ASSESSMENT 1- Individual Report
This assessment task requires you to critically evaluate service quality and analyse the service management strategies of a mid-scale hotel in the form of an academic report. To complete the task, you will be required to apply your theoretical knowledge to the hypothetical Craig Credence Hotel. Case Scenario for Individual Report
The General Manager was quoted as saying “One way to think about it is removing opportunities for guests to be anxious or disappointed, and instilling in them a greater degree of confidence… that what they encounter is what they expect”
You are the service design consultant being approached by Craig Credence Hotel to address areas that need improvement of service quality so that it can better satisfy hotel guests. After five years of operation, it is beginning to face some challenges in meeting the evolving needs of its customers who are weekday business transient and weekend leisure of individuals and groups.
Located in a prime city location, the 95-room hotel is located on 1.5 acres of land close to public transportation network. It has two function rooms that can be merged into a bigger meeting room, and one restaurant with bar. Its operations comprise of six key departments: Front Office, Concierge/Bell Desk, Housekeeping, Food and Beverage, Human Resource and Marketing/Sales.
The Task
Given a preliminary brief by the Board of Directors, you are to review its current state of service operations and the management strategies which you will include in your business report, to support recommendations on what strategies to keep and the strategies that require modification. You are to base your report on findings from the appended feedback collated from the annual customer and employee surveys (File Attachments 1 and 2).
In your report, your tasks are to undertake the following:
(1) to evaluate the key service quality dimensions demonstrated at the hotel;
(2) to identify and analyse existing service management strategies, and
(3) to recommend modified or new service management strategies to improve upon the customer service and experience.
You are to ensure each task component is well linked to the case study.
Figure 1: Front Desk and Reception, Craig Credence Hotel
File Attachment One – Service Levels (findings from customer feedback)
“My stay was made so much pleasant by two employees who knew how to really look after their house guests. Kudos go to the Concierge who was super helpful on even the busiest of days. He was ever so courteous and greeted me like I was a valued guest. The housekeeping staff was also terrific with an eye for detail. The cleaning maid saw a button dropped on the floor in the room and offered to sew it back on by giving her a call back.” -Sammie, Comments Card
“There was no one to greet us on arrival. We had to grab our own bags from the taxi and dragged them to the Reception for checking-in. There ought to be someone from the Bell Desk or the Concierge Desk to help us. Not a good first impression for us.” – Cynthia, Comments Card
“The free coffee for early morning check-outs was really a thoughtful gesture, with a lot of care given to it, e.g. full cream, lite, skim and soy options. No hotels I stayed at did that!” - Cornelius, Social Media Survey
“The rooms are a bit aged, but the location and the service make up for it. The Front Desk staff were so nice from start to finish. We were given a great room on the 7th floor, early check-in early and late check-out” - Phoebe, Comments Card
“My last visit here was a few years back and I must say the “face-lift” to the lobby and reception area was amazing. The area had been made more spacious to allow for peak arrival and departure times. The first visual encounter gave me a status boost this time staying here.” - Joyce, Telephone Survey
“Not impressed with the room. It was too minimalist and lacked warmth. As a business traveller, there are not sufficient power-points to plug in for recharging my gizmos.” - John, Social Media Survey
“The main reason why we chose this hotel was its location. Upon arrival our room was not even ready at 3.00pm when it was ‘guaranteed’ and we requested an early check in. They came up with every excuse in the book as to why the room wasn't ready and why they couldn't give us a different one. It was our anniversary and everywhere we had been had congratulated us and even given us a bottle of champagne. They could not care less here. At the price we were paying, I would have expected more. If this wasn't already paid for in advance, we would certainly change hotels. Only select staff members were accommodating and most seemed to not know what they were doing. Save yourself and stay elsewhere.” –
Mr. & Mrs Jones, Telephone Survey
“Not all a pleasant experience. While some members of the staff were polite, most had a bad attitude. Would have been fine with my stay had it not been for the many travel problems that delayed my arrival, making them cancel my reservation with no explanation (we were given a major downgrade room after much arguing). While the staff admitted it was a hotel mistake, there was no apology and the staff continued to have a bad attitude. During our stay, multiple people came into our room while we had the -Do Not Disturb- sign on. My family and I were very relieved to check out of this place.” –
Dean, Social Media Survey
“We had a business conference in a meeting room that was poorly sound-proofed. We could hear what went on in the next room and it made it hard to concentrate on our own meeting agenda. We asked for a discount on the room hire to compensate for the inconvenience, but this process seemed to take weeks to process after the meeting. Not satisfactory at all.”- Brad, Telephone Survey
“Our rooms were reasonably clean at time of check-in, but after a few days, we found the cleaning service was rather shoddy. On one occasion, the lady who -cleaned- our room just changed the towels, refilled the teas/cutlery but did not touch the rest of the room. We had to call her back to ask her to at least make the beds. Room cleaning service was also inconsistent, because when someone else came to clean the room she did a more thorough job - vacuumed the floor, made the beds and cleaned the shower screens and mirrors. She advised us to complain about the bad service because apparently not all cleaners were qualified nor trained” -
