Typical Challenge Faced By Room Division Staff

Typical Challenge Faced By Room Division Staff There is a saying , Customer is God which means customers needs should be fulfilled by the goods or service provider so that the customer can become your loyal customer. As to the hotel industry, it is also very true that hotel staff should try the best to satisfy all demands and requests from the guests so as to keep the guests come back often and introduce their friends and relatives to step in the hotel. However, not all customers are easy going and sometimes customers may bring up difficult requests which are not able to be met by the hotel, thus it will pose a great challenge for the hotel staff to handle. In this way, the relevant hotel department, here referred as the front office under the room division will often be responsible for processing such requests and complaints. The way how the customers requests and complaints are handled is very important for the hotels development regarding its reputability and sustainability in this field. Therefore, the aim of this report is to highly focus on the reasons of such difficult requests and complaints and the solutions which will properly get the issues handled without offending the customers and making them satisfy with the services of the hotel. It also addresses the significance for the hotel to be able to handle the complaints and requests in a proper way. In the final part, the report has drawn a proper conclusion for such challenge discussed and analysed. Table of contents Introduction 4 Discussion about the reasons and forms of the difficult requests and complaints brought up by customers 4 The ways how the Front Office staff should face and handle such challenge 6 Significance for the hotel to handle the challenge in a proper way 7 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction With the development of various businesses and tourisms, different types of hospitality industries such as business hotels, holiday inn hotels, have been rapidly developed and expanded in the cities all around the world. Since the massive expansion in this hospitality sector, the competition between hotels with the same level is becoming more and more intensified. Therefore, to improve the service trying to satisfy every customer whenever stepping into the hotel to the best is becoming vital in the hotel management (Kandampully, Mok Sparks, 2001). However, no matter how well the hotel staff made the preparation and how much efforts they made for trying to meet the customers needs, there are still many challenges in terms of handling the actual incidents in the real situation. With the consideration of addressing the challenges which might be encountered by the hotel staff, this report picks one typical challenge that the hotel room division department will occasionally face to analy se. The challenge is identified in the report is how the difficult customers requests and complaints are processed by the relevant staff. Usually the requests and complaints are handled by the front office staff under the room division department of the hotel. Such difficult requests and complaints from customers are very common for the hospitality industry. In the report, it is to write about such typical challenge to be handled by the front office staff in a business hotel. Discussion about the reasons and forms of the difficult requests and complaints brought up by customers In hospitality industry, it is very hard for the hotel not to have any incidents occur since the hospitality sector is dealing with different types of people. Take a Business Hotel as an example, one large Business Hotel will receive thousands of customers each year. All of the customers are with different characteristics or from different countries with obviously different cultures. Even the best and most reputable hotel may not be able to make every customer satisfy with its service. Usually, it is more occasional for the Front Office under the Room Division Department to contact the customers directly. And more often requests or complaints from customers will be delivered to the Front Office and the staff is responsible for handling such incidents. The reasons why sometimes customers will propose some hard requests or even sometimes they directly make complaints about the hotel is not difficult to understand. From the perspective of customer, he/she spends money on the food and services in the hotel, therefore, customer may think he/she should deserve more convenient and better service. And the more money he/she spends in the hotel, the much higher expectation with respect to the services he/she will have for the hotel. This is the psychological reaction of human being. During the hotel service process, if the customers feel the actual experience of the service is not up to the expectation they set in their mind, it will cause customers dissatisfaction (Bardi, 2010). Although most of them will not reveal this mood and leave the hotel without a word, some of the customers will complain to the Front Office. Also since different customers are greatly different in their living background, behaving methods, characteristics, they wil l reflect a different needs for the hotel services. Meanwhile, as the evaluation of hotel services by each customer is subjective, evaluation of the same services may vary from person to person. Thus not all the customers needs can be fulfilled and nothing is perfect, the diversity of the lodging customers absolutely ensure that there will be difficult requests and complaints (Hsu Powers, 2001). During the hotel service, a hotel may confront many forms of difficult customers requests and complaints. There are difficult requests such as late room service, asking for some facilities which are not equipped in the hotel etc. Typical complaints are like unclean room, unreasonable phone price, poor facilities, bad-quality food, language misunderstanding, unhelpful staff and so on (Ahmed, 2005). The ways how the Front Office staff should face and handle such challenge When encountering the difficult customer requests and complaints, Front Office staff may feel great stress for handling such incidents especially when dealing with some hard customers. It is a great challenge for the employees to handle the requests and complaints properly without offending the customers and to ensure Hotels interests at the same time. To handle these incidents in a proper way, the staff should firstly have a right attitude about the challenge. To deal with such unprepared incidents is one positions responsibilities. Requirements and complaints made by customers should be regarded as gifts to hotel. Customers requests and complaints not only reflect the needs of customers are not fulfilled by hotel, but also provide an opportunity for the hotel to evaluate its service quality and management quality in various aspects (Barlow Moller, 1996). It actually provides a good chance to improve hotel in many ways, which will eventually enables the hotel with an outstanding pe rformance and to be very competitive in the lodging industry. For