Operating as a chain of budget hotels in Scotland, United Kingdom, Glenmore Hotels plan to expand to other cities of UK. However, in the last three years, the hotels’ ratings have dropped below industry standards owing to poor customer reviews. The chief areas of concern are hotel cleanliness, comfort, room facilities, staff attitude and food services (Appendix A). It has to be remembered that the hotels have great opportunity to start afresh and improve ratings before expanding to other parts of UK.
Glenmore Hotels are the three star budget hotels that have established a good reputation within Scotland and looks to expand business across UK. In this regard, the hotel management must consider the current positioning of all budget hotels in the UK and their own position. According to the current positioning, Glenmore Hotels have a customer satisfaction score of 57%, which is quite below what it initially had (Appendix B). The hotel stands at the seventh position behind other four and five starred hotels. To run a hotel or chain of hotels, customer satisfaction has to be the top priority in the business.
The first major concern for Glenmore is the comfort of the customers. After looking at the fact sheet on Customer Satisfaction and Complaints, it can be seen that majority of customers had complains regarding comfortable bed and shower in rooms. Most customers complained of shabby rooms, dirty bath, and inadequate towels and so on. Glenmore being a budget hotel cannot afford to install luxurious facilities but it can do better within its limit. People traveling to places with limited money often opt for budget hotels that provide accommodation and food at cheaper rates than luxury hotels. However, customers do expect minimum level of comfort and cleanliness from these hotels (Huang, Liu and Hsu 2014).
To improve on this aspect, Glenmore Hotels can look for some basic changes like changing or replacing old bed linens with new ones and incorporating unique designs to attract customers (Lockyer 2013). In place of patterned linens, beds could have solid-colored linens or even white duvets as white gives a feeling of cleanliness and comfort. In case of comfortable showers, the hotel management must make sure that they install cheap yet comfortable shower without worrying too much about the tub. Budget hotels in recent times have pumped up their services above average to meet growing competitive demands. This largely includes installation of power showers and king-size comfortable beds (Theguardian.com 2017).
Installing state-of-the-art showers and king-size beds might cost heavily for the management and they might have to overlook other aspects of customer satisfaction. However, it is better to look after the most favored and opted facilities and services that would ensure increased customer satisfaction (Xu and Li 2016).
Hotel rooms are the most important part to a customer looking to have a comfortable stay. It has been observed that customers who opt for a stay at a budget hotel expect clean rooms even if it has limited facilities. It is thus apparent that Glenmore Hotels must pay attention to the minutest details that ensures clean rooms. One basic thing to do is to replace the old monotonous color of the walls with natural tones or pale pastels. In addition, the thin-papered walls must be mended to have a strong and tight look that makes customers feel relaxed. Apart from the walls, the ceiling and flooring too has to be up to the mark. To achieve perfection in these areas, hotel authorities can hold surveys from customers when they check out (Peng, Zhao and Mattila 2015). In doing this, the hotel authorities could have authentic and credible feedbacks and suggestions that could be utilized to better the cleanliness aspect.
When customers book a hotel and come to stay for a day or more, the first thing they do after entering the room, is to take shower. Now, to an exhausted customer, the shower gives a relaxing feel. Nonetheless, if the shower room has filthy curtains, worn out walls and dirty tubs or basins, the customer’s experience might be that of opposite. In a study conducted by Li and Law (2013), it was found that customers looking for a stay at budget hotels give top most priority to clean bedrooms and showers. Glenmore Hotels although had a good record of cleanliness, it has deteriorated in the last three years.
The hotel authorities have to scrutinize the possible reasons for the poor customer ratings and take stern steps against those responsible. This might result in the surfacing of human resource management issues, as the authorities might have to sack some employees.
