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This report discusses launching of a new tablet launched by apple. This is a brand new model of a tablet that can be used by anybody and it is also suitable and adopted for every user including children with leaning disabilities due to its customizable features. As a consultant working with the company’s event planning team for this product launch, this report will be focusing on the process of planning this event. The process of how to get the potential customers and key stakeholders persons informed and invited to the event. And most important is for the planning process to lead to achieving the company’s goals of higher sales targets and to promote the new product to the customers. To meet this, the event needs to be planned in such away that the invited guests and all potential customers gets a positive experience that promotes the image of the company and the brand being marketed.

INTRODUCTION

Event planning is the procedure of handling a project of this kind through arranging such as a conference, a convention, a trade fair, a team building activity, a hospitality gathering or an exhibition. The planning process includes drawing a realistic budget, drawing a timetable of every activity, choosing and reserving the event venues, obtaining permits where necessary and needed. Planning and making arrangements for food and drinks, harmonising transportation of people and items, designing a suitable theme planning for every activity. There is also need to chose and invite keynote speakers and promoters in good time and ensuring that the venue is well facilitated and equipped with a good public address system if planning for big audiences. Risk management needs to be accounted for while having some contingency plans in cases of eventualities. Event Planning consists of coordinating every little detail of planning from the speakers and meeting location to arranging for printed materials and advertising the event itself through chosen media.

Event planning begins with determining the objective that the sponsoring organization wants to achieve. Planners strategically choose speakers, entertainment teams and activities, content, and arrange the program to present the organization’s information in the most effective way. Meeting planners are responsible for selecting meeting venues, likely guests and how to get them to the meeting. (Institute of Event management, 2012)

According to Fill(2005), Marketing communications is a management process through which an organisation endeavours to share its product information with its various audiences. Through understanding the audience’s communications setting, organisations seek to cultivate and present messages suitable for their identified stakeholders and interest groups before evaluating and acting upon any responses. By conveying messages that are of significant value, audiences are encouraged to offer attitudinal and behavioural positive response.

This Tablet being an electronic item has a potential for a very wide market. It is likely to attract attention from various individuals and groups of people who may include students, teachers, parents of children with learning disabilities, educational institutions and just the general public.

OBJECTIVES OF AN EVENT PLANNING

Every event planning or product launch should have its goals and objectives to form the vision because without them, your event will not have any defined vision. However, an event can have one or many goals and multiple objectives supporting the goals which are necessary to the success of the event. There should be more than one purpose for an event planning, for example this event is about launching a new product by raising sales target and also promoting the brand.

The main purpose of this product launch is to put across our communication strategies either by using the push or pull strategy. The main focus strategy which will be more vital with this product is the pull strategy, by focusing more on the direct consumers than business to business consumers which is also referred to as the push strategy.

PROCESS OF PLANNING AN EVENT

One very essential stage in an event planning is to have a budget to guide your expenditure and it is also your responsibility as the event organiser to stay within the limits of your budget.

Similarly, your also need to develop a marketing strategy which includes advertisements either through the media, internet or digital media for example, social networks and focus groups. And to coordinate the communications and promotional activities for your event as the success of your event will ultimately depend on your ability to sell the event to those attending it. (Carter L., 2007)

In order to create an event to fulfil your customer’s objectives and be everything that they hope it will be, it is important to begin with their event vision. This is where you will be able to determine what is most important to them. Event visualization is after event objectives have been set out, should be your first starting point for planning the event.

For this product, apple needs to focus on the PULL strategy as this product is most likely to directly to individual consumers. So a good part of the advertising budget for this event should be committed to digital marketing such as internet marketing, use of social websites like face book, tweeter and the like. Internet advertising through search engine optimisations, email marketing using their existing customers’ database, contacts and referrals would also be suitable strategies for this product.

Use of mobile marketing strategies such as text messaging, ringtones, games demonstrating the product and its new and unique features would prove a success for this kind of item. The beauty of these media is that they would even lead word of mouth since the messages are targeted at the consumers directly.

Another good strategy would be to target influential stakeholders and customers invitation to a well planned corporate launch event. In order to host an event that will fulfil your company’s objectives and yet have appositive impact to the guests, the planners need to have a clear vision. This is where you will be able to determine what is most important and prioritise the process.

Choosing a location is also a very important stage in an event planning, and it needs to be booked at a very early stage to avoid any delays or last minute disappointments. The location needs to be convenience for the visitors and there should be enough room for product display and also for visitors to have space to work around the products and demonstrate them as well. Parking should not be a problem as most of the guest will be driving to the event.

Team building is very important in an event planning process; you need good staffing and a security plan. Such a plan is the glue that holds the event together. Coordinate the efforts of your staff (paid and volunteer) and vendors with the venue contact person. Include details such as when vendors arrive, where and how they unload their equipment, where they set up, and how they manage all aspects of the event. You should also address how and when they will tear down and load up to avoid costly surprises. Effective communication on-site is critical. All staff should be fluent in how to operate your communications system (such as walkie-talkies and headsets) and how to contact those responsible for emergency support. Every event needs to address security, even if it just includes hiring an off-duty police officer, working with the hotel’s security team, it will be worth it. Having a list of emergency phone numbers handy is also helpful. (Jodi W., 2010)

Also, another essential part of such an event is to provide the guests with food and refreshments. If possible, hire a DJ to provide the visitors with music to make the environment lively and lift the spirits of the visitors. Engage your customers with conversations by contacting them face to face specially the key visitors and stakeholders. If possible equip your team members with good knowledge of the product to engage with the customers and get them to try the Tablets for themselves and not just be told about them.

You could go a further step by setting up an offer price for a promotional sale of the tablet just for this launch day. This will encourage customers and stakeholders to attend, have personal experience with the product and afterwards spread word about it. It might also get many people excited to take advantage of the promotional price and boost the sales. Such an approach is deemed likely to produce positive results. According to Duncan and Moriarty (1997), there are some communications that arise from unplanned or unintended experiences and also there are planned marketing communications.

IMPORTANCE OF STAKEHOLDERS IN AN EVENT LAUNCH

Stakeholders include, suppliers, customers, investors and the media, they are very important in an event planning because they can be affected by the event and the event also can be affected by the type of evaluation received by the stakeholders. In order to realise the success of an event, it is important to have open communication channels among all stake holders. Since events have broader impacts on a wider public, such open communications will bring more feedback to the company. It is also important to remember that stakeholders are people with vested interests in the company and its products. They are therefore potential attendees. Stake holders add value and reputation to the success of the whole event. Moreover getting the right stakeholders to your event can create the prospect of a great evaluation for the future event planning as well. You can find out what the views and thoughts of key people and important stakeholders by engaging in face to face charts with them throughout the event.(Robinson P. et al 2010).

EVENT EVALUATION PROCESS

Finally, as soon as the event is over and the guests have all gone home, while you may be eager to put your planning documents and files away and move one, right after the event is the right time to evaluate the success of your event and discuss opportunities for a better improvement in a future event planning. However, a thorough post-event evaluation ensures you will capture the important details your company’s needs to improve its fundraising. A successful evaluation is also a good start for the preparations of your next event. You can get feedbacks from your guest in different ways, either by asking them about their view about the whole event or by giving them questionnaires to fill in and hand it back before living. These feedbacks from your visitors can help you evaluate the success factor of the event.

Also it is very important to meet with the event committee and all your team members who were involved in the event process. Arrange a meeting with them and make sure you give them enough time for discussion getting their view and gather all vital information from them for an evaluation for a future event plan. Make sure you cover every important aspect of the event, being careful to note which topics hit nerves in a positive or negative way so you can keep the meeting upbeat. (greater giving, 2012)

Conclusions

In order to attract the attention of all your potential customers, planners needs to implement the best marketing strategies at their disposal and start good planning ahead of the event for success. Whether the company will choose to use the services of a marketing consultant or manage these issues on their own, it’s up to them provided the aims and objectives are kept in focus. All important aspects of the planning process need to be taken care of. These should include all the fine details of the whole process such as budgeting actions and steps to be implemented by particular individuals on the planning team. Once all these are done with success, it shouldn’t be a big problem for the company to succeed by getting the tartgetde ausdeince to its event nadn thefeor achieves their aims and objectives of the marketing process.

Front desk job of any hotel is very important from hotel sales point of view. Marketing and sales department is called revenue generator. Front desk job is part of the marketing department so it’s directly linked with revenue generation activities of a hotel. An employee working as front desk employee is having direct interaction with the guests. So it becomes very important for that employee to have all the chief characteristics of a good salesperson.

A good sales person can convert first time guest in to repeat business guest by make him or happy and achieve customer satisfaction. This is the hospitality and customer demand only that can be kept in mind while handling customers at front desk that will bring customer satisfaction. Desired hospitality and less cumbersome process of check in and checkout will bring customer satisfaction. Working as a Front office manager or staff, first of all he or she should consider the available resources of the hotel concerned which need to be focused to the materialization of the business.

Good salesmanship is all about selling own product with acceptance of the customers. Whatever product one have a good salesperson will sale that product and make feel to the customers that this is the right product he was looking for. This is simply quality of a sales person that he or she will find out the budget of a customer while conversation and offer the product that give within the budget feel to the customer. While conversation it is the quality of a salesperson to explain the facilities of the product to the customer that will again give feel of the right product customer was looking for. Abbey J.R (1998)

Customer relationship management is new concept in the field of any business. So it is the quality of a good salesmanship that helps in effective implementation and management of customer relationship in the hotel organization. In this competitive world getting new business is big challenge so hotel organization believes in repeated business from the same clientele. With the help of knowledge and smartness in work of a salesperson management of customer relationship is possible. These days it is being managed by ecommerce so knowledge of ecommerce to the front desk employee can be added quality of a good salesmanship and it will bring the business from existing clientele.

If an organization utilizes the available resources properly, Implementation of yield management will makes major changes in the hotel. It will bring maximum market shares of the city concerned. Guest generally always looks for the comfortable stay and the luxury facilities for their money. It is the quality that always speaks better than any other advertisement. So if front desk employee gives proper feedback to the hotel, hotel can maintains the quality towards the tariff and the interiors which will bring the maximum revenue within a short period. So it is the benefits of the good salesmanship. So as conclusion author would like to say that good salesmanship is very important while performing duty of front office department of hotel industry because it helps hotel not only to get good business but maintaining relationship with customers and feedback to the hotel for up gradation of its quality of product and services as well.

Q.1 (2) Explain, with examples what selling techniques you might use when checking in a guest.

Overall selling technique is depends upon salesmanship and kind of guest but in general a front dest person has to apply his or her selling skill keeping in mind normal procedure of checkin.Selling techniques for checking guest is nothing but quality of a good salesperson. A salesperson should be very friendly and caring to the guest so that customer will be satisfied. Sales person should use up sell technique first while explaining price of the available rooms, followed by prestigious pricing and cut rate pricing. Along with these salesperson should explain how brilliant the facilities are within the room to justify the price of the room.

