Hotel Industry

It Anton be accomplished without the participation of the customer and without the participation of the staff. This makes the evaluation of service process strongly subjective. Because of this, customer needs satisfaction is a big challenge for the hotel management. Under the present conditions of an increased competition, satisfying customers means offering service- performance process, which not only meets, but also exceeds guests’ expectations. This can be achieved by a preliminary study of their requirements and expectations.

Key words: hotel industry, hotel service operations, service-performance process, satisfaction from service process. INTRODUCTION The present-day development of hotel industry in Bulgaria is characterized by imposing the global trend towards a considerable quantitative excess of supply over demand. As a consequence of this, hotel industry has been developing under conditions of a strongly competitive business environment. The statistical data show that for the last five years (the period 2002-2007) the material basis of hotel industry in Bulgaria has been developing extremely dynamically.

For the period specified, the number of hotels has increased by more than 52%, and the number of beds in them – by 43%2. One of the main characteristics of the Bulgarian hotel industry is the high standard of material elements. In the overall category structure of the hotels, those of middle and high class (3, 4 and 5 stars) dominate. Their share constitutes more than the 1 Georgian Lukas, Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Organization of Tourism, University of Economics -Verna, Bulgaria. HCI, Typecast, 2006 19 Hotel Industry By Tabulating The similar level of the material parameters means that the competition among the separate economic units is carried out mostly with regard to service-performance recess. The characteristics pointed out, have turned hotel service process into one of the most discussed issues in the Bulgarian tourist branch in the recent years. With regard to this we consider that the issue, related to the problems of service- performance process in Bulgarian hotels is a question of present interest and namely concerns the Bulgarian tourist business.

The purpose of the author in the present paper is to draw the attention towards the role of hotel service-performance process for the formation of a competitive supply, adequately orientated towards the needs of the tourist demand. In modern society tourists are known for their greater experience, which leads to increase in their expectations related to servicing. Data from sociological research show that 82% of customers do not repeat their visit to the hotel, where they did not like the service-performance process. This fact requires that the modern hotel companies, wanting to keep and expand their businesses, to develop continuously and to elaborate every element of their service operations in relation to the changes in the guests’ system of values. SPECIAL FEATURES OF HOTEL SERVICE DELIVERY Service delivery in hotel industry can be regarded as a ambition of activities and technological processes, which provide for tourists the necessary conditions for the purchase and the consumption of the hotel product.

Diminution Fillip view service delivery as a process of rendering services with a given duration and at a certain place, carried out by human and material resources in favor of the customer. In this process people and matter are set in motion to produce intangible values. Chase and Hayes consider service delivery as a system, which basic elements are the staff, the customers and the material environment. The recess of “production”, rendering and consumption of hotel services is carried out during their interaction. Jones and Lockwood consider hotel service delivery as a combination of operations.

With these operations a direct contact between the guest and the servicing staff takes place; 2) back-office operations, which remain hidden from the eyes of the customers, and as a rule, with them lacks the direct contact between the guest and the servicing staff. The direct interaction between customer and employee turns out to be a critical moment in the service-performance, because the direct contact determinants to a great extent the whole perception and the final assessment f the guest concerning his stay in the hotel. In specialized literature authors are unanimous that service-performance process is complex.

Complexity is determined by a number of factors, but the determining one is the high degree of presence of human element in the process. This special feature can be examined bilaterally. On one hand this is the key role of the customer in the process of hotel operations. Without the physical presence of the customer, it is impossible to put into practice hotel industry. What is more – the guest is not only a consumer of services – he takes part at first hand in the process of their rendering. Thus he can change the operation of the service-performance process to a great extent.

On the other hand, the process of hotel service delivery cannot be carried out without the participation of staff and mostly of employees in direct contact. They influence on the way the service-performance process is carried out with their professional skills and personal qualities. Thus the customer perceives the servicing staff as part of the hotel product. The key role of human factor in service-performance process makes the medium of interaction strongly insecure and it turns quality into a variable and subjective value ND reduces the opportunities for control.