The third issue concerning customer satisfaction at Glenmore Hotels is the food services. Although, it is given minimum importance by the customers, it does play an important role in attracting customer satisfaction. According to the fact sheet, 28 out of 100 customers give prominence to food and food services (Appendix A). It must be mentioned that the data given in the fact sheet is not the official publication of Glenmore Hotels nor does it belong to other official source. Hence, it would be wrong to presuppose the outcome of the reviews in case of food services and over think on this issue. However, for budget hotels like Glenmore, it is essential to cover most areas that concern positive customer feedbacks. Moreover, since Glenmore is planning to expand to other parts of UK, strategies must be made to cater to the taste of all the prospective customers while offering food. In addition, the staff can also offer complimentary breakfast or evening tea for the customers to enhance hotel performance (Liat, Mansori and Huei 2014).
Offering quality food might put a strain the budget of the hotel and hence it has to be planned as per the affordability of the hotels. Keeping in mind the expansion of Glenmore Hotels, expending in food services must be done carefully to make sure that it does not consume too much space in the budget. Khoo-Lattimore and Yunus (2016) argue that the growing race for reaching and holding the top position and attract more customers amongst chain of economy hotels have resulted in enhanced services and facilities.
The fourth and most important part for Glenmore Hotels to consider is the staff attitude. It is imperative for all types of hotels to make sure their staff shows good attitude towards the customers (Mohsin and Lengler 2015). To budget hotels in particular, with limited budget to spend on quality services and facilities, it is imperative to have a staff that displays quality behavior. The staff has a key role in assuring customer loyalty and positive feedbacks and ratings. Glenmore Hotels, in the past few years have had to face reduced ratings for staff attitude. While looking at some of the reviews given by customers, majority of them have complaints regarding staff behavior or absence of staff (Appendix C). It cannot be taken as a general overview since the reviews are not verified by any credible source. However, it is Glenmore’s responsibility to give due emphasis to this aspect and take action against those who do not fulfill their responsibilities properly.
In addition to taking action, the authorities have to plan a proper training for the staff to ensure positive reviews in future. N. Torres and Kline (2013) have outlined certain points regarding the association of customer satisfaction to staff behavior. they state that demonstrating professional, warmth and caring attitude towards customers play significant role in acquiring positive customer reviews. Further, they point out that the top hotel officials must provide proper training to the staff to attract positive reviews from customers. In case of Glenmore Hotels, it becomes even more important to focus on staff performance as they are planning to expand their business to other UK cities.
Conclusion
It thus can be deduced from the above discussion that Glenmore Hotels have to cover many impending tasks before they decide to move beyond Scotland. The report focuses mainly on the four areas that need immediate attention- cleanliness, comfort, food services and staff behavior. In order to improve on these areas, suggestions have also been outlined. Glenmore must investigate the reasons that led to the reduced customer ratings in the last three years.
Some recommendations can be made to Glenmore Hotel authorities that could help in improving their customer satisfaction scores. These may include:
References:
Huang, S., Liu, Z. and Hsu, C.H., 2014. Customer experiences with economy hotels in china: evidence from mystery guests. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 23(3), pp.266-293.
Khoo-Lattimore, C. and Yunus, M., 2016. Can budget hotels provide quality service? An analysis of e-complaints on low-cost accommodation in malaysia. Journal of Travel & Tourism Research.
Li, H., Ye, Q. and Law, R., 2013. Determinants of customer satisfaction in the hotel industry: an application of online review analysis. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(7), pp.784-802.
Liat, C.B., Mansori, S. and Huei, C.T., 2014. The associations between service quality, corporate image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty: Evidence from the Malaysian hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 23(3), pp.314-326.
Lockyer, T., 2013. The international hotel industry: Sustainable management. Routledge.
Mohsin, A. and Lengler, J., 2015. Service experience through the eyes of budget hotel guests: do factors of importance influence performance dimensions?. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 23, pp.23-34.
N. Torres, E. and Kline, S., 2013. From customer satisfaction to customer delight: Creating a new standard of service for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(5), pp.642-659.
Peng, J., Zhao, X. and Mattila, A.S., 2015. Improving service management in budget hotels. International journal of hospitality management, 49, pp.139-148.
Theguardian.com (2017). Great bed and power shower: is this really a budget hotel?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/13/budget-hotel-chain-business-travel-premier-inn-travelodge [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].
Xu, X. and Li, Y., 2016. The antecedents of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward various types of hotels: A text mining approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, pp.57-69.
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