Importance Evaluation - Griffith University Hotel - Report Example

IMPORTANCE / PERFORMANCE EVALUATION REPORT INTRODUCTION : This analysis report arises from the need to evaluate the importance and performance of the hotel facilities available at the Griffith University Hotel. This is situated in the heart of Australia’s tourism destinations amongst some of the major hotel chains on the Gold Coast and Brisbane. The university has received many tourism awards like ‘ Excellence in Industry Education’( Special Hospitality, 2008 ) . The hotel is well equipped to accommodate all class of people ranging from Business class to Pleasure class with world class infrastructure and all modern facilities. To provide with excellent amenities to the visiting customers the hotel is determined to improve it’s services and facilities. The hotel administration thought of evaluating the importance and performance of the existing facilities with the help of a professional event and facility manager . To accomplish this task of evaluation , a survey was made on the importance and performance of the available facilities. The survey was based on a questionnaire in which Business and Pleasure travelers were requested to give their opinion about the existing services and how these services satisfied their requirements. For the required level of precision in the results , the survey must be on a considerably good sample size ( Veal , 2006 ). These questions were posted for both to know their importance as well as to know about their performance. The travelers were asked to rate these question on a numerical scale from one to five . DATA ANALYSIS : The method of analysis used to analyze this database is the most popular Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ( IPA ). IPA is a bottom up inductive approach ( Reid et al , 2005 ). This qualitative method of data analysis does not take any prior assumptions of the analyst rather the analysis is based on experiences ( IPA : Smith ,1996 ). This method of qualitative approach based on experience is more appropriate to this importance or performance analysis of the available facilities at the Griffith University Hotel. Though IPA involves small sample sizes, larger sample size can enable a more comparative study. The IPA analyst can analyze a single phenomenon from many perspectives leading to a multifaceted account of that phenomenon. This is some kind of triangulation ( Elliot et al , 1999 ) . The iterative and inductive approach of IPA also maintains a balance between ‘emic’ ( phenomenological, insider) and ‘etic’ ( interpretative, outsider ) . In this project the method of data collection was survey by questionnaire. The conceptual questions answered by the two categories of travelers were the existing facilities such as in-room broadband connection, wireless broadband connection throughout hotel , room service , a-la-carte restaurant , family restaurant , mini-bar , swimming pool , gymnasium , tennis courts , in-room pay movies , K in-room cable television ( foxtel ) , express check-in , express check-out , valet parking , free daily newspaper , games room and tour booking service. Each of the above questions was rated for it’s importance by business class and pleasure class of travelers. Also each question was rated for it’s performance by both the class of travelers. The core of data analysis lies in the descriptive and distribution statistics done on the data. This analysis is based on the univariate method of statistical analysis involving mean which is a measure of central tendency and standard deviation which is a measure of dispersion. Also t tests have been used to compare the mean values from the two samples and to find the possibility that samples are from populations having different mean values. The mean of two samples may not be same even when two samples are taken from the same population. When samples are taken from two different populations then there is a possibility that the means will differ. Then the problem is how to differentiate between these situations from the available data. RESULTS : The analytical results obtained can be discussed with many perspectives . First the analysis shows a mean and standard deviation calculation of the data. Facility under survey. Rating by travelers Importance Performance Mean Std.dev Mean Std.dev in-room broadband connection 4.03 1.17 3.69 0.69 wireless broadband connection throughout hotel 2.92 1.65 3.69 0.69 room service 3.49 1.53 4.00 0.00 a-la-carte restaurant 3.74 1.39 3.69 0.65 family restaurant 3.26 1.61 3.96 0.75 mini-bar 2.75 1.65 3.83 0.76 swimming pool 3.36 1.54 3.83 0.71 gymnasium 3.31 1.68 3.77 0.68 tennis courts 2.26 1.59 3.93 0.73 in-room pay movies 3.41 1.60 3.85 0.71 in-room cable television (foxtel ) 4.24 1.01 3.79 0.68 express check-in 3.21 1.64 3.66 0.65 express check-out 3.62 1.53 3.89 0.71 valet parking 3.39 1.61 3.71 0.69 free daily newspaper 3.75 1.43 3.70 0.70 games room 3.37 1.58 3.84 0.74 tour booking service. 