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◎ Different Types of Clubs and Theme Parks and their Service Offerings
Theme Park
We will introduce variouse theme parks focusing on different theme like hisotry, geographic or attraction.

Legoland Park

Legoland Park mainly provides the hotal service and machine game. The selling point is that there are tons of things made by Lego inside the park. Therefore, it is suitable for the Lego fans to visit.
Ref: Legoland Park retrieved from https://legoland.com/
2) Universal Studio Hollywood

Universal Studio mainly offers customer the hotel service and amusing facilities like the machine game and shows. The selling point is that there are many decorations, shows and games about the movie or animation produced by Unverisal Studio like the Transformer.
Ref: Universal Studio Hollywood retrieved from https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/
3) Disneyland Park

Disneyland Park has the hotel service and the games and shows for customers. There is an element of magicial moment for customers to feel. Customers can find out many Disney cartoon characters inside this park.  
Ref: Disneyland Park retrieved from https://disneyland.disney.go.com/
4) Holy land USA

Holy Land USA is a theme park in Waterbury inspired by Bible. There are many facilities in this park like a chapel, stations of the cross, and replicas of catacombs and Israelite villages made by cinder blocks, bathtubs, and other discards.
Ref: Holy land USA retrieved from https://www.messynessychic.com/2013/10/04/holy-land-usa-before-after-the-abandoned-christian-theme-park/
5) Le Puy Du Fou

Le Puy Du Fou is a historical theme park in Les Epesses in the heart of theVendée region of Western France. There are many attractions like The Secret of the Lance, The Vikings, Triumph's Sign, The Phantom Birds Dance and Richelieu's Musketeers
Ref: Le Puy Du Fou retrieved from https://www.puydufou.com/
Club
There are various types of club such as counrty club and city club. We will give you the real life example of these club.

The Hong Kong Country Club (Country Club)

The Clubhouse is situated to take full advantage of its close proximity to the scenic shores of Deep Water Bay affording magnificent ocean views from the dining outlets and function rooms on all floors of the building. Also, members can enjoy the dinner in different dinner room and the sport games.
Ref: The Hong Kong Country Club retrieved from https://www.countryclub.hk/
2) The City Club of San Francisco (City Club)

The City Club offers members an active calendar of networking and social opportunities, preferred pricing on food and beverages, discounted membership at Equinox Fitness and reciprocal privileges at The Golden Gate Yacht Club and other exclusive private clubs.
Ref: The City Club of San Francisco retrieved from https://cityclubsf.com/
3) Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (Yacht Club)

Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is one of the oldest sports clubs in Hong Kong and is proud of its rich, colourful history, which stretches back over 160 years of social and competitive sailing and rowing.  The RHKYC provides sailing and rowing courses for members and non-members at various levels to nurture the development of these two core sports.
Ref: Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club retrieved from https://www.rhkyc.org.hk/
4) Chicago Athletic Clubs (Athletic Club)

Chicago Athletic Clubs provides many services like  rock climbing walls, indoor lap pools, basketball courts and dozens of conveniently scheduled group classes like Body Pump, Zumba, Kickboxing and others, included in membership. Also, it offers customers nutrition counseling, our Kids Clubs, and our highly acclaimed personal trainers.
Ref: Chicago Athletic Clubs retrieved from https://chicagoathleticclubs.com/
5) The In & Out Naval & Military Club (Military Club)

The memberes mainly come from Officers of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force. In recent years, the membership has expanded to include ladies and gentlemen who have not served in the Armed Forces. It usually provides the dinning room, the bar and the places for playing sport
Ref: The In & Out Naval & Military Club retrieved from https://www.navalandmilitaryclub.co.uk/ClubMembership.asp?PropertyID=2906&t=dg
◎  Gambling

Hong Kong Government does not put emphasize on the gambling industry and law and legislative aspects do not encourage citizens to have large scale of gambling activity excepted the gambling in Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Gambling is not only an economic activity but also a part of daily life of modern people. Figures from the Hong Kong Jockey Club show that for the 2005 to 2006 season, the horse racing betting turnover amounts to 60 billion (HKD) while the amount for football betting is 31.2 billion. Betting turnover for the Mark Six equals to 6.3 billion. It is estimated that Hong Kong people spent over 12 billion on football betting during the 2006 World Cup.
Major Research Findings
1) About 70% of Hong Kong people have engaged in various gambling activities.
2) There is a growing trend of more young people participating in gambling activities. About 54% of gamblers are under the age of 20.
3) About 7% of gamblers first engaged in gambling at or below the age of 12.
4) Gambling activities leading to the first engagement in gambling of Hong Kong people are, in order of priority, Mark Six (53.6%), casinos (18.3%) and horse racing (16.3%).
5) The most popular gambling activities are, in order of priority, Mark Six (78.2%), horse racing (27.8%), football betting (27.8%), casinos (9.7%).
6) About 20% of Hong Kong people involved in the football betting during the 2006 World Cup. 40% among them engaged in football betting for the first time. 15.7% bet $2,000 or above while 4.2% bet $10,000 or above.
7) Who are gamblers?

Demographic: male, married, middle class, retired, house wife.

Personality: believe fate can be controlled, materialistic, not influenced by peers.

Influence from family members/ peer group: family members/ peer group are gamblers.

View on gambling: believe gambling can make quick money, a way to socialize with friends, entertaining and relaxing activities.

8) Gamblers can be classified into three categories: (1) enjoy life conscious (12.1%), (2) social life conscious (75.6%), (3) material and money conscious (12.4%).
9) Among the student respondents, around 30% are gamblers. Of the gamblers, 42% are primary / secondary students. Mark six is the first gambling activity they get involved. 40% of the student gamblers (n = 33) engaged in this year’s World Cup Football betting. Their bets ranged from $500 to $50,000.
10) Gambling leads to the following impacts:

Addicted to gambling and helpless.

Betting amount is increasing.

Psychological damages.

Recommendations


1) Government

Promotion: to deliver anti-gambling messages.

Education: to further encourage schools to organize anti-gambling activities for students.

Reinforce anti-gambling laws: to enforce the law to stop youth (under 18) entering Jockey Club’s off-course betting branches.

Strategic alliance: sponsor and support the anti-gambling organizations (e.g. Caritas A. G. Counseling Centre, Gamblers Recovery Centre).

2) Education

To deliver anti-gambling and correct financial management messages.

Care and concern: teachers and school social workers should pay more attention to students to prevent them from engaging in gambling activity.

3) Family

Parents / Senior members in the family should well behave and stay away from gambling activities to act as role model.

Pay attention to the friends of their children.

Family members should try to help each others to quit gambling.

4) Individual

Should be aware of the destructive impact of gambling on oneself and family.

For youth, should carefully select friends and stay away from the gamblers.

For retired and housewives, should broaden their social circles, participate various activities, can help them to stay away from gambling temptation.

Have a positive value of life: Money is not everything.

Ref: A Survey on Gambling Behaviours of Hong Kong People retrieved from https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/cpr/pressrelease/060816e.htm
◎  Recent Trends and New Development in Recreation and Leisure
There is increasing concern for health consciousness in Hong Kong. People are more and more aware of health issues that they will participate in recreation and leisure activities like yoga class, body fitness .For example, more and more fitness centre providing gym facilities, yoga classes are found in Hong Kong nowadays since more people are concerned about the healthy life style.

Moreover, people like to go to public park in their leisure times. For instance, they would like to visit the nature park to see the animals and plants, which give them a space for relaxation.

Mai Po Nature Reserve
New Development

New development of leisure in Hong Kong is West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade. It is located in the headland area of the district.People cantroll along the boardwalk and find yourself surrounded on all sides by Hong Kong’s iconic waterfront scenes. A picnic on the grassy areas is dining with a million dollar view. The promenade also features with a play area, a cycling track and a jogging path that is lit at night, which is perfect for adults and children.

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Learning experience of hotel and theme park operations management in Disneyland HK.

As a renowned brand in the hospitality industry, Disney’s high standard of Guest service has achieved international acclaim. From this “Disneyland Hospitality in Practice” turn into a real-world classroom for us to learn more about the features of Disney to approach Guest services. This site visit of Disney is separate into two parts which are hotel and theme park. The key customer of Disney is Family. They need to pay special attention on take care children and baby. The Mission and Vision of Disney is that provide well-service and experience to children to create Amazing moment. Therefore, Disney emphases four service quality standards.

1st Safety

Safety is the number one priority for the resort. Disney are all responsible for the safety of the Guest and fellow Cast Members.

