ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

I. Introduction

The non-smoking room at Hospitality Inn, to which Monique Kazer guaranteed a

reservation with, smelt like Cigarette (or possibly cigarette) that made her sick due to her asthma.
This caused her to request for a new room at the front desk. The desk agent – Hyun Cho, was
currently busy at that time causing Monique to act rudely towards her and resulting a stir up
tension between the two. Hyun Cho assured that the requested nonsmoking room that was
reserved was right. Despite that, Monique still pursued the request to be transferred in a different
room, but the hotel was presently fully booked that time leaving her with no room available.
Hospitality Inn might have made a mistake on one room reservation and immediate action must
be taken professionally to meet guest’s satisfaction, giving them room for improvement.

II. Problem/s Identified

There had been a lot of problems being encountered in terms of hotel reservation and
holding someone accountable for every error depends on the situation. The primary problem
where everything uproots in the study was when Monique Kazer, the guest, entered room 315
which is her reserved room for the night, smelt like what she believed to be a cigarette, which
does not make sense for she reserved a nonsmoking room to avoid her allergies. At that time,
Monique Kazer is exhausted, worn out from a day of work so she went straight to the front desk
to request for a new room. The second problem arise as the desk agent that time, Hyun Cho, was
inattentive due to personal reasons, making the latter impatient. Out of distress, Monique act
inappropriately towards Hyun Cho, stirring up tension between them. The desk agent still
assured that they did not make any mistake in making the reservation and that the room given to
Monique Kazer (Room 315) is a nonsmoking room prior to what they have checked weeks ago.
Despite the conviction, the guest still pushed through and wanted to change her room to
something that was recently checked. That is where the last problem that was mentioned
emerged as the hotel is currently fully booked, her request to change room was turned down.
Major problem is when the nonsmoking room that the guest reserved smelt like cigarette. This
problems on reservation usually happens on lower end hotels but also occurs on hotels with big
names. Monique had been experiencing asthma and is sensitive to any kind of smoke, the hotel
management was the one to be held accountable on these situations due to lack of efficiency.

III. Alternative Courses

One of the most difficult tasks faced by any hotel management staffs, crews, employees
is dealing with on hand or current customer complaints. Any staff, crew or employee who are
unable to make changes or resolve the issue are often approached by an irritated or dissatisfied
guest. Although it is impossible to anticipate any potential complaint, a management must be
ready of unexpected situations like what had happened with the cigarette smell on the reserved
nonsmoking room of Monique Kazer. Here are some courses of actions what could be taken
upon after the complaint.

Management Efficiency. Amidst any bad situation, one must be held accountable for a faulty
event between the guest and the management. Immediate response to such situation concerning
health must be taken during these situations. It is preferable to resolve this issue before it arises.
Implement comprehensive cleaning audits and, if any, do your own random inspections to ensure
that the cleaning crew is adhering to the proper requirement. It was mentioned that the guest had
been coughing during the conversation with the front desk agent – Hyun Cho which the desk
agent even talked about after their conversation, a strong indication that the allergy took its toll
on the guest’s system. The management should check the room for assurance and to guarantee
that it’s a nonsmoking room like what was promised to be reserved due to the guest’s personal
health issues. Hotel Crew and staffs must ensure the room’s well being before handing it over to
the guest, to which an area where Hospitality Inn failed causing a stirred-up commotion about
why the room smells like cigarette. Advantages of doing this will help resolve the situation. As
to what was mentioned in the study, the hotel made sure that the room was a nonsmoking room,
proven when there was a no-smoking signage at the door to where Monique looked at before
entering room 315. The hotel crew or staff can check if the foul smell coming from the room
might be the vent for air condition itself rather than a cigarette smoke. Studies showed that there
is a possibility that a cigarette smoke or stale of tobacco might be present on AC vents due to old
cigarette smoke and poor filtration. (Serv, 2017) The room was checked weeks ago and travelers
that made use of rooms near 315 might have been smoking and the condenser coil and air filter
have absorbed old cigarette smoke. The management does not have control of some guests
smoking in a non-smoking area unless reported to them by neighboring rooms. After such
thorough checking, they can hold an immediate air filtration clean up and make sure to make the
same situation happen twice and avoid any other complains with related mistake
again. Disadvantage of doing so might prove that Monique was right, and that the management
failed to book her a nonsmoking room like what she reserved. Possibilities of poor air filtration is
only low for it is only room 315 experiencing such foul smell and not the other rooms near it.
There was also no other complains except for Monique Kazer that time. If one room experience
foul smell coming from their AC vents, it would also most likely happen to rooms near 315, and
this situation not happening to other rooms in same floor shows the possibility that the
management really did failed to ensure if the room was really a nonsmoking room, or if the
previous guest smoked before leaving, making the staffs accountable for not being able to hold
away the foul smell before letting another guest in.

