Room Service/In-Room Dining

[Source: http://ffemagazine.com/room-service-changing-america-europe-following-trend/]

Room service aims to provide convenient dining experience to the guests. Usually, room service is only available in luxury hotels with higher room rates. As room service is often expensive, guests will have a high expectation on the food and the service as well. So how can hotels earn profit and satisfy guests at the same time?

Main Challenges of Room Service

1. On-time Delivery

Generally hotels will have separate menus in different time slots. For instance, some hotels will provide breakfast, day dining and night dining in different period of time respectively. However, the demand for room service is uneven. Sometimes in-room dining can be very popular while sometimes do not. Breakfast is regarded as the most popular meal for in-room dining. Hotels often receive most orders in the morning, which makes it difficult to deliver the meals to guests’ rooms on time. Long lead time also cause the change in temperature of the food, which lowers the food quality.

[Source: https://www.centives.net/S/2013/the-end-of-room-service/]

2. Making Room Service Profitable

Some luxury hotels like The Peninsula Hotels offer a wide variety of food, which makes the inventory control difficult. Some popular items may become out of stock quickly, while some items have relatively lower popularity. Offering more items on the menu is good to guests, but it will also increase the operating costs.

[Source: http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-2185-sofitel-new-york/index.shtml]

3. Serve Guests with Courtesy Professionally

Guests who request room service are likely to have high expectation on the service. So it is vital to have well-trained employees to serve the honorable guests. No matter the tone of voice or courteous manner, the staff have to perform well to get customers’ satisfaction.

[Source: https://www.cnbc.com/id/100785190]

Recommendations

1. Reserve a lift for room service delivery

There are a lot of breakfast orders in the morning. So hotels can consider reserving a lift solely for food delivery purpose in the morning. As a result, they can reduce the occurrence of uncertainties as they do not need to wait for the lifts after each delivery. Meals can be sent to the guests earlier so that the food will still be fresh and delicious. Moreover, the temperature of food can be kept constant because of shorter delivery time.

[Source: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Aug/15/il/il05a.html]

2. Reduce the number of items on menu

Hotels could delete some unpopular items on the menu to make room service more efficient. This act can also make the inventory control simpler and reduce wastage.

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3. Staff training and arrangement

Staff should receive adequate training before they actually serve the guests. They should master the skills of suggestive selling, which can let guests know more about additional choices. Moreover, for VIPs, they should be served by senior or experienced staff as they should be guaranteed for the best service.

[Source :https://indonesia.tripcanvas.co/bali/luxury-hotel-timeless-service/]

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Learning Reflection

I think gaining profits from in-room dining is extremely challenging. It is quite costly to deliver the cuisine to every guest’s room. But at the same time, it is a high-end service, which means the service standard needs to be high to meet customers’ expectations. Otherwise, it will not be uncommon to receive complaints from the guests.

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Reference

[1] Walker, J. (2017). Introduction to hospitality management (Fifth ed.). Boston: Pearson.

[2] In-room Dining | The Peninsula Beverly Hills | Hotel Room Service Beverly Hills. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2017, from http://beverlyhills.peninsula.com/en/fine-dining/room-service

[3] IN-SUITE AMENITIES. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2017, from https://www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/in-suite

[4] Room service. (2017, October 06). Retrieved December 06, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_service

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