mercredi 16 janvier 2013

Hospitality industry = Major employer

Hospitality industry is a major employer. The industry includes service sector work like tourism and food service. It suffers from more economic fluctuations compared to its peer industries.

The hospitality industry is major service sector in the world economy. The industry encompass an extensive variety of service industries that include food service, tourism and hotels. Hospitality industry suffers from fluctuations within an economy every year.
Hospitality industry can be empirically divided into two parts: entertainment areas like clubs and bars, and accommodation. Accommodation takes the form of public houses, resorts, inn, campgrounds, hotels, hostels, serviced apartments, and motels. The clubs and bars category include restaurants, fast foods, and nightclubs.
The hospitality industry also includes tourism support commercial activities like airline cabin staff and travel agents. Travel technology like applied information technology (IT) and its workers in hospitality, travel and tourism are included in the hospitality industry. Corporate entertainment is also a very thriving activity amongst corporation.
A hotel is an establishment that renders lodging in lieu of payment. This lodging is usually given in exchange for a specified predetermined amount of money. Modern hotel rooms come equipped with climate control and attached bathrooms. Higher end hotels offer guests internet connectivity within rooms and also throughout the premises. A combination of meals and accommodation comes as a package in most hospitality establishments. Hotels are usually managed by professionally qualified managers. Junior workers usually maintain the hotel. Functions like cooking is usually done by professionally trained chefs.
Fast-food restaurants now form a major part of the hospitality industry. These restaurants employ an optimal number of personnel for providing customer service. Food may also be sold from kiosks.
Corporate entertainment refers to private events held by companies for clients, stakeholders or staff. It can be in the form of conventions or conferences where a large audience is involved. Or it can be small and more private affairs like company annual parties, away days and concerts etc.
Low entry level
Hospitality industry are characterized by a large number of employees. Both white collar employees and blue collar workers may find gainful employment. Entry level jobs usually require no formal education. Professionals in the hospitality sector are usually qualified with trade certificates and college degrees. Many hospitality schools offer specialized courses of study in one particular aspect of the industry.

Analyse: How hard and difficult is the hospitality industry today ? This article from the Economy Watch is showing us that this sector is not only services but it's as well in need of specialised workers.
Since the hositality industry is not only hôtels, they do speak as well about nightclubs, restaurants etc...
The way theses businesses are managed still allows low entry level for employee with a possibility to evolve, however, lately the sector is getting more and more professional and many schools are offering specialized courses to prepare new ways of running the bussiness and avoid as much as possible the actual economy...

mardi 15 janvier 2013

La justice annule le plan social de L'Hôtel de Crillon

© Eric Cuvillier Pour L’hôtellerie Restauration


La justice a annulé, mardi 15 janvier, le plan social de l'Hôtel de Crillon à Paris (360 salariés) qui prévoyait de fermer pour deux ans de travaux à partir du 31 mars. Conformément à ce que demandait le comité d'entreprise du prestigieux hôtel, le tribunal de grande instance de Paris a annulé le plan de départs volontaires et a interdit à la direction de "mettre en oeuvre ce projet tant que le comité d'entreprise n'aura pas été régulièrement informé et consulté". Les magistrats estiment en effet que "la procédure d'information/consultation du comité d'entreprise sur le projet de fermeture de l'hôtel et sur les mesures sociales d'accompagnement n'est pas achevée". En clair, que le comité d'entreprise n'a pas été suffisamment consulté tout au long de la procédure.

Condamnée sur la forme, la direction pourra représenter le même plan de sauvegarde de l'emploi (PSE) mais devra respecter à la lettre la procédure d'information-consultation des élus du CE en leur fournissant notamment tous les documents liés au plan. La société C Hôtel, propriétaire de l'Hôtel de Crillon, a en outre été condamnée à verser 8 000 € de dommages et intérêts au comité d'entreprise.


Analyse : 
I choose this article because i remembered that the Ritz Paris wanted to wait and see what might happen with the Social Plan of the Hôtel de Crillon.
And here is the result, the justice just canceled it.
This show us how hard it is ( especially in France ) to do anything in the work environment.
The project aims to provide for the employees a better work environment and for the guest a better place to stay, however, this cannot be done without taking in perspective the danger for all the employees to lose their jobs for at least two years.
So what is the best way to handle this kind of situation ?  doing the work while there is still guests in the hôtel with the risk to disturb these guests and getting a bad reputation ?
I don't know, but if you have a better idea, don't hesitate to share it with us ;-)

lundi 7 janvier 2013

SoLoMo

SoLoMo

Hotel room rates on the rise


UK research shows hotel rooms increased by 4 per cent in 2011.
Published: 04 May 2012 in News

Cash-strapped UK travellers faced hotel price rises last year in more than two thirds of their favourite destinations, according to a new global report.
The latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI) reveals increases in 69 of the 88 city or resort locations analysed across the world.
The fluctuating value of the Pound and a growing demand for hotels, especially from international business executives, helped to push up the global average price by 4 per cent. However, this masked some dramatic swings in the cost of accommodation caused by historic political events including the Arab Spring and natural disasters such as the Japanese earthquake.
Demand rises in US cities
UK travellers found that hotel rooms in some of their favourite US destinations were more expensive with an average 3% rise across the States.
There was less discounting amongst hoteliers in 2011 than in 2010 and business travellers drove up room demand and prices, with convention centres such as San Francisco and Las Vegas up 14% and 11% to £113 and £78 respectively. New York rose 4% to £173.
Prices up Down Under
The average hotel price in Australia rose 13% to £108 reflecting the country’s strong currency and robust economy. Brisbane, which was hit by extensive flooding in January 2011, saw a 26% rise to £110 as business travel recovered quickly.
There was also a 12% rise in New Zealand to £73, fuelled by high demand around the Rugby World Cup in September-October. Earthquake-hit Christchurch saw a 41% rise to £81, the highest increase in the survey.
Mixed picture in Europe
London prices rose marginally by 1 per cent to £115 but many traditional European city break destinations experienced steeper price rises caused by the Euro’s relatively strong performance against the Pound. Amsterdam increased 9% to £116 and Venice and Barcelona were up 8% to £137 and £104 respectively.
The effects of the Greek debt problem triggered a 10% slump to £80 in Athens.  However, despite similar economic difficulties, Dublin prices rallied 7 per cent to £73, helped in part by the May 2011 visits of US President Barack Obama and the Queen which raised the profile of the city.
There were also significant price rises in the Baltic states with increased demand from travellers searching for low cost destinations. Average room rates climbed in Lithuania by 14 per cent to £55, in Estonia by 11 per cent to £60 and in Latvia by 8 per cent to £57.
The negative perception of the Middle East had a knock-on effect with many travellers switching their holiday plans to safer southern European destinations, such as Ibiza, up 39 per cent to £115

Analyse :

This article show us clearly how the hotel market is evolving. It show us how much the prices for an hotel room are rising. It's however an UK research and the target is the UK travellers. The Analyse is focusing therefore mainly on destinations that might interest this nation.
The prices of hotel room depend on many different aspects and the yield management of it make it harder and harder to understand.
I think that this kind of article is very useful for professional of the sector.
Sources are clearly expressed and i think that studies of different evaluation could help us predict the future orientations of the hospitality business.