HA 3013: Hospitality Marketing and Sales
The Broadbeach
The Broadbeach Resort Hotel is part of an international corporation of luxury hotels. It is located on the small island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since the island does not have an airport, guests to the island fly into the airport on nearby St. Thomas and reach St. John by ferry or helicopter. The Broadbeach property is over 30 acres, and the hotel facilities are spread among 13 separate structures built on the shallow side of a hill. The front desk is located at the highest point of the property, farthest away from the beach and the ferry dock. Most guests choose to take the ferry that operates between the two islands.
The Broadbeach Resort Hotel has a representative stationed at a desk in the St. Thomas airport terminal. Guests usually have instructions from their travel agents or from the reservation clerk at the hotel directing them to sign in at the airport desk. Guests are then driven 45 minutes across the island of St. Thomas in an open-air van to the ferry dock, where they wait for a large boat to complete their journey to St. John. The ferry travels on an hourly schedule, so the guests sometimes wait 20 or 30 minutes for the ride. The boat trip lasts approximately 20 minutes. Immediately after the van leaves for the ferry dock, the representative at the airport alerts the hotel as to which guests will be arriving on the boat. This allows the front desk clerks at the Broadbeach property ample time to collect the necessary registration packets from their office and take them down to the dock, where they quickly check guests in, provide them with room keys, and usher them to their rooms. The system is well received, as it saves guests from walking up the hill to the front desk.
On any particular day, the Broadbeach will have guests checking into up to 50 rooms. Occasionally, guests who land at the airport do not check in at the hotel’s desk in the terminal. It is assumed by the hotel that the guests either did not see it or that the representative had momentarily stepped away from the desk. Having no notice of their arrival, when these guests dock at the hotel, their registration packets are not immediately available and they are forced to wait an additional 15 to 20 minutes while the front desk staff retrieves the registration materials and room keys.
On a certain Saturday, usually a particularly busy day for arrivals, Mr. and Mrs. Martin were landing at the airport on St. Thomas. Their ultimate destination was the Broadbeach Resort Hotel on St. John. They did not check in at the hotel desk, but instead saw the Broadbeach van and boarded it for the trip to the ferry dock. The van waited in the airport for about 15 minutes to collect all the hotel passengers before departing. After the 45-minute trip across St. Thomas, the van arrived at the ferry dock. The guests then waited another 10 minutes before they could board the ferry that would transport them and their luggage to the hotel. After the 20-minute ferry ride, the boat pulled into the dock at the Broadbeach, where the front-desk manager, Juan, greeted the guests with glasses of rum punch and directed them to the registration desk 50 feet away for their check-in. in the middle of the line stood the Martins, unaware that they were not expected on this particular boat. When they reached the front of the line, the registration clerk discovered that their packet was not among the others, and she left to retrieve it from the front desk office.
The Martins were understandably upset. Since landing in St. Thomas, they had spent 90 minutes traveling to get to the hotel and were now expected to wait another 15 minutes for their room. Like most of the other arriving guests, the Martins were from the East Coast of the United States, and were dressed for temperatures in the low forties, not the low nineties typical of St. John. Hot and tired, they complained to the front desk manager that the situation was intolerable. Juan had often dealt with similarly annoyed guests, and he apologized for the oversight. He explained to Mr. and Mrs. Martin about the airport sign-in process and said that he was terribly sorry that they had “slipped through” the system. The Martins were not satisfied with a simple apology and continued to voice their displeasure about the lack of service and the frustrating of a travel-filled day. Juan graciously promised to send the Martins a bottle of wine and a fruit plate for their inconvenience.
The Martins were particularly irritated by the incident because of their expectations of the hotel chain with which the Broadbeach Resort was affiliated. They had often stayed at other hotels in the corporation and had come to expect a high standard of service. The corporation is known as one that provides the “extras” for its guests. No request is considered unreasonable by the staff, and every effort is supposed to be made to ensure the guest’s total satisfaction.
At the Broadbeach Resort, front-line managers such as Juan are allowed to make decisions regarding guest complaints, to the extent that they are instructed to make quick amends to dissatisfied guests so as to avoid having guest complaints communicated to the corporate office. Upper management at the Broadbeach also relies on the expectation that if a guest does have a problem during the week, even if the problem is significant, the guest will have found the stay overall to be so delightful that a single incident is minimized by the time he or she checks out. Based on this philosophy, Juan believed that simply providing a complimentary gift was the appropriate action and one that would sufficiently appease guests. Although the problem that the Martins experienced happened several times every week, Juan assumed that the offer of wine and fruit solved the problem.
Hinkin, T. R. (1995). Cases in hospitality management. New York, NY: Wiley & Sons.
Read requirements carefully for you on benefits.
Case study: The Broadbeach (30 points)
Required paper format:
- Provide your name, last name, course name (HA 3013: Hospitality Marketing and Sales), and semester (Spring 2020) in the upper right corner of the first page before start typing your answers.
- Type Case study in the middle of the paper.
- No cover page.
- Use Times New Roman 12 point-font with 1” margin for all four sides.
- Use single-spaced, and double spaced between each question (or answer).
- Type (paste) case study question and use page numbering.
Submission guidelines:
- Click on the “Case study” Drop Box.
- Attach a file by clicking on browse my computer and locating the file on your computer.
- Attach your file. DO NOT COPY and PASTE your assignment into the comment box.
- Click “submit”.
The Broadbeach case study questions (30 points)
- Describe the check- in procedure once guests arrived at the St. Thomas airport.? Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- Is this plan for handling incoming guests effective and why? Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- Why were the Martins upset with their arrival? Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 point). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- What did they do? Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- How important are guest expectations? Relate your answer to chapters 1 and 2. Your answers must be in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- Who was Juan and what were Juan’s responsibilities? Your answers must be in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- How did Juan do to resolve the Martins’ complaint? Your answers must be in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- Why were the Martins not satisfied with Juan’s solution? Refer to chapter 1, page 14 “customer expectations.” Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- What might you offer as a solution to prevent this from happening again? Refer your answer to chapter 2 “Resolving customer complaint” pages 42-44 and “Recommendations for improving service quality” chapter 2, page 43. Start your answer by explaining the importance of customer complaint. Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
- What are potential costs of this incident? Answers can be found on chapter 1, pages 20-21 (Capturing value from customers). Explain in a minimum of four sentences (3 points). Your answer must be in a paragraph format, not in bullet points.
