Hotel design affects two major groups: the guests and the employees. The best designs not only anticipate the guests needs and expectations, but also consider the functional requirements of the management and staff. The following takes a look into the physical assets management of a hotel and the management of technology in a hotel.
Physical Assets
The engineering and maintenance function may be taken for granted by hotel guests but provides one final key component of the successful hotel operation. Consider that a 200 room hotel may represent something over a $30 million physical asset, and large urban hotels or destination resorts more than $100 million. The daily operation of the rooms, restaurants, and meeting activities pales in comparison with the importance of operating and protecting such an investment.
The property operations function supports this need. And it is not insubstantial: the property operations budget typically runs about 5-6 percent of gross revenues and energy expense another 3-4 percent. Keeping these unallocated expenses in check is the responsibility of the chief engineer and staff, who perform the following task: repairs and maintenance, energy management, building systems, grounds care, and renovation management.
In the early years in the life of a hotel property, engineering work consists of establishing a preventive maintenance program and making minor repairs. Much of the routine work is completed by the hotel staff but, increasingly, hotels outsource major maintenance contracts, especially where technical expertise or special equipment is required, such as for elevators or escalators, or window washing. As the hotel ages, scheduling of major renovation and refurbishing projects becomes important in order to minimize the downtime of a guestroom, guestroom floor, restaurant, or other public area. Consequently, the work often is done during slow periods or the off-season.
Over the last decade, hoteliers have recognized the need to continually update public ad guestroom areas. Large properties hire a projects manager who reports to the chief engineer and who is responsible for coordinating all capital projects. These projects can become highly complicated, with their own group of specialized contracts, budgets, and schedules. The hotel must supervise major capital projects in order to assure that they do not extend beyond a reasonable completion date, and t participate in the punch list to identify incomplete or unsatisfactory work.
Concern for managing the utility expense often varies depending in par, on media attention placed on energy prices worldwide. "The important to budget travel is to plan onward. When it comes to family trips, globetrotting, well-deserved trips and/or going to see new places we have never been before, the truth of cost and budgeting is generally in the back of our heads. Considering and expending our travel budget correctly is a consideration for most families. Lowering expending and expenses, while still savoring your vacation to its fullest, is the key to certain achievement and fiscal responsibility. Your pocketbook and family will thank you! The reasoning regarding economizing money while journeying is simple: Even if your personal funds is really tight, you can still take a break and enjoy life! Simply put, life is just too short to never step out of the door or leaving the homestead! Also thinking about that while traveling, no matter whether on a funds or not, even the smallest of things can all add op to a large vacation or travel expenses!..". However, because of the not insubstantial magnitude of this expense, energy conservation strategies are vital, demanding staff training as well as systems decisions. Even the choice of light fixtures in public spaces, though seemingly a minor concern, can have a real impact on a hotels annual utility bill. New property management software offers great flexibility in scheduling the operation of major equipment to reduce energy costs. But management may search for other means as well: one of the largest Toronto hotels schedules its laundry operations on the night shift, despite having to pay staff overtime, in order to move the substantial energy use to a lower off-peak rate. This is the essence of energy management.
Knowledge and Technology
Technology-driven entertainment options for both business and leisure oriented guests have become increasingly linked to Internet access. Net access and intelligent rooms are becoming a part of guest service at full-service establishments. For example, in March 1998, one of the first video (and information) on demand systems for the residential and hospitality markets was introduced at the Residence on Georgia condominium and hotel complex in Vancouver, British Columbia. The system lets the 500 residents and guests simultaneously access the Internet, video on demand, cable television, music channels, and security cameras.
Personal data cards will also become more common. These will incorporate guests Internet bookmarks and other customized information. Active badges will give guests automatic access to their rooms and ensure that room lighting, heating, and other functions instantly meet the guests needs. These cards may also be used to generate information that may enable market segmentation to be conducted. Current in room checkout and ordering systems will continue to improve in sophistication and user friendliness, to the point where front desk checkout becomes the exception rather than the norm.
The most common technologies used for hotel management purposes are telephones, faxes, and desktop or portable computers. User-friendly software enables managers and owners to master basic tasks without specific knowledge of accounting or computer techniques.
Milne (2009), in larger hotels, peripherals are usually connected to a central unit. The more advanced property management systems (PMS) provide seamless connections between different elements of a hotels operations and create links to external communication networks. A typical PMS will cover several core elements of a hotels operations:
- Front-office functions: Reservation, registration, checkout; individual, delegate, walk-in, and house account folios are all monitored and updated automatically.
- Guest history: Tracks guest history status, records special requests, VIP services, and handles room preferences with an automatic link to reservations and sales modules.
- Software integration: Upon checkout and after the night audit, guest information automatically updates the guest history, company history, city ledger, travel agent, and other modules.
- Housekeeping: Tracks and maintains the physical status of rooms; energy management systems have also been built in current PMS.
- Back-office accounting: Front-office revenue update, back-office revenue journals; accounts payable is integrated with the general ledger (2.1 ICT use in accommodation, para. 2).
