Question

*** PLEASE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN PARAGRAPH FORMAT.

The following case study provides information for a hotel chain. They have recently conducted a customer satisfaction survey. Given these research results and the other information in the case, what advice would you give them? This is a good exercise in utilizing the results of market research.

ACTIVITY/TASK

The Quick-Stop Hotel Chain

Quick-Stop Hotels is a small hotel chain located along on the north coast of New South Wales. This chain consists of five different hotel complexes located several hours drive apart along the main coastal highway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Their prime target market is the family segment. This is because families often choose to drive from Sydney to Brisbane (or Brisbane to Sydney) and back again for their holidays. As this trip is around a 12-hour drive, many travelers choose to stop overnight in order break up their journey. Therefore, Quick-Stop has deliberately chosen popular stopover towns for their hotels.

In line with this location strategy, they promote themselves with the slogan, “the “perfect place for a break”.

Their individual hotels vary a little in quality, but all have either a 3 or a 4 star rating. This means that they are either medium (3 star) or good (4 star) quality in terms of facilities and general standard of accommodation. On average, they each have around 80 rooms and a fairly broad range of facilities (that is, a heated swimming pool, room service, restaurant and bar, a kid’s club during school holidays, a small gym, and some have tennis courts and a couple of stores).

In terms of promotion, they are heavy outdoor (billboard) advertisers on the coastal highway. They also advertise in various holiday and travel directories, and on the government tourism website.

As you can see from the table below, they vary pricing throughout the year. Pricing is generally used as a tool to increase demand in the low season and to increase revenue in the high season. This is necessary as they have highly seasonal demand, being frequently being booked out over the Christmas holiday period, and with very high demand in other school holiday periods.

The table also shows the results of a customer satisfaction survey for Quick-Stop Hotels. On average, 80% of customers indicated that they were satisfied with their stay and 10% were delighted with their stay. However, 10% indicated they were dissatisfied. These figures vary by season, whether the customer was a first-time customer, and by the quality of the individual hotel. Additionally, the table includes information on average room rates (per night) and occupancy levels. (Note: The occupancy level is the percentage of rooms occupied per night.)

	Average	Low Season	High Season	1st Time Customers	Repeat Customers	3-star locations	4-star locations
Delighted customers	10%	20%	5%	25%	5%	10%	20%
Satisfied customers	80%	70%	75%	60%	90%	70%	70%
Dissatisfied customers	10%	10%	20%	15%	5%	20%	10%
Average Room Price	$120	$75	$160	$140	$100	$100	$140
Occupancy Level	80%	50%	100%	N/A	N/A	85%	75%

QUESTIONS

1. Review the customer satisfaction information. Does it make sense? Why/why not?
2. Given these research results and the other information in the case, what advice would you give this firm.
3. Which of the above metrics did you find helpful? Which did you ignore?
4. What other information would have been helpful?

Answer 1

1. Yes, it makes sense, it can be seen that during the low and average season, people are much more satisfied with the service than in high season. This can also be attributed to the price that they have to pay, which considerably more from average and low season.

Another reason can be rush in high season, which may lead to deteriorating service quality. Overall, the company has maintained the satisfaction level well throughout the seasons and for all type of customers like 1st time and repeat.

2. Although the company is doing pretty fine with most of its customers satisfied and delighted. However, in high season there seems to be more dissatisfaction. It may be obvious, but the company must understand that this the time most people would come to their hotels for the first time, and hence their satisfaction is necessary to make them a repeat customer.

Feedback from them can be used to improve upon the quality of the hotel.

The same is with 3-star locations.

3. The satisfaction level metric according to the season is helpful to understand people's satisfaction across different times. It can be used to bring out a few inferences that can be essential to improve hotels further.

While occupancy level and the average room price is intuitive to the difference in service and season. The distinction in satisfaction level is of more importance.

Thus, the ignored metric would be regarding occupancy level and average room price, as it is already mentioned in the case, that hotel would charge(as the case with other hotels, too) extra during high season. Plus, 3-star locations would be less expensive than 4 star. Or occupancy would be high during high season.

4. Other helpful information can be the feedback of the customer as to what is the reason for their dissatisfaction or satisfaction. As of now, only the guess can be made but with their statements, it would have been much clear regarding their difference in satisfaction level.

One more information can be, what factors are more important for the satisfaction, price, service, location, etc. This would have pinpointed the reason for their satisfaction