Introduction to Hospitality

Introduction to Hospitality

Introduction

Hospitality is a broad sector and includes every business that provides short term accommodations and lodging with or without food it includes of restaurants, clubs, and hotels. The term hospitality is used to describe the overall wellbeing based on services provided to tourists and travelers (Anonymous, 2012).The aim of this paper is to assess a business that is part of the hospitality sector; I have chosen Sheraton Hotel for this paper.

Discussion

Sheraton Hotels are one of the most renowned and successful international hotels operational for the past 70 years Sheraton has been committed to providing exceptional services apart from accommodation. The hospitality industry has a primary focus on ensuring customer satisfaction at all costs and it is basically a service based industry. Providing exceptional service is considered to be the most significant aspect of this industry since customer satisfaction which usually leads to an increase in customer loyalty. The staff takes pride in their work and ensures every visitor has a unique experience at the hotel.

The history of the hotel and current owner

The history of Sheraton dates back to 1937 when the hotels founders, Robert Moore and Ernest Henderson started the service by acquiring their first hotel in Springfield MA. Within two years the founders had added three more hotels in Boston and further expanded from Maine to Florida. By 1949 the company had made its international position by acquiring two Canadian hotel chains, slowly and gradually the company grew rapidly around the world. In 1958 Sheraton was the first company that launched the Reservatron which was the first ever electronic reservation system. Sheraton made its presence in the Middle East by 1961 when they opened the hotel in Tel Aviv Israel. In 1963 the hotel had opened in Latin America and by the year 1965 Sheraton had a total of 100 hotels. In 1985 Sheraton became the first international hotel in China which was considered a huge success on behalf of Sheraton.

In 1998 Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which is an American Hotel company, it currently owns some of the most successful hotels, resorts and residences acquired Sheraton(www.starwood.com) . Sheraton currently has a total of 400 Hotels in 70 countries and more than 60 resorts. According to a review the biggest success factor for Sheraton has always been the staff, courteous and welcoming and make every visitors experience at the hotel a pleasant one. Starwood has recently taken on an innovative agenda in order to increase the facilitations provided to customers, Sheraton recently conducted the Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft® Which is basically a lobby that offers a secure and fun area to work where customers can take advantage of the internet workstation, free wifi, Ethernet ports. Food items are also readily available (www.Sheraton.com).

Hospitality industry sector

The hospitality industry has been a part of our society for a long time, however only recently has this industry flourished due to the increase in travelling and tourism ensuring good hospitality management ensures increasing customer satisfaction which will bring the customers back ...