Evaluating Successful Crisis Management in the Hospitality Industry

This research project investigates successful crisis management strategies, particularly within the hospitality sector, using Premier Inn as a case study. It examines the impact of events like the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by the industry. The report includes a literature review defining crisis management, exploring its success factors, and recommending strategies for the hospitality sector. The research methodology involves data collection and analysis, with findings presented through frequency distribution tables and interpretations. The study concludes with recommendations for Premier Inn and the broader hospitality industry, emphasizing proactive measures, staff training, customer-centric approaches, and hygiene standards to enhance resilience and improve performance during crises. This resource is available on Desklib, which provides access to past papers and solved assignments for students.

Research project
(What does successful crisis
management look like)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The main purpose to carry out the current research is to identify the success gained by
organisation by managing their crisis in successful manner. The present investigation will help in
knowing the how successful crisis management in a company look like and the challenges
hospitality industry faces during the absence of crisis management practices at the time of Covid
19 pandemic. This research will extract and accumulated quantitative data which will assist in
conducting the investigation in valuable manner. In this research primary as well as secondary
data is collected so that investigation can be made in deeper manner.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
ACKNOWLDGEMENT..................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Overview of the topic..................................................................................................................5
Background of the organisation..................................................................................................5
Research problem........................................................................................................................5
Research aim and objective.........................................................................................................6
Research rational.........................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................7
What is crisis management? .......................................................................................................7
How successful crisis management looks like?..........................................................................7
How successfully crisis can be managed? .................................................................................8
What better strategies can be recommended for managing crisis in hospitality sector?.............8
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................10
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .........................................................................................12
Frequency distribution table .....................................................................................................12
Data Interpretation....................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................22
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................22
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................25
Questionnaire............................................................................................................................25

ACKNOWLDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my teacher for providing me the opportunity to
carry out the investigation on the research topic crisis management. I sincerely thank for
providing me the required guidance and encouragement throughout the investigation so that my
work can be done in effective manner. They provide me all the facility and resources which are
required to conduct the investigation.
I also want to thank my friend and family to support me and boost my motivation to gather and
analyse the information, in order to carry out investigation. With their efforts I am able to
complete my research in given time period.

INTRODUCTION
Overview of the topic
Managing the crisis is very important for the companies because it helps them to gain
success in recent dynamic environment. One of the emerging crisis that occur in the world is
Covid 19 which has shatter all the business working and functioning of the different sector. The
most effective sector by the Covid 19 is hospitality industry. Crisis management is the
application of numerous practices which is designed by the company in order to deal with the
damages which incurred due to unexpected events (Canton, 2019). The Covid 19 is one of the
crisis which impact the hotels and resort in negative manner as all their productivity gores down
which affect their performance. The present research has focuses on management of crisis in
significant way as to mitigate the challenges. This investigation will also highlight the different
strategies that can be used in order to reduce the fear of damage as well as improve their
performance (Zamoum and Gorpe, 2018).
Background of the organisation
For carrying out the investigation the chosen hospitality brand is Premier Inn. Premier inn
is a British international chain of hotel which was founded in the year 1987. The founder of the
hotel is Whitbread and it’s headquarter is in Dunstable, England, UK. There are more than 7200
rooms and approx. 800 hotels are there which are located in various country (Sylves, 2019). The
key served areas of Premier inn are United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Isle of man,
Germany, Qatar and many other. The Company is chosen because it is the most famous brand in
United Kingdom so to identify the practices which they designed to cope up with crisis.
Research problem
The main research problem that is identified in the current investigation in the hospitality
industry is the issue which were faced by them due to Covid 19 crisis. The time period of Covid
19 was so worst for the company that it almost has shut down the door of business for many
hotels and resorts (Luna and Pennock, 2018). The Global pandemic has created various
challenges for the company which impact their performance and productivity in large manner.
The outbreak of the pandemic also forces hotels to designed various strategies and practices
through which they can deal with the damages which they face and can run their business in
sound way.

