In this weeks New York Times article, ‘Star Wars fever extends to an Ancient Irish Island’, talks about the ‘Star Wars’ production and their reputation expansion throughout an Ancient Irish Island called PortMagee. A man and a group of people appeared in this island, and villagers from there recognized the man as Mark Hamill, forever famous for playing Luke Skywalker in the original “Star Wars” film trilogy. He and a battalion of Hollywood directors, cameramen and crew launched a space invasion, of sorts, on Portmagee last summer and the summer of 2014 — filling bed-and-breakfasts to the brim, turning sheep pastures into helipads and hiring fishing boats to ferry props to Skellig Michael. The production has not released information, but there’s a chance that this Ancient location will be revealed in the new Star Wars movie, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” on the 18th of December.

I find this very amusing. Star Wars is one of my favorite compilation of movies and it’s interesting to know that the production team invests in traveling to these rare locations for scenes. This will bring international awareness of the Ancient Island of Portmagee which can likely attract tourist from all over the world.

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This chapter teaches us the main functions of gambling and how it has been used to expand the hospitality industry immensely. Gambling is illegal in the U.S, except for when it’s in one place, and that’s a casino. Legal gambling has expanded the horizons of hotel owners by investing in these game machines and innovating casino or resort casino. The casino is operated by the head manager, and  wins within the casino is split between player and hotel/resort where you’re legally gambling at.  There are two types of gambling, social gambling and mercantile gambling. This chapter also explain the games played in casino’s and gambling resorts which people play to either win or lose.

Baccarat: Gambling card game in which players have three cards and they can bet against the banker. Winner is whom has highest remainder after play.

Blackjack: one of the most widely played casino games. The winner is whom first creates the sum of 21 with cards he/she has in hand.

Wins; Prize after winning a hand or game in casino.

Chapter 10 teaches us of the recreational environments, attractions, and clubs in the U.S and around the world. Government taxes are invested into some of these locations for people to have a sense of recreation in order to enjoy their lives. One benefit of constructing these locations is that it produces more money for that specific surrounding, for example, a restaurant would benefit from a new amusement park or recreation nearby. People who attend these activities will also attend the restaurant that’s nearby whenever they get hungry. This chapter discusses the use of national parks and how these parks are kept conserved and clean through recreation managements. Last but not least, this chapter discusses international recreation outside of the U.S.
Recreation: the basics to living and enjoying our surroundings through art, activities, nature, and social environments.

Government sponsored recreation: Environments constructed by government through taxes for people to have fun and enjoy their time recreationally, such as an amusement park, museum, etc.

Transient occupancy taxes: revenue from taxes invested in hotel accommodations by government

National Parks service: founded by Congress for people enjoy parks and conserve park resources.

Recreation Management: management where recreation and social programs were offered as community service credit

Commercial recreation: gives people the opportunity to explore clubs, outdoor activities, and parks for a service fee.

Theme park: location where structures are created for thrill and fun, such as roller coasters, water slides, etc.

Heritage tourism: recreational location with background history and interesting artifacts, such as pyramids, statues, etc.

National Register of Historic Places: the U. U.S list of locations considered as significant icons and worthy of preservation.

Country Clubs: Club where people pay monthly for services. Many Country clubs have lounges, restaurants, and banquet facilities such as dances, weddings, etc.

City clubs: clubs in the city that involves music and alcohol, mainly for guests whom are over the age of 21.

Leisure: use of free time for recreational activities

National Park: park where guests can attend and enjoy themselves with the surroundings of nature, beaches, pools, fields for sports, etc.

Non commercial recreation: non for profit recreational activities and facilities provided for public.
Recreation for special populations: Organization that serves recreational activities and facilities for those whom are mentally and physically ill.

Club management: manager or managers of country and local clubs.

Voluntary organizations: a non for profit organization providing and investing services for recreational locations, such as cleaning parks, etc.

In this weeks New York Times article, the travel section published an interesting and beneficial source titled ‘Into Africa, 6 Vacation ideas from out Experts’. This articles gives you an overview of locations in Africa travelers should visit/vacation in, beginning with The Victoria Falls, located and Grandeur that’s filled with friendly animals & beautiful nature. Second, the Masai Mara Reserve is highly recommended to those whom enjoy the wildlife. Staying at this location requires a lot of heart, & that’s because you’re entering the animal’s turf, under their terms. Third, one expert recommends to eat the ubiquitous grain when exploring Africa, specifically In East Africa. This grain is like rice to Asia, and similar to cornmeal. Lastly, swimming in the waters of Guinea-Bissau gives you a feeling of how Africans live in that area. According to Adam, the author of this article, you will rarely see tourist and more local people.

