The Business Management Of Skylark Hotel Tourism Essay

The brainstorming process took about a week. After careful thought and consideration, we decided to venture into the hotel business. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, we felt that the demand for hotels in Singapore will be very high as Singapore is a booming tourism industry. Furthermore, many events in Singapore such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix and the upcoming Youth Olympic Games ensure that there will be countless tourists flocking to the little red dot. Also, we noticed that not many people venture into the hotel business despite its high demand. Thus we decided on using the hotel as our main business.

We have also created a website, Facebook and Twitter accounts to further enhance our business. This serves as a platform for our customers to know more about our business and also serves as a communication platform between our business and valued customers. By doing this, we can receive feedback from our valued customers and establish a positive relationship with them.

Our Profile

Business Name: Skylark hotel

Business Location: Stadium Boulevard, 52 Stadium Road (397724)

hotel location macro.PNG

Business Objectives: Skylark’s objective is to treat all guests as prestigious members of the hotel, by employing dedicated staff to cater to the guests’ needs and wants during their stay. The safety and satisfaction of our guests is our primary responsibility.

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Mission Statement: To provide authentic hospitality by offering exclusive service and facilities for your comfort.

Vision Statement:

To provide great experiences to each valued guest that walks through Skylark’s doors by building a trustworthy and long lasting relationship with our prestigious guests through a process of continuous improvement in our service.

Values:

Sincerityƒ  To establish and maintain a level of trust with our guests.

Keennessƒ  To show a willingness to learn from our mistakes and reflect upon the guests’ feedback.

Youthfulƒ  To allow the employees to bring their enthusiasm to work and have fun.

Loyaltyƒ Dedication and full commitment in serving our valued guests

Accountabilityƒ To take ownership and responsibility in all the tasks that are being allocated

Respectƒ To have a basic courtesy level between colleague, subordinate and top ranking managers.

 Kindƒ To be polite and courteous to every single guest that walks through the Skylark’s doors.

Smart Goals

We are aiming to welcome at least 1000 guests within the first 6 months of our official opening, thus making expected hotel revenue of $500,000.

To achieve full occupancy during the Holiday periods.

To be known as an eco friendly hotel by the end of our 1st year operation

To be featured in the hotel business magazine by the 2nd year of our operation

To be awarded the ‘Excellent Service Award’ by the 3rd year of our operation

Policies

All hotel room rates are subject to change without notice. Payment may be made by cash or credit cards such as MasterCard, Visa or American express card.

We are committed to minimising the impact of our operations on the environment.

We are willing to comply with most of the laws and regulations with regards to saving the environment.

We will prompt our guests and employees to participate or lead in the protection of our environment.

We will ensure that the products supplied by our suppliers is environmentally-friendly.

Monitoring the performance of hotel and employees will take place every 6 months so that we can review what we have achieved or failed and improve on it accordingly.

We will not be held liable for any loss or damage to any valuables.

 We will not be held responsible for any accidents or injuries to our guests during their stay in our hotel

Procedures

If the reservation made by a potential guest has been confirmed by the hotel, the guest is guaranteed a hotel room. Though we cannot give a guarantee to satisfy our guests’ request, we will try our best to satisfy any requests made relating to room number or location. All reservations must be made at least 3 days prior to your arrival date.

 All reservations will require an advanced deposit equalling the cost of staying in the requested room for a day.

All cancellations of reservations have to be made the day following the reservation. If it is cancellation is made any later, deposits by the guests will be forfeited.

Our check-in time is anytime after 12 noon.

Our checkout time is 12 noon. A late checkout charge of $150 will be charged to rooms that check out after 12 noon.

Hotel guests will be responsible for any damages found in their room once they check out.

Rules and Regulation

The hotel is authorized to only accommodate properly registered guests. Guests are to present their valid ID card or passport for confirmation.

Smoking is prohibited in the hotel rooms.

Be advised to keep your valuables in your room safe which is located in your cabinet.

On the basis of a confirmed booking the hotel is to reserve the room for the guest up to 6:00 PM only, unless the booking stipulates otherwise.

Guests should not move furniture, or interfere with the electrical network or any other installations in the hotel rooms or on the premises of the hotel without the consent of the hotel management.

No gambling of any kind or unlawful behavior is permitted in the hotel.

Employees are to wear their uniform smartly in the hotel premises at all time.

Planning

Decision making model

Ratings from 1 to 5 shows which business fits the criteria the best.