Front Office staff, it is a knowledge to well handle the difficult customers requests and complaints. Normally the staff can resolve the incidents with reference to the following guidances according to different complex situation. When customers ask for some hard requests which may not be achieved within the hotels limit, customers may feel frustrated and disappointed. Usually customers will not deliberately make some unreasonable requests, therefore, when the staff face such requests, they should firstly try to satisfy their customers if the requests are not ridiculous. If hotel can not meet the customers requests, the staff should make apologies to customers in a polite way. The staff should keep the requests down on the notebook and assure the customers that the hotel will improve its service or add the requests in the service range (Malhotra, 1997). Actually the requests are also the advice for the hotel. It can make the hotel perfect its services. For instance, now there are more and more women business travellers, women have more requirements than men in terms of lodging and food and so on. Women customers may ask hotel to prepare better hairdryer and healthy meals. In other situations, hotel may have so me disabled persons who will demand more special requests from the hotel. Normally if customers difficult requests can not be provided by the hotel and the staff refuse them in a very polite way, most of the customers will not be annoyed. However, if the customers requests are refused by the staff without any explanation, customer will make complaints because they feel his self-esteem is devalued. When dealing with the complaints, the staff should be very careful because if the complaints are not handled properly, the hotel will lose not only one customer. When customer complains, the hotel should handle the complaints immediately and take the complaints seriously. Hotel staff should carefully listen to the customer with complaints with a wholehearted attitude and deal with the complaints after being agreed by customer. After investigation, if it is found fault with the hotel, apology and proper compensation shall be made in order to get forgiveness from the customers and make them satisfy with the hotel again. The staff shall keep in mind avoiding conflicts with customers. For the serious incident, the staff shall comfort the customers firstly then report to the manager and handle it according to the complaints procedure. Every complaint should be integrated in a file and analysed so that it can become a material for training as typical cases (Heung Lam, 2003). After the com plaints are resolved, hotel staff should appreciate the customers for pointing out the improper ways of the hotel, which makes the hotel improve itself. Then the customers will feel good impression about the hotel again and will come back for next time. Significance for the hotel to handle the challenge in a proper way To properly deal with the difficult requests and complaints is crucial for hotels success and development. There are plenty of hotels established in the city, why the customers would come back if they feel they are not treated in a good manner. For hotel, to offer a good service is one thing, to resolve requests and complaints in a good manner is another key factor for its reputation. Resolving the problems effectively has a strong impact on the customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customers will possibly satisfy with the hotel based on the recovery efforts made by the hotel (Liao, 2007). There are numbers of hotels becoming good players in the lodging industry because they know how to deliver their services to customers and how to ensure guest satisfaction about their services or even how to handle the guest complaints successfully and gain back the customers trust about their hotels. Therefore, these hotels survive in the competitive accommodation area. Especially at present, technology develops fast and Internet is used by most people around the world. If one hotel failed to handle the guests requests or complaints, the offended customer may spread bad words via Internet, which will greatly destroy the hotels fame and potential customers may choose the other competitor by viewing these comments (Piccoli, Spalding Ives, 2001). Besides this, once the customer feel negative opinion about the hotel, he/she will deliver this message to his/her friends and relatives. For example, when we check the hotel information via Internet, we will occasionally see some messages or comments made by other people. These bad words will definitely make us feel not good about the hotel, although some of them may not be true. While on the other hand, if the hotel can try to fulfill the requests of the customers, hotel will gain considerable profits and will definitely build a good reputation in the hospitality industry. Take London Hilton in Park Lane as an example. Since now there are more and more women business travellers who have specific needs and requirements different from those of male guests. These women guests highlight good health diet and fitness facilities and they require more appropriate facilities in their rooms, such as padded hangers, good lighting and full-length mirror. Therefore, London Hilton refurbished the 30 rooms on its 22nd floor to become an all-women zone and offers a private section for them and enhance the security. The rooms are facilitated according to women taste including fashion magazines, powerful hairdryers and others (Carysforth, 2003). As a result, the London Hilton Hotel is popular by most of the women travellers. Proper handling customers complaints and make the c omplaining customer feel he/she is respected also helps the hotel to build its reputation and win back customers loyalty. Conclusion In conclusion, the hospitality industry most often deal with people. In order to survive in todays intensively competitive business environment, it is very essential for hotels to ensure to achieve customers satisfaction. As peoples increasing sense of protecting his consumer rights, many complaints occur in the hotel service. Also because hotels provide products and services which may be perceived in different ways by different people, different people will have varied levels of opinion in responding to the same or similar service and product consumption. Complaints sometimes do good to the hotel if the hotel is able to solve the problem in an effective way. If not, complaints will contribute a very bad influence to the hotel. However, for the Hotel Room Division sector, it is very challenging for them the properly deal with the matter. The persons for undertaking such position should be experienced and well-trained in this area. The capability of handling the complaints and difficu lt situation is not only about personal traits but also about tacts and strategies. The hotel staff should be familiar with the relevant strategies or procedures when handling the difficult and complex issues. It is also the hotels fortune to have such excellent staff being capable of solving complaints.

