Service: The Main Essence Of Hospitality

Service: The Main Essence Of Hospitality Service is the main essence of Hospitality .Guest service means being attentive to the guest request and needs. Good quality service is the main essence to run a good hotel and it can achieve by creating such a environment for the guest that should give feeling of Home away from home. Guest should feel comfortable and relaxed while staying in the hotel. Every guest should be handled as special customer which help in making good relation with the guest. It does not matter how good is the ambience, how tasty the food is, its always the service and attentiveness which guest experiences which determines their return in the hotel. Hospitality is known for its generously providing kindness and care, who is in need. Knowing what exactly the customer expects is the first and most important step in delivering good quality service.You cannot give quality service without knowing customer expectations. Hotels or inns are believed to have started around 12000 years ago.Traveling concept started in Greece and ancient Rome in 800BC-146BC.Early warriors and traders were the travelers.In thosedays accommodation means offering a cot or a bench in corner of a room or astable, most of them were private residences that used to give temporary residence or give loading to strangers.In the Dark Ages travelers had little choice except to stay in monasteries that offered food and shelter.The idea of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹hosting travelers was taken even further when trade and commerce began to boom, prompting taverns and inns to arise, especially in ports cities. That time sanitation and privacy was not in exist.When money came in establishment in 6th century BC, hospitality was one of the first enterprises where money was exchanges for receiving service.Inthose days Hotels or inns not used to operate for 24 hours, after a certain hour the main door of residence would close andafte r that one cannot enter although you are a customer. These Residences or inns were generally situated near intersection of two major roads or near railway station or at the entry of a city. Since then Hospitality industry has grown into a highly competitive industry (WelingkarI., 2011). Hospitality now just not about getting from point A to point B,its about how you go to your destination forwarded by how much you enjoyed your stay. Tourism plays an important role in the growth of throughout the hospitality industry because people will never stop traveling and while traveling they always require a place to stay. Intelligent commercial planners have realized the industries potential and are taking advantage of the same by providing all the wants and needs of potential guests. Hotel operators are radically changing the service manner in which they provide food,drinks,and accommodation within the organization,the main reason for doing so is that hospitality industry is movingvery promptly. Customers are varying, technology and markets are changing rapidly.Managers are reexamining their existing service offering and deciding which innovation will create more value.Managers are researching on innovation, which are economically sustainable to the organization but also delivering additional value to their customers. Each year Market Metrix evaluates industry best practices and publishes Hospitality Trends and Opportunities. One important trend is to focus on is Personalization and it is impacting customer engagement and loyalty for hospitality companies.(Merchant, 2011) Hotel industry has changed a lot compared to recent years and is changing continuously. Numbers of changes are coming in way to give service to guest. New applications are coming in the market that is helping in providing better customer service.They make a big difference in terms of winning new businesses and new customers.Technologies continue evolving to make it as easy to use as possible for the hotels staff.In the past, the systems that hotel staff uses have been traditionally designed and required a great deal of training in order to be used successfully.Hotel technology will continue to evolve and improve so that training is minimized and the type of training that the hotels can concentrate on will be on hospitality-oriented, customer facing services.The main emphasis is on how to treat the guests, not how to deal with computer systems. Service innovation not only involves new ideas or new technology but modifying and renovating existing ideas by new and unique thinking.The main objective of innovation is to improve operations, guest service and revenues. However, Hotel industry is one of the oldest industries so it is not easy to innovate in industry with traditional methods. Service science gives us a good chance to innovate services in a new day. As a growing industry, hotel industry includes all types of accommodations from 5 star luxurious properties to youth hostels, which offers a variety of services including but not limited to food, beverage, laundry and valet services. Servqual and TQM-Total quality management are the two widely used concepts within service industries to understand the perceptions of target customers regarding their service needs. And to provide ameasurement of the service quality of the organization.Servqual is an empirically derived method that may be used by a services organization toimprove service quality.The method involves the development of an understanding of the perceived service needs of target customers.These measured perceptions of service quality for the organization in question, are then compared against an organization that is excellent.The resulting gap analysis is used as a driver for service quality improvement(lalvanzonline,2011).TQM processes are mainly divided into four general categories: plan, do, check, and act also called as PDCA cycle. In the planning ,people define the problem to be addressed, collect relevant data, and ascertain the problems root cause; in the doing