Analysis of Service Quality Management Strategies at Travelodge Hotels

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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
LO 1: Task 1....................................................................................................................................4
A. Definition of quality in the perspective of business and service in Travelodge Hotels
Limited [P 1.1].............................................................................................................................4
B. Quality assurance and the process of inspection and assurance in Travelodge Hotels
Limited. [P 1.2]............................................................................................................................5
C. Management of quality through a range of methods in the service and business environment
[P 1.3 and P 1.4]..........................................................................................................................7
Effective outlook of examination and research of different methods and discussion of
similarities and differences of quality management..................................................................10
LO 2: Task 2..................................................................................................................................10
A. Customer satisfaction in a service environment. [P 2.1 and P 2.2]......................................10
B. Illustration of how service quality enhances the customer satisfaction [P 2.3]....................12
C. Types of available information to customers and its benefits to increase marketing
effectiveness [P 2.4]...................................................................................................................13
Range of information sources used for the illustration of how quality adds value to service
provision....................................................................................................................................14
Recommendations......................................................................................................................14
LO3: Task 3...................................................................................................................................15
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
A. Measuring quality in Travelodge Hotels and benefits of surveys in identifying customer
needs [P 3.1 & P 3.2].................................................................................................................15
B. Methods implemented for encouraging participation by under-represented groups [P 3.3] 16
C. Value of complaints procedures and using it to improve service quality in Travelodge
Hotels [P 3.4].............................................................................................................................17
LO4: Task 4...................................................................................................................................18
A. Role of self-assessment in determining the health status of service provisions, and role of
communication and record-keeping in Travelodge Hotels [P 4.1 & P 4.2]..............................18
B. Staff consultation stages and effective implementation of quality schemes [P 4.3].............20
C. Recommendations regarding enhancement of service quality in Travelodge Hotels [P 4.4]
...................................................................................................................................................20
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
Introduction
In this competitive business environment, the service qualities of organisations play very
important roles in determining the business success of an organisation, especially for an
organisation doing their business in the hospitality industry. Travelodge Hotels is one of the
largest hotel chains in UK, widely considered as the second largest among the budget hotels in
the UK. It has more than 500 hotels in different locations in the UK and 11 hotels in the Ireland,
with total employee strength of over 11,000. This report will highlight the various key aspects of
quality management systems and various quality control strategies for Travelodge Hotels, and
appropriate recommendations will be made.
LO 1: Task 1.
A. Definition of quality in the perspective of business and service in Travelodge Hotels
Limited [P 1.1]
Quality of products and service is one of the main aspects of an organisation in gaining huge
profits and maintaining the organisation with efficiency. The modern organisations give huge
importance to the quality of the service or product they offer. They make continuous changes in
making the quality better or maintain the standard of the quality of product and service they
offer. The best quality is a key aspect that increases the sales and revenues percentage in an
organisation (Subrahmanyam, 2017). Quality also improves the marketing tools as well, which
gives an organisation a competitive edge over the competitors. The maintenance of the quality
must be taken care of in all the processes of production. Quality of a product or service in terms
of business refers to the degree of satisfaction the product and service provides to its customers.
The organisation should aim in providing their customers with all their expectations from the
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
product or service they offer. This also leads to the improvement of the goodwill of a brand
Berkowitz, et al., 2016).
Big companies, like Travelodge Hotels Limited, that deals in the hospitality industry not only
tries to provide best quality of service to its customer at a reasonable price but they are also
trying to continuously improve the quality of the services by initiating new 100 million Euros
modernization programme. The food delivered by the hotel to their guests is also of high quality
(Subrahmanyam, 2017). The constant endeavor of the company to provide best quality of service
and products for the price they take has made them one of the prominent companies in UK.
B. Quality assurance and the process of inspection and assurance in Travelodge Hotels
Limited. [P 1.2]
Quality assurance is one of the key aspects in running a business. The overall production process
of an organisation must be assured of the best quality and the agreement to provide the best
quality products and services are taken care of in this process. Quality planning tool, technique
and quality audits are used for the evaluation of an overall production performance (European
Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, 2015).
Travelodge Hotels maintain an unerring process of inspection and assurance. Travelodge take
quality as a serious aspect of their business. The quality planning of Travelodge is maintained in
a strict manner. The hotel plans all the quality standards regularly. The present quality is then
compared with the planned quality standards and the difference is resolved. The quality of the
services provided by the hotels is systematically checked by the qualified supervisors of the hotel
(Subrahmanyam, 2017). The food and beverages are also regularly examined by the head chef of
the hotel. These measures assure quality to the customers.
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
The quality of the services and products provided by the hotel is regularly checked. The services
are monitored and audited regularly by the concerned authorities of the nation to conform to the
quality standard (Rakotomamonjy and Gasso, 2015). Any problem with performance so found is
settled. The food and beverage of the hotel is also regularly monitored by the head chef and is
then given to get verification from the central food safety authority. The overall quality is
maintained by several quality programmes implemented by the hotel. Programmes like field
testing, training, auditing etc. are done to assure the best quality of services and products offered
by the hotel.
Figure 1: Chart of Quality Programmes
(Source: Berkowitz, et al., 2016)
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
C. Management of quality through a range of methods in the service and business
environment [P 1.3 and P 1.4]
The quality in service and business environment, being a vital aspect, can be managed in quite a
few methods.
