The Analysis of the Griffith University Hotel - Essay Example

? Introduction to Research of the Educational Introduction to Research Review of Literature Today hospitality management is a challenge since there is a lot of competition prevailing in this area of business. In recent times, it has been found that hotels focus on their respective hotel facilities management and service which is because of their large investments involved in the business and the problems they have to bear after not coming up to right needs and wants of the clients. According to Dolnicar & Otter (2003), quality is an important element in hotels’ services, but the type of facilities that the hotel offers are more important from customers’ point of view. This study is about Griffith University Hotel, a facility service organization that mainly operates for serving business and pleasure travelers of the region. The study will analyze in which manner the hotel is meeting customers’ expectations and which facilities are more important from the customers’ point of view from improvement perspective (Dolnicar & Otter, 2003). For a hotel to survive in a competitive environment, it is a must that the hotel meets customers’ needs and wants and their probable expectations. In a hotel quality means that the facilities and services are according to customer’s satisfaction. The more the visitors are satisfied with the services, the greater is the chance of hotel’s promotion in a competitive environment (Naseem, Ejaz, & Malik, 2011). According to the study conducted by Sriyam (2010), there are several types of facilities that are provided by hotels to their customers. First thing to include is the type of room like deluxe, Superior or executive classroom, Family suite or Grand suite respectively. Among dining services, a hotel should include Italian cappuccino, The M-Cafe experience of Thai or Chinese food, continental food, and additional services of fruits and beverages that is a value adding option. A must-include service in a hotel is recreational activities like swimming pool, gymnasium, spa, or a sports ground for outdoor facilitation (Sriyam, 2010). Purpose of the Study Griffith University Hotel is a regional hotel, which offers services for two types of clients, business travelers and pleasure travelers. The purpose of this study is to access and evaluate the current structure of the facilities offered by the hotel. The evaluation is to be done based on the importance and performance attributes. Those facilities that are important in customers’ point of opinion and those that meet customers’ expectations are to be analyzed. This will provide a sketch of an idea which facilities are more important and which need improvement in the Griffith University Hotel service. The Research Method The method of research was based on quantitative analysis in which the hired manager designed a questionnaire following 17 facilities of the hotel. The 17 features include the express check in, checkout, valet parking, recreational activities, family restaurant or room service etc. There were two categories of respondents from whom the interviews got conducted: the categories of business travelers and pleasure travelers respectively. Summary of Findings In total 264 travelers were selected as respondents for the analysis, out of which 118 were pleasure traveler respondents and 146 were business traveler respondents. This was to evaluate and compare their responses on 18 hotel facilities in order to get an idea which facility is more important and which needs further improvement. The criterion to judge facilities was based on two things, importance and performance that were set to compare important facilities with achieved performance facilities. This was all to bring improvements in facility structure of Griffith University Hotel, which needs to be improved in terms of operation and more importantly with respect to clients’ perspective. Research Questions Out of 18 facilities, which facilities are more significant from clients’ point of opinion? Which facilities fall in the categories of highest and least importance? Which facilities fall in the category of highest and least performance? Which facilities and services are needed to be improved? Results and Finding Initially, facilities are categorized into two types, i.e. importance and performance. Out of these two categories, the five most important features from customers’ perspective include in-room cable television, in-room broadband connection, free daily newspaper, a-la-carte restaurants, and express check-out. The five least important features for the customers are tennis court, mini-bar, wireless broadband connection throughout hotel, express check in, and tour-booking service. On the other hand, five highest performance features include family restaurant, tennis court, tour-booking service, in-room pay movie, and express check-out. The lowest performance features of the hotel are express check-in, valet parking, mini-bar, free daily newspaper, and wireless broadband connection throughout the hotel. Scatter Plot The in-room pay movie feature of the hotel is performing quite well, and it does not need any attention by the management. Another most important feature for customers is the in-room cable television that is also performing according to requirements of the clients. The a-la-carte restaurant is under prime importance from customers, so hotel needs to pay attention on it since it is not performing up to clients’ expectations. The feature of free daily newspaper is important for the customers, but improvement should be made in this feature of the hotel. The tennis court of the hotel is over-resourced as the management pays much attention to it, which is not equally important in customers’ opinion. Tour booking service is another area of concern for the management because customers do not perceive it as an important feature, so the hotel management is trying to over-perform on this area. However, the feature of express checkout is important for the customers, and the hotel is performing well in this area; therefore, it needs to be maintained with similar performance instead of being invested or improved. Difference of Business and Pleasure Travelers Business Travelers’ Mean Pleasure Travelers’ Mean in-room broadband connection 4.16 3.86 wireless broadband connection throughout hotel 2.99 2.84 room service 3.62 3.34 a-la-carte restaurant 3.84 3.61 family restaurant 3.09 3.48 mini-bar 2.77 2.73 swimming pool 3.29 3.45 gymnasium 3.04 3.55 tennis courts 2.19 2.35 in-room pay movies 3.28 3.56 in-room cable television (foxtel) 4.24 4.24 express check-in 3.05 3.41 express check-out 3.77 3.43 valet parking 3.47 3.29 free daily newspaper 3.97 3.49 games room 3.16 3.62 tour booking service 3.00 3.56 On some features, the preferences of both business and pleasure travelers are different; whereas in some cases, the preferences are similar as well. For example, in features, such as a-la-carte restaurant, mini-bar, swimming pool, tennis court, and in-room television services, the preferences of both business and pleasure travelers are similar. However, in case of many other facilities, there are differences with respect to the importance given to them. For instance, as suggested by the mean values in the above table, the pleasure travelers have given more importance to the gymnasium while business travelers are not that much interested in this facility. The express check-in facility is more important for pleasure travelers as compared to business travelers, but daily newspaper is more important for business travelers comparing to pleasure travelers. The other feature in which their level of importance is different includes tour booking service, games room, family restaurant, in-room broadband connection, and room service. T-test   Business Travelers Mean Pleasure Travelers Mean Mean 3.348912168 3.401384083 Variance 0.285246239 0.185531825 Observations 17 17 Pooled Variance 0.235389032 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 df 32 t Stat -0.315314011 P(T Read More