Enhancing Hotel Service Quality via Employee Training and Motivation

Improving Hotel Service Quality Through Employee Training and Motivation is a critical area within hospitality management that focuses on enhancing guest experiences by investing in employees. This study delves into various methodologies and practices aimed at training staff to meet high service standards while ensuring they remain motivated and committed to their roles. The analysis encompasses the significance of continuous professional development, recognition systems, and an inclusive workplace culture as essential components for fostering a dedicated workforce. By understanding employee needs and aligning them with organizational goals, hotels can achieve superior service delivery, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study also highlights practical approaches, such as personalized training programs, regular feedback mechanisms, and reward-based incentives, that have proven effective in boosting morale and performance among hotel staff. Furthermore, it discusses the broader implications of these strategies on operational efficiency, reputation management, and competitive positioning within the hospitality industry.

1
Running head: QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL
Quality Service Improvement in courthouse Hotel
Student's Name
Institution Affiliation

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 2
Introduction
Hotels are rated differently according to their quality. Many organizations around the
world use wide varieties of rating schemes such as stars with a greater number of stars indicating
more exceptional luxury and quality. This star rating system was launched in 1958, and it has
since been used from there on. However, in the recent years, this system has been criticized that
the rating criteria are complex and challenging for persons to understand and it also lacks unified
global system for rating hotels (Dabestani, Shahin, Saljoughian, & Shirouyehzad, 2016).
A four-star hotel has a better food service, view, spa, entertainment, better room service
and excellent fitness facilities than a three-star hotel (Shahin & Dabestani, 2010). The supervisor
of Courthouse hotel must improve these services to cater for the German delegate visit and also
improve its standards to avoid bad publicity.
Question 1 (a)
The kitchen department is a subsection of food and beverages department comprising of
various kitchens. The kitchen is supplied with ready-made ingredients, processed through
preparation and cooking, and finally delivered to the customer. The purpose of this department is
to produce the best standard and quality food to serve the required number of clients by efficient
use of staff and materials. The supervisor should define the requirements of the kitchen with
regards to the type of equipment available, food prepared and space.
Kitchen department should have several units depending on its local and purpose. The
main kitchen is popularly known as the central kitchen located at the center of the hotel, and it

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 3
should occupy a large area in this department. This unit is where food ingredients are received,
stored, prepared /cooked and served. A large variety of food is prepared from this area, and it is
designed for efficient workflow, i.e., it is adjacent to the stillroom, room service, bar, pastry, and
store. The central kitchen should be subdivided into several units including cooking area,
vegetable preparation area, butchery section, pastry/ bakery section, frozen section and the larder
.This unit can serve both a' la carte and table d’ hote menu and provide a wide variety of cuisine
including German cuisine, Indian cuisine, Japanese, Mexican and Oriental with the help of
skilled chef-de-parties and commie cooks (Beck, Danilenko, Sperber, Wiersma, & Egger, 2017).
A satellite kitchen should be designed to cater for the location disadvantages of the main
kitchen where it cannot be able to serve. It is mostly commanded and headed by the sous chef.
This kitchen organizes most of its preparations, but it also depends on the main kitchen for other
things such as pasta, stock and sauce. This kitchen is a must for a four-star hotel especially
because it specializes in different cuisines.
A fast food kitchen should be designed in this unit to cater for dry and light food which
is cooked quickly and stored for a short while without spoiling. It is situated in the lobby area or
out of the hotel at the fast food lounge and should not be far from the leisure area. The food
prepared in this kitchen includes light meal such as chips, pizza, hot dogs, hamburger, grilled
meat/fish, and snacks. It should be equipped with quality standards equipment and high quality
bridge of chefs with passion and flair. This unit is usually established to cater for fashionable
customers.
The hotel should also have a display kitchen also known as theatre kitchen. Here, food is
cooked in the view of the customers. This kitchen must display a high standard of hygiene,
sanitation, and décor (Tarí, Pereira, Pertusa, López, & Molina, 2017).The staff headed by sous