2nd Courtesy

Understand the diverse nature of the Guests, respecting, appreciating and valuing everyone and acknowledging the importance of every Guest as an individual.

3rd Show

Deliver professional presentation and maintain a clear and organized work location.

4th Efficiency

Work together as a team and keep lines of communication open.

Hotel

1) Storybook Playroom
Inside the Disney hotel, there are areas for Children to read Storybook Since, There are many children in playroom. If there are some stroller insides, it will very dangers. Hotel provides Stroller Parking area for stroller for baby which enhance safety quality standards. For safety purpose, there is carpet on the floor to prevent children slip on. Rubbing alcohol will be provided to parent and children for wasting their hands. There is a small reception counter outside the Playroom. The Cast Members will provide story introduction service to children enhance courtesy quality standards.

2) Corridor

For safety purpose, each stair’s step installs a skid grain to prevent customers slip on.
The stair’s handrail has some bump to inform the direction to blind which can ensure their safety.

3) Reception  Counter
Hotel room check-in counter will ensure their service efficiency. The average queuing will not over 20 minutes. The average check-in time will not over 10 minutes. There are special counter design of children and disable. The counter is relatively shorter than other counter which enhance Courtesy service standards.
In addition, next to the check-in counter, there are an area for children watch Canton when their parent is waiting for check-in.

4) Lobby and Hotel Entrance
The design of Disney hotel is followed by Victoria period. The decoration try to credit like a castle and children like a princes or princess. Each ballroom is using princess as a name. There are some special and detail design in the hotel lobby can enhance Show hotel service quality standards. For example, there are a crown on the top of lobby chandelier.
At the hotel entrance, there are Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse bronze statue standing to welcome customer to show courtesy.

B. Disney Theme Park

Main entrance

At the theme park main entrance, there are a banner showing “Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort” and “Thank you for Visiting”. This banner can show Courtesy to customer. Customer will feel friendly and happy to see this banner.

Next to the main entrance, there are a guest relation counter which aim at help customer and answer customer question to enhance countesy.

2) Frist Aid in DisneyLand
For safety purpose, there are first aid counter inside the park for any incident or any emergency.

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◎  How Gaming Entertainment Converges with the Hospitality Industry in terms of its Economical and Social impact
1) Economical impact: Increase of GDP

In the positive economical way, gaming entertainment can raise the GDP of the economic in as much as casino can attract more tourists to visit and do the consumption that enormous visitors love gambling, so they will always come and spend tons of money on it. Thus, their consumption can increase the GDP.
2) Economical impact: Single-industry structure

In the negative economical way, some regions like Macau will just depend on the gaming entertainment for its economic structure, so its GDP has a large part for gaming entertainment. However, this region economic will easily be affected by other economic because its economic depends on other economics. Therefore, its economic will be unstable due to single-industry structure.
3) Social impact: Strike the illegal gambling

In the positive social impact, regulation of gambling is set up, which offers people a better place for gambling. Otherwise, people need to gamble in the illegal place and maybe have many problems such as personal safety and guarantee of receiving money.
4) Social impact: Enhancing the gambling atmosphere

In the negative social impact, Gaming entertainment in hotels is accessible to people for gambling, so many people will encounter gambling and emphasize gambling . Thus, it will cause various social problems like disharmony in family.
◎  Successful Strategies of Operating Gaming Entertainment

Service diversification

Providing only gaming service is never enough for companies to become successful. Recent trend is that they provide a lot of other entertainments or relaxing activity in the venue. For example, there are places for kids to play around near the casino. It is because many customers tend to bring their kids to the hotel or casino but kids are not allowed to enter casino. Having a kids playroom or playground can attract more customers to go gaming without worrying their kids. Also, they will have spa centres and restaurants.

2) More attractions in hotels
Hotels nowadays tend to build many attractions to attract customers. They create a theme for the building which is beautifully decorated and has its characteristic. For example, the Infinite Pool in Marina Bay Sands Singapore. It is a must-do activity if you choose to stay in Marina Bay Sands. The views are breathtaking as it is on the top of hotel and it is a borderless swimming pool. Attraction like this can make the gaming entertainment industry more successful by providing such fabulous facility so that when people want to gamble, they will think of these hotels. They can have fun in gaming at the same time they can go to many attractions.

◎  Studio City
Macau has the world largest gambling industry which is accounting for the largest revenue in GDP. Recently, a new and elegant hotel which calls Studo City start business with a series of new exciting entertainments for customers.

The Studio city has the world's highest figure-8 Ferris wheel and admiring views of the city 130 meters up in the air.
Customers can enjoy a truly unforgettable experience on Golden Reel. It suspends at 130 meters between two Art-Deco hotel towers, this iconic landmark features.
Studio City has an exciting 4D flight simulation ride which is "Batman Dark Flight." It enhanced and equipped with the latest in flight simulation technology and the very best in audio design and visual graphics. It must bring an unforgettable and fresh experience for getting a ride in the game.

Audiences step into this 3-theater arena  and let the world’s greatest magicians lead you on a magical journey. It is hosted by the world famous illusionist, Franz Harary in which audiences witness incredible illusions and fascinating trickery at every turn as you move from one performance to  another.
◎  Trends and News about Development of Gaming Entertainment Industry

More emphasis on gaming entertainment

Nowadays, the gaming industry puts more focus on the entertainment part that makes the casinos differentiated and unique. The casinos offer high quality food and beverage and luxury hotel rooms. It provides convenience and enjoyable experience for the guests, and enables them to stay longer.
Besides, theme parks, rides, and museums are incorporated into some of the casinos, which attract the people to get to there and spend more money on the entertainment and gambling.
Some casino hotels provide venues for live performance such as concerts and musicals. The audience needs to pass through the casinos. It tempts the audience to enter the casino area to gamble before and after the shows.

For example, Studio City Macau is a newly established casino hotel. There are impressive cinema-themed resort and two-tower hotel, with exciting entertainment venues for world-class performances. What’s more, there are luxury brands and different kinds of restaurants for visitors to shop and dine.





On the other hand, Galaxy Macau’s Grand Resort Deck developed the world’s longest sky top aquatic adventure river ride at 575 meters and world’s largest Skytop Wave Pool and white sand beach, with waterslides and waterfalls for guests to enjoy.



Ref: Studio City Macau retrieved from https://www.studiocity-macau.com/en/ and Galaxy Macau retrieved from https://www.galaxymacau.com/en/about-us

2) Expanding hotel room inventory in gaming properties

The casino hotels tend to expand their business by increasing the number of hotel rooms. They fulfill the market demand for accommodations and earn additional profits.



Take Galaxy Macau as an example. It established its Phase 1 in 2011 and it found that there was an opportunity to expand. In 2015, Galaxy Macau and Broadway Macau™ opened Phase 2 with doubled size.

Ref: Galaxy Macau retrieved from https://www.galaxymacau.com/en/about-us

3) Continued scrutiny by government
From 2014, Macau government incorporated with China government to adopt several anti-corruption policies so as to keep its image positive and promote integrity.
For instance, it limits the use of Union Pay. The duration for visitors to stay is shortened. Smoking in casinos is not allowed. These policies hindered the growth of the gaming industry in Macau.
Exhibit 1: Gross revenue from different gaming activities in 2010-2015
Due to the new policies, the gross revenue has dropped continuously (see Exhibit 1) since 2014. This implies that the growth of the industry is stagnant and declined.

Ref: The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau retrieved from https://www.dicj.gov.mo/web/en/information/DadosEstat/2015/content.html#n5

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◎  Unique Features of Services
There are five unique features of managed services for food and beverage.

Challenge to please guest and client

Asia Pacific Catering provides lunch service for many primary schools and secondary schools. Its guests are the students in the schools and its clients are the schools.
The main challenge is that it is hard to look for a balance between being healthy and delicious of the meals. In other words, students love the delicious unhealthy food, while schools want the students to have healthy but maybe not delicious food.
2) Guests are captive clientele

There are many situations that guests have no choice for meals, like when visiting theme parks. For example, Hong Kong Disneyland checks the belongings of guests to make sure they do not bring their own food, so they have to get the meal from the restaurants inside the park. Therefore, the park can charge higher prices and the visitors have no choices but to pay for it.
3) Food service is not the primary business

Major service of some industries is not the food and beverage service. In a hospital, patients mainly focus on the quality of healthcare instead of the meals. Therefore, many public hospitals like Tuen Mun Hospital do not provide high quality meals to patients.
4) Produce food in large quantity
Asia Pacific Catering provides the canteen service for many universities like City University of Hong Kong. In the canteen, it adopts batch cooking to produce food in large quantity so as to deal with the demand of the students, professors and staff.
5) Volume of business is consistent

Dragonair is an airline company and it is easy for them to determine the number of travelers inasmuch as most of the air tickets are sold in advance and they know the capacity of a flight. Therefore, Dragonair can prepar similar quantity of meals for the same model of flight.
◎  Challenges and Recent Trends of  Airlines & Airport
Challenge:

1) Perishability of food

Food is perishable in nature. It is important to select the ingredients, which can keep fresh for certain hours or even a day. Also, the prepared meals should be sealed or packed nicely.

