Hospitality Operations Management: Resolving the Loss of High Profile Booking at Dorchester Hotel

This report discusses the operational situation of the loss of high profile booking at Dorchester Hotel and evaluates how the application of concepts and principles of operations management can resolve the situation and improve performance. It explores the impact of the situation on the hotel's financial performance, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, market position, and employee turnover. The report also suggests the application of business process redesign theory and principles of reality and organization in resolving the situation.

Hospitality
Operations
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Identification on operational situation.........................................................................................1
Evaluation of how application of concepts and principles of operations management can
resolve the situation along with improve performance................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality is defined as the relationship among guest and host. It is the practice of
becoming hospitable. Operations management is defined to supervision of practices of business
for the purpose of creating highest efficiency state within the company. Hospitality operations
management refers to practices performed in hospitality field for devising solutions to needs of
travellers (Alberca and Parte, 2018). In the hospitality industry, various practices are performed
by hotels, restaurants and many more for converting available resources into different services
which meets all the requirements of customers and helps in maximising organisational profits.
The present report is based on operation situation that is loss of high profile booking at
Dorchester Hotel which is situated at London, UK. The hotel has numerous iconic addresses,
various extraordinary hotels and one unique collection. It is one of most iconic hotel on the globe
which defines its destination in unique and legacy manner. The report discusses about on
operational situation that result in negative impacts on organisational performance. Along with
this, it also evaluates the ways in which operational concepts addition to principles that could
resolve the situation as well as improve performance.
MAIN BODY
Identification on operational situation
Overview of company
Dorchester Hotel is luxury organisation in hospitality industry which has headquarters in
London, UK. The hotel is among worlds prestigious together with expensive ones that serves
wide customers with unique and luxury facilities. It has attractive furnishings and ambiance that
influences large people to make booking sin it and enjoy its offerings. The managers of
hospitality form invites potential guests to make own mark on ever evolving legacy of the
astonishing city. The rooms of the hotel are designed as per needs of every customer and also
have The Wine Vault at which it invites customers for private events and many more with master
sommelier. It has around 3500 employees that work in different department in order to meet
needs of all visitors at different rooms.
Operational situation
In case with Dorchester Hotel, one of operational situation that is identified is losing
string of high profile booking that causes negative impacts of the business performance
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(Dorchester Hotel losing strings of high profile booking, 2019). Dorchester Hotel is among most
iconic 5 star hotel which has lost string of high profile booking because of announcement of
gender sex as well as adultery punishments through stoning to death. As per Thompson Routers
Foundation, the company faced cut of ties from travel agents, finances houses and London's
transport network for protesting on introduction of death penalty for adultery and many more.
Moreover, the move prompted corporate backlash for boycott of the hotels which are owned by
South-east Asian country including The Beverley Hill, the Dorchester and many more. It is also
explored that global travel agency which was under privately-held Swiss conglomerate Diethelm
Keller Group, said no to the company to sell its rooms and others. British estate agent and
property industry networking groups were not allowed to use services of Dorchester Collection
hotels. Around 50000 rich people have sign a petition for not availing any of service and
amenities that are offered by the hotel and it was major contribution for occurrence of the
situation. Many other Airlines have also not responded towards requests for the booking of
Dorchester Hotel resulting to the operational situational. Furthermore, the adverts published and
posted by the hotel were also removed and financial institutions banned its staff to stay at the
hotel which restricted its operations and resulted in losing string for high profile bookings of the
hotel.
Due to the operational situation, the company has lost contacts with large travel agents,
finance houses and transport network of London. This also resulted in cut of ties with strong
businesses of the nation. The one of negative impact that is faced by the hospitality company due
to the operational situation is reduction in profits. It is because the high profile people are now
making bookings with other hotels that provide similar facilities and services. When the
company has shortage of customers of room bookings than its overall profit performance is
impacted to huge extent. Also, high profile customers are key for the entity as they are willing to
pay for extraordinary services and lavishing facilities. When company faces such issue then its
financial performance are impacted negatively. The situation has also made employee frustrated
and angry as they are unaware or have no knowledge for what to do and perform what practice to
deal with the situation. The satisfactions of customers who have made bookings or are staying at
the hotel are also influenced negatively to make visit to the hotel due to the situation faced by it.
