Management Strategies For Higher Education: Room Division Department Essay.

Room Division Department

Discuss about the Management strategies for higher education.

In this report as a consultant I have taken Room division department to explain role of outsource services and how an organisation can be benefitted from outsourcing. Room division department is the main source of revenue generation. It is the largest department, as it includes combination of departments such as front desk, reservations, housekeeping and laundry department. Some hotels include laundry service in housekeeping department, while some have separate department. The room division department provides all the services expected by guests during their stay (Beckers, Voordt & Dewulf, 2015). Room division is a part of accommodation management. The accommodation has important role in the overall experience of travellers.  It is a big part of traveller’s expenditure. The department provides accommodation according to the taste and budget of guests. It is the responsibility of department to train staff and maintain quality standards. The department collects the largest revenue from the sale of guest rooms. The role and functions of room division department are explained. The report also explains the role and need of customers. The benefits and drawbacks of using outsourcing in department are also discussed.

Room division is the department which first contact with customers. It is the prime job of department to make guests comfortable. The majority of the revenue of hotels is collected from the room division department. The division is composed of four different departments:

Front office is usually located at the entrance of hotel. It registers guests, assigns rooms and keeps record of their check-in and check-out. The front office also includes cash section. The department is responsible to coordinate with guests and fulfilling their needs. The guest relies on the department throughout their stay for service. It also prepares summary of all department revenues.

The reservation department is responsible for receiving and processing reservation. The staff maintains reservation records and tracks availability of rooms to make sure that no date is overbooked. The reservation can be done by telephone, travel agents and walk-in. The guests usually prefer to do reservation online as nobody want to wait. The department considers two type of reservation- confirmed and guaranteed (Gössling & Lane, 2015).

 Housekeeping department is responsible for cleanliness of rooms, washrooms and public area. The department employs large number of people. The staff takes charge of bed-making and take care of press control. The staff makes stay of guests pleasant by taking care of them from check-in to check-out. Managing linen is also important task of staff.

Role, Task, and Functions of Room Division

The laundry department coordinates with housekeeping department to know the daily needs of laundry. The department ensures that the quality of sheets, napkins and towels is maintained. It also keeps check on the laundry and removes the stained clothes. It keeps stock of material and linen required for daily operation.

Room division department provides every type of service desired by employees to make their stay convenient and memorable. It is the first department where guest approaches. It contributes maximum revenue and profits. The department assigns work to supervisors and prepares all the necessary documents required for the day to day operation. The functions of room division can be understand by it’s departments.

Front office: The guests rely on front office throughout their stay. The functions of department are

• The department register guests and assign them rooms.
• Keeps record of check-in and check-out of guests.
• Provides information about the accommodation and attraction to guests.
• Provides every kind of service required by guests.
• It performs book keeping duties by balancing cash accounts.
• Schedules staff in different departments of hotel.
• Handles complain and request of guests.

Reservation: The reservation can be done online or by telephone and walk-in. The department ensures availability of rooms by keeping check on the availability of rooms. The functions performed by the department are:

• The department assures availability of room by guaranteed reservation. The department provides the room even the guest arrives late (Farzadnia & Giles, 2015).
• It makes arrival of guests easy by doing reservation on real time.
• Avoid customer resentment of being overcharged.

Housekeeping: It takes charge of cleaning in accommodation. The department employs large number of employees. The functions can be prescribed as:

• The staff of cleaning ensures cleaning of rooms, lobby, washrooms and public area.
• The pest control service is also performed by the department.
• Takes care of equipment needed in accommodation and carries repair work whenever required.
• Takes charge of bed making to provide extra comfort to guests.
• The department handles keys of room before check-in and after check-out of guests.
• Ensures safety by taking care of the belongings of guests.

Laundry: The department manages the linen supply. It includes supply of napkins, towel, bathrobe and bed sheets. It also provides stream pressing service to guests.

• It performs the function of dry-cleaning for guests.
• It manages the supply of linen for housekeeping staff.
• The department also takes care of the uniform of staff in hotel.

It is essential to fulfil need of customers to attain loyalty of customers. It is the only thing which can bring a customer back. The major duty of department is to provide service to customers. In result it can create positive experience. If any customer complaints, the department immediately tries to resolve the problem so that they do not face any problem. The guests first interact at front office, which is a part of room division (Jones & Giacon, 2017). It maintains account of guests from their arrival to stay and departure. The reservation department confirms the availability of rooms. It allots rooms to the customers who have already registered. The department also provides guaranteed reservation. The housekeeping is the also one of the departments of room division. It ensures cleaning of accommodation. There are some other tasks which are performed by them such as pest controlling, linen management and repairing equipment (Harder, Wagner & Rash, 2016). At last, the laundry department makes available linen such as towel, napkins and bed sheets. The department also takes charge of washing and dry cleaning linen. Torn and damaged linen are dumped by the department. It also carries laundry function for guests. The needs of customers are:

Role of Customer and Customer Needs

Deliver what was promised: It has been always important to keep customers happy and engaged. To make sure visit of customers again, it is important to deliver what was promised. The front office management takes charge of it.

