TOUR 374: Hotel Operations Case Study - Service Recovery and Strategy

This case study analyzes the declining occupancy rates of an international hotel, exploring the causes through a cause-and-effect analysis. It identifies issues related to facilities, pricing, services, location, staff, competition, and brand image. The solution proposes an immediate service recovery strategy focused on upgrading social media presence, employee training, and price modifications. The objectives include improving brand image, increasing occupancy, understanding customer needs, and boosting revenues. The study suggests actions such as personnel performance reviews, promoting the property through social media influencers, and implementing the RATER model to improve reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness. Additional recommendations include technology upgrades, hotel infrastructure renovation, and enhanced social media marketing. The conclusion highlights the multifaceted reasons for occupancy decline and the proposed solutions for improvement.

HOTEL OPERATIONS
CASE STUDY Name of the Student

INTRODUCTION
The needs of the travellers have been changing considerably.
This makes it very critical for the hotels to come up with new
offerings.
These new offerings can come in the form of interesting pricing
techniques or accommodation advantages
The concept of shared accommodation also brings about a new
revolution in the hotel industry (Boella, 2017).
Hence, the primary of the presentation is to outline the manner in
which the overall operations of the Hotel can be reviewed and the
problem relating to the lowered occupancy can be solved
accordingly.

THE PROBLEM IN HAND
The ABC international Hotel has been faced by a problem of
lowered occupancy rate
Although the number of international tourists and domestic
travellers in the country have increased, the number of occupants
as present in the hotel has been declining.

CAUSE AND EFFECT
ANALYSIS
Facilities
Pricing
Services
Location
Staff
Competition
Brand name
Reduced
Occupancy

The different causes due to which the overall occupancy has
reduced at the ABC International Hotel can be taken to be as
follows:
Pricing
• The pricing of the hotel may
not be affordable by the
guests and hence, the
occupancy can be low
Location • The location of the hotel may
not be suitable.
Services
• The services provided by the
hotel may not be adequate
and as per the standard of
the travellers
Competit
ion
• The competition faced by
ABC can be understood to
very fierce.

Staff • The staff of the hotel may
be incompetent in nature.
Brand
name
• The brand name of the
Hotel may not be up to
the mark
• The effect is the
lowered occupancy
rates
Effects

IMMEDIATE SERVICE
RECOVERY STRATEGY
The immediate service recovery strategy which may be provided to
the ABC International Hotel can be taken to be as follows:
The hotel will be required to upgrade its social media performance
and attract the influencers
The employees need to be provided with training
(Hotelnewsresource.com ,2019).
In addition to this, the pricing of the hotel has to be modified.

OBJECTIVES OF THE
STRATEGY
The objectives of the strategy are as follows:
To improve the brand image of the organization
To ensure that the occupancy rate of the hotel can be improved to
a great extent
To engage in communication with the customers and understand
their needs
To increase the revenues of the firm.

ACTIONS TO BE INCLUDED
Providing customer service training to the
employees
Revising the pricing policy of the hotel
Revolutionising the services of the hotel

PERSONNEL PROFILE
There shall be no change in the personnel
A performance review shall be conducted which will help in
determining the overall performance of the different employees
The employees who have been performing well will be retained
The rest of the employees will be undergone a training facility

PROMOTING PROPERTY
It can be understood to be the age of the social media influencers
It is for this purpose that the property shall undergo a change
which shall make it more picturesque in nature
Additionally, the overall complementary goods and services will be
highlighted
Moreover, the influencers on platforms of the social media will be
invited for a free visit
Their posts shall assist in making the hotel more popular and
thereby improve the occupancy rates Hotelnewsresource.com ,
2019).

INITIATIVES TO BE
UNDERTAKEN
RATER MODEL
Service
Quality
Mgt.
Customer
Satisfaction
& Service
Recovery
Customer
loyalty
Reliability
Assurance
Tangibility
Empathy
Responsiveness

RATER MODEL APPLIED
1. Reliability – Consistent and accurate performance
• Ensuring that the customer service is reliable
• Ensuring that the room service provided to the guests can be understood to be accurate in
nature
• Seeing to it that the hotel is clean at all times
2. Assurance – Sense of trustworthiness (provides confidence)
• The staff needs to be professional in nature
• They will be required to ensure that the customer needs are met with
• All customer demands need to be fulfilled.
3. Tangibles – Physical Evidence (services cape)
• The rooms need to be renovated
• All modern amenities need to be present
• The overall ambience needs to be made picturesque in lieu of social media
• The staff needs to appear professional.

1. Empathy – Warm, true heartfelt response
• The employees must greet the guests at all times
• They are required to engage in a healthy relationship with them
• The queries and issues of the employees must be resolved in a
timely manner
• Additionally all the needs of the guests need to be met with in a
timely manner (Nieves & Segarra-Ciprés, 2015).
2. Responsiveness – Willingness to help promptly
• The employees need to be courteous
• However irrelevant the needs of the customers may be, they
should be met with.
• Moreover, even over the phone and related means, the needs of
the employees should be met
(Hotelnewsresource.com ,2019).

PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS
The personnel involved in the firm will not undergo any change
Their overall performance of the employees is required to be
evaluated.
The deficiencies in the skills are required to be identified
Their training has to be given (Rutherford & O’Fallon, 2007).
After that, they should be placed as per their skills

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Installation of the latest
technology
The Artificial Intelligence is a
technology which needs to be
applied
This can be present to take the
requests of the customers and
fulfil them
These can range from heating
the room temperature, arranging
wake up calls, lights and other
such personal needs

Renovation of
the hotel
infrastructure:
As it is the age of social
media, the overall
infrastructure of the hotel
needs to be renovated such
that it becomes picturesque
(Murphy et al., 1996).
It helps to gain popularity on
the social media
It also assists in attracting
clients and revenues

Improved social media marketing
The hotel needs to hire influencers in order to
attract the target audience.
Moreover, being more active on the social
media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram will help the hotel in gaining
popularity and engaging in customer feedback
(Molina-Azorín et al., 2015).
Moreover, through the medium of various
offers and contests, the firm can engage
various customers.

CONCLUSION
Therefore, from the given presentation it could be understood that:
1. There are a large number of reasons why the occupancy rate at
the hotel has been affected.
2. These range from marketing issues, facilities issues, employee
issues and the overall infrastructure issues
3. Using the RATER model, the initiatives which have to be taken
were highlighted
4. Additionally, other recommendations which improve the
occupancy rates have been provided.

REFERENCES
Boella, M. J. (2017). Human resource management in the hotel and catering industry.
Routledge.
Hotelnewsresource.com (2019). Article [online]. Available at:
https://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article106195.html (Retrieved on: 14 Aug. 2019).
Molina-Azorín, J. F., Tarí, J. J., Pereira-Moliner, J., Lopez-Gamero, M. D., & Pertusa-Ortega, E.
M. (2015). The effects of quality and environmental management on competitive
advantage: A mixed methods study in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 50, 41-54.
Murphy, J., Forrest, E. J., Wotring, C. E., & Brymer, R. A. (1996). Hotel management and
marketing on the Internet: An analysis of sites and features. The Cornell Hotel and
Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 37(3), 7-82.
Nieves, J., & Segarra-Ciprés, M. (2015). Management innovation in the hotel
industry. Tourism Management, 46, 51-58.
Rutherford, D. G., & O’Fallon, M. J. (2007). Hotel management and operations. John Wiley
& Sons.

Thank
you