SPECIAL SERVICES AND FACILITIES

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The list of special services offered by hotels is long. These services differ according to the location and the clientele of the hotel; luxury hotels offer the greatest range of services. This is, in fact, what makes them luxury hotels.

Large urban hotels also provide special services for businessmen. A commercial hotel, for example, can provide a skilled secretary to take dictation and do typing for travelling business people. If there is no specialist in the hotel itself, the front desk will have information about where to get one.

International travel has grown to the point that many hotels find it necessary to employ bilingual or even multilingual staff members. Fond-desk employees in particular often are required to speak one or two languages.

Recreational facilities are another feature of many hotels and motels. A swimming pool is the most common of these particularly in warmer climates and in resort areas.

Sometimes a swimming pool in front of the building is a form of advertisement, especially for motels.

Other recreational facilities include tennis courts and golf courses. Many resorts are designed for winter sports such as skiing and ice skating; others provide horseback riding and other outdoor activities.

All of these recreational activities require the employment of additional personnel. Necessary swimming-pool maintenance is

often contracted out. Golf courses must be carefully tended by a special staff of groundskeepers. Horses require stables and grooming.

Many resort hotels hire professional athletes to give lessons to the guests in tennis, golf and skiing. Other employees include riding instructors and guides for hikers and campers. Lifeguards are often necessary at swimming pools and beaches.

A few hotels, most of them in resort areas or large cities, include nightclubs as a part of their operation. A nightclub offers entertainment, such as dancing, a singer, a band, or a floor show in addition to food and drink. The engagement of a well-known entertainer obviously gives the hotel an excellent promotional opportunity. The hotels in the gambling resort of Las Vegas, for example, publicize not only the entertainers in their nightclubs, but also the huge salaries that they receive.

In addition, many kinds of personal services are offered by almost all establishments of any size. One service in great demand is babysitting. When a family is staying at a hotel and the parents want to go out for the evening, the housekeeping department can arrange for someone, most frequently one of the chambermaids, to stay with the children.

Or when a guest is ill, many hotels have a house doctor who either is a resident or is on permanent call.

If there is no house doctor, the front desk gives information about nearby doctors and hospitals.

But the most profitable for the hotel industry is the convention business.

A convention is a meeting of members of a business or professional group, such as scientists, dentists, booksellers or language teachers. It is held to exchange information in the field and consider other business of the organization. A typical convention lasts three or four days and includes business sessions, workshops and seminars, professional exhibits, and special events.

The facilities required for a convention are extensive. A large auditorium or hall is usually necessary for group meetings and events such as banquets. In addition, smaller rooms preferably of a variety of sizes, are required for workshops and seminars.

An exhibit area with adjacent loading and storage facilities, is almost always provided as well.

Attendance at many conventions runs to a thousand or more people. Attendance figures normally include only the people who actually register for the convention and do no take into account wives or other relatives or friends who may accompany the group members.

A convention guarantees a good occupancy rate for the hotel over a period of at least several days. In addition, the special exhibit and meeting areas are rented by the sponsoring organization for a fee, and the people attending the convention also generate more business in the hotel's restaurants, bars and shops. In many cases, the business and professional people who are members of the sponsoring group are accompanied by their families, and for them, in fact, a convention is a combination of business and pleasure, a chance to get away from the usual daily routine.

A hotel that handles convention s has several specialized people on the staff, the most important of whom are the salespeople who are responsible for bringing in the business. Most of them have special contacts among the groups that sponsor conventions. Negotiations for a convention may take place over a long period, as sponsors have numerous choices and can shop around for the best bargains.

Standard arrangements include reduced room rates, and the lowest possible fee for other facilities and service that are required. The salespeople must coordinate their efforts carefully with other requirements for space in the hotel.

Many hotels also have a special manager to handle all the particular arrangements that must be made once the convention has been booked into the hotel. Conventions follow a general pattern, but they always create special problems because each one differs in detail from all the others. AH arrangements must be coordinated with the other departments in the hotel.

The front desk must prepare for a surge of arriving guests, and the housekeeping department must make sure the rooms are ready when needed. The food and beverage service and the maintenance and engineering staffs must also do their parts. The installation of the exhibits may require mechanical and electrical work, and loading and unloading equipment may call for an additional work force.

If a banquet is to be served, the menu must be planned. Tables, napery and table silver must be provided and set up. Experienced banquet waiters must also be on duty.

A banquet is a large formal luncheon or dinner that is customarily followed by speeches and/or a ceremony. A banquet is often the final event of many conventions. Hotels that are equipped to handle conventions generally attract banquet business as well, but any hotel with a sufficiently large dining room, ballroom or meeting room can attract banquets. The arrangements for preparing the banquet are normally the job of the banquet manager, who is sometimes responsible for the sales effort as well.

Banquet waiters require special skills. They must be able to serve large numbers of people in a short period. In many cases, they are not employed full-time, but work on a part-time basis where and when they are needed. The tips that these waiters receive are not paid by individual diners, but are included as part of the fee package negotiated by the sponsoring group.

The hotel industry is a highly competitive business, so all hotel establishments are seeking new forms and types of services to attract guests and to be able to meet all their varying requirements.