Hilton Hotels Challenges Faced

Hilton Hotel, Reading hotel facilitates a very homely atmosphere which invites people to live in their own houses. It is just four minutes away from Reading’s historical city centre, The Thames River and the renowned shopping centre. This hotel is located on the Kennet Island Development and has walking distance to Madejski Stadium. This hotel is close to the Reading train station. And it hardly takes twenty-five minutes to reach Heathrow airport. This is very convenient for the customers.

Hilton Hotel Reading provides spacious, air-conditioned rooms which have large units. This hotel is decorated and attracts large number of the tourist. It also provides wired and wireless internet access for their customers. They have the latest audio-visual technology. A large customer service desk and comfortable Hilton beds.

Dinner in a fabulous Larder Restaurant, which provides a mixture of domestic and inter-continental dishes which persuades both modern and traditional dishes and finishing the delicious meal with a cocktail in the tranquil bar K.Tone . There is a flattering twenty-four living well health club characterising Living well by precor gym equipment, swimming pool indoor as well as out door, sauna and a dance studio for various fitness classes. Customers can celebrate or have business occasions at the Hilton Reading Hotel which has eight large meeting rooms and a large ballroom which can cater up to four hundred guests.

Literature review:

Hilton hotel Reading is just few minutes away from Reading station and twenty five minutes away from the Heathrow Airport. www.hilton.co.uk/reading. Hilton hotel is a service industry and in the service.

In a service industry customers are of great importance. Without the customers the organisations don’t work. Online banking has become a very important technological development not only for business but also for general public.

Food and beverages of Hilton Hotel is branded and of very good quality. They higher people who perfectionists in their jobs. Their standard is highly maintained. But as it is said nobody is perfect. There are some problems faced by the food and beverages of Hilton hotel Reading. There are some customer complaints for the food and beverages staff of Hilton hotel, reading. Hilton Hotel Reading has an emerging problem and complaints.

The positive impact of the complaints on the staff

The staffs try their level best to provide best services to customers but due to some mistakes committed by them, customer’s complaint. Customers have full rights to complaint as they are paying for their stay and the facilities. If they are not satisfied about spending their money at good place they have to give feedbacks. The feedbacks of the customers help to analyse the staff performance. The complaint’s of customers helps the hotel to understand that what went wrong and what can be done so that these complaints are not repeated.Nita Umashankar, Raji Srinivasan, and Dustin Hindman Journal of Service Research, May 2011; vol. 14, 2: pp. 164-179. First published on March 7, 2011

Hilton hotel take keen interest in solving the problems of the customers. Customer satisfaction is the basic objective. Hilton Takes the complaints positively and puts in their best so that the mistakes are not repeated again. As per the interview of a manager, who said that if they won’t have complaints how they will proceed? And criticism is very important because they always cannot be perfect. Without having complaints they cannot know about the problems in the staff. They cannot maintain their standard. As per the information the staff has always been trained if there are complaints from the customers. http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/hilton

www.hilton.com

International Journal of Hospitality Management, Volume 25, Issue 1, March 2006, Pages 69-90

Osman M. Karatepe

Negative impacts of the complain

Staff of Hilton Hotel reading is highly qualified. They pay keen attention towards satisfying their customers. When there are complaints about their services in food and beverage they feel very bad and loose their self-confidence. They get demotivated. They are afraid to face their managers. In this fear they perform even more badly and sometimes even leave the job out of frustration. There is lot of pressure on them so that they provide good services to the customer in this pressure they make even more mistakes. The staff members are scared of getting fired from their work. They loose their attention and sometimes with this fear even of loosing their job they get stressed. Due to stress they have tensions which lead to illness and low performance at work, absenteeism, less participation at work.

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Difference between Complaints and Requests

Requests: Request is when the customer politely orders for a service. For which he/she has paid.

Complaints: Even after requesting a service for which the customer has already paid, doesn’t get a good response then there is a complaint of dissatisfaction. The disappointment to the customer lead them to complaint.

