Accommodation Management: Perspectives for the International Hotel Industry

Citation

Ingram, H. (2000), "Accommodation Management: Perspectives for the International Hotel Industry", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 79-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2000.12.1.79.1

It seems curious that, although accommodation is the major profit‐generator for most hotels, its activities are not widely covered in the academic literature. As Verginis and Wood remark, the traditional approach to “accommodation studies” has been to address the functional areas of housekeeping and front office. This traditional curriculum does not take account of the way that accommodation management has advanced in the last three decades, in for example, its professionalism, technology and business orientation. For the first time, a text proclaims the contemporary actuality that managerial knowledge is required over technical knowledge and highlights the range of skills and competences that are demanded of current accommodation practitioners. This is a laudable and welcome advance.

In the introduction, the editors seek to develop an understanding of the dimensions of accommodation management, emphasizing its centrality to hotel management and how success is related to this activity. Another bonus point for Verginis and Wood, although they might have developed this theme further.

The book is divided into three sections. The first, entitled “the context of provision” looks at the supply of accommodation, its grading, marketing and development, including a public sector perspective. The second part considers key functional performance areas such as front office, maintenance and facilities management. Finally, some issues in hotel accommodation are explored such as human resource management, yield management and hotel valuation techniques.

It might be argued that the scope of this book is restricted to a UK perspective, with most of its contributors working in Scottish universities, but a range of issues is covered and it is useful as an introductory text. Greater connection between these issues might have been made, perhaps through a concluding chapter by the editors in which some integrative interpretation could have been made. Nevertheless, this book is a welcome addition to the sparse and outdated stock of texts on this important and neglected subject.