There may be a case that same room can be sold at different price. It is the duty of a good salesperson to find out the level of desire of the customer for the product he or she is asking for and charge price accordingly. During heavy demand of the accommodation it is totally depends upon front desk employee-salesperson to maximize the yield of accommodation by selling the same product at different prices as per the customer profile and need. Being a good salesman a front office employee can suggest various pricing techniques-top down pricing, prestigious pricing, cut rate pricing etc, to the hotel to maximize its yield. So it is the quality of a salesperson to identify and recognize the level of demand and ability of a customer to pay for the same accommodation and fixed the price accordingly. Abbey J.R (1998)

For example if there is arrival of guest first of all front desk person should handle the guest with friendly approach, asking for the kind of room looking for then explain the kind of room available with its pricing. First of all salesperson should try to sell the room at higher price then depending upon the negotiation skill of the salesperson and budget of the customer price can be prestigious or if required and supported by the market sentiment it can be cut rate price be fixed. After this negotiation skill guest should be registered and room should be assigned promptly. As per the situation if needed guest will be assisted in completing registration process. Then there will be verification of method of payment to be made by the guest-whether cheque, cash, card or payment by company etc.will is known by conversation and then there will be escort to the guest till the room.

Q.2. Discuss the type of check in system that you would expect to see at the turner Hotel.

Hotel Turner is a big chain of Hotel with 297 rooms hotel located in Central London. It is part of a well reputed group of hotels with 12 hotels running successfully in London and other major European cities. 42% of its clientele is corporate. Only 8% and 14% amount to walk-ins and leisure guests respectively. For this type of hotel, front office system should enable reception staff to maintain track of all bookings, state of rooms, guest details and charges. It should be efficient in coordinating restaurant reservations for guests, plan housekeeping duties and process guest check-in and check-out as per the market segmentation. Hotel Turner would also require a system that should provide a means to communicate effectively with all travel agents and activity operators linked to the online reservation system.

Hospitality management systems are the applications/ modules that smoothens a hospitality business. From the room service system in a restaurant, to online reservation and an easy and fast check in procedure, it enables efficient communication and management of operation, eventually growing business and revenue. (www.wikianswers.com)

Features that Hotel Turner should look out for includes:

Reports for arrivals & departures on a specific date.

Guest ledger and reservation details, including activities and special requests.

Room rates, discounts, package deals, group bookings, etc.

Visual schematic of hotel rooms and status.

Visual schematic of calendar with room availability.

Facility for printing check-in cards for guests.

Flexibility in re-assigning guests to different room.

Facility to easily add charges to rooms from restaurants, spa, gift shop, etc.

Incorporate all payment options upon check-out and print receipt.

Print work roster for staff Facilities for storing guest history

Communicate efficiently with reservation and travel agents

Hotel Turner should have a system that can be efficiently used for online reservation system. This type of software package is essential as per the hotel’s cancellation and Guarantee policy. It will help in increasing direct online bookings instantly. Prospective guests can view hotel rooms (size, choice of beds), availability and prices, plus services and facilities offered. The systems should have instant confirmation of credit card payments or other secure online payment method. After payment of deposit and confirmation by email, guests should be able to login to view or change their reservation details. Cancellation policies should be stated, airport transport options mentioned.

How would the check in procedures differ when dealing with?
( a) A guest with a reservation

Usually guest check in procedure for reserved guest and chance guest is same except for slight variations. Check in procedures for a guest with a reservation will be as follows:

Receive the guest with a smile, and greet according to the time.

Check if he/she is holding reservation

Get the guest registration card and fill it up with all the necessary and required details of the guest.

Fill up the key and the welcome card

If the guest is a foreigner, get the C form and fill it up.

Allot the accommodation

Fill the arrival register

Make information slips and send them to telephones, room service and housekeeping

Open guest folio

In case of VIP, CIP etc inform all the departments

Lastly inform the bellboys to carry the luggage and escort the guest to the room and wish a comfortable stay in the hotel.

Typically pre registered guests or guest with reservation only need to verify information collected by reservations agents during the reservations process. They only need to verify information already entered onto a registration card and provide a valid signature in the appropriate place on the registration card. On the other hand, chance guest or walk in guest needs to fill the pre-registration card at the time of check in.

Pre registration also involves room and rate assignment and creation of guest folio apart from producing registration card.

The registration process can be divided into six steps

Pre registration activity

Creating the registration record

Assigning the room and the rate

Establishing method of payment

Issuing the room key

Fulfilling the special requests

(b) A “chance” guest

In the case when guest is a chance guest the process of check in would almost be same except some cases. Like as guest is a chance guest so there will be no earlier reservation done for the guest so in this case first of all as process front desk person should check for availability of rooms and there will be efforts to create room for him or her. Rest of the process like fill up the key and allotting the accommodation escorting till the room will be similar. There may be a case that in case of a chance guest a front desk employee has to utilize his or her negotiation skill for the price of the room as per the level of need of the room by the guest. This is the skill of the employee to materialized the opportunities then and there. So overall the difference in check in procedures for a guest with a reservation and a chance guest is not much the only thing is role of a front desk person becomes very important because while negotiation and first interaction a materialization of an opportunity depends.

Q.4. Explain the necessity of overbooking and its legal implications in relation to Turner Hotel.

The term overbooking is concerned with a situation which shows booking of the room have done excessively than the actual available room with the hotel. In general hotel does this because of reaching 100% occupancies. Hotel books over rooms than the available one with historic information and trend which includes unexpected cancellation. It is the synonyms of over commitment and oversold.

No show has been a major cause of concern for the hotels worldwide. It amounts to major loss of revenue. However, no-shows and early departures still cost hotels money. The reservation guarantee through credit cards compensates hotels for one night’s stay in the case of a no-show, but the hotel still needs to make up for a revenue loss if that no-show guest had a multiple-night reservation. (http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals)

Because of this panorama of no-shows and early departures, the hotel turner must unavoidably engage in some level of overbooking to help ensure that those potentially unsold rooms are filled. As we all know, however, hoteliers who overbook might have to walk guests after the hotel is full. (http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals)

Overbooking is another important element of the revenue management or yield management. Hotels overbook to redeem for customer cancellations and no-shows. For this reason, it is obligatory to forecast cancellations and no-shows. Insufficient overbooking results in unsold inventory; on the other hand excessive overbooking results in penalty cost which includes both the financial remuneration given to bumped customers and the prospective loss of future revenue due to customer dissatisfaction. The optimal level of overbooking is where the anticipated cost of overbooking for the next unit to be sold is equal to the expected marginal revenue from that unit. (International encyclopedia of hospitality management by Abraham Pizam)

Most legal authorities agree that when overbooking results in walking a guest, a breach of contract occurs. Under certain circumstances, it may constitute fraud or misrepresentation as well. In addition, certain overbooking practices are likely to fall under the ambit of state consumer protection statutes prohibiting unfair and deceptive acts and practices. While the hotel industry attempts to portray overbooking as an economic necessity and legitimizes the process by attempts to provide guests with alternative accommodations, the hotels have failed to address the true effect and implicit costs association with the practice. Primarily because it is left to the individual state authority’s to regulate the industry. (http://legaldefinition.us)

As far as Turner Hotel is concerned from the view point of overbooking, it is advisable not to go for overbooking because there will be breach of contract between hotel and its guests. But from the view point of business and maximizing revenue, it the only way to proceed little aggressively to achieve 100% occupancy. This is because after advance booking there is chances of cancellation of reservation as well, even if payment has been made in advance hotel organization has to bear loss for the foregone opportunities in case of booking not done. So keeping in mind these thing and profit maximization it can be done equal to the normal trend of cancellation. Hotel Turner must find a room for everyone who has a reservation and shows up on time to save themselves from any legal complications.

Q.5 a) Explain the benefits to a hotel of accepting group bookings?

Group booking is simply acceptance of bulk business. In group bookings both the parties-customers as well as hotel be benefitted. Customer got benefit of low rates of the rooms due to the bulk booking and on the other hand hotel gets bulk business at a time so even at a less room cost per person hotel welcome this kind of deal to get instant business and achieves its 100% occupancies.

A group reservation is for a block of rooms in a hotel. The block of rooms can be for a convention, a meeting, a special event, a tour group (as in present case of hotel turner), or various other reasons. A group reservation can be as small as 5 rooms to thousand rooms depending on the size of the hotel. Usually every hotel has different norms and parameters for considering a booking as group booking, which generally depends on the number of rooms booked.

By booking rooms in large quantities, the group receives a lower rate. Hotel is benefitted in this as they get business in bulk and their occupancy percentage increases giving them a competitive edge over their competitors. Group booking also makes the reservation process easy and hassle free for both; the guest as well as the front office associates. Usually when a group reservation is made a code is generated which is specific to that group and each reservation should include this code. To ensure that reservations get coded to the proper group and that correct rates are offered, the person taking the reservation should always inquire if the guest is part of that particular group.

Bulk booking is beneficial to the hotel that is similar to any other business organization where organization gets benefits of bulk business. It is the deal that gives instant cash but per head cost becomes cheaper for the customer and organization both. But from organization point of view it is the instant cash that attracts bulk business and so to the hotel organizations.

Other benefit of bulk booking is that there will be less chances of cancellation. In case of individual business if there is cancellation of the booking it is completely loss to the hotel organization because rooms are very highly perishable products. But chances of this kind of loss due to cancellation is very less because of concrete plan of the entire group. In group bookings even if one or two persons are not coming there will be almost no impact to the business because of the compact deal for the entire group-this may depends upon case to case, but bulk booking definitely good for the hotel organization.

Q.5 b) what factors should the turner Hotel Front Office manager consider when deciding whether to accept the reservation request from Excelsior Tours?

Group revenue management is evolving quickly. Revenue managers typically set guidelines for size and rate objectives based upon projected demand for higher – valued transient demand. These criterions should be regularly reviewed and revised in hotel Turner. Even if a group request falls outside the preset parameters of the hotel, managers should still evaluate the request. (http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-price-discrimination.html)

The basic objective of revenue management is to maximize yields. Acceptance of group bookings would be a great contribution towards achieving the basic objective of revenue management. So first of all Front office Manager of turner hotel should consider the objective of maximizing revenue of the hotel so keeping in mind this objective he or she should accept the offered group bookings.

While deciding whether to accept the reservation request of 40 double occupancy rooms for 3 nights 4 days from Excelsior Tours, Hotel Turner should look into the room rate, which is currently GBP 300 on single occupancy.

Among the major advances in Revenue Management technology is the incorporation of demand price- responsiveness for any property at any time period and for any market segment, including group.

Other than the group being considered, front office manager must consider that this hotel might only have transient demand for these three days. Assuming that even if the forecasted demand shows that hotel can pick up 145 transient rooms each day at an average rate of GBP 320, which would give the 95% occupancy. Considering these assumed factors we can plot a line that shows incremental contribution at any given price point. From this hypothetical analysis, one can see that there will be break even ( no profit no loss situation) with the group at a GBP 230 rate, and that one could generate an incremental contribution. This approach says all about the factors of accepting a group at a requested rate.

Some of the information is required to decide whether group booking should be accepted or not? This information is present occupancy level of the hotel. This information would have very helpful in deciding the acceptance of the deal.

Leisure, recreation and tourism are generally viewed as key components in people’s lives (Lynch and Veal 1996). Outdoor recreation brings happiness to people as it gives recreational opportunities to them. Leisure means various things to different people and therefore it consists of many definitions given by many researchers. For instance, Fava(1964) stated that leisure is the time which an individual has free from work or other responsibilities and which may be used for the purpose of relaxation, diversion, or personal development. In contrast, according to Godbey (1999), a leading researcher in the field of leisure education said that leisure is typically related with spare time or situations in which people have the luxury of choice. Sylvester (1999) stated that , it must not neglect the fact that in ancient time, leisure was considered as a luxury and was affordable by affluent people only.

