The big fat Indian wedding

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this study are to recall the fundamental concept of revenue management in the hotel industry (remembering); explain the various performance measures used to evaluate room revenue in hotels (understanding); use revenue management strategies to improve room revenue in hotel operations (applying); and examine and evaluate the optimal solution for revenue enhancement, considering factors such as capacity management, duration control and differential pricing (analyzing). Case overview/synopsis This case study delves into the challenges faced by Hotel King’s Cross, a business hotel located in Pune, Maharashtra, in the year 2022. A week before Christmas Eve, Soham Dande, the hotel’s revenue manager, sought a meeting with Rohan Chopra, the director of sales and marketing, to discuss “revenue optimization for the hotel.” During their meeting, Dande mentioned that the hotel had fallen behind its budgeted room sales targets for 2022 across various metrics, such as room booking nights, occupancy percentage, average room rate and revenue per available room. Furthermore, the hotel was trailing behind its competitors. The situation was compounded by the management’s decision to raise the targets for 2023 by 5%–7%, factoring in upcoming events, competitive performance and pandemic-related losses over the past two years. Chopra faced the dilemma of formulating an action plan to achieve the ambitious 2023 targets and establish Hotel King’s Cross as a market leader. Complexity academic level Students undertaking executive development programs and graduate-level courses in non-profit hospitality and tourism management, as well as revenue management courses in the executive MBA, management development and graduate MBA programs, may all benefit from this case study. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS12: Tourism and hospitality.

PurposeThe survival of hotel business in maintaining market competitiveness depends on the constant improvement of the quality of hotel facilities and services. The key to sustain hotel business is lean on the adaptability of the hotel management team towards current lifestyle trends and its surrounding context in fulfilling customer satisfaction. Because of hotel operating service complexity, the hotel contributes a higher impact on environmental degradation in performing their daily activities. Therefore, hoteliers need to determine sustainable strategies to minimize environmental impact and at the same time be able to provide satisfaction to their customers. However, green initiatives require a proactive action by the organizational management engaging both employees and guests in the environmental management process. Thus, this paper aims to review the concept of green practices, the implementation of green practices from the stakeholders’ perspectives (manager, employee and customers) in the hotel industry, the performance impact from the green practices on the sustainability pillars and to further develop a conceptual green practice to sustainable hotel operations and performance impact.Design/methodology/approachThis paper identified relevant empirical research that published in the recent 10 years from January 2012 to December 2021. The articles are searched through reputable databases such as Emerald, Elsevier and Taylor and Francis. The obtained data were screened preliminarily from 108 research papers. The post-screening process has finalized a total of 57 articles as the findings for this paper, where the themes were delineated to the attributes that need to implemented by the stakeholder in hotels industry, that is, manager’s perspectives, employee’s perspectives and customer’s perspectives.FindingsThe findings of this paper revealed that there are 27 attributes of green practices and initiatives for sustainable hotel operations from the manager perspectives (10 attributes – Green Marketing Strategy, Green Managerial Attitude, Eco-Innovation Investment, Marketing and Sustainability, Environmental Management Strategy, Green Supply Chain, Green Managerial Awareness, Green Procurement, Green Human Resources and Green Technology), employee perspectives (5 attributes – Employee Green Awareness, Employee Green Training and Educating, Employee Environmental Behaviour, Employee Green Performance and Employee Green Reward) and customer’s perspectives (12 attributes – Customer Perception, Customer Loyalty, Customer Awareness, Customer Behaviour, Customer Trust, Green Supply Chain, Green Value, Green Marketing Strategy, Customer Perceived Value, Service Quality, Brand Image and Hotel Design). All of the attributes are aligned to the performance effectiveness as the major concern in the hotel’s operations and impacted towards the sustainability pillars, environmental performance, economic performance and social performance. Sustainable practice in organization benefits the owners towards sustainable economic, environmental, socio-cultural and legal policy.Originality/valueThis review paper provides key elements of current green practices and sustainable initiatives for the hotel’s operations, as proactive measures. The novelty of the findings is to be able to convey valuable inputs to the relevant stakeholders (hotel’s owner, consultants, designers, maintenance officers, hoteliers, staffs, customers and end-users) in perceiving the elements of green practices into the preliminary planning of the hotel’s design. The review also helps to identify practices and measures to the performance impact to the hotel’s operations.

