Islamabad Marriott Hotel, Internship Report

Islamabad Marriott Hotel belongs to the international chain of 18,000 Marriott hotels. The founder owner of this chain is Bill Marriott, an American Jew. In Pakistan Marriott has two branches one in Islamabad and the other in Karachi. The two branches are owned and operated by Hashwani's Group of HHL (Hashwani’s Hotel Limited) in Pakistan.

Marriott in Islamabad is enjoying monopoly being the only hotel to provide international standards of hoteling under the brand name “Marriott”. It provides the super luxury accommodation and service in the traditional warm spirit of Pakistani hospitality.

Marriott comprises of splendid rooms, Gourmet Restaurants, round the clock coffeehouse, the Patisserie, Conference and Banquet Halls, Business Center, shopping arcade, Health club and many other facilities. Rooms are distributed on 5 floors. The first and second floor comprises of standard floor and the third, fourth and fifth make the “Executive Club floor". There are 290 rooms in total. Suites are also available and are graded as Library suite. Deluxe suites, Executive suites, Royal suite and Presidential suite. The rates differ with the standard of luxury and comfort provided.

Food service provided through restaurants includes The Bassment, Nadia Coffee Shop and Dynasty (Chinese Restaurant). The food items at The Bassment include fast food, lunch and dinner. At Nadia Coffee Shop continental, Thai, Mexican and Italian food is served. This restaurant provides 24-hour service. Typical Chinese taste is available at Dynasty. Buffet service is also provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfast is available only at Nadia Coffee Shop. Marriott has got excellent Conference Halls provided under the names Crystal Ball Room, Meeting room and Senator Room.

Salient features of Islamabad Marriott



290 Luxurious Guest Rooms



Situated at the footsteps of Margalla hills.



Executive Club, exclusively for business travelers.



Non-smoking rooms available on request.



All guest rooms and suites are air conditioned with attached bathroom hair dryer, colour television with bedside control, in-house movies music channel, mini bar, international direct dialing facility, voicemail & safe deposit box.



In-house television entertainment includes international satellite channels.



24 hour room service.



24 hour laundry and valet service.



Baby sitters and doctors on call.



Business Center (24 hours): Comprehensive secretarial services for today's Business traveler.



Swimming Pool (temperature controlled),



Health Club, Sauna, Steam Bath and Gymnasium.



Security: Smoke detectors and sprinkles, 24 hour professional security patrol.



Round the clock Nadia Coffee Shop serves Buffet Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and A’la carte.



Dynasty Chinese specialty restaurant serves lunch and dinner



The Bassment: Fast food lunch, dinner and music.



The Patisserie : Offering variety of confectionery delights.



Banquet and Conference Facilities : Crystal Ball Room , Kohinoor, Marquee, Marglla, Ambassador, Senator room and Conference Rooms.



Car hire and Travel desk.



XAVIER Men’s Saloon and Beauty Parlor.



In house banking facility.



Ice Machines on each floor.



Boutique , Handicrafts and Florist.



Free car parking and valet parking.

Marriott’s primary business concern is the room reservation, suite reservation, and conference halls reservations. The other activities like food service through restaurants, entertainment events, health club, business center, The Patisserie, The Bassment and shopping spots constitute the secondary business.

The target market is undoubtedly the upper class that can afford the luxury and unmatchable hotel offers. The various customer groups are the big companies and organizations like: 

Ministries



Embassies



Multinational concerns



Foreign guests



Delegations



Tourists

The service provided to above companies is mainly the room reservation and Banquet reservations for seminars, conferences and meetings.

The profitable customer group of Marriott are the tourists and travelers to whom Marriott serves under contract with well known travel agencies like Walji’s, Rakaposhi, Sitara and others. All over the world hotelling and tourism go together. Same is the case with Marriott and it is generating 70% of its revenues out of the travelers group.

In Islamabad, Marriott is providing hotelling standards of its own kind and is enjoying complete monopoly. However in Karachi it competes with Sheraton and adopts competitive strategies. InIslamabad it will be facing tough competition with the completion of Islamabad Serena Hotel, which is opening in year 2001.

