Quality service delivery at a five-star hotel in Mumbai

Work Study Report

Providing Quality Service and Products to External Customers

I was working at a 5 star deluxe hotel in Mumbai India, which draws guests from around the world with a taste for luxury and excellent customer service. The hotel was very good at providing this level of service and consistently meeting customer expectations. On the rare occasions where customers were dissatisfied with some feature of the hotel, they situation was rectified quickly.

On one occasion a customer had booked a suite, but when they arrived no suites were available. As a result the customer was very upset and not willing to accept any lesser form of accommodation. We appeased this customer by providing him with a double queen room at no cost to him, and then moved him to the first available suite when it did become available. This satisfied the customer.

b. One customer became very angry because the air conditioning in his room did not work to his satisfaction. Unfortunately air conditioning works differently around the world, and in India it is often not to the same level of coldness as North Americans might expect. There was nothing we could do to adjust the temperature of his room, so we provided a discount for his stay.

c. Another customer was very put off by the various charges on his bill when he was checking out. He had watched a number of in-room movies and used many items from the mini-bar, yet he swore that he was unaware that these would be charged to his room. I explained politely that the hotel policy states clearly that these items will be charged, and showed the man a copy of the hotel registration that he had signed and highlighted where this document explained all charges. He was still not overly satisfied, but it would not have been appropriate to reverse the charges.

2. I think that I am able to be very diplomatic and respectful when dealing with customers, especially the more difficult customers.

3. The hotel where I worked is meeting and exceeding the expectations of 99% of its guests and I really do not see many areas for improvement. One area could be in their air conditioning system, as the issue described above with respect to the air conditioning has occurred frequently. Perhaps they could make the expenditures to have a North American style system and then use this as an advertising feature.

B: Providing Quality Service to Internal Customers (other employees)

1. Among the management staff, teamwork was very effective and the staff were very satisfied and happy with their working conditions. This was not the case however with the housekeeping staff. They did not work cohesively together, often fought over hours, and were dissatisfied with their wages. Management staff were very committed to making the hotel a successful business, while housekeeping were less interested in the overall goals of the establishment and more interested in their own well-being.

2. I believe I possess strong leadership skills and I was able to work well with other members of the membership team. When in a leadership position I was able to encourage group morale and my team members were excited and eager to work on whatever project we were approaching. On occasions where I was not the leader, I was an active participant, eager to take direction and also to be a contributing member on all aspects of the project. I rarely had any form of conflict with any other working staff member and I felt that I developed good working relationships with my colleagues.

3. I believe improvements need to be made to the morale of the housekeeping staff. They do not seem satisfied with their jobs, mostly due to hours worked and wages paid. The housekeeping staff play a large role in the success of a hotel and I believe they should be properly compensated for their work. Dissatisfied employees in this area can cause a lot of damage to a hotel by creating dissatisfied guests, and thus it is an area worthy of the company's attention.

C: Conflicts

a. I was involved in the mediation of a conflict between two housekeeping staff who were accusing each other of stealing rooms. Each housekeeping member is assigned a certain set of rooms to clean. However, they can earn additional money by cleaning extra rooms. These rooms are eagerly sought after, but in this case one employee felt that the other had stolen the "extra rooms" that they had previously claimed. This was in fact not possible, as the extra rooms are intended to be cleaned on a "first come first serve" type of system. Thus I re-explained the policy to the employees and reminded them that the goal was a good job, not to clean as many rooms as possible. While the issue was resolved, I feel that it will likely come up again many times in the future as it is a function of the overall flawed system which needs to be addressed.

b. I was involved in a dispute with another manager who disagreed about whether or not we should provide a comp'd room to a guest who was complaining about loud noises during the night. I felt that the guest had a legitimate complaint and deserved to be compensated, while the other manager felt that because the noise was not due to the hotel itself, it was not their responsibility. In the end the other manager 'won' and the guest remained dissatisfied and ended up leaving the hotel early. I feel that this was the wrong solution, but I learned that sometimes I need to put the working relationships that I have above an individual situation. In the future I was able to better work with this individual as a result.

c. I was involved in a conflict with a supervisor who wanted me to work late when I had already worked a 14-hour shift. This was unusual to begin with and I could not fathom working an additional 6 hours. The supervisor was adamant that no one else could do the job, but I pointed out that it would be a disservice to the company to have me stay, as I would not be functioning at my best with such little sleep. The supervisor finally agreed to take the shift himself, as he had only been working for 2 hours.

