case study report on hotel operations

7/21/2019 Case Study Report on Hotel Operations

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Vinh Q. Nguyen – La Trobe University

Case Study Report on Hotel Operations




Table of Contents

Section Page

Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………… 2

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. 3

1.1. Objectives …………………………………………………………………….. 3

1.2. Sco pes ………………………………………………………………………… 3

1.3. Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………….. . 3

1.4. Assumptions …………………………………………………………………. 3

1.5. Background …………………………………………………………………... 4

2. Housekeeping …………………………………………………………………. 4

2.1. Room cleaning ………………………………………………………………. 4

3. Laundry Service and Inventory ……………………………………………… 5

3.1. Laundry quality control ……………………………………………………… 5

3.2. Laundry Inventory control …………………………………………………… 6

4. Maintenance ………………………………………………………………….. 7

4.1. Furniture care and maintenance ……………………………………………… 7

5. Fire Equipment and Fire Procedures ……………………………………… 8

5.1. Fire equipment ……………………………………………………………… 8

5.2. Fire drills and procedures …………………………………………………… 9

6. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 11

7. Appendix 1: Rydges Room Cleanliness Rating Card ……………………… 12

8. Appendix 2: Hotel Product Usage Report …………………………………. 13

9. Appendix 3: Correct Use of Fire Equipment ……………………………… 14

10. References …………………………………………………………………. 15




Executive Summary

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of some areas of the operations within the

hospitality industry, using Rydges on Bell as a case study. Problems that are inevitablyfaced by accommodation businesses are discussed, as well as viable suggestions on how

these can be effectively dealt with. The areas focussed on are guest room cleaning, laundry

quality and laundry inventory in the house keeping sector. Furthermore, other areas such as

interior furniture maintenance, fire procedures of the facility care and emergency

maintenance sections have also been observed and evaluated.

The report finds the current position of Rydges on Bell as stable and reasonably operative

in terms of adherence to standard procedures in housekeeping, maintenance. However,

there are several areas that require further consideration and corrective action by

management. The report investigates the current operations and existing practices at the

hotel. Consequently, some problems have been identified and addressed suggestively.

Thus, recommendations are made accordingly.

Recommendations discussed, include:

Guest rooms should be completely cleaned. Critical areas are window corners,

toilet curtains, drink spills on refrigerator doors.

Laundry quality should be better controlled to claim causes of damage, defects from

delivery.

Concise records should be made by housekeepers on every incident and damaged

item in guest rooms, including damage of surfaces.

More efficient accounts of laundry inventory.

Portable fire extinguishers would benefit the hotel if they were to be placed betweenguest rooms along corridors, as well as in the elevator.

Maintenance is required to complete thorough inspections of the safety aspect of the

hotel and act on their findings immediately. The absence of a fire blanket in the

wall bag showed the fact of negligence by the maintenance staff.




1. Introduction

1.1. Objectives:

The aim of this report is to analyse some areas in the operations of accommodation

industry. For better performance and improvement, the identified problems will be

addressed and analysed in a manner of contributive suggestions and solutions. The

students’ pair, Vinh Nguyen and Kym Feore have practically worked at the hotel, and have

subsequently conducted individual observations, debriefed with the executive housekeeper

over the concerned areas. The students are in an effort to address the issues confidently in

view of effective management in the industry.

1.2. Scope:This report will discuss on the frequent problems and issues within the hotel. Thus, guest

room cleaning, laundry quality and laundry inventory control in the house keeping section

have been observed and will be analysed in thorough discussion. In addition, other areas

such as interior furniture care & maintenance and fire equipment; fire procedures and

prevention of the facility engineering and emergency maintenance sections have been

looked at and evaluated.

1.3. Acknowledgements:

In order to complete this academic report, the pair students have debriefed with the

executive housekeeping manager of the hotel for an insight of current and existing

procedures and practices. Library materials, academic journals, websites and facts have

been resorted to strongly back up the ideas, suggestions. The students appreciated advice

from the executive housekeeper and front office staff, as well as the valuable insight of the

hospitality operations provided by the housekeeping staff.