MARRIOTT AS AN ORGANIZATION Location Marriott is centrally located in Capital City of Pakistan, Islamabad. The location is at hte footsteps of Margalla Hills. This location gives Marriott aesthetically a very sound location. All main buildings and offices of the capital are in a short vicinity to Hotel. Staff The total staff of Marriott Islamabad consists of around 450 employees out of which around 70 are the officers, out of which 13 are the Managers or Head of Departments namely: -



General Manager



Executive Assistant Manager



Sales & marketing Manger



Media and Public Affairs Manager



Human Resource Manager



Finance Controller



Food and Beverage Manager



Front Office Manager



Guest Relation Manager



Chief Engineer



Executive House Keeper



Purchase Manager



Laundry Manager

Property Description

Islamabad Marriott Hotel’s Lobby has a modern decor with a hotel operated, barber shop, business center, shopping arcade and Nadia Coffee Shop, providing a 24 house service with a variety of Pakistani and Continental Foods.

3.3.1 The hotel has three main restaurants namely:



Nadia Coffee Shop – Continental, Italian, Mexican and Thai Food



Dynasty – Chinese Food



The Bassment – Western Style (music & food for couples only)



The Royal Elephant - Offers Thai cuisine.



Sakura Restaurant – A truly authentic Japanese restaurant.



Jason’s Steak house – American restaurant



Terrace Café – Open air seating lounge



Dumpukht Mughlai restaurant – Indian Cuisine



Lobby Lounge – Coffee house

Banquettes Halls include:



Ambassador – Adjacent to Nadia(being converted into a Resturant)



Crystal Ball Room a & b – located by The Bassment



Kohinoor - behind Dynasty Restaurant



Margallah – located by crystal ball room



Marquee – located by pool side



Senator – located by main lobby

The shopping arcade includes:



Xavier – Ladies and Gents beauty-parlor



Horizon Tours



Travel Desk



Boutique



Flower shop



Book Shop



Carpet Shop



Jewelry Shop

The Hotel has got seven floors including ground and mezzanine floor. Third, fourth and fifth floors are executive floors with lounges, on 4th and 5th floor and conference room on 5th floor. 5th floor has 52 rooms including one Presidential suite (consisting of 4 rooms) fourth floor has got 57 rooms including 4 executive suites.

Third, 2nd and first floor each has 57 rooms including 4 suites on each floor. Mezzanine floor has 9 Mezzanine suites and one Royal suite. There are five Library suites, one on each floor. Hotel also has several interconnecting rooms, non-smoking rooms, studio type rooms and disabled rooms.

RESERVATION

Work in Front Office start with reservation. This section is supervised by Reservation Supervisor and assisted by the Reservation Clerk. Reservation Supervisor deals with the advance reservations, and Reservation Clerk deals with the walk-ins.

a) Advance Reservation

Advance Reservation is of three types

i) Reservation in Marriott

The room & any other type of reservation in the hotel f takes place through Telex, Telephone, Letter, telegrams, Fax, etc.

“Through Telex machine, the room reservation order comes from with in and outside the country. When reservation order comes by Telex to Front Office, the Reservation Supervisor replies and confirms the telex. Then reservation is done for expected guest in advance.

Sometimes reservation order comes through the telephone and the Reservation Supervisor continues reservation.

ii) For other branches of HHL

The reservation Supervisor also makes arrangements for advance reservations for the guests in other branches of the hotel.

iii) Banquets Reservations

The Food and Beverage Department do reservation for Banquets and functions.

Procedures for Advance Reservation

The Reservation Supervisor fills the reservation form, and with the help of this form reservation slips are made. Reservation slips of different colors are used for different purposes like;

i) For normal or rack rate guests, white slips are used.

ii) For VIPs Pink Slips are used.

iii) For travelling groups, light blue slips are used.

iv) For travelling agents green slips are used.

v) Yellow slips are used for any special purpose for he if all rooms are occupied and reservation supervisor wants to keep an expected guest on waiting list, than yellow slips uses example. Moreover, for reservation of seminars and conferences yellow slips are used.

