every day and it consume large amount of water, energy and the detergents for washing towels and linen that have been used only once. Partly as a result of the growing environment awareness and concern shown by tourist and tour operators many accommodation units have implemented a towel reuse program which is explained to gust via a simple text card. This program invites guest to use their towel for more than one day, instead of having them replaced. By using this there simple techniques a large amount of money can be saved which is required for cleaning of this linens and towels. 3.3 Energy efficient appliances: Lighting in accommodation units can account up to 25 percent of their total electricity consumption. How- ever energy efficient lamps can be used to save energy and reduce cost (Adelaar Rath, 1997). This lamps consume 75 percent less energy and last eight to ten times longer than tungsten light bulbs as they are cost effective lighting options. Motion sensor light can be installed outdoors as it saves lots of energy that often remain unoccupied for a long period of time. It is not just light other electrical equipment can be controlled by timing devices to ensure they only run when necessary. Jacuzzi pumps can be controlled by electronic or windup timers to ensure they switch off after an appropriate time. The housekeeping staff should be trained to turn off the lights and appliances when not required. 4.0 Safety security measures practiced in room divisions including risk assessment external threats: When we talked about hotels problem first in mind come safety second security. Everyone wants to be secure but no want to face security. The management ensure safety in several areas by installing sign, training, cctv cameras and other installation. This is followed by health safety and non-toxic cleaning material. Various safety and security measured were learned by the author to make it a safe and protected place for the guests. Housekeeping and front office are the important and responsible position in any hotel or motel. It takes a lot of hard work to meet the schedules but that what the business is all about providing service to the guests. Hotels are required to ensure guest safety. However, must exercise reasonable care of guest and employee safety. Safety of guests and security of the hotel is the duty of every employee, supervisor and manager of the hotel. Hotel provides training on the safety of employee which provide them adequate training to ensure the safety of guests, fire safety and work environment. Employees are trained in such a way that they can respond to emergencies. The safety and security of employees should be the first priority, a proper orientation is required in housekeeping department as this is the place where employees are in contact with chemicals, electrical machines, mounting ladders and unhealthy positions can damage the health of the employees (Kappa et al, 1997). video recor der can be used to record activities at the reception, the car park and nearby surroundings. CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) are installed on a property at several points where management wants to monitor activity at each entrance. Internal alarms are the Server to determine criminal activity. It can Report an area within the hotel if the alarm is activated, protecting storage areas, hotel facilities (pool, spa and exercise area) and the hotel and nearby surrounding. Recodable locks can reduce the possibility that guests are victims in their rooms by someone who had rented the same room one night before, helping to reduce employee theft incident room (Rushmore Malone, 1998) External threats can be in the form of cash robber, theft, and terrorist attack. Robbery of Cash is not the time to try to protect cash resources. Protecting the staff at such time should be the first priority. At the time of robbery employee should observe the theft and his moves and should follow whatever they say. If the contact alarms are not installed, employee should contact the police or the local authority and report the same to the concern person on duty to take immediate actions. hotels attempt to generate an environment which is welcoming as well as secure against various manifestations of criminality (Gill et al 2002). Hotels are often the key targets of terrorist. Suspicious activities of visitor or the employees should be reported to the supervisor, security department or a designated staff member (Stafford et al 2002). The cleaning staff is trained to report doubtful items, drugs and excess liquidity that are found in the room. Today hotel uses different security techn ology and security system to protect the guests. It is the priority of the hotel and hotel employees to make the guest feel safe as they would feel in their homes. 5.0 Conclusion: Managing room division is an applied unit and the author was required to applied rooms division experience comprising of hours in both housekeeping and front office department. All hours were predominantly held at the Sydney campus with some in Leura campus experiences. The campus created exceptional applied environments at the front office and the housekeeping demo lab. This environment set the seam for what it is like to be in the industry. Room division is an effective part of operation of a hotel and resort. The applied training received from the enthusiastic trainer from both operational area prepared the author for the industry. I learned about the role of room division, work health and safety, guest satisfaction, emerging technologies and worked on the opera property management system. I experienced lecture, workshops and tutorials activities in the applied learning how to check in and check out. We learn about the sequence to cleaning a room and how laundry operates to effici ently make the daily demands. We were introduced to terminology used in the industry 6.0 References: Adelaar, M and Rath, A (1997) Energy efficiency and tourism: focus on the Caribbean A discussion  paper, Roundable on energy efficiency tourism sector, Kingston, Jamaica, December9-11, 1997,  http://www.irdc.ca/industry/jamaica_e7html, as accessed 2.10.2000 Albino, M., 5th Jan 2008, How important is staff training? Retrieval on 9th Sep 2008 at  http://monado2.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-important-isstaff-training.html Gill, M., Moon, C., Seaman, P. and Turbin, V. (2002). Security management and crime in hotels.  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 14(2), 58 64 Jaswinder S (2014) International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations. 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