I have decided to investigate a large hotel chain called intercontinental hotels group PLC. I am going to do a comprehensive review of the role and relative importance of the organisations stakeholders

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Jasmin Thind                    GCSE Business Coursework        Candidate Number: 1310

This report is presented in this order:

  1. Introduction and Information about the business
  2. Stakeholders
  3. Customer service
  4. Job roles and working arrangements
  5. Employee recruitment and Training
  6. Employer and Employee rights and responsibilities

I am going to produce a report on a large organisation. I have decided to investigate a large hotel chain called intercontinental hotels group PLC.

I am going to do a comprehensive review of the role and relative importance of the organisations stakeholders.

I will found out the following information:

  • Details of their important stakeholders
  • The customer service arrangements in the business
  • How customers are protected by law
  • The job roles in the organisation
  • The working arrangements for staff in the organisation
  • How staff are recruited and trained
  • Employer and employee rights
  • Health and safety issues in the organisation

Intercontinental hotels group PLC is the world’s most global hotel company and has the largest by number of rooms. The group has more than 3,500 owned, leased, managed and franchised hotels and approximately 536,000 guest rooms across nearly 100 countries territories.

The group owns many different brands of hotels including:

  • Intercontinental hotels
  • Crown plaza hotels and resorts
  • Holiday inn hotels and resorts
  • Indigo hotels
  • Candlewood suites
  • Stay bridge

For my portfolio I am going to investigate this company and focus on the holiday inn hotels and resorts brand of hotels. The holiday inn that I will be analysing is the Bexley one.

Hotel inn hotels can be found all over the world. No matter where you’re travelling, you’ll find a familiar place to stay at holiday hotel. With more than 1,500 holiday inn full service hotels around the world, you’ll be sure to find a convenient location offering many features to make your stay more enjoyable, including comfortable guest rooms equipped with coffeemakers, hairdryers and irons. Today’s holiday inn hotel offers travellers full service amenities such as restaurants and room service, a relaxing lounge, swimming pool and fitness centre and for the business travellers, today’s holiday inn hotel offers 24-hour business services, meeting facilities and the holiday inn meeting promise. Today’s holiday inn offers you more of what you are looking for.

To help me with my members from my class visited the hotel inn in Bexleyheath. This trip was organised by my teacher.

The manager of the hotel gave them a talk about the hotel and his job and he introduced us to many of his senior managers who also gave them a talk.

They were given a tour of the hotel, the conference rooms, bedrooms, restaurant and bar facilities as well as the reception.

There are 100 holiday hotels in the UK, Bexley is just one of them. The Bexley holiday inn hotel has 107 bedrooms and is a 4 star hotel. That means it has good facilities such as:

-The sauna

-Fitness room

-Gym

-Bars

-Conference rooms

-Rental rooms for parties, weddings etc

 Stakeholders

A stakeholder is someone who is affected by the business by what it does and the way it operates. Stakeholders have a very important role to play in business , any business can be affected by stakeholders, for e.g. if customers are not satisfied for whatever reason then the business will be affected because they have a less income which results in a less profit made at the end of they year. The holiday inn has 9 different stakeholders:

  • Customers (corporate and leisure)
  • Suppliers
  • Employers
  • Managers
  • Shareholders
  • Financiers
  • Government

The holiday inn in Bexley heath also has all of these stakeholders. I am going to describe each of the groups and explain why the business and how they are affected by the businesses.

Customers

Customers are entitled good quality products and a friendly service. They also look Quality, availability and price.  They expect good offers on products. If customers are not kept happy then this can have a major affect on any company. Customers like to be told exactly what the real situation is. Many employees do not like to be too polite with the customer as they are afraid of their reaction. Customers expect problems and enquires to be dealt with quickly, efficiently and confidentially. Most employees in the holiday inn are trained to deal with customer care.

 In the holiday inn there are two types of customers’ corporate customers and leisure customers.

Corporate customers

Corporate customers are business people that use the hotel for conference, meetings and staying over night. The holiday inn have had 50 years of meeting and conference experience, they have a “enviable reputation” for providing high standards of care, whilst offering “excellent value for money”. The holiday inn provides space for any business event, whether it being training courses, a major conference or product launch.  They expect different size conference rooms to hold meetings because they don’t want big rooms when they only have a small number of people.  They expect the hotel to be quiet as disturbance can be irritating. They need good equipment, because it saves them bringing their own, so they will expect Internet access so they can connect their laptops and do some additional work while they are staying at the hotel and a telephone line so they contact there company or office if they want to. The holiday inn in bexleyheath have different packages to offer, one of them is there 8 hour meetings network package, this provides all corporate customers with

  • Tea and coffee on arrival
  • Morning and afternoon tea & coffee breaks
  • Lunch
  • Overhead projector
  • Flipcharts and stationery
  • Soft drinks and sweets

They want a “no fuss” service as there main objective is to do business. They expect he hotel staff to be professional and confidential. Cooperate prefer air conditioned rooms in the hot weather and heating in the cold weather .In the holiday inn 95% of the customers are corporate customers, they are there during the week meeting other people to discuss business. Corporate customers may hold there Christmas and Easter parties in the hotel, so they want available rooms at those times.

