Emirates Palace Hotel - Leading Quality Assurance - Case Study Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Emirates Palace Hotel 1. Executive Summary The Emirates Palace Hotel is among the biggest luxury hotels in the world. Located in Abu Dhabi, the hotel offers services to both normal visitors and diplomatic of the United Arabs Emirates. The management of the hotel seeks to ensure that the services that are offered are of international standards. This is possible through the setting up different policies to ensure that this is achieved. Emirates Palace Hotel has put in place measures to ensure there is satisfaction of the employees who work in the hotel. This involves carrying out a survey that aims to find out the pleasure of the employees. The findings of these surveys are used to formulate policies that will ensure better working relationships and conditions. The satisfaction of customers is also surveyed to come up with a procedure, which ensures that all the expectations of the customers are met. By publishing the results of these surveys regularly, the hotel is able to move towards achieving its vision and goals. This report also focuses on the relationship between suppliers and the hotel. It analyzes the process of selecting suppliers and quality issues that are involved in ensuring the stringent quality requirements, which are necessary in food and beverage industries. There are also some set standards and certifications which are observed by the Emirates Palace Hotel. By observing the requirements of these certifications, the hotel is able to ensure that there is quality delivery of services. One analysis done of a process in the hotel is the room cleaning service. The process requires the participation of various staff, from the cleaning personnel to the quality assessment team. Adherence to quality issues in this process is essential since it determines how well and clean a room will be, which will affect the customer satisfaction, hence help to accomplish the purpose of the hotel. 2. Company Background The Emirates Palace Hotel in the United Arabs Emirates is the second most expensive luxury hotel in the world, after the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi and managed by an upscale German hotelier, Kempinski Hotels and Resorts. Before its expansion to be a hotel, it was initially intended to host various government conferences. Opened in 2005, it took three years to build and cost the Abu Dhabi government a whooping three billion US dollars. The construction of the hotel was in line with United Arabs Emirates government plan to build various tourist destinations in the country, to promote tourism in the face of dwindling oil resources, the main income generator in the country. It was designed by Wimberley Allison Tong & Goo of the United Kingdom, a leading company in architectural design and construction of luxury hotels. The hotel boasts of having a lot of Middle East culture and architecture, with many gold plated suites and many, tall domes. According to the hotel’s website, the hotel boasts of 302 luxury rooms, 40 Khaleej and Khaleej Deluxe Suites, 92 suites, 16 palace suites, a marina, helipad, 2 swimming pools and spas. The vision of Emirates palace hotel is ‘to be considered globally as an iconic venue and luxury destination that provides Emirati hospitality with a majestic experience,’ while the mission statement is ‘to continually reinforce the reputation of Emirates Palace by providing unparalleled hotel and conference facilities and excellent services to leisure and business guests delivered by competent and dedicated staff.’ This has been the driving force to for the excellent services provided by the hotel’s managing agency, which at full capacity, the staff to guest ratio is 6:1. The quality of service provided is a fundamental determinant of the standard of a hotel. For any hotel in this class, quality cannot be compromised for anything. That is why there are certain set standards, which ensure the quality of the service provided is maintained. As the managing director of Leading Quality Assurance in London says, ‘You can have the most incredible innovation in the world, but if you do not mix it with a unique service, you are not going to thrive in the magnificence hotel souk.’ Emirates Palace Hotel has put in different measures in order to achieve high standards and quality. There are different set practices, which are done repeatedly, to ensure that there is no compromise in the quality of standards provided. The set standards are so harsh to establish a process is followed to achieve the desired results. This is why the services offered must be as accurate as they are stated. For example, 5 kg of untainted edible gold is used annually for beautification principally on deserts There are several existing ISO certifications that are relevant to this industry. These standards aim to protect the environment and ensure food safety two crucial areas for a hotel industry. One of these is the ISO 14001, which is a standard for Environmental Management System. It sets to ensure that there is minimum environmental pollution by a company. There is a recent version of this, which is ISO 14001:2004. The other certification is the ISO 22000:2005. This certification in Food Safety management system helps to provide third-party certification, so that handling of food will be safety right from the producers to suppliers and customers. The management of Emirates Palace Hotel ensures that the guidelines that have been put into place towards maintenance of these certifications are observed. In September 2009, Emirates Palace Hotel bagged the ISO 14001:2001 certification on Hospitality service. To maintain this certification, internal and external audits are regularly done so that the standards certified here are observed. It also involves educating and updating the staff on their role towards the maintenance of this certification. This is done on a regular basis in order to ensure that new employees are informed and the old ones do not lose focus on the goal of the organization. 