What measures have to be taken by the manager to solve the problem

The staff members get demoralized when they hear about the complaints from their manager. It is very inappropriate to disclose the facts in front of the staff. As per the Manager of Hilton Hotel, Reading the staff has to be tackled carefully because they are the jewels of the company. They cannot be thrown away by the hotel. Instead of that the term diplomacy is brought into practice with the help of which the food staff and beverages staff can be handled. Recruiting is not easy they value their staff and will put full efforts to train them as per the customer requirements.

How can you motivate your employees in a Service industry?

To support your employee he/she have to be given a pay-raise. He must feel vital. Manager should make him understand his significance in the company. In a hotel fabrication which is a service industry customers are very significant. They recruit the best people to hand round customers. “A practical theory of motivation applied to the hotels”

Having meeting, seminars, incentives, motivational trips, get-together planners , organising events. Employees should be given training, education apparatus, minimalism of task and both inherited cerebral and substantial competence.

“Give me enough medals and I’ll win any war”

Napoleon Bonaparte

Darren Lee-Ross (Lecturer in tourism and hospitality management; South Cross University)

Levels of employee motivation

Path of an member of staff actions: It relates to those behaviours which the individual chooses to execute

The level of endeavour: How firm the individual is enthusiastic to work

The level of determination: It refers to the individual’s readiness to follow the behaviour in spite of barriers

Motivation theories

Maslow’s theory

Self Actualisation: achieving the basic goal of a person’s life.

Esteem: The self confidence of the person. Of motivation applied to the hotels

Belongingness/love: Attainment of love from friends, family

Safety: the security of life. Security of employment

Physiological needs: Food, clothing and shelter.

Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor

Theory X

According to theory X, the employees are satisfied with whatever they have. They don’t like to contribute in meetings. The only work for what they are paid and have no interest after their working hours are over. They don’t participate in the business meetings. They obey the boss, if the boss says stand the employees stand if they say sit then they sit. This is a traditional theory. Obey the boss and never speak anything in front of him. Boss is always right. So the employees never bothered to interfere in companies’ matter they were pleased with whatever they get. Employees depend upon the boss to take decisions. And follow the instructions given by them. The boss is very dominating in theory X. And the employee has to follow his instruction or else he/she will be removed from job. So the employees are passive without any interest and happiness to work.

Theory Y

According to theory Y, the employees are not satisfied they crave for more and more. They love to participate in the meetings. The employees are very innovative. They come up with new ideas and share it with the top level management for the progress of the company. They work than hours, they have hunger of success. The employees are very enthusiastic and are always willing to help and participate. Employees love to take responsibilities, they like when the manager shows trust in them. This modern theory where an employee can speak in front of the high authorities. He can share his views unlike theory Y. The boss doesn’t dominate the employees he lets them free and guides them for the responsibility handed over to them. Such employees are bothered about the companies well being. They love to serve for the company. They have great chances of getting promoted because they are very flexible and are very loyal with the business or the company. They are always appreciated by their managers and promoted.

Taylor’s theory of scientific management

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1917) motivating the employee increasing the remuneration of the employee. Workers or employees don’t like working so the managers have to have supervision and split their work. They should be trained properly and should have good environment for working. If the pay scale is increased workers work with enthusiasm.

Mayo’s

Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949) believed that employees are not only concerned about money but about social needs. He considered that workers having feelings and like to be noticed.

Mayo concluded that

Better communication between the employees and employers.

Involvement of the employees in making decision

Working in groups.

http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/people_motivation_theories.htm

Importance of motivation to an employee

Service industry recruits qualified people. The key of an organisation’s success is its employees. If the employee’s are motivated they work with enthusiasm and that is good for the company’s welfare. So it is very important to motivate employees. If the employees are satisfied, customers will be satisfied. If the customers are satisfied company is satisfied.

