Ownership Change and Refurbishment Strategy

Question:

Case study on explains the Courthouse Hotel, in Australia which is recently facing competition from other competitors in the industry.
 

The case study explains the Courthouse Hotel, in Australia which is recently facing competition from other competitors in the industry. To maintain the minimum profit margin the hotel has formulated a strategy based on cost. The hotel was initially a three-starred hotel, which used to maintained a very low cost to deliver services and the overall standard of food and other services were also low (Raju et al. 2013). Recently the hotel is purchased by a well-known business person whose vision is to make it a four star standard by providing the broad range of services. The new owner has formulated a strategy of refurbishment that focuses on the opening of new banquet suite, an a la carte restaurant, a leisure club, a full portering service and extensive lounge operation (Deng et al.2015). The emphasis is given on increasing the interpersonal skill of the staff to enhance the overall standard of service delivery. A recent survey has revealed that the extent of trade will increase by 60% so keeping pace with it Courthouse should standardize its services to serve wealthier and international customers worldwide. Consequently, a new opportunity has come when a government has announced that it will host one of the largest intergovernmental events in the city. It is given the responsibility to Courthouse Hotel to serve the German delegates. The report highlights the leadership style and skill that is required by the supervisor to manage the entire event successfully and how the supervisor can motivate the staff to achieve the performance standard. The case study further elaborates the supervisor’s technical, conceptual, personal and people management skill to handle the entire situation and the areas where the requirement is required. Moreover, it highlights how the supervisor co-ordinates with the staff to deliver excellent services and the strategy that the supervisor has taken to improve the security system and the overall performance of the staff (Khan et al.2014). The supervisor has shown co-ordination with the staffs, excellent problem-solving skill and decision making ability to make the event successful. 

The Government has arranged a big conference in the city, and each hotel has given a special commission whereas the Courthouse is allocated to the Germans Chancellors. During the event, all the German politicians, delegates and 75 journalists will stay there for a week in the next summer. So the most important issues that the supervisor will consider the events include the supervisor should give utmost importance to the security system of the delegates so that the entire event runs smoothly and successfully. As a new business person has purchased the hotel and has taken a strategy to make it a four star hotel to offer a broad range of services to the guests (Shih et al.2013). Moreover, the owner should implement the planning for further development of the hotel by opening a new banqueting suite, an a la carte restaurant, a leisure club, a large lounge room, full portering service and a huge room for run the service operation (Solomon 2014). The supervisor is a person who controls the overall operation and the staffs to deliver the service in a best possible way to earn the reputation of the hotel. Since the supervisor involves managing the process, resources, people, and information. Therefore, the planning includes allocating the duties to the staff members and focus on their interpersonal skills to maintain a very high standard of performance (Baptiste et al. 2014).

Government Responsibility to Serve German Delegates

Hence, the planning focuses on

• setting the goal and objectives
• Delegation of authority
• Communicating effectively with the team members
• Building an efficient team
• Creating congenial work environment and supportive working relationship
• Motivating the employees
• Reduce the conflicts between the group members to deliver high performance
• Coaching and feedback-intensive programs to train and develop the skill set among the staff members
• Treating all the team members equally and fairly with dignity
• Arranging necessary resources and handling them correctly
• Providing guidance and cooperation to the stuff members
• Focusing on continuous improvement
• Facilitating future growth and advancement (Kerzner, 2013)

The supervisor has focused the front of house and identifies the main issues that need to be addressed before German delegate’s visit. The front desk of a hotel is involved in doing two most important task one is effective communication and the other is accounting function. Since communicating with guest, employees, and other department portrays a hospitable image so the supervisor should ensure all the guest queries are resolved with utmost importance. As the current event is concerned, the German delegates are the main important focus therefore a better hospitality will help the hotel to earn appreciation and reputation in the market. Apart from that the supervisor should ensure that the marketing and sales department gets proper information from the front desk on the availability of guest rooms, the housekeeping department queries regarding guest reservations are fulfilled. The accountings functions involve maintain proper data regarding the registered and non-registered guest accounts. In addition to this, the supervisor should ensure that the front desk should maintain proper billing system, keep records of transactions, and generate itemized bill to show the breakdown of charges to ensure a flawless and accurate system all the times for the convenience of the guests.  

