History of Hotel Industry continues.............
Hotels for business people
1970 saw the beginning of the construction of hotels for business people. This movement was supported by several factors. First of all, there was the will of the airline companies to extend their efforts in the domain of hotels.
Then there was the sudden prosperity, due to
black gold, of Middle Eastern countries which attracted business people from
the entire world. This engendered an important business travel trend - not
limited to this region alone - which initiated the development of hotels
primarily designed for business people in Middle-Eastern cities like Dubai , Abu Dhabi , Riyadh
Hotel chains, attentive to their customers'
wishes, started to offer an increasingly varied range of services. Their rooms
became more spacious and the cuisine more refined.
Hotel chains, attentive to their customers'
wishes, started to offer an increasingly varied range of services. Their rooms
became more spacious and the cuisine more refined.
The end of the seventies, when China
The third hotel industry boom
-The third boom in the hotel industry began in 1980, marked by more inventive
marketing and the development of hotels increasingly adapted to a particular
type of clientele.
This trend prompted the construction of hotels
near airports, hotels for conferences, health hotels, ski holiday hotels,
holiday villages and marina hotels. The first Property Management Systems
(Fidelio, Hogatex, etc.) appear in the hospitality market.
In Istanbul in
1984, work began on the renovation and transformation into a hotel of the
prestigious sultans' residence, the Ciragan
Palace in Istanbul Ciragan
Palace
The first administrative hotel management
systems, offering hotels greater independence from human resources, then
appeared on the market. The hotel industry was becoming more and more
competitive. Business travelers and retired people became important target
customers.
In the eighties, too, the Far East began to
prepare itself to welcome both business people and the tourists who were
beginning to discover the countries of the rising sun, such as China , South Korea ,
Thailand and Japan Far East which were
mainly aimed at congress participants and business people.
The nineties: technology starts to make an
impact -The early nineties were characterized by a recession
in the hotel business, without doubt caused by reductions in multinationals'
travel budgets and the growing crisis in the Gulf.
The Gulf War helped to create great insecurity
for both individuals and business. 1991 is considered to be the black year of
the hotel trade. It forced hoteliers to become more creative in finding ways of
attracting guests (special programme, offers for "frequent
travelers", high performance reservation systems) and thus emerge from the
crisis with the minimum damage.
For the first time, the environment and energy
conservation played an important role in the marketing activities of numerous
chains (thanks in part to the green movement) and even helped to win the
loyalty of numerous clients while safeguarding assets at the same time.
Reservation systems became more efficient and
offered the hotelier a new dimension in the creation of customer loyalty, the
database. The records of each guest's individual history have helped create
individualized marketing programme and have enabled hotels to satisfy a guest's
personal needs from the moment of his arrival.
Since 1992, the most important international
chains have been vying with each other in ever greater imaginative feats
related to the vital process of renovating their establishments
worldwide.Technology has started to take its rightful place in hotel administration
(simplification of check-in and check-out procedures, global reservation
systems, marketing management etc.). In 1995, the first Hotel Room Management
System is launched at the European level. It is linked to the most popular
Property Management Systems to make the front desk more efficient and near to
the guests.
At International Technology Forums, speakers
unanimously, underlined the impact of technology on hotel rooms.
Hotel chains have been searching for alliances
and some of them. For example: Holyday Inn, Intercontinental, and Crown Plaza
have merged to form Six continents hotels Chain; Marriot absorbed Renaissance
and Ramada International; Sol Melia opened a new line of Boutique hotels, Accor
signed several joint ventures in the East and the Far East, etc.) Forte
acquired Méridien to reinforce its global position. Starwoods (Sheraton)
absorbed the Italian Ciga chain and Westin.
The main expansion zones
for the hotel industry in 1994 remained Asia (particularly China and India ),
the Middle East (above all, the United Arab
Emirates and Egypt )
and Latin America .
In
Europe, hotel enterprises in the eastern countries (Russia ,
Croatia , Slovakia
The 3 star hotel Millennium enjoying top level
of On-line Room Management System is situated at the best site in Opatija at
the Mediterranean coast. Opatija in Croatia
corresponds, in terms of reputation, to the level of St.
Moritz in Switzerland
Capitals throughout the world were busy
developing the necessary infrastructure to welcome the millions of tourists for
the celebration of this event.
Major hotel chains are drawing up development
plans in almost all parts of Europe . These
plans primarily involve the renovation of numerous prestigious hotels in both
western and eastern European countries. Gradually, the great capitals of Europe have been endowed with hotels boasting three, four
and five stars, offering quality services, innovative architecture, style,
charm, and interior design (city Boutique hotels). Specialized hotels offer
wellness programs including health and beauty centers, personalized services
and treatments, anti-stress, revitalizing, regenerating programs, etc.
In 2004, another Emirate,
On-line in seconds, work surf, communicate -everywhere -Today in 2003, travelers, mostly businessmen, carry their personal PC to make presentations, communicate with their office, via e-mails, etc. One possibility offered to them today consists in the use of so-called Pad offering, in particular,
- Cable-free and universal access to Internet or intranet, wherever you happen to be
- Brilliant colour touch screen
- Ready to go in seconds (instant on)
- Freedom in the selection of transmission standards by interchangeable PC cards
- Unlimited flexibility by open platform Windows CE 3.0
- Comprehensive office software package
- Virtual keyboard and handwriting recognition
The 160 rooms 5 star Palafitte Hotel in Monruz Neuchatel (CH) offers the visitors of the Swiss Expo 2002 a vision of so called in-room available technologies.
Conclusion - Lodging facilities are not anymore corresponding only to the truly definition: "A lodging accommodation for travelers". Nowadays, architects, designers, developers, engineers, managers, more and more are conscious that taste of guests could be different, according to their wishes or needs. Hotel specialists permanently analyze new trends; define better criteria, present modern standards in order to improve quality of life in hotels. In the third millennium, the permanent competitive hospitality market of suppliers is definitely more and more able, combining "savoir faire" and the good use of technology to offer their guests an "A la carte" environment.
MANWAL