Facility Manager Responsibilities, Qualities, And Hotel Feasibility Study: A Comprehensive Guide

Facility Manager Responsibilities

Question:

Write a report about the hospitality management.
 

A facility manager in an organization is responsible for meeting the needs of employees at the workplace by managing the necessary services. They has to ensure that the service an process which supports the core business are managed properly. He should ensure that the working environment is suitable for the employees. The facility managers are required for both day-today activities and strategic planning. Their areas of responsibilities are cleaning, vending and catering, maintenance of building and grounds, security, health and safety, space management, procurement management and communications and utilities management (Sørensen & Jensen, 2015).

The six key activities of facility managers are stated below;

• Preparing document for putting tenders for contractors
• Supervising and coordinating the work of contractors and management of projects
• Checking the suitability and availability of options for new locations
• Comparing and calculating the costs for the goods and services and trying to achieve the optimum money value.
• Engaged in future planning for development keeping in note the business objectives
• Planning, coordinating and directing the important central services like, security, reception, cleaning, waste disposal, catering, maintenance, archiving, mail and recycling (Uecker & Walker ,2012). 

The current trend of business and society highlights to the complex building system, aging building stocks, importance given to sustainability and changing business community as the external driven trends of change. The current internal trend refers to the complexity and quantity of data, difficulty in finding top talent and attempt to upgrade facility management (Sterling & Huckle, 2014). 

The changing trend of business requirement for facility management has put forward the necessity of having some specific qualities in a facility manager so that they can become successful in their profession.

Facility manager should be trained to understand the complex building structure so that the operations of the business community run hassle-free. They are suppose plan the scarce resource utilization in such a manner that it it is effectively implemented. The facility managers have to serve as role model for the emergency preparedness and planning for the continuity of the business. The facility manager should be able to convert the raw data into meaning information that would help in decision making process.      Further, the facility manager should be competent enough to link their activities with the mission, vision and values of any organization (Teicholz, 2013). 

The facility manager should be expertise in both technical and business and should have the required skill that brings efficiency, profitability and productivity to the organization. The most successful facility managers will be those who are proactive in their actions to meet the challenges posed by the changing trends of current situations .The facility managers should be able to make strategic planning and highlights the areas of attention to the industry. The growing need of sustainable practices should be understood by them and they need to be educated about it so that they can meet the sustainable requirement in their operations. Hence, the demand for qualities that need to be present in today’s facility managers widely varies from that of traditional requirements (So et al.,2013).

A hotel feasibility study is a report that is produced for the people like investors, lenders, owners and hoteliers. It helps in understanding the feasibility of hotel development projects and analysing the variables that affect the profitability of the business. The areas included in hotel feasibility report are as follows:

Supply/Demand Dynamics: The report includes the supply and demand dynamics of the hotel industry. It shows the review of existing hotels, their facilities in terms of service, accommodation rooms, locations and quality segments. All this factors helps to understand the competitive firm’s position and assist the new firm to develop its strategy for competitive position in the market (O'Neill, 2013).

Qualities of a Successful Facility Manager

Occupancy and Average Rates: Here the analysis is done for the positioning of the hotel in the local market by studying the projected demand. The average room rates and annual occupancy are also forecasted by using the demand analysis. The company’s target guests, distribution strategies, location, quality segment and brand strength are examined. Further a comparative study about the company’s strength and weakness, with that of competitors are studied and then assessment is made about the rate differences and occupancy based on the available market information (Lucas, Bulbul & Thabet, 2013). 

Hotel Revenue Projections:  A real estate financial model is prepared which helps to estimate the revenues of the business. It calculates the sales revenues of the room and cycles of sales by using the average room rates and occupancy. The percentage of guest is forecasted to calculate the average revenue per guest in case of other revenue centres like, food and beverages. Even other revenues from conference event sales, day booking sales and other similar sales that result in ancillary revenues are forecasted through the available data set (Kim, Hong & Zhang, 2014).

