St. Petersburg University
Graduate School of Management
Master in Management Program
Business process management approach for service quality improvement in Russian hotel
industry
Master’s Thesis by the 2nd year student
Concentration — MITIM, Annenkova Y.A.
Research advisor:
Associate professor, Zhukova K.V.
St. Petersburg
2016
ЗАЯВЛЕНИЕ О САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНОМ ХАРАКТЕРЕ ВЫПОЛНЕНИЯ
ВЫПУСКНОЙ КВАЛИФИКАЦИОННОЙ РАБОТЫ
Я, Анненкова Юлия Александровна, студент второго курса магистратуры направления
«Менеджмент», заявляю, что в моей магистерской диссертации на тему «Метод управления
бизнес процессами в улучшении качества обслуживания для отельной индустрии в России »,
представленной в службу обеспечения программ магистратуры для последующей передачи в
государственную аттестационную комиссию для публичной защиты, не содержится
элементов плагиата.
Все прямые заимствования из печатных и электронных источников, а также из
защищенных ранее выпускных квалификационных работ, кандидатских и докторских
диссертаций имеют соответствующие ссылки.
Мне известно содержание п. 9.7.1 Правил обучения по основным образовательным
программам высшего и среднего профессионального образования в СПбГУ о том, что «ВКР
выполняется индивидуально каждым студентом под руководством назначенного ему
научного руководителя», и п. 51 Устава федерального государственного бюджетного
образовательного учреждения высшего образования «Санкт-Петербургский государственный
университет»
о том, что «студент подлежит отчислению из Санкт-Петербургского
университета за представление курсовой или выпускной квалификационной работы,
выполненной другим лицом (лицами)».
25.05.16
STATEMENT ABOUT THE INDEPENDENT CHARACTER OF
THE MASTER THESIS
I, Annenkova Yulia, (second) year master student, program «Management», state that my master
thesis on the topic «Business process management approach for service quality improvement in Russian
hotel industry », which is presented to the Master Office to be submitted to the Official Defense
Committee for the public defense, does not contain any elements of plagiarism.
All direct borrowings from printed and electronic sources, as well as from master theses,
PhD and doctorate theses which were defended earlier, have appropriate references.
I am aware that according to paragraph 9.7.1. of Guidelines for instruction in major
curriculum programs of higher and secondary professional education at St.Petersburg University «A
master thesis must be completed by each of the degree candidates individually under the supervision
of his or her advisor», and according to paragraph 51 of Charter of the Federal State Institution of
Higher Education Saint-Petersburg State University «a student can be expelled from St.Petersburg
University for submitting of the course or graduation qualification work developed by other person
(persons)».
25.05.16
1
Аннотация
Автор: Анненкова Юлия Александровна
Название магистерской диссертации: Метод управления бизнес процессами в улучшении
качества обслуживания для отельной индустрии в России
Факультет: Программа Менеджмент
Направление подготовки: Информационные технологии и инновационный менеджмент
Год: 2016
Научный руководитель: К.Т.Н., Доцент Жукова Киран Витальевна
Описание цели, задач и основных результатов:
Основной целью данной выпускной квалификационной работы было использование метода
управления бизнес процессами для формирования системы повышения качества сервиса в
отельной индустрии России. Были использованы такие ключевые показатели эффективности
как уровень удовлетворения гостя, количество жалоб, уровень удержания клиентов, рейтинги
относительно конкурентов.
В результате предварительного исследования автор определил потребность в улучшении
качества обслуживания в российской гостиничной индустрии. Главные задачи состояли в
том, чтобы изучить текущую ситуацию на примере исследования нескольких компаний.
Автор провел исследование в области существующих стандартов отельной индустрии и
текущих инновационных трендов и схему возможности их применения в российской
гостиничной индустрии. Применимость структуры была проверена, и план управления
изменениями был разработан.
После того, как главные задачи были выполнены, автор подтвердил потребность в
улучшении качества обслуживания в российской гостиничной индустрии и подтвердил
улучшения уровней ключевых показателей эффективности.
Ключевые слова: Улучшение бизнес процессов, Российская отельная индустрия,
Улучшение качества сервиса
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Abstract
Master Students' Name: Annenkova Yulia
Master Thesis Title: Business process management approach for service quality improvement in
Russian hotel industry
Faculty:
Main field of study: Information Technology and Innovation Management
Year: 2016
Academic Advisors' Name: Associate professor, Zhukova K.V.
Description of the goal, tasks and main results:
The main goal of this thesis was to use the business process management approach to design the
framework for service quality improvement in Russian luxury hotels in order to manage such KPIs
as level of guest satisfaction, number of complaints, customer retention rate, ratings against
competitors.
As a result of the preliminary research the author defined the need in service quality improvement in
Russian hotel industry. The main tasks were to study the current situation applying the multiple
case-study research method. The author conducted a research on the current hospitality standards
and the current innovative trends and designed a framework for their applicability in Russian hotel
industry. Applicability of the framework was checked and a change management plan was designed.
After the main tasks were completed, the author confirmed the need in the service quality
improvement in Russian hotel industry and confirmed the improvements in the levels of KPIs
studied.
