Question

When a Body Meets a Body

What a day! A traveling couple has stopped overnight at this airport hotel to break up 27 hours of travel from almost around the world. It is already late, almost 11:00 pm when they finally get to their room. What’s that noise? A party in the room across the hall. After giving the partygoers an additional hour to finish up, the distraught guest calls the desk. No answer after some 10 rings. Every 10 minutes the caller rings the desk because the party has grown louder and louder and it is now well past 1 am. No answer. No answer. No answer. More than 2 hours after arriving, the man puts on his clothing and walks down to the lobby. The lobby is pitch dark except for emergency lighting. “Wow, something has happened. Oh Gosh! There’s a body on the sofa!” The guest is startled even more when the night auditor jumps up from the sofa and his deep sleep, mumbling something about; “sorry I must have fallen asleep.”

Questions:

1. Was there a management failure here? If so, what?

2. What is the hotel’s immediate response (or action) to the incident?

3. What further, long-run action should management take? If any?

Answer 1

A1. There was a management failure which failed to train its employees to provide high-quality services to its guest and to be available to them on a constant basis. Hotel industry has different shifts to ensure that the guests can be served even during the middle of the night. In this case, the management failed to implement efficient work timings for its employees which resulted in the above mishap.

A2. The management should immediately provide an apology to the guests for the inconvenience caused. They should also be given a complimentary gift such as a free dinner from the hotel or a free stay for one more dar or night etc. This will go a long way in pacifying the customers and ensuring that the reputation of the hotel is not affected in a negative manner.

A3. For the future, the management:-

must train all of its managers and employees to ensure that a flexible work schedule should be adopted to ensure that the guests can be served by the staff regardless of the time of the day.

Guidelines should be provided to the guests about do's and dont's to ensure that the incident of loud partying is reduced and to make sure that guests can stay in the hotel comfortably and without any disturbances.