The holiday inn meets these requirements by making sure it provides the above. They also provide free refreshments regardless to business customers who are attending conferences. This makes them look “good” so that the customers will return again.

Leisure customers

Leisure customers are people that come to the hotel mainly on holiday and leisure purposes. They are often tourists to the area. Leisure customers except to be made feel welcome and for the staff to be “over helpful” as they like a fuss been made over them because they expect their moneys worth. If they don’t like something then they will complain. Leisure customers expect staff to have good knowledge of the local area and tourist attractions, so for a holiday inn to be located near good attractions they will attract more customers. The holiday inn meets these requirements by storing information points in visible places The holiday inn at Bexley is situated by the side of the of the main A2 and of the junction 2 of the M25. This puts the hotel at an exceptional good place as London, Greenwich and the Thames Barrier within easy reach. Customers also desire for good located rooms so they can relax they don’t want rooms near a building sites or noise as this will put them of coming back to the resort. During the weekend the hotel only looks after leisure customers these are people who have come down to London to visit family and friends or they have come as tourists. The hotel is busy all year round but especially during the school holidays (Christmas and Easter) it is particularly busy with more leisure customers coming in, Leisure customers expect to have the choice of rooms available to them family rooms, non smoking, disabled rooms and baby facilities in the room. Leisure customers look forward to disabled facilities like available rooms on the ground floor, disabled toilets (lower down seats, with handles) consumers expect the rooms to be to the best standard, they also anticipate them to be hygienic. For e.g. if the room has still got old bed sheets the customer will complain and this will look bad on the cleaning department. There rooms should be located near all facilities so they have easier access to them customers don’t want to be walking long distance just to go to the bar to have a drink. They are interested in what the hotel rooms have for example if the hotel has ample space to accommodate them or maybe they like to know if it has a fridge. Most importantly they are interested in what facilities the hotel has to offer, so in the time they are in the hotel they don’t get bored or if they have children they would like them to be kept entertained. In order to keep children entertained the holiday inn has a range of kids clubs where children can attend whilst parents can have an enjoyable evening.  Leisure customers are interested in what special offers that a hotel has, maybe the hotel will give them offer on an evening meal.

The holiday inn tries very hard to meet these requirements and interests of leisure customers.  If the leisure customers are not made satisfied then the company will lose out. If leisure customers are kept happy they will come back and this means a greater profit for the company. The holiday inn provides different services to its customers. Birthday parties can be held in one of the large rooms the holiday inn has. The Holiday Inn specialise in hosting wedding celebrations. From the first meeting you have with the wedding coordinator, to the time your last guests leave holiday inn staff are trained to help.

Most hotels or big business’ hold personal client or guest information they must keep this information confidential under the data protection act 1998. The hotel inn is no exception to this rule. They cannot give any information out to anyone who may enquire it.

In all, customers are important to any business or organisation. In the holiday inn customers provide a large income of the profit made by the hotel each year. Without customers there is no business. A survey showed that 68% of customers go elsewhere because they are unhappy with the service they were given. This is why it is vital customer care is given properly. “Regular” customers provide a steady income that means a business can plan ahead and invest to make the business even bigger. This is why large organisations like the holiday inn always compensate customers if they are in the wrong. Most people who are happy with a shop or hotel will want to tell their friends. Another survey by ford motor company showed that a happy car buyer told 8 friends and a unhappy car buyer tells 22 friends. This shows that “word of mouth” is an easy way to attract customers, if you make the customer happy with your business. If leisure customers aren’t pleased then the holiday inn will endure a major loss, as most leisure customers are mostly families on a holiday. They will tell other people about the service if is bad.

If in the holiday inn they do not get enough customers then there cash flow will be affected because they are not making enough profits. The holiday inns have to keep their customers happy and portray a good image so that they will attract more customers.  If the numbers of customers decrease over a long period of time the business may have to eventually close down.  