Last Minute Cancellation. It has been taught to act on problems being encountered,
professionally. Handling it with integrity is what a management needs the most amidst an
unexpected problem. If a guest or a traveler was not satisfied with what service was given to him
or her under a reasonable circumstance, they can abruptly make decision and cancelling his
reservation in the last minute before or while they’re in the premises, the management must not
refuse the rights to a guest to do so most especially if they are being held accountable in a faulty
situation, but such cancellation on the last minute have a lot of restrictions due to company
policy. In the situation where Monique Kazer was in, the last thing she could resort with is
cancelling her reservation and booking another hotel. Monique Kazer is a salesperson for a
company specializing in audiovisual equipment for convention hotels and centers, and that same
day, she had been to 3 hotels in Newark, New Jersey, and Hoboken, giving her prior knowledge
on near hotels within the vicinity, it will be easier for her if she will cancel her hotel booking
ahead of time after the situation and look for other available hotel rooms nearby that are rest
assured nonsmoking rooms.
Advantages of cancelling her booking earlier will give her more time to look for another hotel
and rest as much as she like since Monique is already under stress and was exhausted from a
long day at work, management must examine their procedures to see how they can be improved
to help meet the needs of your guests for people are diverse, situation wise when feelings are
involved. It will be a lot more convenient for Monique since the hotel was fully booked that day
leaving her with two choices only, leave the hotel and look for other immediate booking or settle
with the room risking her health. On the other tone of this course of action, Monique can never
guarantee the availability of other hotels nearby, plus the fact that she’s too worn out and is
already expecting for an immediate rest in her reserved room. Cancelling her booked room will
just risk her time to rest and will also consume her time roaming around to look for an available
hotel room, she might even settle resting in her car for the whole night which is not comfortable
to rest in when you had a long day at work.

Cancelling a booked or reserved room in the last minute while you were in the hotel will also
make you undergo a lot of procedures, which will also take much of the guest’s time leaving her
in a long occurrence of inconveniency. This will lead to numerous disadvantages for desk agents
who will arrange her cancellation must follow company policies. Some hotels have a “One Night
Penalty” that charges the guest for the same price as one night stay in the hotel. There is also the
prepaid, nonrefundable hotel reservation policy wherein the booking requires payment for the
entirety of the reservation at the time of booking and it is nonrefundable. (Reyes, 2017) These
occurrences will be heavily inconvenient in the side of any guest for they have to pay penalty
charges despite the fact that the company failed to fulfill their needs. Some hotels are not putting
up with these policies if proven that they made a mistake on the reservation and holding
themselves accountable. But then, the nonsmoking room that was reserved was proven right for
the desk agent assured that it was checked weeks ago. Some hotels stand by having no federal
obligations on how they handle their rooms and bookings once accepted, there are also no federal
blocks on bringing legal action against hotels locally in your friendly local district or small
claims court making Monique convenient accountability if it all becomes irretrievably bad. If
thorough inspection was made and proved that the smell lingering in the room was not from a
cigarette, they can put up charges or cancellation fee on the guest and hold him or her
accountable for it. For the ill fate situation where both inconvenient for Monique, she can either
pay for the cancellation fee and accept or loss or just settle in the room and bear with the smell
risking her health.

