Hotel Management-All You Wanted to Know About Hotel Management

While we all love to celebrate, rarely we think of those behind the scenes making our parties and celebrations a success. If your dream is to make your guests happy, hotel management is the career for you. Roselin Kiro of Elets News Network finds out what it takes to be in the hotel industry.

Prof S Rajamohan, Principal, Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai agrees that “Job opportunities are humongous due the diversity of the nature of job offered by the various sectors related to tourism.”

“Students who aspire to take up a career in Hotel Management industry should possess qualities like good communication, sense of humor and pleasing personality. But the qualities that we inculcate in the students during the course are practical knowledge, personality and communication skills. We aim at making students active, hard working and presentable,” said Brijesh Verma, Principal, Maharishi Arvind Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Rajasthan. To add to these, Prof C Swaminathan SMC, SRM.

Institute of Hotel Management, Tamil Nadu said “Personnel needs to have enough tolerance to be able to sustain in the industry.”

The hospitality sector is mainly divided into four basic functions:

Food Production as the name suggests is about preparing food and designing dishes.

Food and Beverage Service (F&B) involves the art of serving the guests with food and drinks
Front Office is responsible for meeting and greeting the guests, organizing accommodation of guests, taking and organizing reservations, managing check in and out of rooms, passing on messages to customers and settling accounts.

Housekeeping section ensures a comfortable and appealing environment to guests at the hotel.
According to the World Travel and Indian Tourism Council, India will be a tourist hotspot from 2009 to 2018 having the growth potential. Many big hotels and restaurant chains have extended their projects not only in the metros but also in the tier II and III cities. Hotel giants like The Taj, The Lalit, The Leela and others are expanding in big way across the country.

“There is an increase in the job opportunities with the growth in the hospitality and hotel industry. It might not offer very lucrative salary packages initially but the industry will get better with time,” says Pushpendra Singh Narukar, Front Office Executive at Hotel Radisson Blu, Jaipur.

On the contrary to the expected growth of the industry, Parvadha Vardhini Gopalakrishnan, Principal, Manipal University, Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Karnataka anticipates that “Under constant economic uncertainty, volatile oil price and fluctuating exchange rates, hotels would go slow in investing heavily and holding large stakes in the business. Optimum revenue management and cost effective operational efficiencies would guide stakeholders in the business.”

A final year student of Bachelors in Hotel Management Catering Technology (BHMCT) Vineet Nanda of AIHM said, “This is an industry which is progressing with time and is a very dynamic and exciting industry to be part of. Our institutes prepare us well for the industry but it is the hands-on training which gives the maximum practical knowledge.” Vineet has already found his dream job at Oberoi Hotel, Udaipur.

There are a large number of institutes and colleges that provide Hotel Management courses at the degree and diploma level. At present there are 21 Institutes of Hotel Management promoted by Central Government, Ministry of Tourism, and Government of India. There are 15 similar institutions promoted by respective State Governments as well. They have common entrance examination and admission process but they depend on their respective governing bodies for fund and infrastructure development. Besides these two, there are about 16 private institutions, university departments and independent institutions affiliated to National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Admissions, curriculum, examinations and evaluations are centrally monitored in these 52 institutions. But, as Kamal Kant Pant, Principal IHM, Gwalior said, “The difference lies in how they transform the curriculum to enhance learning opportunities.”

Prof K C Robbins, Principal & Director, Oriental Group of Hospitality Management Institutions, Kerala says, “Despite large number of professionals being churned out from hospitality institutions, there is still dearth of manpower in the hospitality industry and skewed ratio of manpower to rooms in the industry is yet to be met.”

Many diploma and certificate courses of short duration are also available in Food and Beverage Service, Bakery and Confectionary, Food Production Operations, Housekeeping Operations and among others.
“This is a profession which is so uncertain and exciting at the same time, it enhances the personality of an individual. That is why I want to make career in the hospitality industry,” says Deepshikha, another third semester student of Diploma in Hotel Management Catering Technology (DHMCT) at Amrapali Institute of Hotel Management, Uttarakhand.

However, in recent times, the lowered packages in the industry has led to lower enrolment of students in the sector, as Prof Sanjeev Kacker, Principal, Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai said, “the salary packages in all segments of the industry ranges between Rs 15, 000 to Rs 20, 000 which is too low as compared to packages offered by other industries.” He also added that the salary package in the airlines segment is better as compared to the hotel segment. Hotel Management is a service industry that believes and works by the age old tradition of India, ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’, the guest is our God. The biggest reward for the professionals in this industry is the appreciation from guests or when they leave a note behind saying he/she would like to visit again.

As Shailendra K.Singh, Chief Operation Officer, AIHM says, “Hotel industry is now more of a science than an art and great stewardship of hotel properties will reward them in millions over the next few years.” A person with pleasing personality, good communication and social skills, keen to learn new languages, eager to discover and adapt various cultures and passionate to serve people will find hotel management an interesting career option. As India scales the chart for the most popular tourist destination, the demand for professionals in the hospitality and hotel industry is only going to soar. This is an excellent opportunity for the aspiring students or professionals to be part of this exciting and dynamic industry. Hence, an investment done to pursue a career in Hotel Management can give good returns to the students in the coming years.

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