Christine, Telephone Survey
“We felt very much cared for throughout our stay recently. The staff who made our stay most memorable was Kristy, the Guest Relations Manager who went out of her way to help us after we checked out. Our little girl left her cuddly doll behind and Kristy had the doll couriered to us with a bar of chocolate “to keep her happy” on its return back by post.” – Claire, Social Media Survey
File Attachment Two – Service Strategies Applied (findings from employee feedback)
• “Management had made it easy for us to communicate with hotel guests with some simple scripting and situations when we had to ‘think on our feet’. I wish there is update on this so that we as employees are given more leeway conversation-wise to make us look and sound less robotic.” Jon, Concierge Desk
• “Checking-in guests at peak times is exasperating, especially when there are excessive delays in getting room clean and ready for arriving guests. The people at Housekeeping don’t care about the pressure we’re under down here at the Front Desk and often blame us for bad information relayed to them. The situation is made worse when large groups check-in at the last minute. Communication between the two departments is not at all improving. Someone ought to step in and demand they should bring back the daily departmental meetings.” Amanda Santos, Front Desk
• “I had been working only a year here and was very pleased to be given recognition for the dedication I gave to performing my role as an employee. I tried to give as much feedback as possible to help myself and my colleagues to gain a sense of place and belonging. They just started this improvement loop, but others did not seem to understand its purpose and significance.” Azizan , Restaurant & Bar
• “High pressure environment, staff overworked, long hours and salaries below average. Management is patronizing and not supportive. Very hard to advance your career.” Alfonsos, Bell Desk & Valet
• “Apart from the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and the given role with responsibilities which I need to refer to every now and again, there is little I can learnt in terms of soft skills which are not included in the new staff orientation. I find the contents of the orientation inadequate” Beyoncé, Guest Relations
• “It’s not that I haven’t worked in fast-paced work environments before, but I find working here can get dauntingly busy and highly stressful. Whilst there are many benefits from working in teams, the true dynamics of teamwork is sadly missing. There is not enough of inter-team, cross-functional contact or relationship-building
opportunities. At the same time, bureaucracy and red tape limit motivation and creativity.” Daniel, Back Office Support
• “Unwillingness of Front Office and Concierge Desk employees to pitch in outside their specific job responsibilities during busy times makes one wonder if any is taking the service code seriously!” Cornelius, Concierge Desk
• “My manager gives candid, constructive feedback to the team leaders, requesting feedback in return. He exhibits strong leadership qualities after completing ‘Training the Trainer’ course and since then, he directs his actions towards success of the team over his own interests, setting an example to insubordinates” Anonymous, Department X
• “I have been complaining about the backdrop at our Concierge area which does not blend well with the overall aesthetics in the lobby and reception area. We seem to be “isolated” visually but this has been overlooked by Management.” Chi-Ching, Concierge Desk
• “The Restaurant Manager has been told to cut staffing when occupancy is low, but the General Manager and Hotel Manager are instructing otherwise to provide quality service. Conflicting personalities and service commands are evident in our service operations” - Frank, Restaurant & Bar
• “After two years, we are still unsure what our manager expects of us, and what we are expected to deliver given the training and resources we received, are different and impromptu at times. I am highly doubtful of the recruitment system of getting the right people befitting for the job, because employees are often not behaving professionally. A few of my colleagues who do not have any experience in customer service, are friendly, keen but not efficient. They say the things they are told to (like basics for answering the phone and greeting guests), but this is not enough. When confronted in difficult situations, they panic and froze in front of the customer” Manfred, Housekeeping
• “When asked to be more autonomous in our encounters with customers, management’s empowerment policy did not give us much guidance on how to create guest experiences independently. There is no clear line of action as to how to implement the empowerment program. After we made our autonomous decisions, our manager sometimes ask us to justify our decisions. If our ideas differ from his, he will direct us to do differently.
I find this really demotivating.”
Ramin, Guest Services


Submission Guidelines:
1. Submit your report (Part A and Part B) in word document to Turnitin by 5.00 pm on Monday of Week 6.
2. Students must refer, in text and in an associated reference list, to a minimum of 12 academic sources, plus others as required, in order to show competency in the assessment. Up to four of these can be academic textbooks, with a minimum of eight academic journal articles.
3. Use font Time Roman, Arial or Calibri, size of 11-12, at one and half line spacing
4. All referencing must be in accordance with APA 6th Edition Referencing and Academic Writing Guide on SharePoint.
5. A Torrens University cover sheet is to be attached with the submission to Turnitin.
6. Essential that you view the marking rubric for this assessment and remember you do not need to attach this rubric to your submission.