The hospitality industry has strong market competition; therefore, customer satisfaction and retaining loyalty will be crucial for a hotel’s success. The concept of quality management in hospitality industry is very important. The hospitality industry is one of the most important industries in the world that has been growing at unprecedented rate owing to the increased rate of globalization. The increased activities in tourism industry and increased international trade are among the factors that have led to increased growth of the hospitality industry.
Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business excellence by improving customer satisfaction, cost effectiveness and competitive advantage. This methodology is useful for the hospitality industry. In a hotel, any quality problem will encourage guest complaints. A hotel serves human beings and everyone has different preferences and requirements which makes it more difficult to control quality in a hotel.
For successful TQM practice, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the business strategy and to align the goals both horizontally and vertically throughout the various levels within the organization. In a typical hotel, there are three vertical levels – the senior management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor). Horizontally, there are departments – front office, food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales and marketing, human resources, accounting, engineering and culinary. The objective of this study is to provide the highest quality to hotel industry and achieve customer satisfaction.
The flow chart below is about the registration in a hotel which is basically the most important factor for dealing with clients and providing them with total satisfaction. It starts by taking the reservation details and checking if the room is available or not. If it is available we reserve it and calculate the price. If the client accepts it, we reserve the room; if not it will be the end of the process.
Policies and Procedures
- A summary of policies and procedures are mentioned below:
- Familiarize the customer with the product & its unique selling points to secure a business deal and present hotel’s products, services and amenities to existing and potential customers
- Ensure having a cohesive corporate structure and a systematic approach to setting the rates. Ensure that all set rates have been coordinated with all concerned offices.
- Ensure that the last impression received by at the hotel property is as favourable as possible: Departure follow up, Check in, Check out, Delayed rooms, Meet and greet escorting policy.
- All incidents or accidents should be reported in the same fashion and necessary follow-up should be carried out. All cases need to be closed officially.
- To preserve and facilitate its cleanliness, the Security and the staff house Supervisor should control all the activities as well as the maintenance requests and should maintain a logbook for record purposes and to update the HR Department.
- It is the Management’s objective to provide appropriate and convenient employee housing and secure a high standard of cleanliness and hygiene.
- All employees are entitled to a well-furnished, clean, tidy and comfortable accommodation as per the individual employment contract.
- To provide a reasonably safe space for employees to keep their uniforms and personal clothes during their service
- Payments made from Front Office should be properly authorized, collected and recorded.
- All daily cash collections must be safely dropped in the safe and taken out by General Cashier for bank deposit with proper authorization.
- Different areas of the within the hotel related to employees must be maintained according to the hotel standards.
- Protect the employers/employees rights with regards to sickness remuneration and absence at work.
We can find below a deep explanation of procedures for policy No. 3 mentioned above:
Departure Follow-Up:
- Departures should be checked 1 day prior to actual check-out date. This enables the inventory to be updated in sufficient time and the hotels daily selling strategy adjusted accordingly.
- It is recommended that a departure letter is sent one day prior advising guests of the departure procedures and requesting an attached guest questionnaire to be completed.
Check-in:
- Ideally on arrival all guests will be met by either the Doorman or the Concierge upon arrival.
- No guest arriving at the hotel property should have to wait longer than five minutes to complete the check-in process.
- All staff handling check-ins in the hotel must be trained on the technical procedure and display speed accuracy and confidence. They must also receive training on the required interpersonal skills displaying genuine warmth, friendliness and professional courtesy to all guests.
- Trainees must never be permitted to check-in guests alone, and in the training process must wear a trainee badge at all times.
- Registration cards should be prepared in advance for all arriving guests and contain all the available information from reservations. Guest history records for regular guests must always be pre-checked for individual preferences.
- Rooms for guests with special requests should be pre-allocated whether guaranteed or not (e.g. Smoking / Non-Smoking or Connecting Rooms).
- VIP rooms should be pre-allocated on a priority basis and treatment should be ready in the room on arrival.
- Check-in procedures should include Guest Service standards, administrative requirements, accounting practices and local governmental requirements.
- When possible, registration cards for group arrivals will be supplied to the agent prior to arrival. Groups and crews should, as far as possible, be registered at a different check-in area from the main reception desk.
Check-Out:
- No guest staying at the hotel will have to wait longer than 10 minutes to complete the check-out process.
- To facilitate this process sufficient staff should be scheduled to cover peak check-out periods and all documents relevant to the guest’s account will be readily available at check-out. Postings should always be double-checked to avoid disputed charges.
- Sufficient procedures should be in place whilst the guest is in-house to ensure that regular checks of the guest account and billing / credit requirements are up to date.
- As the last impression, the check-out must be as professionally and courteously completed as the check-in was. Satisfaction with the stay must always be established by the receptionist during the check-out process, and therefore those staff must also have received training on how to handle a complaint.
- Requests for a late check-out must always be approved by the Front Office Manager or designate. The official check-out time is at 12 noon and according to availability; check-out may be extended to 3pm without any additional charge. After 3pm and at the discretion of the Front Office Manager, 50% of the room rate given may be charged, and after 18.00 Hrs a full nights charge should be applied.
