HOTEL MANAGEMENT

Monday, December 17, 2018

Scanty baggage guest December 17, 2018

Hotel management | Scanty baggage guest | Notes

Scanty Baggage Guest

A guest with less baggage(a brief case, a tiny shoulder bag or a lady with a hand bag only) is termed as Scanty baggage guest. A guest with the above description is always taken under doubt. Why? Because such suspicious guests can, not always though, prove a threat to the hotel. Such guests can skip without settling the tariff and other utility bills.
Since hotels can't directly approach to such guests claiming him/her a matter of suspicion and can't accuse the person on the basis of doubt. What actually hotel does then?
Do hotels have certain policies for such suspected people? Let's find out.

Handling procedure:

As obvious, dealing to this subject is entirely related with Front office department.
• A bell boy plays the prime and key role in identifying a guest with a scanty baggage, and also he needs to make sure that the suspected person has come for check-in. If a guest has come to use other services like of restaurant, spa, zym etc, he most not be taken under doubt.

•As the guest moves ahead to the arrival area, the bell caption sticks a scanty baggage card to his luggage, which is done after receiving information from the bell boy.

•The front office executive needs to be vigilant while handling check-in procedure and needs to be observant towards the luggage to ensure a scanty baggage sticker.
If found, the FO executive asks him for the tariff in advance or at least some amount of the tariff in advance to safeguard the hotel from any financial loss. Policies for such guests may vary from hotel to hotel.

Other departments are also alerted for the person and HK dept in particular is asked to keep a tight surveillance for the concerned room no.

Deepak joshi 0

Friday, December 14, 2018

Hotel management good career option December 14, 2018

Is hotel management a good career option?

Is Hotel Management a good career Option?

A guide for aspirants

This article will not behave like most of the educational tutorials which says even applying for ISIS is scopic and have great future opportunities. We have tried to point out all the possible reasons why aspirants should or shouldn't do this Hospitality course.

What exactly is Hotel Management?
Who should opt for this course?
What are the future expectations in Hotel Management?

Well, the fundamental error behind taking on any professional course is that the aspirants are not told about job description (duties and responsibilities and the task to be performed after getting into the field). Hence, we tend to suffer and blame ourselves for life time.
If you mistook this profession like of any business graduate wearing suit, carrying a hand bag and relaxing in a personal cabin, so you're very much wrong in your conception. Hotel management is nothing like that, it's, however an easy course but always with tough challenges.

The most a non hotelier knows about hotel management is that the course is basically concerned with cooking and serving food, or in more closure cook and waiter. Sometimes people get into it just because it is believed to be the most easy course of all time. It might be an easy course but handling a job isn't as easy as passing the course. Aspirants have several doubt's regarding this course, Industrial training horror, which has been discussed in another post.

Now, what you should know about the course!

Hotel management has four core departments

1 Food Production(kitchen)

2 Service(serving food)

3 Housekeeping(cleaning basically)

4 Front office(reception)

If you misunderstood the word Management like sitting over a chair and flipping files all the day then my friend it's nothing like that , at least not in the initial phase of your journey. It is a challenging job and experts in the field often compare it with life of a solider. Have you ever thought what are the day to day task that a employee of any field has to perform(whether boring or innovative) which gives salary in hand at last. Understanding the type of work you would be doing after achieving a degree is very prominent which decides your agreement towards opting for it. And students generally skip this crucial step. None job is easy but if it interests you, you will find your way in it.

Let's discuss the four departments in brief

Food Production:
The production department attracts most of the aspirants every year and it's the most competitive dept at professional level also. It is concerned with cooking.

Service:
Service dept is another challenging dept whose basic moto is to serve food to customers at right time.

Housklekeeping:
Next comes house keeping dept, which is ment for cleaning of rooms, room decor, cleaning public areas etc.

Front office:
Finally, it's front office which is sometimes miscalled as reception. This dept books rooms, allot rooms, book other outlets, manage billing, reservation, listen to guest problems and many others functions.

Above was a little overview of all four dept of hotel management. Now where problem comes!

If you are passionate for this course then it will really do good for you. This course has no limits, you need not to have any other degree to become general manager of a five star hotel(a quite popular quote). But if you are not passionate and opt it just because you were confused and couldn't really find any better or simple course, then believe me it won't do any good for you, even not any other course.

If you dreamt of becoming a cook, then chef and then master chef or you like public interaction and are foody then this course might suit you. But I advice you to not pick this just as. Hotel management has a lot of opportunities once you learn performing basic tasks and handling a bit if serious responsibilities. This is an innovative field which allows you to meet different people from different geography and get to learn different standards of living.

Warning! Don't just do this course because you have nothing else to do. This is not a easy sitting and relaxing job. You will not be provided a chair until you become a chef or a restaurant manager, and wonder what, even they are not allowed to sit most of their duty time. It's a challenging job and becomes more challenging at the beginning phase.

Important note: If you want to carry on your styles as most people nowadays prefer to carry... fundamental hair styles and beard styles, then let me shutter down your hope for one more reason. HM doesn't allow any type of fancy hair styles or hair colouring, forget having a single hair of beard as they ask you to shave daily whether you grow or not.
And females also can't go on with curls, long earrings, bracelets and so on. Just a bun what they want at you head!

Conclusion: There is a shift problem, there is a heavy work load, there is a work under pressure, there is an unsatisfying salary at the beginning, there are no holidays on Sundays and there is no PEACE!
So if you still carrying it further, its just might be the passion for this field. Don't mistake to consider it as an alternative for carrier. Never!

If you move around private collages concerning this course, they will welcome you with a chilled glass of water, please you with benefits of this course; mostly like this course is very good option, there is higher demands in foreign countries and cruise ships, and salary is almost one lakh per month. So be alert! They are just day dreaming you, nothing else. Choose your career wisely.

