Imperial Hotel: Addressing Performance Issues in Hospitality

This case study analyzes the performance issues at the Imperial Hotel, a 500-bedroom hotel in London managed by Star Hotels. The report focuses on challenges such as poor guest satisfaction, high staff turnover, and negative work culture, with a specific emphasis on the back-end staff's performance. The issues stem from staffing challenges within the housekeeping department, particularly after hiring Spanish staff, leading to coordination problems and increased operational costs. The report explores the importance of staffing and recruiting in hospitality, analyzes the specific issues at Imperial Hotel related to staffing and diversity, and proposes solutions such as improved communication systems, training programs, language standardization, and strategic shift scheduling to foster better collaboration and productivity. The ultimate goal is to improve customer satisfaction, reduce staff turnover, and enhance the hotel's overall performance.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
Introduction
As opined by D’Annunzio-Green (2018), hospitality industry is considered to be
broad category in the fields that exists within the service based industry. The services that are
provided to the consumers in hospitality industry include, lodging, food and drinking based
services, theme parks, cruise line, transportation, travelling and many other fields as well.
The organizations that operate in the hospitality based industry are able to fulfil the needs of
customers and the services that are provided to them are considered to be the most important
part of their operations. The hotel based organizations are significant to the hospitality
industry.
The report will be based on the analysis that is related to the case study of The
Imperial Hotel that has its operations in the hospitality industry of the United Kingdom. The
hotel is managed as a part of the well-known chain of four star based hotel group that is
known as the Star Hotels. The Star Hotels Group operates more than 25 hotels in different
parts of the country. The hotel is located at the heart of West End in London (Deery and Jago
2015). The organization is able to cater to the needs of different international tourists and
business based guests. The issues and challenges that have been faced by the organization
will also be discussed in the report. One of the major problems that have been considered by
the new General Manager of the hotel is based on the performance levels of the back end
staff. The ways by which the issue can be resolved will also be discussed in the report (Hon
and Lui 2016).
Analysis based on the individual problem
Imperial Hotel has started facing many issues related to poor levels of guest
satisfaction, high levels of staff turnover, negative work based culture that has been
developed, performance of front house staff and performance of back end staff as well. The

2ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
issue that will be analysed in the report will be based on the performance issues of the back
end staff. The staffing process in housekeeping department of the organization has been
considered to be a major challenge for more than 400 rooms that are a part of the hotel. The
rates of staff turnover in the department are high and this has caused issues in the operating
costs (Huang et al. 2016).
As discussed by Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan (2015), the administration staff of
the department are also not able to maintain the ways by which the employees in this
department are able to perform. This had forced the company to appoint a recruitment based
organization named ABC International for the purpose of filling different positions in the
back end operations of the hotel. The issues mainly started after the appointment of Spanish
staff in different positions in the hotel. The work process that has been followed by the
Spanish staff is different from the in-house staff who are a part of the organization.
According to Kandampully, Zhang and Jaakkola (2018), the levels of coordination
between the Spanish staff and in-house staff were low. The expense that is being incurred by
the organization in order to employ staff with the help of the recruitment agency was also
quite high. However, the company has not received major profits from the staffing based
process that has been implemented in the Imperial Hotel. The training based issues were also
evident in the organization and this further led to the lack of proper satisfaction of the
customers in the industry. The complaints that have been received by the organization from
customers has been a major level of issue which is faced by Imperial Hotel (King 2017).
Staffing and recruiting in organizations
As discussed by Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan (2018), staffing based activities that are
conducted by the organizations in the hospitality industry is considered to be the most
important factor that is able to affect the ways by which services are offered to the

3ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
consumers. The high rates of staff turnover are considered to be a major factor that is able to
affect the ways by which the service based organizations are able to operate in the hospitality
industry. The turnover of staff is considered to be a major factor that has an impact on the
profitability levels and operations of the organizations.
As argued Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan (2018), the human resource management based
issues that have been faced by the organizations are related to the ways by which staffs are
able to provide their services. The staffing based issues are also related to the levels of
diversity among the employees. The different types of employees who belong to various
areas or backgrounds are considered to be important for the development of an effective
employee base for the organization. The various terms that are used by the human resource
managers in the organizations include, recruiting and staffing.
According to Madera et al. (2017), the processes and factors that are a part of the two
major activities related to the human resource management functions are considered to be
important for the ways by which they can be differentiated from each other. The process of
staffing is mainly based on the ways by which the short term based roles are fulfilled within
the organizations. On the other hand, recruitment is based on the process that is implemented
for fulfilling the full-time based requirements of the organization.
The process of staffing is short and requires less amounts of time as the company in
this case aims at hiring fast and fulfil the needs. The time that is required for the purpose of
completing the recruitment based process is higher in comparison to the staffing process.
Staffing of the skills is based on the sourcing of candidates who have specialized skills.
Recruitment on the other hand is based on the ways by which employees who are currently
looking for jobs can be provided with opportunities (Manoharan and Singal 2019).

4ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
Detailed analysis of the issue in Imperial Hotel
The main purpose that was related to the process of including the employees in back
end based operations is related to staffing. The staffing process has been implemented in the
Imperial Hotel in order to fulfil the current needs of the organization. The high rates of staff
turnover in the organization are able to affect the operations of the company and the
satisfaction based levels of the customers as well (Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015).
The organization has aimed at reducing the amounts of staff turnover in order to
maintain the levels of profitability and satisfaction levels of the customers as well. The issues
that have taken place between the employees who are a part of the back end operations are
considered to be important factors that have an impact on the organizational operations.
Imperial Hotel has implemented the process of outsourcing in order to fill different positions
in the back end based operations (Ryan 2015).
The outsourcing based process has an impact on the ways by which the organization
is able to operate. However, the agency that has been provided with the responsibility of
providing suitable staff to the organization has not been able to fulfil the needs of the back
end operations of Imperial Hotel. The staff who are appointed in the organization by the
agency have not been able to coordinate with each other in order to complete the tasks that
are provided to them (Van der Wagen and Goonetilleke 2015).
As discussed by Vassiliadis and Huan (2017), the diversity levels in the organization
is able to provide growth opportunities to the Imperial Hotel in order to improve the
profitability levels and improve the services that are provided to the customers as well. The
performance levels of in-house staff and Spanish staff have also shown high levels of
differences in this case. The ratings that are provided to the staff are quite different from each
other and this led to high levels of dissatisfaction among the employees. The standards that

5ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
have been set by the organization based on performance of the employees have not been
maintained by the employees who belong to different backgrounds.
The work process of employees is affected in a huge manner by the ways by which
the opinions provided by them differ from each other. This is considered to be a major factor
that has an impact on the relationships with employees that have been formed within the
organization. The language barrier that has been developed between the employees is also a
major cause that has led to the lack of proper levels of productivity (Yang and Mattila 2016).
Ways by which the issues can be solved by the Imperial Hotel
As discussed by Zhang et al. (2018), the issues that have been faced by The Imperial
Hotel in the back end operations can be resolved with the help of the implementation of
proper human resource management based programs and functions. The organization will be
able to improve the levels of profitability that have been gained in the industry and also
satisfy the customers as well. The major recommendations that can be provided to the
organization in order to improve its operations in the industry are as follows,
 The development of a proper communication based system that will play a
major role in the ways by which the supervisors are able to communicate with
the members of staff. The communication will be two-way and will help the
managers to understand the issues and grievances of the employees (Nieves
and Segarra-Ciprés 2015).
 The employees who are being appointed by the recruitment agencies and the
in-house based employees will be provided with maximum levels of training
in order to maintain the levels of collaboration. The organization will be able
to increase the productivity levels of employees with the proper

6ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
implementation of the training based programs (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan
2018).
 The language based barriers that are prevalent among the back end staff needs
to be reduced by the introduction of a common language that is, English. This
will help them to maintain the communication based systems in a proper
manner in order to satisfy the customers as well (Kandampully, Zhang and
Bilgihan 2015).
 The shift timings of the employees need to be decided and planned in such a
manner so that the Spanish employees are not placed together in a single shift.
This will help the organization to maintain a level of collaboration and the
employees are also able to understand each other in an effective manner
(Madera et al. 2017).
Three-point plan
Awareness
Conversion
Loyalty
Lack of proper communication, increase in the staff
turnover, language barriers and shift timings of the
employees.
Development of effective communication systems.
Providing training to the Spanish and the in-house
employees. Deciding a particular language for usage in
the organization.
The training will be provided by the managers of the
hotel. Communication will be performed will the help
of different digital mediums.

7ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
Conclusion
The analysis can be concluded by stating that the Imperial Hotel has faced major
levels of issues related to the ways by which different operations are managed. The back end
staffs of the organization have caused major levels of issues and this affected the levels of
customer satisfaction and the image of the Imperial Hotel as well. Imperial Hotel will need to
resolve the issues in order to maintain its position in the hospitality based industry and
develop the customer base as well. The reduction of staff turnover is also a major aim of the
hotel in this case. The recommendations that have been provided in the report are able to play
a major role in the ways by which the hotel can improve its customer base and maintain the
levels of profitability as well. The proper implementation of the training programs will help
in the development of the revenues of The Imperial Hotel in the hospitality industry.

8ANALYSIS OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ISSUES
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