Yahoo and Alibaba

3. How has the strategic value of Yahoo to Alibaba changed over time since 2005? 2005 was a tough year for Alibaba. Because of the US$100 million investment in China by eBay, Alibaba and its subsidiary – Taobao fell into a severe price war against eBay which hindered the profitability of the group and much more capital was needed for operational and technological improvement in order to win the battle. Under this circumstance, Alibaba formed a partnership with Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo invested US$1 billion in Alibaba and transferred the ownership of Yahoo! China to Alibaba.In return, Yahoo got a 40% stake and 35% voting rights in Alibaba. Beside the cash injection, another reason for the initiation of the partnership was that Alibaba valued much on the importance of search engine for its e-commerce work. At that time, owing Yahoo! China was a competitive advantage of Alibaba against eBay. At that time, Yahoo had much strategic value to Alibaba due to its large capital base and techno logy to help Alibaba safeguard its market share under eBay’s attack. However, the operation of Yahoo! China under Alibaba was unsatisfactory.Since 2005, Yahoo! China has been losing its market share and lagging behind its rivals. Although Alibaba tried to re-orientate it as more business-oriented to grasp the market niche, the effort was in vain. The influence of Yahoo! China in the search engine market in China diminished. Hence, it failed to draw attention of potential customers of Alibaba and was not capable to bring enough benefit to Alibaba leading to a fall in strategic value of Yahoo!. Even for the parent of Yahoo! China – Yahoo! Inc. , the story was more or less the same.The net income of Yahoo dropped 78% in the first quarter of 2009 which resulted in a massive layoff. Due to the low profitability, Yahoo formed a 10-year agreement with Microsoft. Under this contract, Yahoo had to adopt Microsoft’s search technology (Bing) instead of its own technology i n all Yahoo’s website. Similarly, Yahoo agreed to use Google’s search engine in Yahoo! Japan (search ads platform). In other words, it surrendered its own searching technology which Alibaba valued most. Search engine is important to e-commerce companies.As many people use search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. to get appropriate results of their queries, a smart search engine can allocate much traffic to the e-commerce website by placing their website on the top of result pages so that potential customers can be created. Now that Yahoo lost its own search engine, it may only be able to provide support to Alibaba under Microsoft’s constraints which was unlikely to be what Alibaba wants and thus lowering Yahoo’s strategic value. Unlike the poor performance of Yahoo, the profit of Alibaba surged after the partnership.Apart from being the market leader in China, Alibaba started to expand its business overseas in 2008. For instance, it formed a partnershi p with Informedia India Limited; set up Alibaba Japan, a joint venture with Softbank to foray and launched AliExpress in US etc. All these new strategies had no correlation with its partner – Yahoo! Inc. These revealed that Alibaba was keen on developing new relationships with overseas companies to enter foreign markets. Due to the poor relationship with Yahoo, Alibaba no longer seek cooperation with it and the strategic value of Yahoo further diminished.Because of the poor performance of Yahoo! China, Alibaba started to provide Sogou (a local search engine) in addition to Bing for its customers. This probably made Yahoo’s market share further decrease as customers no longer need to choose Yahoo! China’s Etao as the only access to Alibaba and they can opt for Sogou Shopping instead. Even Alibaba loses Yahoo! China, it still has its new channel to reach its potential customers. It seems that Yahoo has lost its role as an exclusive search engine of Alibaba and los t its strategic value meanwhile.