Some airline companies would provide packed and sealed snacks, biscuits and instant noodles, as they are easier to handle and store, to avoid the food-spoiling problem.



2) Logistics challenge

The major challenge in transporting the meal boxes or trays to the airports is to store the meal properly. Some cold items like ice cream are kept under a specific low temperature. The staff should ensure the temperature of the freezers is appropriate. Oppositely, some hot items are needed to keep under a certain high temperature in the warmers.

The transportation time is as short as possible, in order to keep the meal fresh and in a good condition. Also, the risk of flight delay should be taken into consideration.

Trend:

1) Selling snacks and optional meals

Snacks are easy to store and relatively imperishable. Airline companies would provide snacks for passengers to earn additional profits.

Also, some budget airlines do not provide free in-flight meal. If passengers want to have meal during the flight, they could choose the optional meals in advance when booking the air tickets. It could help the airline to forecast and prepare the right quantity of meal so as to reduce wastage, cut costs and even earn profits.

Ref: Hong Kong Express official webpage retrieved from https://booking.hkexpress.com/en-US/Detail

2) Offering boneless food

To promote and ensure flight safety, meal providers do not use the ingredients with bones to make the in-flight dishes because it is very dangerous if the diners have bone accidents in the plane without immediate professional medical treatment. It would also affect the passengers in the same flight.

3) Increasing number of chain restaurants in airports

As there is increasing number of people travel around the world, the demand for food and beverages in the airports ascends. Therefore, more and more chain restaurants can be found in airports compared to the past.

For example, McDonald’s, Misocool, Maxim group are in Hong Kong International Airport.
 
◎  Challenges and Recent Trends of Schools
Challenge:
Balance between taste and health

In the primary schools and secondary schools, students are in stage of growth, so they need to have the healthy diet. However, students usually like junk food such as French fries and hamburgers. Therefore, lunch providers need to think about how to have a balance between flavour and health.
Trend:

Previously, we talked that lunch providers need to consider the health of students, so it provides them with the healthy diets. For instance, the meals contain less salt and sugar, and more vegetables. Therefore, students can have a great development in the growth stage.
◎  Challenges and Recent Trends of  Health Care

Challenge:

Limitation of canteens’ operating hours

Recently, more and more restaurants run 24/7. Patients in the hospitals are the captive clienteles. They may need food and beverage after the canteens’ normal working hours. However, most hospitals could only provide limited choices of beverages and snacks through the vending machines. The restaurants and canteen are normally closed from the late night to the early morning.


Queen Mary Hospital Staff Canteen is one of the examples of the restaurant that closes at night.

Ref: Openrice retrieved from https://www.openrice.com/en/hongkong/restaurant/pok-fu-lam-queen-mary-hospital-staff-canteen/50663?tc=sr1

Trends:

1) Growth of senior segment market

As the aging population is growing in Hong Kong every year, the senior citizen market becomes the major growth segment in the managed service industry.

According to the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong, it shows that the expectation of life at birth for both males and females increases annually. In particular, the expectation of life at birth of female rises from 86.7 in 2013 to 86.9 in 2014, in terms of years.



        It illustrates that there is a potential increase in the numbers of patients, visitors and employees in the hospitals, retirement centers and senior service centers. The demand for catering services increases.
                                             
Ref: Census and Statistics Department retrieved from https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/so160.jsp

2) Emphasis on nutrition value

Nowadays people give weight to health and they become nutrition-conscious. In hospitals and related healthcare service centres, service providers tend to provide healthy and easy-to-digest meal, so as to fulfil the needs of the patients.
For example, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital operates a dietetic unit. There are professional dieticians to offer nutritional counselling. Moreover, it holds health seminars on a regular basis and provides weight control programme.


Ref: Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital official website retrieved from https://www.hksh.org.hk/en/clinical-services/clinical-centres-specialties-and-services/dietetic-unit

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◎  McDonald’s

In order to enhance the efficiency of meal delivery, many restaurants adopt new technology.

Nowadays, McDonald’s utilizes the Kitchen Display System. First of all, when a customer orders the food, the staff will take the order via the computer. Then, inside the kitchen, the screen will display the list of food and the priority for staff to cook, assemble and pack. Finally, the staff delivers the packed meal to the customer.
It strengthens the coordination between the staff in cashier and kitchen so as to raise the speed of food delivery. Therefore, enormous numbers of chain restaurants adopt this system as the part of operations.

◎  How Restaurants Do their
Forecasting and Food Cost Control Process

Perform food cost calculations

Restaurants should determine what food they want to deliver to customers so that they can calculate the expense of each ingredient of each dish. Food costs include cost of ingredient, delivery and disposal of spoiled food.
For instance, they should know the standard cost for each ingredient on the recipe so they can get the theoretical overall food cost. Then they need to adjust according to the market change.
2) Evaluate menu planning
Most of the food showing on the menu should generate a certain amount of profits. Food price should cover the overhead cost, food cost and tax.
Some menu items with lower profit margins or even loss are used to attract customer visit and the company hope that they will then spend more money on profitable items. Eliminating infamous items to reduce the food costs.

3) Purchasing process
Restaurants should work and collaborate with suppliers to ensure they receive the correct information such as the order requirement and expected prices. The restaurants then can compare the quotations from several suppliers to choose the most suitable supplier base.
4) Seasonal history and trend research
Consumers' appetites and favour are easily affected by several factors like time, weather and trend. Companies need to take these factors into consideration when designing menu. Also, the availability of the food and the associated costs should be identified. For example, crab specialty restaurants experience fluctuating demand over a year. The supply and demand of Chinese Mitten Crabs increase in October.
5) Technology- Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)

RFID is a technology automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. With this technology, restaurants are able to enhance the efficiency of inventory system as well as the visibility of inventory. Therefore, the companies can have better inventory management resulting in the decrease of inventory costs.
In addition, RFID can enhance the security. The tag is attached to the inventory that the company can trace the location of the inventory.
Apart from that, the readability and security of the inventory increase, different from the traditional barcode technology that the inventory can only be read individually. This helps reduce the labour force and lower the labour cost.
Ref: retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/control-cost-food-labor-restaurant-service-66929.html, https://www.ehow.com/info_12166336_kind-sales-forecasting-use-restaurant.html, and https://www.losangelesrestaurantconsultant.com/managing-restaurant-food-costs/food-cost-control-system/
◎  Updated Trends about
Restaurant Operations

Social media as an advertising tool

With the prevalence of the use of social media like Facebook and Twitter, many businesses take this chance to integrate their promotional strategy with social media. For example, most of them create Facebook fan pages for promoting their restaurants. “Liking” the fan page can create effects of virus advertising to increase the exposure.

Also, they provide certain discounts if customers show the “Liked” status or participate in the page activites. Moreover, restaurants use the “restaurant guide website” to promote their business.

On the other hand, websites like Openrice provide restaurant reviews and allow restaurants to place advertisements. People can search the restaurants and get more information about the shops very conveniently.

2) Sustainable and healthy food
In recent years, there has been greater emphasis on health. People look for the food with less sugar and fat. For instance, Café de Coral provides and highlights healthy meals, and promotes balanced diets.

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◎  Pizza Hut
Background

Pizza Hut is the world’s largest restaurant company, which is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. It is an American restaurant chain, founded by brothers Dan and Frank on June 1958.
Pizza Hut is also an international franchise that offers different kinds of pizza along with side dishes. Pizza Hut has more than 6000 Pizza Hut restaurants in the United States and more than 5,139 store locations in 94 other countries and territories around the world.
Pizza Hut in Hong Kong
Pizza hut has been serving in Hong Kong over 30 years. Nowadays, Pizza Hut operates over 80 outlets with 4,000 employees in Hong Kong and Macau. It always carries out “Hot and On Time” delivery commitment.

Pizza Hut’s service
Pizza Hut is split into several restaurant formats, such as original family-style dine-in locations, storefront delivery and carryout locations.