3. Employee Involvement Status In order to provide the seven star services provided at the Emirates Palace hotel, there must be a solid investment in human resource. Currently, the hotel has a work force of thirteen hundred employees from some fifty-eight different countries. The process of hiring, training, retaining and rewarding of employees in a highly competitive field is strenuous, and whenever an employer requires such a high yield from employees, there should be an extremely high motivation. This is the reason why the Emirates Palace Hotel has a significant emphasis on employee satisfaction with some set guidelines towards assessing the same. Employee Satisfaction survey that is used in the Emirates Palace Hotel is done annually in September. It lasts for a period of about three weeks and is open day and night to give the employees some large time to participate. During this time, employees who have been in service for periods of at least four weeks are open to participate. To encourage participation, openness, and avoid victimization the survey is conducted online thereby enhancing its confidentiality. The Employee Satisfaction Survey covers all areas related to the work of the employees and their relationship with the company. The survey consists of some seventy-seven well crafted easy to answer questions, covering various areas. These include how well was your specific job described in the recruitment process, your satisfaction in the job, the state of your working conditions, empowerment, supervisor’s leadership style, evaluation, employee commitment and the stress level in the hotel by comparing the effort input against the reward given. In addition, the survey tries to evaluate the brand strength, equity and loyalty that Emirates Palace Hotel has acquired from an employees’ perspective, the understanding of the employees on the cultural values of the company, which must be maintained and observed. The results from the Employee Satisfaction Survey are used to assess the performance of the hotel in terms of the company’s human resource policy. It gives essential information on which areas the company needs to improve to ensure efficiency and high productivity of the employees. The survey helps in the formulation of policies that will ensure retention of employees since when their grievances are addressed; they will not have to leave. This reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees. The performance of the company in terms of the employee satisfaction index helps to devise new ways of satisfying employees and thus increasing the productivity of the entire human resource. From the results of the three years from 2008 to 2010, the index has improved from 0.67 to 0.70. 4. Customer Satisfaction Status The Emirates Palace Hotel is exclusively a luxurious destination ascertained by the services offered and the cost of rooms and suites. For ordinary people, the best they can get at the hotel is a guided tour of the whole hotel, at a cost of about three hundred US dollars. The hotel offers accommodation to state guest and has a wing dedicated and reserved for the Emirati loyalty. This is done in addition to the regular guests. The guest cycle at the hotel starts from the point where a guest books online with the Kempinski Hotels and Resorts. On arriving to the hotel, a guest is directed to his room where they enjoy the various services of the hotel like food and beverages, recreation and banqueting. When the period of stay is over, a guest then checks out. Below is a diagrammatic representation of the guest cycle. Diagrammatic representation of the guest cycle The satisfaction of customers is any company’s ultimate goal. This is the reason why Emirates Palace Hotel has put in place a Guest’s Satisfaction System (GSS) feedback survey, which is designed in order to help improve client service and manage development efforts. The survey involves two questionnaires; one for surveying the hotel itself and the other for food and beverage. The questionnaire finds the guests’ response on the quality of the services given in the hotel, and this measures their satisfaction based on their expectation. In addition to hotel services, the questionnaire asks the guests to assess the services offered by the restaurants and rooms services for food and beverage. The information collected from the guest satisfaction survey is critical in coming up with new and innovative services. Since the ultimate goal is to satisfy the guests, their feedback is taken extremely seriously and is the results are published on a monthly basis. This helps to determine if the hotel is meeting its vision as stated in their vision statement. The quality and standards team analyzes these feedbacks and comes up with recommendations, which are integrated, immediately into the service code. They analyse the results to find out if what the customer expected is what he receives from Emirates Palace Hotel. Any discrepancies between service and expectation can then be ironed out to ensure that the guests’ expectations are fully met in the future. The customer needs and expectations are unique to every customer and as dynamic as the trends in the fashion world. Great service offered today does not mean that it will be the same tomorrow to the same customer. It is important to note that whatever