2. Change

a. The hotel was having difficulty reaching a market of younger people and wanted to change some of the services available in order to attract this demographic. In particular they were wanting to find wealthy young patrons. As a result, I was part of a planning committee to create services that this group would enjoy. We created partnerships with local nightclubs, allowing us to offer packages that included limo service to and from the club for our patrons. As a result we did indeed bring in younger clientele, but this created a change in the system that we needed to deal with. Our staff had to be trained to provide different levels of service and to be knowledgeable about different attractions in the area. I helped by researching the topic and providing training sessions to the staff. I believe that this was a positive change for the hotel.

b. Another even that involved change was when we changed suppliers for our printing services. We had printing services completed by a local company that was often late. We switched to an online printing service where we could submit proofs of what we wanted printed online, and then a courier would ship the product to us. This was a great improvement to meeting our printing needs, but required learning how to use the online system. I learned a lot about teaching others to use technology in this process and feel that this was a helpful experience.

c. A third example of change involved the introduction of in-room video games. At first this caused a lot of problems with the in-room movie system, so we had to deal with a number of complaints. Eventually the system was fixed, but then this again required additional training for staff members on how to answer questions from guests about the video games and how the system worked. I found this change to be very stressful due to the problems it caused with our existing movie system. I learned that one must be patient and try to find the root of the problem in order to adequately fix the issue.

D: Understanding Diversity

1. Working in Mumbai, India at the hotel provided me with a great deal of experience in diversity. The staff was very international, as were the guests. We had staff members who spoke 7 different languages in order to meet the needs of our guests, and in total our staff members spoke over 32 different languages. This made us very capable in terms of meeting the needs of our guests, wherever they may have travelled to visit us from. I learned that different people expect different things at hotels, for example, many of our British guests arrived with their own towels, while many of our North American guests were never satisfied with our air conditioning services, despite the fact that many of our local guests found the hotel to be too cold.

2. It is important to be aware of the cultures involved in one's staff. This comes into play a lot with respect to planning social events, which are important for developing staff morale. Yet, something very well intended can go the wrong way if cultural issues are not take into consideration. For example, we had many different cultures working at our hotel, which meant that we had many different dietary needs. This made planning parties very challenging with respect to choosing a menu that was appropriate for all cultures. It was important to understand which foods were simply not eaten by some members, versus which foods were considered offensive and could not even be present at the function. I learned that one simple way to deal with this issue is to just be open and pole the staff and include them in the planning of the event.

3. One area of diversity that many members of the hotel staff were less comfortable with or less familiar with was sexual orientation. Often we would have a same-sex couple book a room with a King sized bed, and when they would check in at the front desk the staff member would be apologetic and attempt to change the room to one that had two beds, not realizing that the two individuals were a couple and likely had specifically requested a king-sized bed. I addressed this issue by having the staff simply ask whether or not the people checking in (regardless of their gender mix) were satisfied with the existing reservation or if they would like it changed. By asking this question to all guests, I feel that it was a better way of dealing with the situation so that same-sex couples did not feel like they were being 'outted' or treated unfairly when they were asked if they wanted a different bed arrangement.

Part VIII

Professional image - Critique your professional image in the following areas. Indicate particular strengths or weaknesses and any action plans that you may have. For example: Weakness: Do not own an appropriate suit for interviewing. Action plan: Start saving on weekly basis, shop around for good " bargain" spots or hit sale times.

A. Overall professional image - Grooming, body language, eye contact, handshake style, other non-verbal language

B. Communication style

1. Oral

2. Written

C. Wardrobe

Part IX

Indicate any special projects or assignments you worked on during your hospitality work experience(s). Include a description of the project, your role, percent of time or actual number of hours involved, and specific skills or knowledge acquired through working on such assignments. Additional work samples can be included.

Part X

Knowing what you know about your organization's profitability, what suggestions can you offer to maximize profits? Include cost control suggestions as well as marketing suggestions to increase revenue.

Part XIII

This section focuses on environmentally aware practices of hospitality employers.

A. For each of your employers, delineate "green" environmentally-proactive processes and activities practiced.

B. If there are no such processes/activities, are there any planned for the future?

C. For those employers who have adopted green practices, what have been the benefits?

For example, are there Return on Investment figures available?

Has the business received any favorable, positive media coverage? Have certain business segments been gained from "going green"?

D. What ideas do you have for the business in becoming more environmentally conscious?