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The hotel industry prides itself in its welcoming attitude towards its guests by offering hospitality, comfort and privacy. At the same guest safety and security has been argued to be of primary concern in the industry. The aim of this thesis is a) to study how hoteliers develop and implement risk management plans and procedures to ensure safe hotel operations, and b) to study how it is possible to gap the bridge between providing hospitable services, which at the same time are safe and secure. A qualitative, cross-case study has been applied. The study builds on theories composed primarily of established step-by-step risk management processes. In-depth interviews were carried out with four managers at different hotels across Sweden. The study found that the hotel industry in Sweden lacks a common risk management framework for which to implement consistently and coherently. A common framework would enable hotels to embrace risk management and be able to utilize it in their operation. Furthermore, it was found that risk management ought to be integrated in all organizational activities and processes. It should not be an isolated event, but rather implemented on an on-going basis. It is imperative for hoteliers to realize that hospitality is not only related to offering qualitative services, but also that ensuring guests of their safety/security is a major part of the overall service. In addition, providing hospitable services that are safe at the same time necessitates that risk management is implemented consistently by regularly aiming to raise current standard. Hence, continuous improvement ought to be of fundamental importance in any organization that is fully committed to risk management. This thesis, therefore, suggests a model that interlinks risk- and quality management.

Before making a purchase, more and more consumers in recent years are consulting other consumers¡¦ product reviews online, to assist them in making a purchasing decision. However, due to the massive amount of online reviews, consumers can hardly get useful information effectively. Hence, information overload has become a problem. Query functions in search engines like Yahoo and Google can help users find some of the reviews that they need for specific information. Nevertheless, the returned pages from these search engines are still beyond the visual capacity of humans. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new concept of personalized recommendation based on consumer product reviews to solve the afore-mentioned problem. A series of laboratory experiment examines the effectiveness of the proposed approach and compares this approach with other traditional approaches on precision of recommendation. Meanwhile, the meaning of the recommendation behind each approach is explained. Lastly, the prototype of recommendation system based on the proposed approach is illustrated. Our system can display the trend of the gathered consumer reviews in a graphical way, such as a product satisfaction run chart. The development of recommendation systems is not only beneficial to consumers, but also advantageous to sellers.

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Summary This research is to discuss the change of the operating performance after the company experiences the spin-off. An international tourism hotel is chosen as the research case. There are 10 items, relating the operating performance objective of the international tourism hotel, as the metric of the company before and after experiencing the company¡¦s spin-off. The purpose of this research is to discuss how the company¡¦s spin-off impacts the operating performance of the international tourism hotel and the example research is a real spin-off case. The findings of this research are as followings: 1. The operation performance is improved after this international tourism hotel spits the Room Division and the Food & Beverage Division off. 2. Focusing operations can improve the operating performance. 3. Through the spin-off process, the reduction of the organization dimension can decrease the management cost. 4. The company¡¦s spin-off can improve the management information quality, and also enhance the resource allocation to increase the corporation value. 5. After the spin-off, the company provides the superior reward strategy which also improves the operating performance. 6. The performance of internal control system and the cost control cannot have the improvement through the company¡¦s spin-off. 7. The performance is more explicitly measured after the company¡¦s spin-off. Key words: International Tourism Hotel, Spin-off, Operating Performance

Hotels are an essential and critical component of Thailand's tourist industry and one of the major contributors to Thai tourism revenue. However, the industry is considered to be in an infant stage. Since a general manager is considered to be the key person who directs the business in the hotel in every situation, this research aims to investigate the emphasis of time spent on various work activities of hotel general managers (i. e. marketing, human resource, training, etc.). In order to identify the significance of the general manager's roles, the research was conducted as an empirical investigation focusing on the leading Thai luxury hotels which were of international standard. The research defines the emphasis of the amount of time spent on the various work activities by investigating how managers perceive their work roles and how they actually spend their time. The core study of this research derived from Mintzberg's study of managerial work (1973), an observational study of five top executives in the United States and Ley's study of the managerial activities of seven managers in a major US hotel chain (1978). The methodology in this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. According to an appropriateness of access to data, there were three methods utilised which comprised a questionnaire, an interview and a period of observation. These three methods were used in sequence. The questionnaire was used to study biographical data and perceptions of Mintzberg's managerial work roles. The interview, which was semi-structured, was used to provide the interviewer with additional questions to make sure the desired information has been obtained, while the observation aimed to study the work roles which emerged from general managers' work behaviour and to provide the insights of general managers' behaviour into specific work roles from recording and classification. It is intended that the results of the research will enhance the understanding of different approaches to managerial roles and time usage thereof. With this understanding, there will be an increase in the number of qualified Thai general managers employed in international hotels and a responsibility for development of Thai general managers. In addition, individual general managers themselves, may be able thereby to increase the effective use of their time.

