Hotel Front Office Management, 3rd Edition

330 CHAPTER 11: MANAGING HOSPITALITYthis to be a challenge! She has read some of the articleson service management in the trade journalsand decides to do more research on the topic.Through her reading, Ms. Chavarria learns thatthere must be a financial commitment by the ownersand a managerial commitment by the staff to makethis work. If the employees become involved in theplanning stages, it should work just fine. She thinksthat getting the cooperation of the employees will beeasy if the owners pledge their financial commitment.She guesses that the rest of the management staff willprobably halfheartedly go along with the project—ifit is forced on them.At the scheduled brainstorming session, Ana outlinesher findings. The owners are reluctant to incuradditional expenses to motivate employees. Theowners respond, “Let’s find some more creativeways.” The other managers suggest preparing posterswith photos of employees who do a good job,placing names of employees who do a good job onthe marquee, and placing a suggestion box in the employeelunchroom. Continued focus on the financialaspects distracts the group from discussing the contentof a service management program. After twohours of futile effort, the owners decide to table theservice management program.If you were the front office manager, whatwould you have included in your presentation fordeveloping an effective service management program?CASE STUDY 1102Ana Chavarria, front office manager of The TimesHotel, and Lorraine DeSantes, the hotel’s director ofmarketing, learn that their city will be hosting thenext Olympic Games. The city council and the tourismboard are planning to meet to work on a programto ensure that quality service will be deliveredby all agencies, private and commercial, to the manyguests. There will be individual groups (hotels, restaurants,public transportation, etc.) that will meetand decide on a course of action. Margaret Chu, generalmanager of The Times Hotel, wants Ana andLorraine to represent the hotel on the Hotel HospitalityCommission. Since the next games are severalyears away, there is ample time to involve variousconstituencies in developing a plan for implementation.After a few meetings with the commission, thegroup feels it should break into smaller teams to discussdeveloping specific components of deliveringquality service. Ana and Lorraine are heading the“Service to the International Visitor” planning team.What suggestions would you give Ana and Lorraineas they lead this team? Prepare an agenda for the firstmeeting of their team.Notes1. Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke, Service America! (New York: Dow Jones—Irwin, 1985), 6–7.2. John W. Young, “Four Seasons Expansion into the U.S. Market” (paper delivered at theCouncil on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education, Toronto, Canada, July 30, 1988; editedJuly 17, 2001), 29.3. Cheryl Hall, “Data Crunchers at Irving-based UniFocus Help Hotels Improve CustomersService, Maintain Employee Morale,” Dallas Morning News, July 16, 2000. Reprinted with permissionof the Dallas Morning News.TLFeBOOK