Leo's Beach Hotel: Description, Facilities, And Unique Selling Points - Essay.

1.1. Describe the hotel in your own words .

1.2. Every hotel has a Unique Selling Point (USP). Find out what your hotel’s is and describe it. Include a photo of it.

2.1. Choose any hotel restaurant and describe it in your own words. Include any signature dishes and unique selling points. Include a photo.

2.2. The Food & Beverage Manager has identified that the hotel could do more to attract “in house” guests to dinner in the above restaurant. Suggest three (3) unique ideas to the hotel that the F&B Manager might use?

3.1. Choose any hotel room type and describe it in your own words. Include what facilities it offers to the guest. Include a photo.

3.2. The Front Office Manager (FOM) has identified that the hotel could do more to connect with the guests during the ‘Stay Over’ stage of the Guest Cycle. Suggest three (3) unique ideas to the hotel that the FOM might use.

4.1. Visit the hotel’s Trip Advisor reviews and select a ‘terrible’ guest comment. Cut and paste it below.

4.2. If the management replied, cut and paste their response below. If there was no response, discuss how a perspective guest may perceive this.

4.3. Now imagine YOU are the Manager, and the guest is actually waiting to speak to you in the hotel lobby. Write down word for word what you would do and say to this guest (hint: remember the LEARN technique).

5.1. Briefly describe in your own words four (4) tourist attractions found near the hotel. Ensure to include one natural, one man made (purpose built), one man made (non purpose built) and one event attraction.

5.2. Choose one of the above tourist attractions, and suggest ways the hotel can generate extra revenue from its guests (revenue streaming).

6.1. Describe any aspect of transport as a tourism attraction from the country (approx. 200 words). *Hint: Visit the country’s tourism website. Examples could be: ocean cruising, riverboat cruising, trains, caravans, bikes, hiking etc.

7.1. Send an email to the hotel and find out how the hotel minimises its impact on the environment in the three (3) key areas of: Power Conservation, Recycling and Water Conservation?

1. Power Conservation:
2. Recycling:
3. Water Conservation:

7.2. Find out how the hotel involves the local community in any environmental education programs.

Overview of Leo's Beach Hotel in Gambia

The assignment is about Leo’s’s Beach Hotel and restaurant. The hotel is situated in Gambia. It is a small country located in the west of Africa. More specifically it is situated on the beach of Brufut. The place is very calm and good for spending holidays with relaxation.

The Leo’s Beach hotel is a 5-star hotel and restaurant. The hotel is situated near the beach which makes the hotel pleasant with a pleasant temperature and fresh air. The number of rooms in the hotel is 6 but the rooms are spacious and comfortable and also the room is provided with flat screen TV and with a good interior consisting of a good amount of lights and also there are special rooms called suites consisted of all amenities like comfortable bed, a.c., lights, t.v. and private balcony (Corris, Joseph-Lester, & Kivland, 2010). It has a lot of facilities including the room affiliated with air conditioning which makes the room cool and it allows the guest to feel comfortable in the room by maintaining a soothing temperature inside the room. It also has free parking facilities for cars so that the guest could get transport facilities directly from the hotel and the hotel has also valet facility. There is also high-speed internet connection in the hotel with the facility of wifi so that the guest could connect their Smartphone devices and laptops to execute their work and it is free of cost (Baum, 2011). There is also wifi for public in the lobby of the hotel but the internet facilities are not free and visitors have to pay for the service use by them. The facility for enjoyment is also there comprising of a minibar, poolside bar, and lounge where people can sit on the sofa and relax. There is also the availability of swimming pool where the guest can spend their time and also use the service of wifi but it is paid version. There is also the availability of laundry service where guest can give their clothes for washing and wear clean clothes (Begley, & Willdorf, 2008). The facility of room service is also there as the guest could order food and other things from the reception through phones. There is also a restaurant with the availability of delicious food and beverages. The hotel also provides airport transportation facility by offering taxi facilities to their guest.

Facilities and services provided by the hotel

USP stands for Unique Selling point. It means what is the special quality a company possesses which makes it different from its rival company and with this special quality a company sells its products.

The above point is relevant in Leo’s’s Hotel and Restaurant as it has good reviews because of its USP. As the hotel is situated near the beach then it offers a unique location for a hotel as it will attract more customers towards the hotel because of its scenic beauty of beach as a hotel near the beach offers fresh and pleasant weather with a good amount of sunshine. The other USP of the hotel is its delicious food with various cuisines, the staffs are very friendly in nature it means they provide good service and are very supportive to their guest. The other plus point of the hotel is that it provides beautiful gardens, clean and hygienic rooms provided with full facilities and also the rates of the hotel is cheap varying from 100usd to 150usd and provides continental dishes.

