FIELDS IN THE HOTEL MANAGEMENT

Fields in the hotel management

1.  Food Production

    Food production, as the name suggests, is all about preparing food, in which raw materials are converted into ready-made food products for human use either in the home or in the food processing industries. Its process comprises of scientific approaches. Food production has many sections and it starts with basic things like cleaning, packing, segregating, sorting, preparing, adding ingredients in correct proportions, presenting, etc.

Let us explore food production notes to learn how the food is produced and what are the methods involved in the production of food.

Food production

Methods of food production

• Chopping or slicing of vegetables.Curing food.

• Grinding and marinating.
• Emulsification.
• Food fermentation.
• Fermenting beer at brewing industries.
• Boiling, broiling, frying, grilling, steaming and mixing.
• Pasteurization.
• Fruit juice processing.
• Removing the outer layers either by peeling and skinning.
• Gasification of soft drinks.
• Preserving and packaging of food products by vacuum packs.

2 Food and Beverage Service

         

          Food and beverage services sector contributes a great deal to the profits in hospitality industry. With the increase in importance of business meetings, a range of personal and social events, a large number of customers visit catering establishments frequently. The food and beverage professionals tirelessly work to intensify customers’ experience through their service.

The F&B Services providing businesses deliver food and beverages to their customers at a particular location (on-premise) such as hotel, restaurant, or at the customer’s intended premises (off-premise).

• F&B service - Definition

Food and Beverage Services can be broadly defined as the process of preparing, presenting and serving of food and beverages to the customers.

F&B Services can be of the following two types −

• On Premise − Food is delivered where it is prepared. The customer visits the premise to avail the food service. The premises are kept well-equipped and well-finished to attract customers to avail F&B service.
  For example, restaurants, pubs, etc.
• Off Premise or Outdoor Catering − This kind of service includes partial cooking, preparation, and service at customer’s premises. It is provided away from the F&B Services provider’s base on the occasion of major events which call for a large number of customers.
• 
  
  

• Types of F&B Services Operations

There are two broad types of F&B Services operations −

• Commercial − In this case, F&B Services is the primary business. The most known commercial catering establishments are — hotels, all kinds of restaurants, lounges, cafeterias, pubs, clubs, and bars.
• Non-Commercial − Non-commercial operations are secondary businesses in alliance with the main business. These F&B services mainly cater to their consumers with limited choice of food and beverages. These establishments often run under contracts. For example, food and beverage services provided at hospitals, hostels, and prisons.

In this tutorial, we mainly consider commercial food and beverage service sector. Let us first understand some common forms of F&B service.

3 Front Office

What is Front Office Department?

It is the one of the many departments of the hotel business which directly interacts with the customers when they first arrive at the hotel. The staff of this department is very visible to the guests.

Front office staff handles the transactions between the hotel and its guests. The staff receives the guests, handles their requests, and strikes the first impression about the hotel into their minds.

Front office department includes −

• Front Desk
• Uniformed services
• Concierges
• Front Office Accounting System
• Private Branch Exchange (PBX), a private telephone network used within an organization

Basic Responsibilities of Front Office Department

Following are the most basic responsibilities a front office can handle.

• Creating guest database
• Handling guest accounts
• Coordinating guest service
• Trying to sell a service
• Ensuring guest satisfaction
• Handling in-house communication through PBX

Front Office Operations

There are two categories of Front Office Operations −

Front-House Operations

These operations are visible to the guests of the hotel. The guests can interact and see these operations, hence, the name Front-House operations. Few of these operations include −

• Interacting with the guests to handle request for an accommodation.
• Checking accommodation availability and assigning it to the guest.
• Collecting detail information while guest registration.
• Creating a guest’s account with the FO accounting system.
• Issuing accommodation keys to the guest.
• Settling guest payment at the time of check-out.

Back-House Operations

Front Office staff conducts these operations in the absence of the guests or when the guest’s involvement is not required. These operations involve activities such as −

• Determining the type of guest (fresh/repeat) by checking the database.
• Ensuring preferences of the guest to give a personal touch to the service.
• Maintaining guest’s account with the accounting system.
• Preparing the guest’s bill.
• Collecting the balance amount of guest bills.
• Generating reports.

Guest Cycle in Hotel

Generally, a guest’s interaction with the hotel is divided into the following four sequential phases −

Pre-arrival

It is the stage when the customer is planning to avail an accommodation in the hotel. In this first stage, the customer or the prospective guest enquires about the availability of the desired type of accommodation and its amenities via telephonic call or an e-mail. The customer also tries to find out more information about the hotel by visiting its website.

At the hotel end, the front office accounting system captures the guest’s information such as name, age, contact numbers, probable duration of stay for room reservation and so on.

Arrival

The front office reception staff receives the guest in the reception. The porters bring in the guest luggage. For the guest with confirmed reservation, the front office clerk hands over a Guest Registration Card (GRC) to the guest and requests the guest to fill in personal information regarding the stay in the hotel. The clerk then registers the guest in the database thereby creating a guest record and a guest account along with it. Later, the clerk hands over a welcome kit and keys of the accommodation. After the procedure of registration, the guest can start occupying the accommodation.