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 4
chef/chef de parties must also act professionally. The aroma of food in this kitchen adds the
pleasure of eating of the customers. This kitchen depends on the support of the main kitchen and
prepares food such as grilled meat/fish.
The kitchen should have a layout plan to include five major areas such as the cooking
area which should occupy a maximum area. This is where the actual cooking takes place and
where cooking gas, pressure steamer, deep fat fryer and hot plate are fixed. This section should
include no through way by other staff members causing traffic. The kitchen should also have a
storage area where large quantities of either dry or moist good are stored to enable smooth
operations. Equipment such as a deep freezer, cold room, and dry store are found in this area.
Cleaning and washing area should be included in this department. This area should be
close to the serving area. This is where cleaning of glasses, pots, pans, and dishes takes place.
This area should be thoroughly clean, and a cleaning staff separate from the kitchen cooking staff
employed to clean the dishes. Equipment such as dishwashing machine is found in this area.
Food preparation area is also necessary for this department. This is where all the food
ingredients are prepared, and it is mostly close to the cooking area. Finally, the kitchen
department should have a service area. After the food is prepared and cooked it is taken to this
area and it is from here that the food is delivered to the customer table. Toast and beverages
facilities are kept near this area for easy access by the waiters.
Special dietary should be prepared to guests with special needs (Bansal, & Taylor, 2015)
and also have a separate children menu served with strictly children food. They should consider
breakfast menu provided to each guest and breakfast meal specialty for the day visible at the
entrance. The breakfast fully cooked having a wide variety of selection. Lunch should have a

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 5
cold/hot option with a selection menu and a wide selection to choose. They should consider
offering afternoon tea and beverages plus snacks. Dinner served with a variety of hot/ cold meals
including cold meat and cheese.
All the cutlery including table cloths, table mats, serving trolleys, ashtrays, and all
necessary table appointments and they should be of high standards and good quality (Hu, Mok,
Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
Cookery should be adequate and highly trained to serve a large number of visitors in the
dining. They include an executive head chef with excellent management skills and have
experience in cooking all types of cuisines and banqueting; he is the head of all chefs. A kitchen
housekeeper is also one of the staff and whose primary role is to ensure maintenance of high
standard of cleanliness and presentation. A breakfast chef is also a must in this setup. His/ her
main role should be preparing, cooking and plating breakfast and should have an exceptional
culinary knowledge. A pastry chef is also a part of this team and is skilled in making pastries,
bread, desserts and other baked foods. Other staff in this department should include chef-de-
parties and a commis chef/ cooks.
Employee’s dress code influence success of a business.(Wong, Dean & White, 1999).
The dress code is usually set to ensure employee feel comfortable when they are working and
also to make sure that the appearance complies with the local regulatory authorities. The team
should be supplied with gloves used in handling ready- to- eat food. They should wear a hat or
hair covering especially those employees that have a high risk of contaminating exposed foods.
The chefs should be dressed in clean, high quality designed and dry cleaned aprons/ chefs coat

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 6
and dirty clothes stored in laundry bags and stored away from prep areas. Jewelry should be
removed from hands and arms, nails trimmed and should not wear fingernail polish.
Finally, the supervisor should make sure that this department complies with food safety
guidelines and regulations (Amin, Aldakhil, Aldakhil, & Cobanoglu, 2017). These regulations
include the use of potable water, clean utensils, maintaining proper temperatures, ensuring
employees do not work while ill, hand washing, ensuring produce wash before use of food
ingredients and food protection.
Question 1 (b)
In kitchen department, the supervisor would need to demonstrate excellent
communication skills to ensure things run smoothly. With good communication skills, the
supervisor would easily communicate their needs and the dishes to be prepared with the head
chef and also communicate their expectations and opinions to the kitchen department members.
The kitchen unit is a sensitive area, and the required standards would only be achieved if the staff
members will understand the supervisor.
The supervisor would need to have excellent organization skills (Akbaba, 2006). This
involves being able to schedule, organize and follow the set standards. The supervisor should set
a course of action to be followed through by the kitchen staff members and make sure all the
members understand their roles and responsibilities. Staff in this unit work on a variety of tasks
at once, and hence supervisor must create order to make sure this environment is not chaotic.
The supervisor would have to demonstrate good flexibility skills (Akbaba, 2006). It
involves the supervisor having to change their plans to match the reality of the expectation, e.g.,

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 7
incorporating new food items into menus such as German cuisine and improving older recipes.
He/she also need to be flexible to cater for the high standards changes in the department.
The supervisor would have to possess a skill of paying attention to detail (Fick, & Brent
1991). Cooking is a science and supervisors need to be precise in all activities. Measurements
and ingredients must be exact and have knowledge of when to cook certain foods and order
ingredients. He/she must have an eye for details.
The supervisor should possess good leadership skills. He is required to manage his staff
members, work well as a team player and be in good terms with all cooks to ensure this
department runs smoothly. He must know where every staff works and their capabilities (Kay
&Moncarz 2004). Excellent leadership skills involve the supervisor bringing out the best out of
the staff members.
The supervisor should possess good administrative skills (Kay &Moncarz, 2004). He
should be business oriented and know how to make sure this department produce delicious food
and sell at cost-effective price. He should also ensure kitchen sanitary as this can affect the
quality of food or even force the hotel to shut down.
Technical skills are vital in the kitchen. The supervisors ought to have knowledge of the
kitchen including culinary expertise, ability to recognize flavors and of judging the balance of
seasonings. He should also have technical skills such as cooking skills, knife skills, and tasting
skills.
Question 1 (c)

