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Factors affecting operation and maintenance cost of hotels
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify, assess, rank, and compare the most influencing factors in three-, four-, and five-star hotels in the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia.
Design/methodology/approach
A combination of literature and interviewing of ten local experts have resulted in the identification of 46 factors. Through a web-based questionnaire survey, the identified factors were ranked. A total of 23 responses were gathered from the full population of the 47 hotels (14 five-star, 15 four-star and 18 three-star hotels) in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. A reliable overall response rate of 50 percent was achieved.
Findings
The most important factors affecting the operating and maintenance cost of five-star hotels are “climatic conditions” followed by “availability of the materials,” “annual energy consumption rate,” and “efficient energy consuming equipment.” Regarding four-star hotels, those factors are “star rating of the hotel” followed by “customer satisfaction,” “occupancy rate,” and “efficient energy consuming equipment.” Finally, the top-ranked factors for three-star hotels are “climatic conditions” followed by “floor area,” “glass and non-glass façade,” and “occupancy rate.”
Research limitations/implications
The most important factors affecting the operating and maintenance cost of five-star hotels are “climatic conditions” followed by “availability of the materials,” “annual energy consumption rate,” and “efficient energy consuming equipment.” Regarding four-star hotels, those factors are “star rating of the hotel” chased by “customer satisfaction,” “occupancy rate,” and “efficient energy consuming equipment.” Finally, the top-ranked factors for three-star hotels are “climatic conditions” followed by “floor area,” “glass and non-glass façade,” and “occupancy rate.” The shared concern point between the respondents of all three groups of hotels is relevant to the energy department, which keeps the facility running.
Originality/value
This paper is original in the sense that the areas of knowledge and practice covered in the identified factors were distributed and not available in one source. The factors are derived from personal interviews with the selected operation and maintenance/engineering managers of all three classes of hotels, and from the relevant literature.
... The goal of maintenance is to sustain the proper operation and intended functionality of a physical system (Che-Ghani et al., 2023). It encompasses all essential tasks aimed at preserving buildings, including their finishes and fittings, to enable them to consistently offer similar or nearly identical facilities, amenities, and services as they did upon initial construction (Ihsan & Alshibani, 2018). Consequently, efficient planning and management of building maintenance work are crucial to maximising the productivity of built assets and associated services while also ensuring the sustainability of the building. ...
Over the past few years, there has been a growing trend and high demand for outsourcing as a procurement strategy in the field of building operations and maintenance. Successful outsourcing can bring numerous advantages to organisations, encompassing a wide range of benefits. However, if outsourcing fails, there are substantial risks that organisations may face. The objective of this paper is to analyse the current literature concerning the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing building operations and maintenance. Additionally, it aims to compile the findings and identify any potential research gaps in the existing body of knowledge. A comprehensive search through a systematic review of the literature was conducted across numerous journals. Key terms derived from the initial literature review are used first to categorise whether the studies address outsourcing benefits, risks, motivations, or issues. The benefits and risks of outsourcing building operations and maintenance construct were then identified using content analysis methodology and an inductive coding technique. Through a methodological and well-organised approach, this paper offers an extensive collection of previously recognised benefits and risks of outsourcing building operations and maintenance. The findings of this paper indicate several expected benefits of outsourcing building operation and maintenance, including cost savings, a focus on core functions, quality improvement, reduced capital expenditure, increased economic efficiency, and greater flexibility. This paper also classifies the risk of outsourcing building operations and maintenance into five risk factors: client risk, vendor risk, contract risk, communication or relationship risk, and general risk. The result reveals that a well-executed outsourcing strategy assists organisations in effectively managing their building operations and maintenance tasks.
... Researchers also determine the efficiency of hotel renovation and reconstruction and the optimal planning of renovation projects [41]. Researchers note that renovation is one of the strategic marketing tools that can improve the efficiency of the tourism business [42], which allows us to include this factor among those assessed in our research work. This direction is also significant for our research when making decisions on the implementation of management actions and the implementation of investment projects if there is sufficient potential for the development of a tourism cluster in terms of infrastructure and urban planning factors. ...