Keywords: Business process improvement, Russian hotel industry, Service quality improvement
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Table of contents
Introduction of the topic relevance ................................................................................................................ 5
1 Theoretical background of hotel management ............................................................................................. 7
1.1 Hotel management overview ............................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Innovations management in hotel industry ........................................................................................... 9
1.3 Customer relationship management ................................................................................................... 17
1.4 Standards in hospitality ..................................................................................................................... 19
2 Specificities of innovations implementation in luxury hotels..................................................................... 24
2.1 Research framework .......................................................................................................................... 24
2.1.1 Business process improvement and change management ............................................................. 24
2.1.2 BPI in luxury hotels through implementation of innovative trends .............................................. 26
2.1.3. Research framework design ....................................................................................................... 31
2.2 Research methods .............................................................................................................................. 34
2.2.1 Interviews ................................................................................................................................... 34
2.2.2 Observations ............................................................................................................................... 35
2.2.3 Secondary data ........................................................................................................................... 35
2.3 Research results................................................................................................................................. 36
2.3.1 Field interviews .......................................................................................................................... 36
2.3.2 Observations of the business processes in the case companies ..................................................... 38
3 Empirical findings on business process management in luxury hotels ....................................................... 39
3.1 Case descriptions ............................................................................................................................... 39
3.1.1 Four Seasons Hotel ..................................................................................................................... 39
3.1.2 Hermitage Hotel ......................................................................................................................... 40
3.1.3 Grand hotel Emerald Europe ....................................................................................................... 41
3.1.4 Astoria........................................................................................................................................ 42
3.1.5 Domina ...................................................................................................................................... 43
3.1.6 W ............................................................................................................................................... 44
3.1.7 Taleon ........................................................................................................................................ 45
3.2 Cross case analysis of current innovative trends implementation in Russian hotel industry ................. 46
3.3 Aspects of the change management plan ............................................................................................ 47
3.4 Analysis of improvements effect and estimated results after framework implementation .................... 54
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................. 54
References .................................................................................................................................................. 56
Appendixes ................................................................................................................................................. 59
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Introduction of the topic relevance
Based on the personal observations throughout years since the author is connected
with hospitality industry and the analysis of the new market trends it was revealed that almost
45% of the guests complain about the services provided in Russia and 40% of the travelers
compare Russian hotels to leading world hotels. The information was as well supported by a
netnographic research from social media and such travel-related websites as TripAdvisor and
booking.com. The author checked world ratings for the presence of Russian hotels in them and
none of the Russian hotels were present except for one rating where a hotel - member of a
foreign world luxury chain was present. It is clear that foreign hotels have gone through drastic
changes in recent innovations and these changes are not yet introduced in Russia. The
competition in the Russian hotel field is mostly based on the price and not on the service quality
that is delivered to the customer.
Research questions
Based on the previously done research on the latest market tendencies and personal
observations that were supported by a netnographic research in the field, the author established a
continuously present problem in the field. The issue was connected with the constant flaws in
the guest service quality in St.-Petersburg hotels. The issue was represented from multiple sides
and affected several factors of the guest service business processes. The main sources that were
used for the netnographic analysis of the topic were the online travel agency with the most
market share such as booking.com and an application that is used directly to collect the
information on the market feedback – TripAdvisor.
The goal is to design the framework for service quality improvement in Russian
luxury hotels in order to manage such KPIs as level of guest satisfaction, number of complaints,
customer retention rate, ratings against competitors.
The main research questions go as follows:
1. How are the key business processes interrelated in luxury Russian hotel sector?
The author studies the processes that are connected with the service quality and that
affect the KPIs that need to be measured to estimate the quality.
2. How do the global trends influence these business processes?
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The study of the global trends helps to understand how the current standards could be
modified to improve the service quality and to see where such implementation was successful.
3. How do business processes need to be changed to implement innovations in order
to improve KPIs?
The main and the most important part of the research was dedicated to the
framework for implementation of the new standards in Russian hotel sector by using the
multiple case study method.
Thesis objectives
After establishing the issue the author formulated the following objectives regarding
the research planning. The first objective is dedicated to finding the way to measure the services
and consequently conducting a research regarding the latest trends in hotel standards and the
perspectives in the future regarding the improvement of standards.
The second objective is aimed at testing the adoption opportunity of the new
standards in St.-Petersburg market. This mainly includes the ability of St.-Petersburg companies
to adopt the new technologies and use them in their service range.
The third objective is aimed at providing recommendations for the target companies
that were examined and checking the applicability of the established plan on the case
companies.
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1 Theoretical background of hotel management
The aim of this chapter is to review the latest tendencies in tourism business
management concepts and to acknowledge the business process optimization patterns that have
been formed for the past decade.
1.1 Hotel management overview
When it comes to hotel management, for the last 10 years more than 350 guidebooks
and academic works have been written.
According to C. Sturman, 2011 success in hospitality industry can be brought from
four different perspectives. The first one is the perspective of managing the career. The author
emphasizes the ways to be a leader in the industry. He states that the job in the hospitality
industry requires one to be knowledgeable, skillful, and full of different abilities and talents to
be a leader in the organization. What is more, it is an occupation that requires specific personal
characteristics to be able to deal with it and be successful. (C. Sturman, 2011.) The second
aspect is the overall operations management. The third aspect is the influence of the hotel owner
on the business process. Property ownership is an important part of economies social systems
and individual industries and hospitality industry plays an important role in it. The more the
owners retail operational cash flows, the more the profits are in the long-run perspective (C.
