Developments And Challenges In Hospitality And Tourism: Exploring Home And Commercial Hospitality

Hospitality definition. What does hospitality mean?

East or west home is best. A home is a habitat where someone lives, feels comfortable, have a sense of belonging and get all the attention required. However, sometimes we may not be closer to our real homes but need the comfort, attention and a similar environment to the one we experience at our homes. The proverb east or west home is best seems to have been developed due to the kind of hospitality that anyone benefits being at their home ground. Due to the many activities relating to the job, recreation and social life, we often find us away from our home. At these far distances, we as well need hospitality and similar environment like we have been enjoying while at home. This, therefore, saw growth of home hospitality, and it was extended to commercial hospitality. According to (Robichaud, 2009) “hospitality means the friendly and generous reception and entertainment if a guest, visitors or strangers” These are two types of hospitality, from a personal point of view; commercial hospitality is just an extension of the home hospitality.

Commercial hospitality is rooted in economics while home hospitality is rooted in culture. However, the latter is the root for commercial hospitality. Home hospitality ranges from enjoying the modern and urban accommodation designed to bring a family together. Services like unique varnish, modern leisure, equipped kitchen, access to installed WI-FI and other luxurious services .These can be used to give a wider view of what can be termed as home hospitality. Commercial hospitality is aimed at making profits through the provision of almost all the services we always practice in our homes. It encompasses activities to do with inviting, welcoming, offering accommodation and bidding farewell just like we do in our homes. The idea is just a buildup of what we practice in our homes. We cannot have homes in all the areas we travel to and therefore need such services. Groups of people that commercial hospitality providers target include tourists, researchers, travelers and other related clients. This essay is an explanation of why its true commercial hospitality is an extension of the home industry. (Pratap, 2017)

Commercial hospitality is an extension to many groups of people. One of the main groups of people that can be used to explain how commercial hospitality is an extension for home hospitality is the tourist. Tourists are attracted by some activities and issue such a good climate, beautiful sceneries, cultural heritage, and traditions. They may travel to areas they are attracted to for more than a day, say 2 days, one month or even a year to spend for certain vacation or holiday. This, therefore, means they need to have still similar environments as their permanent homes where they can eat, rest and sleep, what in commercial hospitality is termed as accommodation. They therefore look and organize prior their visit to areas where they can get accommodation services similar to the ones they have been accessing with their homes but this time at a cost. Some of the areas that can provide services and environment similar to the one in our homes are the hotels and resorts. They provide life support systems such as Light, food, shelter, security, water and sanitation facilities but at a cost. (UK essays, 2017)

The relationship between home and commercial hospitality

Ideally, the commercial hospitality industry has generally targeted the tourist. It has been able to grow to the provision of services that we get at our homes and what every human being considered that their homes should have. Everyone needs to feel secure in their homes, and so the tourist also needs a safety guarantee. This, therefore, quantifies the issue of safety as one of the factors that traveler and tourist consider when looking for commercial homes when they are having fun. Due to this, the commercial hospitality industry has grown with the motive of providing accommodation services and safety to its customers who tend to be tourists in many cases. Commercial hospitality is just emulation on home hospitality that can be explained by use of safety issues. No one neglects the state of security for their homes. Everyone is always alert, and quick responsive measures are taken against any matter that hinders the levels of security for anyone around. The same case has been developed for the commercial hospitality sector whereby, the real-time tourist has always been provided with enough and whole updates information concerning the state of security of their destination. Safety challenges may be brought about political stability, and therefore, the commercial hospitality industry works on such. (International Labour Organization, 2015)

There are some other factors and services that ideally are being improved from home related hospitality and just been extended to the commercial hospitality after some slight improvement and development. Since commercial hospitality is a move to create business opportunities, these contemporary forms of commercial hospitality are aimed at providing  users and seekers to these services with more meaningful experiences more than they can get in their homes. (Lugosi, 2008)This provides opportunities for tourists, and they can enjoy while at these hotels and resort lodgings. The following are some of the contemporary forms of commercial hospitality being extended from home hospitality.

Like stated above, commercial hospitality that is being practiced in hotels, restaurants, lodging, travel and recreation centers where tourism can be categorized is just an extension of the home hospitality we are aware of. It’s one of our practices to feed while at our homes. The same way, we need to feed while away from our homes. Hotels and restaurant owners play that role of providing the tourist with food and us when we are away from home. Commercial hospitality incorporates activities such as food service operation where they produce meals and drinks just the same way we do in our homes. However, this is done at an additional cost and done at restaurants or hotels.