Business venture

Type of business

Knowledge of

the field

Practicality to

be applied

in Singapore

Maintenance

Expense

Uniqueness

Total

Retail shop

2

3

3

3

13

Restaurant

3

5

4

2

14

Hotel management

5

4

2

4

15

Investment centre

4

2

5

1

12

Sports complex

1

1

1

5

8

Definition of criteria:

Knowledge of the fieldƒ  How familiar we are with the different types of businesses.

Practicality to be applied in Singaporeƒ  How effective is it to set up such a business in Singapore.

Maintenance Expenseƒ  The expenses that will be incurred in future in order to keep the facilities and area of the business under appropriate and acceptable conditions.

Uniqueness ƒ The type of business we choose must be few in quantity in Singapore

Thus, we have chosen to venture into hotel management as most of us have an extensive knowledge about the field and furthermore, it is can be applied in the Singapore context. Additionally, it is also fairly unique as not many people venture into this type of business.

Location of business

Location

Accessibility

Competitiveness

Amount of Space

Landmarks available in the location

Rental

Total

Marina Bay

4

1

3

4

2

14

Harbour Front

2

4

4

3

5

18

Orchard

5

2

1

5

1

14

Holland Road

1

3

2

1

3

10

Stadium Boulevard

3

5

5

2

4

19

Definition of criteria:

Competitivenessƒ the presence of competitors who are in similar businesses may affect our profits

Landmarks available in the locationƒ  the presence of well-known places of interest located near the hotel.

Amount of space ƒ  how large is the space in the particular area.

Accessibility ƒ how convenient the location of our hotel is. This means that it has to be near an MRT station and bus-stop. Also, it has to be easily accessible by cars

Rentalƒ the cost of using the piece of land

Thus, Stadium Boulevard has been chosen as the location accessible as there is an availability of bus and MRT nearby. There are also very few hotels in that area and the amount of space to build our hotel is substantially large. Furthermore, the rental fee is relatively cheaper as compared to the rest of the locations.

Name of Hotel

Name

Uniqueness

Meaningful

Number of votes

Total

Olympian

2

6

1

9

Sphere

3

2

0

5

Skylark

5

5

2

12

iHotel

1

1

0

2

Metamorphosis

6

4

0

10

Synergy

4

3

2

9

Definition of criteria:

Uniqueness ƒ how different our hotel name is as compared to other names. This means that the name chosen have to be distinctive and is not a duplicate of other businesses.

Meaningful ƒ choosing a name which has a special meaning tagged along with it and is able to represent the vision and mission of our hotel.

Number of votes ƒ how many of our group members favoured the name of the hotel

We have chosen Skylark as the hotel name because it is considered to be unique. Furthermore, it is considered as meaningful as the work sky represents the location of the business which is surrounded by nature. Also, it has won one of the highest numbers of votes by our group members.

Fundamentals of planning

Strategic planning

Strategic planning is done by top management where long-term goals are established and available resources are identified. The owner, general manager, assistant general manager and resident manager will meet up monthly to review the hotel’s progress and check if the long-term goals are achievable. They will also be responsible for the changing or maintaining the overall direction of the hotel and they will look into ways to cope with the highly competitive hotel industry.

Tactical planning

Tactical planning will be done by the managers under the control of the top management. They will be responsible for implementing the policies made by the top managers. They are also responsible for the managers under their power. Also, in Skylark hotel, these managers will act as middlemen between first-line management and the top management. This means that these managers have to convey the problems the first-line managers face to the top management if they cannot solve it. 

Operational planning

The managers in this section are known as first-line managers. They are responsible for carrying out daily tasks and motivating employees. They are also responsible to solve problems with regard to the employees.

Organisational Environment

Internal Stakeholders

The internal stakeholders of our company include 150 employees from a diversity of races and age and genders, an owner, and also a board of directors.

External Stakeholders

The external stakeholders of the hotel comprises of the task and general environment.

Task Environment

Customers

The most important of all is our prestigious customers, both local and foreigners which will help boost our business as they are the main sources of our income. Without the presence of the customers, it will then be impossible for us to make any profits. Our targeted demographic are families. Thus, this explains why we many facilities which permit them to bond together as a family. Quality of Services

Location

Good Food (Buffet)

Attractive Rates – Discount and offer

Environment – Quiet and welcoming colour tones, furniture and employees

Suppliers

As for food and beverages, our main supplier is Pines Catering. External suppliers are also required to provide raw materials for our construction and furnishings. For construction, our supplier is Pluspoint Premier Global while for furnishings; our supplier is Aceman Renovation and Trading.