This impacted on employee performance negatively as they are unable to make effective
performances and this hampers image of the company in the market.
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The position of hotel in the market are also impacted drastically because of the
operational situation as the company is unable to make sales objectives and attain other goals
which influences its position from top to down in international market (Boella and Goss-Turner,
2019). Moreover, it is also identified that because of the situation, Dorchester Hotel has
restrictions in organising any events and also fails in attracting sponsors or investors for its
working. This unfavourably influences the workings of marketers and managers to sustain
positions and grab attention of potential stakeholders towards the entity. Loss of high profile
bookings have made the company facing huge issues and also impacts on its market size,
customer base and shares that influences its overall performance against the set criteria. This
hampers its current performance in context to past year performance.
Various employees are now planning to leave the company because of the operational
situation that is faced by Dorchester Hotel. It results is staff turnover that impacts business
performance to sustain in the dynamic environment. Furthermore, it is identified that banking
institutions have banned its manpower from staying in luxury rooms of the hotel. This hampers
the ways the organisation influence targeted audiences to make purchase decision for the luxury
bookings and generate revenues (Chibili, 2019). Along with this, the situation impacts many
more performances of the business and utilisation of key resources in efficient manner for
achieving entire objectives.
Evaluation of how application of concepts and principles of operations management can resolve
the situation along with improve performance
Operations management is wide field that includes set of concepts and principles whose
application assist business managers to resolve situations easily and improve performances to
desired level (Clifton, 2019). With application of effective operations management theory, the
managers of Dorchester Hotel can make various attempts to resolve the situation and make
efforts to improve performances.
Operational management concept
The concept of operations management states that all the available resources must be
utilised effectively by the managers while transforming materials into end or valuable services in
best effective possible manner (Guliani, 2016). It includes planning, organising, directing,
supervising and administering entire processes for making necessary improvements to gain
higher profits.
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To deal with any operational situation, managers of an entity apply certain operations
management theory that encompasses strategies for enhancing efficiencies in entire operations
system. Operations management theory is defined to set of practice that assists in controlling
processes and actions in most possible ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness in
performances. By applying operations management theory in the pertaining situation,
administrators of the Dorchester Hotel employs strategies for the purpose of increasing
efficiency to maintain operations and perform best in the manner that improves its bookings from
high profile. With this theory, managers effectively use available resources in best possible
manner and strive towards meeting requirements of travellers with highest possible standards.
The operation situation of loss of high profile booking could be resolved with application of
Business process redesign which is one of important operations management theory. Business
Process Redesign theory is one of effective theory to overcome operations situations through
constantly analysing, improving as well as automating existing processes of the company. In
case with operations situations faced by Dorchester Hotel, application of the theory will result in
profits in high profile bookings. By applying the theory, managers of the luxury hotel will
become constant lookouts towards making potential improvements in current strategies,
resources and processes (Ivanova, Ivanov and Magnini, 2016). It completely overhauls key
business process with the aim of attaining quantum jump towards measures of performance
including financial, employee and many more. All the necessary actions can be redesigned by the
managers through applying the theory for dealing effectively with operations situations and
making improvements in performances. The stages that can be followed by managers of
Dorchester Hotel with the purpose of overcoming from the situation are as follows:
Designing: The main point of designing is achieving particular objectives (Lee, 2016). All
companies have processes in which main points are outlined for workings towards attainment of
objectives. In context to Dorchester Hotel, in this stage, managers can identify main reason of the
operational situation and design the procedure to deal with it properly. For example, managers
can make strategies to grab attention of high class people along with middle and lower class
people for making bookings. This will result in making workings to achieve same outputs. In
this, some changes will be made in current process and designing of new process will be done
through figuring out what it involves, where it starts and the end part of it.
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Modelling: Once process is identified, then it is necessary to put it on paper (Moutinho and
Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). The modelling stage includes keeping track of entire processes and
keeping clear as well as up to date list. The managers of Dorchester hotel would be required to
look towards each factors that caused the situation of loss of high profile booking. Further, they
will be mapping out techniques to clarify things to the political parties because of which this
situation occurred. By doing so, it will be helpful for the hotel company to deal with issue and
make things back to track.
Analysis: As the company prepares model to perform activities for dealing with
circumstances (Munjal and Bhushan, 2017). The next is to analyse it properly. In this, managers
of Dorchester Hotel will make their emphasis in analysing whether the steps in process adds
values or are there some unproductive steps that needs to be eliminated.