Hotel Expense Projections: The hotel feasibility study reflects the expenses against the revenue model. It forecast the operating costs and analysed the overhead cost based on the type and scale of the property. Further, the regional bench mark is used to calculate the revenue percentages

Net Operating Income Model: The study also shows the net operating income financial model by doing a sensitivity analysis which is then compared with repositioning cost and hotel developments

Hotel Feasibility Study ROI: The return on investment is assessed here by using financial assessment tools like NPV, IRR and DCF and then suggestion are made accordingly.

The property developer should take proper actions to mitigate the risk of hotel development by doing proper survey and try to bring accuracy in forecast methods. The property developer should suggest investing money in term system or in multiple phases to mitigate the risk so that if there is any indication of losses in one of the phases, there can be immediate alteration done in the next phase. The phase system of planning also helps to reduce the unnecessary cost and complex system of forecasting the cost of materials and other inputs which may go wrong due to any economical shocks In this way, the efficiency of the project planning increases and risk of loss also reduces.  (Kimbu & Ngoasong, 2013)

The role of Property development manager is to finalize the purchases of property and manage the work of architectures and construction companies. They have to assure that the construction rules, zoning ordinance, environmental restrictions are met while purchasing the properties. They assess the potentiality of profit by analyzing the population growth, patterns of trade and tax rules. Further they also analyze the economic trends, value of property and zoning ordinance during the assessment of land for purchase (Gao & Mattila, 2014).

The role of construction project managers has the overall responsibilities for the successful planning, execution, monitoring, control and closure of the project. They should have the required skill to judge the task and resolve the conflicts. He is the main person in a Service Team and responsible for successfully deliver the project. They need to work in tight time-schedule with strict budgets and also has to create positive environment and good relationship with the client. They are also responsible for developing the leaders in the offices and on the site and to form the best team that work efficiently and complete the project. Further they are also responsible for planning the time and schedule of delivery of the plan. Furthermore, responsible for day to day task, client assignment, implementation, utilization and technical consultant. They should report the progress of the projects, develop contract with the staffs and produce report on each projects at the mentioned intervals and whenever the situations demand.  (Fazelpour, Soltani & Rosen, 2014)

The Changing Trend of Business Requirement for Facility Management

The facility manager is the responsible for organising the workplace and make sure that the requirement of the employees are met at the workplace.. They have to ensure that the service and process which supports the core business are managed properly. He should ensure that the working environment is suitable for the employees. The facility managers are required for both day-today activities and strategic planning. Their areas of responsibilities are cleaning, vending and catering, maintenance of building and grounds, security, health and safety, space management, procurement management and communications and utilities management (Ćosić et al.,2014).

The responsibility of facility managers covers several department of an organization and ensures that the services are provided to all the employees without any discrimination. Their roles include, supervising and coordinating the contractor’s work, maximising the value of money while purchasing goods and services for the employees, ensuring the safety and security of the staff members, ensures the cleanliness o the environment and similar other roles (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). 

The town Planner is a person who designs the town and can influence the   life of the people residing in the town. He is an influential person and has a role in planning the design of the town with households, business and children. He is responsible for the cleanliness of the town and proper planning for household construction, efficient business areas and beatification of the town (Buonomano et al.,2015).        All the four profiles differ from each other and concentrate on their job. The property developer task is to make investment in fruitful properties for the company whereas the construction project manger task comes after the property developer. He is concerned with the completion of the construction within the time-frame. Further the facilities manager is responsible for the facilities provided at the workplace for the employees where as the town planner is responsible for the proper planning of the town with availability of necessary things in the town. All the positions are important at their level (Benn,Dunphy & Griffiths, 2014). 

Sustainability means use of materials in activities that protect the environment from any kind of depletion. It is a practice through which the environment can be saved from getting affected from usage of products that are not friendly to environment. The sustainability in construction refers to the use of material for creating structures should be environmentally friendly with respect to design, operation construction, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction. The terms used for sustainable buildings are green construction, high performing building and green building (Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer 2014).