Competitor

As for our main competitors, they are the nearby hotels which are Resort World Sentosa, Marina Bay Sands and Fragrance Hotel Admiral which may negatively affect our profits.

Our main rival is Resort World Sentosa. Besides providing accommodation, they provide numerous holiday packages for the guests. An illustration is the 3D2N Ultimate Fun Package where they get passes to Universal Studios Singapore and as well as complimentary drinks when they first arrived at the hotel. Marina Bay Sands is also another opponent of our hotel. Besides the usual amenities for the guests, Marina Bay Sands also provide golf course for their customers.

Thus, the packages that our rivals promote aggressively will indirectly affect us as this will reduce the number of guests in our hotel. Our hotel may resort to coming out with similar or even better packages to draw more customers.

Media

By having a close relationship with the media, our hotel will be able to secure recognition faster. Joining forces together with travel agencies, our business will prosper as it helps our hotel to gain reputation. Other stakeholders included the interest groups, the government, lenders and unions.

General Environment

The general environment comprises many external forces which are mostly beyond the control of our hotel.

Economic forces

General economic trends happening world-wide can affect our hotel’s earnings due to a stronger or weaker dollar value. Thus, we need to ensure that our hotel should charge reasonable rates to customers so as to maintain our competitiveness even during a recession. This will allow us to attract more customers.

Socio cultural forces

As Singapore is a multicultural country, our hotel would need to respect and be mindful of the various practices and deep-seated beliefs of the different races and religions.

Technological forces

Our hotel has pertained technology by adapting to the advancements of technology by having our very own website, Facebook page and Twitter account. The website enables our customers to book hotel rooms online, view special offers available and browse the amenities provided at the comfort of their home. In addition, they are able to provide us with feedback on the website and our hotel can improve on our weaknesses and progress.

International forces

As the world has just suffered from an economy crisis, this will cause a decline in the numbers of guests in the hotel. However, Singapore has political stability, which means that there will be no riots or protests to deter the tourists from coming into Singapore.

Political-legal forces

As the law holds up certain rules and laws to prevent inappropriate acts in hotel such as prostitution and gambling. In addition, the law assists our hotel to uphold order to ensure an enjoyable stay for the guests.

Organisation Structure

Task and roles

General Manager

The duties of a general manager include managing other managers and the hotel staff, budgeting cost and cross-referring to actual budget, managing hotel projects, managing hotel emergencies and public relations with the media. This means that a general manager usually oversees most or all of the firm’s marketing and sales functions and the day-to-day operations of the business. The general manager is also responsible for leading the strategic planning functions of the hotel.

Assistant General Manager

An assistant general manager aids the general manager in his decisions such as business agendas. He also assists the general manager in completing the paperwork which is not very important and he is tasked with reporting all problems in the hotel to the general manager. However, he can solve these problems if he is able to and thereby, allowing the hotel to run smoothly.

Resident manager

The main job of the resident manager is to respond to any problems or emergencies in the hotel while overlooking the day-to-day operations of the hotel. They stay in the hotel and are on call 24 hours a day. However, they only work for a certain period of time per day although they are on call throughout the day.

House-keeping manager

Basically, the house-keeping manager supervises work activities of cleaning personnel to ensure clean and attractive rooms in the hotel. The house-keeping manager also assigns duties, inspect work, and investigate complaints regarding housekeeping and takes corrective action as required. He is also required to purchase housekeeping supplies and equipment, train new employees, and recommend dismissals.

Front Office Manager

Front office managers are responsible making the guests’ stay at the hotel as pleasant as possible. This means to ensure that the guests are treated courteously and make sure all the complaints and problems of the guests are resolved as fast as possible. They are also handed the responsibility of reservations, tracking the status of the rooms and ensure that guests’ special request are carried out. They also have the authority to adjust the charges posted on the customer’s bill.

Telecom operator

Hotel telecom operators are required to transfer foreign or outside calls to the appropriate guest room. He also has to answer or transfer all incoming calls. He is responsible for informing the guests about the latest information on guest services and also processes and executes the wake-up calls to the guests. He also helps to inform the guests about the latest events and happenings at the hotel.

