Styles of Hotels

The Greater London area has over 100,000 hotel rooms, and the city states that there are over 70,000 hotels ranging from 3 to 5 stars within 10 kilometers of Central London. In recent years alone, there have been over 1000 hotel rooms that opened in London. Still, modern hotels started popping up since the early 19th century. Before that, some smaller types of hotels were prevalent in the city to serve travelers.

A prime example of such a hotel fashioned in Victorian trappings is the Langham Hotel, currently one of the best known grand hotels in the traditional style. Back when it opened in 1865, the hotel was considered the largest hotel in the city-and also the most modern. While the hotel has undergone some extensive renovations over the years, it remains one of the most iconic structures in the London hotel scene.

The London Hilton was built with modern design influences, on top of being the tallest hotel in the city.

The Ritz hotel needs no introduction to most people. Synonymous with grandeur and luxury, this building with French chateau styling is similar to it's sister, the Hotel Ritz Paris. Charles Mewes, who also worked on the Hotel Ritz Paris, was co-architect with Arthur Davis.

The Franklin Hotel in Knightsbridge is styled in English country house style. The Draycott Hotel in Chelsea, in contrast, is formed by three houses built in the 1890s. There are also hotels that are built from Victorian era houses, such as the Baglioni Hotel in South Kensington.

With so many hotels covering a long period of time, it is only natural that London's establishments also depict a great many styles in terms of overall design and architecture. Charles Barry and Charles Edward Barry, were the minds that conceptualized the design of the Andaz Hotel when it was first opened in 1884 in Liverpool Street Station. Colonel Robert Edis made the extension of the hotel possible in 1901. This hotel was closed for three years from 1997-2000 while undergoing a 70million pound renovation. This hotel was originally known as the Great Eastern Hotel, until it changed its name in November 2007.

J.T. Knowles designed the Grosvenor Hotel in Victoria Station when it first opened in 1861. Knowles incorporated elegant Italian style with French Renaissance in designing the roof of the hotel. It was the first hotel to feature elevators or "ascending rooms" as they called it that time. Lewis Cubitt was the genius behind the Great Northern Hotel, situated at the Kings Cross Station. To make way for the channel tunnel link, the hotel was later demolished. The hotel closed in February 2001 and it was now used to house railway offices.

Robert William Ellis designed the Great Central Hotel in Marylebone Station when it first opened in 1899. It reopened in 1993 as a luxury hotel, but two years later after it was sold to a new company, they changed the name to Landmark Hotel.

Edward Middleton Barry was the mind behind Charing Cross Hotel in Charing Cross Station when it opened on May 15, 1865. This hotel was known as UK's first railway hotel based from the efforts of Albert the Prince Consort. The hotel underwent major remodelling in 1936 and 1938 and it changed its name to Hilton Paddington in 2002

Manage Hotel

The basic principles of Managing a Hotel are simple and similar, no matter what the Star classification of the Hotel is (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Star Hotel (Based on the Services and Facilities they provide), or if it's a large or a small Hotel or if the hotel is operated independently (Managing the Hotel under your (Hotel Owners) Name) or part of a Hotel Chain (Managing Hotel under someone else name and paying them fees for using their name). The primary and basic Business of any Hotel or a Resort is providing Rooms, Food and Drink to Guests (Customers).

They are classified as City Hotels (which mainly cater for Business Guest), Resorts (which cater for Guests on Holiday or on Vacation in Holiday and Beach Side Destinations), Airport Hotels (which are close to Airports and mostly cater to transit Airline Passengers and Airline Crew), Casino Hotels (Hotels which have licensed Gambling facilities), Convention Hotels (which have Convention and Meeting facilities for large number of Guests), Motels (Mainly in the US, which cater to Guests Traveling by road and who wish to stop over for overnight) , Bed and Breakfast (Mainly in Europe, which are small Hotels catering for Guest at reasonable pricing).

The primary Operational Departments of a Hotel are Front Office Department, House Keeping Department, Food and Beverage Service Department, Food Production Department (Kitchen).

Front Office and House Keeping Departments together are also known as Rooms Division Department.

Front Office Department deals with Guests Reservations: for Guests who want to stay in the Hotel , it also deals with Guest Registration when Guest check in to the Hotel, through dealing with Guest requests and Complaints during a Guest stay in the Hotel to finally collecting and processing Guest Payments, when Guest Finally check out of the Hotel.

In smaller Hotels Front Office Department is simply known as Reception.

Receptionists, Guest Service Agents, Cashiers and Front Office Manager form part of this Department.

Second Operational Department which is closely related to Front Office Department is House Keeping Department, which deals with the cleaning of Guest Rooms and Public Areas (Restaurants, Bars, Conference Halls, Ball Rooms and Offices etc).

