Hotel Management: Definition, Process And Functions

If you want to improve the processes in your hotel, are thinking of opening one or want to study in the hospitality area, this article is for you. This is the Hotel management.

Knowing the hotel management process, and executing it in the best way, you will be able to satisfy your increasingly demanding customers.

And you will also support the development of tourism in your town or country.

The aspects that we are going to address are the following:

• What is Hotel Management?
• Hotel management Processes.
• Functions of the Hotel management.
• Aspects to consider in Hotel management.
• Summary.

Next, we are going to show you what are the aspects to consider in Hotel management. Pay attention, because later we will return to this topic.

Hotel Management helps improve the customer experience.

What is Hotel Management?

Hospitality is an activity that has been practised for a long time, to the point that some authors affirm that it has existed since before Christ.

Due to the adventurous spirit of the people, the hotel industry has been growing and specializing. Clients look for better services, better prices, diversity, in short, new experiences.

This sector is essential for the tourist development of a locality and, even more, of the companies that are around the hotels.

On the other hand, the diversity and intangibility of the services offered by a hotel make estimating costs difficult.

In addition to estimating costs, you must know what resources you have and how to distribute them appropriately to meet one of the objectives of any management: Achieve efficiency.

Once you calculate and analyze the costs incurred by the hotel, you will have tools for decision making.

The Hotel management is in charge of all this and more, that is, of analyzing the costs, resources and elements of the company to chart and manage a course of action.

The Hotel management is the discipline that plans, organizes, executes and controls all the resources that the hotel has in order to achieve a goal.

It is important that hotel management is considered as a quality model that is aimed at customers as well as the quality of the service provided.

For this reason, it is necessary to manage each of the processes that add value to the hotel.

For example, the restaurant, the gym, the events area, among others. Each of these processes helps overall customer satisfaction.

Hotel management processes

It does not matter if it is a large, small, five-star hotel, with many or few services, the administrative process will always have to be applied. This process includes:

Planning :

The work you do in this process will affect the rest of the administrative process. Here you will trace the route of action of the hotel and you must define the hotel strategic plan.

The hotel administrator will define the objectives after an in-depth analysis of the internal and external environment of the hotel.

You should answer questions such as: What is the current situation of the hotel? What are customers looking for? How do you see it in the short, medium or long term? What will you do to get it?

Organization :

It consists of defining the procedures, protocols and functions in each of the areas of the hotel.

Here the hotel’s human resource will be able to identify what it is going to do, in what time and the lines of authority.

Run :

This is the process where the hotel’s human resources fulfil the assigned functions.

On the other hand, the leadership exercises its power with leadership and guides the work team effectively.

Control :

Here you must compare the results obtained with the standards you have set. For this, you must make use of financial tools such as management indicators.

Functions of the Hotel management

Hotel management develops hotel development projects.

These are some of the functions performed in Hotel management:

• Analyze the environment both internal and external to the organization.
• Manage hotel resources.
• Carry out the hotel’s strategic plan taking into account information from the environment.
• Manage the tangible and intangible attributes of the hotel.
• Periodically apply management indicators.
• Develop hotel development projects.
• Provide training at different levels of the hotel.
• Supervise that the corporate culture is expressed appropriately.

Aspects to consider in the Hotel management

Hotel management must be oriented to maximize income. For this, you will have to pay attention to a large number of elements.

If you work these attributes in your favour, you can increase the customer experience, improve competitiveness and, therefore, the hotel’s income.

Tangible aspects :

They are all the physical resources of the hotel. For example, facilities, furniture, design, commercial premises, parking, green areas, swimming pool, among others.

Intangible aspects :

They are those that give value to the hosting service, but they are not physical. These are human capital, information capital, organizational capital, relational capital and innovation capital.

Human capital :

They are the skills, knowledge and abilities of the human resource. The profile of the people who work at the hotel is key to achieving the objectives.

Information capital :

In the first place, it refers to management systems such as reservations, room control, communication and operations control, among others.

Secondly, it refers to technology infrastructure such as the internet, databases, intranet, among others.

Organizational capital :

It is the integration of the hotel organization with the tangible and intangible elements that I mentioned a moment ago.

These are:

• Corporate Culture: It is the set of values ​​and practices of the people who work at the hotel. It is expressed in the treatment of customers, in loyalty, in the treatment of suppliers, among others.

• Knowledge Management: Refers to how knowledge and information obtained from the market, customers, suppliers, among others, are managed.

• Organizational Climate: It is the perception that the human resource has about the work environment.

• Teamwork: How knowledge, functions, and skills are combined to achieve an objective.

Relational capital :

In a company, there are different interest groups with which you must relate. Here they are, business and social capital.

• Business Capital: Refers to the way the hotel interacts with groups that have a direct link to operations. For example, with customers, suppliers, allied companies for transportation services, among others.

• Social Capital: It is the relationship with the groups that are in the environment. For example, the community, the media and hotel service supervision companies.

Innovation capital :

They are all those attributes that add value to the service and that are protected by law. For example, brand name, hotel ownership licenses.

Summary…

Hotel management is a branch of the management that is directed to achieve the objectives of the lodging companies and to satisfy the clients.

In hotel management, tangible and intangible attributes are managed that help improve the customer experience.

For example, the treatment of the personnel towards the client, the relations with the environment, the way in which the human resource performs the functions.