Front office department in hotel businesses generally consists of reception, reservation, switchboard operator and concierge departments in hotels. Communication with guests starts at reservation phase, it goes on with guest check in processes and ends with accommodation, check out and process after checking out briefly front office department is very important since it is the department which the guests are welcomed, hosted and sent off. Front office department also provides the communication within all the departments in the business. Realizing the processes in front office properly, enhancing the quality of services, raising the guest satisfaction and the increasing of the productivity of the staff all depends on the features of the communication. For that reason, an efficient communication with the other departments and the communication within the department for the productivity of the business is compulsory. Shortly, communication with other departments and the communication within the department in front office in hospitality businesses has a great importance.
 The sample for the study consists of 35 five-star hotel managers in Alanya, where tourism is very intense. Structure interview method is used in the study. Front office managers were asked to answer the questions, the answers were classified, their explanation about what means of communication was used with other departments and within front office, the reasons for the communication problems and its effects on the productivity was evaluated. Consequently, it was found out that all the front office manager know that the communication problems affect the productivity negatively. The fact that the problems of the communication do not only have a negative effect on front office activities but also on the all hotel activities was much obtained.

Quarantine restrictions, which were actively introduced around the world in early 2020, affected absolutely all areas of economic life. Particularly critical was the impact on the hotel and restaurant business. This is confirmed by existing research, which shows that almost a third of business owners have lost 90 to 100% of their income. And this is only at the beginning of quarantine. The same entrepreneurs fired about half of their employees. In addition, a small proportion of full-service restaurants tried to continue operating at a small capacity. This was possible through the use of government procurement or the organization of takeaway activities, to provide the minimum necessary stock of cash to resume operations in the future. The rest were forced to close. Similar trends were observed in the hotel business, but in the case of hotels, the situation was even more critical. Therefore, the need to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hotel and restaurant business, as a basis for the formation of measures to restore this area of the economy in the future determine the relevance of our study. The scientific article examines the impact of quarantine restrictions on the hotel and restaurant business through the prism of analyzing the degree of decline in income, the percentage of job cuts, the number of employees granted leave at their own expense, and the share of laid off workers. In addition, the distribution of the areas most affected by quarantine is considered in terms of determining the percentage of victims who were not affected by quarantine, as well as those who benefited from quarantine restrictions. The dynamics of changes in the number of operating restaurants is studied. The reasons for the formation of a disappointing situation in the hotel and restaurant industry are analyzed. Have been developed measures for business owners to ensure the successful operation hotels and restaurants in the quarantin conditions, as well as proposed steps to be taken at the state level to support the hotel and restaurant business.

The article presents the analysis of scientific research and determines some key guidelines of normative and legal regulation of our country’s hospitality industry at the current stage of its development. It was ascertained that the hospitality sector is a complex of industries whose main task is serving tourists during their stay outside their permanent place of residence. The hospitality sector, according to definitions by leading specialists in the field of tourism economics, includes the hotel and restaurant business, transport service enterprises, and the entertainment sector. The hotel sector in the structure of the hospitality industry performs key functions, as it offers consumers a range of services, in the formation and implementation of which all sectors and elements of the hospitality industry participate. Thus, it is appropriate to distinguish the hotel industry as the most complex component of the hospitality industry. The meaning of the concepts of «hotel business», «hotel industry» is associated with the economic activities of specialized enterprises that offer their own services on a commercial basis and provide traveling customers with the necessary conditions for accommodation and meals. In a competitive hospitality services market, the desire of enterprises to obtain the highest profit and the growing solvency of service consumers encourage hotel businesses to provide not only accommodation and meals, but necessitate the expansion of the scope of additional and related services. This enriches the meaning of the concept of «hotel business» and expands the scope of activity of hotel enterprises that provide services not only of their own production, but also of related industries. The development of the hotel industry requires the creation of certain favorable legal regulations. Taking into account international requirements for the quality of hotel services, numerous industry regulatory documents need to be updated. The Law of Ukraine «On Tourism» provides for licensing of tour operator activities (Article 17) and standardization in the field of tourism activities (Article 18). Therefore, in our opinion, licensing and certification procedures should play a key administrative role in state regulation, the use of which will contribute to improving the work of hotel industry enterprises, improving the quality of hotel services, and ensuring their comprehensiveness. The introduction of licensing in the hotel sector will contribute to the creation of new opportunities for business entities in the hotel and hospitality services market. An equally important function in the provision of hotel services is performed by certification, i.e. a specific method of confirming the compliance of the quality and form of provision of a complex of hotel services with current national standards. Problematic issues include the regulation of land ownership, especially for foreign investors. The lack of opportunities for land privatization and unfavorable terms for its lease for the construction of hotels, as well as the mechanism for the concession of historical and architectural buildings, does not attract foreign companies to the hotel business. Specific legal regulation is required for the development of small hotels capable of creating a unique flavor of national hospitality, and for the creation of corporate forms, traditional in the global hotel industry, like international hotel chains. One of the factors intensifying the development of the industry at the current stage should be considered the implementation of a real transformation of ownership relations, the corporatization of hotel enterprises. Privatization and corporatization will lead to an improvement in the quality of management at hotel industry enterprises, as well as the material and financial condition of the industry. Therefore, improving the legal framework for hotel industry enterprises should be considered an important prerequisite for their further development.