Sturman, 2011.) In many parts of hospitality industry business process management has been
separated from the ownership of the property. The last but not least perspective is managerial
point of view. The author underlines the necessity of choosing the right strategy of brand
management, information coordination, costs control and right system implementation for
management of different locations. These strategic responsibilities could be shared between
different several or single unit operations. (Sturman C., 2011.)
Another significant study that was made by Paul P. Maglio and Cheryl A.
Kieliszewski is called Handbook of Service Science. In it, the authors emphasize the importance
of acknowledging the service science and the way it creates value for the product that the
hospitality industry is selling. They represent the service science as a systematic search for
principles and approaches that contribute to improvement and understanding of this value
creation. There are different ways of value creation and they depend on the core activity of the
business. The authors highlight the fact of service profit chain being about developing an
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environment in which employees interact with the customer and create competitive value. This
contributes to customer retention, sales development, positive customer experience shared and it
helps to get the feedback which contributes to research and development. All of these
contributions provide constant growth and profitability increase. (Maglio P. & Kieliszewski A.,
2010.)
One of the latest books on how to manage tourism business nowadays was written in
2010 by Fevzi Okumus, Levent Altinay and Prakash Chathoth. Basically, they collected the
latest strategic thoughts and theories and observed their efficiency in the managerial decisions in
the industry. Besides, they studied how they may be applied in the industry depending on the
culture and the type of the organization. They main focus of the book is on strategic
management in the business. The authors emphasize how it is important to acknowledge the
importance of synergies between the external and internal environment. The book describes how
an organization may use the external environment to its advantage and what the characteristics
of managerial decisions are within the company that bring success in the industry. The authors
also emphasize the importance of internationalization and cross-cultural issue, which is essential
in the field.
As for the revenue management, “Profit Planning For Hospitality and Tourism” is an
updated issue of a detailed analysis of the relationship between the business decisions and
accounting inside the company. The authors discuss how the key managerial accounting
techniques can be applied to control and maximize the profit of the organization. The issue
includes multiple practical examples coupled with a wide range of theoretical knowledge.
Updated edition includes the profit planning framework that can be applied to the international
as well as independent organizations. The book divides the hotel activities into three parts
(Figure 1).
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Figure 1
It is extremely important to recognize the complexity of the combination of these
activities in one enterprise. Furthermore, it is necessary to study the managerial implications that
influence the profit maximization.
1.2 Innovations management in hotel industry
Van Riel A. is the author of one of the recent works describing innovations in service
management. His book Service Innovation Management, written in 2005 concentrates on the
changing environment: changing markets, evolving of societies, differences in customer trends.
With the external environment, the services themselves may be modified or looked at a new
perspective.
Businesses try to adapt to these changes and modify their service offers and develop
and implement service delivery technologies. One of the main issue in service and any other
innovations is to attract and retain the customers. (Van Riel, A., 2005.)
Innovations management is essential to the hotel industry due to its low level of
differentiation of the product. When the managers are reassessing their services they need to
decide what particulate innovations would create value for their service. It is important to take
into account not only the value that is delivered to the customer, but also the value that the
company will gain. (Van Riel, A., 2005.) The value for the customer is their perception of what
is supposed to happen in a particular situation with the help of a particular product or a service
in order to accomplish a certain goal. (Stahl et al., 1999). In the hospitality industry there is a
multiple number of additional services that could be used to add value for the guests. Speaking
about the classic services that are offered to the customer, the hotel can offer various
9
combinations of the existing values. The hotel could include the innovative values too, but
beforehand the value needs to be assessed. (Van Riel, A., 2005.)
According to Koulopoulos T. M. the most efficient way of building a path to success
is using different sorts of innovations within the organization. The author claims that it is not a
completely complex process, yet not easy. It is noticeable that different companies that use
innovations show the same pattern of behavior depending on the environment. Innovations are
difficult in terms of being first in the field to apply a certain technique. It is more reliable and
safe to follow somebody's steps. Here are the main lessons that are gathered from different
organizations that have to be learned. These lessons might help the managers to get used to the
fact that innovations are necessary and at the same time they bring risks. (Figure 2.)
Figure 2
The model assumes that all the innovations start from trying to achieve unknown
results. However, within time, the aims start to be more and more clear and specific. Every
innovation strategy needs to “encourage experimentation and tolerate failure”. (Koulopoulos T.
M., 2009.) It is important to acknowledge that after innovation implementation the new or
renewed product or service should be introduced wisely to the market.
Another tip of the seven lessons is about the company not being afraid to win some
of its old products by introducing a new product within the organization. At the same time, the
development should be made separately, so that the ideas and concepts do not get mixed up.
What is more, a lot of products are based on a very complex process and especially
in the hospitality, the product is the service and it is delivered involving a lot of people and a lot
of departments. Not only the product and the process can be innovated, but the way that it is
delivered to the customer and the way that it exceeds the customers’ expectations.
10
An even newer issue of a work on the importance of innovations in business
management is Turban, E. et. All, 2013. Information Technology for Management: Advancing
Sustainable, Profitable Business Growth, 9th Edition was reviewed by the author.