Recreation

The term recreation is derived from the Latin word of recreatio and recreate which means “to refresh” and “to refresh” and “to restore” (Edginton et al 1995).

Examples of outdoor recreation involve:

Visiting parks and natural areas.

Visiting historical and archaeological sites.

Outdoor concerts and festival.

Golf and kite flying

Forest activities like wildlife safari, camping and tree climbing.

Importance of Outdoor recreation

Research has shown that outdoor recreation activities undoubtedly contribute positively to one health as well as well being (Boniface 2000; Dickson et al; 2008). Through recreation activities, people get the opportunity to enjoy the natural environment if they are doing adventure activities, interact with other people (Berman & Davis-Berman, 1995, 2000).

Moreover, study has illustrated that the way life alters with the loss of link which inevitably result to poor lifestyles (Godbey et al; 2005). Nowadays, the new generation mainly children are more likely to be at risks than their parents. Children currently have more possibilities of health problems to such children, such as asthma, obesity, vitamin D deficiency since they have inactive lifestyle as well as lack of physical exercises, consequently, it may lead to cardiovascular, pulmonary and mental health problems in adulthood. Children from poor background are more likely to be away from green space as they have ‘built environment’ such as bad housing condition, traffic congestion and so forth.

Today the world is connected with technological gadgets and children tends to stay more in front of their computers, television, playing video games and after school hours they need to complete their homework therefore youngsters miss the contact with the natural setting, they also miss the chance for stress reduction, healthy development , physical activity and restoration.

Motivation for outdoor recreation

According to Iso-Ahola (1980), individuals are encouraged through defined objectives as well as rewards which can be either extrinsic or intrinsic. When a particular activity is occupied in to acquire compensation, it is known as extrinsically motivated. In contrast, intrinsically motivated is when a person is self motivated to achieve something or engaged in the activity for its own sake.

Moreover, Iso-Ahola thinks that leisure behavior is mainly caused by intrinsic aspects which are linked to self-expression, competence as well as agreement which implies freedom of choice. Nevertheless, recreation choice should not be regarded as unlimited. The ability for individual to choose from a range of recreational activities cannot be compromised due to the fact that individual’s motivation to be indulged in a given outdoor recreation is projected in the selection made from various outdoor activities.

Furthermore, choice is encircled by many pitfalls such as physical capability, affordability, awareness, time restrictions and family obligations. These limitations differ among people and the demographic, socio-economic and other groups.

Demand and Participation

Demand is an economic term used in order to illustrate the link that exists between the quantities of a good that people will buy as well as the prices that they will have to pay. In other words, it refers to the ability and willingness to pay for a particular product. The elements of demands are as follows:

Effective, expressed or actual demand is the actual number of participants, for instance it reflects the number of people that participate in countryside recreation. The number of people involved in such activity might be expressed per day or per year.

Latent or suppressed demand refers to unfulfilled demand. Therefore, it is where an individual’s desire to participate has not been fulfilled due to some reason. But if the situation alters such a desire may ultimately become effective demand. However, such demand is not easy to quantify as it relies on people’s wishes and desires as well. When taking into account suppressed demand it can be emphasized that the latter gives rise to two elements namely: deferred demand and potential demand. When reference is being made to deferred demand refers to demand that is unfulfilled due to a lack of amenities, for example, if a large number of people wish to go to the swimming pool but the problem is that if there is no swimming available then this want will be unfulfilled and demand will be postponed until a swimming pool is provided. In contrast, potential demand is demand that is unfulfilled simply because there is a shortage of personal resources such as income or mobility. But, if there is an improvement in terms of personal situation it can undoubtedly be fulfilled in the future.

Lastly it can be said that there will be people who will surely prefer not to involve in recreational activities and this is known as no demand.

Factors affecting demand for outdoor recreation can be classified into :

Demographic characteristics

Socio-economic characteristics

Situational characteristics

Demographic Characteristics

In terms of demographic characteristics there are several factors that affect the recreation preference and it includes age, sex, marital status and family diversity. Research has shown that young male who are single are more likely to involve in outdoor recreation and even if they are married they are unwilling to have children (Booth, 1989; Genet 2001; Booth & Peebles, 1995). These participants are really interested in their education and they inevitably want to get well paid jobs.

Socio -economic characteristics
Price

From an economist’s perspective, price is considered to be a key factor in determining price as customer’s decision but the price of leisure is complicated with regards to many other products. For example, a normal product consists of a single price but while comparing it to the price of leisure activities it is different as it consists of separate elements such as the valid nature of the leisure, other price like costs of transport, parking, equipment, clothing and accommodation might be charged. Economists stated that as leisure involves time, therefore the opportunity cost of that time in terms of its possible earning power should also be included in the list mentioned above.

According to Gratton and Taylor (1985) he argued that the price of a product affects demand in two different ways. First and foremost, the average cost of participation which involves all types of costs such as entrance fee, equipment and so forth might affect demand in terms of decision making to involve in the activity. Thus, the higher the average cost, the lower the participate rate. Secondly, marginal cost is the cost that has an impact on the frequency of participation. For example, in association with leisure activities there may be fixed costs involved like membership fee, buying of equipment and so on.

Income

Income can be viewed as a feature that enables people to buy a leisure product. Research has shown that in the second half of the nineteenth century there has been a drastic change with regards to income growth. It was then that the development of mass leisure started and simultaneously there was a constant increase of income and this has definitely an impact on growth of leisure. Affluent people have always enjoyed their leisure; therefore it can be made crystal clear as income increases people will surely have more leisure.

Situational characteristics
Time

Self-employed people generally have better control concerning their time plan and these people are more likely to have more leisure time.

Mobility

Car ownership has increased dramatically because the income of people has risen and cars are more affordable to buy and run. If a person does not possess a vehicle, therefore he or she might be disadvantaged in terms of site, journey, timing and duration of the trip.

External factors affecting demand for outdoor recreation are:

Recreational opportunity is highly dependent upon availability and accessibility of recreation sites. Thus, the nature of recreation sites as well as availability will surely rely upon several things such as carrying capacity, ownership, distribution, quality, access and degree of development. These reflect three important elements which consist of economic, behavioral and political. Hence, it helps both private and public sectors in terms of good decision making with regards to recreation provision.

While making decision to visit any particular recreational sites, accessibility is considered to be a key element in influencing participation. Moreover, how crucial it is, as an element in decision making in influencing the ‘what’ and ‘where’ of recreation involvement is explained by Chubb and Chubb (1981:153) : ‘People participation will increase if all other external and personal factors support participants, however if the site is not accessible it might certainly be a problem.’

Recreation travel behavior

While going to any particular site for recreation, distance is really important and for most movement, a distance-decay effect can be known so that the power of interaction diminishes as distance increases. In this context, if a recreational site consists of greater distance and involve more effort and time, might not be supported by participants. But, not all activities are time consuming as it relies on the types of activities that one is taking part in. The impact of longer distances will be negative to some extent as the more a person travel, he or might be tired and found it to be unpleasant. On the other hand, such effect may be encouraging in situation where a person is travelling by cruise. The latter may enjoy and the longer the distance the greater the desire to extend it.

Recreation choice behavior

Forecasting of recreation behavior would have been taken into account if more was known with regards to factors influencing decision-making to attitudes, motivations and perceptions. This would be very helpful as it would explain:

Why some sites and activities are suitable;

Why some recreational firms are failures while others are satisfied by participants;

Why and how alternative recreation are ranked.

The recreation alternative process is influenced by people’s perceptions of what recreational opportunities are available.

Natural environments as recreation settings

Driver et al. (1987) demonstrates that natural surroundings are really crucial in attaining the preferred result from leisure. Research conducted in Colorado have shown that participants like to enjoy mostly in nature, therefore, natural environment plays an integral role in achieving the result as well as satisfaction required from involvement in certain forms of recreation.

According to Kaplan and Kaplan (1989), participant’s satisfaction is associated with natural settings through integration mind and body in the leisure activity. Hence, environmental aspect beyond doubt is considered to have a dominant influence on recreation behavior and this has first derived from gurus like Schreyer et al. (1985), he propose that the most helpful demonstration of the environment for the explanation of behavioral choice is considered as important. They also stated that people are more likely to explore the natural environment location which will undoubtedly allow them to behave in the ways they wish and consequently this will enable them to achieve a desired cognitive state. Thus, the theory that recreation experiences are closely linked to recreation location is fundamental with regards to the notion of the recreation opportunity spectrum.

Lang & O’Leary (1997) stated that nature-based tourists are more interested in nature, travel more often at longer distances and stay longer at a destination. Moreover, they are well educated, with high levels of both individual and household income and are willing to spend more. Silverberg et al., (1996) stated that nature based attraction is a phenomenon which represents a new market in the tourism industry and has captured the mind of planners and marketers. Nyaupane et al., (2004), suggested that nature based tourism has been growing rapidly than tourism in general. When the destination managers attempt to attract the growing market, they are faced with a double paradoxical task; in the beginning, there is the need to preserve the resources that attract the tourist and provides a quality travel experience; Backman et al., (1999). It is a challenge which requires a balance between the individual’s expectations, preferences and attitudes towards the environment for a successful nature-based experience; Uysal et al., (1992) cited in Silverberg et al., (1996).

2.2.2.2 Importance of nature-based attraction
2.2 Tourism attractions

According to Mill and Morrisson (1985), the tourism system is made of four key segments: the market, travel, tourist destinations and marketing. Moreover, Gunn (1988) stated that tourism attractions deal with tourism destinations; highlights the role of tourism attractions (tourist, traffic, attraction, information and signposting). Therefore, tourism attractions forms an essential part of the tourism destinations and they are one of four key segments of the tourism system.

Tourism attraction is the major reason why tourist visits a destination. The tourist product includes attractions, services and infrastructures. Gunn (1988) said that tourism attractions are composed of the several components including tourist’s activities, local scenery, service and entertainment. Together, these features represent the total appeal of natural and man-made characteristics. For example, each historical site or lake has its own uniqueness in its features and appeal and cannot be judged as identical to other tourism resources. All tourism attractions are tourism resources, but all tourism resources are not tourism attractions. It may be impossible to evaluate the attractiveness of the various tourism destinations.

Also, Laarman and Durst (1987) use level of interest and degree of physical thoroughness to distinguish between soft and hard nature tourists. Lindberg (1991, cited in Meric & Hunt, 1998), moves from “twofold typologies” to a fourfold categories.

He suggests that there are:

1. hard core nature tourists who has high levels of environmental commitment and support for enhance sustainability, want physically and challenging experiences, travel in small groups, take longer trips, demand for fewer services and make their own travel arrangements

2. dedicated nature tourists who take trips precisely to protected areas in order to appreciate local, natural and cultural history;

3. mainstream nature tourists who visit destinations primarily to take an unfamiliar trip; and finally,

4. casual nature tourists who enjoy nature as part of a wider trip.

