"Order-Taking vs.

Selling
at the Foxfire Hotel"
Case study
Jerry Camoron, the rooms division manager for the Foxfire Hotel, believes he has
pinpointed one of the main causes for the hotel's declining revenues: the
reservations department's failure to effectively market the hotel and its services.
Based on his hunch, Jerry telephones Gretchen White, the reservations
supervisor, and asks her to come to his office. When Gretchen arrives, Jerry
presents a challenge "Let's test the adequacy of our reservations training and
sales techniques," he says, "by calling one of our agents" Jerry says that he will
pretend to be a potential guest calling to reserve overnight accommodations,
food service, and meeting room space. He says that he will pose as a
businessman willing to purchase in-room amenities, special catered meals,
concierge-sponsored events packages, and executive-level suites for his group.
He tells Gretchen that he will commit to upgrades and add-ons-so long as the
reservations agent presents the options "Basically," he says, "I'm willing to buy
everything as long as it's offered Confident of her staff's abilities, Gretchen
accepts the challenge. Jerry then places a call to the reservations office on his
speaker phone.
Jerry and Gretchen hear the cordial greeting of the reservations agent The
agent then proceeds to collect Jerry's arrival and departure dates, personal data,
and the number of rooms needed. But after recording this information, the
reservations agent simply states. "Our rate is $115 per room. Is that OK When
Jerry says "yes," the reservations agents agrees to send a letter of confirmation
and disconnects the.
Discussion Questions

1. What factors should the reservations supervisor address when reviewing the
reservations training and sales program?
Ans:- Factors can include,:
 The reservation training documentation.
 How much training each reservations agent has received before answering
the telephone?
 The type of guest who usually calls.
 The type of rooms, rates, and packages being offered by the hotel.
 The type of clientele that is, resort, leisure travel, business, and so forth.
2. What actions should the reservations supervisor take to build a more
aggressive sales strategy for reservations agents?
Ans:- Actions to build a more aggressive sales strategy for reservations agents
can include,:
 Review the reservation training program to ensure it provides training on
sales, not just order-taking.
 Retrain all reservations agents on proper sales techniques.
 Develop a script, to be located at each reservations agent location, providing
an overview of the hotel and what should be presented in a sales
presentation.
 Develop an upsell incentive program.
3. How may the rooms division manager eventually evaluate the effects of an
enhanced reservations training and sales effort?
Ans:- The evaluation can be based upon increased room revenue, increased
occupancy, increased average rate of reservations, and test calls to ensure
reservation sales effort quality (that is, are they selling or still order-taking?).
Thank you
TEAM -2
• Janith Prakash
• Hareesh SR
• Gowri Shankar SH
• Gaurav Krishnan
• Ismail Naail Naseer