Hospitality Management: Hotel Industry & Business Guide

Why Do People Buy Brands?

Family life; fashion; fitness; glamour; health; innovation; luxury; reliability; youth; safety; style; success; value for money; wealth.

Boutique Hotels

Boutique hotels – a small design hotel with its individual style and atmosphere, and a personalized approach to every guest. It features a more elegant, intimate setting and a more attentive staff.

Key Words

Branded hotels; warmth; aesthetics; style; pleasing (agradável); innovate; inspire; intimacy; attend (comparecer); design; independent; hoteliers.

Themes: Boutique Hotels

• Target market: age group; background; interests
• Market sector: luxury; economy; mid-range
• Theme: features; fittings and decor
• Brand values: what emotions; thoughts and values

Grammar: Making Predictions

1. Use modal verbs to say that a future situation is certain, probable, or possible.

• Almost certain: be bound to (algo que já se espera); will; I’m sure.
• Very possible: chances are (é possível); be highly likely (to) (muito provável); may well (pode muito bem); in all likelihood (com toda a probabilidade); in all probability.
• Possible: may; might; could; be likely (to).
• Not very possible: be unlikely (to); probably won’t; I think so, but I’m not 100% sure.

Future Developments in the Hotel Industry

1. Business collaboration
2. Check-in and departure
3. Hotel décor
4. The grey market
5. Smartphone booking
6. Catering for disability
7. Social network

Professional Skills

Accountant (contabilista); advertising and marketing plan; business plan; financial advisor (conselheiro financeiro); insurance (seguro); market research data; seed capital (capital inicial).

Creating a Business Plan

Executive summary: The plan should open with a concise overview describing your business idea. It condenses the key points you will be making and prepares the reader for what comes next.

Management team: Detailed CVs and an organization chart can appear in an appendix, but your plan should include a description of key personnel, their roles, experience, and expertise.

Location: This section explains the choice of geographical situation and describes the property and premises.

Target clientele: State who your hotel will cater for and define your niche – attracting a budget-conscious traveller is significantly different from appealing to a business traveller or a honeymooning couple.

Marketing plan: What are your proposals for advertising and public relations? How will future guests be able to find out about you and make a reservation?

SWOT analysis: Outline the risks and rewards in terms of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your venture.

Financial forecasts: The bottom line is what investors will look at first, so make sure you outline your fixed and variable costs and include a balance sheet for the 1st year’s activity.

Key Words

Balance sheet (balanço patrimonial); break even (empatar); earmark (marcar); investment; calibre; data value (valor de dados); brochure; advertising (propaganda); leaflets (folhetos).

Financing

• Electricity, plumbing, painting, landscaping
• Bedding (mattresses, sheets, blankets)
• Kitchen equipment
• Road signs and front entrance sign
• Legal fees
• Advertising and promotion
• Supplies

Start-up costs and target sales revenue.

Invest in a Hotel

Affordable, clientele, comply with, fixtures (instalações), franchised, occupancy, overhead, overlook, permit (licença), refurbishment (reforma), renovate, royalty, start-up.

Sustainability

Impacts of Tourism Growth

Key words: backpackers (viajam sem marcar nada), money-spinner (muito dinheiro), influx (fluxo).

• Environmental impacts: water shortages, vast amounts of consumer building material and electricity.
• Social impacts: losing sense of culture and identity.
• Economic impacts: the only ones who benefit are the foreign investors who create the infrastructure, not the host community.

Tourism and Community

Host community (comunidade anfitriã local), leakage (fuga), sourcing, stakeholder (pessoa interessada / público-alvo).

Grammar: Reporting Verbs

1. Use reporting verbs to show the attitude of the person who spoke the original words.

   E.g.: “I’ll speak to her” → He promised to speak to her.

2. Different reporting verbs are followed by different structures. They can be followed by:

   • A that-clause (you can omit “that” from the clause):

     E.g.: He confirmed (that) Monica is leaving; She said (that) she’s found a better job.

     (admit, agree, answer, claim, complain, confess, deny, explain, insist, promise, regret, suggest)

   • A to-infinitive:

     E.g.: She threatened to resign.

     (agree, claim, offer, refuse, swear, threaten, promise)

   • Object + to-infinitive:

     E.g.: He advised the guest to leave her valuables in the safe.

     (remind, tell, warn, persuade, recommend, advise, ask, beg, convince, forbid, invite, order)

   • An -ing form:

     E.g.: She admitted making a mistake.

     (admit, accuse of, apologise for, complain about, confess to, deny, insist on, regret, suggest)

   • Some verbs can be used with more than one structure:

     E.g.: He promised to help us. / He promised (that) he would help us.

     E.g.: She denied making a mistake. / She denied (that) she had made a mistake.

3. Reporting questions:

   To report yes/no questions, use asked / wanted to know + if / whether.

   E.g.: “Are you going to the exhibition?” → She asked (me) if/whether I was going to the exhibition.

   E.g.: “Do you have the flight details?” → He wanted to know if/whether I had the flight details.

   To report questions that begin with which, what, where, why, when, how, etc., place the subject before the verb:

   E.g.: “Which airline are you using?” → She asked me which airline I was using (NOT “was I using”).

4. Tenses in reported speech:

   When you report what someone said, you use tenses that relate to the time when you make the report. This often involves a change of tenses: the verb is “backshifted” one step into the past.

   E.g.: “I don’t want to go” → Ivan said he didn’t want to go.

   However, it is often unnecessary to change the tense in the following situations:

   • When the time reference is the same for the original speaker and the person reporting:
     E.g.: “I’m leaving next Wednesday” → Osman said he’s leaving next Wednesday.
   • When the statement is true for all time:
     E.g.: “Venice is a beautiful place for a honeymoon” → He said that Venice is a beautiful place for a honeymoon.
   • When there is already one backshifted verb in the sentence:
     E.g.: “I worked for IU after I left the college” → He told me he had worked for IU when he left college.
   • The modal verbs could, would, should, ought to, and might do not change in reported speech:
     E.g.: “It would be nice if we could meet again soon” → She said it would be nice if we could meet again soon.

Key Words

Ecotourists; pleasure boats; invasive species; chairperson; summarize.

Chairing Meetings

The agenda; the discussion; the role of chairperson.

Why Do Meetings Fail?

Because they are too long, badly organized, no agenda has been circulated, or nobody takes notes about the last meeting.

Tips for a Successful Meeting

• Give enough time to discuss the topics.
• The chairperson must call the meeting and state its purpose.
• Put the matter to a vote when it is necessary to make a decision.

Verb + Noun Collocations

1. Set a date
2. Circulate an agenda
3. Come to a decision
4. Reach an agreement
5. Go round in circles
6. Find common ground
7. Take minutes
8. Raise a point
9. Put something to a vote
10. Call a meeting

Professional Skills: Chairing a Meeting

Dos

• State the purpose of the meeting
• Appoint a secretary to keep the minutes
• Ensure the discussion does not digress
• Put the issues to the vote
• Set a date for the next meeting

Don'ts

• Allow the meeting to go on indefinitely
• Dominate or monopolize the discussion

Develop an Eco-Resort

Key Words

Biodiversity; conservation; disembark; disposal (disposição); ecosystem; endangered species; garbage; indigenous; influx; leakage (vazamento); recycling plant; siphon off; sourcing; stakeholder.

Advantages

Employment, finance, politics.

Disadvantages

Few permanent jobs; investment could be used for a conference centre; profits from the dinosaur park would go to private investors; wind power is not very ecological.