However, Eduard kuA?en (2010) argued that a destination without potential or real tourism attractions cannot be developed into a tourism destination. Potential tourism becomes real only when it provides visitor accessibility like physical access, public access, sightseeing. Only the real tourism attraction can be engaged on the tourism market and be promoted. Also, Hu and Richie (1993), Muller (1994) stated that the classification of tourism attractions into natural and artificial in the main obstacle to an efficient approach to tourism attractions.

2.5 Destination attractiveness

Pearce (1979) defined destination attractiveness as the responsiveness to which the destination meet expectations of its visitors in terms of food and accommodation, natural beauty, cultural richness, recreational opportunities and other amenities. The more a destination is able to meet the needs of the tourists, the more it is perceived to be attractive and the more the destination is likely to be chosen.

Without tourism there would be no tourist attractions. Attraction is the ability of a destination to deliver individual benefits. Ferrario (1979) stated that it only happened when people are attracted towards a destination whereby the facilities and services follow. Attractiveness is the outline of impressions, ideas and beliefs about destinations based on information from various sources (MacKay and Fesenmaier 1997). In short, the greater the attraction power of a particular destination, the higher will be the number of tourists in terms of their stay and tourist receipts. There are some factors which cannot be categorized as attractions but which plays an important role in the attractiveness of a destination such as infrastructure, exchange rate and political stability (Ferrario 1979).

A tourist preference appears to be more precise and is the ultimate decision in defining the level of attractiveness of a destination. Their perceptions about a given area control its success or failure as a tourist destination. Since perceptions are certainty in the traveler’s mind, it does not matter how many tourism resources are accessible in a specific area when all its attractiveness has already been well-defined (Echtner and Ritchie, 1993; Leyele, 1996). However, the limitation of tourist preferences as attraction measures is that human observations are based on personal and cultural beliefs and are influenced by promotional actions and previous experiences (Milman and Pizam, 1995). In addition, factor like bad weather may create a one-sided perception of a tourist destination.

Chapter 1

It is difficult to define tourism. Tourism is not an industry that is grouped into a single heading within the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) (Bardgett, 2000). The definition of tourism mostly come from the purchaser, ‘tourist’, not the product itself (Bargett, 2000). Thereupon, World Tourism Organization (WTO) (1993) had defined tourism consists of activities of persons travelling to and staying places outside their usual environment for not more than one continually one year for leisure, or business purposes.

In Malaysia, tourism industry has been recognizes as second largest foreign exchange earning sector (Mohd Hanafiah & Mohd Harun, 2010). According to United Nations World Trade Organization (UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer (2009), in 2008, tourist arrivals in Malaysia are substantially higher than its neighbors. The table below (Table 1.1) provides a good picture on comparison of number of visitors among Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

On the other hand, as the society has driven into Internet Era, tourism is extensively transformed by the by e-commerce phenomenon (Lee & Letho, 2012). Hensdill (1998) described the web as a perfect medium for selling travel. While, with the popularization of computers through the Internet, travel product suppliers such as airlines, car rental companies, and hotels have grasped the opportunity to change their traditional distribution methods by launching their products directly on the Internet (Kasavana, 1997; Montgomery, 1999; Morrison, Taylor, Morrison & Morrison 1999). Similarly, travel information is also available on the Internet from regional and national tourism boards in a large amount (Weeks & Crouch, 1999).

Nowadays, Internet has now become a promotional and advertising tool (Countryman, 1999). According to Martin (2004), the Internet suits the marketing principles for travel and tourism because it: (a) allows travel suppliers to set up a direct link with customers; (b) gets rid of the unfair barriers for customers and suppliers; (c) relieve equal competition; and (d) decreases price discrimination opportunities. Consequently, the Internet not only serves to deliver information (Walle, 1996) but also act as a public relations tool (Connolly, & Sigala, 2001).

Hence, it is important for travel agents to know which factors can affect travelers’ intention to use travel website. By knowing this, travel agents not only can formulate the marketing strategies but also can design a website which the features are different from the competitors in order to gain competitive advantages.

Problem Statement

Due to the rapid growing of tourism industry in Malaysia and the importance of internet in e-commerce, many of the travel agencies have created their own website. The rivalry among the travel website itself has increase rapidly. Hence, to be an outstanding website among the others, and to gain the competitive advantage, the travel agency need to know which factor has the most significant influence the user to use travel website. The result is not necessary only for strategic marketing formulation, but also for the design of the web site features that are superior from competitors (Aziz et al., 2010).

The main problem that influences the users to adopt the websites will be the multi stage process for the travel decision making process (Aziz et al., 2010). The consumers need to look careful each step before until final steps to successful purchases the travel packages. For instance, users may need to login the membership before to process to purchase the package. This continue with the double confirm before the purchased package is correct. Until the payment step, users also need to check the all information is correct and submit to pay. Besides that, the security, privacy and trust concerns are other minor problems that influence the users to adopt the websites. The information’s quality, security, privacy, trust and the company’s reputation have strongly influence on online consumers’ trust in the websites (Kim, Ferrin, & Raghav Rao, 2007)

According to the past study of Aziz et al. (2010), social influence is the superiority in encouraging people to use travel websites. While, in the study of Ahmad and Juhdi (2008), they found out that internet self-efficacy had affected Malaysian travelers to use travel website. In the study of Chen (2006), trustworthy has a significant influence in an online travel websites.

There have been various studies conducted in different country such as, a study on web site quality for online travel agency in United States (Park, Gretzel, & Sirakaya-Turk, 2007); the factor affecting consumers’ attitude towards online reservation by Vathianathan and Roy (2009) in India; and examine e-travel site, an empirical study in Taiwan (Lin, 2010). Yet, only a few studies have been carried out in Malaysia. In the study of Aziz et al. (2010), the influence of predictors on travel website, the study is only conducted in Klang Valley, which is just a portion of Malaysia. The result cannot represent as a whole. While, in the study of Ahmad and Juhdi (2008), the number of respondents is small and mainly specific in e-group subscribers who were basically active users of internet. Thus, the generalization of the findings is questionable.

Research Questions and Objectives

Research Questions

General Objectives

To identify and examine factors that affect Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

General Question

What are the factors that affect Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website?

Specific Objectives

To examine the relationship between Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Malaysian travelers intention to use travel website.
To examine the relationship between perceived usefulness (PU) and Malaysian travelers intention to use travel website.
To examine the relationship between social influences and Malaysian travelers intention to use travel website.
To examine the relationship between self efficacy and Malaysian travelers intention to use travel website.
To examine the relationship between travel motivation and Malaysian travelers intention to use travel website.

Specific Questions

Is there any relationship between Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website?
Is there any relationship between perceived usefulness (PU) and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website?
Is there any relationship between social influences and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website?
Is there any relationship between self efficacy and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website?
Is there any relationship between travel motivation and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website?

Source: Developed for the research

Significance of the Study

Generally, the acceptance of the internet among users is normally examined with technology acceptance model (TAM) (Aziz et al. 2010). However, the two variable of TAM (Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness) are still insufficient to test on the factors affecting Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website. Therefore, the proposed model of this study is an extension of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as theoretical foundation. The model will be adding other variables such as, social influence, self efficacy and travel motivation to test on the dependent variable.

Travel agency would be among the first to benefit from the study. The finding of this study may help the travel agency to understand several affected factors that influence Malaysian travelers to use travel website. It is important to understand the consumers’ acceptance of the online concept and the product and services provided are more suitable to be selling online. Hence, travel agency will have more relevant information or idea when creating the website. Besides, it’s also helping those agencies that have an intention to invest in online store, so, they have a better idea of the trends in the market and thus they can increase their portion of the market place. Last but not least, travel agency can save more cost and time. For instance, small tourism enterprises won’t be facing any risk in spending on costly web-based solutions and time with the help of this study by providing them useful information about the preference of the internet users.

1.5 Chapter Layout

1.5.1 Chapter One: Research Overview

This research report comprises a total of five chapters. In chapter one, researcher furnish an overview of the study and describing the research situation. It has covered background of this study, a brief introduction of our research, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, hypothesis of the study and significance of the study.

1.5.2 Chapter Two: Literature Review

In chapter two, it includes the review of the literature, review of relevant theoretical models. Furthermore, it also consists of proposed theoretical framework and the hypotheses development.

1.5.3 Chapter Three: Methodology

For chapter three, it is an overview of the study’s research methodology. This chapter includes our research design, data collection methods, sampling design, research instrument, measurement construction, data processing, as well as data analysis.

1.5.4 Chapter Four: Data Analysis

In chapter four, it presents the research results and the analysis of the results which are relevant to the research questions and hypotheses. This chapter includes descriptive analysis, scale measurement and inferential analyses.

1.5.5 Chapter Five: Discussion, Conclusion and Implications

In chapter five, it is the summarizing chapter that discusses the overall findings followed by the conclusion. Thus, this chapter finds out the implication and limitation of the study. Finally, this chapter outlines the recommendations for future researches.

In order to gain competitive power for the hotel, human resource management is an elementary issue. Human resource management can be regarded as the foundation for the hotel to acquire competitive advantage.

Honoring the employees through effective communication, training programs for the employees and benefit programs is what effective hospitality management is all about.

Human resource management and effective hospitality management is the corner stone of successful business in hospitality industry.

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies.

In today’s quality-driven, empowered, hospitality workplace, practices that encourage greater employee performance must become integrated into the way a hotel, restaurant, resort, or any other form of hospitality service organization does business. Getting it right the first time (one of the sacred tenets of total quality management) can only be achieved in the hospitality industry through a motivated, empowered, and trained team. At times guest problems are not foreseen; therefore, employees have to feel empowered to correct a problem on the spot. In a service business, you can’t have a rigid set of rules. It is possible to have guidelines, but people must be allowed the freedom to make different interpretations. A mature, well-trained hospitality team is capable of making better quality decisions than a single individual. The use of a team approach improves the overall quality of decision making, and the level of commitment to the team becomes much higher.

When team members share the process of problem solving and decision making, they are more likely to become owners of the organization’s plans, and to do everything possible to transform the plans into reality. Collective wisdom is virtually always superior to individual wisdom.

what are the staffing issues for hotels ?

i m writing u the case study which is have it. please give me a solution about staffing issues.

The Courthouse Hotel is a large, privately owned establishment located in the centre of a large city. Once the major hotel in the city, it has in recent years struggled to maintain profit margins in the face of competition from three new hotels operated by well-known national and international chains. The Courthouse maintains a three-star standard of service, competing primarily on the basis of cost. Its prices are therefore kept considerably lower than those charged in the newer hotels, while the range and quality of food and accommodation are also of a lower standard. The hotel has 150 bedrooms, a bar, a carvery style restaurant, and a function room which is used for private dinners and business meetings. There are no large-scale banqueting facilities, no porters and no room service.

While there are one or two part-time members of staff, 95% are employed on full-time permanent contracts. With the exception of a few senior managers, administrators and night workers, the staff work either early or late shifts (ie 6.30-3.30 or 3.00-11.00). Because the vast majority of the hotel’s guests are business people staying on week-nights, staff are required to work only one weekend in every four.

Three months ago a well-known businessman purchased the hotel with a number of interests in the city. He has decided to change the business strategy by moving the hotel up-market to a four star standard and offering a wider range of services. A major refurbishment is planned, together with the opening of a new banqueting suite, an a la carte restaurant, a leisure club, a full portering service and extensive lounge / room service operation. In staffing terms there is a need to improve the interpersonal skills of staff and to raise general standards of customer service by a substantial margin.