1.4. Assumptions:

It is assumed that this report serves the purpose to provide suggestions to potentially

improve management practices and that the information resources are relevant to the

components of the report. However, this report, within its work frame limitations may not

cover other areas which are also related and worth discussing. It only focuses on the said




core aspects and that complete details of evaluation may not be thoroughly elaborated in a

more professional way due to time allocation of such a report.

1.5. Background :

Rydges on Bell Preston Melbourne, rated the four star hotel establishment which is “the

beautifully resort styled landscape garden” (Rydges on Bell Preston website, 2007) has

been used as the case study in this report. Initiated solutions have been based on and

viewed from existing issues in the said hotel.

Jones (2005), states that a hotel’s success is a departmental contribution of the sales and

marketing, the front office, human resources and the management. There are other

departments such as the housekeeping, facility engineering and emergency maintenance

where their significant work from the backyard transports a huge part of commitment to the

success of the lodging establishment. Without doubt, effective management in these

sections can result in complete satisfaction to guests.

2. Housekeeping

2.1. Room cleaning:

“Hotel industry surveys consistently confirm the fact that the role of the housekeeping is

most important, from the point of view of the hotel’s guests.” (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2007,

p.312). The authors support the view that “the responsibility of the housekeeping is to

provide that clean room” (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2007, p.312). In all circumstances,

therefore, the housekeeper must check in every corner, angle of the guest room, from the

room floor, underneath beds and tables, T.V shelf, and the bathroom to ensure that there isno dust or stains and rooms are of complete hygiene. It is ideal that Rydges Hotel runs a

good practice of distributing a room cleanliness rating card (refer to appendix 1 for Rydges

Hotel room cleanliness rating card) to guest rooms in purpose for rating the room

cleanliness. By doing this, the housekeeping staff receives feedback from the guests’ point




of view and they know how well the rooms have been serviced. Complaints from guests, if

any will help improve better service. The fact at Rydges shows that all guests rated their

serviced rooms at 5 marks – excellent grade, within the week commencing Monday, 8 th

October, 2007 (facts were heard during the 10:00 am briefing by Executive Housekeeping

Manager). This indicates the excellent work done by the housekeeping staff.

Apparently, “guest room cleaning is a very important job because guests look for a clean

and pleasant environment” (Pappa, Nischke & Schappert, 1995, p.26). However, there are

some issues worth noting in housekeeping at the Rydges Hotel. It has been seen that glass

windows at both wall sides where curtains cover over are not well dusted and cleaned.

Housekeepers usually use a feather hand broom to quickly dust only the glass of middle

windows, not with a cloth, dampened with glass cleaner as required. The windows are left

un-cleaned in both corner sides, covered with the curtains where dust settles for a long

time. Also, the toilet plastic curtain needs more care for cleanliness. Besides, the

refrigerator often has drink spills in edges and over door surface to clean as necessary.

These issues are often overlooked, most probably due to temptation to finish early as staff

are allowed to leave when their allocated rooms are finished being serviced. It is critical

that the supervisor on duty should inspect these areas such as windows, bed headboard top

rail, and table & nightstand drawers, under beds, floor tile edges in toilet, even though it is

the housekeepers’ duty to have these areas spotless.

3. Laundry service and Inventory

3.1. Laundry quality control:

Hotel managers confide to the author, Jones that “choosing to outsource in commercial

laundry service has advantages for two reasons, convenience and real estate costs” (2005,

p.353). On the other hand, “the hotel does not want to take the responsibility of having yet

another large department in their organization” (Jones, 2005, p.355). However, this has

certain disadvantages in controlling the laundry quality.