phase, people develop and implement a solution, and decide upon a measurement to gauge its effectiveness; in the checking phase, people confirm the results through before-and-after data comparison; in the acting phase, people document their results, inform others about process changes, and make recommendations for the problem to be addressed in the next PDCA cycle (Margaret Rouse,2005) The boutique hotel is an excellent example of innovation offering in hospitality industry. A boutique hotel is one that is generally not chain-affiliated, features an intimate, stylish appearance and provides impeccable amenities(Cathy Rogers,2011). The target market for most boutique hotels is the 25-55 age range, most within the middle to upper income level.These hotels are generally situated in a stylish location .The goal for a boutique hotel is a level of personalized service not necessarily doable in a larger hotel. At many boutique hotels, the staff knows each guest by their name. Most offer 24-hour guest services. Some offer the comforts of canopy beds, bathrobes and fireplaces in the lobby. Others offer healthy food choices, mind and body themes and on-site bookstores.As a boutique hotel varies in other features, so does its technological amenities. While some offer the latest in technology, others focus on a calm, soothing environment. To some patrons, the bed and breakfast concept may be similar to that of the boutique hotel. Many boutique hotels have on-site, reputable dining, as well as bar and lounge areas that are also open to the public. As the trend continues to grow, many hotels market themselves as boutique; most being small, luxury type hotels worldwide. Eva Floor is also a new concept which has started in India, by The ITC group, called Eva Floor which means a floor only for ladies travelers. Seven hotels have currently been outfitted with the Eva Floors.The main concept to come up with such idea is to provide maximum safety and security to ladies travellers. Amenities on the Eva floors include extra security in the form of double latches, special floor access cards, all-women staff and a separate check-in counter. Women like pretty colors, hate harsh lighting, are prone to lay around a lot, and spend most of the time in the bathrooms, the rooms are decorated in soft pastels, have special lighting, separate day beds for an afternoon nap, larger counters for cosmetics, high-end toiletries, silk robes and bathroom slippers, more powerful hair dryers, and ironing boards (Juliana, 2005). A good and important invention in Hotel services is the use of Information Technology. IT innovation are beneficial and have future benefits for Hotels.IT is playing a very important role in hospitality industry.Technology powers and contributes to the growth to practically every industry in the present age. Hotel industry too isnt insulated from its effects. Many new technologies have invented to run the system smooth and flexible. IT has minimized the human efforts in many levels. Some of the good examples of IT innovations includes Express check In/Check Out, , internet check in/check outs, wake up system , electronic door locks ,in-room pay-per-view, electronic safe guards, express check-in/out systems, CD/Dvd Players, voice mails, multiple phone lines,electronic mini bars. Technology powers and contributes to the growth to practically every industry in the present age. Hotel industry too isnt insulated from its effects. Many new technologies have invented to run the system smoot h and flexible. Now, with the invention of the internet and other electronic channels, new media offers an avenue for hospitality companies to gain an advantage. At one time travel agents were almost controlled the hospitality industry. They were largely responsible for creating guests travel plans and offering specified rates. While large chains and big time destinations can afford traditional marketing channels, smaller, independent entities can gain an advantage through new hospitality concepts. Companies such as Expedia, Tripadvisor, and TravelCLICK help level the playing field and empower the host as well as the traveler more than ever before in the history of the hospitality industry. Globallypeople are working overtime to take advantage internet, in order to catalyze their sales and to improve customer relations.Internet is playing a key role in development of hotel industry today. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. are interestingly playing a dominant role in strategies of h otels all over. User generated feedbacks and reviews on such websites play a huge role in popularizing the services of hotels by word of mouth. Further, it also becomes easier to stay in touch with and maintain relationships with ex-clients by making use of online tools. The number of travelers booking and researching online is growing impressively. According to one research, more than 114 million people will research travel online this year, while 94 million will actually book reservations. While more than 50 percent of travel bookings are made on the Internet, the online travel market has matured and expects modest growth and stabilization. More and more travelers are using their mobile devices to not only research lodging and travel options, but to book and communicate room preferences directly with the hotel. Mobile channel booking has increased four times between 2008 and 2010 according to Forrester Research. Google is projecting that mobile will overtake PCs as the most common Web-access device by 2013. With travelers adopting smartphones and tablets at such a rapid pace, its crucial for hoteliers to optimize their website for mobile usage to capture potential mobile transactions(RobertRauch,2011). About a decade ago, hotel industry was much more concern on people who are now mostly in their 50s and 60s but now hotel industry has started to anticipate a group of travelers who are in their 20s to mid-30s and are very important for economic growth. They are more attracted towards technology, social