The rationale for these developments is the impending opening of a new convention center a short walk away from the hotel. From January next year it is expected that the volume of trade will increase by 60 per cent, provided the Courthouse can raise its standards to those expected of a wealthier and more international clientele. The problem, from a people management perspective, is the likely erratic nature of business patterns once the convention centre opens. Periods of several weeks will go by with relatively little occurring in the centre, punctuated by shorter periods of frenetic activity when major conferences, exhibitions, concerts and sporting events take place.

A more specific opportunity presents itself next summer, when as part of a bid to publicise the city’s new convention centre, the government has announced that it will be hosting a major intergovernmental conference in the city. For the duration of this event each hotel will house a particular delegation, with the Courthouse being allocated to the Germans. This means that the entire hotel will be taken over by the German Chancellor, other senior German politicians, advisers, civil servants and 75 accredited journalists for a week next summer. During that period there will be a heavy security operation in the hotel. It will also have to host several press conferences and a series of breakfast meetings at which the Chancellor will meet other world leaders. In addition, it will have to maintain a far higher standard of cuisine and service than it is accustomed to providing. If successful, a large amount of positive publicity can be guaranteed. If, on the other hand, the hotel conspicuously fails to provide the standard of service expected by a Government delegation, the ensuing negative publicity way will undermine the whole refurbishment strategy planned by the new owner.

One of the most important departments of any hotel staff is human resources management. Proper human resources management can be the difference between a really well run hotel and a poorly one hotel. The human resources manager can control almost the whole feeling and presence of the entire hotel. This makes the importance of human resources management for hotels very evident.

There are several different areas in which human resources management is very important. One of these areas is for newly hired employees. The employees that are hired in a hotel can really alter the quality of service and the whole atmosphere of the hotel. This means that it is very important to pick upbeat, dedicated workers for each position. It is the job of the human resources manager to make sure that good people are chosen to work in the hotel. In many cases many hotel workers are only participating in hotel work because they can find nothing else to do. Not very many people have a dream of running or serving in a hotel environment. However, there are some people who do want to work in that capacity, and it is the job of the human resources manager to find those people.

Retention of employees is another large problem in the hotel service business. Since so many of the employees do not have hotel work as their ending career goals, many of them only work in a hotel for a short amount of time. Other employees may have to be let go because of poor work ethics or other issues. However, there are ways that a hotel human resources manager can curb some of the desire and likelihood that employees will move to other jobs quickly. The importance of human resources management for hotels is very large in this area. Managers can provide good training and incentive programs that will cause employees to stay longer at the hotel. Having a clear progression plan to advance to higher levels of service will also cause employees to stick around much longer.

The issue of employee progression and promotion is also another large issue for the hotel industry. The importance of human resources management for hotels is proven in this area. Hotels which provide ways for employees to advance in position, or that provide training for employees so that they can gain skills necessary for an advanced position are very important to the retention rate of employees. It is easy to implement services of this nature and the expense is negligible compared to the expense and time necessary to constantly find new employees to replace the ones that always leave shortly after being hired. One of the easiest things to implement is English lessons. Many hotel employees do not speak English very well, and so it is a great incentive for them to stay working at a hotel if they are offered English lessons.

The importance of human resources management for hotels is also important in the area of employee services. If the employees know they can come to the human resources manager whenever they have a problem or issue then it is easier for them to work in good conscience. Many human resources departments implement different games and activities to make the work environment more interesting and fun for employees. There are many different services that a human resources manager can think of to help employee morale. Maybe the hotel could implement a babysitting service, or have a park day every year. These little services go a long way towards making happy employees. Happy employees make happy companies and happy customers.

As you can see, the importance of human resources management for hotels is very great. There are thousands of ways that a human resources manager can make a hotel run more smoothly and more efficiently. There are many different areas that can benefit from the experience and guidance of a human resources manager. Therefore it is very important to not undermine the manager’s importance. Without the human resources manager a hotel is not the same or as pleasing to customers and employees.

A STUDY ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

The project work entitled a STUDY ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION with special reference to Hyderabad Industries Ltd; Thrissur is mainly conducted to identify the factors which will motivate the employees and the organizational functions in Hyderabad Industries Ltd, Thrissur. Management’s basic job is the effective utilization of human resources for achievements of organizational objectives. The personnel management is concerned with organizing human resources in such a way to get maximum output to the enterprise and to develop the talent of people at work to the fullest satisfaction. Motivation implies that one person, in organization context a manager, includes another, say an employee, to engage in action by ensuring that a channel to satisfy those needs and aspirations becomes available to the person. In addition to this, the strong needs in a direction that is satisfying to the latent needs in employees and harness them in a manner that would be functional for the organization. Employee motivation is one of the major issues faced by every organization. It is the major task of every manager to motivate his subordinates or to create the ‘will to work’ among the subordinates. It should also be remembered that a worker may be immensely capable of doing some work; nothing can be achieved if he is not willing to work. A manager has to make appropriate use of motivation to enthuse the employees to follow them. Hence this studies also focusing on the employee motivation among the employees of Hyderabad Industries Ltd. The data needed for the study has been collected from the employees through questionnaires and through direct interviews. Analysis and interpretation has been done by using the statistical tools and data’s are presented through tables and charts.

2. What is a Motivation?

Robbins and Judge (2007) explain that motivation is “the process that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal” (Robbins and Judge, 2007 p.186). However, this process has to be worked between the managers or supervisor of the business and its employees as the manager or supervisor is in charge of studying methods of encouraging employees to work hard and efficiently on a constant basis (Cited on: Guerrier, 1999 p. 100). In addition, many motivation theories were developed during the 1950s; such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Theories X and Y and the two factor theory but those would not be examined here as their validity has been questionable (Cited on: Robbins and Judge, 2007 p.186). On the other hand, the Expectancy theory will be carefully studied in order to understand why managers should focus more on providing to its employees reasons for putting effort into their work and therefore generate good work performance that could lead to rewards that are…

Employee motivation in the workplace

The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. But that’s easier said than done! Motivation practice and theory are difficult subjects, touching on several disciplines.

In spite of enormous research, basic as well as applied, the subject of motivation is not clearly understood and more often than not poorly practiced. To understand motivation one must understand human nature itself. And there lies the problem!

Human nature can be very simple, yet very complex too. An understanding and appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation in the workplace and therefore effective management and leadership.

What Does it Mean to Lead?

Leadership, as defined by most dictionaries, means “to go before, or with, to show the way; to induce.” Every organization needs a leader (and preferably several leaders) to “show the way” to others as the organization strives to define and achieve its goals.

Whether these goals are entrepreneurial or humanitarian – or both – the leader’s work is to instill a sense of purpose and passion to the work that the organization undertakes.

Identifying, developing and sustaining leadership in your organization must be one of your strategic objectives. Without leaders at every level of your organization, your organization may well under-perform. It may miss strategic opportunities, stifle innovation, underutilize your employees, and fall short of its goals in customer service, quality, productivity, and profitability.

Russell Consulting, Inc. can guide your organization in identifying and developing your leaders. We can help you develop the key competencies that will help develop and sustain leadership, but also sustain your company’s long-term success.

Leadership at every level make all of the difference as to whether your company will be around for the long haul. Invest in leadership today to sustain your success for tomorrow and beyond.

The Core Competencies of Leadership

RCI has been developing leaders in its client organizations since 1987. We have designed and developed leadership programs that help define an ambitious role for leaders at every level and then build the competencies to fulfill this role.

Some of the competencies that we have defined as core to the role of leaders include:

Strategic Thinking

Coaching

Problem Solving

Decision Making

Systems Thinking

Delegation

Performance Management and Accountability

Inspiring a Shared Vision

Managing Conflict

Building and Sustaining Teamwork

Leading Change

Quality and Productivity Improvement

Servant Leadership

Emotional Intelligence

Innovation and Creativity

Customer Service

Employee Development

Develop Trust

Dealing with Ambiguity

See the link at the upper right of this page for a possible leadership curriculum.

Defining and Assessing Leadership Competencies

We can help your organization define what it seeks to develop in its leaders and then design a customized leadership development program for you. Once we guide you in defining what leadership means in your company, we then conduct a 360° leadership assessment (of these core competencies) to provide a baseline measure of each leader’s effectiveness.

Click here for more information on our leadership 360: 360° Leadership Assessment and Development.

Developing leadership at every level of your organization helps sustain your long-term success. When you work with us to develop your leadership, we help you grow your leadership at every level through customized training programs and guide your leaders in applying what they are learning to real issues and challenges facing your organization.

Through the past decade, people have become more and more conscious that the competitive edge of an organisation lies in human factors. Indeed, it can be seen that the environments of the twenty-first century turn out to be highly competitive where organisation need to devote a significant amount of time, attention and energy to manage human resources. The firms also need highly effective personnel and HRM departments. This is mostly required by the hospitality operators which must possess quality human resources because above all, they are in the people business and the level of service they deliver to their customer depend highly on the people they have. It is therefore essential that people who are engaged in Hospitality Industry must have adequate knowledge, skills and qualities so that the firms can succeed and grow not only within national boundaries but also in the international arena. Based on this background that Human Resource Management finds its increasing importance and the help it can provide to hospitality operators by attracting, training, motivating good people. In fact, all organisations should adopt Human Resource Management in order to perform effectively.

When we think of the Hospitality Industry, we usually think of hotels and restaurants. But the term has a much broader meaning. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hospitality means “the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers with liberality and goodwill.” The word hospitality is derived from hospice, a medieval ‘house of rest’ for travellers and pilgrims. A hospice was also an early form of what we now call a nursing home and the word is clearly related hospital. The term “the hospitality industry” refers to companies, organizations and businesses which have as their core business the provision of food, drink, leisure, business facilities and accommodation to people away from their homes. The hospitality professions are among the oldest of the humane professions and they involve making a guest, client or resident welcome and comfortable. The component sectors in the hospitality industry are Hotels & motels, Guest houses, Restaurants, cafes & snack bars, Night-clubs and Public houses.

1.2 Importance of HRM in Hospitality Industry

The importance of HRM in the hospitality industry cannot be denied. There are two facts highlight this importance. The first fact is that the hospitality industry is a people business which is customer-driven and quality-focused. As a matter effect, the human element plays a major part in the overall success of any organization, but especially so in a service industry such as the hotel business. Many members of the workforce (waiters, waitresses and receptionists) are in direct contact with the guests and are seen as been involved in achieving the objectives of the hotel. The quality of service offered is dependent not only upon the skills but also upon the attitudes of the staff. The latter are part of the finished product for which the customer is paying. Customer satisfaction is likely to be affected as much by the standard of food and beverage, accommodation or other facilities of the hotel as by the courtesy, helpfulness and personal qualities of the staff. Therefore both the skills and the attitudes of the workers are essential if the demands of the customer are to be met satisfactorily. This places particular importance on human resource management.

1.3 Problem Statement

The hotel industry is one of the major pillars of Mauritian economy therefore great attention must be paid to the hospitality industry. An organisation like La Plantation Hotel needs to be constantly in line with changes due to the competitive environment. Therefore, there must be a continuous reviewing of the HRM practices in order to achieve success and maintain a corporate growth. This study arise from the need to analyse to what extent the HRM practices are effectively practiced at La Plantation Hotel and how they can be enhanced to gain better results. HRM practices are the essential elements in which attention must be focused as these practices have a direct impact on the human resource of the Hotel and people are very important in order to gain competitive advantage and success. This study examines the 5 main HRM practices and how they are being performed in the Hotel. The five practices are human resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and effective communication. It is generally accepted that success is deemed to come from the way the human resources are being managed and trained in the organisation, for human resources are amongst the most crucial element for Service Company in the hotel industry.

