Royal Hotel

Royal Hotel

The Royal Hotel faces issues typical of any hotel. Customer service and aesthetics are the cornerstones the hospitality business and if they are lacking in anyway, patrons will find other hotels that better suit their needs. The Royal Hotel GM sees the recent events as unacceptable and is attempting to correct the problems and ensure they do not lose customers to competitors by hiring the firm that Blake works for. Blake will attempt to solve the problems of the hotel by installing a Rapid Response program that will be aimed to correct problems before they affect the guests of the hotel. The program offers the company a solution to the problems they face as it will use rapid response, quality control, preventative maintenance and reporting. Blake had helped to install the system but was called away before ever got to put his personal touch on the implementation and roll-out of the new system. Because he was not around to personally oversee the system implementation, the system is not being utilized by the employees and Blake must attempt to rectify the situation that he had thought he already solved. He must rectify the problem that was created by Jack not following through the way he needed to, the employees not utilizing the software and management’s inability to enforce the system usage.

The Royal Hotel is in their current situation for a variety of reasons. The initial problem before the new system implementation is there seems to be a lack of quality control and a lack of accountability for the employees and management. If there is a problem with a room it is not taken care of prior to guests staying at the hotel. There is a disconnect between the management of the hotel and the employees in their specific duties for the hotel. If a housekeeper sees a problem, they do not always inform the proper people and even when they do, there is no documentation of the problem and the problem is not always solved before it is already too late. It is also difficult to hold the responsible parties accountable because there is a “he said – she said” attitude of employees never being told. Management is to blame for not having a system in place to perform quality control of the hotel in general and the employees to ensure they are doing the tasks they are required to perform. Without a quality control in place
the employees will continue to do lackluster jobs and guests will continue to complain about the issues inside the hotel. The system Blake is attempting to install hopes to solve these problems.

After the system was implemented, Jack did not do his job to ensure the roll-out and implementation went smoothly and the system was being followed by the employees.Jack should have taken the extra time and effort to make sure the employees are comfortable and competent with the software they were using. The management of the hotel also shares the blame in the problem with the system implementation. Management is ultimately responsible for the actions of their employees. Management should have ensured the system is being used by their employees and make sure they follow any and all directions. The IT Director also seemed unenthusiastic about the program and did not do his job in the implementation process. The employees did not seem to be using the system rendering it basically useless. The system will only work if the employees actually utilize the technology they were given. The system usage is also not being enforced by management as employees claim that their way is better. Management should tell them that they must use the systems in place and not allow excuses. There is a lot of blame to go around for the failure in the implementation of the Rapid Response system but to me the majority of the blame needs to be put on management. They are the ones ultimately responsible for the employees and they should have been much more proactive in engaging Jack to answer all the questions about the system and making sure all the employees use the system and follow the rules associated with it.

As Blake returns and assesses the situation, he has some work to do but is not alone to fix the problem. Blake must work hand-in-hand with the IT director and management to get the system up and running and ensuring the staff uses it the way it was intended. Blake should first make sure the system works and assess if anything can be done to make the system better. Ask the employees and management if they have any questions or complaints about the system. If there is something the employees do not like about the system, he should try to fix or alter the system to make it more user friendly. He should also look to management to help enforce the system usage. If the system is used it should work and it will make the hotel run better and he needs to convey that to management which will ultimately filter down to the employees.

This case relates to the chapter because it relates to the firm culture and information technology. The culture of this firm has been established and Blake is attempting to change part of the culture to use information technology to help make the hotel run better. Management and Blake must work together to change the culture and improve the quality control of the hotel using the information technology system. This is also a case that deals with the setup of IT infrastructure which is supposed to help the company run smoothly. The information technology also relates to the efficiency of the hotel. The hotel is not running efficiently at the moment because problems occur and affect the aesthetics and overall customer satisfaction. Too many issues are falling through the cracks and high numbers of customer complaints will lead to the hotel ultimately suffering.