Conducts reservation inquiry: The reservation department conducts reservation inquiry. The room also determines the availability and rate of rooms. The customers can easily resolve their inquiry at reservation department (Saló, et. al.  2014). The department is responsible for maintaining reservation record.

Cleanliness and hygiene: A high standard of cleanliness is maintained in the accommodation by housekeeping department to keep customers engaged. It puts positive impact on guests. Hygiene is maintained in the washrooms and public area.

Laundry services: The staff of laundry department handles laundry of accommodation and in some cases guest laundry is also handled. The department also carries task of cleaning linen such as washing and ironing. It also takes charge of purchasing linen (Ofodile, 2015). 

Accommodation manager makes all the necessary arrangements for the training of staff to ensure efficient working of accommodation.

• Accommodation manger is responsible for the safety of guests who make visit to hotel.
• Monitors the performance of department by investigation.
• Analyse the service provided by the departments.
• Takes room division and operations meeting (Zhu & Sun, 2017).
• Determines the price of rooms.
• Reviews arrival and departure of the day.

Outsourcing is contracting with companies to facilitate activities of organisation. It holds competitive advantage. Outsourcing can be used to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Laundry, horticulture and pest control are the areas where department can easily outsource services. A department can better focus on the performance by outsourcing it’s activities. The senior manager has been advised by the consultant to outsource companies. The service provided by outsource companies is professional and ensures growth and development. Outsourcing is feasible for room division department. The staff employed by outsource companies is expert and reduces the burden in front office management (Pathumporn & Nakapaksin, 2016). The department can save the time of recruiting staff by contracting with outsource companies. The department can save the time of training as the staff recruited by such companies is already trained. It is also seen that staff recruited by outsource companies is good in maintaining reservation system and laundry department. The tough decision in outsourcing is to choose the relevant company which is serving from years.

Benefits of outsourcing are:

Expert staff: The staff provided by the outsource companies has usually better understanding of front office management and are expert in performing their tasks (Panke, Svede & Jaschinski,  2017).  

Cost saving: Outsourcing helps in saving costs, taxes, resources and time. The department does not have need to conduct session for recruitments. The hotel just contacts to the outsource companies and it makes available the staff in short span of time and at less prices (Álvarez-García, et. al. 2017).

Steps taken by Accommodation Manager

Customer satisfaction:  It has seen that the guests are more satisfied when the staff is skilled and expert. As they wisely handle problem and request of customers. Such staff is bound to perform certain level of service and quality. 

No investment: The department do not have need to invest capital for equipment. There is always availability of cash for conducting activities. In the laundry department, the hotel does not have need to maintain machines for washing and dry cleaning.

Drawbacks of outsourcing are:

Lack of stability: Outsourced staff kept on changing due to lack of stability. Staff leaves the contract in between order for better opportunities. They also do not have authority to get their problem solved by room division department so it leads to drop their job.

Quality service: Sometimes the staff allocated in the department is not able to perform duties well. That staff may be expert in activities of particular department. So, their skill should be judged sensibly by the outsourced companies (Dimalibot, et. al. 2014).

Loyalty and ethics: The staff is not loyal when it comes to providing service to second party. They use inferior products and it may affect environment. Their work is also unethical.

Higher risk: Outsourcing can sometimes lead to risk and illegal activities. As, sometimes the staff can be involved in some unlawful acts. It is also seen that he staff is also not skilled in the specific section (Mitchell, 2016).

It has been noticed that the hotels can perform effectively by using outsource companies. It helps in gaining competitive advantage. By outsourcing the hotels are able to get quality manpower and specialised services. The staff provided by companies is expert which increases efficiency of departments. The hotels have been successful to save cost of equipment by outsourcing company. The staff competently handles reservation system. They are taught professionally by such companies. It reduces the work load of department by providing better services (Micelotta, 2014). The departments can focus on departments in better way and can get better opportunities in the market. It is also helpful in controlling managerial activities. Outsourcing gives a different recognition in the market.

Conclusion

From this report it has been concluded that room division department provides expert service by it’s different departments such as front office, reservation, housekeeping and laundry department. These departments take care of customers from their check-in to check-out. It fulfils the need of customers above their expectation level which results in positive experience of customers. Outsourcing is also used by the departments to provide better service to guests (Gössling, Hall& Andersson, 2016). It helps in reducing cost and resources of accommodation. It saves time of recruiting staff. The department uses time in better activities which boosts sale of rooms.

References

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Dimalibot, G.A., Diokno, J.D., Icalla, M.F., Mangubat, M.R.C. and Villapando, L.C., 2014. Employment Status of the Tourism Graduates of Batch 2013 in Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 11(1), pp.46-56.

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Saló, A., Garriga, A., Rigall-I-Torrent, R., Vila, M. and Fluvià, M., 2014. Do implicit prices for hotels and second homes show differences in tourists’ valuation for public attributes for each type of accommodation facility?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.120-129.

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