1.4 Main Objective of the study

The main objective of this study is to identify, explore and evaluate the effectiveness of the present HRM practices at La Plantation hotel and provide recommendations where necessary in order to achieve success.

Sub Objective of the Study

The sub objectives of this project are as follows:

To analyze the effectiveness of HRP in the hotel

To identify how Recruitment and Selection is carried out in the hotel

To identify the effectiveness of Training and Development at La Plantation Hotel

To assess how performance management is performed in the hotel and its effectiveness

To assess the importance of effective communication

To determine whether the organization is giving proper consideration to its personnel.

1.6 Chapter Overview

Chapter 1 is the introduction of the project. It starts by an overview of Human Resource Management. Then it moves on by a definition of Hospitality Industry, how HRM is important in the hospitality industry and the objective of the study.

Chapter 2 is the Literature Review part. It provides some definitions of HRM given by different authors and it talks about the five HRM practices known as HRP, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and effective communication. And it ends up with the Empirical Review.

Chapter 3 presents La Plantation Hotel: the organisational background, the mission, vision and objective of the hotel. It also reviews the present organisational structure and how the hotel carries out the five HRM practices.

Chapter 4 deals with the Research Methodology. That is it identifies the various steps that were followed in carrying out the survey.

Chapter 5 comprise of analysis and finding. The findings are data obtained from the questionnaires which have been filled by the employees. Therefore, based on the above analysis was made.

Chapter 6 is the recommendation and conclusion. In this part attention is focused on some proposals and recommendations that could be implemented to improve the working lives of the employees and finally the chapter ends with a conclusion.

Conservation and environmental protection are very important in Malaysia. Environment stabilization and maintaining to ensure that Malaysia create protection area for fauna and flora such as establishment of national parks. It is because input from natures resources are important to economic. While environmental quality on the other hand is productive asset for society.

Tropical natures are one of the important assets to tourism sector of a country. As a country with equator climate, Malaysia has unique natures and island row. Recently, Malaysia started move forward to become a developed country. Various sectors which become role model in order in development strategies for example industrial sector, agriculture and tourism. Through tourism sector, Malaysia have introduced some natural place which become focus point for tourist as their recreation place for the purpose to kill their time and for enjoyable activities for example at national park, forest reserve and islands. Therefore, Malaysia afford make tourism sector as a major source of returns if the natures beauty can be always maintained. At the same time, tourism industry has improvement and growing clearly show that Malaysia has unique attractiveness. Besides that, multi racial people with different cultural stay peace in one country make Malaysia become more unique and more attract outside tourist arrival and this is a source of profit for the country. Therefore cultural diversity and arts is key determinant in attract tourists.

Table 1.1: Number of arrival according to nationality – Sarawak
Year
Nationality
2004
2005

Malaysia

2,092,704

2,248,829

Singapore

40,329

42,912

Australia and New Zealand

30,403

28,066

Canada

11,310

9.062

Hong Kong

1,100

593

India

12,924

12,426

United Kingdom and Ireland

44,267

42,136

Brunei

1,280,135

1,354,148

America

10,973

11,207

China

11,768

11,207

West Europe

19,268

18,729

East Europe

992

1,355

Filipina

104,341

101,521

Indonesia

379,477

449,327

Japan

10,245

9,142

Taiwan

8,283

7,472

Thailand

17,189

17,994

Others

258,183

198,704

Total

4,333,891

4,577,489

(Source: Immigration Department, Sarawak)

Table 1.2: Number of arrival according to state – Sarawak
Tahun
State
2004
2005

Kuching

779,135

859,320

Sibu

127,454

166,018

Miri

311,445

332,669

Bintulu

41,032

73,167

Limbang

243,762

238,465

Total

4,333,891

1,669,639

(Source: Immigration Department, Sarawak)

Apart from that, infrastructure facilities is one of the factor of tourist arrival. It is because tourists will require comfort and seek solace when visit to a country. For example, many tourists who come to the Malaysia is to enjoy scenic beauty of the natures and the unique of cultural diversity. So the comfortable of accommodation such as hotel, chalet and so on as a factor to attract tourist arrival. Accommodation facility play important role cause this will be a factor to determine whether tourist will stay long or otherwise.

Sarawak is the biggest state in Malaysia which famous with rich of various ethnic groups of culture and rich in history and heritage and also known as Land of Hornbills. Sarawak not only the largest state in Malaysia, it also was the state that divide to a lot area and contain longest river in Malaysia, largest flower in the world, largest moth in the world, widen cave in the world, oldest tropical rainforest and the first person emerge in Southeast Asian available in Sarawak. This had show that Sarawak is unique and distinctive. Recreation place in Sarawak consist of natural view area and cultural centers such as Sarawak Cultural Village. Sarawak Cultural Village popular with natural beauty among local and oversea tourists.

The rich of ecology, biological and tradition in Sarawak Cultural Village really amazing. Therefore, efforts was being improved towards preserve ecology diversity, biological and tradition in Cultural Village. It is because cultural diversity and tradition of the local people able to attract a lot of tourists visit to this land of hornbills. Sarawak state indeed rich with various type of culture and ethnic such as Malay dance, Chinese and others ethnic in Sarawak which able to entertain tourist especially those tourist that like to see community life in Sarawak. Since cultural village started open to visit, so indirectly exist damage and pollution risk to the natures and beauty scene. Therefore, cultural village have to be preserve scenic beauty and traditional residence from threatened by human.

Sarawak Cultural Village Background

Sarawak Cultural Village located at Damai Beach Santubong and approximately 35km from the state capital Kuching town and dubbed as living museum in Sarawak. Sarawak Cultural Village also become a destination must be visited for those who first step to Land of Hornbills. This living museum officially opened since February 1990. This living museum consists seven hectares wide and about 150 people living in the village which include seven ethnic group namely Bidayuh, Iban, Orang Ulu, Penan, Melanau, Malay and Chinese. And each ethnic have their own lifestyle and traditional cultures for example the building of each ethnic is different, longhouse of the Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu, Melanau live at tall house while Chinese is farm house. Apart from that, the entrance fees to Sarawak Cultural Village show as Table 1.3.

Table 1.3: Entrance Fees
Entrance fees
Category
Sarawak citizen
Not Sarawak Citizen
Adult

RM25

RM60

Children (between 6-12 of age)

RM18

RM30

Student

RM15

RM15

(Source: Sarawak Cultural Village)

Figure1.1: Sarawak Cultural Village Location

(Sumber : Malaxi Damai Beach)

Ethnic Bidayuh known as Dayak Darat achieve 8.4 percents out of total population in Sarawak. Majority ethnic Bidayug stay in long house that located nearby slope of mountain and also nearby river. Their house are made from board and bamboo with sago palm roof. Tourists can enjoy long house lifestyle when visit to this place.

Iban tribesman known as Laut Dayak which their long house concept built up with large living room and several bed room. This ethnic most important treasure bravery. Every soldier able to kill enemy, will get appreciation as warrior and greeted with custom dances. Hence, Penan lifestyle is nomad style means that dislike stay in a place with long time. Therefore, their residence size also quite small size. Apart from that, Orang Ulu like to build house scattered in highland and river bank. While Melanau house is the most unique among other Sarawak ethnic, it is because their house is build up 40 feet tall from land, main purpose is to prevent attack by enemy and flood. At the same time, local ethnic dance performance including Ngajat Lesong and Ngajat Pahlawan, ethnic musical performance show in Theater Sarawak Cultural Village start from 11.30 o’clock in the morning to 4.00 o’clock in the afternoon, and every performance take 45 minutes long.

Figure 1.2: Total population with ethnic Sarawak 2005

(Source : Jabatan Penduduk dan Perumahan Malaysia)

1.3 The Important of Conservation and Preservation natural resource and cultural in Malaysia

Tourist industry depends highly on natural resources and cultural diversity which has potential to promote and attract tourist arrival. Natures is one asset that used to attract tourists arrival to see beauty and sense new experience. Awareness on the important of preserve natures in various level (government sector, private sector and society) for establishment of several protected area. Establish Sarawak Cultural Village is one of the approach that used to make sure the place that rich of ecology diversity, biological and cultural heritage preserved and conserve for future generation cause by time pass.

Since Sarawak Cultural Village open visit to tourist in year 1990, cultural village record around 70,000 people visit per year. Tourists get benefit while visit to cultural village including view natures scenic, cultural heritage and handicraft and do various recreation activities and as well as research and learning also. So their entry capable increase economic growth and also Kuching capital development from the return of the cultural village. Indirectly, cultural village establish economic opportunities to society such as job opportunity, income level and others fields. At the same time, tourism growth in Sarawak due to influence development at that area. Therefore society nearby can enjoy high quality of infrastructure and facilities.

1.4 Problem Statement

General know that the beauty of natural scenic and rich of various tradition ethnic play different important role and function. Conservation and retention cultural village concept need improvement but it involves high cost. Therefore, entrepreneur cultural village impose a entrance payment rate around RM60 for adult non Sarawak citizen for the conservation and retention purpose.

According to policy makers especially government, whatever decision on resource utilization require information related cost and benefit. For example, conservation and retention effort, government require information about cost and benefit to make a decision whether feasible or not. So, the issue is the benefit value from conservation and retention could not be valued in finance form. That is, benefit value from the conservation and retention only can estimate in quantitative with using concept Willingness To Pay (WTP). The value of WTP on entrance fees to cultural village typified their willingness pay apart from purpose enjoy recreational facility but also conservation and retention program.

Evaluation conservation and retention program divide to two aspect namely direct use value and indirect use value. Direct use value consists goods and services such as natural scenery and traditional dances of various tribesman. Indirect use value could not be valued in market in fact it more focus on ecology and biology, tribesman residence and recreation protection. Therefore, conservation and retention create indirect use value to human and also natures as well.

Objective

To study and estimate WTP value for the purpose of conservation and preservation Sarawak Cultural Village.

To identify those factor influence WTP for the cost of preservation for air quality, scenic view. Tradition building in Sarawak Cultural Village.

To analysis the important of Sarawak Cultural Village to society’s tradition Sarawak.

To develop strategy to ensure that retention bring optimum benefit to society Sarawak.

1.6 Research Scope

Data collection in this study is refer to research design which primary data collected through questionnaire method. Sampling point focus at area Damai Beach, Santubong, area Sarawak Cultural Village. Total respondent in this study around one hundred and will use interview method based on objective study. Respondent category chosen is individual that has worked. Statistical Package for the School Science (SPSS) software will be used to strengthened result of the study by looking relationship among each variables.

1.7 The Important of Research

Since 1984, tourism industry show potential returns to economic growth. Hence, government had develop several plan to improve and expansion tourism industry by set up a ministry especially for cultural tourism able increase this industry by Tourism Development Company to promote and enlarge tourism market, facility improvement has been given for investment in this tourism industry. Investment for accommodation projects such as hotel and motel and infrastructure such as recreation center and other facilities were given pioneer status or tax incentive to government. Indirectly those incentives give growth to the country.

