But what are its weaknesses – the main weaknesses are the following:
- You don’t have control over the work – for example you do not know how the cloths and the linen are washed at the laundry service, or you do not know how the food is prepared.
- You can not be sure that the delivery will be delivered always on time – if something happen with the transport for example and the supply could not be on time, you can have a lot of problems – for example the food for the party is not delivered but the party should start
- It is very easy and it happens very often to deliver someone’s other supply, not yours – this is very embarrassing situation.
How do we evaluate its merits:
- By using the “outsourcing” we can save a lot of money – this is a very strong point to use outsourcing for the small hotels and premises, which cannot afford to make big investments in their hotels,
- The companies which the hotel will hire no matter if they are catering firms or a laundry service, they will be professional agents – they are specialized in doing only this and they should have a high level of competence – something that is hard to achieve in a hotel.
Question 3) Lodging facilities, by its very nature, provide shelter to guests; and work for its employees. Please describe the legal responsibilities the hotel attracts in performing both these functions. With examples please
Hotels provide shelter to guests and work to their employees but also hotels owe safe and secure place to stay and safe and secure working environment. In these matter, hotels bear legal responsibilities for accidents on their premises.
When customers’ check-in hotels enter a binding contract and as a party of it, they are obliged to provide guests with the agreed terms of the contract. If the hotel does not carry out its part of the agreement, it owes duty of care to the customers. The clients have the legal right to breach the contract and to sue the hotel for compensation and in some cases for moral damages.
Hotel’s have legal responsibilities to guests in all the premises to provide safety and security. Let’s start with the guests’ rooms. Every room should have fire detectors, safe electrical outlets, and secured windows. All the bed linen, carpet, and other items in the room must be fire proved. This should be monitored permanently by the chamber-made, and if a guest complained to be immediately reported to the corresponding department.
All hotel corridors must be equipped with detailed evacuation plans of the emergency exits (panic doors), and stairs. Each corridor must have fire extinguisher and fire detectors. This also refers to all public and restricted areas within the hotel.
Another security matter is the corresponding outside area of the hotel (parking lots, sidewalks, parks etc.), which must be well lit and must be permanently checked by the hotel security on irregular schedule.
Guest must be also protected from external threats like muggers, sneak thieves, prostitutes etc. as well from internal threats as unreliable staff.
Hotels, in some cases, can partial exclude themselves from legal responsibilities. For example if there is a sign which says: “When there is no qualified instructor use the gym at your own risk”, and a hotel guest hurts himself in the gym while instructor was absent the hotel is less liable then if there was no sign at all. The same is valid to a restricted areas signed “Staff only”, “Do not enter” or “Warning: High voltage”.
Hotels bear legal responsibilities to their employees too. They must provide the staff with safe working environment. This includes properly working mechanical and electrical units and equipment. Cleaning agents must be well chosen and if not harmless an appropriate outfit and precautions must be held and provide.
Question 4) The hotel uses a variety of cleaning agents. Please list these and their applications.
There are a lot of cleaning agents, which can be used in order to clean the hotel as a whole.
It is very important to know them all and to know how to use the different agents in order to save time and money and energy. The different manufactures of detergents claim that their gents are the best. But the best way to understand which are the best ones for your hotel, you have to try them. You have to demand samples from the manufacturers and to try them on the premises.
The best thing is the cleaning agents to be standardized so that you won’t the necessity to choose between the different manufacturers.
When you choose a manufacturer it is better to get agents only from it, not to change the producers often.
How to select a cleaning agent:
- it is not always a good decision to choose a cheap one because you can have more problems with the cheap one and you can waste a lot of time and money and at last the cheap agents may occur to be a very expensive one
- you have to be careful in choosing the agents because a wrong one can damage your equipment or working surface or whatever you clean with it
- you have to know what is the pH of each cleaning agents and to know for what type of surface is adequate.
The different types of cleaning agents are:
- DETERGENTS
- OTHER CLEANING AGENTS AVAILABLE
- SEALS
- FLOOR WAXES
- SOLVENTS
- DISINFECTANTS
A) DETERGENTS: -
This is material that removes dirt and cleans the objects. There are different types of detergents form – liquid, cake and powder.
The detergents should be easily soluble in water, have to react the same way with all the different types of water, have to got wetting power to penetrate different surfaces and clean the dirt, to have good emulsifying power to soluble oil and grease, to be harmless to the surfaces and the skin, to be easily rinsed away, and to be bio-degradable.
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Soap – it is manufactured from a combination of natural fats of fatty acids and alkali. They are not used a lot like cleaners because they can’t work well in hard or cold water.
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Neutral or non alkaline or anionic detergents – they are harmless to the skin. they are the most used detergents – 80% of all usage of detergents. they can be used for – washing-up, for carpet cleaning, window cleaner, laundry work.
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Cationic detergents – the main cationic detergent is the quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) they are used where the hygiene is of great importance – hospitals, food factories etc.
B) OTHER CLEANING AGENTS
The most important ones are:
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Water – this is the simplest and the cheapest cleaning agents available. But it have to be used only for small amount of dirt, because it cannot resolve heavy dirt or grease.
