Case Study-1

James has been described by the corporate office as the Miracle Worker because of the troubled properties that
were turned around under James’s leadership. It is hoped the story at the Cloud Inn Resort will have the same
happy ending; however, the Cloud Inn is in a remote location, hundreds of miles from any other corporate
properties.

The Cloud Inn is a 210-room full-service property with several medium-sized conference rooms; it caters mostly
to business travellers and visitors affiliated with the local university. The bulk of the revenue is generated
between August and May, with periods when classes are not in session being extremely slow. The hotel is at full
occupancy only during football weekends and commencement.

Occupancy has been declining for the last year or so, with last month’s RevPAR at a record low. Since arriving
at the Cloud Inn, James has made several observations about the hotel’s situation. It seems that most of the
problems involve the front desk. After analysing several previous months’ comment cards and informally
chatting with guests at the hotel, James has sensed real dissatisfaction with the check-in process.

Several common themes have emerged: The process seems to take forever, the paperwork at check-in is
perceived as lengthy and hard to fill out, the front desk clerks always appear to be running around “Headless
Chicken” and guests have been checked into rooms that were not clean. After discussing the problems with the
front desk manager, James is in a difficult situation about how best to move toward a solution.

The front desk manager complains that the reservations staff does not always submit the day’s reservations to
the front desk in a timely manner. Thus, guests arrive, and the desk clerks have no idea what rate was quoted or
the room preference of the guest. This results in the guest having to refurnish information that was previously
given when making the reservation.

Many times, clerks are forced to leave the guest at the counter while they attempt to retrieve missing
information from the reservations. Further, with over 65 percent of the housekeeping staff speaking a first
language other than English, communication is difficult at best, and room status is often mistaken.

The front desk manager suggests that the hotel advertise its check-in time to be from “say around 1:00 P.M. or
2:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.” to reduce the crunch time and allow front desk clerks more time to work with each
guest’s check-in needs.

The front desk manager further states that the new hotel in town, the Suite to Sleep Inn, has an earlier check-in
time and “it seems to work okay for them!” James asks the front desk manager how the staff might respond to
moving to a fully automated property management system.

The response was not favourable; the front desk manager mumbled something about “old dogs and new tricks”
and that the corporate office had not put any money into the place in years. What would make James think they
would put out the cash now?

In an attempt to reach a compromise, James considers changing the check-in time in exchange for the front desk
manager’s support of the conversion to an automated system.

1. What must James take into consideration before final decisions are made to adjust check-in time and install a
fully automated property management system?

2. How should James proceed in resolving the communication issue?

3. Who needs to be involved in the final decisions? Why?

4. How might James present the case to the corporate office?

 Case Study-2
Is overbooking important than frequent-stay guest?

Occupancy has been so high that year, that the hotels had regretted a large number of
reservations.

In 2019, a group of eight men from a leading MNC group did not agree to check in, due to
poor efficiency of front office department to reserve rooms for them. Seven single rooms
were booked for these guests, one month prior to the date of arrival at a corporate rate. When
they reached the hotel for check in at the reception at 2 am, the hotel refused to provide
accommodation to four of the guests, due to non-availability of room.

The guests from the same company refused to check in, as the reservation was made for the
entire group and not for four of them. The condition was worse because they were Frequent-
Stay Guest (FSG) and this was not expected from the hotel.

The only suggestion the duty manager could give was to accommodate four of them in a
double deluxe room (two double beds in a room). The guests were irritated and asked to call
front office manager, who was not available. They started shouting, “We had already
received confirmation from you. Does it make no sense to you? We are not going to check in,
till your manager comes to the hotel.”

They all sat in the lobby, waiting for the front office manager to come. The front office
manager was called by the duty manager in the night, and he spoke to the guest, apologised
for the same and somehow the guests were accommodated in the same suite room and
assured that they will be shifted to their reserved status room early morning and the check in
was made accordingly.

The problem arose due to overbooking of rooms, due to which all rooms were occupied and
led to guest dissatisfaction.