The fact is that Rydges Hotel does not have an in-house laundry. All laundry is outsourced

to a service company who picks up dirty sheets, towels etcetera, and delivers clean linens

everyday. It has been evaluated as a considerably good operation. However, the point is

that checking laundry quality of every delivery is an issue. The hotel staff can not possibly

take their time checking every item. Consequently, quality of laundry when delivered may

not be satisfactory or a random check of a few items, if any, will not make a difference as

damaged or defected items are in between a large quantity of laundered items. Defects may

occur to these items during the cleaning process or transport by the side of the service

company, which is out of the hotel’s control.

Problems are only found when room attendants make use of the items when it is too late to

claim as to how, by whom and when the damage or defects have been caused. During 3-day

work experience, such incidents happened that when the housekeeper put on the bed sheets

and blankets it was found that they had holes and were mechanically stained though the

items still looked relatively new. These damaged sheets and blankets with holes can of

course, not be fixed and are costly to replace. This is a frequent problem that occurs during

room servicing. It is suggested that quality control be implemented, such that the items are

inspected upon delivery and records are made by the housekeeper on every incident.

Damaged items should be isolated in a separate bag and reported to the staff in charge for

controlling purposes.

3.2. Laundry inventory:

Controlling software items (bedspreads, valances and so on) is an important job (Jones,

2005) as inefficient supervision can result in unnecessary costs. Loss and damage as

mentioned above must be recorded immediately so the staff in charge can easily trace the

causes. This relates not only to the costs and expenses of purchasing items against revenues

but also to balance availability for use. Jones, 2005, p.263 states that “use, balances, supply

levels are critical control information that must be routinely maintained to ensure

availability of materials when needed”. Thus, it seems that the controlling system at the

hotel is not functioning quite well at an optimal level. Some cases of damaged items were

not reported or housekeepers simply discarded bath towels and other damaged or dirty




items beyond repair in rubbish bags for disposal. Have records on damage, loss been done

effectively? Are the staff checking item inventories properly? And what is frequency basis

of the controlling system for checking inventories? It is known that the hotel has inventory

control system in place but needs to be executed in a different manner for better

performance. Management should look into this issue as the establishment can experience

big expenses against its revenues in a long term. Hayes & Ninemeier, 2007 recommend a

systematic tool for proper inventory control, called “a product usage report “ (a report

detailing the amount of an inventoried item used by a hotel in a specified time period, i.e.

week, month, quarter, year) – refer to appendix 2.

4. Maintenance

Facility maintenance is a huge department which is responsible for maintaining exterior and

interior facilities of the hotel (Hayes and Ninemeier, 2007). In this report, the interior

furniture maintenance will be addressed. As the part of the hotel’s style, according to Jones

and Lockwood, 2006, interior furniture such as beds, tables, chairs, cabinets will have a

significant impact on the guests’ perceptions and enjoyment of that stay. Therefore, to keep

and maintain the beautiful and costly furniture with its standard finishing and design is a

critical job.

4.1. Furniture care and maintenance:

Beautiful furniture to match with room design and decoration costs the hotel a large amount

of expenses (Jones, 2005) but enhances the hotel’s elegance. When guests enter their room,

it is usually the first impression that forms the basis of their judgment for that hotel. It is

without a doubt that the role of housekeepers is essential in caring for the interior furniture

properly. Preventive maintenance is essential and care guidelines or instructions on wooden

items; glass ware; fabric & leather upholstered items should be strictly practiced otherwise

negligence by housekeepers will shorten life expectancy of the finishing or the whole

furniture. It is guided that “laminated tops are an essential element of most institutional

furniture. Spilled drinks and beverage rings would quickly mar the finish and stain ordinary

wood furniture.” (Jones, 2005, p.75). When vacuuming the floor, cleaners may damage

edges of bed side rails, footboard bottom rail, table bottom stretcher, chair legs. Chemicals




for cleaning should not be placed on top surfaces of furniture as spills may happen. The

type of materials used to clean the furniture should also be strictly adhered to. A clean, soft

cloth is recommended for surfaces; however it was observed that dirty cloths were used. In

event of damage to the finishing, or construction of the furniture due to any circumstances,

housekeepers should report to the maintenance staff for immediate actions.

