Conclusion to Rooms Division

A lot has been talked about on this blog about the departments and the importance of the rooms division within a hotel. They are the group that makes the majority and in some cases all of the revenue for the property. The Rooms Division is a team, and like any team in sports, business, or school all individuals must perform their job to ensure that the rest of the team can effectively do their job. While some people may think some aspects of the rooms division are more important than others, that is simply not the case. Without the Reservations department no one would stay and book rooms at the hotel. If housekeeping does a poor job cleaning the room, then the guest could be in a bad mood which will certainly affect their overall perception of the hotel. For a hotel to be successful all departments must be on the same page and must all treat their jobs with the seriousness and attention they deserve. We also talked about how social media is changing the way certain aspects of the rooms division thinks and operates. This is something that is not a blip and will simply go away, social media and its impact on all businesses, is a trend that all hotels and all rooms division must keep their eye on. One thing is for sure the rooms division is the biggest and most profitability aspect of the hotel and it's something that everyone should know and be aware of.

Actual Rooms within the Rooms Division

In the blog we have talked a lot about the rooms division and all the departments and sectors that make up the rooms division, but we have yet to mention the actual, physical room that the guest stays in. Rooms in hotels today differ greatly from hotel to hotel, there are queen rooms, king rooms, several different suite types, and in most luxury hotel's penthouses. Many things factor into the making and pricing of the ultimate product for a hotel, the room. There are so many things to consider and take into account when building and decorating a room. Things like wallpaper, flooring, bedding, electronics, and so on and so forth. Rooms like suites and penthouses may have extra amenities like computers, jacuzzis, and in some cases pools and stairs. In some hotels the view may affect the layout and pricing of a hotel, take for example an hotel in Maui, guests have the option of two identical rooms but, one has a view of the ocean and one has a view of the mountains. The rooms division and specifically reservations and revenue managers, must have a grasp of what kind of rooms they have and at what price point to sell them for.

Social Media and the Rooms Division

There is no arguing that social media has had and is continuing to have a major impact on every business across not only across the country, but across the world too. The lodging industry and specifically the rooms division is no exception the social media phenomenon. The first department I talked about in the last blog entry was the reservations team. Their job is to sell rooms to potential guests and a huge portion of the traveling public checks social media sites to do some background information on the prospective hotel. If the hotel does not have an a effective presence on social media sites like facebook, twitter, and tripadvisor then the reservation manger's job becomes much more difficult. Another department of the rooms division which is being affected by social media is the concierge. In the past and still in the present, it was the concierge's job to help the guest out with anything they need attraction or entertainment wise happening in, near, or around the hotel. One hotel is taking the idea of the concierge to social media and using an application LobbyFriend to change the way we look at this department. The application still involves a concierge but instead of you calling or walking all the way down to the lobby to communicate directly with him, you download the app to your smartphone or tablet and you can communicate and find out all sorts of information and the press of a button. For now these are just two small examples of how social media is changing the way the rooms division does business, and in the near future I'm sure all departments will be somehow, some way affected or involved with social media.

Key Parts of the Rooms Division

As I said in the previous blog entry each sector of the rooms division is like a position group in football. Each department within the rooms division has a job to do, and everyone must do their job effectively for their "team" to have success. The first part of the rooms division is called the Reservations department. Like their title implies they are responsible for selling rooms to prospective guests and ultimately closing the sale of the room. They are really the first department that the guest comes in contact with because obviously in order to stay at the hotel, they in one way or another have to deal with the reservations department. The next department that the guest comes in contact with is, uniform services. Uniform service people can include jobs such as valet, doorman, and bellhop. Uniform service's is the first interaction the guest has with the hotel staff at the physical plant of the property. The third department in the rooms division is the front desk. The front desk must be friendly and courteous to the guest and make sure that they have all the information they need before checking into their room. After the front desk, comes the concierge who helps the guest with extra information and details about not only the hotel, but also the attractions surrounding the property as well. The fifth department we have is the housekeeping staff whose responsibilities include; making sure the rooms are clean, tidy, and picked up so that the guest will feel comfortable in our room. After the housekeeping staff is the IT department or Information Technology department. The IT department makes sure everything technological, in the room and on the property is working and functioning, this includes things like televisions, computers, and land-line phones. The seventh department is the revenue managers, unlike the rest of these departments the guest has no interaction with the revenue management team. Their job boils down to selling the right room, to the right person, at the right price, to ensure, maximum profitability. The eighth and final department is the night auditor, whose job it is to run the front desk and help with accounting and finance later in the evening when most guests are sleeping or relaxing in their rooms. It seems fairly simple but if any one of these departments is not on top of their game, it could cause major problems not just for the rooms division but for the entire hotel as well.

The Rooms Division and Football?

As I said in the introduction to this blog there are basically 8 key parts that make up the rooms division and here they are; Reservations, Uniform Services, The Front Desk, Housekeeping, IT(Information technology), Concierge, Revenue Management, and finally the Night Auditor. This may sound like a long list of arbitrary parts, but without each and every one of them, the rooms division is not complete, nor is it effective. Personally I like to think of the rooms division as a football team in the sense that everybody on the team has a job to do, and if one area of the team messes up it reflects poorly on everybody. In the same way a rooms division can be broken down into 8 parts so can a football team with the; quarterback, running-backs, wide-receivers, offensive lineman, defensive lineman, linebackers, secondary, and kickers. As I said it is a team like any other, when individual parts work together then great things will happen. However just like in football if the hotel guest has a problem with one aspect of the rooms division then it can affect the entire hotel's bottom line.

Introduction to the Rooms Division

Hi, welcome to the Hotel Rooms Division blog, an entire page dedicated to one of the most important aspects in the lodging industry. Throughout the blog I will have several entries focusing on different areas of the rooms division. Some of these entries will include topics like, the overlying parts that make up the rooms division, the relationship between guest service and revenue in the rooms division, and also how social marketing has effected this part of the industry. Simply put the rooms division is made up of about 8 different parts of the hotel that all must work together as one to properly function. In essence they are responsible for selling, maintaining, and anything else associated with keeping the room and the guests of the room functioning properly  .The room division is so important to talk about and discuss because it is the hotel's main source of revenue. A hotel's primary product is their rooms, obviously this is where guests pay money to stay and really make their home for however long their visit happens to be. Without an cohesive and effective rooms division team a hotel has absolutely no chance to survive.