The research is based on looking in the details of information management and IT
architecture. The authors mention different ways of managing databases and networks. The
book is divided into 4 parts. The second part is concentrated on the latest technologies
introduced in relation to digital marketing and social networking. As already noticed in relation
to CRM such trends as social, mobile, cloud, big data, and analytics bring a large number of
opportunities to the companies and this is how companies try to gain their competitive
advantage and differentiate the product.
The first way to bring optimization to the operations is to control properly the
database. Managing the companies’ financing and thinking in terms of investing strategy is
simultaneously connected to business process optimization. The biggest latest trend in CRM is
contacting the potential and existing customers through social networking.
Having reviewed several works on the innovations in the hotel industry the author
concluded that a lot of researchers have one opinion on the hotel industry not being so eager to
changes. Basically this industry is built on the standards that seem to work for decades. The
majority of authors underline that structural and behavioral peculiarities of tourism sector can
generate substantial barriers to innovations. (Najda-Janoszka, M., Kopera, S. 2014) The detailed
description of the barriers is presented in Appendix 1. However, with the latest technological
trends and changes in the behavior and abilities of consumers, the hotel industry is changing as
well. Moreover, actions taken to adopt to the world progress are aimed to stay competitive.
(Konovalova, T., Jatuliaviciene, G. 2015) Problems of risk aversion, resistance to change, low
awareness about importance of innovations, resource limitations that are common among smallscale businesses become the whole industry struggle. However, some studies have evidenced the
existence of highly innovative small tourist enterprises and the fact that in small tourist firms
innovation is positively correlated with entrepreneurship inclination. (Najda-Janoszka, M.,
Kopera, S. 2014)
Innovation is mostly possible in the hotel industry if the management is executed by
people with a different perspective and they do not limit the existing operations. (Allegro, S., de
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Graaf, R. 2008) Innovation in the hotel industry most often refers to the introduction of new
services or the improvement of the existing ones. What is more, hoteliers use the introduction of
new creative processes. (Konovalova, T., Jatuliaviciene, G. 2015) In the following thesis the
focus will be taken at the idea of processes adjustment and implementation of a new model from
the management point of view.
As a part of the seminar on hotel management, Cuenllas, A. discusses the lack of
innovations use in hotel management. He states that it occurs because of the general type and
mechanistic sets in motion of organization of the hotel business. The companies get to a trap in
some kind of obsolescence because their reaction to escape from this trap depreciates more the
cost of the business and knowledge. (Cuenllas, A. 2013)
It is common for management to perform cost reduction through centralization of
decisions and management, and also to mechanize transactions. Due to this fact, a vicious circle
of an impoverishment business strengths occurs, by placement of service and operational
workers in the lower part of their priority list. Nevertheless, hotels, still "make" service as a
product core activity. (Cuenllas, A. 2013)
Working this way, hotel management thus commercialized more hotel services and
operational knowledge. Limiting operational knowledge, management also limits a role of
innovations as the possible decision to reduce differentiation. An innovation results from also
fixed enhancement of work. In transactions of a hotel it shall happen the same. The business
hotel which limits innovations to the top level of management or does not consider improvement
of work to be a responsibility and also undertakes workers of services industry, certainly, limits
its organizational training and knowledge bases and, therefore, becomes closer to a business
obsolescence. (Cuenllas, A. 2013)
Hotels face from the life-endangering competitor who can forever change an industry
landscape, at least a landscape as we know it today. For five stars hotels it is necessary to enter
innovations in a consumer relevant way worldwide. (Gopalakrishnan, R. 2015) The competition
proceeds from commercial firms which generate the most part of the income from use of
growing (and, therefore, attractive) world of joint consumption: online, peer network of trading
the accommodation exchange. This business model threatens the industry and millions of
workplaces.
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Disruptive innovations can and shall be overcome with the help of more (and better)
innovation. Recent research of service firms emphasize their growing dependence on
innovations for strategic transformations. It is not surprising that hospitality innovation has
become more and more interesting in recent years. (Martin-Rios, C. 2016) One important factor
of this tendency is the need of fixed steady innovations to remain competitive that can give
hospitality companies look for and realize a set of innovative solutions. Leaders of hotels admit
how important the solution of the forthcoming problems connected with destructive innovators
is. In this sense, strong partnerships with scientific experts is essential. While researchers from
hotel management bring a wide range of knowledge for the companies, farther, distant approach
also takes place.
In hotel industry still the most important source of innovation is the human capital
and it is very often relied on the managers experience. (Ottenbacher, M., C., Harrington, R., J.
2007) It is essential to research the HRM influences on innovations of a hotel. The innovation in
the hotel industry is determined as possible new approach to service for specific hotel or its
target market. (Nistor, R., Stegerean, R., Petre, A. 2014)
Managers of a hotel are those which give the chance for the worker to develop
specific skills by means of training. Thus, managers have a proper tool kit for introduction of
improvements in current transactions, such as innovations, and they shall be informed on its
importance. They are considered as the main "key employees" who promote activities of firm
and whose skills and capabilities determine organizational distinctions in opportunities and
efficiency in case of accomplishment of basic transactions of the organization (Lopez-Cabrales
et al., 2006). Managing innovation requires a great amount of practical experience and specific
knowledge in order to achieve hotel performance.