The fact at Rydges Hotel shows maintaining the furniture is not well done. There are some

furniture such as tables, chairs in guest rooms 6032, 6033, which are badly scratched on

table top, edges, legs, leaving an unsightly look and need to be re-polished. This is due to

the dark veneer used on light wood that chips away easily. However, this situation has been

unsolved for a long time and no actions have been taken. It should be remembered that it is

important to continuously maintain the interior furniture in order to keep its quality asmuch as of original standard. It may cause a negative impact on the guests, thinking that

they are paying for the 4 star room rate but interior facilities are not worth such quality

standard.

5. Fire equipment and fire procedures

Evidently speaking, fires in lodging and residential estates are a human-caused disaster. It

is difficult to estimate the cost of loss in terms of human lives and properties as a result of

such disaster. Facts show that fires in 1980 destroyed the MGM Grand hotel, a 26-storey

hotel in Las Vegas and 84 people were killed; 26 were killed at Stouffer’s Inn in White

Plains, New York; and 8 were killed at The Las Vegas Hilton (Jones, 2005, p.348).

Accommodation establishments must be vigilant in sustaining fire procedures and

prevention. It is, by law, the responsibility of the organization to correctly implement fire

procedures in order to eliminate and control fire hazards to create safety, security to guests

and staff in their establishment.

5.1. Fire equipment :

According to Kansas Buildings Fire Safety Handbook (2006), the following fire equipment

must be installed in place in high rise buildings by legislative requirements: emergency

lighting system, automatic fire alarm system, electric fire pump, central control station

equipment and lighting, complete automatic sprinklers, smoke proof enclosures, room




smoke detector, fire hose reel, standpipe for fire department use, exit signs, and importantly

external escape stairs. Access to fire equipment stations must be kept clear and available at

all times. For example, housekeeping trolleys, other materials must not hinder the access to

fire hose reels or exits. One particular fire hazard observed at Rydges, was the practice of

leaving many linen and rubbish bags in the hall in front of the lift. These bags obstruct the

one of the wings and often block the door to the stair case as they wait for removal. A less

hazardous and more effective way of removing the linen and rubbish bags needs to be

implemented.

Once the fire equipment have been fully installed, it must be a strict practice that

maintenance staff should conduct inspections of the equipment on a regular basis to ensure

that all is in working condition, if anything is found not working properly or out of order,

make sure it must be fixed or replaced immediately. Attention should be paid to dry

chemical fire extinguishers for expiry date, and that fire alarms work well.

In summary, a complete checklist of fire equipment must be inspected and controlled by the

maintenance department (Kansas Buildings Fire Safety Handbook, 2006). It is no use if

equipment is there in place but is not functioning when needed. As a result, a regular audit

on fire equipment needs to be done in order to take corrective actions if necessary. For

instance, Rydges Hotel has installed adequate fire systems, is well-equipped with the

required tools and equipment as per legislative requirements. In view of better fire

prevention, Rydges Hotel still encounters some outstanding problems and the suggestions

are put forward in the later part 5.2 of this report.

5.2. Fire drills and procedures:

Fire safety information and emergency instructions, emergency contact numbers must be

provided to guest rooms. Floor diagram and assembly exits must be clearly guided.Observations have proved that all floor guest rooms of Rydges Hotel operate well in this

regard. Aside from the fire equipment, fire drills and procedures must be implemented

correctly. It must be a procedure that fire drills for all staff are conducted in the

organization at least once every quarter (NSW Emergency Fire Procedures, 1981) in which




guest evacuation, fire fighting and essentially a regular fire rehearsal are trained and

practiced in such a way that they manoeuver it so well as in a real situation. The trained

staff is responsible for guiding and evacuating guests to exit locations. Jones, 2005, p.348

insists that “training employees and drilling them in various situations is a most effective

tool to reduce the possibility of panic in a fire situation”. In addition, it is important to

instruct the staff about appropriate use of fire extinguishers to types of fires as a hazard or a

danger may be caused if misuse occurs (see appendix 3 for correct use of fire

extinguishers).