Questions

1. What do you think the front office manager would have said the guests?
2. Was the management failure here; if so what?
3. What further long-run action should management take?
4. What measures can you take to avoid the situation?
5. What should be the action of night shift staff for morning shift?
Case Study -3
Frank Williams, General Manager of the Convention Centre Hotel, is very concerned. For the
last three months, the guest comment cards for his hotel have shown significant downturn in
guest satisfaction. The primary departments showing reduced guest ratings are reservations,
front desk, and housekeeping.
Frank knows he has to find the reasons for the low ratings. He and his hotel management
team are evaluated by the hotel's parent company based on the ratings gathered through guest
comment cards. If the ratings are good, he and his team will see an increase in their year-end
bonus. If the ratings are poor, the bonus will be reduced. Of even more concern to Frank is
the potential loss of repeat business. If the trend continues, the number of guests returning to
the property may drop significantly. Returning guests are the cornerstone of Frank's strategy
to make annual occupancy, rate, and revenue budgets. If the hotel begins to lose its best
customers, his strategy will fail.
Frank has looked at the remarks closely and asked each division head to provide two charts.
The first chart shows the guest comment card ratings for each department for the last three
months. The second chart shows the group arrival and departure patterns for the same period.
In addition, each division head has listed each type of guest complaint and its frequency.
Frank identified the following trends after meeting with the room division managers:

 The highest guest dissatisfaction was evident during major group arrivals and
departures. Most groups checked in on Monday and departed on Thursday. Monday
and Thursday were also the major arrival and departure days for non-group business.
 Both group and non-group guests mentioned that there was a lack of clean rooms
when they arrived, and that they had to wait up to three hours for a room.
 Guests driving to the hotel complained about the traffic and congestion at the hotel
front door and also the group check made the lobby area crowded.
 Special room requests by guests were seldom honoured by the hotel-- even those from
frequent guests.
 Most rooms division personnel (front desk, bell stand, concierge, telephone, and
housekeeping) seemed to know little about the groups staying in the hotel. Special
group room rates were often not posted to guest accounts; master account billings
were also incorrect on several occasions. In addition, room division personnel did not
recognize returning non-group guests.

Discussion Questions

1. What appears to be the underlying problem or problems with front office operations?
What hotel information should Frank be checking?
2. What other departments may be affecting front office performance and, as a
consequence, the guest ratings of the front office?
3. What should the room division management team be doing to turn this situation
around? Develop a plan, consisting of at least five elaborate steps, that will resolve the
problem.
Case Study-4
The City Centre Inn has always enjoyed a positive reputation in the community it serves.
Built as an independent hotel about 20 years ago, it has 400 rooms and appeals mostly to
travellers looking for mid-range prices and services. It also has an excellent banquet facility
and is generally recognised as one of the best hotels in town. Recently, new competition has
been built two blocks from the City Centre Inn. The new hotel has 300 rooms and also has
good banquet space. It is a chain hotel and enjoys a good reputation based upon the chain.
Tom, the hotel front office manager, has begun to see a downturn in hotel business. Some of
the City Centre Inn’s regular guests are not returning. With the permission of the hotel’s
general manager, Tom calls several of these regular guests to find out why they are not
returning. Tom is pleased to find that the guests he calls like the hotel. They believe the food
at the City Centre Inn is better than at the competitors. The guestrooms are just as clean and
comfortable too. However, the City Centre Inn lacks many of the conveniences of the new
competition, so the business travellers are going there instead. Tom made a list of these issues
for the general manager. They include:
i. No convenient 800 number (toll free number) to call for reservations
ii. Slow registration processing
iii. Slow check-out processing
iv. Frequent inaccurate guest billing
v. Lack of frequent guest recognition by the newer front desk employees The City
Centre Inn has a semi-automated front desk and all the equipment is in good
condition. Reservations are processed manually using typewriters to fill out expected
arrivals list for the front desk. Room status communications between the front desk
and housekeeping are also manual, and so is the charge posting function. Tom decides
the market is telling the hotel to change, but he is not sure what to recommend to the
general manager.

Answer the following questions:

1. What alternatives does the hotel have to improve the service issues mentioned by the
guests? Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of providing a fully automated hotel versus
keeping their current systems.
2. If the hotel’s owners decide not to implement a fully automated front desk, what else can
Tom do to minimize the problems identified by the guests? Are there other systems besides a
front desk computer that can help this situation?
3. What forms and reports should Tom be reviewing to see if they can be simplified or
eliminated? What other department managers should he include in this review?