Management style being followed at Hilton Group

Hilton Hotel is a part of a very big corporation of Hilton group. It follows civilization of a Multi National Company. The Staffs at the hotel are well qualified and highly experienced employees and from this time forth, the management style being adopted by the managers in the hotel is Laissez-Faire. The manager delegates the work to the staff and he sets the time and responsibility of completing the task success on the employees. The manager keeps on supervise and advising the staff whenever it is required but he himself does not take the decision. This method motivates the employee. The workers here are dedicated towards their work as they find an surroundings where they see their individual and specialized enlargement. The staff here gets more of job and proficient contentment as he not only learns by taking the accountability but has also being salaried when he completes the task on time.

Management Structure theories

The management structure of an organisation can assist or put obstruction in the advancement towards achieving the long term objective. The organisations can attain their business aim by examining their needs and then corresponding them with the suitable management structure. The management structure plays a major role in fascinating the staffs and maintains long term growth. It also helps in getting better the decision making performance. The three main types of management structure are Matrix, Functional and Divisional Structure, (Small Business, 2011).

Functional Structure: This structure is generally formed by considering the purpose of each part of organisation and then groups them accordingly. In this type of structure, for example, there could be a marketing department, a food and services department, home services, Security, etc. This structure is good when the organisation is smaller in size, as the department will be able to rely on the experience and knowledge of its staff and will be able to support itself. But, the disadvantage of functional management structure is that, the harmonization and communiqué between different section can become difficult and thus leading to miscommunication or trouble when more than one department is involved in completing the task, (Small Business, 2011-04-29).

Divisional Structure:

Generally, the organisations which are overweight in size and operate at different locations or they have separate organisations but beneath one umbrella group to handle diverse market areas, use this type of management structure. In case of warmth industry, like we have taken Hilton Hotel, which has a variety of twigs at diverse location, they can’t rely on central office for every decision. In this case, each hotel follows their own strategies, as each of them may be administrating in different business marketplace and may be facing different confront. The prevalent advantage of this arrangement is that, the decisions are made quickly and are more detailed towards the needs of that particular hotel. But, the difficulty is the statement is self-conscious as the employees of different divisions are not working together, (Small Business, 2011).

Matrix Structure: This type of management structure is a mix of both functional and divisional structure. This is generally used in multinational companies or organisations which has presence in various part of globe. This structure allows the advantages of functional as well as divisional structure. But the biggest drawback here is that, it creates power struggle as most of the areas of organisation has dual management. The functional manager and the divisional manager at a time holding same area thus causing confusion and tensions at times, (Small Business, 2011).

Management Structure in Hilton Reading Hotel

Hilton Hotel, Reading is a part of ” Hilton HOTELS” group which has process in around 90 nation. Being part of such a big corporation, it was classically not possible for the top executives to design a functional or matrix management structure. Henceforth, they chose the Divisional management structure to give liberty to each of the hotels in force at different geological locations and also to make decision making procedure easier. The Hilton Hotel thus follows divisional management structure where each hotel is accountable for its business. This has given more sovereignty to the managers in taking the decisions based on the ground and day today state of affairs. This has also kept the staff and the mangers at the hotel level more work acquaint you with and stimulated towards the task.

Globalization and its effects on Hospitality Industry

Globalization leads to more reciprocally supporting world financial system and thus it becomes a major driving factor in the hospitality and tourism industry. The people of one nation itinerant to other parts of the world and vice versa have given a chance for the hotel industry to tap this occasion. Cultural diversity is one of the belongings of the globalization. And bearing in mind various chances which have come due to globalization, management has become aware of this occurrence while deciding the intended plans for their corporation. It’s the effect of globalization only, that you can get any continental food in any benchmark hotel. It’s easier to find diverse varieties of foods while visiting a hotel these days than it was few years ago. Now the industry has adopted itself and has developed its business as well which not only comprise the forces and products but the organisation as a whole, which further consists of management and the labour force.

Benefits to Hotel Industry

Globalization has benefitted the hotel industry. The customers are from different countries coming and living in Hilton. Globalization has developed relationships with the customers globally.

