Case Study: Improving Guest Satisfaction at the Imperial Hotel, London

This case study examines the Imperial Hotel, a London-based establishment facing significant guest satisfaction issues. The analysis reveals problems stemming from poor service quality, cleanliness concerns, inefficient check-in/check-out processes, and inadequate employee training and compensation. The study highlights the importance of guest satisfaction surveys and the impact of negative online reviews on the hotel's brand. The root causes of these issues are identified, including a lack of employee training, insufficient wages, and the absence of technical staff and efficient software systems. To address these challenges, the case study applies customer satisfaction and quality management theories, proposing solutions such as enhanced employee training, incentive programs, improved software for administrative tasks, and the recruitment of a technical team to maintain hotel facilities. The case study concludes by summarizing the problems and proposed solutions, emphasizing the importance of a customer-centric approach to improve guest satisfaction and overall hotel performance.

CASE STUDY- THE
IMPERIAL HOTEL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality is a quality of treating and receiving strangers or guest with warm, generous
and friendly way. Hospitality industry is completely based on the customer service i.e. how they
are treated, what quality of service they are provided and weather all of their expectation have
been fulfilled or not. Customers are very important in Hotel industry as it is completely based
upon serving them. Whenever any hotel wants to expand their business, then the administration
need happy customers who’s all the expectations are fulfilled, all the services and products are
delivered to them in a better way without compromising with the quality. This will increase the
loyalty of customers towards the Hotel as well as their customer base will increase which will
increase their business. Imperial Hotels are London based hotels which is one of the best hotel
with chain of hotels in the hospitality industry present in UK (Amin and et.al., 2017). Their first
hotel was built in 1911 which was demolished and replaced with a new building with the same
name in 1966. These hotels are owned by Asset world corporation who are a part of TCC groups.
They have their branches all over the world with 25 branches present in UK. This case study is
about one of the Imperial Hotel present in London which was facing Poor guest satisfaction
problem. They have got least number of grades in Guest Satisfaction Survey. According to the
survey there are many problems faced by the customers in that hotel. This case study will
address all the problems faced by the customers and how those problems will be addressed so
that they can increase their customer satisfaction level.
ANALYSIS
The Imperial Hotels are one of the best hotel chain in UK. Their first building was
established in 1911. Each Hotel in their chain performs a Guest Satisfaction Survey which is
completed by their guest staying in their hotels as well as they conduct an online survey to know
the customer satisfaction level. This survey asks their clients to grade all the facilities and their
experience in their hotel after this survey one of their Hotel in the star chain were graded with the
lowest guest satisfaction grades in their whole star chain with 65% rate of guest satisfaction
while overall companies average was 75%. According to the survey there were many problems
that were faced by guest like: First and the foremost problem that the guest were facing was in
checking in and checking out of the hotel ( Luo and Qu., 2016). According to many customers
they had to wait in queue for long time while checking in as well as checking out, they were
being charged repeatedly even for the service they didn't opt for, they had a complaint that
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reception staff were being indifferent and sometimes much rude to the customers. Another
complaint guest were facing were in terms of accommodation, most common complaint was that
the quality of room was very poor, as bathrooms were not clean, showers were not working
properly, air conditioners were making loads of noise. They also complained that quality of beds
were not good and when guest complained about any of the above issue less or no timely
response used to come from the hotel staff and if any service was being ordered by the customers
then that service was not provided properly by the hotel staff, daily cleanliness of rooms and
bathrooms were also not done properly(Pan., 2015). At last if any of these complains were made
to the hotel staff they used to either ignore the complains or used to deal with those problems
very inefficiently. All the above complains of customers came into picture and were noticed by
the hotel after the guest satisfaction survey was done and were affecting the image of their hotel
and their brand as even online negative reviews were made by the customers.
Higher, authorities tried to address that how these problems raised and came into picture.
They tried to analyse the main reason behind the problems and why they occurred. They realized
that there were many factors that caused these problems ( Susskind, Kacmar and Borchgrevink.,
2018). First and the foremost cause that came into picture was that employees were not provided
with proper training i.e. how to deal with the customers, how their behaviour should be towards
the customers and how the problem should be addressed to solve the customer’s issues. Second
problem that came into picture was employees and staff members were not paid sufficient as
compared to their jobs they were also not provided with any bonus or incentives or awards which
can motivate them to work properly, efficiently and effectively. Because of this many staff
members and employees were leaving the hotel and new staff member were recruited to replace
them who did not have the skills and qualities which were required and those new staff members
were not trained properly. Another cause which came into picture was non availability of
technical staff members who can keep all the machines, technologies etc. installed in the hotel
properly as well as maintain them. Because of non-availability of technical staff members air
conditioners etc. was not maintained and repaired. Housing keeping staff was also not provided
with proper equipment’s to maintain proper cleanliness in the hotel rooms and bathrooms and
even if any of such problems were reported by the customers they were not solved properly. No
proper systems and software were installed at the reception for the efficiency of systems and
maintenance of proper checking in and checking out time for the customers because of which
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guest were troubled and also no proper bill was generated for the customers. Because of all these
reasons there was lack of responsibility was there within the staff members and employees
working in that hotel and all these problems were faced by the customers and caused
dissatisfaction towards the hotel by the customers and grades of the hotel were decreased
( Thakkar, Gumaste and Bhagwat., 2014).