Learning outcomes After completion of the case study, the students will be able to understand ABC analysis and develop a systematic approach using PDCA, analyze processes, technology, employee training and supplier relationships when analyzing shrink and developing solutions, evaluate how technology improves production inventory control and visibility and recognize the importance of fostering a culture of employee accountability and ownership to minimize inventory loss and improve overall operational efficiency. Case overview/synopsis On June 2, 2023, sitting in his office in Karachi, Pakistan, Khan Aamir, the manager of store and inventory at Euro Manufacturing, found himself immersed in a cloud of confusion. The incessant loss of inventory items, particularly the nut bolts and small accessories, had become a perplexing challenge. To address these losses and provide a cycle count report to the director of supply chain, Aamir, manager of store and inventory, was given the responsibility to take action. He was looking for a comprehensive approach to address the current problems and prevent further losses in the future. This case study examines the various reasons for the losses, including theft, inadequate inventory control methods, human error and problems with suppliers. It highlights the importance of established procedures, the use of technology (such as barcode scanning, radio-frequency identification tagging and inventory management software) and the cultivation of a culture of accountability among employees. Complexity academic level This case study is developed for class discussion in the course of operations management or supply chain management. This case study is suitable for use with undergrad students. This case study can be taught in a module on operations management or supply chain management, as part of a broader course in business management or industrial engineering. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS: 9: Operations and logistics.

Purpose The aim of this chapter is twofold: (i) to explore the issue of experience within the context of the hotel industry and (ii) to analyze the contribution of collaboration between businesses in providing valuable experiences in hotel settings. Methodology/approach Extensive literature reviews have been done on dimensions and outcomes of tourist experiences and on collaboration/business venture’s contribution in providing memorable experiences in the hotel industry. A case study is then used to illustrate how hotel operations are collaborating to provide tourism experience opportunities. Findings (i) Collaboration between hotel operations makes a significant contribution in providing special guest experiences; (ii) Investment in business ventures is a good investment because it constitutes a potential source of competitive advantage; (iii) A collaborative platform wisely designed creates a series of business benefits. Research limitations/implications This study is explorative in nature. Based on a single case study of a business network, the suggestions are indicative rather than conclusive. Thus, more empirical studies and analyses are needed to fully validate the chapter’s suggestions. Practical implications The collaborative approach is a requirement for hotel businesses in providing valuable tourism experiences and in overcoming the issues and challenges arising within the context of experiential tourism. This collaboration offers a way of enriching and deepening guests’ experiences, based on endogenous resources and meeting the tourists’ requirements. Originality/value Offers insights on tourism providers’ collaborations in offering attractive experience opportunities to their customers.

Together with the housekeeping department and several other sub-departments, the front office in larger hotels is normally part of the rooms division, headed by a Director of Rooms but with its own Front Office Manager. This chapter helps the reader to understand the nature and extent of the front office department's role within a hotel operation, and explains the role played by the front office department in the guest cycle. It identifies some factors needed to manage a successful front office operation, and helps the reader to be aware of those forces that may impact on the future development and management of the front office department. In terms of physical location, the front office is normally found near the entrance of the hotel and is often located immediately behind the reception desk. Proper communication flows within the front office department and between front office and other specialist divisions need to be maintained to ensure that the full benefits of bookings.

Taiwan’s international business and leisure hotels have created specific, divergent service operating systems to gain competitive advantage based on their distinctive target markets. For instance, the leisure properties focus on a hospitable, welcoming staff, while the business hotels aim for speedy service by employing relatively more workers. Given that hotel operators frequently benchmark direct competitors to improve on performance, researchers have suggested that hotel operators use a mutual learning strategy by benchmarking strategic techniques from hotels in disparate market segments. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the suggested mutual learning strategy between Taiwan’s business hotels and its leisure hotels, using the Different Systems model of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine potential improvements in efficiency. Empirical results show that few of Taiwan’s business hotels can gain efficiency through mutual learning from the leisure hotels—and some business hotels would actually lose efficiency if they adopted leisure properties’ operating practices. On the other hand, more than half of the leisure hotels in this sample would be able to achieve best practices from the mutual learning approach. On balance, both types of hotel can gain efficiency from the more common approach of benchmarking their direct competitors.

