THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
The hotel industry grew with travel, as people needed places for shelter and food along the routes they travelled, whether by land, water or air. The hotel industry is, therefore, one of the oldest endeavors in the world. (Andrews, 2009) Owners of the hotel realized that a customer has their own demand in services and facilities, that is why they developed what the hotels are offering before through what are the customer’s needs.
The Hotel Proprietors Act 1956 provides a clear definition of a hotel: An establishment held out by the proprietor as offering food, drink and, if so, required, sleeping accommodation, without special contract, to any traveler presenting himself who appears able and willing to pay a reasonable sum for the services and facilities provided and who is in a fit state to be received. Hotels can be classified into different types according to their target market, size, location, facilities or ownership. (Baker.,Huyton., Bradley., 2000)
Recently, the hotel industry trends towards separating the services sector between hotels. Many hotels nowadays offer recreation for a particular group of tourists. Popular family hotels, hotels for the newlyweds and hotels for people with disabilities, each of them has its unique set of services. Among the services that are indirectly related to the customers, that means that they are not involved in direct care of guests, are marketing service and bookkeeping of the hotel. Reservation, once considered one of the main hotel services, today has become an anachronism. Nowadays, in order to book a hotel clients use the services of the major tour operators. Online booking through the numerous tourist online services is getting increasingly popular.
Booking.com says it offers 202,842 hotels globally. STR Global estimates that there are 187,000 hotels, offering 17.5 million guest rooms, around the globe. The Priceline Group’s supply included 200,900