Analyzing Hospitality Philosophies: Intercontinental Hotels Report

This report delves into the philosophies of hospitality and customer service practices at Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts. It highlights the importance of the five service systems, the benefits of the ARFFD (Apology, Review, Root Cause, Fix, and Documentation) model, and the significance of the LEARN (Listen, Empathize, Apologize, React, Notify) approach in enhancing customer service. The report further recommends that Intercontinental Hotels align its objectives with customer needs and current trends to elevate performance and profitability. It concludes that prioritizing customer service, taking feedback, and implementing corrective measures are crucial for maintaining a positive hotel image and fostering customer loyalty. Desklib offers access to this and many other solved assignments for students.

Philosophies of
hospitality

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Importance of Five services system............................................................................................4
Benefits of ARFFD.....................................................................................................................4
Importance of LEARN................................................................................................................5
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is one of the largest business industry which contributes in economic
development of country. It plays an important role in providing better customer services and to
meet their expectations by rendering quality services (Romero, 2017). The core aim for every
hospitality business is to satisfy customer needs by fulfilling every aspect of hospitality. It also
facilitates in generating higher profit by engaging with more and more customers which also
contributes in elevating brand image of company. This project report is based on Intercontinental
Hotels and resorts, a British multinational hospitality company, headquartered in Denham,
England. This project report will cover importance of five service systems along with benefits of
ARFFD, LEARN and AREC. Further it will cover how this can be used by hotels to enhance
customer service experience. In addition to that, it will cover a brief recommendation how hotel
can effectively implement in their management strategy.
TASK
Customer service creates healthy relationship between guest and hotel as satisfied guest are more
likely to visit again and will be loyal too. It is human tendency to opt better service but by paying
minimum price. It helps company in improving reputation and can attract a larger customer base
by rendering better quality service. It helps in adding values to hotel's service along with
increased customer retention rates (Li and et.al., 2021). It also facilitates in generating recurring
revenue . By this guest will post their review on social media and on hotel's websites which will
help other potential customers in opting hotel. By rendering quality services, it will help hotel in
elevating its standards as well as reputation. It will attract new customers by referrals of already
visited guest. It makes customer loyal towards company and will opt same hotel whenever they
visit in future. There are various types of hotels which provides accommodation services to their
customers and charge on the basis of quality of accommodation services. Premium hotels
charges high amount for their services and targets upper segment and rich professional. They
provide lavish and luxury accommodation services. Another type of hotel is medium hotel
which is having 3 to 4 stars. It targets medium to upper class people and charges lower than
premium hotels. The another category of hotel which lies is lower class hotels which is suitable
for low earning people. It is opted by those people who do not want to pay for additional
services.

Importance of Five services system
 Preparation – It is important to pre plan activities which will help hotel in reduced stress
and increased productivity. It also facilitates in elevating hotel image and not face issue
while delivering services. In case of non preparation of accommodation, food and
hygiene services, it can delay in services and guest may feel dissatisfied. So it si
important to prepare for all services prior to arrival of guest in order to enhance level of
satisfaction.
 Execution - After planning and making necessary arrangements, it is important to
execute those activities at time of arrival of guest. Without execution, planning and
preparation is useless. It positively impacts on guest experience as well as enhances
satisfaction level and makes convenient too (Baker and Kim, 2018). It is important to
execute actions as per pre determined plans and preparation or it will lower down
reputation of hotel.
 Guest preference – it is important to treat every guest like king and it can be done by
collecting information from various sources in order to understand behaviour and to
provide with services which will satisfy expectations. By prioritizing guest, it creates
sense of value within guest.
 Experience tracking – Service experience must be tracked in order to assess weaknesses
in which company is lacking. This will help hotel in taking corrective actions so as to
eliminate barrier which came across in way of success. There are various software which
makes this process easier and facilitates in effective decision making. By tracking and
collecting records of customer experience, it will help hotel in providing better customer
service experience.
 Recovery and Continuous improvement - It is important to take feedback from
customers and based on that take corrective measures so that company can improve its
services (Liang and Wu, 2022).
Benefits of ARFFD
This service recovery model will help hotel in enhancing services by apologizes from customers
in case of any mistake. This will impact positively on guest mind and hotel should review its
fault. It can be done by analysing root cause of problem and to fix up by taking corrective

actions. It will elevate company's reputation infront of guest. It is needed o ensure by
management that same mistake would not be followed by previous one.
Importance of LEARN
It is needed to listen to queries of customers and to pay attention to its issues. Hotel can note
down questions and allows them to talk without any interruption. By understanding customer
point of view, if found guilty hotel should apologize for their fault. It can be made correct by
either compensating or replacing. After Hotel should resolve each query of customer and thank
customer for providing a chance for solving issue. Management should assure guest, that they
will not repeat mistake.
Recommendation
Customer service experience plays crucial role in attracting customers as it is one of the widest
industry which creates lots of opportunities such as generates employment, contributes in GDP
of country (Hossain and et.al., 2020). In today's dynamic business, it becomes complex for hotels
to operate business operations. Due to pandemic, hospitality industry have affected drastically
and mostly companies are still recovering. There are various hospitality trends which affects
Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts and it can be managed by formulating effective strategy
which contributes in attainment of goals. It is recommended to company to understand customer
needs and wants along with recent trends so that it can elevate performance and profitability of
company. Management should align its objectives, mission and vision with its resources in order
to make it easier for attainment of goal.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report, it was concluded that customer service is key to make them
satisfied. It is important to provide better quality of services so that it can attract potential
customers. It will help hotel in adding values of services along with increased recurring income.
In addition to that, it will also help in boosting employee morale and enhances customer loyalty
and trust. It act as a bridge which connects organisation with guest. Further, it also encourages
word of mouth marketing by which people can opt their hotel without thinking much. It is
important to take feedback from customers so that corrective measures can be taken to resolve
their issues. It creates a positive image of hotel and makes customer loyal. According to a
report,it has been analysed that the main reason for failure of hospitality business is due ton poor

customer service. Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts can communicate with their customers by
social media and can share images of visited customers. Grading system help customer in opting
hotel based on quality standards and services.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, M.A. and Kim, K., 2018. Other customer service failures: emotions, impacts, and
attributions. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(7), pp.1067-1085.
Hossain, M.S., Sambasivan, M., Abuelhassan, A.E. and Khalifa, G.S.A., 2020. Factors
influencing customer citizenship behaviour in the hospitality industry. Annals of Leisure
Research, pp.1-24.
Li, M., Yin, D., Qiu, H. and Bai, B., 2021. A systematic review of AI technology-based service
encounters: Implications for hospitality and tourism operations. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 95, p.102930.
Liang, L. and Wu, G., 2022. Effects of COVID-19 on customer service experience: Can
employees wearing facemasks enhance customer-perceived service quality?. Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Management, 50, pp.10-20.
Romero, J., 2017. Customer engagement behaviors in hospitality: customer-based
antecedents. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 26(6), pp.565-584.