Learning outcomes After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand the role of utility theory and prospect theory in corporate investment decisions; recognize the importance of diversification and financial strategy in business expansion; apply the concept of utility and risk analysis to international investment decisions, considering political and economic uncertainties; and create or develop a strategic solution. Tools like PESTLE and SWOT assess macro and microenvironments before making investment decisions. Case overview/synopsis ITC was one of the most admired companies in India because of its robust performance. As per the reports of 2024, it was found that the ITC Group generated revenue of ₹ 69,446.20 crores (1 crore = US$114,478.23) from tobacco to non-tobacco; the transformation was not at all easy. The company diversified the business keeping in mind that the major threat would come to tobacco business due to societal pressure. Shareholders of ITC agreed to the demerger of its hotel business. The company invested $500m in Sri Lanka for the expansion of its hotel business. However, the economy of Sri Lanka was not fully recovered from its economic crisis taken place in 2022. New political party came into the power in Sri Lanka in September 2024. Previous government was accused of corruption charges, and the foreign reserves reached the rock bottom level even. The poverty level and unemployment, debt restructuring, policy reforms, monetary and fiscal decisions were crucial. Now, amid this situation, whether investment in the hotel ITCRatnadipa was rational for the company? This case was developed from secondary data sources, such as various newspapers, website of the company, World Bank as well as Asian Development Bank data. Complexity academic level This case study is suitable for MBA students. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 5: International business.

The relevance of the research is due to the need to systematize and clarify the conceptual framework in the field of digital transformation of the hotel business, which is a prerequisite for the formation of methodologically sound approaches to the diagnosis and management of digital maturity of hotel enterprises. This problem is of particular importance in the context of increasing demands on the quality of service, increased competition and the need to ensure the sustainable development of the hotel business in the digital economy.The purpose is to formulate a characteristic of the concept of digital maturity of the hotel business, taking into account its specifics.Objectives: to analyze the existing definitions of digital maturity; to identify the key characteristics of the digital maturity of hotels; to propose a formulation of the concept taking into account the specifics of the hotel business.Methodology. The research was based on a systematic approach, interpretation, analysis, synthesis in relation to the concept and characteristics of digital maturity in the hotel business.Results. The article examines the theoretical and applied aspects of the formation of the concept of digital maturity in relation to the hotel business, analyzes approaches to the definition of digital maturity, presented by both domestic and foreign authors. Based on the generalization of theoretical sources and industry specifics, the interpretation of the digital maturity of the hotel is formulated as the level of its ability to sustainably and strategically integrate digital technologies into business processes, personnel management and guest service. The key characteristics of maturity are highlighted: strategic orientation, organizational flexibility, technological equipment, digital culture and customer-centricity. Digital maturity in the hotel industry must take into account the balance between technology and the human factor.Conclusions. The study clarifies the concept of digital maturity in relation to the hotel business. It has been established that digital maturity includes not only the level of technological development, but also the strategic, organizational and cultural readiness of the hotel for digital transformation. The conclusion is made about the need for an integrated approach to the diagnosis and development of digital maturity to ensure the sustainability of the hotel business in a digital economy.

