A Study On The Transformation Of The Service Conceptions In The Modern Hotel

Recent social, economic and technological developments have led to significant changes in the consumption environment. In the context of hotel industry, such changes present themselves in a number of characteristics in the needs of the hotel users. These characteristics can be described as divers and dissimilar; hierarchical and dynamic; periodical and flexible; and changing and inducible. It is suggested in the face of the new challenges presented by such characteristics, it is now no longer sufficient for the modern hotel industry to meet the basic physiological and material needs of the hotel users, and it is essential for the whole industry to extend its services in terms of both scope and contents.Hotel users are the clients of the industry. In this context, the needs of the hotel users must be both at the core of the industry's services and on which all the industry's services shall be focused. In providing all services, the hotel industry needs to take the needs of the hotel users as its primary priority. In the meanwhile, emphases need to be concentrated on issues such as respecting the clients, providing considerate and caring services that should be based on a good knowledge about the clients' needs and the behaviour patterns, above all, to provide individualised services that are well informed by the industry's understanding of its clients. The concept of individualised hotel services is a new thinking which offers a perspective for us to both re-examine and reflect ontraditional concepts of hotel services. This study suggests that, reconsidering hotel services from this perspective will have significant implications for the hotel industry in China with respect to its healthy and sustained development, the improvement of the industry's service quality and the building of a distinctive hotel industry with Chinese characteristics.This study provides a systematic analysis of the needs of hotel users and the trends in their development; it also critically analyses the typical issues confronting the traditional hotels in providing services and describes the key advantages of developing the concept of humanised hotel services in the industry. The concept of humanised hotel service is defined, its characteristics delineated and theoretical underpinnings discussed. Also analysed and discussed are its relationship with standardised services and individualised services; mainstream understanding of humanity and respect; the human physical structures, behaviour patterns and the needs of hotel users and their implications of the application of the theories for hotel practices and design, in terms of the 'hard-and-soft ware' environments.