 Cause-and-effect diagram: Also known as, the Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram helps an
organisation to understand the various reasons for a specific problem occurring in the
business. This will help the company to know about all the reasons behind a failing
activity in the business (Milliman, Gatling and Kim, 2018). This may help Travelodge
Hotels to identify and improve the quality of a service or product in order to maintain or
increase the quality of the hotel.
Figure 2: Example of a fishbone diagram
(Source: Chang, 2015)
 Check Sheet: Check Sheet is one of the most common methods for quality management
where a data about a company can be procured and analysed in a tabular form. This
method can be adopted by Travelodge for a wide variety of purposes and can be useful in
analyzing the current situation of the quality of a company. It will also be useful for the
company to shape the data of events, problems, defects, etc (Kirillova and Chan, 2018).
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
Figure 3: Example of a check-sheet
(Source: Yasutake et al., 2016)
 Histogram: Histogram is a bar graph that represents the frequency of problems
distributed on each bars. This process may help Travelodge Hotels to prioritize the
factors, which may need the maximum attention. It is displayed in bar graphs, which are
comparatively easier to study.
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
Figure 4: Example of a histogram
(Source: Rakotomamonjy and Gasso, 2015)
A company like Travelodge Hotels, being in the hospitality industry, should pay the utmost
attention towards the quality management methods in order to manage and control the quality of
the services and products provided by them. All the above methods of quality management serve
the basic objective of procuring and analysing the quality of the hotel. Cause-and-effect method
will help the hotel to identify the cause behind an effect of quality of the hotel (Milliman, Gatling
and Kim, 2018). However, the method fails to give data about a wide variety of purpose for
which Travelodge can take the help of the check sheet method. Histogram, on the other hand,
helps to prioritize the causes of a declining quality that helps the hotel to segregate its importance
towards the different factors of the cause (Kirillova and Chan, 2018). Overall, histogram can be
the best method that can be adapted by Travelodge Hotels Limited for their quality management
for its ability to provide data on different factors and its cause helping the hotel to segregate the
factors that needs the utmost attention.
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
Effective outlook of examination and research of different methods and discussion of
similarities and differences of quality management
According toNemet, Brand and Tafesh (2016), the quality of service in the hospitality industry is
a key aspect in its success. Travelodge Hotels Limited being one of the leading hotels in UK has
to take the quality management seriously. The assurance of quality is done quite properly by the
hotel. The quality of the service and food and beverage is taken care of with utmost attention.
The quality management is also done with utmost attention. The method of histogram can be
adapted by the hotel for a better management of the day-to-day quality of services and products
of the hotel (Kirillova and Chan, 2018). Hence, the quality assurance and management by
Travelodge has been quite a success in recent years that has resulted in their constant growth
over the years.
LO 2: Task 2
A. Customer satisfaction in a service environment [P 2.1 and P 2.2]
Customer satisfaction is the principal objective of any organisation. The customers are the main
reason behind setting up an organisation. An organisation, like Travelodge Hotels, aims at giving
the maximum satisfaction to their customers with their quality service. Quality is a determinant
of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the satisfaction a customer gets from the
service availed by it from the service provider (Hill, and Alexander, 2017).
Travelodge Hotels Limited is an organisation in the hospitality industry where the customer
satisfaction is given utmost importance. Being in the hospitality industry, Travelodge give all its
attention to the customers view on the hotel. There can be some measure taken to improve the
customer satisfaction of Travelodge.
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
 Treating all the customers with utmost care:
It is very important to give the customers a value for their money. Differentiating
customers based on the monetary status can lead to a mass distress of the customers and
some of the customers might feel less wanted (Milliman, Gatling and Kim, 2018). To
counter this scenario, every customer availing the same service should be given their
utmost attention and customers should feel special.
 Keeping a track on the customer satisfaction:
The customers’ satisfaction should be measured regularly to know about what the
customer thinks of the service provided to them. This will help Travelodge to keep a
track on the customers’ satisfaction reducing the number of unsatisfied customers and
preventing customer churn (Kirillova and Chan, 2018). The customer satisfaction can be
measure by online survey tools.
 Prioritising employee satisfaction:
The employees are the backbone of any hotel. The employees should be given enough
facilities that will increase their job satisfaction that will indirectly effect the way they
provide their service to the customers.
Figure 5: Customer Service Monitoring
(Source: Hill, and Brierley 2017)
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MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN TRAVELODGE HOTELS LIMITED
B. Illustration of how service quality enhances the customer satisfaction [P 2.3]
The service quality and customer satisfaction are the two key aspects that attracts customers to
avail the services of an organisation. The quality of service influences the customer satisfaction
of an organisation. The hospitality industry is hugely based on the services it provides to the
customers. Hence, a quality service provided to the customer not only increases the customer
satisfaction but also improves their reputation (Kaura,Durga Prasad and Sharma, 2015). When a
person thinks of going to hotel, the first thing that comes to the mind is the services that the
person can get in the hotel. Hotels with splendid service are always in a better position than its
counterparts as this will attract new customers and retain the loyalty of the old customers.
Travelodge has been giving one of the best hospitality services to the customers who have
enhanced their reputation and the customers get high satisfaction. The new innovations in
Travelodge Hotels, like Travelodgers Dreamers Bed, soothing designs, etc. have also helped in
giving quality services to the customers which enhance their satisfaction giving Travelodge a
competitive edge. Travelodge takes the relationship between quality service and customer
satisfaction quite seriously, because of which they have evolved to become UK’s largest
independent hotel brand.
Figure 6: Relationship between Service quality and Customer satisfaction
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