All these problems could have been solved by different management theories like
customer satisfaction theory and quality management theories. Customer satisfaction theory is
used to track the satisfaction level of customers regarding the services and the product provided
to them by the hotel or any other organization i.e. it measures weather all the customers’
expectations are fulfilled or not. By identifying those expectations and trying to fulfil it can help
a hotel or organization to gain customer loyalty towards the hotel or organization. Satisfaction of
a guest is basically psychological state that evaluates the relationship between them and the
organization or hotel regarding the environment, product or service of the hotel. Expectations of
the customers are basically likelihood of a particular product or service that are provided to guest
to a certain level which is desired by them. Expectations and customer satisfaction are mostly
measured based on: value of service or product fulfilling the expectation, liking or disliking of
the product or service which is provided to the guest, desired level of expectations are fulfilled or
not and at last expected level of use of the service or product according to the customers.
Another theory of management which can be used is quality management theory which is used to
empower employees which uses variety of theories, tools to build a working environment which
focusses on guest for the delivery of quality service or product which is delivered to them on
time (Hill, Jones and Schilling., 2014). This theory focusses on four areas, first is continuous
improvement which says that continuous improvement in employees is required for zero defect
and efficiency in delivery of service or product, second is customer focus which says that each
industry has two types of customers first is internal customers who are the co-workers of an
organization and second are the main external customers. Each employee must be treated like an
internal customer and all his needs must be satisfied so that they can satisfy all the needs of their
external customers. Third need is team involvement which says that each organization depends
upon the employees or staff members working in their organization, each employee from top to
bottom should work as a team and should be involved in the continuous improvement process in
the hotel or an organization so that a team working atmosphere is build which will further
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enhance the quality of the service or product provided by the organization and at last comes the
data driven which says that proper tools must be used to measure the performance of the staff
members and the employees so that all the weakness in the workflow and employees care
identified and can be improved to improve customer satisfaction level.
Using both the theories different measures can be taken to solve all the above stated
problems and can bring improvement in their management, organization and in other things
(Xiang and et.al., 2015). Like quality of all the products used by the customer in the room can be
improved like beds, telephones etc. or cleanliness in the rooms and bathrooms can be improved;
proper training can be provided to the staff members and employees. Moreover, their respective
job responsibilities can be explained in terms of their attitude towards the customers, how
frequently they should address the problem faced by the customers.
Salaries and wages of the employees and staff members must be according to their
designations and job responsibilities and also proper incentive schemes must be applied like if an
employee work efficiently and wins employee of the month award then they should be rewarded
with an amount like £200, and for each department employee of the month £50 should be
awarded, if any staff members performs well in three consecutive months then they should be
provided with a voucher of £200 for staying in any of their one Hotel. This way the staff
members are motivated to work efficiently and effectively for the customers and remain loyal
towards the hotel and does not leave the hotel (Yang, Mao and Tang., 2018). Proper Systems and
software can be installed at the reception so that check in and check out as well as billing is
improved so that customers do not feel cheated. A proper technical team must be recruited so
that all the technical problems are identified and repaired as well as all the systems, software or
machines are properly installed and maintained. At last cleanliness or bathrooms, rooms as well
as service quality is maintained ( Zhang and Cole., 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above case study, it has been summarised that this Hotel chain faced a problem
of poor guest satisfaction. Overall average of the company was 75% but the rating for that
particular hotel regarding guest satisfaction was 65%. Guest were facing many problems like
quality of room service, cleanliness problem, issues with check in and check out, rude behaviour
of the hotel staff and many more. Then the main reasons behind all these issues was identified
like low wedges of the staff members, training not provided, non-availability of technical staff
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members, non-availability of software for billing, check in, check out. Then to solve all these
problems few management theories were used like Customer Satisfaction theory which keep a
track of satisfaction level of customers regarding services and products provided to them and
Quality management theory which is used to empower employees working in the Hotel so that
they can work efficiently and effectively. And at last using both the theories different measures
had been suggested like providing training to the staff members, by applying proper incentives
scheme, by installing proper software for billing, check in, check out and recruiting proper
technical staff members. Overall in this case study poor guest satisfaction problem of the hotel
and how it can be solved has been addressed had been explained in this case study.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amin and et.al., 2017. The structural relationship between TQM, employee satisfaction and
hotel performance. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management. 29(4). pp.1256-1278.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated
approach. Cengage Learning.
Luo, Z. and Qu, H., 2016. Guest-defined hotel service quality and its impacts on guest
loyalty. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 17(3), pp.311-332.
Pan, F.C., 2015. Practical application of importance-performance analysis in determining critical
job satisfaction factors of a tourist hotel. Tourism Management. 46. pp.84-91.
Susskind, A.M., Kacmar, K.M. and Borchgrevink, C.P., 2018. The Relationship of Service
Providers’ Perceptions of Service Climate to Guest Satisfaction, Return Intentions, and
Firm Performance. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.
Thakkar, P.H., Gumaste, R. and Bhagwat, R., 2014. A Study of Guest Satisfaction Tracking
System with Special Reference to Radisson Blu Hotel Pune Kharadi. International
Journal of Latest Technology in Engineering, Management & Applied Science-
IJLTEMAS. pp.44-48.
Xiang and et.al., 2015. What can big data and text analytics tell us about hotel guest experience
and satisfaction?. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 44. pp.120-130.
Yang, Y., Mao, Z. and Tang, J., 2018. Understanding guest satisfaction with urban hotel
location. Journal of Travel Research, 57(2), pp.243-259.
Zhang, Y. and Cole, S.T., 2016. Dimensions of lodging guest satisfaction among guests with
mobility challenges: A mixed-method analysis of web-based texts. Tourism
Management. 53. pp.13-27.
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