The key research question which was addressed by the study was whether gaps existed between the sal ient attributes employed for hotel selection by managers and customers and the inspection criteria used by the UK hotel classification and grading schemes. If so, to identify whether such unassessed attributes were appraisable by the hotel inspectorate. A review of the literature indicated that no such published study had previously been attempted. A literature review examined the criteria identified to assess service quality, and in particular its provision within the hotel industry. The historical development and operational characteristics of the major grading schemes were presented. A unique numerical analysis of the schemes provided the incidence of classified and graded hotels by country. This formed the basis for the establishment of a representative stratified random sample. The determination of the hotel selection attributes was achieved by literature review and in-depth and focus group interviews. An extensive questionnaire asking recipients to rate the importance of the selection attributes was distributed to 500 hotel managers, producing a 62.4~ response. Equivalent customer contacts were provided by the managers, and 500 customers were surveyed, producing a 57.8~ response. Attribute analysis defined important, interjacent and unimportant groups. Comparisons were made between leisure and business, gender, grading categories and forms of business ownersh ip for both data sets. The closeness of association between the total manager and customer data sets allowed a merging into a consolidated attribute set. An analysis of the schemes' grading criteria was compared with the important attributes to indicate those which were not specifically assessed by the schemes. A survey of hotel inspectors asked them to indicate whether such attributes were specifically, generally or not assessab 1e during a routine inspect ion, and if they were specifically assessable, to provide suggested methodologies for such assessment. The aim was achieved. Sixty five attributes were identified as important but not assessed by the schemes. Of these, 45 were capable of being specifically assessed. It was recommended that the scheme operators should take account of these findings when reviewing their hotel grading methodologies.

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Syfte och frågeställningar: Genom en publikstudie undersöka i vilken utsträckning följare av reality serien Paradise Hotel uppfattar deltagarna och deras relationer som verkliga. I vilken utsträckning uppfattar publiken deltagarna och deras relationer som äkta och verkliga? Hur uppfattar publiken deltagarnas beteende samt agerande i den iscensatta miljön de befinner sig i? Metod och material: Studien är gjord som en kvalitativ publiksstudie där det empiriska materialet består av fyra stycken inledande intervjuer som sedan följs av två fokusgrupper med fyra deltagare i respektive grupp. Materialet transkriberas, kodas och tolkas utifrån Ervin Goffman dramaturgiska perspektiv. Huvudresultat: Efter genomförda fokusgrupper kan slutsatser dras kring den verklighet följare av Paradise Hotel upplever. Den tydligaste slutsatsen är att publiken inte upplever programmet som en avspegling av verkligheten och att deltagarna i större eller mindre utsträckning spelar en roll. En person i den miljön och situation som deltagarna befinner sig i uppfattas inte kunna vara sig själv och sitt “riktiga jag”.

Most of the five-star hotel chains from Western countries had adopted the typical style of human resource policies and practices from abroad, yet they ignored family friendly practices. Some policies such as child care and nurseries in the workplace need to be adjusted for Thai culture. All four hotels indicated that they provided valuable and supportive opportunities to develop all their managers. They believed that women managers will benefit from the training programs because women managers will develop their managerial skills to help them balance their work and family more professionally. Supportive development programs were offered to all women managers such as time management skills, coaching, mentoring, English language training, and team work. This is important because all organisations need to encourage their very best women managers to stay rather than quit to other careers. In addition, the hotel industry can play a leading role in assisting and supporting females in establishing and maintaining work and family balance. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.