Occupancy

During occupancy, a front office accounting system is responsible for tracking guest charges against his/her purchases from the hotel restaurants, room service, bar, or any outgoing telephone calls made via the hotel’s communication systems. The front office staff is responsible to manage and issue the right keys of the accommodations to the right guests. On guests’ request, the staff also makes arrangement for transportation, babysitting, or local touring while the guest is staying in the hotel.

Departure

During guest departure, the front office accounting system ensures payment for goods and services provided. If a guest’s bill is not completely paid, the balance is transferred from guest to non-guest records. When this occurs, collection becomes the responsibility of the back office accounting division.

At the time of guest departure, the front office staff thanks the guest for giving an opportunity to serve and arrange for handling luggage. In addition, if the guest requires airport or other drop service, the front office bell desk fulfils it.

4 Housekeeping

What is Housekeeping?

Housekeeping means performing all the duties towards cleaning, maintaining orderliness, and running a house or a business property. In case of hotels, the housekeeping duties involve maintaining the hotel to the best possible state in terms of cleanliness, and keeping it at highly desirable ambience.

Objectives of Hotel Housekeeping

The main objectives of hotel housekeeping are −

• To maintain overall cleanliness of the entire hotel at all times.
• To perform cleanliness duties most efficiently and effectively.
• To use good quality, safe cleaning equipment and chemicals.
• To manage laundry and linen.
• To control pests.
• To keep up the hotel with classy interior decoration.
• To take care of the furniture, fittings, and fixtures of the entire hotel.

To understand the expanse or scope of housekeeping, it is better to understand the divisions of hotel a hotel, first.

Divisions of a Hotel

There are various divisions (or departments) of a hotel. They are given below.

• Front office

It is responsible for guest check-in and check-out, mail and information services, and concierge services such as tour booking, reserving theatre and restaurants, providing airport taxi service, etc.

• Food and Beverage

Food and Beverage department is responsible for preparing menus, foods, and managing inventory of food and beverage items. It includes food and beverage preparation and service for restaurant, lounge, coffee shops, bars, parties, and room service.

Uniformed Service Department

It includes parking and door attendants, drivers, porters, and bell attendants.

• Housekeeping

Housekeeping includes the duties of keeping the areas of the hotel clean, tidy, hygienic, and pleasant. It also performs the duties pertaining to decoration of hotel premises.

Sales and Marketing

All sales, services, advertising, promotions, and public relations are taken care of by this team.

• Security

Security manager and security workers work to keep the property safe and secured from external hazards.

• Accounts

It conducts all financial activities like producing bills and receiving payments, computing employees’ compensations and delivering payments. They also carry out the activities such as compiling monthly and annual income statements, depositing and securing cash, and controlling and monitoring assets.

• Maintenance

The Maintenance department is responsible for the maintenance of the property. It takes care of repairing furniture and fixtures, and painting the required area. When the hotel is small, these works are contracted from an outside agency.

• Engineering and Technology

It is responsible for keeping all of its equipment operational. The duties include maintaining telephone, hotel management software, internet etc. It is also responsible for implementing any new changes required such as upgrading the software and hardware.

• Human Resource Department

Human Resource department is responsible for interviewing and recruiting qualified staff to be placed at appropriate positions. They also conduct exit interviews for the employees who wish to quit the work. HRD works to set wages and salaries based on regional market rates and ensures that the hotel business meets safety and health administration standards.

In all these departments, the efforts of housekeeping department are overt. They are directly visible to the guests even before they try food or avail other amenities. Housekeeping creates the first impression about the hotel in the guests’ minds. Hence this department can be said as the heart of the hotel business.

• Housekeeping Department Layout in Hotel

The layout of the housekeeping department depends on the total number of Guestrooms, Outlets, and Required Staff. The following areas of the department are the most prominent ones −

• Office of the Executive Housekeeper − The administrative work of the department is carried out here.
• Housekeeping Control Desk − It is accessible and operational 24 hours a day. The housekeeping staff reports at the start and end of the shift here. There are notice boards, storage shelves, registers, lost and found cupboard, and key-hanger matrix.
• Laundry Area − Washing, ironing, dry cleaning, folding of linen and staff uniform takes place here.
• Linen Room − Here, the linen of the hotel such as bed-sheets, towels, pillow cases, etc., are stored, collected, and carried to the required places in the hotel.
• Uniform Room − The staff uniforms are collected, stored, and distributed from here.
• Tailor Room − Here, stitching and repairing of linen and uniforms takes place.
• Housekeeping Stores − It is a storage area where the cleaning equipment and items, and guest supplies are securely stored.
• Flower Room − It is an air-conditioned room with worktables, sink and water supply, cupboards to store vases and stones, and a counter.
• Lost and found − stores all the items left by the guests. It directly communicates with the front office desk, as there the guests tend to first enquire about their lost articles.

Line Store Room	Tailor Room	Uniform Room	Laundry Room
Corridor
Executive House keeper office	Housekeeping Desk	Lost and Found	Housekeeping Supplies Store	Flower Room

• Housekeeping − Areas of Responsibility

The housekeeping department is responsible to keep the following areas clean and tidy.

• Guest Rooms
• Guest Bathrooms
• Public Areas such as Lobby and Lifts
• Banquets and Conference Halls
• Parking Area
• Sales and Admin Offices
• Garden

Apart from the cleaning task, the housekeeping is also responsible for handling keys of each floor. In addition, it manages the laundry, which is often at some places considered as a sub-department of housekeeping.

What is Hotel Management?