Sheraton Hotel: Internal Audit Project Report - Customer Satisfaction

This project report details an internal audit conducted at the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, owned by the Marriott group, with the primary goal of enhancing customer satisfaction. The audit assesses various departments, including Food and Beverage, Front Office, and Housekeeping, to identify areas for improvement. The project defines objectives to determine causes of customer dissatisfaction, analyze their impact, and devise resolution strategies. The scope encompasses the hotel's location, competition, and deliverables, which include a brand standard audit report with recommendations. Constraints, such as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors, are considered through a PESTLE analysis. The report includes a business case emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction and a detailed project plan outlining the roles of the project manager, project team, and quality control measures. The project aims to provide value-added services and improve the hotel's overall performance, supported by a cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment.

Organisational
Consultancy

Table of Contents
Project Definition.............................................................................................................................4
Purpose........................................................................................................................................4
Purpose Objectives......................................................................................................................4
Project Scope...............................................................................................................................5
Deliverable..................................................................................................................................5
Constraints...................................................................................................................................5
Assumptions................................................................................................................................6
Confidence in the Audit Team.........................................................................................................6
Business case...............................................................................................................................6
Audit Team and Project Plan...........................................................................................................7
Project Manager:.........................................................................................................................7
Project Team:..............................................................................................................................7
Project Control:...........................................................................................................................7
Quality Control:..........................................................................................................................8
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Project Initiation Document
Project Definition
Purpose
The hotel that is taken for the project report is Sheraton which is owned by Marriott
group of hotel. The hotel chain has been operating in various countries throughout the globe due
to which it is crucial for them to manage the operations to ensure that they satisfy the
expectations of the customers.
The focus of the Sheraton is to improve their overall operations such as bookings, fast
and friendly services, variety of good food and quality of the offerings along with various on site
services etc. in such a manner that the level of satisfaction of the customers can be enhanced.
With the help of the internal audit inspection of the services of the hotel can be done as
this enables them in identifying and managing the changes as per the requirement of the market
and the level of services offered by them.
Purpose Objectives
The aim of the project is to find out best strategies for overcoming the issues associated with
customer satisfaction.
The objectives of the project are:
 To determine the reasons for dissatisfaction among the customers.
 To analyse the impact of the issue related to customer satisfaction.
 To identify various strategies with the help of which the issue faced by the hotel can be
resolved.
The outcomes of the project can be measured with the help of analysis of various factors
such as cleanliness within the hotel, condition and operations of the hotel as they are rated by the
customers, financial performance as it is dependent upon the level of satisfaction of the
customers, facilities management as with this better services can be ensured to the customers.
Project Scope
The Location: Location of the organisation taken for the project is Sheraton Heathrow
Hotel which is located in Wast Drayton. The hotel is easily accessible from various means of
transportation such as Airport etc.

The Competition: The competition that they have been focusing upon is from different
category hotel such as Holiday Inn, Starwood hotel which is owned by Marriott group of hotel.
Deliverable
The delivery of the project will be made by the internal auditor on completion of the
analysis of various department within the hotel along with the services so offered by them. On
the basis of the analysis the brand standard audit report will be prepared by them on the basis of
which necessary strategies and policies will be recommended. The estimated time period for
completing the audit is 12 week which will be provided to the general manager of the hotel and
all the senior leaders.
Departments Audited: The department that has been audited for the Sheraton includes
Food and Beverage; Kitchen; Front Office; Housekeeping; Leisure; Sales & Marketing; Finance;
Human Resources and Maintenance.
Recommendations: The recommendations will be provided in context of improvement
in the services and performance of the departmental audited along with various activities that
they need to undertake so that the satisfaction level of the customers can be enhanced.
Constraints
The constraints are the barriers that can affect the performance of the internal auditors
that has to be managed by them with effective analysis and it can done by analysing the external
factors which has direct impact on the performance of the hotel. These factors are those which
cannot be controlled by the managers but has to be managed by them. The pestle analysis for the
hotel includes:
Political Factors: The political factors in UK are in favour of the hotel as the policies will not
change in the near future due to which they can easily formulate various policies in context of
improved level of satisfaction of the customer.
Economic Factors: The economic factor such as availability of the funds for the hotel are
sufficient with the help of which they can ensure changes in the infrastructure or other
satisfaction related services.
Social Factors: With the consistently changing preference of the customers the strategies and
the policies of the hotel gets influenced due to which they have to take into consideration as it
has adverse impact.