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Abrasive cleaners – the different types of abrasive cleaners are used for different types of surfaces. You can clean silver, gold, cooper, floor, you can sand down wood surfaces. For every surface you have to use different type of abrasive – Jewelers rouge, precipitated whiting, powder purnice in liquid or paste form etc.
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Metal cleaners – they are also available as liquids, powders, impregnated wadding or cloths. For example: hard metal is cleaned with a compound based on acid with fine abrasive such as salt.
C) SEALS
What is a seal – this is a kind of material which prevent the floor from penetration of dirt, stains, liquids and foreign materials. This material sealed the floor do not permit small materials to penetrated the floor. It is important that this seal should be removed from time to time.
There are five min types of seals:
- oleo-resinous
- one-pot (ready-for-use) plastic seals
- two-pot plastic seals
- pigmented seals
- water based seals
D) FLOOR WAXES
Floor waxes protect the floors and also ease their maintenance. There are two main types of floor waxes:
Solvent-based waxes – it is used to protect wood, wood composition, cork, linoleum and magnesite floor. They should not be used on PVC, thermoplastic or rubber surfaces.
Water-based waxes – they are used on almost every kind of surfaces – PVC, thermoplastic, rubber, asphalt, terrazzo and marble, sealed wood, wood compositions, linoleum and cork.
E) SOLVENTS
Solvents are used when detergents and water are not sufficient. Nowadays solvents are part of the detergents in order to help them to remove easily fats, grease and oil. but some time the mixture of detergents and solvents is not strong enough and that is why sometimes solvents are used alone. The main types of solvents are:
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ethyl alcohol and methylated spirits – they can dissolve resins, waterproof ink biro, iodine etc.
- Acetone – it is used to remove dirt like resins, paints, lipstick, nail varnish, etc.
- Petrol – it dissolves tar, rubber, wax and pitch
F) DISINFECTANTS
What is a disinfecting – removing or destroying microbes, and a disinfectant is an agent, which removes microbes from any surfaces.
The main disinfectants are:
- Alcohols
- Aldehydes
- Halogens
- Phenolic
Question 5) Hotel guests’ needs extend beyond the guest room. Please describe what they are.
Of course the main need of a hotel guest is the guest room. But it is also obvious that with this need his needs are not satisfied. We can divide guests needs in several ways.
The first way is to divide them to tangible (physical) and intangible (psychological) needs. Tangible needs are those which facilitate guests – to have easy access to the reception, to have a car park, to have a restaurant in the hotel where he can have something to eat and drink, to have some extras in the hotel – sauna, gym, a TV in his room, to have a nice warm (cold) room. Also it is very important to have some kind of entertainment in the hotel – a disco, or a casino, or a good night bar, snooker tables, bowling, a gym, etc, where the guests can entertain themselves.
Intangible needs are, as mentioned above, the psychological ones. They can also be divided into two types – 1) The ambiance – (style and decor) – it is very important that everything in the room is combined well – nice bed, nice carpet, nice carpenter, good colors for the walls etc. All this color shouldn’t be very dark and depressing. 2) The amount of hospitality displayed by the staff – (customer care) – this is may be the most important one. If the receptionist for example is not a very friendly mood, his attitude can destroy the good impression of the hotel as a whole.
Another way of presenting the guests needs is by following Maslow’s “hierarchy of human needs”. Maslow divided human needs into five big groups: 1) Survival, 2) Security, 3) Belongingness, 4) Esteem, 5) Self-actualization
1) Survival – this is the basic need of every human being. As said in the “Hotel Proprietors Act 1956) travelers required “food, drink, and if so required sleeping accommodation” which is the basic function of every hotel.
As I said every hotel provide guests with room to sleep. But the guests have more needs. Let’s take a closer look to the other needs from Maslow’s hierarchy:
2) Security – it is very important for the guests to feel safe and secure in the hotel. That is why the hotel have to assure the clients that the hotel is a safe place to be. When I say security I don’t mean only the literal meanings of security. The guests should be reassure for the following things: they have to be recognized – when they enter the hotel it is very touchy when the front door man open you the door and say hello sir/madam. It is also very nice if the receptionist use the guests first name.
3) Belongingness – the guests need to see other people and to be seen by others. That’s why the hotel should also provide the guests with a place (lobby bar, disco, lounge) where they can meet other people It is also important that the regular guests of a hotel know the staff, which should be kind and with friendly mood. It is of course very difficult in the big hotels, where the staff turnover is great, but in the small family hotels it is possible.
4) Esteem – this is the need to be liked and respected. This need can be satisfied. But it is satisfied mainly in larger hotels and expensive once, because this high standard needs high-cost labor
5) Self-actualization - this is the highest level need. Guests need to improve themselves physically and mentally. And here is the role of the hotel – to provide the guests with all kind of facilities. What about the mental improvement – organizing sightseeing around the city where the hotel is, explain them the local culture, making movie nights with local movies and so on.
Reference:
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Jones, Iris ; Philips, Cynthia – Commercial Housekeeping and Maintenance, Stanley Thornes (publishers) Ltd
- Abbott, Peter., Lewry, Sue. Front Office – procedures, social skills, yield and management, Butterworth Heinemann,