Make Use of Connections. It was mentioned at the beginning of the case scenario that
Hospitality Inn was a unit of a major chain in which Monique’s firm did business because of the
deep discounts being offered, meaning that this hotel has connection outside that might be of
great help for Monique. There is absolutely no way that Monique would just settle in the room
with cigar stench even after being assured that the room given to her was the one nonsmoking
room she reserved, pushing through with the change of room as she requested on the front desk.
Her request cannot be granted for that time, the hotel was fully booked. Hotels – mostly low-end
hotels, overbook their rooms same way as airlines oversell their flights, and occasionally, they
end up being caught short and having too many guests show up and too few rooms to
accommodate them all. (Rowell, 2015) Maybe a room or rooms have to be taken out of inventory
due to unexpected problems just like what had happened with Monique Kazer, this is where the
problem uproots wherein they have to make one of their reserved rooms unserviceable and this
makes the same as if they had oversold their rooms. Monique can make a call with her firm to
inform what had happened to her and at times like this, hotel chains provide alternative
accommodation that they arrange during unexpected events like this situation. The hotel must
own their mistake and respond professionally with integrity. If transfer on neighboring hotel,
Monique must not be charged extra fir the alternate accommodation that Hospitality Inn will
provide her even if it costs more than her previous room that she booked in Hospitality Inn. In
that way, Hospitality Inn can compensate for not being able to give the promised room and not
being able to attend to their guest’s needs causing inconvenience on Monique’s behalf.
Advantages of this is guest satisfaction will be fulfilled due to responsible immediate response of
the management. It will also be a wake-up call for the staffs, crew and employees to ensure that
their rooms are just like how their guests requested to book it and if it was a problem with the
ventilation or air filter, they can patch it up in no time to make sure that this does not happen
ever again.

IV. Recommended Solution

 Being able to handle unexpected situations or occurrences immediately and efficiently
with reachable or possible course of actions makes a management professional enough. Strong
indication that they have a strong training grounds that honed them to respond on problems with
integrity. Providing the guest an alternate accommodation to compensate for the failure of
meeting their guest’s expectation and desired room shows how a hotel attentively shows care and
compassion towards their guest. It was the most effective solution to put up on this kind of
situation. As a traveler or someone who works away from home, Monique must have been both
physically and mentally weak at that time, making her at her most vulnerable state during an
unexpected situation that caused her distress, and Hospitality Inn taking responsibility of their
possible mistake would compensate for the inconvenience that they caused to their guest. Aside
from that, their efficient response would show how their teamwork inside the management
applies to different kinds of situation. With preparation and understanding of common guest
complaints, it is possible to train every member of your staff to respond correctly when a guest
has a problem. From the front desk staff to bellhops and room service, customer complaints are a
serious issue that must be handled with care. Even complaints that seem silly or unrealistic. The
purpose of complaint management is first to make guests happy and, second, to fix the original
problem if there was one. In many cases, guests simply need a little guidance, more information,
or to be placated about an upset. (Woods, 2019) Hotel management requires not only
professional management skills but also the ability to response on unexpected problems and
taking up immediate actions towards it. This would show how their hotel does not only provide
rooms but also a home to those travelers or guests who needs it.

References

 Serv, A. (2017). Harmless AC Smells and What They Mean. AV Aircondition.

Retrieved 6 May 2021, from https://www.aireserv.com/about/blog/2017/july/harmless-
ac-smells-and-what-they-mean/

 Reyes, M. (2017). Hotel Cancellation Guide. roomer. Retrieved 6 May 2021, from

https://www.roomertravel.com/cancellation/hotel_cancellation_policies.
 Rowell, D. (2015). Your Rights if a Hotel Refuses Your Confirmed Reservation. The
Traveler Inside. Retrieved 6 May 2021, from
https://blog.thetravelinsider.info/2015/07/your-rights-if-a-hotel-refuses-your-
confirmed-reservation.html.

 Wood, D. (2019). Dealing with Guest Complaints. eHoteller. Retrieved 6 May 2021,
from https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2019/01/09/the-top-5-hotel-guest-
complaints-and-how-staff-can-respond/.