Dine-in locations


Storefront delivery and carryout locations
Pizza Hut’s Menu Planning
Pizza Hut offers A la carte menus and Table d’hôte menu. By using this menu planning, Pizza Hut can fulfil different kinds of customer needs.
The fixed course price will be lower than the individual order for the similar items and quantity. It is suitable for a group of customers and facilitates them to make the order decision fast. Also, it can help forecast the demand by offering sets.
If the customers prefer to order items totally based on their favour, size and quantity, they can order the items individually. Thus, this design provides flexibility and is popular in the restaurant business.

A la carte menus

Table d’hôte menus
Ref: Pizza Hut retrieved from:https://www.pizzahut.com.hk/

◎  Importance of Menu Planning and Design
An extraordinary menu is able to show the restaurant’s personality, as a general picture of the restaurant to impress the customers. It can help deliver vital messages related to the brand, theme and offerings so as to attract diners’ sight.
A menu may change customers’ minds and order decisions. For example, they may try the recommended and famous cuisines when they see the highlights in the menu.
Ref: retrieved from https://aaronallen.com/blog/restaurant-menu-design-engineering/restaurant-menu-design
◎  Real Life Examples for Each Classification of Restaurants
1) Independent Restaurant: Si Sun Fast Food

Si Sun Fast Food, in Hung Hom

It is a restaurant owned by Mr. Chung, established in 1963, located in Hung Hom. It offers freshly made Hong Kong style hamburgers.
Mr. Chung involves in day-to-day business operations. For example, he prepares the burger ingredients, cooks the meal and does the cleaning work. He does not follow what other brands do and keeps his hamburgers special with own style.
Ref: retrieved from https://youtu.be/e4xn4UGd_kc
2) Chain Restaurant: Oliver’s Super Sandwiches

The branch in Kowloon Tong – Festival Walk

The branch in Central – Hutchison House
It is a sandwich specialty restaurant with more than 20 branches in Hong Kong. It was opened in 1987 and offers a wide range of food and beverages namely inspired sandwiches, baked potatoes and salad.
The branch decoration, service, offerings and name are nearly identical in every branch, regardless of locations.

Ref: retrieved from https://www.olivers-supersandwiches.com/
3) Fine Dining: Caprice



It is a French fine dining restaurant in Four Seasons Hotel. It offers high quality cuisine and fine wine, by the team of 25 talented chefs using fresh ingredients. For example, there are wine from the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions, and artisanal French cheeses.  The environment is pleasant and comfortable that customers can enjoy the nice view of Victoria Harbour and the Kowloon Peninsula. The service standard is high and attracts many people to there.
Ref: retrieved from https://www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/dining/restaurants/caprice/
4) Theme Restaurant: Charlie Brown Café


It is a theme café located in Tsim Sha Tsui. It offers the food and beverages with the icons of Charlie Brown, and the branch decoration is also about this cartoon character. It attracts the fans of Charlie Brown to visit.
Ref: retrieved from https://www.charliebrowncafe.com/aboutus.htm
5) Celebrity Restaurant: Monster Sushi


It is a Japanese restaurant in Mong Kok, established by the famous pop star Daniel Wu. The atmosphere and meal are nice and there are always many people lining up for seats at night.
Ref: retrieved from https://www.monstersushi.com.hk/about/?lang=en
6) Steak Houses: Morton's The Steakhouse



It is a steakhouse in Tsim Sha Tsui. It was from Chicago and opened a branch in Hong Kong. It emphasizes genuine hospitality that it treats the guest very well. It provides high quality meal and the environment is desirable.
Ref: retrieved from https://www.mortons.com/hongkong/
7i) Casual Dining – Casual Restaurant: Dabyida Restaurant and Bar


It mainly provides customers with Italian food. Inside the restaurant, there is a bar for customers to have different drink. The price for dining is moderate.
Ref: retrieved from Openrice
7ii) Casual Dining – Family Restaurant: Hak Ka Hut (客家好棧)
It is a Chinese restaurant under Tao Heung. There are several branches in Hong Kong and attracts a large group of people. It gives weight to family and cohesion that it offers sets for four or eight people, which are opposed to the tradition of sets for 12 people, as the modern family size is much smaller than the traditional one. When a family dine there, service providers will serve them politely.

The simple menu for 4 or 8 people

The round table makes people talk conveniently.
Ref: retrieved from https://www.taoheung.com.hk/tc/brands/hak_ka_hut/index.html
7iii) Casual Dining – Ethnic Restaurant: The Delhi Club
It is an Indian restaurant owned by Indian, located in Tsim Sha Tsui. It provides traditional and genuine Indian dishes like Indian breads and curry. Also, the Indian decoration and Indian staff make people feel like being in India.


Ref: retrieved from Openrice
8i) Fast Food – Hamburger: MOS Burger
It is a chain fast food shop selling burgers. There are 15 branches in Hong Kong. It aims at providing good service sincerely, and delicious and safe meal to customers.


Ref: retrieved from https://mosburger-hk.com/index.html
8ii) Fast Food – Pizza: PHD


It is the quick food shop offering mainly pizza. People can dine in the store, or order take-away and enjoy the delivery service.  
Ref: retrieved from Openrice
8iii) Fast Food – Chicken:  KFC


It is a fast food shop from USA, mainly selling fried chicken.There are many various stores in Hong Kong, so it is easy customers to get it.
Ref: retrieved from Openrice
8iv) Fast Food – Sandwich: Comie’s Delicious Sandwiches

It is also a fast food shop offering sandwiches. The sandwiches are freshly made and there are lots of combinations, from the types of bread to source, to favour each customer.
Ref: retrieved from Openrice
9) Bakery Café: Arome Café
Some of the branches of Arome do not only sell quality special bread and cakes, but also the Japanese dishes like salad and noodles. There are seats and tables provided for customers to enjoy their meal.



Ref: retrieved from Openrice
10) Hong Kong Style: Tsui Wah Restaurant
It is a famous chain restaurant in Hong Kong. It aims at being efficient, providing eye-catching and quality food.  These years, it also emphasizes health so that it offers healthy meal set. Besides, the decoration of the entrance draws people attention and makes it distinct.


It shows it does not use harmful eggs.
Ref: retrieved from https://www.tsuiwah.com/cn/about-tsui-wah/tsuiwah-introduction/
11i) Local Restaurant: Seafood Restaurant: Sing Kee Seafood Restaurant
It is the local seafood restaurant providing tasty seafood cuisine. The cooks have their own recipes to cook using the fresh ingredients. A dish of abalone is one of its famous and special dishes.


Ref: retrieved from Openrice
11ii) Local Restaurant: Chinese Dim Sum: Dimdimsum Dim Sum Specialty Store
It is a Dim Sum restaurant with four branches in Hong Kong. It provides delicious and creative food with a relatively low price. Moreover, there are various kinds of dim sum for customers to choose and it operates till 2a.m. Therefore it attracts many people especially teenagers to get to there.


Ref: retrieved from https://www.dimdimsum.hk
11iii) Local Restaurant: Cha Chaan Teng: Mrs Tang Cafe   
It is in Yuen Long and offers a wide range of meal such as milk tea and bread.


Ref: retrieved from Openrice

◎  Recent Trends and Practices about Restaurant Business

Growing wine business

There are more and more restaurants offering wine. Some of them provide a wide range of wine for customers to choose, including several brands, countries of origin and years. The staff is equipped with wine knowledge, such as the ways to open the bottles and deliver the wine and storage methods.
Drinking wine becomes a cultural habit for locals. Peoples like to drink wines when they have dinner with colleagues or friends. Hong Kong established Hong Kong Wine & Dine Month every year and attracted many local citizens and foreign tourists to take part in this event.
2) High rent = marginalized quality

The rental cost in Hong Kong is extremely high. It increases the financial burden to the restaurant owners. Some of them try to  shift part of rental cost to their customers, which means to increase the sales prices.
From customer’s point of view, customers will expect something better or extra for paying a higher price, such as better service and higher food quality. It gives pressure to the owners.
3) The smartphone and social media effect
Nowadays people use smartphones to search and spread information. People post comments and share photos of the restaurants and cuisine, through restaurant review websites like Opensnap and social media platform namely Facebook. It creates word of mouth effect and directly affects people’s perceptions.
4) Technology takeover

It is common to make a pre-order using mobile application before entering into the restaurant, or to select and order food by tablets.
For example, traditional paper menu have already replaced by tablets in some Japanese restaurants like Itacho sushi. McDonald’s has introduced an electronic ordering system for customers to choose their custom-hamburgers.

