Current situation and solutions to improve the quality of room service at Habana Hotel

PART II

DOCUMENT OVERVIEW

2.1. Overview of rooms and room departments in hotels

2.1.1. Some basic concepts

2.1.1.1 Concept of hotel room service

The main product in the hotel business is the “room” for guests to rent overnight. According to the different names between the North and South of Vietnam, the North calls it “room” and the South calls it “room”. But basically, both of these concepts are the same in meaning, which is used to refer to the place where people stay and rest. Therefore, the room must ensure the minimum physical amenities to meet the needs of tourists.

Depending on the hotel, the quality and level of service provided, and the amenities in the hotel room are also different. From the above characteristics, we can draw the concept of "room" as follows:

A room is a private living space equipped with minimal physical amenities to serve the needs of visitors. Depending on the payment capacity or class of each accommodation facility, customers must pay a fee to have the right to use it.

2.1.1.2 Concept of room service quality in hotels

In the hotel business, service quality is provided by people, which is the communication and relationship between staff and customers. The human factor has a great impact on the perception and evaluation of the quality of hotel services. Because most of the services in the hotel are provided directly through the service staff, through their attitudes and appearance. Room service quality is what brings customers attentive and dedicated service, is the satisfaction of customers with the attitude and customer care of the room service staff during the time the guests stay at the hotel.

hotel. Therefore, service quality is the cumulative evaluation process of customers based on the comparison between expected service quality and the level of satisfaction with the service quality that customers have received.

So the quality of service of the housekeeping department, according to the consumer perspective, depends on the subjective feelings of the guests, which is the level of satisfaction and satisfaction of the guests with the service of the housekeeping department. So we have the concept of service quality as follows: Service quality is the level of customer satisfaction with the hotel's customer service compared to their previous expectations. And service quality must ensure consistency and be maintained throughout the business process, ensuring compliance with the hotel's standards.

2.1.1.3. Concept of housekeeping department

The housekeeping department is the staff that cleans hotel and motel rooms, responsible for cleaning guest rooms and checking rooms when guests enter and leave the hotel:

Function:

The operation of the housekeeping department is an important and indispensable component in the general operation system of the hotel. This department performs extremely important responsibilities such as ensuring the material conditions for the rest so that it takes place in a good way and constantly improving the economic and social efficiency of the hotel. At the same time, it monitors and evaluates the facilities after daily use to promptly report to the maintenance department to propose timely repair measures, helping the board of directors with the management plan and monitoring the check-in and check-out of guests.

In addition, the housekeeping team also has the function of propaganda and foreign affairs, for security and safety, strictly comply with all instructions and regulations of the hotel. Master the hotel's regulations to save costs (without affecting the quality of service), disseminate the rules to guests, check the instructions for using equipment.

for guests to limit damage and clean public areas according to the hotel's general regulations.

Mission:

Conduct cleaning of areas: guest bedrooms, public areas inside (common areas for guests and hotel staff) and outside the hotel.

Responsible for laundry for the entire hotel, laundry for hotel guests, maintenance of all guest rooms, ready to welcome and ensure the best service for guests when they arrive at the hotel, making guests feel comfortable and convenient.

Role:

The housekeeping department plays a very important role in the operation of the hotel, the department is responsible for cleaning, maintaining and keeping the guest room beautiful. Simply put, the role of the housekeeping department is to keep the guest room clean, convenient and safe.

-For business activities: In these services, sleeping rooms account for 50-80% of the total revenue of the hotel. In other words, the biggest profit a hotel gets is from the sleeping room service because a guest room is prepared with ready-made equipment to be sold over and over again. Good management ensures that room sales reach a maximum profit level.

-For society: it accounts for 2/3 of the hotel's work and at the same time it accounts for 2/3 of the labor force. This creates jobs for workers.

-For tourists: is an indispensable need when guests leave their accommodation. This is where guests recover their health after a tiring working time (because the room is fully equipped that at home cannot have enough to ensure the guests' daily activities). Guests are served attentively and are cared for.

-Finally, the housekeeping department plays an important role in helping the Board of Directors outline business strategies and grasp customer needs.

2.1.2. Characteristics, elements of room service and room service provision process

2.1.2.1 Characteristics of room service

Due to the specific nature of this type of service business, it is very difficult to distinguish and in order to better evaluate and manage the quality of hotel service, we must understand its specific characteristics.