Commercial hospitality as an extension of home hospitality

For this case, food service as an example of commercial hospitality service provision is an opportunity that many commercial hospitality providers use to encourage tourists looking for meaningful experiences. For instance, a tourist visiting Australia and India regions, they must come across some foods like Eastern Indian states, Bihar, Delhi-NCR, and Goa. (Singh, 2015)Therefore, due to the high demand for such foods, the hotels, and restaurants where most visitors in Australia seek accommodation, should consider providing them with such well-cooked foods. These customers can be either domestic or international tourists. (Xiao & Wang, 2008)  Moreover, in these hotels, we also enjoy the luxurious services like movies and cinemas in individual rooms just like we experience in our homes. The rooms that tourist spend their nights have been with comfortable sofa beds, and luxurious beds just like people design their homes. They have been fitted with DSTV decoder where people can enjoy a wide range of channels like football matches and enjoyable programs. This is a way of extending comfort and luxury we get back in our homes.

There exist some differences between modern forms of accommodation and traditional forms of accommodation. Some of the features in the modern form of accommodation still appear in the traditional forms of accommodation. However, there are some improved features, and service re-imaging that modern form better placed than traditional forms. The following are some of the differences and improvements made on the traditional forms.

In the past, rooms used to be booked manually.  Customers, for instance, tourists had to send representatives to book rooms on their behalf. This meant that one had to present themselves physically for room booking in a hotel or a restaurant. It was time-consuming, and sometimes, a tourist could miss the room after their rooms being allocated to other clients in case of delay in arrival and room allocation time. There has been a development and innovation leading to the reimaging of this service. With improved technology, tourist and anyone who intend to travel to someone for more than one night, they can access different website belonging to different accommodation service providers. They can choose the service provider of their choice, book a room, pay for it and get instruction including map direction regarding the location of that hotel. They are therefore guaranteed access to that room no matter the time they shall arrive as long as they have paid for it. This is unlike the traditional days. (Bardi, 2011)

In our homes, we consider sanitation and service stakes that consider health diet, safety and order. This has just been extended to our hotels and restaurants where we can access the same. However, there is improved professionalism between the modern commercial hospitality and traditional forms of accommodation. In modern forms of commercial hospitality, more so accommodation sector, professionals are being employed to carry out the duties. Some of these professionals include receptionist, trained chefs’ with equipped knowledge in food and dietetics and caterers as well as genitors who are responsible for the comfort and order in the respective customer rooms. Moreover, security is being provided by trained individuals unlike in the traditional modes of accommodation where unprofessionalism is practiced.

In the past, accommodation used to be provided with the use of largely constructed structures commonly known as hostels. In these rooms, customers lacked privacy and levels of sanitation and safety were minimal. New forms of accommodation in the modern commercial hospitality have seen the growth of self-contained and individual rooms where tourists and other customers can seek accommodation with more personal privacy assured. (Mackenzie, 2006)

Conclusion

From the above discussion, its right to conclude that, commercial hospitality is just an extension of home hospitality. The idea is to provide the best accommodation services as possible, both in the home and commercial hospitality.

References

Bardi, J.A., 2011. Hotel Front Office Management. 5th ed. Pennsylvania: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

International Labour Organization, 2015. Developments and challenges in the hospitality and tourism sector (2010). Issues. [Online] Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/ public/@ed_norm/@relconf/documents/meetingdocument/ [Accessed 21 August 2018].

Lugosi, P., 2008. hospitality spaces, hospitable moments: Consumer encounters and affective experiences in a commercial setting. Journal of food service, 19(2), pp.139-49.

Mackenzie, S., 2006. Modern Hostels vs. Traditional Hotels – The World. Bootsnall, 2(2), p.5.

Pratap, A., 2017. Hospitality Industry Pestel Analysis. Journal of marketing, 9, p.4.

Robichaud, B., 2009. Hospitality definition. what does hospitality mean? My English teacher, 9(2), p.3.

Singh, S., 2015. Foods You Should Be Eating When You Visit India. Spoon University, p.3.

UK essays, 2017. Factors Affecting the Hospitality and Tourism Industry. Uk ESSAYS, pp.1-6.

Xiao, Q. & Wang, H., 2008. International hotel development: A. International Journal of Hospitality, 27, pp.325-336).