5) Eating in retail stores

An increasing number of retailers try to expand their business in the forms of opening restaurants or coffee shops. For example, retailers like Agnes.b opened a coffee shop in its branch in Causeway Bay.

6) Concern about look appetizing

In the past, size and taste were the main considerations of customers. Nowadays, the first image of the food becomes important. It is popular to see people will take photos before enjoying their meals. Hence, some restaurants like EXP and Simply Life emphasize good appearance of the products.

Ref: retrieved from https://travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/eat/top-hong-kong-restaurant-trends-600866
https://hk.dining.asiatatler.com/features/food-and-drink-trends-in-2014 and https://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2014/11/11/10-restaurant-trends-for-that-will-change-what-and-where-you-eat-in-2015/4/

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◎  Functions and Responsibilities of F&B Operations
In addition to providing meals for customers, F&B operators have several functions and responsibilities.

1) Procurement of raw ingredients for making food
Restaurants need to purchase materials to prepare the meals and the purchasing process has direct impact on the food quality. For example, they have to find reliable suppliers to provide fresh and safe ingredients.

2) Management of food
Chefs and workers have to keep track of every food in the kitchen. They are responsible for the storage and disposal of the food in a proper way. For example, using preservation kits to preserve the food and arranging regular check ups can help screen out the expired or denatured food, to achieve food safety.

3) Frontline operations
There are several positions for frontline operations. These functions are of vital importance that how well it does is actually representing the restaurant’s image. Waiters or waitresses serve customers like food ordering and answering enquiries. Chefs are to cook the meals ordered by customers while janitors are responsible for keeping the restaurant clean. They are dependent on one another so communication and cooperation are significant.
◎  Recent Trends and Challenges in Operating F&B Operations
Trends
1) Healthy lifestyle
Healthy lifestyle is highly emphasized by general public nowadays. Customers are willing to select the fresh ingredients and cook in a healthy way. For instance, people tend to buy the food with higher nutrition values and less fat and suger.
2) Convenience
People are busy. Most of the working people like office ladies do not have time to prepare the meal by themselves, especially on weekdays.
The new “ready meal” concept is advocated. It offers premium meals that are new and at a high quality.

3) Development of E-marketing
Technology creates a new form of socialization and interaction. One example is the E-marketing. Many organizations use the social network like Facebook and Youtube to do promotions. They announce the promotional events regularly in order to capture more customers.

Furthermore, it is common for companies to adopt online reservation system. The capacity planning can be carried out more accurately and effectively.

4) Packaging
Companies try to do the packaging in the more innovative and environmentally friendly way. Using renewable materials, reducing the use of packages and introducing environmental sourcing policies are the feasible practices. These can help the company build up a positive brand image by fulfilling corporate social responsibility.

5) Quality beverage
The market of quality beverage is booming. For example, more and more people prefer quality specialty coffee rather than low-priced coffee. It may contribute to the higher purchasing power and willingness to pay.

Challenges

1) Aging population
Aging distribution poses a great effect of the food products. Some of the customers are getting older but have a strong incentive to stay young. They appeal to the natural products at high quality but at low prices. It makes the businessmen annoyed how to strive for a balance between quality and price.

2) Soar of price
The food and beverage industry is greatly affected by the climate change. Climate change results in the rise of agricultural commodity prices and the increase in price volatility due to the decreasing yields.
For example, global sugar prices have reached a 8-year high, in part because of the lower production in India. The increasing prices of raw materials will hurt the financial conditions of food and beverage operators.

3) Stricter regulations
The regulation development brings the pressure to the food manufacturers. For example, the regulations in nutrition labelling, complete removal of hazardous substances, guarantees of traceability, and production hygiene are getting stricter. Enforcement is expected to be even more rigorous in the future.

4) Corporate responsibility
Consumers are increasingly sensitive to corporate responsibility. Some retailers and producers were aware of this trend and have reacted by adopting green practices. Also, some of them try to modify or reengineer their supply chain to reduce pollution and other negative impacts to the earth. It definitely increases the operations and R&D costs, particularly in the beginning.
Ref: Retrieved from https://hmforever2012.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/find-out-more-recent-trends-and-challenges-in-operating-fb-operations/

◎  Different Ways of Sustainability in F&B

Ethical sourcing

This is an important part for hotels to maintain good brand images. The companies should deal with the suppliers ethically. For example, they should pay extra for the work overtime and pay for the products at reasonable prices. Therefore, the business relationship can be sustainable, and the quality and quantity of food supply can be maintained and consistent.
2) Lean operations
Companies can adopt lean operations to reduce wastage of materials, which can result in the decrease of the cost of operations and negative impact to the environment. For example, hotels can use washable plates and dinnerware that easily fit into eco-friendly washers to maximize the efficiency and minimize waste.
◎  Issues Occurred in F&B Operations -
A Case Study of KFC

KFC is a chain fast food shop offering fried chicken.
An incident of mouse
There was a mouse entered a KFC store located in Sha Tin in 2012. It made the customers shocked and created the negative brand image in terms of store hygiene.
It is investigated that the mouse got into the store through the ceiling and it jumped onto the dishes bought by a customer. It ate the food and drew the customers’ attention. The staff was informed and then started to catch it by pouring the mouse together with the whole plate into the rubbish bag.
Hygiene issue

Staffing policy

This incident aroused the discussion about the hygiene of KFC. It was discovered that there were insufficient number of cleaning staff in the dining area to clean the tables. Some customers complained that they needed to find the staff to clean the tables for several times and found that it was annoyed. Also, some of the staff was not well-trained or unskilful to deal with their duties.  It created customers’ dissatisfaction and some impatient customers will clean the tables by themselves.
Therefore, KFC should tackle this staffing problem by arranging the right number of staff and plenty of training should be provided. If necessary, supervisor may need to monitor the staff to ensure the service speed and quality.
2) Cleaning problem
Besides, some interviewees said that the store was not tidy enough. Even though KFC did the cleaning every day, it was not at a satisfactory standard.
To solve this problem, KFC should revise their cleaning process, methods and the use of cleaning materials. For example, they should revise the schedule of cleaning the towels. They should clean the towels at a certain time and for several times per day, in order to keep them wet and clean. Also, they should test whether the detergents are strong enough to remove the oil from the table surfaces. These can facilitate the cleaning process and ensure the tables are clean.
3) Pest control
They should carry out pest elimination at least once a month and place the needed chemicals at the right places. Remove the dead pest and mice, and clean the affected area, when needed.
Ref: Video of the mouse entering KFC retrieved from https://www.getjetso.com/forum/thread-554639-1-1.html

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◎  Functions of Front desk, Reservation, Cashier, Concierge, Housekeeping and Laundry

Front Desk

Front Desk deals with many important processes in the hotel. A front desk clerk will greet the guest as they arrive, then manage the registration process for guests. It includes asking for identification of guests, check- in and out, provide room keys and information. It also does answering to enquiries of customers. Other than what you can see, a front desk has to manage the accurate account of all rooms like the status of availability.
2) Reservation

Functions of reservation include making a reservation. It means booking of a hotel room for a guest or a group of guests for a specific number of days for a set tariff or rate. This ensures a room will be available to the guest on his arrival to the hotel and a particular booked room will be provided to the guest. Secondly, it includes cancellation and amendments of reservation. For amendments, it includes changing of date, number of guest, number of rooms and types of room. For cancellation, it means removing an existing reservation on request of the person who may have made the reservation.
3) Cashier

A hotel cashier collects money from guests for their lodging accommodations and any other fees they may incur during their stay, including parking, valet, room service and telephone or computer use fees. He or she is also commonly required to maintain related records and files regarding financial transactions that take place at the front desk. Their jobs normally entails answering guest inquiries regarding fees and services.
4) Concierge

Hotel concierge assists guests by performing various tasks such as making restaurants reservations, booking hotels, arranging for spa services, recommending night life hot spots, booking transportation, coordinating luggage assistance request, procuring of tickets to special events, and assisting with various travel arrangements and tours of local attractions.
5) Housekeeping

The person who performs this function is called Room Attendant.
Room attendants perform routine duties in cleaning and servicing of guest rooms and baths under supervision of housekeeping supervisor. Room attendant promotes a positive image of the property to guests and must be pleasant, honest and friendly, and should also able to address guest requests and problems.
6) Laundry

