CARE AREAS OF A HOTEL----AN OVERVIEW
The organization of a hotel today is very complex and comprises various departments The number of departments varies from one establishment to another. All departments may have their own managers, reporting to the general manager and the assistan general manager. Figure Lag shows the various departments typically present in a large hotel. Hotel departments fall under the category of either revenue-earning departmenus or support departments.
Revenue-earning departments These are operational departments that sell services or products to guests, thus, directly generating revenue for the hotel. The departmen include front office, food and beverage, and hotel-operated shops.
Support departments These are the ones which help to generate revenue indirectly by playing a supporting role to the hotel's revenue-earning departments. The departmen include human resource, maintenance, purchase, housekeeping, and so on.
Rooms Division Department
In a large hotel, the housekeeping, front office, and maintenance departments come under rooms division. These departments together are responsible for maintaining and selling the rooms in a hotel. In most hotel, these are the departments that directly or indirectly generate more revenue than any other department. This is because the sale of rooms constitutes a minimum of 5o per cent of the total revenue of a hotel. A hotel's largest margin of profit comes from room sales because a room, once made, can be sold over and over again. The rooms division is beaded by the rooms division manager to whom the front office manager, executive housekeeper, and very ofien, the chief engineer report.
Housekeeping department The housekeeping department is responsible for the cleanliness and upkeep of the front of the house areas as well as back of the house areas, so that they appear as fresh and arsthetically appealing as on the first day when the hotel opened for business. This department is headed by the executive housekeeper or, in chain hotels, the director of housekeeping
Front office department Headed by the front office manager, this department is the operational department responsible for welcoming and registering guests, allotting rooms, and helping guests check out. Uniformed services such as concierge, bell desk, and EPBAX operators are part of the front office deparument
Maintenance department
The maintenance department, also called the engineering and maintenance department, is headed by the chief engineer or the chief maintenance officer. The department is responsible for all kinds of maintenance, repair, and engineering work on equipment, machines, fixtures, and fittings.
Food and Beverage Department
The food and beverage (F&B) department includes restaurants, bars, coffee shops, banquets, room service, kitchen, and bakery. This department is headed by the F&B director. While the restaurants, bars, coffee shops, banquets, and room service may be grouped specifically under the F&B service department, headed by the F&B manager, the kitchen and bakery fall under the F&B production department, headed by the executive chef.
Human Resource Department
The human resource (HR) department or the personnel department, as it used to be called earlier is headed by the human resource manager. Recruitments, orientation, training, employee welfare and compensation, labour laws, and safety norms for the hotel come under the purview of the HR department. The training department is an ancillary department of the HR department. This is headed by the training manager, who takes on the specific task of orientation and training of new as well as existing employees.
Sales and Marketing Department
The sales and marketing department is headed by the sales and marketing manager. A large hotel may have three or more employees in this department, whereas a small hotel
Purchase Department
The purchase department is led by the purchase manager, who, in some properties, may report to the financial controller. The procurement of all departmental inventories is the responsibility of the purchase department. In most hotels, the central stores are part of the purchase department.
Financial Control Department
The financial control department, also called the control department, is headed by the financial controller, who is responsible for ratifying all the inventory items of the operational departments. Inventory control procedures are the responsibility of this department. The financial controller, along with the general manager, is responsible for finalizing the budgets prepared by the heads of other departments. The hotel's accounts are also maintained by the controls department. Accounting activities include making payments against invoices, billing, collecting payments, generating statements, handling bank transactions, processing employee payroll data, and preparing the hotel's financial statements.
Security Department
Headed by the chief security officer, the security department is responsible for safe- guarding the assets, guests, and employees of the hotel. Their functions include conduct- ing fire drills, monitoring surveillance equipment, and patrolling the property.
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