These rack slips are then placed alphabetically and date vise in the rack. Arranged rack slips of the current day are sent to the reception from front office. At reception there is another rack showing status of different rooms. This is updated with the help of reservation rack slips. In this rack white color in front of room number indicating that the room is ready for sale, red color indicates that the guest has checked in, yellow color indicates that the guest has checked out, but housekeeping department has not yet sent a report of checkout.

When a guest arrives at reception according to the time mentioned on rack slip, he is received warmly welcomed, given key of his room and assorted to his room.

b) Walk in Reservation

When a guest arrives at the hotel without any prior reservation he is regarded as a walking guest. When such a guest arrives he fills up a registration card at reception, mentioning relevant information, like his name, nationality, passport no., date and place of issue, date of birth, home address, arrival date, occupation and mode of payment etc. Thus the reservation clerk allots him a room according to the guest desire. Then reservation clerk posts the entries of the registration card to the checking in and checks out register.

c) Group Reservation

Group reservation is usually done through letters. The company or organization, which make arrangements for the groups, sends a letter to the hotel. Sales and marketing departments then, the number and the names of the expected guests three months before their arrival. Finally a form for group reservation is filled, showing occupancy in each room at their arrival. Moreover the bills of rooms and meals at their departure is sent to the concerned company or organization.

d) Travel Agents Reservation

The travel agencies represent most important sources of the income to the Hotel business. Travel agents reservation is made on green rack slips for easy identification as commission able accounts.

RATES The hotel gives different rates to different companies. On the basis of rates different companies have categorized into tow classes.

i) Discounted Rates ii) Credit Rates

Discounted Rates are given to companies on the basis of business given by the companies. If the company is giving more business to hotel, it is included in hotel discount list. Special discounts are given to these companies. Sometimes business given by a company, which was initially included in discount list decline than its name is removed from the list.

Credit List depends on economic conditions of a company. Credit list is renewed after every two year. A file of companies who are included in credit list is maintained in alphabetical order. The companies, which have sound economic conditions, are included in the credit list.

The rates at which rooms are sold to different companies are divided into group segments, which include;

a) Normal or Rack Rates These are the normal rates of the hotel. All racks rates are treated as VIPs. b) Commercial Rates Accounts department, sales and marketing department together sets these rates. The companies, which give thirty room nights per month, are given commercial rates. c) Corporate Rates The companies, which give 50 room nights per month, are given corporate rates.

d) Preferred Rates All the companies of United Nation, American Embassies, and consulates and British Airways are given prefered rates along with the complementary breakfast.

SERVICE LINE CHART

Rooms & Suites

Banquet & Conference Halls

Outlets

Food Outlets

Executive Club

Recreational Activities

Standard Rooms

Crystal Ball Rooms

Boutique

Nadia Coffee Shop

Executive Club

Swimming Pool

Executive Club Rooms

Kohinoor

Handicraft

Dynasty

Health Club

Library Suite

Marquee

Florist

The Bassment

Sauna Bath

Deluxe Suite

Ambassador

Saloon & Parlor

The Royal Elephant

Steam Bath

Executive Suite

Senator Room

Laundry

Jason’s Steak house

Gymnasium

Royal Suite

Margalla

Valet

Terrace Café

Massage

Presidential Suite

Conference Rooms

Lobby Lounge

PRICE Islamabad Marriott Hotel's main service is the lodging facility provided to visitors.

Following table shows the prices charged for rooms and suites:

These charges include: Hotel Tax, 15% +Re lA occupancy tax.

Rooms

Single (Pak Rupees)

Double(Pak Rupees)

Standard Floor

14,000/-

16,000/-

Executive Club Floor

18,000/-

20,000/-

Suites

Pak Rupees

Library Suite

22,000/-

Deluxe Suite

26,000/-

Executive Suite

50,000/-

Royal Suite

60,000/-

Presidential Suite

80,000/-