A hotel laundry attendant works as part of the service or hospitality team in a hotel. Laundry is an essential part of a hotel service, ensuring that cleanliness of all linens and garments is maintained by the hotel. This is important to a guest’s well-being, comfort and overall satisfaction. The quality of the hotel laundry can be a factor in whether a customer returns to the hotel again. It is the responsibility of the laundry attendant to clean garments and linens. They set up cleaning machines depending on the garments that need to be washed, selecting the appropriate wash cycles for the fabric.
◎  Functionality of PMS, EMS, CAS and GDS, CRS

Property Management System (PMS)

PMS is a system to process the information about the front office and back office activities. For example, the check-in service is a front office activity which uses PMS. When the guests check in at the desk, they will give some personal information to the hotel staff. Then, hotel staff will record their information via computer in the central database. After that, room management, which is a back office activity also using PMS, can be implemented by PMS. The back office staff can know the number of occupied room from the database and have a thorough room plan.
2) Energy Management System (EMS)

EMS is a system of computer-aided tools to manage the use of energy to the hotel. If EMS do well, it will decrease the cost of hotel. For example, lighting energy management system is a system about turning on the light. There are some sensors to detect the existence of people and automatically turning on the light, some lights which are not in use will not be turned on. Therefore, it can save the cost.
3) Call Accounting System (CAS)

EMS is a system that it can automatically post call records to property management systems, allowing properties to track phone calls in conjunction with PBX and PMS. There are many function of it including generating revenue with custom mark-ups and surcharges, recording calls in real-time, detecting misuse and abuse, optimizing phone system performance, posting calls automatically to the PMS, allocating costs by department or extension, setting special phone rates for VIP guests, decreasing billing errors and monitor wakeup calls. For example, Tel-Electronics is an American company specializing CAS business.
4) Global Distribution System (GDS)

GDS is a company which provides automated services to travel vendors such as hotels, airlines and car rental companies. Also, the GDS hotel's inventory and rates can be accessed and booked by any travel agents which have already subscribe to the GDS. For example, Travelport is a GDS company. if someone books a hotel room that the hotel is covered by GDS, other travel agents will see the record in real time when they check the record of this hotel. Therefore, it is easy for travel agents to associate the hotel room and airline.
5) Central Reservation System (CRS)

CRS a computerized system storing and distributing information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities in the central reservation office. When customers book the hotel room via the travel agent successfully, this record will send to the CRS.Therefore, it is different form CRS. We just can see the information of our hotel. Then, the staff can utilize the reservation information to help consumers to book the hotel rooms.
◎  How Hotels Using Yield Management to Maximize Profits
With the objective of profit maximization, the key to yield management practise in hotel industry is selling every room at the highest possible rate, on the other head, not allowing any room to remain unoccupied. In order to accomplish this goal, the basic and key factors of revenue management include overbooking, pricing, room inventory control, and duration control.
1) Pricing
Yield management is one of the concepts about price discrimination. The hotel has to identify customers and charge them different rates based on their different needs and wants. The pricing strategy provides some guidelines to clarify the guests who are willing and able to pay higher prices from those who are willing to change their behavior in exchange for a lower price.
For example, a lower price will be offered to the price-sensitive customers, but with some limitations like booking a specific period of time ahead, being subject to a no deposit refund, or lacking of room options. For those customers who are willing to afford full price, can book at any time and select any kind of room.
The benefit to this kind of segmentation is that the hotel can sell the discounted rooms to a specific customer base without losing any income from the other segments. Meanwhile, it is obvious to elaborate the pricing system to customers since each kind of price is set up according to reasonable rules.
By practising the policy. Charging customers differently based on their needs not only yields more revenue, but also results in much more satisfied customers. The key is to build a rational price structure while controlling room inventory in case customers from the high-price segment need to be able to acquire a low-price room.
2) Overbooking
Though customers have made a room reservation in advance, they may cancel the reservation or not to show up due to various reasons. It may cause the room being vacant and the hotel losing the chance to make a profit. In order to protect the hotel against the possibility of no-shows, overbooking is common practice of hotel industry.
However, overbooking also carries a risk: if all of the customers arrive at the reserved time, the hotel may not have enough rooms for them all. Therefore, in order to make a trade-off, it is important to assess the optimal overbooking rate. Generally, this can be calculated according to the following equation: Amount of rooms overbooked = Number of predicted rooms canceled + number of predicted no-shows + number of rooms predicted to check out in advance – number of rooms predicted to extend to check out.
3) Inventory Control
Inventory control is concerned with allocating current room resources reasonably. In general, some hotels are willing to accept as many reservations as possible even though some reservations are made far in advance. This may guarantee occupancy; however, the hotel may lose the opportunity to capture more potential income in the future. The earlier the customers make their reservation, the greater the discount they ask for. If all rooms were sold at a low price, the price-insensitive segment customer who would pay full price will not be able to reserve a room near the date that they will come.
Therefore, to maximize revenues, hotels should try to sell the room near the arrival date at the highest possible price. Hence, the hotel must decide how many rooms will be sold in advance and how many should be kept for walk-in guests, based on demand forecasting. Moreover, a reasonable price structure should be determined, including the number of available rooms in terms of corresponding discount policy
The objective of room inventory control is to limit the number of discounted rooms. Hotels should keep the rooms for customers who are willing to pay a higher price so as to capture more profit as well as satisfy various customers’ needs. However, there is a risk involved in giving up current assured yet lower profit in exchange for future uncertain yet higher profit. To lower the risk, accurate demand forecasting is necessary.
4) Duration control
One particular problem hotels have is that the customers may stay for more than one night. This is quite different from the situation faced by the airline industry, whose seats are used only once during one flight. Though customers who stay for more than one night will bring more revenue than those who only stay for one night, the question of whether a hotel accepts a reservation or not depends not only on the entire length of the customers’ stay, but also on the customers’ demand level as well as the rooms available at that time.
To enforce optimal duration control, the hotels need to forecast the demand level at different time periods. For example, a hotel with lower demand on Wednesday and higher demand for Tuesday and Thursday could require a customer who arrives on Tuesday to stay for at least two days and deny those are willing to stay for one night only.
Moreover, the hotels need to consider the rooms available in the future when controlling the customers’ duration. The computer system may suggest declining a reservation for one day or four days on a certain day’s arrival and accepting those for two days, three days and five days based on a complicated calculation combing the number of customers with stays of various duration with the corresponding number of available rooms.
The objective is to take full advantage of limited capacity while shortening the time for which a room is vacant from when one customer leaves and another arrives. Though it is a complicated and advanced way of setting duration control when compared with other revenue management techniques, it contributes considerably more to overall revenue.
◎  The Recent Trends and Development about Operating Rooms Division in Hotels
Trends

Nowadays, the level of technology grows really fast in the world, so many hotels will adopt the new technology to enhance their business. Yotel is an excellent example of it.

Yotel is a hotel, located in New York, Gatwick and Heathrow, which use many high technology in their hotel rooms. For example, in the Yotel, there is an electronic check in system, convertible double beds, and a control panel for both lights and air conditioning. Also, the hotel rooms in Yotel are soundproofed,
Development about operating rooms division

Front desk is one of rooms division and very important to customers because they need to check in to get the hotel room. However, there is a new way of front desk operation. It is checking in without the front desk. Many major hotel chains are using software allowing customers to open their hotel doors using their smartphones. Instead of using a key, customers just need to register online, download the software application, and then type in a confirmation code for room access. This technology is able to reduce waste like plastic keycards or metal keys. Moreover, Hotels can cater to tech savvy Generation Y visitors, who like the idea of online check-ins. The most significant is that it reduces the workload of front desk.
~End~

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◎ Different Types of Hotels
We will give the real examples of various types of hotels.

City Center

Luxe City Center Hotel

It is located in the downtown Los Angeles.
Luxe provides 178 guestrooms including 16 suites. Besides rooms. It also has space for holding indoor and outdoor events like ballroom, business boardroom for meeting.

Ref: Luxe City Center Hotel retrieved from https://luxecitycenter.com/
2) Resort
Club Palm Bay Resort

It is located in Marawila -small fishing village located on the Northwest coast of Sri Lanka, 60 kilometers from Colombo and a short drive away from the International Airport. Its services include beach, authentic Sri Lankan fishermen’s experience in the village, wedding, meetings in ballroom and lounge and also restaurants.
 
