HOTEL STRUCTURE AND STAFF

Regardless of whether a hotel is a simple rooming house or encompasses within its 4 walls all the facilities of a small city,it is truly a “people”business- not only in that it exist to serve people,but in that it requires the services of people to exist.All hotel rent rooms,and most also offer food and beverages for sale.The succesful one add an extra ingredient,good service.This is the only product that cannot be purchased.Fine furniture,gourment food,and vintage wines are available in many hotels,but service in it depends entirely on its staff.Human behavior in a free society cannot be standardized;it can only be guided,a process that requires constant supervision,attention,and training.

Hotels vary not only in size but in character,in type of clientele,and in scope of activities.Every function exist,but priorities differ from hotel to hotel.The management of each must determine the departments,and the number of employees in each,needed for its own operation.Our assigning an individual to each function is done merely to highlight it,thereby making function easier to describe and to understand.

HOTEL POLICYAlthough the general manager has the

responsibility of running the hotel and is usually held accountable for its financial success or failure,he or she does not always have the authority to establish the overall policy for its operation.This function is a prerogative of the owner or owners.The more successful groups have learned, sometimes through a costly experience,that such standardization is not always possible.State and local laws and regulation,customs,unions,availability of qualified personnel,and even environmental

Considerations may mandate modification and sometimes complete reversals of certain policies.

LABOR-The initial staffing of a new hotel requires a top management decisions.Once the hotel is operating,the permanent staff must also be set,subject to changes necessitated by the volume of business.Fringe benefits,hospitalization,major medical,insurance,pensions,saving plans,and the like for the eligible employees are normally uniform throughout the chain and therefore subject to overall corporate policy.

RATE STRUCTURE-In a new hotel,the original room-rate schedule is set up before the opening.In a sense,it is predetermined by the owner in the initial planning stage of the building,since the style and type of hotel to be built,the appointments and facilities to be provided,and the class of guest to be serviced all affect the rates that can and should be charged.Subsequent changes are normally made by the general manager with the knowledge and consent of the home-office supervisor.

PURCHASING-Beverages are subject to different regulations and licensing requirements in each state.Most states require direct shipment by the distributor or wholesaler to the licensee.The home office will establish the brand of liquior that is to be used in the bars when the guess does not specify a brand when ordering.There are two principal reasons for centralizing the purchasing of all but the small items needed for the operation.The first,and possibly the most important,is financial.Bulk buying usually lower cost,either directly or through quantity discounts.The second reason is quality control.The executive office can determine which merchandise to standardize in which hotels and retains the option to raise or lower the quality as conditions warrant.

INSURANCE-Insurance like other merchandise,is cheaper to purchase and easier to standardize and control through centralization.Coverage of the type and in the amount detrmined by the home-office executive is purchased for each hotel,and premium can be reduced through negotiation with different companies.

ADVERTISING-Hilton,Sheraton,Loews,Holidy Inns,Ramada Inns,Howard Jhonson’s and the other major chains have one thing in common:The bulk of their advertising is directed toward popularizing their name.

The theory is that most travelers will stay,or stop to eat,at a hotel with a familiar name.Rooms,food

and beverages are no different from any nationally advertised product.The cost of this type of

advertising would be prohibitive for a single hotel,whether owned or franchised by one of the chains.The home-office executive in charged of

operation will probably have to approve the dollar amount,the central advertising director,the

copy,and the media to be used.All advertising,national or local,seeks to project an

image;in this case,the hotel’s.Add a working knowledge of and familiarity with regional

customs,and the general manager is in a position to initiate,recommend,supervised,and assume the full responsibility for placing and following through

on all local advertising and publlicity.

CREDIT-Most major chains have an overall credit policy.Except in one area,acceptance of national credit cards,this policy should be flexible enough to conform to local custom.All hotels in the group are usually required to honor certain credit cards,principally for financial reasons:The discount rate charged by the national credit-card companies and banks depends to a great extent on the volume of business generated by their clients.The timing and number of mailings is negotiatable and is usually established at the original signing of agreement.

MISCELLANEOUS-It would be almost impossible to list all the function capable of being centralized in any one chain of hotels.Aside from the fact that it would be financially prohibitive to maintain a separate legal department in each hotel,the executive offices need attorneys in their conduct of the corporate business and in the acquisition or sale of properties.Finally,the list would probably include a construction or engineering department,to supervise the building or acquisition of new hotwls and to direct and be responsible for any major improvements or alterations in the existing properties.

Finally,the list would probably include a construction or an engeneering department,to supervise the building or acquisition of new hotels and to direct and be responsible for any major improvements or aleterations in the existing properties.

THE GENERAL MANAGER

The General Manager is the person responsible for defining and interpreting the policies established by top management.

THE STAFF:MAJOR DEPARTMENTA hotel,except a very small one,is like any other business enterprise in that is physically impossible for one person to personally supervise all the different phases of the operation.For the purpose of this discussion,the staff is grouped into four main categories:

The management policy-making and implementing team-the general manager and his her primary department heads

Subdepartment Heads

Assistant Department Heads

General Staff and Operating personnel

ROOMSThe primary responsibility for the well-being of the guests is delegated to the head of the rooms department,known as the resident manager.He or she heads the numerically largest department in the hotel,many of whose members come into direct contact with guest.The resident manager carries out what may be the most important responsibility of the general manager-the day-to-day operation of the guest rooms.

FOOD AND BEVERAGESThe food and beverages manager heads a

department that also involves guest relation.The service staff in the restaurants,coffee shop,bars,and banquet rooms come into direct contact not only with the resident guests but with members of the general public who use the hotel facilities other than its sleeping rooms-equally important in the overall position.This is the department that perhaps most clearly demonstrate the old hotel keeper’s famous saying,”Service is our most important product”.

ENGINEERING

The chief engineer is concerned with the apperance and physical condition of the building.This is one small example of the teamwork needed to succesfully operate a hotel.

SALES

The large hotels,those with the convention nad banquet facilities,coukd not exist without the business generated by their sales and convention staffs.

PERSONNELThe corporate responsibility serves as a definite aid in the performance of a controller’s duties.Despite the many elements that are taken into consideration in assembling the figures,a budget is ultimately only an estimate,and educated guess,of the income and expenses for a given period in the future.

SUMMARYThese six department have been highlighted because the men and women who head them make up the top-management team.The head of a very successful hotel chain always welcomed new members of the management team with words to these effect.”Give all your reasons,and any facts or figures you have to back them up,but never let me hear the words”

SENSITIVE STAFF FUNCTION

SALESThe sales department has been called the lifeblood of the organization.Hotels-indeed,cities-compete fiercely to attract large groups,companies,or organization.Sales personnel theorized that local organizations,companies and groups that hold annual or more frequent functions will not return if they are driven to use another hotel and find it equally or more desirable.

LABOR

Labor relation are oftenly the responsibility of the personnel manager,who usually handles the many problems and minor disputes with and among the employees that occur in the daily operation of the hotel.

STORES AND CONCESSIONSAlthough the hotel owner or owners will established certain rental guidelines,the actual negotiations,particularly on renewal of leases,are handled by the general manager or a designated representative.The store operators,concessionaries,and their staff are associated by the general public with the hotel,and in some cases even considered employees.

ENTERTAINMENTMany hotels offer dinner music in their restaurants or some form of entertainment in the bar or cocktail lounge,and many have nightclubs.The hiring of the musicians and entertainers would normally be the responsibility of the food and beverage manager or,in multple operations,of a central-office executive assigned to this function.