satisfies a customer today will need to be improved if the customer is to derive the same satisfaction next time he comes visiting. The problem is even greater considering the high level of human mobility, which exposes a hotel like Emirates Palace to all kinds of guests from all corners of the world. To ensure that the hotel is up to date with changing customer needs and expectations, a careful study analysis of the feedback given by the guest is done. Once this happens, a projection can be done to provide a forecast of on the aspects that have to be handled later. This may not be all-inclusive, but it will help to solve some problems before they arise. The managing agency, which is Kempinski Hotels and Resorts, can offer some improvement guidelines based on the information collected from other hotels that it manages throughout the world. By enhancing sharing of information, problems can be solved before they arise and tomorrow’s customer needs, and requirements can be forecasted beforehand. This will keep the Emirates Palace Hotel abreast of all developments in the hotel industry. The hotel also employs the services of Leading Quality Assurance (LQA) to gauge the services that it offers. Inspectors from leading quality assurance visit the hotel twice a year and stay there anonymously. They gauge the services of every department and the results from these inspectors are used to come up with methods for improvement. Their assessment is based on both products and services. By carefully studying their recommendations, the hotel can come up with solutions to meet future problems even before they arise. 5. Supplier Relationship Status In order to deliver high-quality services efficiently, the contribution of suppliers is vital, as it will determine whether a company will be efficient. Delays in supplies will translate to delays in offering services, and so will quality. To ensure a seamless flow of services in terms of timeliness and quality, the process of choosing suppliers has to follow some stringent steps and must meet some globally accredited standards. This involves auditing and inspection of suppliers before they are awarded any tender, in order to ensure the supplies they deliver are certified in accordance to the environmental management certification. The suppliers are selected based on departmental requirements. The selection criterion puts into consideration various factors like the price of the product and the quality. The quality of the product is determined by carrying out a physical check in order to determine its durability and reliability. It also focuses on how well the supplier understands the product that they want to supply. Other factors to consider include safety, availability of supply and the location of the supplier. There are several quality challenges that crop up in terms of food safety. The durability of the foodstuff delivered is necessary because a timeline has to be set to guide on when they should be utilized. Perishable goods must be procured and utilized in the shortest time possible, and the means of transport and storage adopted should be able to keep them safe and fresh before they are utilized. The packaging done to goods should be in a position to protect them from contamination, damage and destruction. Poor packaging may lead to losses for in-transit goods and therefore, packaging measure relating to any product must be done to a strict standard. When selecting a supplier, the following driving and restraining forces must be considered. These include: 1. Value for money 2. High quality 3. Low price 4. Ease of transportation 5. Durability 6. The hotel’s requirements 6. Flow Charts on cleaning room process There are several people involved in maintaining the cleanliness of the room. The process involves room maintenance when a guest is in occupancy and room refurbishment when a guest has left or before the next guest arrives. The importance of this process is to ensure that the expectations of the guests are met and the quality standards, which are a requirement of room service, are maintained to the highest level. The employees involved range from almost every department. This is illustrated I the flow chart below. Before a guest checks into a room, the staff will change the bed linen and set up the room in accordance to the preferences of the guest. Staffs from the quality and standards team inspect the room to ensure that all the essential requirements have been set to meet the expected standard. After a client has set in, the room service staff will embark on a continuous duty of replenishing the room with items like soaps, flowers, perfumes, and other utilities, and uncluttered cleaning processes like dusting up; while the laundry staffs ensures that there is frequent exchange of all laundry and linen, including carpets and curtains. At some point, considerable clean up will need to be done after some time, while taking care not to inconvenience the client or disturb his or her privacy. Room service is maintained until the guest leaves, after which the room is thoroughly cleaned and refurbished. The gold plated walls are polished, and the room is organized to the requirements of the next guest. This process is done while the quality and standards personnel supervise to ensure that everything is done as per the requirements. When this is achieved, the room is ready for the next occupant. Works Cited Collis Roger, Leading Quality Assurance. 9th July, 2010. Retrieved on 21st March, 2011 from < http://www.leadingquality.com/press.aspx> “Facts & Figures.” Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi. Retrieved on 21st March, 2011 from < http://www.emiratespalace.com/en/facts/index.htm> Read More