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 8
Every human being has something that motivates them in life (Kingir, &Mesci, 2010),
they work harder in that situation than when they are not motivated. Employees are not an
exemption of that case, and hence supervisors and managers have an enormous task to make sure
that employees are motivated all the time for them to produce a high quality work.
Offering small and consistence rewards such as bonus are one of the ways supervisors
can motivate employees (Kingir, & Mesci, 2010). If an employee talks a customer to book a
room, they can be awarded with a bonus and with the bonus earned an employee will try to
improve the high level of performance to earn more bonuses. Employees can also be rewarded
with rooms that the hotel is not using to use as personal rooms, get anniversaries and hosting or
contributing to their birthday celebrations can motivate them.
Provide clarity and transparency of the business, vision, mission including their long and
short-term goals. There’s no way you can be motivated to doing something you are not sure of
(Sari, Bulut, & Pirnar, 2016). Every employee should have a chance to raise any query and get
relevant and appropriate feedback. This makes the employee feel they have a say in the overall
decision making of the hotel.
Reward employees with promotions, raise salaries and wages annually (Claver, José &
Pereira, 2006) Despite increasing the hotel’s growth, employees have their own goals, which is
mostly contributed to increases in salaries and if that is not provided most employees seek
employment elsewhere. Every junior employee will surely increase their performance if they
know that one day they will climb up the ladder and maybe rise to the position of a manager.
Appreciating employees is giving credit where it is due (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully,
2013) One of this ways is by simply saying thank you and job well done. This is simply praising

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 9
employees for the good work they have done. The supervisor can also appreciate employees by
giving them small presents when they achieve their goals and also identify each employee’s
talent, try to nature the talent and bring the best out of their talent.
Supervisors must encourage the use of teamwork if they want the employees to be
motivated. If one individual is not motivated and the rest of the team is, there’s no doubt the
team will push the individual morally and eventually the person will be motivated in no time.
The supervisor should ask themselves if the working environment is suitable for teamwork. The
peers can be rewarded by awarding the best team (Arbelo, & Pérez, 2017).
When employees are sure that they will be working the next day or next week or
probably the next year, they will work hard to make sure that the company will be more
profitable and in good condition and hence supervisors ought to provide a sense of security
(Maroudas, Kyriakidou, &Vacharis, 2008). This does not mean regularly monitoring them or
inserting CCTV cameras, but it means making them feel safe that they will not be fired.
However, this does not mean that if the employees act unprofessionally, they will not be
punished. The supervisor should also provide a contract document to the employees once they
are employed; this makes the employee more secure.
Question 2 (a)
Quality standard of service is one of the main elements that define a successful business
and Courthouse hotel this is not an exemption. The supervisor can invest in training the
employees. He/she should look at the areas that the employees are weak in and organize training
sessions in the areas (Stylos, & Vassiliadis, 2015), this may include learning good customer
service for the waiters and front office receptionist and learning how to cook German cuisine and

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 10
other international meals for the chefs. This should also apply to new workers as they should be
trained immediately they are employed and taught to deliver quality work. This gives them a
clear sense of the hotel’s target.
Create a customer satisfaction survey (Gill, & Gill, 2016).). This help supervisor
improves the current standard of service. This may include questions such as ‘were you satisfied
with the speed of the waiters?’, ‘where you greeted at the reception?’, ‘Would you like to come
back to Courthouse hotel again?’, ‘What would you like Courthouse hotel to improve on?’ Most
unhappy customers will not come back, and if the supervisor can get the reason they were
unhappy by tracking the complains and putting measures to prevent them from ever happening
again, he/she would improve on the issues and attract more customers and improve the quality of
standards in the hotel.
Define goals and have a clear vision statement. Outline the vision of the business
(Shahin, & Dabestani, 2010). Make sure all the employees know what quality service means to
the company at that time and make sure everyone is aware of what they are supposed to do and
what to be doing to meet high quality standards.
Recommendations
I would recommend several courses of action to help the supervisor improve the quality
of standards. First the supervisor should outsource more qualified employee from an outsourcing
company especially from Germany based company in the hotel industry. This would make the
hotel save on time to employ, do interviews and train employees. They should also include
outsourcing more security personnel increase the safety in the hotel (Rhee, & Yang, 2015).