Obviously, the importance of fire drills for staff is of no doubt. It has been experienced that

panic may cause injury and damages more serious than that caused by the fire (NSW

Emergency Fire Procedures, 1981). It is also emphasized that “fire prevention is the best

form of fire protection. Fire prevention is largely common sense and is the best guarantee

against fires.” (NSW Emergency Fire Procedures, 1981).

Effectively, at Rydges on Bell Preston, all staff has been trained in fire drills. The fact tells

that a fire in the 2nd

floor student kitchen happened recently in a late afternoon of

September, 2007. The staff and fire fighting team successfully evacuated all the guests out

to safety and that they were able to control and put out the fire. It has proved that theirreactions were favorable in an emergency situation. However, for better fire prevention,

the following suggestions should be considered by Rydges Hotel’s management:

Portable fire extinguishers in between guest rooms along corridors need to be

installed on walls.

A fire extinguisher should also be placed in the elevator for emergency situations

for quick acting on the spot.

The reason is that Rydges Hotel has only two fire hose reels on each floor which are

stationed at the west wing rear and the other at the north wing front. The other two wings

have none on site. These are intended for trained staff use only. Also, it may take a longer

time to reach affected areas while portable fire extinguishers, if available can be used to act

immediately within hand reach in event of small fires. Furthermore, it was found that all




floors had fire blankets in place in kitchens; however the fifth floor kitchen had an empty

bag without a fire blanket inside. When this was mentioned to management, it was

confessed that they were aware of this and that the maintenance staff had not replaced it. It

is noted that kitchens are the most common places where fires occur.

6. Conclusion:

The commonly encountered problems in some areas of the housekeeping, facility and

emergency maintenance of the lodging industry have been addressed above and reasonable

suggestions have been discussed. It is stressed that management should take corrective

measures to continually maintain and keep good practices running at an optimal standardin their organization in order to minimize and control the problems. The final goal of such

strategic management is to run the organization in smooth operations to better provide

excellent service to guests and to bring in high revenues and establish a good reputation. It

has been known that successful organizations result from managing and implementing

efficient business practices. Thus, the best management knows how to manage and control

the problems at minimum impact. ----------------------------- < * > -------------------------

Word count: 2997




7. Appendix 1

Rydges Room Cleanliness Rating Card

8. Appendix 2:

HOTEL PRODUCT USAGE REPORT

Department: Housekeeping Item: King-size Sheets

Prepared By: Date:For Period: to

Count on: January 1 850 units

Plus

Purchased in month 144 units

Total in service 994 units

Less

Count on: February, 1 877 units

Total Monthly Usage 117

Source: Figure 9.2, Hayes & Ninemeier, 2004, p.329




10. References:

Jones, T. 2005, Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations, 4th edn, John

Wiley & Sons, Inc. New Jersey.

Kappa, M.M, Nitsche, A & Schappert, P.B. 1995, Managing House Keeping Operations,

Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association, U.S.A.

Hayes, D.; Ninemeier, J. 2007, Hotel Operations Management, 2

nd

edn, Prentice Hall, NewJersey 07458

Jones, P.; Lockwood A. 2006, The Management of Hotel Operations, Thompson Learning,

U.K

Dormitory & Hotel/Motel Inspections Checklist – 06D, Kansa Buildings Fire Safety

Handbook, 2006, 3rd Edition,

New South Wales Hospitals Planning Advisory Centre, Sydney Australia, July 1981

Emergency Fire Procedures, National Library of Australia

Rydges on Bell Preston Melbourne (2007) [online]. Available website:

www.rydges.com.au. [Accessed: 14th

October, 2007]

http://www.rydges.com.au/



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