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.

Issues and Challenges of Joint Management Body in High-Rise Residential Facilities Management: The Developers

“…B. Ihsan et al, (2018) identified and grouped some of the factors into seven ( 7) categories where engineering services, labor, building materials, environments, management and administration, budget and finance, and building users are included as the factors. This was confirmed by A.S. Ali et al, (2010) and N.Z.…”

A Framework to Enhance the Practice of Maintenance Budgeting in Commercial Buildings in Sri Lanka

“…Barriers to the preparation of an accurate MB were defined under major variables, they are technical factors, managerial factors, financial factors, environmental factors, and social factors. According to Ihsan (2017), design problems, faulty maintenance, building characteristics, poor Quality Control, Life cycle cost techniques, low concern for future maintenance, and failure in identifying the true cause of defect were identified as technical factors. The managerial role in most commercial buildings includes organising, controlling, planning and staffing and these components are important in the performance of maintenance work and thus affect the building's maintenance costs (Schuh, Jussen and Optehostert, 2019).…”

“…Due to a lack of scientific procedures for evaluating the budget, subjective and erroneous allocations have resulted in waste or a shortage of resources (Srivastava, Kumar and Gupta, 2020). According to Ihsan (2017), inadequate finance and poor financial control when executing maintenance work were identified as financial factors that affect the cost of maintenance. New maintenance techniques, unqualified and unavailable maintenance contractors, insufficient standards and specifications, and harsh climatic conditions were identified as different environmental factors.…”

“…Maintenance is required to retain the initial performance capacity of a building over its life cycle (Straub, 2012). However, the building maintenance cost is a large proportion of the overall cost of building operation (Ihsan and Alshibani, 2018). Construction activities represent almost 50% of the total turnover, at the same time building maintenance is one of the larger investments of organisations in the world (Zakiyudin et al, 2019).…”

Maintenance Cost Index for Egyptian Hotels: An Exploratory Study

“…Many researchers addressed the factors affecting maintenance cost such as (El-Haram and Horner 2002, Al-Khatam 2003, Lai and Yik 2008, Ali, Kamaruzzaman et al 2010, Sanjeev, Jauhari et al 2012, Hassanain, Assaf et al 2013. And limited researches tried to set a benchmark or index number for maintenance cost especially in hotel industry (Chan 2008, Róka-Madarász, Mályusz et al 2016 Planning the maintenance activities and allocating constrained budgets required to carry such operations in advance are difficult tasks for the maintenance managers (Ihsan and Alshibani 2018). So, it is necessary to identify index numbers for hotel maintenance cost rationale to the hotel capacity parameters Simple index number again can be constructed either by -(i) Simple aggregate method, or by (ii) simple average relative's method.…”