Methodology:

In order to obtain sufficient amount of information about Hilton Reading hospitality and service industry number of methods have to be followed. There are two methods which relate to the research methodology which are as follows:-

Primary search :

The primary research consists of personal interviews and questionnaires. There was a questionnaire conducted and the detailed information of the interview is as follows:

Male customers 56% and female customers 44%

Ages of the customers was from

20-25 years of age 10%

25-40 years of age 60%

40 and above years of age 30% and the rest age group people are not extraverts.

Businessman 60% , Retired 20% , Professional 20%

Have you ever been to Hilton Reading? Yes____ No____

How was your experience? Good____ Bad____ Don’t know____

If your experience was good then please give the reason to it…………….

If your experience was bad then please give a reason to it…………

Will ever go back to Hilton for a stay? Yes____ No____

If yes please give the reason for the stay………..

If no please give the reason for not staying…………..

Will you recommend your friend to Hilton Reading? Yes____No____

How many stars will give to the staff of Reading Hilton? ___%

Do you have any complaints about the hotel? yes___ No____

If you have any complaints please fill in the complaints……………

How was the food of Hilton Reading? Good____ Bad____ Don’t know___

How well maintained is the Hilton Building is? Good____ Bad___ Don’t know____

How much will you grade for cleanliness? Good____ Bad ____ Don’t know___

Did you feel like home? Yes___ No___

How comfortable where the beds? Good___ Bad___ Don’t know____

How was the staff behaviour at Hilton Reading? Good ___Bad ___ Don’t know__

Did you find the staff friendly? Yes___ no ___

2) Secondary search:

The secondary research was conducted as to support the primary research. The research or investigation also depends on resources which were drawn from published materials such as prior studies, e-journals, bank reports and websites.

Time Table of work

Duration

Steps taken

Week 1

Reading the topic and understanding what is necessary.

Week 2-3

Choosing the topic and sending the proposal

Week 4-5

Aim of the study and objectives of the company

Week 6

Literature review, methodology data collection

Week 7

Analysing the data collected.

Week 8

Rough draft of assignment and corrections made by the lecturer.

Week 9

Correcting mistakes and Final submission.

Conclusion

The complaints of the customers have both negative effects and positive effects on the employees or staff members. The positive effects to company is they will be able to correct their mistakes. But it is not good to have customer complaints it ruin the brand image of the company. People think ten times before going to the hotel. If there are complaints the hotel industry has to pay attention and give proper reply to their complaints. They should be instant. Hilton hotel has to maintain its standard by reducing the complaints. Due to complaints hotel loose their loyalty with the customers. In order for customers to be loyal they have to minimise their complaints. When a customer files a complaint the employers have to be very careful about discussing it with the staff. This can demoralize the staff. Managers/ employers have to be very careful in dealing with employees. He should motivate them to do better. He should find out why the employee made a mistake and such a mistake that the customer had to complaint about it. Food and beverages have to be of high standard. If any mistakes in these areas the customers can sue the company. The issue is about handling the positive and negative aspects of complaints on the employees. It is very much known to the employer and if the problem of de-motivation arises the employees loose their self confidence and keep repeating their mistakes. And sometimes they even leave the job. This can cost a fortune to the company if their entire employee keeps leaving the job. The manager has to be polite enough and not aggressive. He should train the employees again and start give awards to the employees who work will. In Hilton Reading this procedure has been followed. As per the interview of an employee it was said that Hilton has always been good to their employees. They have been faithful and have always realised their importance. Recruiting and training is not an easy task. So the old employees already know the welfare and standard of the company Hilton doesn’t want to loose their employees. So to conclude the manager should keep things calm and be tactful and make the employees work well under their guidance.

Recommendation

After study and investigate on the guidance and organization styles and its arrangement, following proposal has been not compulsory:

The Hotel management needs to be supportive towards the employees.

The employees should be given a chance to interact often with the management to reduce the miscommunication.

The consumers should be given more educational varied surroundings, to make their stay more relaxing and give them comfortable feeling.