The supervisor must have certain skill set to run the operation smoothly such as technical skill refers to the efficiency in operating the role, people power includes listening to the employees, establishing proper communication system, handling conflicts, provides cooperation and praising the employees for achieving the desired performance standard and treating the people individually (White 2014). Conceptual skill involves decision making and problem solving capabilities. Personal power means the knowledge regarding the strength and weaknesses of the operation, the supervisor’s ability to learn from experience and self-analysis and self-evaluation. To achieve the goal, the director should focus on fulfilling the needs and the desires of the guests. Moreover, the director treats every employee with equal consideration and respect and motivates them to provide the best performance (Lussier and Achua 2015).

While arranging the events before the visit of German Chancellor, the supervisor should concentrate on the delegation of authority and maintain a very higher standard of cuisine and services to get positive publicity which helps the hotel to increase revenue and get growth in future.

The supervisor should arrange proper training to improve their listening skill of front desk, as it is a critical listening center of the hotel and improve the communication by monitoring the way the guest and staffs are involved in interaction ensuring a two-way communication cycle. The supervisor must ensure all the staffs and should have adequate knowledge about the products they are promoting. The supervisor should train the front desk staff  in such a way that maximizes the customer delight and satisfaction. Moreover the supervisor should train each front desk staff to listen to the smallest problems and pay utmost attention to resolve it. The front desk should be always very clean and tidy and all the staffs should be well attired to create a better perception and good image to the guests particularly when the clients are international one the supervisor should ensure the proper availability of staffs at front desk all the time with a friendly smile to deliver uninterrupted service all the time. Moreover, the supervisor should demonstrate advancement and skill by implementing a proper reservation system and in-room guest checkout system. The supervisor should focus on Total quality management to improve the entire process. It further emphasizes better delivery of services at front desk.

Leadership and Skill Requirements for Successful Event Management

Motivation refers to the art of making people do the thing that the leader wants them to do as there is reward or appraisal attached to it. Motivation factors refer to Maslow’s need hierarchy theory, Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory, McClelland’s need theory to name few of them (Ma et al. 2012).

As far as the motivation theory of Maslow is concerned it comprises of physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness, esteem needs and self-actualization. Whereas Herzberg extended the work of Maslow and invented a new motivation theory known as Herzberg’s Motivation-hygiene. Herzberg questions two important things when the employees feel bad about the job when they feel good about it (Pasodi and Ahmed 2015). 

Serving the German Chancellor acts as a motivational factor for the staff since it is related to gaining publicity and reputation in the hotel industry. If the supervisor achieves success, then the hotel will implement the refurbishment strategy which in term gives the employee good performance appraisal as the result of increasing revenue that the business is getting from the growing business. The supervisor by its excellent leadership style and skill motivate the employees to achieve high-performance standard that is characterized by change in a situation with the new leaders and renovation policy to achieve the four star standard which is further fueled by the arrival of German Chancellor in the hotel will need sound security system and other facilities to ensure the successfully completion of the whole events (John and Taylor 2014).   

Conclusion

The overall report is centered on the hotel Courthouse, which was one of the major three-star hotels in Australia that is striving hard to maintain the minimum profit margin to survive in the hotel industry against the tough competition. The hotel has developed a low cost strategy in delivering the services to the clients at a low cost, and the quality of the services is comparatively low. Then the hotel has undergone major restructuring where it has been taken over by a reputed businessperson who has planned to change the structure of the hotel to make it a four star standard. As the survey reveals 60% increase in the volume of trade, therefore the hotel has planned to take the opportunity to gain more profit by serving more customers. Considering this in mind the new owner has aimed to provide the variety of services with high standard and planned for renovation to attract more customers and to provide better services to them. Moreover, it has designed to utilize the opportunity to serve German politicians and advisors, and if the event meets success, it will undoubtedly help Courthouse to earn positive publicity and fame (Thompson et al. 2013). 