Chief engineer

The chief engineer is responsible for maintaining the performance of the maintenance or engineering department in the hotel. He also has to ensure that the hotel is in working order and fix any problems related to the structure of the hotel. He or she has to maintain the exterior of the building, the car park and check the furniture in the guest rooms and take corrective measures if anything is wrong with the furniture. He must be able to respond to emergencies, even after working hours. Most importantly, he must have the troubleshooting ability to be able to solve any problem in the hotel on the spot.

Chief of security

Chief of security is responsible for overseeing the safety of the hotel throughout the day, especially in the evening. He may also have other responsibilities such as walking around the hotel property to ensure that everyone is safe. He is also tasked with responding to guest. The chief of security must be able to solve problems quickly and respond to emergency situations effectively.

Human resources manager

The human resource manager is responsible for the administrative function of the hotel. This means to recruit, interview or hire new employees into the organisation in accordance to the strategic plan made by top executives. They are also responsible for all areas related to employees such as providing them uniforms and giving them employee benefits. Human resources managers are tasked with providing training for the new employees to improve the employee skills and to increase customer satisfaction. In today’s society, human resources managers lead the hotel by suggesting and changing policies after consultation with top executives.

Food and beverage manager

The food and beverage manager is responsible for overseeing, with the chef, the purchasing of all the ingredients necessary to complement the items on the menu. It may require training new employees and monitoring the staff in the dining room to see if they are following the hotel style of service. Sometimes, the food and beverage manager may also be called up to resolve matters with the guests unhappy with the food. It is also very important to keep the morale in the food and beverage section.

Sales director

The sales director is responsible for maximising the occupancy of the hotel. He also works with the general manager with regards to operational issues. The sales director must have excellent communication skills as he is responsible for negotiating with suppliers to provide the goods the hotel needs at a low price and he needs it to establish rapport with clients or suppliers.

Controller

The hotel controller’s job is to report financial information timely and accurately. He is also responsible for financial forecasting, both short-term and long-term. He manages the accounting and financial staff and he may be required to train new employees.

This organisational chart is done in accordance to functional departmentalisation. This organisation adopts a wide span of control. It is because the Resident Manager alone is in-charge of three departments. In these departments, the top supervisors or managers will have another range of subordinates. The organisation has a decentralisation of authority. In each sector of the company, they have their own managers that are accountable for them. The employees do not have to get approval from the General Manager or anyone from around that status. Instead the employees just have to get approval from their immediate manager or supervisor.

Organisation Culture

Hotel Services:

As the top notch hotel, as part of the culture, we aim to serve with a smile. The employees of the hotel should go the extra mile for the customers to make sure they are feeling euphoric. If we are able to provide smiles and go the extra mile, the customers will feel the warmth of the hotel and the chances of them coming back would increase.

Integrity – Our employees must have integrity so that we are able to establish trust with our guests.

Hotel Maintenance:

The customers’ needs and wants are to be satisfied. The maintenance service provider is to be on standby twenty four hours, ready to aid the customers if they request for it. This is to make sure that our customers do not have to wait a long period of time or wait till the next day till the maintenance service provider is available. By doing this, they provide maintenance all day.

Hotel facilities:

The hotel will also look into finding restaurants which are highly recommended by the foreigners to open a branch in the hotel. The hotel will also provide international food just in case some of the foreigners who are not used to the food in Singapore, they can always come back to the hotel’s restaurant to eat the food old in their country.

Hotel Venue Security

The security guards are also to be on patrol twenty four hours around the hotel and at the lobby. This is to prevent anyone from stirring trouble around the hotel or in the hotel. By having such arrangements, our hotel will become a popular choice to the foreigners for our top notch security.

Employee Feedback

There will be a meeting held every six months to help improve the quality of the hotel as well as employees benefits. During this meeting, employees are invited and allowed to voice out their feedbacks about their superiors and the benefits they want to improvement on. As for the employees benefit, all employees are given a twenty percent discount off the total bill when they dine in the hotel. The meals of the employees are also provided. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for those on morning shift, lunch and dinner will be provided for those on afternoon shift. The employees who work over-time will receive one and a half times the basic pay.

Employee Procedure:

All employees are to report to their immediate supervisors or managers for report updates and decision making. However, for key decisions which may affect the company greatly, the Chief Executive Officer will make the final decision. The Chief Executive Officer also has the right to change any decisions made by any supervisor and manager. For documents which need to be signed or approved, it will require at least two manager’s signature and stamp depending on the situation. This is to prevent any misleading by one manager or supervisor causing the company to make a wrong decision. At least with two signatures, two managers would have gone through the document and discussed to make sure there is no fault or attempt of fraud in it.