Ref: Club Palm Bay Resort retrieved from www.clubpalmbay.com/
3) Airport
Regal Airport Hotel


It is located in Hong Kong International Airport.
The Regal Airport Hotel is connected to Terminal 1 by an air-conditioned bridge. The hotel provides superb accommodations with 1,171 rooms, extensive meeting and conference facilities and an extensive array of high quality restaurants and bars serving Cantonese, Shanghainese, Western and international cuisines.
Ref: Regal Airport Hotel retrieved from https://www.regalhotel.com/regal-airport-hotel/tc/home/home.html
Freeway hotel and motel
Seely's Motel

Seely’s Motel is located in Shediac.
Its services include family suite, bridal suite, King Kitchenettes. Besides basic offerings, the also offer sheltered BBQ and picnic area. Also as you see in the photo, they provide free car parking.
Seely's Motel retrieved from www.seelysmotel.com/
4) Casino
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas)

It is located in Paradise, Nevada. Features of the hotel include the hotel tower, a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) casino, Tahitian-style beach and swimming pool, a nightclub, six restaurants, three cocktail lounges, several retail stores, a spa, a poker room, and "The Joint", a music venue.
Ref: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas) retrieved from https://www.hardrockhotel.com/
5) Convention
The Grand Fourwings Convention Hotel Bangkok

The Grand Fourwings Convention Hotel Bangkok located on Srinakarin road, the Eastern Bangkok. As it is a convention hotel, it offers fifteen individual meeting rooms in varying styles and sizes. It provides an elegant spacious Pavilion Convention Hall and Business Meeting Centre which are fully equipped with premier IT, audio and visual technology. The banquet professional service team is specialized to create the most success of customer’s event or meeting.

Ref: The Grand Fourwings Convention Hotel Bangkok retrieved from www.grandfourwings.com/
6) Full Service
InterContinental Hong Kong

It is located in TsimShaTsui, Hong Kong.
It provides customers with classic rooms, executive rooms and suites. Other features include Spa amenities and treatment services, dinning services, banquet and conference facilities for meetings and events.

Ref: InterContinental Hong Kong retrieved from www.intercontinental.com/‎
7) Economy
Economy Hotel Athens

HOTEL ECONOMY is a family hotel with 56 rooms, located in the center of Athens, in a quiet road, next the Old Town Hall in Athinas street.
As long as economy hotel is of reasonably sized and furnished rooms, it provides a comprehensive hotel and room facilities as how other 5 stars hotel do. However, other than these, they do not provide any extra services like spa center.
Ref: Economy Hotel Athens retrieved from www.athenshoteleconomy.com/
8) Boutique
Olive Boutique Hotel

It is located in Aguadilla St. #55, Condado. The hotel won the world’s best design boutique hotel. Customers are able to see the fascinating views of the lagoon. Other than the suites, they offer ultra spa see through showers and other deluxe service.
Ref: Olive Boutique Hotel retrieved from oliveboutiquehotel.com/
9) Extended-Stay
Extended Stay America - Chicago – Midway

Midway is located in Bedford Park, Chicago. As it mentions in the name – Extended stay, it is designated for longer stays with studios featuring fully-equipped kitchens and plenty of work space. Besides normal housekeeping service, it also offers pet-friendly room, which is not readily available in many hotels.

Ref: Extended Stay America - Chicago – Midway retrieved from www.extendedstayamerica.com/hotels/il/chicago/midway


10) All Suite Extended-Stay
Homewood Suites by Hilton

Homewood Suites by Hilton is located in New York Midtown Manhattan Times Square-South.
The amenities are all-rounded. It includes complimentary full breakfast served daily, complimentary high-speed Internet, a 24-hour business center, modern fitness center and onsite laundry. Customers can rest and relax in a studio or one-bedroom suite, complete with fully-equipped kitchens, pull-out sofa beds and complimentary Wi-Fi and wired Internet access.

Ref: Homewood Suites by Hilton retrieved from www.hiltonworldwide.com/portfolio/homewood-suites/
11) Condotel
Las Vegas Valley

The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area located in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The condo hotel has multiple services provided. Other than the 150,000 hotel rooms, the area also got its famous attraction – casinos, celebrity shows. Now even more with shopping, conventions, fine dining, and outdoor beauty to attract tourist dollars.

Ref: Las Vegas Valley retrieved from www.intercontinental.com/‎
12) Mixed- Use
Conrad Miami

The Conrad Miami is located in the New York city’s downtown area and is part of a mixed-use development that also includes retail, a bank and residences.  Apart from normal offerings, it provides Spa, Fitness centre, restaurant, lonuges, business meeting room and wedding banquet.
Ref: Conrad Miami retrieved from www.conradmiami.com/
13) Bed & Breakfast (B&B)
Rainforest Bed & Breakfast

Rainforest Bed & Breakfast is a unique boutique hotel located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's 'Golden Triangle', the most happening area in the city and a walking distance to the city's major attractions. It provides customers with free wifi access, Satellite TV Lounge, library and reading Area , safe Box provided in all rooms. Also with laundry services and guest kitchenette.
Ref: Rainforest Bed & Breakfast retrieved from www.rainforestbnbhotel.com/

14) Unusal Hotel
Treetops Hotel ( Kenya)

Treetops Hotel is a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 1,966 m (6,450 ft) above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya.
For accommodation, they provide standard room, Treetops executive suites and also disabled friendly room. For activity, they have multiple game drives which mean you will be ventured out in a few hour drive with the experienced driver there to drive you to see the beautiful scenery and also see the natural habitat and animals like Oliver baboons, Black Rhino, and African buffalo.

Ref: Treetops Hotel ( Kenya) retrieved from www.aberdaresafarihotels.co.ke/treetops/
15) The Ice Hotel

The ICE HOTEL is located in Jukkasjärvi, SWEDEN.
Customers are offered cold rooms for accommodation. People can enjoy dinner on ice. The most unique activity is that customers can be able to see the northern lights or aurora borealis since the location of the ice hotel is the best place to watch since it lies under the auroral oval and enjoys clear skies more often than many coastal regions.
Ref: The ICE HOTEL retrieved from www.icehotel.com/


16) The Underwater Hotel
Jules Undersea Lodge

Key Largo Undersea Park is located on Key Largo in the Fabulous Florida Keys
The hotel provides customers with lunch service, overnight stays. The most attractive service is that customers can dive in the lodge or even the lagoon. Dive gear is provided for customers to experience diving. For lagoon diving, It offers certification of Open Water and Advanced Open Water certification in the world famous Undersea Lodge. Dive professionals can also use the Lagoon as part of their training plan and to incorporate Jules' into their dive plans and in other words people can go there to learn diving.

Ref: Jules Undersea Lodge retrieved from www.jul.com/Jules.html
◎ Detail of Franchise in Hotel Industry
Franchising is a changing and growing industry and this chapter also looks at the emerging future of hotel franchise relationships. The best-known names in the hotel industry, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Sheraton, Ramada, etc., are not directly in the lodging business. They are franchising companies. Names such as JHM Enterprises, White Lodging, Starwood, Sunburst Hospitality and many others that are seldom recognized by hotel guests, are actually hotel companies. This is the nature of franchising, and it creates an opportunistic relationship between hotel companies and their franchisors. The following are the examples of franchise in hotel industry:

Hilton Hotels & Resorts

Franchise Offer: The franchisor licenses the Hilton System (the System). The System consists of the elements, including knowhow, designated from time to time to identify hotels operating worldwide under the Licensed Brand and currently includes the Marks; access to a reservation service; advertising, publicity and other marketing programs and materials; training programs and materials; standards, specifications and policies for construction, furnishing, operation, appearance and service of the hotel, and other elements.
Ref: Hilton Hotels & Resorts retrieved from www3.hilton.com/

2) InterContinental Hotels & Resorts

Franchise Offer: The Hotel franchisees operate will be part of the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts system. The System is designed to provide distinctive, high quality hotel service to the public, and includes, among other things, those service marks and copyrights, trademarks and similar intellectual property rights that HHFL designates.
Ref: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts retrieved from www.intercontinental.com/‎
3) Marriott International Franchise

Franchise Offer: Marriott International offers franchising programs that permit the use of many of their lodging brand names and systems by other hotel owners and operators. Under these programs, Marriott International generally receives an initial application fee and continuing royalty fees, which typically range from four percent to six percent of room revenues for all brands, plus two percent to three percent of food and beverage revenues for certain full-service hotels. In addition, franchisees contribute to the national marketing and advertising programs and pay fees for use of Marriott International’s centralized reservation systems.
Ref: Marriott International Franchise retrieved from https://www.franchisedirect.com/travelfranchises/marriott-international-franchise-08393/ufoc/
◎ Detail of Management Contracts in Hotel Industry
A hotel management contract details the agreement between the owner of a hotel and its operating company. The agreement allows the operating company to provide accommodations and other services to guests, conduct routine maintenance and carry out the marketing and promotion tasks for the hotel. The operators can also establish policies and handle the hiring and firing of employees. Hotel management contracts are often long-term agreements, often up to 25 years or more, and favor the operators. Here are some examples for further elaboration:
1) Accor Hotels

