The Hotel Industry
A hotel is an establishment that offers a combination of accommodation and services like food, drinks, and facilities like recreation, business meeting venues and swimming pools. It can be a standalone hotel or part of a larger chain. It may offer a variety of different types of rooms to suit the needs of a wide range of guests. Each hotel has its own unique features that set it apart from other hotels. The hotel industry is a highly competitive one and consists of a large number of companies competing against each other for customers. The hotel industry is a major contributor to the economy. It provides employment for more than 2.2 million people. In addition, it contributes to a significant amount of foreign exchange earnings for the country. The hotel industry also serves as a social hub for the local community and plays a key role in fostering economic growth. Historically, the primary function of a hotel has been to provide travelers with shelter, refreshment, and other related services and goods, offering on a commercial basis things that are normally furnished within households but unavailable to people on a journey away from home. But hotels have also acted as cultural centers, places of sociability, decorative showcases, political headquarters, vacation spots, and permanent residences. With the rise of automobiles, the need for hotels that could accommodate the automobile became more apparent. A new type of hotel, the motel, emerged in response to this need and was designed for highway travel. A motel is usually smaller than a hotel and does not have a lobby. It is accessed through the front door of the building and guests are given keys to their own bedroom. Unlike a hotel, motels usually do not have cooking facilities. A hotel's revenue comes from various sources, but the main source is room sales. The department that is responsible for room sales is called the room division and it is headed by a manager to whom the front office management, executive housekeeper, and maintenance department report. The room division is a high-profit department for most hotels because a single room sale generates at least 50 percent of the hotel's revenue. The human resource department, or personnel department as it is also known, is the department that takes care of the recruitment and training of hotel staff. It is also responsible for employee welfare and compensation, labor laws, and safety norms in the hotel. A hotel can be categorized as luxury, five star, four star, three star and budget. The higher the rating, the more expensive the hotel is. The luxury hotels are usually situated in prime locations and are well decorated with modern furniture and facilities. They have well-trained staff and offer a wide range of services to the customers. A typical hotel room includes a bed, wardrobe, TV and air conditioning. It also has a private bathroom. It is also equipped with tea and coffee making facilities and a mini refrigerator.