3.25 1.60 3.89 0.76 Next the IPA analysis of the means of importance and performance is done on the five most important features to find actually how they are utilized. The points in the first quadrant show that these facilities are good and they need to be continued. The plots in the second quadrant show that these features are important but are not performing well. So action need to be carried out such that their performance becomes more. Finally the t tests were also conducted for two samples ( two types of travelers ) assuming equal variances. The following table shows the p ( two tail value ) of the t tests output. Facility under survey P ( T < = t ) two – tail. Facility under survey P ( T < = t ) two – tail. in-room broadband connection 0.03308052 in-room pay movies 0.45553 wireless broadband connection throughout hotel 0.455530266 in-room cable television (foxtel ) 0.12954 room service 0.129540376 express check-in 0.196791 a-la-carte restaurant 0.196790901 express check-out 0.049204 family restaurant 0.049204222 valet parking 0.89076 mini-bar 0.890760069 free daily newspaper 0.834285 swimming pool 0.83428506 games room 0.031409 gymnasium 0.031409222 tour booking service. 0.412878 tennis courts 0.412877883 Based on the above calculations some specific facilities are identified as follows. The five most important features include - in-room broadband connection , a-la-carte restaurant , in-room cable television (foxtel) , express check-out , free daily newspaper . The five least important feature are - wireless broadband connection throughout the hotel , mini-bar, tennis courts , express check-in, tour booking service . The top five performance features consists of - room service , family restaurant , swimming pool , tennis courts , tour booking service . Finally the lowest performing features are - in-room broadband connection, wireless broadband connection throughout hotel, a-la-carte restaurant, valet parking, free daily newspaper. CONCLUSION : Generally using a t test result the researcher tries to find out a specific direction for the difference between the two population means ( Bristol , 2006 ). Based on the above analysis and result statistics , it is found that the five most important features show p values in the range of 0.033 , 0.18, etc. This shows that the difference between the two means is not statistically different from zero ( Syque , 2008 ) but not in all five cases. Among the five least important the difference in mean is significant fir mini bar whose p value is 0.89. Considering the top performing features family restaurant ( p= 0.04 ) has no much deviation but swimming pool performance shows a significant difference in the means ( p = 0.83 ). In the low performance category, free daily newspaper ( p= 0.83 ) and valet parking ( p = 0.89 ) show much difference. RECOMMENDATIONS : It is seen that the most important feature of in- room broadband connection , a –la –carte restaurant , free daily newspaper are highly important but it is not performing well, so this feature has to be improved. Further the performance of valet parking and wireless broadband connection throughout the hotel can also be improved to attract travelers. References : 1. Elliott, R., Fischer, C.T. & Rennie, D.L. (1999). Evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies in psychology and related fields. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 215–299. 2. Independent Samples t - test. The University of west England , Bristol, 2007. < www. Uwe.ac.uk > , Last accessed 20 October, 2008. 3. Kartie Reid , Paul Flowers, Michael Larkin . Exploring Lived Experiences , The Psychologist , Vol 18 , 1, January 2005. 4. Smith, J.A. (1996). Beyond the divide between cognition and discourse: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis in health psychology. Psychology and Health, 11, 261–271. 5. Special Hospitality I st Newsletter Report, ‘Schools of Hospital’ , Griffith University. July 2008. < http://hospitality-1st.com/PressNews/Schools.html > , Last Acessed 21 October, 2008. 6. T test table , Syque, 2002, < www.changingMinds.org > , Last Accessed 21 October , 2008. 7. Veal, 2006 , Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited . Read More

 

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