After reading this article, i felt ecstatic at the fascinations of these locations in Africa because it was something i wasn’t aware of. When i hear the word Africa, i envision poverty, nature, jungles, third world living, and a place that i wouldn’t want to go on vacation in comparison to other world wide attractions. In addition, i’m intrigued with involving myself in the same kind of living others live in order to get an aspect of how people in that location survive.

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Chapter 4 revolves around the immense function of food and beverage within various divisions and locations in hospitality. It teacher you the food and beverage division and the responsibility a food and beverage director carries to assure efficient operation on a kitchen, catering event, restaurants, bars, and room service. Hotel kitchens and the responsibility of an executive chef to assure quality and quantity of food, organizing kitchen and its operations, & calculation and finance of kitchen expense along with their employees whom are mainly sous chefs. Functions of a typical bar, and their restrictions. Functions of a catering event and the way an event is executed from start to end. Last but not least, room service in a hotel and restaurant operations inside a hotel.

Executive chef: head of the team in kitchen, does more managing and less cooking. In addition, he/she is responsible for notifying the efficient and effective operation to food and beverage director.

Kitchen managers: same role as executive chef, except, they also play the role of a food and beverage director in small hotels

Perpetual inventories: An inventory software that updates inventory automatically

Food cost percentage: food cost divided by food sales

Example: salmon cost 5$ to get and cook, but sold to customers for 10$. Once you divide, you’ll get a food cost percentage of 50%

Contribution margin: expense towards a specific item/complete dish, & difference between the cost of preparing item and the selling price

Labor cost percentage: labor cost divided by net sales multiplied by 100

Food sales percentage: labor cost divided by food sales

Sous chef: executive chef’s assistant. Sous chefs follow up with executive chefs in regards to dishes before being sent out.

Chef tournant: plays a role in every station of kitchen, to help sous chefs as production is taken place.

Brigade: team in kitchen placed in different stations of a kitchen

Restaurant managers: individual/individuals whom manage restaurants, responsible for hiring, training, developing employees, marketing, coffee service, presenting forecasts and budgets to food and beverage director, etc.

Capture rate: an estimate of hotel guest type, population and their use of food and beverage outlets in a restaurant.

Pour/cost percentage: cost of depleted inventory/sales over period of time. Also equals to bar efficiency.

Responsible alcoholic beverage service: a practice to reduce any liability in bar/ guideline for safety, For example, serving alcohol to a minor or to someone who develops alcohol poisoning may be blamed on the bar person, manager, etc.

Pilferage: employees who steal or tamper alcoholic inventory to make extra money.

Shoppers: people who are paid to act like regular guests at bar but it’s actually inspecting the operation

Chief steward: responsible for several functions in hotel/restaurant, such as inventory of chemicals, pest control, sanitation, inventory control and monthly stock check.

Director of catering (DOC): responsible to the food and beverage director for selling, servicing, catering, banquets, meetings, & exhibitions in attempt to exceed guests satisfaction.

Theater-Style meeting seating: meeting set up for large audience to listen & comprehended instead of note taking.

Classroom style meeting: same as theater, but 3 times bigger & requires more labor to set up

Horseshoe-style room seating: room seating shapes as a V , but particularly for training sessions and workshops

Dinner style room seating: meeting in round table set, with food.

Catering event order: an order to clients and hotel employees about an upcoming event to assure awareness and precise procedures

Catering coordinator: coordinates event, in charge of contract negotiations, flower decorations, menu cards.

Catering service manager: responsible for delivering high level service to guests.

Room service: cleaning of rooms and resupplying of materials.

Chapter 3, ‘Rooms Division Operations’ focuses on the responsibilities, and duties of employees and management in a hotel. This includes the main functions of room division departments, property management, yield management, calculating room rates,percentages, and occupancy for potential revenue, importance of guest services and reservation functions, and the role of workers in every major department in a hotel.

Revenue centers: department in the hotel business that produces revenue

Cost centers: department in the hotel that costs money to operate

Executive committee: group of executives who’s involved in major departments of the house. These executives provide information on behalf of their department in the hotel which reflects the GM’d decision making

Room division: Overview of the departments managed by the head of front office.

Yield Management: The analysis of hotel room occupancy and prices in effort to reach maximum occupancy rates and profits

Room rates: The price and demand of rooms varying season or special event

Property Management Systems: operating system used in hotels to articulate and organize reservations, front desk, housekeeping, food and beverage control, & accounting.

Point-of-sale terminals (POS): System used to take record of customer charges.