Local area networks (LAN) and intranets can enable greater levels of information flow within the firm. Databases on worker performance can be designed to provide management with greater knowledge about worker performance and how to allocate labor most effectively. Group decision support systems (GDSS) may also play a role in reducing the need for management meetings and in speeding up the decision-making process. With GDSS software and a LAN, real-time discussions and debates can be held from individual offices and computer screens. Idea generation and brainstorming are argued by some to be particularly well suited to this approach.
Of the various tourism-related IT developments that have captured the imagination of researchers during the past two decades, computer reservations systems (CRS) have undoubtedly held center stage. These powerful travel distribution technologies are seen by many commentators to offer significant opportunities for companies to improve customer service and increase the efficiency and flexibility of product delivery.
The costs inherent in the development of a hotel CRS are high, especially for independent operators. For this reason many enterprises do not develop their own systems, preferring instead to align themselves with a hotel consortium or hotel group representative. In 1996 the Utell consortium, the worlds largest, brought together over 6,500 subscribing hotels from 160 countries and processed over 2.8 million reservations a year through its forty-four international offices.
It is important to link hotel PMS/CRS with airline global distribution systems (GDS) such as Sabre. Without such a link properties become largely invisible to the bulk of potential customers. For the vast majority of properties this connection is made possible via switches such as THISCO a unified interface linking about twenty major hotel chain CRSs in the United States to airline GDSs .
The Internet is playing a growing role in the tourism industry as a sales and marketing force, and lodging is no exception to the trend. The American Hotel and Motel Asociation estimated that in 2001, e-commerce in the lodging arena was worth $2.9 billion within the United States alone. Another technology just beginning to be implemented by larger enterprises is the data warehouse. The type of information a data warehouse provides is frequently marketing-related, with a focus on guest information. Other data applications might include accounting employee records, vendor information, or any other information category of interest or useful to multiple departments or locations (Berry and Parasuraman, 1997; The Economist, 1997).
The future of hotel design will take major consideration when it comes to the physical assets of hotel and the technology used not just to operate the hotel, but also for the guest use. As stated above hotel design affects two major groups: the guests and the employees. The best designs not only anticipate the guests needs and expectations, but also consider the functional requirements of the management and staff.
References
Berry, L. and Parasuraman, A. (1997). Listening to the Customer The Concept of the Service Quality
Information System. Sloan Management Review, 38 (3): 65-76.
Geller, A. Neal, and Raymond S. Schmidgall. 1984. The Hotel Controller: More Than a Book-
keeper. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Aministration Quarterly 31 (3): 91-97.
Milne, S. (2009). NZ Accommodation Providers & ICT:. Retrieved from
http://www.dol.govt.nz/PDFs/accommodation-labour-and-ict.pdf
Olsen, M., and D. Connolly, 1999. Antecedents of Technological Change in the Hospitality Industry.
Tourism Analysis 4:29.
Frawley, W., C. Piatetsky-Shapiro, and C. Matheus. 1992. Knowledge Discovery in Databases: An
Overview. AI Magazine (Fall): 213-228.
The Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets
www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/Physical_Strategy.pdf PDF fileThe Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets february 2003
Green River Capital REO Asset Management, Short Sale
greenrivercap.comIndustry Leader in REO Asset Management and Shortsale Services
Archon Group, L.P. is a leader in commercial real estate and ...
www.archongroup.comArchon Group (Archon) is a real estate investment services and asset management firm with substantial experience in quickly and efficiently developing and ...
Asset management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_managementAsset management, broadly defined, refers to any system that monitors and maintains things of value to an entity or group. It may apply to both tangible assets such ...
National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology
nchmct.orgNational Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technologyand its affiliated Institutes constantly endeavor to impartHospitality,knowledge,skills, conceptsand ...
Hotel Management Hotel Accounting Hotel Marketing
www.hvshotelmanagement.com/about-us/managementMarketing Hotel marketing is more than a few standard, tried and true sales techniques. At HVS Hotel Management we begin by taking the time to understand the ...
IT Asset Management Software: ITAM,asset database,tracking ...
www.capterra.com/it-asset-management-softwareFind and compare IT Asset Management software. Free, interactive directory to quickly narrow your choices and contact multiple vendors.
Inventory Management, Asset Tracking & Field Data Collection
ezinearticles.com/?Inventory-Management,-Asset-Tracking-and-Field...Jul 07, 2010 Barcode scanning has become a cost-effective data capture technology for managing inventory, tracking assets, field data collection and inspections. Many ...
Australian Security Technology - Physical Asset Management ...
www.astpl.com.auIf you're looking to protect your physical assets, you can't go past Australian Security Technology Pty Ltd (ASTPL).
Technology & Operational Strategy - Asset Management
www.assetmanagement-om.com/technology-operational-strategy14th November 2013 Boston Covering data, technology and operational strategy, we look at all aspects of building innovation and efficiency into your workflow.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Click to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.