Training programs shall become an important part of activities in the field of human
resources in hotels and are developed on a fixed basis. In the hotel industry training programs
shall be oriented as to top management as to the employees because, through their experience,
they promote more intensive innovative process and, thus, higher performance level. The role of
the key clients-contact employees is very important in this sector because of direct and
derivative consequences on the satisfaction of the client. Irrespective of the fact which type of
innovations we is discussed - new services, products, processes and ideas, organizational or
13
technological it is extremely important for development and for expansion of opportunities of
employees better to cope with the dynamic environment of tourist sector. Therefore to achieve
these objectives it is necessary to introduce the jointed policy of training. Because of strategic
nature of innovative process there is a need of continuous process of training as it leaves
research. When the continuous element does not exist, results are accidental and positive longterm consequences can be distorted. (Cuenllas, A. 2013)
It is necessary to create the organization in hotel which aims innovations, providing a
great value for guests and that constantly studies during its activities, managers and workers of
services industry. The main objective consists in providing a great value for the guests, but not
profitability. (Cuenllas, A. 2013) Profitability is important to shareholders, and, certainly, very
important purpose of business but only earning money is the purpose which will not inspire
many workers. So together with the guest and listening carefully to them, the working process
shall be improved.
The author of the article emphasizes the use of the collective management.
Collective management in the hospitality industry is increased by appropriate leadership
strategies. The CEO of the hotel is the key person to make collective management happen. He or
she is the one to increase the learning efficiency, to encourage improvement of workplaces and
to throw down a challenge to people to receive innovative solutions of problems. Not all
management styles are capable to do it. Indeed, the management shall come onboard with the
corresponding leadership style. (Cuenllas, A. 2013) The leader needs to support, the teams and
individuals, and also middle managers, in their daily work. They shall be an example for all.
Similarly, they will be considered as the main source of energy that eventually will increase the
working potential.
One of the studies of innovation in hotel industry show that the main innovation
barriers belong to the questions concerning human resources, in particular: insufficient skills,
abilities and low formal qualification, and also motivation to involve in the innovative
processes. They are generally derivative structural and behavioral characteristics (and
restrictions) of the industries of tourism, but it is necessary for their decision at various levels of
an industry; at the level of decision making there shall be provided the best coordination
between the changing requirements of the market and structure of an education system, and also
14
all industry of tourism. The education system shall solve a problem of low level of knowledge
transfer in the industry in the form of formal education, professional training, etc. (NajdaJanoszka, M., Kopera, S. 2014)
The increasing value of the reviews created by users in Internet communities of
travelers is influencing the hotels competition from profit unit margin to total revenue amounts
and to higher level of employment numbers. From online retailers having taken the most part of
the cost created from on-line transactions that means that hotels with lower room numbers have
less chances to test a positive effect of online visibility on their net profitability (Neirotti, P.,
Raguseo, E., Paolucci, E. 2016) To avoid this competitive logic, hotels, especially small, shall
use online visibility, the horizontal strategy of differentiation following from socially expanded
recommendations for more effective application. In other words, through TripAdvisor, hotels
with a large number of stars in the cities where the local competition is lower, and also in
outside the popular directions can create great economic value due to sale of the hotel services
on the Internet, taking the fact that value is created due to use social possibilities of media. It can
occur because of socially expanded recommendations can positively influence tourists in the
choice of hotels and the directions which will be approved with their special preferences and
installations. At the same time, online visibility is this hotel platforms can reduce risk and
"emotional expenses" by infomediation that travelers bear when they look for hotels outside the
popular directions and which could correspond their peculiar preferences. In these conditions,
hotels can find opportunities for creation more than a cost online and prevention of an decrease
of their profit, connected with heavy taxes mediation which are applied thanks to the market
power. (Neirotti, P., Raguseo, E., Paolucci, E. 2016)
Hotel industry shows service innovations rather than product innovations. Hertog et
al. (2010) defined the six subdimensions of service innovation, as they are shown below:
The service concept; in other words the perceived value of the service for the
customer, a solution to satisfy a need of a customer that has not been met or remarked before.
Using some new methods for customer interaction; behind the traditional methods
to realize service attraction in a more efficient ways for both ways creating mutual value. For
example, saving the commissions paid to the travel agencies by making hotel reservations via
internet decreasing time and monetary cost for being more cost effective.
15
New value system and new business partnership implementations; coalition of
partners, like hotel acquisitions or mergers.
New revenue model; new revenue management models in hotels distributing costs
and revenues appropriately between departments like food & beverage, house-keeping, sales,
accounting, banquet, or technical support departments.
New organizational system; personnel, organization, culture, appropriate
management and organization structure to allow service providers to new jobs properly and to
develop innovative services such as, new sales-call techniques in sales departments or creation
of new recipes for food & beverage department.
New service delivery system; numerous service innovations ranging from
electronic business to e-tourism with advanced multi-channel management, customization of
services, introduction of self-service concept and so on. For example, different reservation and
special gift services for customers might be a good example for customization. The multichannel management comes with outsourcing of new employees, food delivery or transportation
service for customers like airport transportation.
According to the Göğüş, G., Karakadılar, S. I., Apak S. (2013) quantitative research
on the Innovation and sustainable growth measurement in hotel industry, hotel managers should
focus on first overall service quality, second hotel brand management and third sales techniques.