In smaller Hotels this function is normally outsourced.

In smaller Hotels it's simply known as Maid Service.

Third Operational Department is Food and Beverage Service Department, which is a collection of all Restaurants, Bars, Conference halls and Ball rooms in the Hotel. Waiters, Bartenders, Restaurant Manager, Bar Manager, Room Service Manager, Banquet Manager and Food and Beverage Manager form part of this Department.

Fourth Operational Department in a Hotel is Food Production Department or Kitchen. They cook Food for the Guests in the Restaurant, Bar, Room Service, Conferences, Functions and Weddings.

Training Department: This Department is part of Human Resources Department, deals mainly with Staff Training.

Sales and Marketing Department: deals with promoting the Hotel and its Restaurants and Bars to increase the Room Occupancy and Sales and to also increase sales of Restaurants, Bars, Functions and Conferences. Purchase Department: deals with the Purchase of Goods and Items (Food, Drink, Stationery and Equipment etc), required for the proper functioning of a Hotel.

Store Department: deals with the Receiving, Storage and Issuing of Goods and Items (Food, Drink, Stationary and Equipment etc) to various Departments in the Hotel.

Security Department: deals with the Security of Staff, Guests and the Hotel Property.

History of Hotels

Before going deeper into the origins of the Cuban hotel trade, we have to mention certain aspects of the Cuban history that characterized the opening of the first hotels in Cuba.

It was then that the first true hotels in Havana appeared. As an example of this, we can mention the Telegrafo (Telegraph) Hotel founded in 1860 which is considered the oldest extant hotel in Cuba at present. This hotel, although in a different place from today, was located in one of the most popular corners of the city at that moment, Prado and Neptuno. In time, the Telegrafo Hotel would offer an excellent communication service with phones in every room and its own telegraphic service.

Next to the Telegrafo there was the Inglaterra (England) Hotel, also one of the oldest in Cuba. This hotel offered, for the first time, the service "a la carte". Among the firsts hotels built in Cuba is the Santa Isabel, founded in 1867 by an American man. The Santa Isabel was considered the best hotel of the city. It had big airy rooms, restaurant service, etc. The additional advantage of this hotel was the fact that the ladies were assisted by a staff of their same sex, that is to say, the hotel had maid service, something still unknown in Cuba. Besides that, the knowledge of the English language was introduced among the employees, a fact that increased its prestige within the emerging hotel business rivalry.

Another hotel that called the attention because of the exclusivity of its services during the last decades of the 19th century was the Miramar hotel, which no longer exists in our days. With the end of the Spanish rule over the island in 1898 and the establishment of the Republic, the hotel trade horizons widened considerably. The growth of the city and its increased urban assessment that intended to open to the modern world, as well as the increase of the Cuban bourgeoisie economic welfare, made possible the construction of new hotel facilities. But sometimes they did not fit the aspirations of certain guests and it was necessary to have a hotel that would please them, it was built then... the first luxury hotel.

The first hotel that had the requirements demanded at that time to be considered luxurious was the Sevilla hotel, founded in 1908. This hotel and the disappeared Almendares Hotel were the only luxurious hotels in Havana until 1930, when the Hotel Nacional de Cuba was built. At the same time that the world interest on knowing the beauty of the island was growing, attracting a lot of visitors every year, there were other historical events that contributed to the hotel construction in Cuba to a great extent.

By that time, rum, the roulette, gambling and horse racing bets, the Jai Alai and cock fights, made the tourists' stay in Cuba very pleasant. As a result, on that period many hotels were built in Havana. It was the second time that gambling and the hotel trade coincided. The Mafia had plans to turn Havana into Las Vegas, the American city that had become a giant casino.

In 1959 the Cuban Hotel Directory registered the existence of 125 hotels with a total capacity of 7 728 rooms. Besides those, the National Hotel, the Comodoro and the Plaza were renovated. The Mafia had so many plans in Cuba and in Havana that they included the building of hotels, casinos and entertainment centers all along the Malecon ( sea wall ), so that avenue would be like an inner street between two hotel lines. During the 90,s the tourist sphere in Cuba started to recover because the Cuban state recognized undeniable values of exploiting the international tourism as a way to support a country's inner economy. During those years started then the last stage ( still in course ) of the hotel trade in the largest of the Antilles, impulsing the building of modern competitive hotels all along thecountry. Nowadays, hotels are built wherever there were natural resources that could became a tourist attraction whether it is near or far from Havana. Thanks to the increase of the hotel facilities after the 90's, Cuba is again among the favorite world destinations when one thinks of spending his holidays