Introduction. Competition – the struggle of independent economic entities for limited economic resources. It is an economic process of interaction, interconnection and struggle between the speakers in the market enterprises in order to provide better sales opportunities for their products, meeting all the needs of customers. In the world market there is constant fierce competition from producers. Successful performance in foreign markets requires a significant increase in the competitiveness of domestic goods. The purpose of the paper is to improve the system of research of factors influencing the development of enterprise competitiveness, to define the concept of «competition in the international market», to consider the definition of competitive advantages in the hotel business and highlight their features, to substantiate the need for long-term study of competitiveness factors. Results. At import use of competition of foreign sellers allows to reach more favourable conditions of purchases. But the concept of competition is so ambiguous that it is not covered by any universal definition. This is a way of farming, and a way of capital existence, when one capital competes with another capital. In recent years, the hotel industry is characterized by an increase in supply while reducing demand for hotel services, which leads to significant competition in the market of hotel services. Competition in the market of hotel goods and services is based on the development of equipment and technology of hotel services, its organization, the feasibility of investment. According to foreign research today, the hotel industry has reached a high level of the international market with high growth and strong competition. The paper presents the results of studying the factors influencing the development of competitive advantages of the hotel business, highlights the key parameters that demonstrates the potential of identifying their competitiveness in the current economic situation. Conclusion. In the context of this paper, the results of studying the factors influencing the development of competitive advantages of hotel business enterprises were presented, the key parameters demonstrating the potential of identifying their competitiveness in the current economic situation were highlighted. Methods of improving the system of research of factors influencing the development of enterprise competitiveness were presented, the concept of «competition in the international market» was defined, the definition of competitive advantages of the enterprise in the hotel business was considered and their features were highlighted. Thus, competition is a business process of interaction, interconnection and confrontation between enterprises in the market in order to provide better sales opportunities, to meet all the needs of users. The advantages of competition are, on the one hand, the impact of production and market relations, and on the other – an increase in STP.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of hotel property characteristics and information technology (IT) decision-maker characteristics on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology adoption in the hotel industry.Design/methodology/approach– The data of the study were collected using the subscription list of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). A Web survey was used to collect the data of the study. An email invitation was sent out to invite the entire list of HFTP subscribers (3,080) to participate in the survey. Approximately 3,000 emails were delivered and 154 questionnaires were returned. Of 154 questionnaires, 125 were used in the study for further analyses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether hotel property characteristics (property size and chain affiliation) and IT decision-maker characteristics (age, education level and job tenure) differed on intention to adopt RFID technology.Findings– ANOVA results indicated that there were significant differences on intention to adopt RFID technology by property size and chain affiliation, IT decision-makers’ age, education level and job tenure. The results indicated that larger hotels and hotels that are part of a franchise are more likely to adopt RFID technology. In addition, IT decision-makers who are young, with high level of education and with shorter job tenure are more likely to adopt RFID technology.Originality/value– RFID technology is one of the recent technologies that gained great attention from the hotel operators in recent years. This study is one of the first studies in the hotel industry that provides valuable information to technology vendors for identifying potential RFID technology adopters in the hotel industry.

The article examines the peculiarities of business process management in the hotel industry. It was found that the model that combines business processes in the hotel industry includes three main processes ‒ provision of accommodation, food services and, depending on the category of the temporary accommodation facility, additional services.It has been proven that management business processes consist of: management, marketing and financial processes, the main (accommodation, food and additional services (entertainment, wellness, business services, etc.) create the value of the hotel service/goods, why the hotel receives core profit Supporting business processes ensure the efficiency of core business processes. Development business processes create profit in current activities but are aimed at obtaining benefits and profit in the future, ensure the development of the hotel, etc.The purpose, tasks and advantages of business planning in the hotel industry are revealed.It has been proven that to assess the definition of the level of business processes that take place in the hotel industry of the state, it is appropriate to use the matrix method, which is calculated on general and integral indicators. The application of this method allows not only to determine the main leaders and the place in the competition, which is evaluated by the criterion of the maximum points scored, but also to quantitatively assess the lag behind the region with the best level of business processes. The existing methodology involves the use of four key factors: social, client, financial and personnel.Using the matrix method, the integral indicator of business processes in the hotel industry of three southern regions of Ukraine ‒ Kherson, Mykolayiv and Odesa ‒ was evaluated. It was revealed that the rating of the regions for the implementation of business processes in the hotel industry was distributed according to the integral indicator as follows: the Mykolayiv region takes the 1st place, the Odesa region takes the 2nd place, and the Kherson region takes the 3rd place. The Odesa region has a strong position in terms of social and personnel components, and the Kherson region has the best position in terms of the client (tourist) component. For the calculations, 12 key evaluation indicators were used, charac-terizing individual components of the region's potential. Keywords:business process, hotel business, hotel, model, matrix method, points method

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the current situation of career management in China's state‐owned hotels and to delve into employees' perceptions of such activities.Design/methodology/approachTo obtain a comprehensive view of the career management situation, three qualitative research methods were applied in the study, namely, case study, focus groups, and in‐depth interviews. The results were combined to provide a better insight into career management activities in China and employees' perceptions of these activities. Based on the data collected, career management practices in China's hotel industry are grouped into four dimensions: assessment tools, career development information, professional training, and promotion system.FindingsThe findings of the study reveal that not all Western career management activities are being practised in China's hotels. The results of the qualitative research methods also reveal several career management techniques with Chinese characteristics. Although career management plays an important role in human resources management, there is a gap between hotel career management and employees' career needs. To obtain the best result, it is necessary to find a match between the requirements of the hotel and the aspirations of the individual employee.Practical implicationsBased on the data collected, recommendations and directions on career management practices are established and given to state‐owned hotels management. By developing the four dimensions of career management activities, the paper generates important references and suggestions for further study in the area of employees' career development.Originality/valueFor both hotel operators and hotel employees, the paper is the first attempt to provide comprehensive information concerning China's hotel career management. The development of the four career management dimensions may serve as a basis for future study.