Hotel facilities and services

A hotel is an institution of commercial hospitality, which offers its facilities and services for sale, individ­ually or in various combinations, and this concept is made up of several elements such as location, facilities, services, image and price. Here we are going to focus on facilities and services.

Hotel facilities, which include bedrooms, restaurants, bars, function rooms, meeting rooms and recreation facilities such as tennis courts and swimming pools, represent a repertoire of facilities for the use of its customers, and these may be differentiated in type, size and in other ways.

Hotel service comprises the availability and extent of particular hotel services provided through its facilities; the style and quality of all these in such terms as formality and informality, degree of personal attention, and speed and efficiency. Service can be divided into two main parts – material and personal. Material service consists of the price, quantity, quality and timing of equipment, food, drinks, physical comfort, manning, routines, information. Smiling, establishing eye contact, using the person’s name, giving the undivided attention, showing that you respect and accept the person, regardless of race, sex, culture, being calm and confident, demonstrating respect for the colleagues and the company are the examples of good personal service. It is not possible to provide good personal service without good material service. But if material service is up to standard then it has, at best, only a neutral effect on the impression given to the customer. It is good personal service which upgrades that to a good impression. In a competitive field of business it is possible to find firms with comparable products, prices, quality, delivery and material service. In this situation the business will go to the organization that appears to provide the best personal service.

In the early days of innkeeping travellers often had to bring their own food to places where they stayed for the night - a bed for the night was the only product offered. But soon most establishments extended their hospitality to providing at least some food and refreshments. Today many apartment hotels and motels confine their facilities to sleeping accommodation, with little or no catering provision. But the typical hotel as we know it today, normally provides not only accommodation, but also food and drink, and sometimes other facilities and services, and makes them available not only to its residents but also to non-residents. The range of hotel facilities and services may extend as far as to cater for all or most needs of their customers, however long their stay.

The main customer demand in most hotels is for sleeping accommodation, food and drink, and for food and drink for organized groups. These four requirements then relate to accommodation, restaurants, bars and functions, as the principal hotel products.

Sleeping accommodation is provided for hotel residents alone. Restaurants and bars meet the requirements of hotel residents and non-residents alike, even though separate facilities may be sometimes provided for them. Functions are best seen as a separate hotel product bought by organized groups; these groups may be resident in the hotel as, for example, participants in a residential conference, or be non-residents, such as a local club or society, or the group may combine the two.

The total hotel concept can be, therefore, sub-divided according to the needs of the customer and the particular facilities brought into play to meet them. The cluster of elements of the total hotel concept is then related to each particular hotel product. Each hotel product contains the elements of the location, facilities, services, image and price, to meet a particular customer need or set of needs.

Room types

Room Type	Description
Single	A room assigned to one person
Double	A room assigned to two people. The bed is big enough for two. (Size: 54X76 inches)
Triple	A room assigned to three people. May have two or more beds
Quad	A room assigned to four people. May have two or more beds.
Queen	A room with a queen-size bed. May be occupied by one or two persons (Size: 60X80 inches)
King	A room with a king-size bed. May be occupied by one or two people. (Size: 78X80 inches)
Twin	A room with a pair of twin beds. May be occupied by one or two people. (Size: 39 or 42X76 inches)
Double-double	A room with two doubles (or perhaps queens). May be occupied by one or two people.
Studio	A room with a convertible bed. May also have an additional bed.
Mini/junior suite	A single room with a bed and a sitting area. Sometimes it has one bedroom and a separate living room.
Suite	A living room connected to one or more bedrooms.
Connecting room	Rooms with individual entrances and a connecting door in-between. Guests do not have to cross the hallway to go to the other room.
Adjoining room	Rooms which, share a wall, but do not connect through a door.
Adjacent room	Rooms in front of/close to each other positioned across the hallway.

Room status

Room status	Description
Occupied	A guest is currently registered in the room.
Complimentary	An occupied but free-of-charge room.
Stay-over	A room with a guest who will not check out for at least one more night.
On-change	A room that its guest has checked out but it has not been cleaned yet.
Do not disturb	A room with a ‘Do not disturb’ sign on the door.
Sleep-out	An occupied room, guest of which sleeps out of the room tonight.
Skipper	A room, guest of which has left the hotel without settling his account.
Sleeper	A room, guest of which has settled and left the hotel but the front office staff failed to update its status.
Vacant & ready	A room ready for sale. (Clean and inspected)
Out-of-order	A room that cannot be assigned due to maintenance reasons.
Lock-out	A room that is locked until the guest clear with some hotel official.
DNCO	Abbreviation for ‘did not check out’. A room, guest of which has made arrangements to settle but left the property without doing it. (Notice the difference with the skipper)
Due out	A room that is expected to be vacant after the next check-out time.
Check-out	A room, guest of which has settled, delivered keys, and left the property.
Late check-out	A room, guest of which has requested for a late check-out. (Later than the normal hotel check-out time)

Rate categories

Rate categories	Description
Corporate	For guests from a company with rate agreements with the hotel, Some travel agency guests
Complimentary	Free-of charge, often needs endorsement from the general manager
Group	For pre-determined number of guests booked all at a time
Family	For parents sharing room with children
Day	For a day rest only
Package (All-inclusive)	Rates including more items than room and breakfast sold as a package
Frequent guest	For loyal hotel guests
Frequent travellers	For frequent airline frequent flyers, only selected airlines

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16