media and design. Many hotels are renovating their existing hotels or introducing new ones with free hotel wide Wi-Fi connections, large welcoming lobbies with modern age ambience, comfortable fittings, state-of-the-art fitness areas; in-room power consoles to plug in iPads, laptops and other devices; and stylish bar. Some are also coming up with night social events, like happy hours and free wine tastings, aimed at attracting smartphone generation to their hotels . The changes involves higher-quality beds, brighter lighting and bigger work spaces. And those travelers were loyal to brands that offered reliable, comfortable services. Wi-Fi service is not only demanded but expected. Hig h-speed Internet is as essential as beds and towels (Janet Morrissey, 2012).Younger travelers tend to visit three or four different restaurants and bars a night, so hotels are opening up multiple bars and lounges with different themes at different times of the day to attract new crowd . Many many new concepts are which offers free daily events, including tea tastings, yoga sessions and wine tastings etc.(Stowe Boyd, 2011). The Arrabelle at Vail Square is implementing IntelityICE (Interactive Customer Experience) mobile technology for guests to use on Android, Apple smartphones and tablets. The Arrabelles traditional amenities, from in-room fireplaces to snuggly robes, will be complemented by the arrival of the most innovative, modern in-room technology available.After simply downloading the ICE app, all of the hotels services can be accessed directly from the palm of a guests hand. At the touch of a finger, guests can make a housekeeping request or look up information about the hotel and local attractions. They can also conveniently view signature dishes, like Executive Chef Douglas Dodds lobster mac and cheese, available at Vails hot new food and drink spot, Tavern on the Square (Hospitality Technology, 2011). Breadcrumb, an easy-to-use, powerful and affordable iPad point-of-sale (POS) system helps hotels to run their restaurants, bars and cafes more effectively. Breadcrumb combines intuitive and sophisticated software with outstanding support. Breadcrumb removes the complexities, frustrations and high costs common to legacy POS solutions. Breadcrumb streamlines all activity at local restaurants, cafes and bars, from taking and placing orders, to table management, payment processing and analyzing sales so merchants can learn about and improve their businesses.Servers can search for menu items or rearrange tables with a finger swipe, software updates are free and automatic, and we even ship new customers an all-in-one Breadbox that contains all hardware required to get started.Everything a restaurant or bar needs to operate more efficiently and deliver impeccable customer service. Breadcrumb has a full range of features that allows hospitality businesses to manage labor, take orders, proces s payments and analyze performance. Users can merge or split checks, add or adjust menu items, set employee access levels, view real-time sales and labor reports and more. The Plaza, the landmark New York City hotel located on Central Park South,have taken hotel lodging to a whole new, high tech level began by offering iPads in each of its guests rooms.The first hotel in the world to provide not only a tablet for each guest room, but a tablet with Intelitys ICE (Interactive Customer Experience) software to offer guests services and room controls.These iPads gives the abilities to guests to control hotel services and customizable content.These iPads are incorporated with the functions like to check flights, order room service, make dinner reservations, coordinate transportation, reach the concierge, request wake-up calls, explore destination guides and call a housekeeper (Katie Kindelan, 2011).Intelity has released the highlights of a two-year study of guestroom iPad usage. The first such study conducted using data from actual hotel guest usage.The study showed that 82% of guests used the tablet during their stays on a year-round basis. April had the hi ghest average guest usage at 91% (Hotel Technology, 2012). The industrys concern towards security has increased impressively due to severalterrorist attacks worldwide in recent years, and also because of the tourists kidnappings, robberies and assaults.Security of all types of hospitality and tourismoperations is critical and plans should bemade for each kind of threat.Personal safety of guests is the first priority (Walker, 2010). Increased security measures have forced hotel industry to upgraded their security measures by investingmillions of dollars in order to give the topmost security to the guests (Hall etal, 2003). Who Am I Now? Reflective Education Essay Who Am I Now? Reflective Education Essay My name is Muhammad Razin bin Amir Hamzah and I used to be called as Razin. I am 21 years old. Currently, I am furthering my study in Bachelor of Science in Computing under University of Wales, United Kingdom. Now, I am in the second year. There is only one year to go for me to complete my study. I enrolled in this course to fulfill my aspiration towards becoming the next Steve Job, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple Incorporation. It took 21 years to create where I am today. Within these years I worked hard to get where I am right now. The best way to know where am I now is by looking into my strengths and weaknesses. I have analysed, evaluated, and looked deep inside myself to determine the weaknesses and strengths of my true character. Positive attitude and patience are the two important strengths that I have built in me. These two characteristics have contributes to my career, my learning and almost everything in my personal life. On the other hand, the two aspects of myself that I need to improve are my organization skills and my public speaking skills. Having positive attitude is vital. This leads to a motivated learning team, a comfortable working environment, and a happy personal life. It is hard to find