Monitoring: Organisational managers cannot make improvements in the procedures without
having proper knowledge about how well it is performing in real scenario (Pappas and Bregoli,
2016). In this stage, managers of Dorchester Hotel will monitor entire practices and will also
figure out that the changes have positive impacts on performances of not. For this, managers
would require to gather benchmark data for process as well as compare them with the data that is
collected post improvements.
Improving or automating: As per the insights, managers of company make changes in the
strategies and tactics. They can wither improve them through working in all steps of process or
automates various stages through effective mechanisms. With this, the company can work
effectively towards managing or overcoming loss of high profile booking. Along with, this will
also influence performances of the entity at huge level.
Operational management principles
There are several principles of operations management that can help the entity in dealing
with situations that are impacting negatively of its performances. By applying the principles at
workplace, organisational managers expand their performances in positive manner and
understand driving forces that creates operations situations (Payne-Palacio, 2016). Certain
operations management principles that could be applied by administrators of Dorchester Hotel
with the aim of dealing with cumbersome operational situations that impact negatively on
distinct performances are as follows:
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Principle of reality: As per the principle, management of company must emphasis towards
problems despite of techniques or mechanisms as there is no tool which reflects universal
solution (Riley, 2018). In case with Dorchester Hotel, with this principle managers make full
concentration of the things that are going in reality and try to figure out what are the causes of
that so that all can be resolved as quickly as possible. For example, by looking towards reasons
of loss of high profile booking, managers look towards the situation and make practices to
improve performances in real scenario. It is evaluated that reality principle will benefit the entity
in focusing existing scenarios and improving circumstances through remedial action. With
application of Principle of reality, top management team of Dorchester Hotel gains insights about
major things that are creating negative impacts on business so that effective decision making is
done to manage scenario and tackle operational situation. With the principle, managers focuses
on entire problem despite of particular technique or tool. They also set certain rules through
evaluating realities so that no practices are performed again that are concerned with the current
operational situation. Moreover, working as per the principle assist in emphasising all the aspects
that arises in real world so to recognise cause of the issue and executing remedial action to
overcome from impacts of uncertain or irrelevant circumstance.
Principle of organisation: According to the organisation principle, all the activities in the
operation are interconnected (Rahimi and Gunlu, 2016). Along with this, all the elements should
be based on consistent addition to predictability for attaining similar performance outcomes.
With application of organisation principle in operations of Dorchester Hotel, managers are able
to interconnect all its workings and other practices to properly execute the set tactics for dealing
with negative impacts of operational situation. For example, to improve situation of loss of high
profile booking, it is necessary for the hotel managers to interconnect all its operations with each
other and predict the future that lead in overcoming the situation and improving performances
effectively. Execution of principle gives chance to company to clearly state what must be done
and what must not be done in pertaining situation. By applying principle of organisation, it
increases chances of interconnection of all the departments towards dealing with issue so that
effective outcomes are attained. It is not possible for top management to communicate with all
departments and discussing about operational problem. However, adopting of the principle
benefits administrators to interconnect all divisions and share thought, ideas and views for
overcoming situation and increasing bookings form high profile people. Through this, all the
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values are put into practice so to get things done for solving issues related to operations that is
losing string of high profile booking.
Principle of accountability: As per accountability principle of operations management,
organisational managers are expected to set rules, metrics and regulations along with check then
on frequent basis to met goals. In all workings, accountability is must as it determines
responsibility of an individual towards workings and achieving set objectives (Secchi, Roth and
Verma, 2019). In association to Dorchester Hotel, application of accountability principle make
managers and other staff members accountable for the situations and this also improve
performances of each manpower as they are more responsible to complete workings and attain
objectives. With this, the circumstance of operation faced by the entity can be overcome easily
and performances of all employees are improved to desired state. In case with operational
situation faced by The Dorchester Hotel, application of principle of accountability fosters people
of company to take responsibility for what to be done in specific situation and ways to comply
with other related principles. It provides effective measures together with records in place to
demonstrate compliances that helps in eliminating unethical practices and taking the situation
under control. Principal of accountability makes all the employees and other stakeholders realise
that they are more accountable for pertaining issue and have responsibility for improving
bookings from high profile. For example, airlines, political system, financial institution and other
stakeholders that have involvement in the Dorcheter Hotel, principle of accountability fosters
their realisation for bookings of its services or packages and motivate them to operate or
coordinate as earlier.