Leadership

In our company, each and every one of our employee is look upon as a leader.

Leadership style: We would want to have leaders with the following characteristics

Approachable

Each employee is to be able to be approached easily and is able to lend a helping hand when others are in need. Hierarchy is not our main priority in our company. However, basic respect still has to be shown. We would like to ensure a friendly and conducive working environment for everyone.

Influential

Each manager should inspire their fellow colleague, subordinate and employees to do their best in everything that they do. We encourage motivation to spread around the working environment. Little deeds should be praised and recognised. This will contribute to a positive working experience for everyone.

Forward-Looking

Each employee should learn to be forward looking as this will eventually benefit the business in many ways. This does not only imply to the top managers but also all employees. Since we have a relatively flat hierarchy, this helps us to be able to obtain contribution from everyone. By being forward looking, we will be able to seize each and every opportunity that come and also, avoid any circumstances that could affect the profitability of our business. In addition, by being forward looking, we will also be able to stay ahead of our competitors such as Marina Bay Sands.

Reward Power

Our business is using the monetary incentives to manage our employees. This means that employees are given certain incentives for going beyond the call of duty. The best employee of each department each month will be rewarded with a free hotel stay of 3 days 2 nights. This also serves as a motivation for the employees to strive for their best while doing their work.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership

We would also like to adopt the Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership where the leadership style depends on the employees’ readiness. The leadership styles include telling, selling, participating and delegating. However, we are eventually aiming to use the leadership style of delegating where our employees are able and willing to do their job. This style involves a low task behavior and a low relationship behavior. However, to achieve this, we would use more of selling which involves both high task behavior and a high relationship behavior. This means that the employees are unable but willing or confident. We would then guide them to ensure they eventually will be able to do their job well.

Controlling

Our hotel would like to control the quality of service offered to the guests. We should provide our prestigious customers with the top-rated of service so that they will patronize our hotel again. In order to be top-rated, our hotel has scheduled the work time of the employees in such a way that there will be at least someone available to attend to the needs of the guests.

Feedforward control

Firstly, our hotel will provide our employees with training such as customer service course. This is to ensure that our employees are equipped with the necessary skills needed. Thus, our hotel is able to provide our guests with top-rated service for them to enjoy their stay in our hotel. In this case, we are applying Feedforward control.

Concurrent control

Our hotel can relate Concurrent control, by asking our guests for their valuable feedback during their stay. When our staffs get the chance to meet the guests, we could get their advices and improve from there by incorporating their advices.

Feedback control

Lastly, Feedback control is also useful to bring our hotel to a greater height. Before the guests leave our hotel, we can provide them with a feedback form and request them to rate our service. In addition, they may do this on our hotel’s website if they do not have the time to complete the feedback form. By getting their advices, we could then work on our weaknesses and progress from there.

Our hotel also likes to control the facilities available in our company. We need to make sure that all of our facilities are in tip-top condition for our guests to use.

According to Feed forward control, our hotel will conduct checks on the facilities every month to ensure that every equipment is in working order.

Should we receive any complaints regarding the facilities by the guests, our hotel will send an engineer down to solve the problem immediately. If we are unable to do so immediately, we aim to complete the repairs by three days so that our guests are entitled to use the amenities.

First-line managers can apply operational control by having debrief with their subordinates just before they end their work on a daily basis. They can also mention about the feedbacks and suggestions offered by the guests.

Tactical control can be included by having meetings fortnightly. The meeting compromises of the middle managers and the first-line managers. During the meetings, they can come up with ways to promote our hotel or even adding in facilities to allow our hotel to soar.

Lastly, strategic control is the most essential as it is a meeting where top; middle and first-line managers meet together. The middle and first-line managers can present their suggestions to the top managers. The top managers will then decide whether to implement their suggestions. In addition, they will review the number of customers patronizing our hotel and the revenue of our business.

Also, the controlling process is constructive to assist our hotel’s success. Firstly, we establish our standards by ensuring every employee undergoes customer service training. Our hotel aims to attain a goal of $500000 revenue in the first six months of our operation.

We can measure our performance by taking into consideration the number of guests staying in our hotel and revenue we earned in the first six months.

Comparing our goals with our actual revenue, if we achieved our goal, we will continue with our training and execute other courses that are beneficial for our employees. On the other hand, if we did not attain our goal, we may resort at our publicity and upgrade in our services.