a scenario in which a person with positive attitude and full of compliments to be scolded. No negative or bad attitudes make my personal life great. I socialized with my family with happy and respectful thoughts which motivate them to share their happiness with me and others. My attitude keeps people around me in a good mood. This personal characteristic of mine allows me to manage the tense situations during my study sessions, especially when I have to answer assignment questions and submit them before the due date. Being positively motivated, I encourage others to be compliant and respectful. Positive attitude will be beneficial in my learning team because it will promote teamwork and friendship. I think a happy and friendly team will be more productive than a team that always argues and disagrees. My second strength is patience. We will feel comfortable when we speak to someone who is patient. People with patience do not interrupt others, instead they listen and try to be helpful. In my personal life, I have an autistic nephew who needs people with a lot of patience. Being bossy, angry, and snappy will only make me hard to handle him. I have to talk slowly and repeat my words several times so that he will understand me. In my study environment, it is also imperative that I have patience. I have to deal with tough and difficult assignment questions. Each question has its own degree of difficulties. Thus, I need to conquer each of the questions with my best answer and support it with reasonable evidence. I have to patiently search for the articles on the respective topics and provide my best answer to ensure that I get good results in my study. In addition, patience is a must when participating in a team environment. When many people get together in a team, things often progress very fast. However, sometimes things get sloppy or get misunderstood. With patience, I can maintain consistency and accurateness within an organization. Having described my strengths, I must now turn to reveal my weaknesses. I must say that I am not a superhuman or a perfect person. My weaknesses often frustrate and challenge me, but my positive attitude forces me to correct my weaknesses and win over them. My first weakness, I must admit, is public speaking. I get very nervous. The sign is my hands get clammy and begins to sweat. Droplets of water appear on my face and I mumble my words when I start to speak in front of large group of people. This problem neither gives a huge impact in my personal life nor affects my on-line learning team, but it does affect my daily duties at college. I speak with others in college, especially with my friends, regarding general knowledge and current issues. I am told that my nervousness does not show, but before and during every speech I feel my hands shake, my feet get clammy, and my face starts to sweat. Over the years, I have fought this battle of public speaking by doing many things. First, I h ave completed a college level English class. Second, I completed a college level speech class. Recently, I took an English tuition class to enhance my communication skill and widen my English vocabulary. My second blind spot that I must admit is my lack of organization skill. I organize my assignment papers by tossing them on my study desk. Thus, I will avoid looking at them. It is hard for me to find my belongings especially in my study room because of my unorganized attitudes. When the assignment season arrives, it will be a disaster for me. I often lose my important notes and my framework papers. These matters has made me spend twice the actual time needed to accomplish my task. I lose valuable times for this reason, whereas I could have used those precious times together with my family. Besides that, this will seriously affect my learning team. Before it gets much more severe, I have to improve my deportment and be a better organised person. I will not frighten up myself when I see papers containing college assignments. What I need to help me overcome my problem are a desk together with filing cabinets and a day planner calendar. The fears of obtaining a bad result in my diploma level made me realize that organization skill is crucial to succeed in life, especially in my study. WHAT DO I WANT TO ACCOMPLISH? My short term goal is to finish my undergraduate program with a first class honours. In other words, I want to complete my study with flying colours. This is because the only commitment that I have now is being a full time student. So, my part is just to concentrate on my studies and struggle hard to achieve my ambition towards becoming the Information Technology lecturer. By building up a good academic base, I can hunt the job I wanted very fast without any resistance. Besides, by achieving good results, I will be exempted from paying back Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) loan. This will surely reduce my family burden to settle off my carried loan. My long term goal is that I will be counted among successful lecturer. I do often ask myself, what a better job would be than to be a lecturer. The answer is none. I believe that the ability to change and improve the world to be a better place for people to live starts from the effort and idea given by the educator. So, it will be my huge contribution to the society. I set high objectives for me as an educator and put a very great effort to accomplish my goals. I began to realize that awesome teachers have their own distinctive skills which I need to learn. Following their examples can make me become someone in the society. To be good at elucidating the contents of a subject, to be firm and patient towards students, to be always fair to students, to set high and realistic expectations, to have the skills to advice and motivate others are some of the indicators that are needed to become a great teacher. A great teacher will explain questions asked by their students and make them fully understand, and not let their students walk away in doubt. Brainstorming will be the best tool