Investigation of the Operational Challenges Experienced by Hotels in Kakamega County

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to investigate the operational challenges experienced by hotels in the Kakamega County. The study sought to determine the effects of skills shortage on Performance and output in the hotel industry, to establish the effects of inadequate technologies on Performance and output in the hotel industry, to determine the effects of Changing Demographics on Performance and output in the hotel industry and to establish the effects of Human resource issues on Performance and output in the hotel industry. The study employed a descriptive survey research design to achieve the objectives of the study. The study population was employees in various hotels in Kakamega County. The study targeted 100 employees through purposive sampling technique at the senior management staff, middle management staff, chefs, cooks and waiters, accountants and operations staff. The study used structured questionnaires to collect primary data from the respondents. The study found out that skills, inadequate technologies, changing demographics and human resource issues are the operational challenges experienced by hotels in the Kakamega County. The study recommends that in order to increase their competitive advantage, there is need for hotel investors to adopt newer technologies for building and construction of modern facilities. The investors and the management should be aware of the changing demographics, changing government regulations and customer exceptions as being aware of these variables can help them determine changes in supply and demand and identify potentially false trends in the industry. In order to encourage more investors in the hotel industry, institutional policies such as licensing, registration requirement, product standards and certification and infrastructure policies, including utility development and land policies should be streamlined and centralized to encourage more investors. To accelerate sales hotels should make use of appropriate marketing tools such as employing management consultants. Hotels should work towards giving their available customers the best of services while taking negative customer responses positively to help improve their services.