A potential problem our LGBT focus hotel could encounter is in the pool area. While pools are a great amenity to hotels, there are great dangers that can arise if left unattended.

Problem could involve:

• Drowning
• Injury from pool drains
• Injury from diving or jumping into shallow waters
• Injury from slipping and falling
• Electrocution
• Skin or lung irritation from harsh chemicals

According to Heskett’s depiction of what is included within a Service Delivery System, he quotes “infrastructural choices refer to the role of the service providers such as job design, policies, and skill set”.

This is why our solution would involve employee training, hiring competent lifeguard and having continuous job training. Here are a list of some policies and solutions:

• use proper signage and equipment. Example of signage: “Never leave a child unattended around a pool, spa, bathtub or any body of water.”
• post reminders about the dangers of swimming under the influence of alcohol
• Encourage everyone to enter the water via points of entry like built-in stairs or ladders
• Clearly mark water depths around the entire pool
• Continuous check up on hotel pools and spas to make sure they are up to code

A potential problem that was extensively talked about during management meetings, was the potential for the lifts in the pool malfunctions and guest cannot be taken in or out of the pool as need. As well as what protocols to take if there are multiple casualties.

Potential Solutions and safeguards

In the event that a lift is broken lifeguards have been sent to training with how to extract guest from the water safely and quickly. The hotel maintenance will immediately be notified that an issue has occurred and needs to be addressed.

The pool was specifically designed with a ramp that leads into the pool so that either hotel guess or staff can easily access the water. But was also designed to make extraction of injured guess faster and safe than slide over the edge of the pool.

Other safeguards.

• hotels private EMS are on standby
• The pool area is always monitored by two lifeguards at all times of service hours
• lifeguards tested every month on how to extract different injured guest ranging from broken limbs, seizure victim, drowning, etc.
• Lifeguards are both red cross and city certified.

lifeguards are sent to advanced training every 4 months to maintain first responder license.

• In an emergency situation with multiple casualties, the pool has an emergency train system that safely and quickly drains the pool.
• All staff is trained in CPR and first aid.

Problem:

At very late night, a complaint from guest that stated She paid more than $500 for two nights, a partial ocean view room with a king size bed. Instead, she got two full size bed room with no window. She was angry that she wasn’t informed by the time when she check-in and didn’t received what she paid for. In addition, the room wasn’t clean well, she found fingernail next to her bed. She refused to accommodated

Solution:

Front desk apologized for the inconvenience and explained there wasn’t ocean-view room and housekeeper available at the time. She offered an down-graded room which only type of room available, and would reported the complaint to  supervisor next day. The supervisor offered to issue the refund of difference price of the room.

What’s Next: Since the reservation stated that “Your room/unit will be guaranteed for late arrival”, hotel has obligation to meet their promise. The reputation is very important to maintain, and customer service is a key to bring customer back next time. Supervisor or housekeeper manager should frequently check the cleanness of the room, ensure they meets standard requirement. Having fingernail on the floor is unacceptable, apparently housekeeper hadn’t done his/her job completely. Front desk should inform the guest if there is anything change in reservation.

Problem: Guest paid a lot of money to stay at the hotel and to use the amenities. During the day he was busy and  he tried to go for a swim later in the night. For safety reasons, the pool closed at 11PM because there are no life guards. The guest was mad because he was not informed about the pool hours. Continue reading Guest Complaint: swimming pool hours (Anna Li, WEN Chen, Jeanette Aniceto, Rosa Luciano, Daniel) →

Problem:

There can be many customer complaints in a service business, specifically a hotel  ranging from  small complaints like not enough towels to not enough pillows, or noisy people in the hallway late at night. Other complaints can be about smelly rooms at check in or broken appliances or the heating system, to even a special request not being met like a food order or a timed call or food.

Report:

Many things can go wrong by mistake. It is important to record any incident in a general base system so all workers can see it there. There should be a follow up and the issue should be resolved immediately to keep the customer satisfied. First an apology should be given and if the customer has a solution, try to work with it if reasonable. Always try to give reason to the guest and make their needs feel number one so they will return.

Whats Next:

In order to not make any of these mistakes I think a more than less policy is better to have instilled where the rooms have extra pillows and towels in closets to begin with. The guest should not have to order more, there should be more, even if not used. Rooms should be double checked for reasons like a smokey room where the housekeeper may have not noticed it because either they smoke and it doesn’t bother them or they could be stuffy that day. It may required a slower turn over time but it can guarantee satisfaction and no complaints. Complaints are remembered by the guests more than a positive welcoming. All appliances should also be checked by housekeeping while in the room, meaning the heat/air units, wall plugs, bathroom accessories such as blow driers, and even coffee machines, to avoid a guest needing to report it. Noise issues should be attempted to be addressed before hand by making certain floors for certain occasions. For instance if there are many families at the location, designate a family floor. If it is spring break, keep all the spring breakers together to avoid bothering other guests.

Problem

A diamond member requested a specific meal for lunch and the food arrived late and the order was incorrect.

Report

After the incident, the front desk manager as well as the food and beverage department is to file a report. The report details the incident, when and quickly the incident was resolves, and the names of those who was involved in creating and resolving the incident.

What’s Next?

To avoid this kind of problem in the future, as soon as a diamond member or any guest in the hotel files a specific order for any of the accommodations within the hotel the guest should receive a confirmation on the order. As well as a follow-up to insure that order is correct before being inputted into the system a second time. Another way these issues can be avoided is by having every department, even if the request doesn’t match the department, should receive a notification so that they can ensure everything is done as swiftly as possible.

Problem

A guest called to complain about the heat not working in his/her room. The front desk immediately apologizes. We then asked if we could send up a security guard to the room to check it out. If the guest declines, we then will offer the guest to switch rooms. If security guard isn’t on premise, I would just immediately offer to switch rooms.

Report

After the incident the Front desk agent made a note in the guest profile. Also made a note in the shift report and also logged the incident in the guest services log book. The guest services log book will entail detail about the incident such as the date/time and the room # of which the incident occurred. As well as who logged the incident and who followed up with that incident.

What next

The following day, the front desk agent reads the shift report and assigns maintenance to that room, to try and fix the heat. Depending on if the guest decided to switch rooms or not, we will notify the guest, that maintenance will be coming to their room when the time is convenient for them.

Problem

A customer was complaining to the front desk agent after getting a smoky smell room. The front desk manager apologized and the customer was removed to another room.

Report

After the incident, the front desk manager file the report. The report needs every details that happened in the incident, who was involved and how it was managed.  Housekeeping department also needs to take care of this problem.

What’s Next?

To avoid this kind of problem in the future, housekeeping department should be more aware of it and used any method to eliminate the  smoke smell  in the rooms. Before guest check-in, the front desk needs to make sure that the room does not have smoky smell and it is ready for the guest.

Problem

There was a guest complaint at night about a group of noisy guests hanging out in the hall drinking and playing music. The front desk manager apologized and called security to ask the noisy guests to lower the noise level.

Report

After the incident is initially handed, we decided the front desk manager needs to file a report. The report needs to contain what happened, the time it happened, who was involved, and what was done to resolve the problem. The report should also contain some follow up information about the guest who complained.

Whats Next?

A long term solution should be created to avoid having this problem again. When guests check in, the front desk member should explain to them the rules regarding noise at night. They should recommend the designated areas if they are up late such as the bar or hotel lounge. Along with this verbal message, signs should be put up in the halls of the hotel alerting guests of these rules.