The optimal development of tourism clusters (quite active and effective, but not allowing overtourism) requires the development of methods for calculating their level of development and potential, taking into account the most important influencing factors. Consideration of the share of factors’ influence on the development of tourism clusters does not adequately take into account the infrastructure and urban planning components. This article, based on a literature analysis and expert assessment, identifies the main factors influencing the development of tourism clusters and shows the leading role of infrastructure factors and the provision of a cluster with high-quality hotel stock. Formulas are given for calculating factor indicators and determining the integral level of development of the cluster, as well as its development potential, including infrastructural. An example of calculations of the development potential of a cluster and management decisions made in the field of construction is given using the example of an emerging tourism cluster, “Kirzhach”. The results of the factor analysis and calculation of the cluster development potential will allow informed management decisions to be made not only for the investment and construction of hotel real estate and other tourism infrastructure, but also for cluster development priorities and areas of government regulation and support.
... In a study conducted by Ihsan and Alshibani (2018), they found that climate affects luxury hotel operating and maintenance costs (He et al., 2019). Climate affects an accommodation establishment's occupancy rate because water consumption is highly related to the number of people using an area and, in certain hotels, precipitation (Pinto et al., 2015) East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (EAJMR) Vol. 3, No. 7, 2024: 2699-27202709 Climate impact on tourism is only vaguely understood. ...
This study was conducted to investigate what model could be developed in analyzing the Room Occupancy Rate (ROR) of accommodation establishments in the Davao Region. This investigation used a quantitative research method utilizing empirical analysis. The statistical tools used were the Bai and Perron multiple structural break test and One Least Squares (OLS) regression. Secondary data was utilized and the sources were from various government agencies and reliable websites. The key findings of this investigation include overall mean of 29.53% for the ROR of accommodation establishments in Davao Region between 2016 and 2022. Results revealed that the presence of three breakpoints happened in January 2019, January 2022 and March 2020. The OLS regression and Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test result exhibit that the sources and magnitude of the structural breaks are Public Safety with permanent effect, Regime with permanent effect, Earthquake with transitory effect and Health Crisis with permanent effect. The conclusions of this study imply that it just simplifies the actual events occurring in the Davao Region’s Accommodation Industry.
... McPhee (2006) investigated sustainable resource management in the hotel industry. Ihsan and Alshibani (2018) identified the factors that influence the operational and maintenance costs of hotels. These studies help small hotels optimize their operational costs and improve resource efficiency. ...
The study is aimed at developing a resilient benchmarking system for small hotels in Ukraine, designed to ensure their survival and growth amid global disruptions and local crises. Given the severe challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and military actions, the resilience of the regional tourism business becomes particularly relevant. The methods used in the study, including factor and cluster analysis, the method of taxonomy, and dendrograms, have enabled the development of development programs for two clusters of hotels: those located in areas with increased military risk and those in relatively safe territories. The taxonomic analysis revealed significant differences in managerial practices and operational efficiency, largely determined by the geographic location of the hotels. Hotels in active combat zones experience a 40% reduction in tourist flow and financial instability, while hotels in safe areas demonstrate a 30% higher level of customer satisfaction. The application of advanced security systems and modern marketing techniques has led to a 40% reduction in incidents.
... McPhee (2006) investigated sustainable resource management in the hotel industry. Ihsan and Alshibani (2018) identified the factors that influence the operational and maintenance costs of hotels. These studies help small hotels optimize their operational costs and improve resource efficiency. ...
This study aimed to develop a resilient benchmarking system for small hotels in Ukraine, designed to ensure their survival and growth amid global disruptions and local crises. Given the severe challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and military actions, the resilience of the regional tourism business is particularly relevant. The methods used in this study, including factor and cluster analysis, taxonomy, and dendrograms, enabled the development of development programs for two clusters of hotels: those located in areas with increased military risk and those in relatively safe territories. The taxonomic analysis revealed significant differences in managerial practices and operational efficiency, largely determined by the geographic location of the hotels. Hotels in active combat zones experienced a 40% reduction in tourist flow and financial instability, while hotels in safe areas demonstrated a 30% higher level of customer satisfaction. The application of advanced security systems and modern marketing techniques led to a 40% reduction in incidents.
Cost overruns in maintenance projects should be monitored and effectively managed by construction professionals using proactive systems. To establish more effective proactive systems for addressing cost overruns in maintenance projects, this paper presents a topological approach for machine learning-based prediction, integrated into various machine learning models to enhance the feature selection process. Project data from 1807 public schools renovated between 2016 and 2022 was collected to test the proposed mathematical method. The results indicate that the proposed method demonstrates superior performance in 6 out of 7 machine learning algorithms and hybrid models, achieving higher accuracy. This method will enable construction professionals to establish and achieve more efficient proactive systems for managing cost problems in maintenance projects. In addition, this paper will open new doors for developing effective machine-learning models without using optimization methods for other construction issues such as time, quality, or safety.