The quality of service in a hotel has the following characteristics:

Intangibility

This is the distinctive feature of service products compared to ordinary goods. Customers cannot feel or see before consuming the service product. Room service represents the intangible that customers cannot see or feel before consuming the service such as: service attitude, service skills of staff... only when customers consume the service can they feel it. Room service has the biggest difference in that it cannot be seen, tasted, smelled, felt, or heard before using. However, the service or room service still has tangible elements such as the facilities in the hotel, equipment, and amenities in the room. These are things that customers can see and evaluate their quality, from which they will draw conclusions about the quality of room service or the quality of service in the hotel in general. Therefore, the best way to overcome the intangible nature of room service is to increase the tangible elements to increase the persuasiveness to customers. Specifically, hotels need to invest in infrastructure systems, luxurious and aesthetically pleasing equipment, stimulating customers' feelings while creating trust and safety for them.

Inseparability

Inseparability is expressed in the fact that the production and consumption of a service appear to coincide in time and space. The customer must

come to the place to consume the service, so the role of the customer in the service implementation process is very important, that process is also completed with the completion of the customer's consumption. The customer plays the role of the main character in the implementation process, having both the perspective of an insider and a direct consumer, so their evaluations after using the service at the hotel are considered the most accurate. Good service quality shows the level of customer satisfaction. From this characteristic, hotel managers must always stand on the point of view of customers, direct consumers, taking customers as the center to serve and to evaluate their current service quality.

Non-stockability

This characteristic comes from the inseparable characteristic. Because the production and consumption processes occur almost at the same time, they cannot be stored. And because the hotel's products are created and provided by the service of the staff and this service cannot be replaced or mechanized but is performed by people themselves. This shows the reason why hotels always want to increase room capacity to the maximum level, because if the room capacity is low, it will mean that the number of rooms that cannot be sold to guests increases, these rooms are considered unable to bring revenue to the hotel that day.

Heterogeneity

In the hotel business, service quality is always the top concern of managers and is the key to creating competitive advantage for the business. Therefore, the consistency in form and action of all departments, of all members in the hotel about the quality of their service is very important. Maintaining a good quality in business not only creates a good image and reputation, but also can enhance competitive advantage.

A service can be provided by many different people, at different times and places, and there is also customer intervention in the process of creating the service, creating instability and heterogeneity. The synchronization and consistency of service quality must reflect the hotel's commitment to customers, at all times, in all places and for all customers. It is impossible to have good service quality initially and only for a certain period of time or only for customers who come to the hotel for the first time, and it is not necessary for the next times. There cannot be service quality that is just advertising to compete with competitors. Service quality cannot be built only once and can be applied forever without change. Service quality must be maintained consistently and constantly changed to suit the diverse needs of customers in the target market segment and to compete with other competitors.

Customer participation in service creation

Due to the simultaneous nature of service production and consumption, customer participation in production is an objective necessity. Customers are an important and indispensable input factor to create service products. Without customer requirements, there will be no demand, so there will inevitably be no supply. Manufacturers have no basis to create service products or if they do, there will be no service objects. More specifically, with room service, when customers come to the hotel, they make a request to book a room to stay, then room services such as cleaning the room, changing sheets, vacuuming, laundry, etc. will begin to be performed more frequently. Customers not only participate in the process of creating services as service consumers but also act as an indispensable input factor. Thus, the presence of customers is very important and customer participation is decisive in creating service products.

2.1.2.2 Elements of room service

The two basic elements to create a room service product are the customer and the supplier (hotel).

Hotel

Service

room

Information

feedback

Client

Maybe you are interested!

Figure 2.1 Elements of room service

(Source: Habana Hotel)

- Client

Through studying the characteristics of room service, we see that to satisfy the needs of customers, it partly depends on the quality of the hotel's room service and largely depends on their psychology. As we know, each person's psychology is different, we cannot treat them in the same way. Moreover, customer needs are considered the input factor of the service production process and customers are participants in that process. Therefore, to preserve the existence and development of the service industry in general and the hotel service industry in particular, we must understand the needs and psychology of customers.

- Hotel

 Hotel responsibilities

The hotel is the place to create and provide services that satisfy the needs of customers. To provide customers with high quality products and services, there must be close coordination between departments in the hotel. Those departments must be organized scientifically based on a suitable management model. The room service department must flexibly connect customers with other departments in the hotel. In addition, there is a significant contribution from the room service business department, which is to provide facilities, equipment, tools, electricity and water in the hotel.

 Supplier's responsibility

- Establishing service strategy: the supplier must be responsible for building the business vision and goals.

- Select service-oriented employees.

- Design customer access system.

2.1.2.3 Room service provision process

Amenities

Room Service

Regardless of which hotel business when operating accommodation services, there is a common supply process, the same, the only difference is the organization of activities to be most effective. The following is the hotel room service supply process:

Receptionist

Room booking process

Check in

Pay

Check out

Phone system, Internet…

Next process

Room service

KH returns

Diagram 2.2 Hotel room service supply process

(Source: Habana Hotel)