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 11
Make a partnership with a customer service company. This makes the easy running of
the business as two companies are involved. The customer service company can also provide
more employees and any other facilities unavailable in the hotel.
Get a loan from a bank to cater for the finances required to improve the standards of the
hotel. The renovations need lot resources which the management would not be able to provide
using the hotel’s cash flow.

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 12
References
Dabestani, R., Shahin, A., Saljoughian, M., & Shirouyehzad, H. (2016). Importance-performance
analysis of service quality dimensions for the customer groups segmented by DEA: The
case of four star hotels. International Journal of Quality & Reliability
Management, 33(2), 160-177.
Beck, J., Danilenko, M., Sperber, L., Wiersma, B., & Egger, R. (2017). Connecting Big Data and
Service Quality Evaluation–Developing a Service Quality Map of the Austrian
Hospitality Industry through the Application of Big Data. The Gaze: Journal of Tourism
and Hospitality, 8, 40-54.
Shahin, A., &Dabestani, R. (2010). Correlation analysis of service quality gaps in a four-star
hotel in Iran. International Business Research, 3(3), 40.
Tarí, J. J., Pereira-Moliner, J., Pertusa-Ortega, E. M., López-Gamero, M. D., & Molina-Azorín,
J. F. (2017). Does quality management improve performance or vice versa? Evidence
from the hotel industry. Service Business, 11(1), 23-43.
Akbaba, A. (2006). Knowledge, skills, and abilities for lodging management. Cornell Hotel and
Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 45(3), 285-298.

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 13
Akbaba, A. (2006). Measuring service quality in the hotel industry: A study in a business hotel in
Turkey. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(2), 170-192.
Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Arbelo-Pérez, M., Arbelo, A., & Pérez-Gómez, P. (2017). Impact of quality on estimations of
hotel efficiency. Tourism Management, 61, 200-208.
Rhee, H. T., & Yang, S. B. (2015). Does hotel attribute importance differ by hotel? Focusing on
hotel star-classifications and customers’ overall ratings. Computers in Human
Behavior, 50, 576-587.
Briggs, S., Sutherland, J., & Drummond, S. (2007). Are hotels serving quality? An exploratory
study of service quality in the Scottish hotel sector. Tourism Management, 28(4), 1006-
1019
Bansal, H. S., & Taylor, S. F. (2015). Beyond service quality and customer satisfaction:
investigating additional antecedents of service provider switching intentions.
In Proceedings of the 1999 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 75-82). Springer, Cham.
Hu, H. H., Kandampully, J., &Juwaheer, T. D. (2009). Relationships and impacts of service
quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and image: an empirical study. The
service industries journal, 29(2), 111-125
Kingir, S., &Mesci, M. (2010). Factors that affect hotel employees motivation the case of
Bodrum. Serbian journal of management, 5(1), 59-76.

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 14
Maroudas, L., Kyriakidou, O., &Vacharis, A. (2008). Employees' motivation in the luxury hotel
industry: The perceived effectiveness of human-resource practices. Managing
Leisure, 13(3-4), 258-271.
Kingir, S., & Mesci, M. (2010). Factors that affect hotel employees motivation the case of
Bodrum. Serbian journal of management, 5(1), 59-76.
Stylos, N., & Vassiliadis, C. (2015). Differences in sustainable management between four-and
five-star hotels regarding the perceptions of three-pillar sustainability. Journal of
Hospitality Marketing & Management, 24(8), 791-825.
Amin, M., Amin, M., Aldakhil, A. M., Aldakhil, A. M., Wu, C., Wu, C., ... & Cobanoglu, C.
(2017). The structural relationship between TQM, employee satisfaction and hotel
performance. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(4),
1256-1278.
Gill, A. K., & Gill, S. S. (2016). Quality of Service in Hospitality Industry: An Empirical Study.
Sari, F. O., Bulut, C., & Pirnar, I. (2016). Adaptation of hospitality service quality scales for
marina services. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 54, 95-103.
Shahin, A., & Dabestani, R. (2010). Correlation analysis of service quality gaps in a four-
star hotel in Iran. International Business Research, 3(3), 40.

QUALITY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT IN COURTHOUSE HOTEL 15