Research aim and objective
Research Aim
The aim of this research is to know about crisis management and how it looks on its success in
hospitality sector in case study of Premier inn.
Research Objectives
To achieve this aim, the following objectives have been proposed.
 To identify the success of crisis management on hospitality sector.
 To assess the current practices of crisis management.
 The objective is to recommend better strategies for crisis management in hospitality
sector.
 To evaluate the concept of crisis management.
Research question
 What is crisis management?
 How successful crisis management looks like?
 How successfully crisis can be managed?
 What better strategies can be recommended for managing crisis in hospitality sector?
Research rational
The major reason for execution the research is to obtain detailed understanding on the topic
crisis management and how successful crisis management looks like in hospitality industry. This
research report will also highlight the different crisis management peatice4s used by the
hospitality industry in order to deal with the problem faces at Covid 19 pandemic. With the aid
of the investigation researcher also achieve two objectives which are personal and professional
(Coombs, 2020). In respect to the personal objective, researcher will build various skills which
would assist in completing the investigation in sound full manner. on the other side, with respect
to the professional objective, researcher would get to know about various strategies that helped
them to manage the crisis when they will be working as a manager in an organisation.

LITERATURE REVIEW
What is crisis management?
According to the view of Alshoubaki (2020), Crisis management describe as the
identification of threats of an organisation and its stakeholders for mount an effective response to
it. There are various of unpredictability events in all over the world, this makes every
organisation to identify potential crisis before their arrival in order to create a plan to deal with
them in better manner. The crisis are can be occur due to self-inflicted forces or caused by
external forces which affects the overall growth of the business in affected manner. This makes
important for the company in order to manage crisis in the organisation in better manner. The
crisis management helps their managers in order to create strategies for coming out from the
uncertain and also decide about the future course of action.
In the opinion of Winham (2020), crisis are described as any emergency situation that
disturb employees and create instability in the organisation. Crisis management refers to an art of
dealing with the unexpected and sudden events that disturbs an organisation, their employees
along with their external clients also. It also describes as a process that help companies in order
to handle sudden and unexpected changes in the organisation in order to help company to operate
their business smoothly in every situation. It involves activities and processes that help
employees and managers to analyse and understand the events that may lead crisis or uncertainty
in the organisation.
How successful crisis management looks like?
As per the view of Hall (2021), successful crisis management in the organisation can be
develop when there are effective crisis management team is developed. An effective crisis
management team described as a combination of tools, individuals as well as organisational
structure that are aligned with the common goals and mindset unrelated to their position in the
organisation. By providing proper training to their employees and can recognise the threats that
may create crisis in the organisation. The successful crisis management team of the organisation
has full support of senior management and is empowered to act.
According the view point of Pierrehumbert (2019), successful crisis management is a
most effective activity of an organisation that helps company in order to manage crisis situation
in better manner and minimise their negative impact on the growth of the organisation. There are

certain steps which is required to follow in order to make crisis management successful. It
involves identification of problem, creating a team, setting up a command centre, communicating
out, breaking down problem as well as resolving the problem. A successful crisis management
provides many benefits such as saving life of people, saving money as well as saving an
organisation from devastation. This makes important for the organisation in order to develop an
effective crisis management plan which helps in detailing the action and decision that are
required in order to manage the future crisis in better manner.
How successfully crisis can be managed?
As per the view of Galiana (2020), every business may face a crisis sooner or later. It can
be occurs through internal problems in the organisation or through external factors that may
harm the growth of an organisation. In order to manage crisis successfully, there are certain steps
is required to follows which includes identification of risks, defining an action plan, establishing
a crisis unit, designate and train a spokesperson, defining message to transmit, making space for
crisis management as well as staying positive. All these steps help company in order to manage
crisis effectively and it helps in improving or strengthening the image as well as reputation of
their business in better manner.
According the opinion of Miller (2020), every organisation is vulnerable to the crisis that
affects that their all overall operation in the organisation in the effective manner. Crisis
management helps company in order to take preventative measures as well as prepare them for
the anticipation of potential crisis. There are certain steps in crisis management which help
company in order to manage crisis successfully in the business which includes anticipation,
creating a plan and testing it, identification of crisis communication team in the organisation,
establishing notification and monitoring systems, communication, the death of the super
injunction as well as post crisis analysis.
What better strategies can be recommended for managing crisis in hospitality sector?
According to the point view of Cerchione, and Bansal (2020),there are many strategies
which helps to overcome from the crisis. In relation to Premier Inn, they need to understand the
causes of crisis which helps to recover from it in future. They should control and manage their
staff and trained them for faced the future crisis which is helps to increase the company's
productivity. They should check the overall performance of the employees and motivates them
for work hard and achieve the goals with success. They should understand the customers needs