The reasons of choosing the Accorhotels to sign the agreement of the contract:
A powerful partner
With AccorHotels, you have a powerful ally by your side. As the number one hotel operator in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa Middle East, we've been building our high value-added hospitality expertise for 45 years.
Unique expertise in hotel operations
By choosing AccorHotels, you are joining forces with the leading direct hotel operator in the world: 2,200 hotels, including 1,400 subsidiaries (owned or leased). AccorHotels has the most extensive expertise in the international hospitality sector and perfectly understands the objectives and constraints of hotel ownership.
Leading and attractive brands
AccorHotels offers an array of leading, attractive brands ranging from economy to luxury. You benefit directly from the force of the brand you choose, and, by deploying a concept that has proven its worth, you will heighten your hotel's awareness.
Ref: Accor Hotels retrieved from www.accorhotels.com/
2) 360 Capital Management LLC

360 Capital Advisors™ is a strategic advisory and asset management firm focused on creating value-enhancing solutions for hospitality assets worldwide. 360 Capital Advisors designs and implements comprehensive innovative solutions that deliver optimal value in hospitality real estate throughout the investment cycle
Ref: 360 Capital Management LLC retrieved from www.360capital.com.au/

3) Xotels Hotel Management

Xotels is a driving force of change in hotel management.
Company Objective: believe in the individual character and unique customer experience of the independent hotel. With creative strategies and proven best practices we turn around hotel properties. We challenge the status-quo, re-position hotels to outperform their competition and become leaders in their local market.
The team of hotel management experts specializes in revenue management, sales representation, hotel distribution, hotel internet marketing and hotel management.
It also manages a diverse international portfolio of top performing hotels, ranging from small boutique hotels, luxury resorts to regional hotel companies.
Ref: Xotels Hotel Management retrieved from www.xotels.com/
◎ Detail of Vacation Ownership in Hotel Industry
Vacation Ownership is for a one-time purchase price and payment of a yearly maintenance fee, purchasers own their vacation either in perpetuity (forever) or for a specific period of time each year

Starwood hotel Hotels

Customers can enjoy a lifetime of extraordinary escapes in a fully furnished vacation villa that is yours to return to year after year with timeshare weeks from Westin Vacation Ownership. In addition to providing you with a refreshing retreat that includes spacious living and dining areas and an array of rejuvenating resort amenities, Westin Vacation Ownership makes it easy to access more than 1,200 Starwood hotels and resorts in 100 countries.
Ref: Starwood hotel Hotels retrieved from www.starwoodhotels.com/

2) Marriott Vacation Club

More than 420,000 families are having the time of their lives with the industry-leading Marriott Vacation Club Destinations™ program, enjoying the consistent quality and service. Owners in the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations™ program enjoy:

Privileged access to more than 50 Marriott Vacation Club® resorts, offering spacious 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom villas with fully equipped kitchens and all the comforts of home; experience our resorts in unforgettable destinations including Las Vegas, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Lake Tahoe, Spain and Thailand and more.

Guaranteed Marriott quality.

Access to choose any Marriott Vacation Club resort, any villa, any size, any check-in day and any length of stay.

Ref: Marriott Vacation Club www.marriottvacationclub.com/
3) Wyndham Vacation Ownership

Wyndham Vacation Ownership has developed or acquired more than 200 vacation ownership resorts throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the South Pacific that represent approximately 24,000 individual vacation ownership units.
Wyndham Vacation Ownership develops, markets and sells vacation ownership interests and provides consumer financing to owners through its seven primary consumer brands, CLUB WYNDHAM®, WorldMark by Wyndham, CLUB WYNDHAM ASIA®, WorldMark South Pacific Club by Wyndham, Shell Vacations Club, Margaritaville Vacation Club® by Wyndham and WYNDHAM CLUB BRASIL SM.
Ref: Wyndham Vacation Ownership retrieved from https://www.myclubwyndham.com/ffr/index.do

◎ Sustainable Lodging
Nowadays, the concept of saving cost become more strong in terms of the hotels, so there are tremendous numbers of hotel which will have various material, system and design to save the engery in order to save the cost. Now, we are going to use ITC Royal Gardenia, which is a luxurious 5-star hotel in Bengaluru, as a real life example to explain how a hotel become sustainable.
ITC Royal Gardenia

ITC Royal Gardenia is a LEED Platinum® rated green hotel. The full name of LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which means that ITC Royal Gardenia has a high level of sustainability to save the enegry cost. For instance, it installs a non-ozone-depleting screw chiller in order to provide hotel with the enegry without emission of ozone that it is less harmful to environment, so it is sustainable.

Upper Crust Lounge

Pelican Suite (Queen Suite) - Sitting Room

Cubbon Pavilion Restaurant
Ref: ITC Royal Gardenia retrieved from https://www.itchotels.in/hotels/itcgardenia.aspx
◎ Trend of Lodging
We observe a trend of lodging thar there are many hotels including a cusino for customers to gamble in order to make enromous profit. For example, Macau is a popluar place embracing a lot of hotels with cusino. Below are the hotels with cusino in Macau

Grand Emperor Hotel

Hotel Lisboa

Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central

Sofitel Macau At Ponte 16

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◎Trends and Development of Tourism Industry
1) Applications for hotel and air ticket search
In Hong Kong, tremendous amount of people search and book the hotels via websites and applications. This technological breakthrough provides a convenient and fast way to help travellers to make comparison and take orders. For instance, Expedia.com is a one of the famous websites for consumers to search the information of hotels such as the prices, rooms available and promotions.
Ref: Expedia retrieved from https://www.expeotels and book the hotels via Expedia.comdia.com.hk
2) Low price tickets
There is increasing number of budget airlines involve in the price competition. They offer cheap air tickets randomly to attract price conscious customers such as students for graduation trip and exchange. Hong Kong Express provides consumers with the cheap air tickets. Consumers can get the promotion details from its social media like Facebook page and website.
Ref: Hong Kong Express retrieved from https://www.hkexpress.com/zh-hant
◎Six Characteristics of Services
Service is a different concept from the goods. It has its own characteristics namely intangibility, heterogeneity, simultaneity, perishability and customer participation in the service process. In the following part, we would use QB House, a salon for quick haircut service, to demonstrate the service characteristics.

Service process in QB House

Before we talk about the six characteristics of service, we would like to introduce the quick haircut service in QB house. In Hong Kong, customers firstly pay a fee for haircut via using the vending machine, and then get a ticket with a waiting number. They can enjoy the haircut service when the number is called.

Intangibility

Service is a concept. It means that people cannot touch, taste, smell, hear and see by five senses like the goods. It cannot be displayed or communicated.
In QB House, quick haircut is a service that customers cannot actually touch it. Even though you can touch the gears like scissors, what you get or enjoy is having the haircut and hair styling, not getting the scissors.

2) Heterogeneity

By definition, every service is different in nature. To illustrate, you are pleased with your hairstyle and want to have the same haircut and styling again. Yet, it is not possible to get the exact same result.
 
3) Simultaneity

Services are consumed and produced simultaneously. To explain, in QB House, stylists will give consumers quick haircut service, and consumers need to be present to enjoy the service at the same time.

4) Perishability

Services cannot be inventoried, returned and resold. Obviously, in QB House, quick haircut service cannot be inventoried that a stylist should be present at the service time to provide the service. If there is no customer visit, the presence of the stylist is an opportunity loss for the firm in terms of time and labour cost.

5) Customer participation in the service process

Customers participate in the service process. It implies that the company should pay effort to make the store clean and appealing, and have enough facilities and equipment to facilitate the service process, so as to make customers feel confident, pleased and comfortable.
For instance, QB House provides closets for customers to keep their personal belongings. Also, during the haircut, customers will communicate with stylists about the way to cut.

6) Non-ownership characteristic of service
Finally, non-ownership is significant characteristic of service as well. It means that people cannot own and store a service like as you own a product. Also, services are just used for a period of time. For example, in QB House, consumers just pay to enjoy the quick haircut service for around 10 minutes, so service is non-ownership.
Ref: QB House retrieved from https://www.qbhouse.com/hk/en/

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