City ledger: A special account owned by a company or client who’s established credit with hotel. Any credit is due by a specific period of time, doesn’t have to be paid up front

Night Auditor: Employer whom verifies and balances guest accounts receivable.

Daily report: Report which contains room occupancy percentage

Room occupancy percentage(ROP): # of rooms occupied divided by rooms available

Average daily rate (ADR)total of Room revenue divided by rooms sold

Revenue Management: the management who’s in charged of maximizing room revenue

Revenue per available room: total of room revenue by the number of rooms available in a period of time

Call accounting system (CAS): tracks guest room phone charges

Global distribution systems (GDS): electronic markers for travel, hotel, car rental, and attesting bookings.

Central reservation system (CRS): System used within large franchises to connect reservation systems between one chain to another.

Central reservation office: where guest reservations are processed

Confirmed Reservation: Reservations done within a period of time for a confirmation slip without paying.

Guaranteed Reservation: person making and paying for reservation all at once.

Uniformed staff: example; the concierge, bell persons, door attendants.

Concierge: uniformed staff with their own section of hotel. In charge of assisting guests with services

Productivity: measurement of a person hours per occupied room

Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA): administration whom ensures safe and healthful working conditions for employees.

Employees Right to know: Senate bill 198, information which developed awareness of storage, handling, and use of dangerous chemicals

Catastrophe plans: Plan developed to ensure staff and guest safety and to minimize cost of any disaster. To

In this weeks New York Times Assignment, i came upon an article in the travel section titled ‘Air Travel News: A Garden at Kennedy; a Forecast for Lower Fares’ by Elaine Glusac. This article exposes Jet Blue’s agricultural development at the Kennedy airport, and air fare predictions through the Hopper app.

JetBlue built a 24,000 square foot garden in New York’s Kennedy airport. This garden is planted with blue potatoes, herbs and vegetables including beets and arugula. These produce will be provided for the restaurants in the terminal, donated to local pantries, and in particular, the blue potatoes will be supplied to the Terra Company. The Hoppers app is an application that involves in the prediction of future air fares. According to Hopper, Airfares fell a remarkable 18 percent in September compared with the same time last year, and were 9 percent cheaper than August. They state that this occurance is due to  the drop in oil prices. Predictions show that domestic fares will average about $211 for the rest of the year, October through December, which would be 17 percent cheaper than in 2014. And, if its forecasts are right, the news gets better in January, when flights will fall to about $204 on average.

I am proud of JetBlues investment in agriculture at the Kennedy airport and it is a brilliant idea. In my point of view, this will be a great way to support the local businesses and produce more capital for the airline itself. If this investment goes well, more gardens can be built in other airports. I am amazed at how the Hopper app can benefit a lot of those whom travel. After reading this article, i recommend that people download the Hopper app. This is a great way to stay updated on when is best to buy fares. This will result in saving money and can do well for your pockets.

Chapter 2 focuses on the hotel and lodging business as a whole identity. Descriptions of hotel ownership is listed, along with the development of hotels from the past until present time, and how can hotels be developed into a hotel that can lead to a large attraction which leads to more capital. Methods such as franchising and management contracts are taught. Different classification of hotels are listed, & this chapter teaches the function of each classified hotel. This chapter also discusses vacation ownership and how many can invest to have this kind of privilege. last but not least, trends in hotel development are taught through different key terms.

Management Contracts: Contract between hotel and Hotel management companies. Mainly to form an alliance with owners whom are not able to operate hotels in order to improve their hotels.

Franchising: a concept used for companies to expand by using other investors money. Franchising is beneficial because not only do companies make a profit for selling their rights, but it also gives investors the opportunity to grow financially

Example: McDonalds sell their rights to an investor in order for that investor to run his/her own McDonalds. Both franchisee and franchiser benefit from this because one makes money by selling, the other starts making money from investment.

Capital intensive: any form of development or ownership that requires high capital $$$

Fair return on the investment: Making reasonable profits based on your initial investment

Feasibility Study: The study that indicates markets potential, opponents, demand and supply. This study will determine hotels financial success

Summary Operating Statement: list of revenue and expenses for period of time.

Economic Impact of hotels:

Direct economic impact: Capital made only off of guest that effects local community.

Indirect economic impact: Capital made by anyone other than guests (employees, vendors, firms) that impacts local community.

Vacation ownership: an offer in which someone can invest in having the privileged to vacation in various resorts/hotels, for a short or long period of time; similar to a timeshare

Real Estate investment trusts (REITs): Investors with immense assets in real estate whom invest in the hotel business for a reasonable return on the investment.