As a result, the managers should focus on increasing overall service quality of the hotel, creating
a strong brand name and brand awareness with the help of well-organized and structured sales
techniques. To be successful, the hotel shall improve the sales methods. These methods shall
allow more professional sales calls, the international marketing instruments, improvement in
communication and the subsequent skills to see whether the companies continue to choose hotel,
or just they move to some period of time. Information system in a hotel shall be well structured
with available, informative and well-managed website. The bookings from the Internet shall not
be a problem, and even advertizing campaigns and promotions shall be found easily on these
web pages. In addition to functionality, the convenient and simple hotel managed web pages is
more preferable to increase a portfolio of clients. Really, it shall be the strategic weapon for
receipt of competitive advantages in the hotel industry. Importance of skilled workers and
effective instruments of setup follow these first three most important criteria for a strong growth
in the hotel industry. Innovative owners of hotels and brands shall develop effective retention
16
programs and good compensation packets for employee retention. If future benefits from the
new hotel company weight are higher, than irrevocable expenses in the end are covered.
1.3 Customer relationship management
Some of the main KPIs that would be analyzed by the author, which are Level of
guest satisfaction, number of complaints, customer retention rate, are connected directly with
customer relationship management. Successful Customer Relationship Management is the core
concentration of the hospitality business aim. To understand the way that business processes
could be developed, it is important to keep in mind how the decisions would influent or improve
the relationship between the guests and the management.
The basics of customer relationship management are best described in such recent
works as “Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework, Second Edition” by
Peppers D. and Rogers M. Most of the theoretical studies have been made 12-15 years ago.
Most of the recent works are concentrated more on the statistical side of the CRM analysis.
“Managing CR” is an issue that has been updated since 1993. The authors of the
book recognize the importance of the changes in the business environment. The authors
emphasize the fact that for the past years there has been noticed a significant change in the way
businesses are thinking about the process of creating value, given the new technological abilities
to track and communicate with customers. More and more companies are taking into
consideration individual opinions of the customers to catch ideas of optimizing their businesses.
Lately, it is more and more becoming obvious when the company is planning the processes such
as websites or basic operations. The planning of the tasks is directed at the customer and it is
important to ask the question of what is essential for this particular customer at this particular
time. (Peppers D. and Rogers M., 2011.)
Discussing CRM it is necessary to draw the attention of its influence on the business
process management. On the one hand, it is directly related to the efficiency of the processes,
responsiveness of the employees and the overall different related KPI efficiencies. On the other
hand, business process management can influence the results of CRM from the data collection
and statistics point of view.
17
Recent works on business statistics CRM notice how opportunities for
communication are growing with social networking and interactive media outlets. The authors
were giving a forecast that stated that there will be a great increase in social media usage.
Assessing this growth rate, the authors also stated that there will be an increase in collaboration
and communication among the customers. Three major changes were predicted to take place.
First the increase in the interactions between the customers and the companies. It would lead in
the increase of the customers' influence on the companies' life, mostly the product design,
advertising and branding. From this point of view, for CRM it is a great opportunity to gain
feedback, as well as improve customer relationships and increase customer loyalty. Secondly,
the increased communication between customers will contribute to creation of online
communities and this will be one of the main sources of information for the consumers. Thirdly,
the social networks will become the main link between the consumer and the brand. Social
networks accumulate the databases of user profiles and this would be a great tool for customer
relationship management. (Kumar V. and Petersen J., 2012.)
No matter what are the innovations, several problems in the delivery chain always
stand inside the organization. For example, the relation between the product and sales managers
and the CRM, the gap between the expectations and the result. Other issues are the customer
support and the quality of the market research. If there is a case of early adopters of the CRM
technology in the industry, but the customer strategy was not implemented, the companies
usually collaborate to create the end concept of the product (Peppers D. and Rogers M., 2011.)
One of the chapters in “CRM at the Speed of Light: Social CRM Strategies, Tools,
and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers, Fourth Edition” by Paul Greenberg is entirely
devoted to the contribution that business process and CRM bring together. In the end of 2008 a
survey was conducted by Gartner Executive programs across 1527 enterprises in 48 countries in
30 industries in both public and private sector. The survey was aimed at getting to know what
was the top priority of the companies for expenses. The results have shown that the main
priority was business improvement and the second was customer relationship management.
(Greenberg, P., 2010.) It is extremely difficult to gain harmony in the cooperation between
departments in the company when it comes to creating a sustainable delivery chain that would
be efficient enough in terms of future customer retention. The author emphasizes the fact that it
18
is not enough just to integrate the business processes into the data systems or introduce some of
the best practices in the business. (Greenberg, P., 2010.)
Business process management is used as a part of strategic planning and needs to be
amended according to the current business environment changes. Greenberg, P mentions that
managing customer based CRM processes is an extremely complicated task and it is not only an
internal effort and it is connected with different issues. Not only the efficiency needs to be
improved. Ideally the customer-related business process management is linking the internal and
external participants and all the stakeholders. There is a smooth interaction between all the
departments and customers. The manual and automated operations are easily integrated. If the
right framework is designed, new processes may be designed and tested, without affecting the
existing processes. (Greenberg, P., 2010.)