and wants and provide services according to their customers. They should provide better and
hygiene services and good quality food which bis helps to attract the customers and also increase
the customers experience. They should maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of the hotel which
helps to increase the customer satisfaction. These all recommendation will help the Premier Inn
to improve their productivity and performance by analysis the future crisis.
In the opinion to Köseoglu, and et.al (2019), the strategic recommendation will help the
Premier Inn hotel to analysis and develop the future crisis which should be develop by the crisis
management strategies. They should maintain the hygiene their hotel for customers safety, they
should provide better and best services to their customers, they should provide high quality food
and services which helps to customers health as during the Covid-19 crisis, people are aware for
best quality food and everything so, they should provide the high quality food, they should
understand the customers demand and wants and provide best services which helps to improve
the customer experience. These all strategies helps to develop the future crisis which may can
affect the overall business operation of the hotel.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology act as a one of the crucial chapter in the research report because this
section provide answer for two vital question which are how data will be gathered and how it
will be analysed. This is the scientific technique which accumulate and analyse the information
for the selected topic in the project (Eisend and Kuss, 2019). The aim and objective are also
attained with the aids of the gathered and evaluated data by the researcher. The validity and
reliability of the overall investigation also depends upon the type of data gathered in the research.
It is further divided into levels which is discussed below:
Research philosophy: It is very important to know the social world because the research is
based on the assumption they have about the topic. To understand the world there are two ways
which are positivism and interpretivism. As per the current investigation, researcher has selected
positivism philosophy to gather objective data in order to classify and recognise the society in
valuable manner (Daniel, Kumar and Omar, 2018).
Research approach: Approaches are the technique through which information can be
evaluated in order to test hypothesis and theories. Deductive and inductive are the types of
approaches used by the investigator to measure theories. As per the current investigation,
investigator has opted for deductive approach. The main reason is it evaluate existing theories
rather than building new hypothesis. With the help of this causal relationship between the
variables is also been identified (Lai, 2018).
Research strategy: Strategies are the form which helps in collecting information from the
respondent living in the society or with the community. Systematic literature review, survey,
action research, focused group and many more are the types of research strategy. In the existing
study, investigator has chosen survey strategy. The main purpose is volume data in the form of
numerical information can be gathered. The data will also collect from large size of population in
less time and cost.
Research choice: Research choice is divided into two parts which are quantitative method
and qualitative method. As per the research topic, quantitative data is selected so that numerical
information can be acquired for the study. Numerical data helps in achieving aim and objective
in valid manner and with more accuracy (Davidavičienė, 2018).
Data collection and analysis: Data collection is the procedure to gather information for the
study. Primary and secondary are the data collection technique which is used in the current

investigation to carry out investigation in deeper manner. With the assistance of primary data
fresh information will be gathered and secondary data would collect second hand information
with more ease. The research instrument for primary data is questionnaire and for secondary data
it is government site (Rumsey and et. al, 2022).
Sampling: To take out sample from the whole population probability sampling method is
used. It is because respondent is selected in rational and fair manner. The sample size will be 30
employees from Premier Inn (Whicher, Philbin and Aronson, 2018).

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Frequency distribution table
Q1) Do you think, crisis management has helped hospitality sector in
gaining success during COVID-19?
Frequency
a) Yes 18
b) No 9
c) May be 3
Q2) Does managing a successful crisis management impacts the
company in positive manner?
Frequency
a) Yes 20
b) No 6
c) May be 4
Q3) As per your perspective, what is the importance of crisis
management within the hospitality industry in the time of pandemic?
Frequency
a) Prevents the image of the organisation 8
b) Improves business operations 7
c) Restore stability and calmness 9
d) Ensure safety of employees 6
Q4) What are the challenges faced by Premier Inn in setting up crisis
management practices within the Premier Inn?
Frequency
a) Involving employees in decision making processing 7
b) Providing employees with new responsibilities 8
c) Showing appreciation to employees 6
d) Providing support and assistance 9
Q5) According to your experience, what are the current crisis Frequency