3. Ownership and Affiliantion

In the Uk , the industry has gone through tremendous changes and its transformation is more significant over the past two decades. It has been identified that the American influence, concepts and ideas in the 80's could be the main reasons behind theser transformations.Probably a more significant fator ralated to American influence , has beeb the growth of large chains such as an increase in the number of american fast food chains like McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King in the UK while other small home - grown roadsie dining transformed into strong branded restaurants. HOtels chain develope strongly branded properties such as Forte's Travelodge and the Stakis Court while contract foodservice saw the emergence o large compnies such as Compass.

These large chains transformed the hospilality industry because they introduced more professionalism to the business than ever before in the liks of size, financial and manpower resources and motivation t deliver higher standards from increased competition Idependent owners have the advantage of giving their properties unique characteristics and are flexibility to change their concepts.
These properties do not have the advantages of economies of scale enjoyed by chain operators. Some advantages can be gained by joining consortia.

Affiliation modes cover consortium membership, franchising and management contracting and a final varuabt may be where governments or agencies directly operate hotels. The characteristics of each of these modes are discussed below.

.Hotel Chains
Another important structural variable in the hotel secor relates to the form of affiliantion hotels operate under. IN this context  an importain feature of the sector has been the development of hotel chains. Hotel chains may be defined as multi- unit service organisations in which units operate under a system of decison-making permitting coherent policies and a corporate functions are linked to add value to each other by ownership or contactual relationships'.

.Consortium Member
This is a mechanism whwereby hotels( or indeed a wider set of tourism organisations) agree to cooperate in order to gain corporate benefits, which raise revenue and / or cut costs in ways the business could not achieve on its own. for example, benefit could accrue from joint purchasing or marketing activities.

The consortium approach can operate in tandem with other forms of affiliation- i.e include independently/ autonomously owned hotels as well as units which are members of chains. in addition to cost efficiency possibilities, consortium membership may appeal to hoels because of their location needs( e.g. marketing a specifice destination during periods of slack demand/overcapacity), market niche/branding purposes (reach new custom due to branding national/international benefits together with joint servic such as central reservations and joint representation . Membership is considered on the basis of the fit of the applicant to the objectives of the consortium and their ability to meet subscription and operational requirement (such as maintenance of a given standard/ style o operation).
it is also a feature of most consortia that members are represented on the menagement board of the organisation.