The hotel restaurant chosen by me is Leo’s Beach Hotel situated in Gambia. The hotel is a very good provided with the best facility. The hotel ambiance is awesome as the hotel has a good design built quality of the infrastructure as the lobby is spacious and on the ceiling, a big chandelier enhances the beauty of the hotel. The hotel is provided with lift and the room consists of automatic AC and light as it operates from the key card of the room with smart TV and with comfortable beds and good room service and also the hotel consists of a gym and swimming pool facilities (Adjey, Hunter, & Mannall, 2009). The hotel provides good breakfast facility with unlimited food availability consisting of 20 dishes in the morning and in the night the dinner is affiliated with 20 dishes and the signature dishes were Hainanese chicken rice, Chilli Crab, Laksa, Char Kuay Teow and Satay (Davis, Lockwood, Pantelidis, & Alcott, 2013). The unique selling point of the hotel is that every guest gets its own key card and with this card, the guest will access the lift to reach their preferred room so the feature is security oriented and also the room is affiliated with hair dryer and portable refrigerator.

The 3 ways that an F & B manager could drive or attract house guest to their restaurant are as follows:

1. To include different types of cuisine in the menu card on focusing the needs of the customer to which culture they belong (Overton, 2007). This means the manager has to focus on the taste of the guest and prepares those dishes which the guest like while having dinner.
2. The manager should provide complimentary drinks to the guest like liquor and juice. This will drive the guest to its restaurant as people like to have drinks with the foods.
3. The manager should provide the facility of unlimited food and drinks in a minimal price range so that people could fill their stomach and give a positive feedback.

Unique Selling Points of Leo's Beach Hotel

Every guest who visits a hotel looks for accommodation at first it means he is mostly concerned with the facilities and ambiance of the room. A different class of people chooses different room types which meet their needs (Management Association, 2015). If an individual visit a hotel then he will book a single bedroom, if a couple visit a hotel then he will book dual bedrooms, if a family visit a hotel then they will book more than a single room and if a group visit a hotel then they will book few rooms and if a rich person visit a hotel then he will book a suite (Kalargyrou, & Volis, 2014). The hotel manager focused on providing best room facilities to its guest so that its hotel gets good recognition in the hotel business line. The facilities that a good hotel provide are good room service by giving 24/7 service, beautiful designed rooms, availability of high technology of free internet and wifi, smart tv, hair dryer, portable refrigerator, bad tub, shower, geyser, feather touch beds, closet, delivery of food direct to the room and also body massage service.

Stay over the stage of the guest cycle means that a guest who is staying for more than the scheduled days he booked the room for. It can be for a day, for few days and for a week also. Usually, the guest stays beyond its limit days due to various reasons like if he has an unaccomplished task.

The Front Office Manager could use unique ideas to connect with the guest during the stay over a period by the following ways:

1. To organize an event or a program in the hotel it means the manager could arrange a show to his guests like dancing or cultural shows to engage the guest to stay for longer days (KUnz, Masso, & Lerche, 2007).
2. He could organize a tour for his guest like city tour where he could take the guest for an outing and show him the best places of the area especially tourist attraction sites (Larkin, 2009).
3. He could offer low price rates for staying for longer days and also giving extra features and merchandise to make the guest feel good so that he could stay for more days.

Customer Service Management means assisting customers for their trouble, problems. The management aims at resolving problems of the customer promptly. The management takes the various medium to assist their customers through online, call center service, social media. In today’s world, customer service management has become an effective tool for the progress of the organization (Bacal, 2011). The organization creates a portal online like website for its customers where it provides information about its organization, its products, complain facilities where people can write the comment in the box and also give their opinion about the organization whether it is good or bad. 

A terrible comment by a guest  “U Cadre Magnifique pour une cuisine tres decevante” it means a beautiful decoration with a disappointing food. The customer liked the decoration of the food but he doesn’t like the taste of the food because of the texture of the food from what ingredients the food is made of. The reason can also be stale and unhygienic food provided to the guest and also cleanliness issues.

There was no response from the management relating to the above comment by the guest. The guest would have been very disappointed by not getting the reply from the management official. He would have developed a negative sense for the hotel as he was not given importance or preference for his comment and also his problem was not attended.  So he has given 1 star out of 5 stars for poor service rendered to him.