used by extraordinary teachers to convey particular lesson plan if their student did not understand. He or she would think, How am I going to explain this particular concept to my student and they need to understand clearly what I am teaching? This is the type of teacher I intend to be. Ability to inspire others is not just a gift or an opportunity but its a challenge. Currently, we can see that there are thousands of educators still with their old mind-set and do not like to accept this challenge. This serious matter need to be changed. Nowadays, students are being forced to school. Most of the time, students will think that learning is not their main priority but teaching is a teachers job. Students always learn but they may not be interested with the lesson taught by their teacher. An excellent teacher is not just an expert in his or her field, but he or she must be aware of the current issues and prepare himself or herself to teach something else. Some things can prove to be more valuable than knowledge itself, which are morals and character. I want to inspire the children who will represent the future of our great nation. In life, I tried to make many spectacular teachers that have taught me to be my role models. From the characteristic listed, I intend to grab them to become an excellent teacher. HOW DO I ACHIEVE IT? During my undergraduate program, I took a Computer Science course. This will help me to dual master myself, in Information Technology and in teaching. Most of the minor classes that I enrolled were communication and psychology, which would help me in my career as a teacher. Other than that, I also taught in a private tuition centres as my part-time job. During that time, I spent considerable amount of time observing classrooms. With strong education background and wide range of experience which I gained in the classroom, I realize that teaching will be the most suitable career for me. Meanwhile, I work as a personal Information Technology consultant for Smart Academic Management for about two years. This company was doing motivation work for universitie and college students. During this period of time, I am polishing my programming skills. Sometimes, I was given the opportunity to enrol in motivation programmes together with students. This exposes me to different range of human behav iours and life backgrounds especially those involving youngsters. Other than that, I do read a lot of articles regarding teaching methodology, student behaviour, and psychology. There are around 19 encyclopaedias in my book rack regarding software development and psychology. I often make my readings at night after performing my night prayers. I will make my own mind map to make me understand more and to get clear picture about the contents of books that I read. I do virtually contact my foreign friends via internet. This will help me keep in touch with their education line in Australia and Russia. Now, I need to start planning where to open my own private learning centre and how to enhance my marketing strategies. WHAT MIGHT STOP ME? I believe that, the time I set my goal there will be the obstacles to stop me achieving it. The most common barrier to reaching my potential is my mind-set, that is, what and how I think about myself and what I wish to achieve. I limit myself by the negative thoughts that I think and I may say. If I think and believe that I cannot accomplish something, then that will come true and I will fail. However, when I think that I can accomplish a task, or overcome a situation and I put in the effort, my future will turn bright. I will only succeed when I start to take control and action to change my destiny towards the goal rather than leave it to fate. Some people said that they have done some work and failed in their first trial. Thus they have not continued working on it anymore. This is just an irrelevant excuse. The solution for this is to reset our mind-set to believe in ourselves and achieve our goal in any way possible. Having failed in the past, does not mean that I will fail again and again for the rest of my life. I should think of things that happened in past in terms of what I can learn from them; seeing all the pass experience as feedback rather than as failure. I should think in this way Yesterday mining is for todays goal. The failure in my past will make me more matured. The past will be beneficial as I can learn from my mistakes. The only thing I can do about my past is to learn from it because the past is over and I cannot change them. Thinking negatively can really stop me from reaching my potential. Negative influences are always around us. Mass media such as radio and idiot box may pass some inappropriate message that can predispose our mind-set. Sometimes I do get negative feedback from family members and friends who are trapped in a negative mind-set. They believe that they are helping me by being realistic but it is not helping at all. The best solution is that I should make myself surrounded by positive minded people, people who work hard to a chieve their goals. Having positive support is vital. On the other hand, another obstacle that stops me from reaching my potential from being successful is inadequate of plan. Too many people including myself walk through their life simply by taking what is handed to them. The decision made by others will be the decision for themselves. I seldom make my duty plan for the weeks or months ahead. It is so essential that I take some time to start setting up my goals. During the process I can find out how to accomplish those aims, and make suitable timeline for me to have it done. This vital process is often neglected. To set goals starts with listing out what am I going to accomplish. They are those people who set their goal just to float along without any attention to better their situation. There is also people who have goals but they are unfamiliar with the correct way and proper plan to make their goal come true. I think I can be categorised under this type of person.