Government recommend village tourism was one of the new effective alternative which this development product is based on the natural resources and custom of different ethnic. Nowadays, various strategies generated by government to promote natural tourism and the unique of custom as a new attraction tourists. Therefore, tourists nowadays more interest with nature tourism, so government play important role in conserve and maintain the quality of the recreation center and nature in Malaysia can bring positive growth and give benefit to society as well. Besides can promote cultural village which rich of natural environment, society indirectly also can get the benefit and impact from this tourism strategy.

From this studies, conservation and retention program were important to environment in Malaysia. Environment stabilization or known as environmental sustainability encourage Malaysia develop more protection area to preserve flora and fauna in a certain park or forest. It is because input from natures is important source to economic. While environmental quality on the other hand is productive asset to society.

1.8 Research Organization

This project paper will divided to five chapters:

Chapter 1 discuss about the important of conservation and preservation of the cultural area in Malaysia. Therefore, this study will issue objective to achieve the conservation study. Apart from that, research scope and methodology also be explained clearly in this chapter.

Chapter 2 is part to increase knowledge in the subject area. Besides that, collection previous studies from others economist researcher as a references to identify information and ideas that relevant to this research.

Chapter 3 focuses on describing the associated methodology in the analysis of the contingent valuation for conservation and retention of the Sarawak Cultural Village. Method that will be used is Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). Furthermore, Statistical Package for the School Science (SPSS) software will be used to strengthened result of the study by looking relationship among each variables. Besides, various test will be run for the independent and dependent variables. Model will be use in this study will be explained clearly in this chapter. Type of data collection in this study is primary data through questionnaire method. Therefore, sampling point focus at area Damai Beach, Santubong, area Sarawak Cultural Village. Total respondent in this study around one hundred and will use interview method based on objective study.

Chapter 4 presents the data analysis result of the study with different test. Every decision will be elaborated clearly and performing in graph form and schedule. Interpretation of result will be stated in this section.

Chapter 5 is the last chapter in this study. This chapter would be summarize the study been discussed and provides information to develop policies and strategies to ensure conservation and retention program on cultural village continuously so that future generation have chance to enjoy the benefit and economic value from this conservation.

Customer service and quality control is the most important part for the hotel business industry. The value of excellence in customer service will be acknowledge by this hotel. This hotel’s management will be introducing quality in customer service. The proposed hotel concept will definitely meet the customer satisfaction and will have satisfied customer.

To ensure and keep the quality expected by now days customer, there is two aspects of quality in general with particular attention, design quality and the quality of conformity with design. The design quality is a concept implying the presentation of service directed to the needs of customer and hotel can satisfy customer’s demands. Our hotel will do market research in order to determine who their customers, and which of their demands require special attention.

The quality of conformity with the design completes the first aspect because it represents the level to which service meets the demands of the market. The quality represents the satisfaction of the customer’s needs and in order to achieve it and keep it in time, we not only need a continuous research into the demands of the customer’s but also of our own capabilities. Such an approach would ensure the pursuing of constant improvements according to the demands of customer.

Service concept

This hotel will apply different method to improve their customer service . The delivery of service in this Hotel is dynamic and interactive in process based on the customers’ perspectives that is much more than trade of payment for a specific service. These features of this Hotel services are heterogeneity, perishabilty and simultaneity that always demand customers to be involved actively in supporting this established service value, through getting their own food in the buffet are, collaboratively working with the service staff and cooperating with the hotel management. There had been a volume of strategies applied by the hotel in order to evaluate the feedbacks of the customers about the service quality. From the implementation of information technology, market researches and some global businesses that puts excellent quality into customer service in order to achieve positive results (Ford et al, 1998).

This Hotel will be aspiring to add its values to make the hotel a great place to relax and do business. The hotel’s core value is “We achieve, cope, and exceed our consumers’ expectations”. We will have the commitment for excellence and will provide the highest standards of fairness and integrity. We value the ideas, culture and diversity of people (BHA, 2002). While the advantages of the customer service quality have been recognized already, it is valuable to focus on the customer service quality which is dependent on the seminars, quality of trainings of a firm that experiences on the stages of exerted collaborative efforts. We respect the value and dignity of our customers as we develop our communities through motivating innovation, change and accountability. As we search for growth and knowledge by training.

Guest Satisfaction

Satisfaction of a customer is a business philosophy which tends to the creation of value for customers and demonstrating ability and responsibility to satisfy their needs. Quality of service and customer satisfaction are critical factors for success of any business (Gronoos, 1990; Parasuraman et al., 1988). As Valdani (2009) points out: enterprises exist because they have a customer to serve. The key to achieve sustainable advantage lies in delivering high quality service that results in satisfied customers (Shemwellet al, 1998). Quality of service and satisfaction of a customer are key factors to obtain competitive advantage and keep good relationship with customer.

For management team of a hotel Nowadays one of the biggest challenges in the hotel industry is to provide and support customer satisfaction. Quality products and service is main requirements for customer in the hotel industry. The starting point of business is customer satisfaction. customer’s higher commitment and increase their return rate depends in positive relationships with the customer. Long-term and reciprocally advantageous relationships between customers and the hotel is becoming progressively important because of the highly positive correlation between guests’ overall satisfaction levels and the probability of their return to the same hotel (Choi & Chu, 2001).

management thinks that the hotel’s employee relations are good they will deliver satisfactory service to the guests. Hotel is dedicated to organize the pace for the hotel industry, increasing the bar on how it develops. Established according to diversity, the firm states that is the core values of the company in order to make an environment to make customers happy. It blends and mines the skills of its staff all over the world and takes care of their hotel guests. It is a commitment that starts at the top management, but also contributes to the tasks of each staff

Our staff will do everything to ensure that you leave our hotel happy, so if there is a complaint, it is addressed with the utmost of haste. If your complaint remains unresolved or you leave disappointed, any one of our staff can invoke the 100% Guest Satisfaction Guarantee. This means that you will not have to pay for your room or the service in question.

Our staff will do everything to ensure that you leave our hotel happy, so if there is a complaint, our customer service team will handle the complaint as soon as possible. If customer’s complaint remains unresolved or customer leave disappointed, any of our staff can solve the problem ,This means that you will not have to pay for your room or the service .To keep you coming back time and again, we strive to provide an exceptional service level at all times. This is our promise to youaˆ¦ or your money back.

Location

The hotel will be located in heart of Birmingham where the close attractions include Bullring shopping centre, Birmingham royal ballet, Alexandra Theatre, Sea life centre and international convention centre. Main reason for booking a hotel room in a culturally established in western country and any hotel located to numerous sightseeing places and attractive visiting sites is a fast-look(Nadeau and Ryan, 2010, p-444). The guest can make the most out of their day, in this Hotel in Birmingham. The guest can go back to the hotel after spending the entire day with colleagues, family and friends, have a slumber party, have fun the comfortable amenities of the hotel. The basic hotel feature will be the city centre location that will be nearby Bull Ring wonderfully located hotel in the second largest city of England in Birmingham.. The hotel location will be very convenient for all the guests and visitors due to the short walking distance towards various attractive locations including the National Sea Life Centre, National Indoor Arena, Colmorow Business District and International Convention Centre. Other entertainment, shopping and dining venues will also be closely available such as the Mailbox and Bullring. Additionally, the hotel location will also be convenient for traveling due to Birmingham International Airport around twenty minutes drive and Train Station that are closest to hotel with five-minute walk.

Front office

The guest services and front office are the most important part of a Hotel. As the representatives for the service keepers and experience if the main keys to their guest drivers satisfaction, these two departments are crucial to the continual efficiency of the brands, company and hotels in general. The guest services and front office provide the consistent guest relation, with the most miscellaneous operating experience in this Hotel in Birmingham.

The guest service and front office are related avidly to service quality and the much information that establish comforting and warm memories to the entire visit of the guests. They make sure that their guests are comfortable while far from home; even if they are there for leisure, travel of business (Hannan and Freeman, 2000).

The Front Office Department will have:

Reception

Guest Service Offices

Bell Services

Reservation

Operators

Executive Club

Health and Recreation Centre and Business Centre.

Our hotel will provide guest assistance with luggage, transportation etc.The reason of the Front Office Department is to provide guests assistance with luggage, transportation, information concerning the hotel and the city, and any other service arrangements needed during their stay.

Staff of the Front Office Department often provides the first and last impression of the hotel to our guests. It is therefore vitally important that employees display a prompt and courteous attitude to all guests and demonstrate the excellence in service.

Manager of the front office who will come under the direct supervision of the Director of Rooms and supervises the Front Office Department. Hospitality, warm welcome is very essential. Management team in front office will provide first and last impression. They will try to have longest contact with guest, Long term service, recognition of repeat guests, remember names, guest histories. Staff will be trained how to upselling or suggestive sell to a customer(eg. Suggest deluxe or suites).

Housekeeping concept in hotel

This hotel will be experiencing in housekeeping operation in the hospitality industry and effectively managing the housekeeping function and staff. The management team of the hotel will develop procedures, service standards and operational policies, planning and implementing effective control. Excellent relationship building and vendor negotiation skills and will provide soft skills training for all levels of manpower and managing large teams and motivate the team members which will meet the customer satisfaction. Core member of the team will involve in the planning and setting up of housekeeping department at this five star hotel and spa and relationship with team members to create a harmonized work environment and eye for detail combined with skills to plan and implement novel ideas that increases customer satisfaction.

Most of the hotel have this problem, Pillow Cases Off, She et Off Bed or dirty, Lift Mattress Foot, Lift Mattress Head, unclean toilet , tiles, not been vacuum, unclean carpet, unclean bath,sower , not stoked up, unclean curtain etc.

In our hotel in Birmingham we will make sure all the staff been trained properly about hospitality , service, deal with complains, customer needs and the above issue, we will try our best not to happen the above issue in our hotel

Bedroom concept

As a five star hotel will have luxury bedrooms and bedroom service. Normally hotel rooms are divided into six types: one bed room, two double bed room, two bed executive room, king bed room, king bed executive room, and suite in order to meet customers’ satisfaction this hotel will have 28m by 2 spacious rooms that features the signature of their brand’s with the ceiling is about three meters highs, ultra comfortable bed and oversized pillows as well as the roomy bath amenities and walk-in showers made by Bliss Spa. Each room is equipped with supplementary wifi Internet and a plug and play connectivity, which links most computer devices to the 42 inches LCD TV, turning the guest room into a high technology office as well as entertainment room.

Quality Control

Quality control is the case of failure of many hospitality organization. Quality control is relatively easy to manage. In our hotel we will make sure quality is gone be on top of the range. the importance of the effective management of the delivery of quality service is becoming more evident throughout all aspects of the service sector and especially in the hospitality industry.

The quality of service in hotel industry is an important factor of successful business. Existing trend of complete quality management in hotel industry ensures the achievement of competitive advantage of hotel companies.

Similarly, the Ritz-Carlton hotel company, the recognized leader of the quality movement in the hotel industry, employs “gold standards”(their credo, motto, and basics) to communicate their commitment to quality service.

Express Laundry

Most probably in our hotel average guests stays at a hotel around two days, which makes getting laundry done a complicated matter. But our hotel will have Express Laundry. All shirts, blouses, socks, underwear, pants and other pieces of clothing, handed in before 8 p.m. will be returned fresh and clean that same evening.