Suppliers

Suppliers value big contracts with companies like the holiday inn because they are a steady, secure, business and they know they will make regular orders. In return they give the business good discounts for steady orders. The suppliers need continuous orders so that they are making money. If the suppliers do not give the company a discount then they know the company can go elsewhere. The holiday inn buys raw materials from dozens of suppliers. The biggest purchases are food supplies. In the holiday inn a good relationship must be maintained so that deliveries are constant. If your supplier isn’t punctual then this could affect your business as you might not be getting your deliveries as and when you require them. Companies like the holiday inn always require very high standards from their suppliers and they give them specific instructions as to what they require, so their products are the best for their customers. The holiday inn suppliers often give the holiday inn discounts on their stock; this is good for the holiday inn because they pay less it is also good for the suppliers because discount on stock will keep the holiday in interested.

Employees

Employers are interested in whether the business will give them a secure job position. They also want good, safe working environment. They are entitled to read there contract (a contract is a legally binding agreement between two people) they must sign it as should there employer, it includes relevant information to do with their job like sick pay, hours of work, place and job title, terms and conditions of employment and finally reference to relevant additional information (e.g. union agreements, pension scheme, grievance and disciplinary procedures.)

In the holiday inn there are many employers, bar staff, waiting staff, chefs, security, receptionists, entertainers, cleaners, engineers and porches.  

                                                                                                                                                                       

 Employees work hard to achieve success and profit for the business.  They should not in return give out any “trade secrets”. Employees expect a good wage and bonuses; to ensure this they do their best to make the business work. In the holiday inn all staff receives an induction before they start their job.  This includes a tour of the hotel so they get to know the hotel layout, fire safety so they no how to evacuate guests if there is a fire, basic food hygiene, an explanation of the company, what its expectations are and who the main staff are within the hotel and finally manual handling, this is how to handle large objects without getting a back strain. Most employees of big business receive perks; these are for e.g. cars, laptops, mobile phones. Managers receive perks more than employees do.

All employees receive sick pay, in the holiday inn all employees get sick pay but they do not get paid in the first three days as a survey showed that 80% of the employees were only off for one or two days and they were not really ill. Genuinely ill employees will be paid sick pay and any other payments will be made at the judgment of the general manager.

In the hotel there are many different job levels. Like with any other business there is the manager who is in charge of the whole business. He looks after the daily running of the business. At each level there are different rates of pay and also different bonuses and perks. All employees work hard to be promoted to the next level. The holiday inn staff, work to the highest standards to keep the hotel to the best at all times. The holiday inn has lots of cleaning staff in order to do this. The staffs in the holiday inn are usually young because they are mainly students who are happy to work for low income and the job they are doing is not permanent this is because they may be doing this as a “side job” whilst they are studying.

The most interest of an employer is the company’s shares these are given to them at low prices to keep them loyal and motivated.

All good business has disciplinary procedures for employees. If there is any situation where the employer has not acted appropriately then it results in disciplinary action being taken. In the holiday inn there are 5 simple steps:

  • A verbal warning from head of department
  • A verbal warning by the general or operations manager
  • A written warning
  • A final written warning by the general manager
  • Dismissal

The disciplinary procedure is used to make the employment of an individual fair so they are given the opportunity to improve the conduct during their employment.

The trade union is an organization, which fights for employee rights. The employees of the holiday inn are not members of a trade union, this is a disadvantage to them but if they have a complaint then they can go to the manager.

Employees need to be kept happy and motivated. If they are unhappy the atmosphere of the company will be negative and this can lead to customers being unhappy with the level of customer care. To keep employees happy they are paid bonuses.

Financiers

Financiers are important stakeholders they provide the business with long or short-term loans. Their main interest in the business is making sure the money is paid back or that their investment is safe. Most businesses deal with banks, and many borrow, either ling or short-term loans, on overdraft. In the holiday inn money could be needed for various things like more hotel rooms or an extension on the building. The holiday inn has a long relationship with their bank. When the company invest in something new they borrow from the bank at a favourable rate of interest. The holiday inn must ensure a good working relationship with the bank, so in the need of more money the bank will let the company borrow a loan without any troubles, whereas if the company is known to have trouble for repayment the bank manager will look into giving the company that loan.

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Local community

The local communities have a very considerable interest in a business. They are interested in jobs environmental and social issues. The holiday inn is a big business to the surrounding area as a lot of jobs will be related to the hotel, a local firm cleans the windows, local buses deliver staff to the hotel gates, and finally local caters may be asked to cater for special occasions. The holiday inn provides a great number of jobs, so if it closed, or even just a cut back the impact would be serious. The local community must ...

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