Paper Critique - Assignment Example

The authors of the report could have presented research questions in a simpler and straightforward way (Sparks & Browning, 2010). Literature Review The authors of the report have been able to gather sufficient resources and data for elaborating on the existing problem. Regarding the issue of online complaints and analysing online narratives and stories, the authors have been able to provide adequate models and theories for managers and staff. However, fewer sources are present, which discuss causes of complaints and how complaints can be categorised as beneficial or harmful for the hotel reputation.

Core activities are defined as those which are the central services of the hotel, such as their food quality, cleanness, and all services on time and other administrative issues. On the other hand, peripheral activities are defined as those which are not the central services but have a major impact on customer experience, such as staff behaviour and communication skills of waiters, managers and other personnel. It can be said that these are two major aspects that form the basis of customer behaviour and probability of their future visits.

However, the report does not place much focus on these aspects and sources used for its identification (Sparks & Browning, 2010). The report links closely to public behaviour and management style, which requires current surveys and reports. However, this report has taken into account several old sources which findings can be doubted with regard to the current scenarios. The report was published in 2010, and it used sources of 1997 and 1998 to describe the online mode of complaints and factors that stimulate the negative attitude of customers.

Hence, it can be said that those sources are more than 10 years old, and there are certain possibilities of their non-applicability with the new trends in hospitality and customer behaviour (Sparks & Browning, 2010). The Narrative Analysis Model of Labov and Waletzky (1967) is another key concept of the report. It illustrates how the stories of customers can help in determining the loopholes in their current services and how they can be improved (Sparks & Browning, 2010). Methodology The report has used a qualitative approach in the study of customer complaints.

The justification is that this methodology is given to analyse not only the quantity of companies but also the nature and driving forces of these complaints. The report has used the compliant data from the Trip Advisor site to take into account the experience of the maximum number of customers visiting different hotels. One fact of the data selection is that it has taken complaint samples from 2002-2007. Although this provides a sufficient range of data to be analysed, it also augments chances of reviewing complaint causes, which are no more related to the current services and activities in hotels.

Another lacking in the data collection method is that the report has used secondary sources for obtaining complaints of customers. Several research works define that the scenario depicted in the secondary sources often manipulates or exaggerates the actual scenario. People’s views on the Internet are likely to be influenced after reading others’ views and that can lead to false or less accurate results about the ongoing practices (Laub, Sampson, &