Check in and checkout

This hotel will have a excellent check in system in place for the guest. The front office receptionist answer telephone and make reservation for the guest and will check the internet about reservation information . They also take messages and distribute mail both to guests and employees of the hotel. There is a special discount for the online customer so we encouraged our customer to book online.

We will have a system to check out guest without causing any problem. Checkout procedures are essential for maintaining and growing our customer base that as the final impression that our customer will have of our hotel. We will ensure that our front office staff makes the most of this opportunity by developing a checklist for your checkout. This is one of way to meet customer’s satisfaction, keep customer’s loyalty.

In our hotel there will a express check in and checkout system, so customer don’t have to wait for check in or checkout in the front counter. Even with our improved departure process with Satellite Reception desks, some guests cannot spare the time to check-out in the morning. For our guests in a rush we offer Express Check-Out to save valuable time and ensure an efficient and accurate check-out, by offering the options of sending invoice by email, mail or a quick pick-up at the reception desk

Bar service

We will have bar area for the customer and there will be a restaurant in the same floor with open kitchen so customer can see directly how we take care of our customers food. We will have a live music show for our customer in every weekend and drinks for our customers and also open to public. We will have A large screen led TV on the other side of lobby. Sometimes, customers can watch football match whilst enjoying meal.

High speed internet access

This hotel will be providing high speed internet connection and hotel will have this following facilities:

a-? High-Speed Internet connection in the entire building including the common areas.

a-? Automatically assigns IP address via DHCP (Dynamically Host Control Protocol).

a-? Always-on Internet – no dialup just plug in and start to browse.

a-? Each room is on its own Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) connection thus protecting your data from other users.

a-? Public internet protocol address assignment for VPN access.

a-? Firewall protection.

a-? 24 hour support service for technical assistance.

a-? No additional software required to connect.

Conclusion

As the customer service quality is affected by different elements such as hotel management and staffs , in the case of this Hotel, it will be obvious that solely the training is not enough for excellent service quality (Ford et al, 1998). . The dedication to adaptability and leadership of the management on change are also valuable to service quality

The possibility and feasibility of establishment of a new contemporary hotel in Birmingham will be successful. This new concept of the hotel is designed and planned with the new planning and designing in order to make the guests’ stay very comfortable with confidante and with satisfaction. This hotel in Birmingham Will be giving sufficient power to effectively contribute customer satisfaction.

The changes taking place in the world are taking place at a very rapid pace, and inorder to survive and remain fit in the competition it is required by hotel industry to have a good policy that gives quality service and satisfy the needs of the customers. The hotel must identify its commitment to meet the service and satisfying needs of every customer making him feel important and respected. According to Cardiff University (2010) noted that there would be assistance for all the customers in case of any queries against the services provided or services used and the staff employed by the division. Therefore the obligations to meet these are made into different procedures and policies.

The main aim of customer care policy in any industry is to handle the grievances of mainly the direct users of service in a timely, reasonable and positive manner. The main aim of this report is to analyse the customer care policy of a particular hotel (RITZ) and its effectiveness. The primary information presented in this report is from the personal visit by the author to the hotel and the secondary resource is taken from various articles and the net source.

The RITZ hotel in London established in 1906 by a Swiss hotelier Caesar Ritz. It is a 133 room hotel located in Piccadilly in London. It is a 5 star hotel with many big hoteliers acknowledging it as the world’s greatest hotel .The Ritz hotel was managed by the hotel managed for many years and has been transferred to many hands later on, the latest is David and Fredrick Barclay in 1995 from Trafalgar house for 80 million. The greatest accomplishment by Ritz is being considered as a benchmark through which other hotels were measured (Theritzlondon, 2010). The details of this hotel will be presented at various stages in this report.

TYPES OF CUSTOMERS

In my personal visit to the Hotel these are the various customers identified frequently visiting the hotel.

(1) TOURISTS

The tourism industry in U.K is considered to be one of the biggest sectors in U.K.According to Euromonitor (2008) London seems to be major place of tourist attraction and millions of people visiting it round the year. The tourists are those people who move out of their dwelling place to a different location for a more than one or certain number of days but less than a year .The main reason behind this is to do some leisure and recreation activities(Social, cultural etc).

RESAON FOR VISIT

Hotel Ritz is located on Piccadilly, over the green park and it is in central London. It is evident that central London has much tourist attraction (London eye, Buckingham palace, Big Ben, etc) (Moment of truth).The other reason is the existence of coach and train station nearby (London Victoria) and frequent trains to Gatwick and Heathrow airport. This is the reason to be more preferred by tourists.

(2)CORPORATES

The term corporate is derived from the word business person referring some in a ‘white collar’ job. The corporate individuals are particularly top in the rank in hierarchy and work towards the profit maximization in the organization. At certain times it is required by them or the company to conduct certain meetings or a get together with people from different companies and promoting their business. They are needed to be given due importance because they make huge businesses.

REASON FOR VISIT

Hotel Ritz renders various facilities conference halls, private meeting rooms with high speed broadband (100mb) wireless network, which helps in conducting and executing meetings. The existence of lavish Private and big dining rooms can be suitable for the get together ,in regards to meeting different dignitaries from different countries(Theritzlondon,2010).

ARCHITECTURAL VISITORS

Architects are those people who play an important role in making a place very attractive and beautiful. These kinds of visitors are always interested in different, unique and rare designs.

REASON TO VISIT

Hotel Ritz has unique French chateau architecture and Louis XVI furnishings and themes, with the presence of Parisian architectural traditions on the outside. The other reason is the works of great architects like Charles Mewes and Arthur Davis.

BIOGRAPHERS

These are the people who write on the real life stories of great people in different parts of the world.

REASON FOR VISIT

Hotel Ritz had housed many famous people like Chalie chaplin,Winston chruchill,King Edward VIII and various other Hollywood actors and celebrities etc(London-traveltrips,2010).This will help biographers to know about certain personal interest of celebrities(For ex. food).

TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER CARE POLICIES AND ITS IMPORTANCE
” The purpose to commence any business to create and attract a customer”
(Drucker, 1998)

The formulation of the customer care policies in most of the industries is done by the management in order to suit the current situation and satisfy the needs of the customers. In the hotel industry it is customer’s acceptance and like for the policies that leads to gaining more customers and making profits. Therefore the policies made must be focused on retaining the old customers as well as attracting new customers. Given below are certain policies followed in the RITZ hotel to attract customers.

Creation of positive business environment:-

The creation of this positive environment is possible by making the customer feel good about themselves and the company and this finally leads to spending by the customer. The staffs play an important role in this creation, so they must be trained properly to know the required tools and know-how techniques to make the customers stay a memorable one. (For ex)

Provision of Cab facilities at cheap rates for new tourists.

The existence of a guide to educate customers about various architecture and antiques.

Proper handling of grievance or provide a solution:-

In situation like the customer coming out with any problem, in that case the staffs are trained to take the role of a parent and make the customers to reduce their temper and then give solutions that satisfy the customer. Even in the cases of no solution is identified, it is the staff’s duty to hear them and respect their point of views. It is also the staff’s duty to educate and make aware the limitation to the customers.

In general, offering free coffee & snacks to customers when they wait in the reception for check in or out.

Regular checks on the cleanliness and the working of appliances. (Especially for corporate meetings & get together).

Measuring customer satisfaction and feedback:-

The best ways to measure whether the customers are satisfied or no is by getting feedbacks from them on using the service. The implementation of various systems like informal face to face polls, feedbacks, surveys and questionnaires that will help in giving a chance for training the employees, handling the grievances and problems an adapting to current situations. It is also important to be flexible with the staff as they are key role players in delivering good customer service. (For ex)

Getting feedback for every staff response on handling the customer calls and service from customers.

This part of the chapter deals with the effectiveness involved in the establishment of the customer care policies in the hospitality industry.

EFFECTIVENESS OF CUSTOMER CARE POLICY.
“The battle for repeat business is critical for long-term success in today’s intensely competitive marketplace. Customer service is not just a competitive advantage, but it is a competitive advantage in many industries .Service is the new standards by which the customers judge the performance”

BAND (2002) CEO Coopers and Lybrand Consulting, Toronto

The main reason for every organization in the hospitality industry to structure a customer service policy is to satisfy the customers and to reveal the value given to customer from this industry. These customer service policies are similar to Bundling process as explained by Greneir & Kini (1991) providing value added advantage around the satisfaction and service the hotel renders. It is natural that the customers come back to the hotel where they are given a bundle of extra services at considerable cost. Certain explanations reveal that the customer service policy plays a major role in giving suggestions or solutions for the various question rose by customers. But Patsula (2004) articulation in his book of “successful business planning” stating that the customer service policies also helps in other ways such as developing the company’s image, creating a positive business environment and building customer loyalty.

But according Tschlol & Stavig (2002) most of the businesses don’t understand the fact that customer service and its policies are really selling, as it is attracting the customer to make many visits. The main reason behind this is that the managers are reluctant to look at it as a marketing strategy, but as an after sales service. Therefore it is necessary by every staff working in the hotel industry to be aware of the customer policies and consider it as a marketing strategy, as it helps in improving the business and realize the benefits from good customer service. Similar explanation by Bill Gates to Business Journal (2010) that every unhappy customer for the business is a great source of learning for the business.

The company will be at risk, when the hotel doesn’t focus on the quality and consistency of customer experience they offer. But as per Seybold & Marshak (2001)articulations the customer have taken control of the companies destinies and are transforming the hotel industry. Therefore it is the duty of staff to render proper service and different ways presented by Patsula (2004) are:-

The staff should reveal their interest in serving people

Giving the team pride and confidence to do a go job.

Building customer loyalty

Make the presence of management felt in case of criticism

Handling complaints properly.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

CARDIFFUNIVERISTY.2010.Customer care policy. [WWW]http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/resid/resources/Customer%20Care%20Policy.pdf(2010)(Accessed on 28th April 2010)

THERITZLONDON.2010.About company.[WWW]http://www.theritzlondon.com/about/index.asp(Accessed on 29th April 2010)

LONDON-TRAVELTIPS.2010. Celebrities interest in RITZ. [WWW]http://www.london-traveltips.com/the-ritz-hotel.htm(Accessed on 30 th April 2010)

EUROMONITOR.2008.Londin visitors.[WWW]http://www.euromonitor.com/top_150_city_destinations_london_leads_the_way(Accessed on 29th April 2010)

DRUCKER, P.1998. Customer quotes cited in the book of ZEMKE, R &WOODS, J.A. 1998. Best practices in customer service, HRD press, Pg 24

GREINER, D & KINNI, T.B. 1999.1001 ways to keep customer keep coming back, Prima publishing, Pg 1

TSCHOHL, J & STAVIG, V.2002.Acheveing excellence through customer service, Best sellers publishing, Minnesota, Pg 1-10.

PATSULA, P.J.2004. Successful business planning ,A step by step guide for writing a business plan and starting your own business,3rd edition, No 51,Patsula media publishers

Bill Gates.2010. Bill Gates on applying the ‘best minds to the biggest problems’, Puget sound Business journal, Business review, April 19 2010.

SEYBOLD, P.B & MARSHAK, R.T . 2001. The Customer revolution, Crown business; 1st edition, Pg 2-10.