1.4 Standards in hospitality
Hotel star rating is a universal way or a system for defining the hotels’ quality.
However, the rankings may differ a lot depending on the country. The ranks go from "one" as
the lowest and to "five" as the highest. In each country the authorities, government agencies and
different tourism associations influence the way the standards are formed. There are no single
international standards that each hotel across the world needs to follow, however hotels stick to
a certain level of service. (Amey, K. 2015)
As already said, the five star ranking differs from one country to another. Due to the
fact that here is no international standard, a range of authorities are used by hotels. There are
some similarities that define a hotel a level ranking one internationally. (Amey, K. 2015) For
example, when we talk about a five star hotel there are specific features that are supposed to be
present everywhere. At five star properties guests are supposed to be greeted within 60 seconds
after arrival. In each room there has to be present a fresh flower or a live plant. The concierge
needs to be able to provide any information needed and be knowledgeable whether it is a
restaurant request or a museum request and there always has to be three options given
(depending on the number of sights in different towns). (Adams, M. 2015)
One of the parts of the approach in the following thesis is to track the latest trends in
the management innovations in the hotel industry. To analyze the models modifications in the
19
field and the tendencies they have, it is important to take a look at the standards that contribute
to the formulation of the processes and the models.
The sources that were used to describe the typical list of standards when evaluating
the rating of a hotel was the Leading Quality Assurance list of standards for a 5 star hotel.
The five star hotels have the same level of the service as in the four star hotels with
additional services and regulations that increase the level of the property. Such aspects as
cleanliness, hospitality, sustainability and delivery of services are evaluated and are required to
be at a high level. (Amey, K. 2015) The author of the article tells about the standards in the UK:
fitness and spa facilities valet parking, butler services, concierge services, 24-hour reception and
room service. What is more, a lot of personal space is required for the guest and at least one
suite room that consists of three rooms has to be present in the hotel.
Since the following models that would be discussed later are involving the guest
services department, mainly this departments' standards will be described.
First of all, the approaching to the reception desk is evaluated - how the guest is
greeted, such parameters as the queue existence and the time to acknowledge the guest are
evaluated (30 seconds). If there is a queue the guest needs to be offered assistance within one
minute. The complete check-in time needs has to be not more than 5 minutes from the time of
joining the queue. During the check-in all the details of the reservation need to be confirmed
including the special requests: room type, pre-arranged bookings, departure date. A newspaper
needs to be offered for the following morning.
The room has to be ready by the check-in time. If the room is not ready, the guest
needs to be informed about the waiting time and the guest needs to be informed when the room
is ready by phone or e-mail. If the room is not ready, the guest needs to be informed about the
hotel facilities. If the guest is new to the hotel and has not visited it before, the guest needs to be
shown the facilities, pointing out at least two of the key facilities. Porterage needs to be offered.
The guest needs to be shown to the room or offered to and of it is made by another employee,
introduction is required. If the guest rejecting the assistance to the room, directions need to be
pointed out.
20
Earlier mentioned standards were dedicated to the check-in procedure. However, the
standards are not limited just by that. They are broadened with the behavioral standards, which
are almost more important than the operations standards.
To start with, the appearance of the employee is evaluated, including the uniform,
name badges and grooming. Then the speech of the employee is evaluated, if it is clear, wellpaced, slang free. The speech needs to be natural and friendly, the name of the guest needs to be
used naturally. The employee needs to show high level of confidence and knowledge. The
service need to be intuitive and adapted to the guests' needs. The employees need to personalize
the interaction and engage the guests as individuals. The employees need to collaborate
seemlessly and eye contact needs to be present with full attention to the guest. The employees
need to respect the guests' presence while interacting with each other. If there is a challenging
interaction, the employee needs to show empathy and offer a suitable solution. The employee
needs to offer a sincere farewell in the end of the interaction.
There are lots of different organizations that provide the 5 star evaluation for the
hotels. To make the picture more detailed, the author investigated additionally another standards
lists to add information and further understand an ideal to-be model.
An Irish company that provides accreditation to its hotels states the reception standards and in
addition to the above mentioned details here are some more requirements. The satisfaction with
the stay needs to be checked. Messages to the guest and from the guest should be delivered on
time.
21
KPIs
After the standards analysis it is important to put the emphasis on the KPIs that
would be used by the author to assess the effectiveness of their use. (Table 1)
Table 1
KPIs for monitoring of the standards
KPI
Measurement
Level of guest satisfaction
Feedback evaluation
Number of complaints for check-in
Feedback evaluation
Number of complaints for room
Feedback evaluation
Accuracy in bill formation
Number of mistakes in bills during
procedure
equipment
check-out
Training scores
Feedback evaluation, level of accuracy
of task communication
Customer retention rate
Percentage increase in the number of
frequent guests
Rating against competitors
Rating position in public ratings based
on reviews on-line
Profit maximization rate
Percentage increase in profit monthly
Estimation time of service
Number of guests in queue in relation to
number of arrivals
22
The following KPIs could be divided into three subgroups. The first group includes
the KPIs for measurement of the guest relation process standards. Such KPIs as level of guest
satisfaction, number of complaint during the check-in procedure, customer retention rate,
estimation for time service, help to evaluate how successful the company is in delivering the
service in terms of guest communication.