Technological factors: The hotel need to take into consideration various technological
advancement for improving the services in context of communication system, customer relations,
logistics management etc. so that better services can be ensured but it affect the funds with the
organisation.
Legal factors: The legal implication has adverse impact on the policies of the hotel but Sheraton
has been taking into consideration various such legal factors with the help of which they can
ensure that such factor does not directly affect their operations.
Environmental Factors: The hotel industry need to take into consideration the environmental
impact of their operation and Sheraton has been taking into consideration effective waste
management system along with solar panel, LEDs etc. so that such impact can be reduced.
Assumptions
In addition to the external analysis various internal factors need to be identified by the
internal auditor as with the help of this they can ensure that the opportunities can be taken by
managing the impact of various threats. The strengths of the Sheraton is better cash flow and
highly skilled workforce with the help of which they can easily ensure that their level of
satisfaction of the customer is improved by them. They have significant opportunities for
improving the technology used within the organisation so that they can ensure that they have
competitive advantage and better services for the customers.
Confidence in the Audit Team
Business case
The level of customer satisfaction is crucial for the organisation to manages with the help
of this they can ensure better performance of the organisation. This project has to taken into
consideration by the management of the hotel with details so that they can ensure that value
added services are offered to the customers as per their expectations. To support this the various
elements that are crucial are discussed for the project:
 Cost/Benefit Analysis: The cost related to the project are for undertaking various
activities related to the technology to be changed by the managers, trainings to the
employees so that better workforce can be developed, ambience can be improved with
changes in the interiors along with changes in the information and management system of
the organisation. It is estimated to be approximately £80000. But with the help of this the

profitability of the company can be ensured in context of increased number of guest. The
increase in the revenue against the expenses incurred are expected to be 50% more than
the estimated cost.
 Audit cost: The audit cost is related with the cost associated with the fees to be paid to
the internal auditor. It is considered to be an upfront cost for the hotel as they have to pay
for the inspection of the document out of their own pocket that cannot be managed and
adjusted by them. The cost of audit related to this project includes £2500.
 Risk Analysis: The risk related to the project will be identified along with the strategies
for mitigating the risk such as changing taste and preference of the customers which can
be managed with the help of market research; influence of the stakeholders such as the
impact of customers, employees and the investors for various policies and changes to be
implemented within the organisation, for supporting this they need undertake
stakeholders analysis; technology that will used by the hotel required funds that can
become risk for them and for mitigating this they need to determine the sources that can
provide them the funds
Audit Team and Project Plan
Project Manager:
The project manager who will be responsible for the management of this project is Customer
Relationship Manager of the Sheraton hotel.
Project Team:
The project team includes all the managers of different department that will have responsibility
of introducing changes within their department so that the overall services can be improved. All
the changes will be communicated by the auditor to the respective heads of the departments.
Project Control:
With the help of monitoring and control various aspects can be determined for the project such
as:
 How the feedback will be collected from the customer in context of their level of
satisfaction so that further improvement can be made
 the timescale within which the information has to be gathered so that necessary strategies
can be formulated

 findings from the feedbacks will be analysed according to which services will be planned
and roles and responsibilities will be allocated
Quality Control:
For managing the quality of the report effective evaluation will done by the project
managers with the help of various tools and techniques such as analysis of the worksheet of the
employees so that their performing in the timings can be analysed. Along with this the
comparison can be made for the actual performance on the basis of the standard performance so
set by the department head. In addition to this all the data and the information stored in the
information management system by the administration department will be provided so that
authenticity of the information on the basis of which audit is done can be ensured.

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