Introduction

The case study gives brief information about the luxury hotel Courthouse in Australia. The report focuses on the financial and nonfinancial performance, market competition and leadership style, and role of change management to address the failure of not achieving the performance standard. To make the event successful the Courthouse should use the latest technology to cope up with changes and to increase customer knowledge regarding the various types of products and services and the quality of the services they deliver (Tang et al. 2012). The case study also focuses on the leadership style that can be adopted to fill the gap to make the entire event successful. It also concentrates on the relationship between financial and non-financial performance whereas the implementation of the budget refers to the manager’s capability to design a financial plan and implement it in way that will surely help the managers to achieve the goal to  minimize cost  and earn revenue and therefore the hotel can provide better service to the clients (Chun et al.2013). The non-financial performance includes both customers and the workers ensuring fulfilling the particular requirements and therefore gaining the confidence of the clients. Moreover, the leadership strategy should concentrate on motivating the employees in such a way so that they can go beyond and perform to meet the requirement of the clients and generate maximum value among the customers. Therefore, the leadership style of  Courthouse should value employee and motivate them in such a way to deliver high performance and meet the satisfaction level of the customers. The supervisor aims at continuous improvement of the services to achieve target profit and attracts new customers. The study also focused on transformational leadership style to focus on staff and provide training to develop a skill to able to address the issue in a better way. However, the success can be achieved by sending the tangible items like improving the structure by implementing renovation and focusing on the intangible things like changing the customer attitudes and behavior by providing more customized services while serving the customers (Choudhary et al. 2013). 

Delegation of Authority and Training for Improved Staff Services

The supervisor will formulate an action plan to improve the staffing administrative and will focus on the front office reception to gather more information regarding reservation booked and use that data to forecast future demand.  To achieve the performance standard in future, the supervisor needs to be more effective and should take the help of questionnaire to get customer feedback which provides information about customers experiences about hotel services, contribute to formulating competitive price lists, the latest amenities and the problems that the customers are facing. All the information is helpful to improve the hotel management operation and to earn revenue for the hotel in future (Kim et al. 2014).

The supervisor should arrange the front desk to ensure all the staff members should show empathy with the clients, caring and humble enough to attend the customers. The supervisor will train the all the staff member to go beyond the job description to make the client happy. The staff should focus on the client requirement to be able to come with immediate solution. Moreover the ability to engage the clients in fruitful conversation by delivering a great and personalized experience to the guests is one of the most important responsibilities of front desk which need to be considered and measures taken to improve. The supervisor needs to train the front-end desk staff to be more resourceful, creative, and knowledgeable to resolve all the queries of the customers and to provide better customer service in order to make the event one of the remarkable and successful. 

The recommended changes that enable the controller to implement the changes are as follows it has stated the financial and nonfinancial changes that the supervisor must adhere to make the event successful. The director should take the responsibility and formulate a strategy to enhance the quality of the services regarding their execution, to implement new changes and modify the structure to align with the customer requirement (Fan et al.2012). It concentrates on building an efficient admin department to initiate changes like improving the food quality and providing great variety in cuisine.  The non-financial aspects are aiming to create the congenial work environment for the staff of the hotel to satisfy the delegates. The supervisor should adopt a survey technique by questionnaires and direct interviewing the workers and customer to find the problem and to come up with a solution and take measure to implement it to enhance the performance. It recommends a collaborative approach and cooperation among the staff and aims to increase the interpersonal skill of the team members to reduce conflicts and achieve excellent skill in executing the service. Moreover, it has recommended a leadership style which focuses on innovation, continuous improvement and . It also initiates the cordial relationship among staffs and focuses on delegation of authority to make the event successful. The supervisor should focus on interpersonal skill of the staffs and communicating with them in such an effective way to resolve the customer problems by inspiring and mentoring them and proper coaching and controlling will help the leader to reduce gap, which increases more employee engagement and customer satisfaction (John and Taylor 2014).  

Conclusion

Conclusion

The organization, therefore, explores new ways to promote the business that gives benefit and satisfies the customers. Retaining the customers requires developing a strategy to improve the services and the product. The hotels that give importance to draw new customers, fulfilling the requirement of the customers are more likely to survive in the long run than those that don’t have any commitment and loyalty towards the customers. The supervisor of Courthouse should improve the client service department to ensure good customer service. It has highlighted that by adopting the forecasting method by comparing the data with other hotels gives Courthouse to set a goal for future and to analyze the profit margin for the company. It can help to improve the administration department, budgeting decision to update the facilities for more convenient and customer oriented service (Zuo et al.2012).  

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