Principle of causality: There are some situations in which problems are same as symptoms
wherein the two elements have underlying causes. In order to overcome operational situation, it
is necessary for Dorchester hotel to eliminate underlying causes. By doing so, the company will
be able to overcome loss of high profile booking and will strength its performances as effectively
as possible. Moreover, by making best practices, managers will find root causes and will analyse
all workings that are impacted so that situations do not become worse (Van der Wagen and
White, 2018). The principle is applied to the situations about which the company have adequate
information. Nevertheless, when complexities arises as well as uncertainties come to play then
application of principle helps in identifying underlying causes. In case with the Dorchester Hotel,
application of the principle assist in making consideration for underlying causes and applying
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suitable effective practice that shows outcomes to manage working in critical operational
situation and improving bookings from high profile side.
Operations management principles, theory and concept are main elements which can assist
managers of the company to get rid of operations situations through making effective attempts
and dealing with issues in practical manner. This will also help in making various improvements
in the performances of the employees and entire business. Application of operations management
theory, concept along with principles can assist administrators of Dorchester Hotel to overcome
operational situation impacts together with help in improving performances at different areas. By
analysing all the negative impacts and performances, relevant decisions for the principle san
other elements to be applied by business are made that will result in managing the operational
situation properly and making diverse improvements within performances related to financial,
employee and others.
CONCLUSION
From the mentioned information it is concluded that managing hospitality operations are key
for entire hospitality industry. Operational management is all about administering practices for
devising higher possible efficiency within the entity. Operational situation is the termed to the
scenario that is happening within operational area of business and results in negative influences
of performances. The impacts of the situation are observed in tactical performance, financial
performance, employee performance and many more. In order to resolve the situation and
strengthen performances, various attempts can be made by organisations after analysing and
monitoring impacts. In this, application of theory, concept addition to principle boosts resolution
of situation as well as performance improvement. One of operations management theory that is
suitable for resolving situation is Business Process Redesign theory in which certain activities,
processes and resources are changed as per pertaining scenarios. Principle of reality, Principle of
organisation, Principle of accountability and Principle of causality are certain operations
management principle which assist the ways in which situation is resolved with proper approach.
All these also helps in improving performances as application in accurate manner show
directions to top management through which all the drastic performances can be improved with
changes in time.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alberca, P. and Parte, L., 2018. Operational efficiency evaluation of restaurant firms.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Boella, M. J. and Goss-Turner, S., 2019. Human resource management in the hospitality
industry: A guide to best practice. Routledge.
Chibili, M., 2019. Basic management accounting for the hospitality industry. Routledge.
Clifton, D., 2019. Hospitality Security: Managing Security in Today's Hotel, Lodging,
Entertainment, and Tourism Environment. CRC Press.
Guliani, L. K. ed., 2016. Corporate social responsibility in the hospitality and tourism industry.
IGI Global.
Ivanova, M., Ivanov, S. and Magnini, V. P. eds., 2016. The Routledge handbook of hotel chain
management. Routledge.
Lee, L. Y. S., 2016. Hospitality industry web-based self-service technology adoption model: A
cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. 40 (2). pp.162-
197.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Munjal, S. and Bhushan, S. eds., 2017. The Indian hospitality industry: Dynamics and future
trends. CRC Press.
Pappas, N. and Bregoli, I. eds., 2016. Global dynamics in travel, tourism, and hospitality. IGI
global.
Payne-Palacio, J., 2016. Foodservice management: Principles and practices. Pearson Education.
Riley, M., 2018. Managing People in the Hospitality Industry. Routledge.
Rahimi, R. and Gunlu, E., 2016. Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in
hotel industry from organizational culture perspective. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Secchi, E., Roth, A. and Verma, R., 2019. The impact of service improvisation competence on
customer satisfaction: Evidence from the hospitality industry. Production and
Operations Management. 28 (6). pp.1329-1346.
Van der Wagen, L. and White, L., 2018. Hospitality management. Cengage AU.
Online:
Dorchester Hotel losing strings of high profile booking. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6892823/Dorchester-hotel-loses-string-high-
profile-bookings.html>
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