The organization should try to prioritize energy consumption while construction of buildings, they should not waste water and must think of water conservation strategies. The waste disposal should be effective and can be used to produce natural gas. The practice of sustainable building is about integrating operations, constructions, designs and maintenance. The sustainable buildings construction does not only think of obtaining return on investment but it improves the entire life cycle of the project and also benefits the society by saving the environment. Sustainability refers to reduce disposal cost by recycling the waste and optimising the use of resource. Also, using materials which are less harmful to the environment for construction purpose (Ayoub et al., 2014). 

Understanding the Hotel Feasibility Study

The example of sustainable construction technique is to build the buildings with keeping in mind the 3Rs, i.e. Reduces, Re-uses, Recycles. One of the examples of sustainable construction is Gish Apartment in SanJose, California which has received LEED certification for Homes. The important sustainable feature is the rooftop which is of photovoltaic system that gives 30% of the electricity for the common areas in the buildings. The material used for construction was environmentally preferable materials. The construction waste is diverted from the landfill. Further the building uses 36% less indoor water. The buildings in order to save water are using air-cooled chillers rather than water-cooled chiller.LED lights are used wherever possible to save electricity and 80% of the construction waste was diverted from landfills. Further, daylight sensors, extra insulations, condensed gas boilers and extensive skylights are some of the key usage to maintain sustainability in the building. Lastly, low-emitting paints, carpeting, coatings and good air ventilation are used for sustainability (Uecker & Walker, 2012).

The people involved in business activities in the region should be educated by the need of sustainable development in the country to protect the resources from depletion The growing need of sustainable practices should be understood by them and they need to be educated about it so that they can meet the sustainable requirement in their operations. The demand for sustainable development that needs to be present in today’s business widely varies from that of traditional requirements.

The construction contractors, the hotel managers, the facility managers and other people involved in hotel business activity should be aware of what sustainability means and should practice it at every stage of business. It will set the trend and in future the practice of sustainability wil becomes the regular practice. Sustainability is important to save the country and the world from the continuous depletion of resources and improve the environmental conditions which is important for healthy survival of human being. 

References

Ayoub, N., Musharavati, F., Pokharel, S. and Gabbar, H.A., (2014). Energy consumption and conservation practices in Qatar—A case study of a hotel building. Energy and Buildings, 84, pp.55-69.

Bebbington, J., Unerman, J., & O'Dwyer, B. (2014). Sustainability accounting and accountability. Routledge

Benn, S., Dunphy, D., & Griffiths, A. (2014). Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.

Buonomano, A., Calise, F., Palombo, A., & Vicidomini, M. (2015). Energy and economic analysis of geothermal–solar trigeneration systems: A case study for a hotel building in Ischia. Applied Energy, 138, 224-241.

Carroll, A. B., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Ćosić, B., Vujanović, M., Perković, L., Mikulčić, H., Novosel, T., Tomić, T., & Duić, N. (2014). Pre-feasibility study of new solar cooling/heating system in hotel “Marina”-ADRIACOLD Project Deliverable 6.2.

Fazelpour, F., Soltani, N., & Rosen, M. A. (2014). Feasibility of satisfying electrical energy needs with hybrid systems for a medium-size hotel on Kish Island, Iran. Energy, 73, 856-865.

Gao, Y. L., & Mattila, A. S. (2014). Improving consumer satisfaction in green hotels: The roles of perceived warmth, perceived competence, and CSR motive. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 42, 20-31.

Kimbu, A. N., & Ngoasong, M. Z. (2013). Centralised decentralisation of tourism development: a network perspective. Annals of Tourism Research,40, 235-259.

Kim, Y. C., Hong, W. H., & Zhang, Y. L. (2014). A study on the efficient method of information offering through survey of asbestos awareness of deteriorated apartment facility managers. Journal of the architectural institute of Korea planning & design, 30(1), 217-224.