Purpose
To optimize hotel maintenance works, planned and reactive techniques are required which efficiently and effectively engage with the commercial and regulatory requirements of hotel operators and maintenance managers. The purposes of this study are to identify the constraints and challenges of hotel maintenance from the viewpoints of key stakeholders and to determine the strategies and processes employed in maintenance to overcome them.
Design/methodology/approach
The study focuses on five and four star hotels in Sanya of the Hainan Province. Eight face-to-face interviews were conducted in conjunction with 50 questionnaires, which were distributed to senior hotel operators and maintenance managers.
Findings
Maintenance management strategies are collaborative, with input from multiple stakeholders. Partial outsourcing is extremely common, being employed as a way of lowering operating costs and saving time while also meeting governmental statutory and regulatory requirements for some mechanical and electrical services. Availability of skilled workers, types of systems being serviced and the availability of specialist materials and tools were all found to influence the viability and effectiveness of in-house maintenance as discrete from outsourced maintenance. In reality, the challenges can include a lack of labor training and relatively lower quality of materials or energy efficiency requirements, especially in Sanya’s hotel industry.
Originality/value
The aim of this research was primarily focused on identifying the present maintenance statuses and strategies in hotels while determining the factors which result in a favorable bias toward a successful hotel maintenance management. Factors that affect hotel operators’ and maintenance managers’ decisions were identified and their influences quantified. The difficulties faced by hotels in implementing maintenance strategies were ratiocinated and stated to investigate those issues more deeply.
Building maintenance is essential in preserving buildings’ appearance and performance. It needs to upkeep the building performance to prolong its value and building life cycle. Malaysia is still lacking in managing cost for building operation and maintenance. It has been found that the cost for housing maintenance is high due to poor maintenance practices. In order to get better understanding on how to manage the cost, this study reviews the contributing factors that affecting operation and maintenance cost of stratified buildings in Malaysia. The research first identified the factors through extensive literature review and scrutinize on factors that affecting and can minimize operation and maintenance cost. This literature review offers insight into building maintenance scenario in Malaysia focusing on the issues and challenges. The study also finds that operation and maintenance cost for housing in Malaysia is still in poor state. Interestingly, this paper revealed that operation and maintenance cost is also influenced by three significant factors like expectation of tenants, building characteristics and building defects. Measures to reduce the housing operation and maintenance cost are also highlighted so that this study can be a stepping stone towards proposing efficient and effective facilities management strategies for affordable housing in future.
Defects arising from design and construction are recognized to have substantial consequences on the level of maintenance during occupancy of buildings which often translate to high costs causing dissatisfaction of users. This study attempts to investigate through a field survey the significance of design and construction defects on maintenance of residential buildings in Maiduguri in northern Nigeria. 60 structured questionnaires were distributed to personnel in the offices of consultants, contractors and building owners who are responsible for design, construction and maintenance of residential buildings in order to obtain the desired data for analysis. 47 questionnaires representing a response rate of 73.33% were retrieved and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16 for WINDOWS. The results of the survey revealed that the use of defective construction materials, poor supervision, non-compliance with specifications and poor quality control on site are the most significant factors contributing to maintenance with Relative Importance Index (RII) values of 0.8617, 0.8351, 0.8245 and 0.8138, respectively. Therefore, it is imperative for design and construction professionals to ensure the use of good quality materials and comply with specifications through adequate supervision to trim the menace of maintenance during operation of residential buildings.
Purpose
The objectives of this paper are to identify and assess the factors that affect the cost of maintenance of hospital facilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a literature review on hospital maintenance cost to identify the factors affecting the cost of maintenance and interviewed a selected group of ten experienced facilities managers of both public and private hospitals. 33 factors were identified, and synthesized in seven groups. A questionnaire survey was developed to assess the factors. Responses were obtained on the developed questionnaire survey by interviewing the facilities managers of the full population of the 40 hospitals in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, 20 of which were public hospitals and the other 20 were private hospitals. The data received were analyzed to identify the level of importance for the factors. The factors were ranked according to their importance index values.
