Lesson 1: tangibilizing the intangible

Reading:

Hospitality services are intangible which means not only the fact that they cannot be seen, tasted, heard, or smelled but also that it is impossible to experience these services before they are purchased. It causes uncertainty in the customers about the quality of services they are going to purchase. Before boarding an airplane, passengers have nothing but a ticket and the promise of safe delivery to their destination. To reduce this uncertainty, the customers look for physical evidence that may provide information and confidence about the service. A hotel's promotional material might include photographs of the hotel's public area, guest rooms, floor plans of a meeting hall (for meeting planners who might like to organize a meeting in this hotel), room capacities and furniture, the photographs of employees in the hotel's uniform, of the exterior of the hotel, etc. Everything about a hospitality company communicates something that helps to tangibles its services. Red and white awnings, the outside patio and white striped building wall displaying the signs of the restaurant chain TGI Friday's in large letters tell the potential guests that this restaurant offers informality and fun. A couple looking for an elegant, intimate atmosphere would be disappointed at Friday's.

Similarly, the exterior of the hotel Hampton Inn's suggests that it will provide clean, comfortable and safe lodging at moderate price. When guests arrive, they find no door clerks, concierge desk, or other features appropriate for an upscale hotel. Instead, they find an attentive desk clerk in an appropriate uniform and a small lobby with comfortable but moderate furnishing. In recent years, the so-called "greening" has become popular with the organizations of hospitality industry: the use of outside natural landscaping and the "fern bars" as a part of the interior.

Hospitality companies are very sensitive to protecting the visual image and overall appearance known as trade dress. The McDonald's has brought suit against competitors who dared to copy any form of golden arches. Experts say that to compete effectively in today's market, it is necessary to design an effective trade dress while taking care not to imitate too closely that of any competitor.

 

 

Exercises:

1. Find in the text the following topical words and phrases, make sure that you are able to explain in English what they mean, and add them to your working vocabulary:

a promotional material, a floor plan, specific, room capacity, awnings, lodging, a lobby, a door clerk, a concierge, a desk clerk, greening, a fern bar, a visual image, a trade dress.

2. Write out from the text the sentences or their parts which contain the words and phrases given below and translate them into Russian:

to purchase a service, physical evidence, to provide confidence, exterior, the outside patio, appropriate, natural landscaping, interior, to bring a suit against, to imitate closely.

 

3. Answer the following questions:

1. What can serve as a means to tangibles the experience you are promised to have?

2. What sort of information is usually given in typical promotional materials?

3. What idea does the exterior of the restaurants belonging to the chain TGI Friday's communicate?

4. What does the exterior of the hotels belonging to the chain Hampton Inn's suggest?

5. What term is used in hospitality industry to refer to the use of vegetation as a means to decorate the building?

6. What term is used to refer to the visual image and overall appearance of a hospitality company?

7. What serves as a trade dress of McDonald's and what part of it is so valuable for the company that they bring suit against competitors who imitate it?