HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS HOTEL

Operations Management Strategy in Holiday Inn Express Hotel

Operations Management Strategy in Holiday Inn Express Hotel

Introduction

Holiday Inn Express is a mid-priced hotel chain within the Intercontinental Hotels Group family of brands. As an "express" hotel, their focus is on offering limited services and a reasonable price. Standard amenities lean toward the convenient and practical which cater to business travelers and short-term stays. The brand was first launched in 1991, and now there are over 1,500 Holiday Inn Express hotels worldwide.

Typical Holiday Inn Express hotels are built from corporate architectural prototypes, and tend to consist of 60-80 rooms, with a mix of suites. The rooms are generally large and spacious, compared to rooms that are "European style" and come with standard toiletries. Because the chain has been undergoing tremendous growth, the majority of Holiday Inn Express hotels are brand new or newly renovated (Dittmer & Griffin, 1993, 87).

A hotel usually offers guests a full range of accommodations and services, which may include reservations, suites, public dining and banquet facilities, lounge and entertainment areas, room service, cable television, personal computers, business services, meeting rooms, specialty shops, personal services, valet, laundry, hair care, swimming pool and other recreational activities, gaming/casino operations, ground transportation to and from an airport, and concierge services. The size of the property can range from 20 to more than 2,000 rooms. Hotels are found in center-city, suburban, and airport locations. Guest stays can be overnight or long-term, as much as several weeks in length. Properties sometimes specialize in catering to particular markets, such as conventions or gambling. Casino hotels usually take a secondary role to the casino operation, where the emphasis is on profitable gaming operations. Marriott's hotels operated as JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Renaissance Hotels, as well as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts brands operated as Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, and Park Hyatt Hotels, are examples in this category.

Hotel Management

Hotel management, or hotel operations management in its wider concept, implies organization of a current business control over four key functions of a hotel, i.e.:

 Food production (products purchase technology, menu card planning, supply and consumption control, occupational hygiene);

 Food and Beverage Service (rendering services to clients, wines and beverages purchase, meeting visitors, orders fulfillment);

 Housekeeping;

 Front office operations (reception and accommodation of visitors and further service rendering).

Like in any other business, organization of current work is always accompanied by the decision-making process. First and foremost the organization of hotel operations is based on communicational technology. The art to listen and convince, solve conflict situations, follow ethical standards of behavior, provide favorable psychological atmosphere within the group of people is the subject of Personnel and Hospitality management, which is an integral part of the hotel management.

Demand for professional hotel management lead to appearance of consulting companies, which are specialized in management of hotel operations. In conditions of hard competition some hotel owners fail to undertake operative management of the hotel on his/her own, for hotel operations management is too complicated to be within the scope of one ...