Findings
The most important factors from the perspectives of public hospitals are “transfer of problems from the construction phase to the maintenance phase for resolution”, “lack of coordination between the construction and maintenance group”, and “lack of quality control measures during the installation of systems”. These three factors were all encompassed within the construction group. The most important factors from the perspectives of the private hospitals were encompassed in the statutory requirements and the design phase groups. These factors are “duration of the maintenance contract” and “the method of classifying maintenance contractors”, “errors conducted during the design of the project” and “lack of feedback from the maintenance group to the design team”.
Practical implications
This paper is of practical significance to hospital project managers and facilities managers, as it will prompt the management of hospital facilities to focus on the most important factors affecting the cost of maintenance and thereby reduce that cost.
Originality/value
This paper is original in the sense that the areas of knowledge and practice encompassed in the identified factors were scattered and not available in one source. The factors were derived from personal interviews with selected facilities managers of both private and public hospitals, as well as from the relevant literature.
Investment in building maintenance is huge all over the world. In most countries, it represents almost 50 per cent of the total turnover of the construction industry. The value of buildings depends on the quality of the maintenance invested in them. Maintenance management involves obtaining maximum benefit from the investment made on the maintenance activities. Maintenance in buildings in Malaysia is on the increase regardless of size, type, location, and ownership. The current maintenance management procedures in Malaysia are, however, condition and reactive based. The weaknesses in the current procedures are the primary problems because they do not explicitly link maintenance needs with building performance with respect to the building users. The building users measure the performance of a building with various criteria. The condition of a building is just one of those criteria. This research establishes the need for a building maintenance management system that is based on the concept of value in the effort to lead towards the optimisation of building maintenance programmes. Maintenance management that is value based allows users to be proactively put at the centre of maintenance management during decision-making processes and takes into consideration both the objective and subjective requirements of users.
This article discusses the main factors that affect construction costs in Saudi Arabia. Forty-two factors affecting construction costs and their degree of importance were evaluated. The severity of those factors is measured by their the level of importance and ranked according to the severity index for contractors, consultants/engineers, owners, and a combination of all respondents. It was concluded that material cost, incorrect planning, previous experience of the contract, contract management, and poor financial control on site are factors contributing to high construction costs.
To evaluate the outcomes of deploying technicians dedicated to preventive maintenance, instead of fully cross-trained technicians, this simulation study assesses field service operations of a company selling maintenance services. Comprehensive service contracts render the maintenance demand experienced by the field service organization dependent on the cross-training decision. The optimal cross-training policy and the factors that influence this policy are determined, taking into account the effect on the demand for maintenance. Evidence shows that full cross-training might be especially beneficial in a field service setting. In many of the tested scenarios, full cross-training is optimal or the optimal fraction of the workforce being dedicated is low. The results reveal that, in general, a higher workload, more reliable machines, a higher maintenance frequency, and a higher contract coverage increase the benefits of deploying dedicated technicians.
The main objective of this paper is to examine strategic and operational factors influencing the management of building maintenance operation processes in sports and leisure facilities. These factors are developed from the identification of four main aspects in building maintenance management: building maintenance policy and strategy, strategic management, facility management and performance management. The management of building maintenance operation processes is the key for providing better built environment to building customers and users. It is particularly important in managing hospitality facilities such as sports and leisure facilities. However, maintenance is not in a high priority list in most of the organisations. This barrier contributes to the gaps between top management at the strategic level and maintenance personnel at the operational level. Building maintenance is changing pace with the development of facility management, which has impacts on the planning to implementation of maintenance operation processes and building performance. The information related to the strategic and operational factors is essential before an in-depth study is undertaken about the improvement of the gaps between top management at the strategic level and maintenance personnel at the operational level for building operation efficiency.Journal of Retail and Leisure Property (2009) 8, 25–37; doi:10.1057/rlp.2008.29; published online 14 January 2009
Cultural background has an influence on people's behaviour and their way of living. Therefore, the way in which people perform their duties and deal with others can differ from one culture to another. The paper examines the way in which some cultural issues in Saudi Arabia control people's daily time schedules, and it explains how this affects the scheduling of maintenance work. The occupiers' influences on the execution times for maintenance work are discussed, and an arrangement to organise the work schedule so as to minimise these effects is proposed. The outcome of this study is expected to be useful for both clients and contractors, because the problem will make them aware of scheduling difficulties. Data was collected from one of the largest housing projects in Saudi Arabia that was used as the basis for a case study.