 If I am the manager of that hotel at first I would give preferences to my guest by meeting him as he is waiting for me in the hotel lobby (Garber, 2005). I would have heard his problems and grievances relating to the poor services rendered to him or if there is negligence in service (Doane, & Sloat, 2003). I would have enquired him his problem and in this case, the problem is the taste of the food. I would have taken feedback from him what are the areas to improve and what are the necessary ingredients to be changed to make the food delicious and also other reasons like hygiene and make the necessary changes so that the guest should not get poor quality again.

Tourist Attractions: It is a site where people visit to see its scenic beauty, natural beauty, heritage culture, the historical background of the place, infrastructure and for a special reason.

The four tourist attractions found near the Leo’s Hotel beach is

1. Black and white safari- The tourist spot consists of animals especially lions in Fathala park where the tourist get the opportunity to walk with lions and also watch animals, trip to Banjul and ferry crossing are the sites to visit (Hailey, 2014). The park is an open space and not a zoo and the tourist move in a four wheel car. The other animals to watch out were giraffes, warthogs, zebras etc.
2. Top shop Gambia: The place is a shopping market which is the best for African items shopping and the item for sale is cheap. The items include pictures, dresses, statues, and items are hassle free, the recycled product like a musical instrument and leathery jeweler with good crafts.
3. Ida’s kitchen: A place is a cooking event where a variety of delicious food is served. The place should not be missed for food lovers and it includes best Gambian food (Pereira, Pedra, & Lopes, 2009). The hospitality is good and the event of the food show is marvellous.
4. Sibis Garden Bar: The place is marvellous for its good view of flowers and also for relaxation and also the availability of drinks are available (The world's greatest hotels, resorts and spas, 2011). There is a pond where ducks swim so the beauty of the garden gets enhanced.

One of the above tourist attractions is Top Shop Gambia where the hotel could generate extra income by taking the guest to visit the place and providing knowledge about the place and making them buy products for their family and in this process the hotel could earn commission from the shop as it is the medium for the sales (Wolff, 2008). The hotel should highlight the key points of the shopping market by which product to buy and should focus on premium products this will bring more income to the shop and hotel.

 Tourism and transport goes hand to hand as both are interrelated with each other. Tourism took place with the good availability of transport facility. With the advent of flight, people could tour the whole world and also with a good infrastructure of roads and railways where a car took visitors to various tourist place.

River boat cruising: At first we have to book a double Decker boat from Denton Bridge for fishing on the Gambian river. The boat will explore the mangrove-lined creeks and its other source. There is also an opportunity for fishing in the sea where the guest will get tuna fish, lady fish (Hall, & Schulz, 2011). 4 members can tour at a maximum at a time. While doing river cruise the guest will enjoy the scenic beauty of the place by exploring the jungles on the river side by watching the animals in the forest and also watching big fishes like catfish and alligator in the river. Other reptiles are also available in the river like poisonous snakes, lizard, and birds on the trees making their nest (Havis, 2011). The river cruise lasts for the whole day giving full enjoyment to its guest in the sunshine. There is also room for adventurous people for sports.

How the Front Office Manager can connect with guests during their stay-over period

CSR stands for Corporate Social responsibility. It is a process followed in the building of a business. The model is based on company laws and regulations which should be followed with ethics. It states that a company has responsibilities towards the society and its only goal is not to earn money only rather than doing welfare for the society by building hospitals and roads. The responsibility of the company should also to conserve electricity, water and natural resources of the environment and not exploit the resources of the planet Earth.

1. Water Conservation: The hotel conserves water by using a limited amount of water to fulfil its needs. The hotel should not use water for an unnecessary purpose. It should use a limited amount of water for cooking of food, washing of clothes i.e. laundry, checking the flow of water in swimming pool by not overloading the pool with water and also encouraging guest to use toilet paper rather than water and also encouraging bucket for bathing rather than a shower as it saves more water.
2. Recycling: The hotel should use the waste product for recycling purpose as this will save the resource and minimum resources should be needed to produce a good. With recycling, a waste product can be used for various purposes like the recycling of paper etc.
3. Power Conservation: The hotel saves electricity by switching off electrical appliances automatically when not in use as they use key cards which automatically shut electricity when not in use. The hotel also uses LED lights and other appliances which use less electricity.

The hotel management should involve the local community in any environmental educational program as it will bring awareness in the society for the concern of natural resources which are in limited quantity in the earth. They should educate them to conserve endangered species, water as it is indispensable in nature, electricity, and also deforestation. They could educate the local community by organizing events or programmers and bringing motivational speakers to their events to motivate people and showing them the importance to save natural resources and also influencing them to plant more trees. This is the ways the hotel could involve the local community.

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