The Current Issue Of Failures And The System Of Child...

R v Kristi Anne Abrahams [2013] NSWSC 95 OVERVIEW This case deals with the current issue of failures in the system of child protection in NSW. Kristi Abraham mother of four, pleaded guilty of murdering her six year old daughter, Kiesha, whose remains were found in a bushland in Sydney’s west in early 2011. The young six year old was reported missing 8 months before her remains were found. Her body was kept in a suitcase for three days before it was disposed of. â€Å"Kiesha deserved to be protected and had done nothing wrong† -Justice Harrison Kiesha was living with her mother and her partner, Robert Smith and was exposed to a lot of abuse and violence throughout her life. She was unable to seek help and was silenced whenever she†¦show more content†¦It was reported; she attended school just 4 days in 2 terms. After Kiesha’s death, both Abrahams and Smith attempted to destroy all evidence that could link them to her death. FACTORS AFFECTING CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR Abrahams, is the product of what had happened to her. She was physically abused by her father as a child and never received the care and support which was important for her own development. She was also subjected to anti aboriginal comments as a child and had experienced extreme forms of domestic violence in her household. Abrahams lived her life in a foster home as a 10 year old after her mother passed away, she was unable to receive the right parenting and was neglected throughout her life. This according to the judge was the main psychological factor that instigated criminal behaviour within her. Keeping this is mind; Justice Harrison made a statement stating that â€Å"Abraham’s anger and resentment about her own childhood has today affected her parenting.† THE CRIMINAL PROCESS Abrahams deliberately failed to call the ambulance after kicking Kiesha in the face. This so called ‘nudge in the face’ was examined and estimated to be equivalent to a sporting injury. Kiesha suffered at least 5 blows to the jaw. A mother had killed her daughter in cold- blood. Disposal of the body was a priority at the time; this led to Abrahams planning a plot with her de facto Mr Smith so they could get away with this crime and address the

Childhood Obesity Essay - 765 Words

Past the accelerated activity of the 20th century comes the new millennium bringing the modernized world to a throne of leisure and lethargy. Consequently sabotaging the health of our children and our future as a nation, obesity once thought only to be common to the fully grown adult, has now plunged its way belly first into Americas freshest gene pool. The epidemic of obesity among children has its roots in consumer culture and in contemporary American society all a part of the environment that accommodates the modern-day American family. Diet pills, surgery, and a whole array of temporary solutions have been offered to fight problem but the real causes and solutions go much deeper into the political, social and economic structures of†¦show more content†¦In response to the headlining epidemic a very profitable industry has emerged for weight loss products and weight removal techniques. Pills, diet plans, and surgery have all been seen as the solution and quickest way to he alth recovery but however effective these methods may be they offer only temporary solution. Surgery and weight loss mechanisms are only slight recovery methods that do not to prevent or address the problem at its core. A prevalence of these methods could only lead us into a cycle of wayward health care and would only cause adverse side effects if used on children. For the same reasons these methods would not work in Belgium, these quick fix solutions only fuel a system that allows for the problem in the first place. It is not just the problem of extra pounds that threatens our future as a nation but the understanding and relationship made between the unneeded fat to the environment and its reasons being. Along with an emphasis on personal we might see a growth in alternative healthcare and medicine. 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