Passion! I again repeat. If you are passionate for this then only....

If you still have a query regarding the course please put in the comments below.

Deepak joshi 0

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

training December 12, 2018

Why hotel management students fear from training- industrial training phobia

Hello everyone!

"Industrial training" the very much shamed term which brings a lot of horror to the graduates of Hospitality Management is actually nothing but a general introduction to the future working environment. Do you think it is really a big issue of concern? Let's find out.

Training is an important and almost mandatory step towards graduating yourself for the degree in hospitality, but industrial training has become a horror for most of the Hotel Management graduates which is quite weird to my conscience.
So many people(seniors and failure in the field) around you have already told you a lot of negative things about the industrial training processes which you have almost conceded as reality also. Is Training fearful? What do they do to you while you train yourself? How do they(the irritated staff) treat you when you are at the initial learning phase?
Industrial training has become a nightmare for every hospitality graduate though the facts are way too different to what people are being threatened of.

Coming to what you really wants to know, an Industrial training is just performed to familiarize you with the environment you are about to be working in. It is just the introduction with tools, procedures and type of humans you will work later on, and more of it doesn't concern with training you for the job. If you learned well it's your dedication. At most, they(the staff) try to engage you in physical activites like clearance of lipped crockeries and filling arrival and departure register.

Well, in my opinion, I would ask everyone, even a non wanna be hotelier to join the hotel industrial training. It is the best platform for developing interpersonal skills and solving ego hassles. There is nothing to fear, its just a phase(a tough one indeed), but it will leave many memories with you which will thrill you throughout life.

Coming to the procedure, in early times the industrial training was scheduled in the fifth semester but with introduction to new courses in hotel management the industrial training is now decided on second semester or third semester in some selected institutions. The candidates are shortlisted through interviews basically telephonic and video conferencing and a confirmation letter is allotted by the college which enlists all the necessary declarations needed to appear in a property as a trainee. The training is carried out in all four major departments one by one and the standard duration for being in a dept is equally divided with total duration of the training. You can also train yourself in miscellaneous departments like sales, marketing and human resource on requests.

Fears
• Vocal abuses
• Low esteem
• Long working hours
• Double shifts
• Night shifts
• Very less stipend
• Exploitation
• No share on external income(tips)
• The banquet horror

I have drawn out some majors points and we will work on them one by one.

• Vocal Abuses:
You might have heard a heaps of time that the hotel staff, in particular kitchen employees, abuse each other and on purposely slang trainees, but this is not totally correct. They might do but it's the personal space, if you are comfortable on taking abuses then only. Yes! The staff talks rudely but it has a certain limit which is digestible, and as long you work with them and build strong personal relationships they gradually begin treating you like the rest staff.

• Low esteem:
According to me a student doesn't expect too much of respect from anybody. This point is very correct up to much extent. Hospitality personnel's are ment to respect guests(customers) not to receive respect , at least in the initial phase of career. So this fact proves to be very much accurate.

• Double shifts, night shifts and long working hours:
I have merged the next three points in one. Hotels always have a shift problem and trainees are never pardon with it. Since the shifts are designed equally for trainees and staff, a trainee has to be with the operations as long as a employee has to. Generally hotel shifts are eight to ten hours long but sometimes there comes a phenomenon called "double shift", which is precisely the direct addition with the shift hours, ex 8+8= 16. However, trainees are kept unaffected with this term but sometimes when the staff count is very low for a shift the trainees also have to perform double shift.
Now coming to night shift, as now you know a trainee is trained in all major departments and has to work with the staff timing, night shifts shouldn't be something left undiscussed. Night shifts are very common in Front office and Housekeeping dept and for the rest two departments it is like an unheard phrase. In particular with FO dept shift changes almost after every two or three days, and if you are a night owl these workless hours are very entertaining.

Less stipend:
How much money is offered during the training period? Well, it's nothing if compared to the average standard daily expenses. I just can say it can recompense the cost of monthly internet plans and cigarettes. However, meals are for free and in a fewer hotels accommodation is also provided. The stipend ranges from fifteen hundred rupees to twenty five hundred rupees monthly.

Exploitation:
Doing stuff other than the routine duties like, comforting the senior with a glass of water or standing at the welcome door purposelessly doesn't really counts under exploitation, for a trainee it really doesn't. It is an intentional practice to strengthen your patience and to nurture your behavior towards the future problems(guests). Though in any point of training if you feel like being exploited you avail a silent feature in the training agreement which allows you to complain the human resource department about the same.

No share in external income:
Frankly, brand hotels don't allow you to perform tasks like of the staff. In highly renounced hotels trainees are always kept behind the screen. The so much image concerned hotel can never digest a trainee's interaction with guests, that's where low graded hotel comes in light which allow you to do tasks similar to the lower staff and you get to learn and earn. So with the hotel low in branding you definitely have enough exposure towards earning tips.

The banquet horror:
Lucky if you haven't been through banquets through out your training. It's very rare that a training manager gets convinced to escape you from the banquets. During training under service dept every trainee is taken as a reserve waiter for banquet. Why? Because banquet held events like wedding parties and retirement receptions which needs a mass of staff and which doesn't really ask for too much service expertise as the person count is generally too high and service level is somewhat negotiable. In banquets the shift are very uncertain which depends on the mood of the guests, like if they want to gulp some more drinks the staff has to be there for them. In fact, hotel needs to hire seasonal staff and waiters on daily basis from outer sources. Hotels deadly need trainees to perform their daily tasks, in fact most of the hotels are dependent on trainees for doing many vital operations. So basically trainees are employees at a very very nominal salaries which they term as 'stipend'.

If any crucial point has been skipped please let us know in the comments.

Deepak joshi 0

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Monday, December 17, 2018