The second group of KPIs show the level of the hotels' operations in financial and
technical terms. In this list the following KPIs are included: accuracy in bill formation, profit
maximization rate and ratings against competitors. What is more, it is beneficial to monitor the
training scores of the staff for successful implementation of any standards.
23
2 Specificities of innovations implementation in luxury hotels
2.1 Research framework
2.1.1 Business process improvement and change management
To create a basis for recommendations of a not-well operating system in a company,
the author needed to review the previous works done on change management in terms of
business process improvement.
Several books on BPR are mentioning the “Reengineering the Corporation: A
Manifesto for Business Evolution” by Hammer, M. and Champy. BPR is the use of several
methods, models and tools for restructuring in the organization to bring significant
improvements in the processes. (Varun Grover and William A. Kettinger, 1998).
For further actions, the author would like to define the term framework. In general a
framework can be defined as a basic structure, arrangement or system. (Varun Grover and
William A. Kettinger, 1998). A major part of business process improvement is remembering the
goals and the vision of the company.
After the visions and goals of the company (as well as the objectives) are revised,
information about the AS-IS model is collected. To realize how the process could be changed
and improved, first the organization of the company needs to be understood. The company could
be divided into divisions, functional units or just departments, depending on the size of the
company. (Harmon, P. 2007)
Business improvements is directly connected with philosophy kaizen, it is actively
used in the majority of management concepts of changes. This Japanese word which, in a free
translation, means to take apart (Kai = change) and to put together in a better way (zen = well,
good). The term which is usually used in Japan has moved to the main course of the American
language of business when Masaaki Imai's book Kaizen: A key to success of the Japanese
companies has been published in 1986. But only thanks to repeated application of the principles
and tools has the West began to understand true sense of kaizen which is beyond far process
improvement. (Martin, K., Osterling, M. 2007)
The kaizen, or continuous gradual improvement, belongs to philosophy - a way of
thinking, attitude and behavior. It is about expansion of opportunities also unleashing the
24
creative strength of people who actually perform work to develop more effective and efficient
processes, and not requiring practice guidance of participation in it. Practicing kaizen on a daily
basis influences the economical structure of the organization, feeding transition to continuous
improvement of culture - the major element in the high-productive organizations. Ideally,
everyone in the organization: from the top management to a front line of workers, and from
those, delivering customer value directly those who support delivery of cost, begins "to think
fast" and to apply kaizen every minute of the day. The true purpose of kaizen is a workplace
humanization, to eliminate a hard work (as mental and physical), and also to train employees
how to effectively solve problems in process of their origin, using scientific approach to study
and own experience approach. In essence, the kaizen is much more about people and human
dignity, than it is about specific process designing. (Martin, K., Osterling, M. 2007)
Events of Kaizen, on the other hand, are arranged actions which the organizations
use for achievement of fast and cardinal improvements (kaikaku) and to gradually transmit the
culture. Kaizen Events create the structured environment in which the management learns how
to identify waste and to use special tools to its liquidation. In this environment "learning by
doing", teams become more and more comfortable with their powers to bring improvements,
and the management learns to release tactical details for which front workers best of all are
suitable. Under the leadership of the experienced intermediary, Kaizen Events generate fast
results, relying on a creative power of a cross-functional teams for development and
implementation innovative methods for work performance, often reaching performance level
breakthrough. (Martin, K., Osterling, M. 2007)
PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is the very first, main tool in kaizen implementation. It
generally does three things. It helps to change constantly, in order that: the company reaches
higher quality in the results and processes. What is more, it helps to strengthen fixed increases in
overall performance, allows to see accurately at what stage your project is and helps you with
the solution of your work logically and systematically. In other words, a PDCA method reduces
dependence on Murphy's law. The initial concept has been made popular by Edwards Deming, a
statistician, the founder of modern quality management. It is quite easy to understand PDCA,
and it is quite easy to perform, provided the management keeps track at what stage the process
is. For accomplishment of PDCA, one shall follow for four steps of a cycle, as well as in the
25
stated above scheme. First, you begin with the plan. In any project, at first it is necessary to
build a specific and detailed plan. Be convinced of determining the purposes, to delegate work
properly and to establish the precise plan of actions with indication of the main stages. It is
necessary not to forget to document the plans which helps to analyze its efficiency later. As any
plan never is completely perfect, one shall be convinced that the list of problems is constituted
to address them. After the project is finished, at once a team should be called to recheck the list
of problems and decisions faced. It is important to share information with team so everyone
knows and understands how to avoid these problems, or to correct them if they occur again later.
After that, the management should take a comprehensive view of the project. There are, as a
rule, some key areas where the efficiency of the project could be improved or where something
better could be done. Brainstorming is needed to determine areas for improvement. (Bulsuk, K.
2009)
2.1.2 BPI in luxury hotels through implementation of innovative trends
According to Solomon, M. a lot of travelers nowadays relate to current check-in
procedures as slow and out-of-date. What is more, lots and lots of customers are admitting that
technologies play a huge role in their life and hotels are not connecting their processes in
accordance to the progress across the world. The author of the article introduces three main
principles of the process of the check-in. Firstly, he relates badly to the current desk designs at
the hotels and claims that they should be lower and more accessible for the guest. What is more,
he emphasizes the fact that employees need to go outside the desk and start interacting with
guests there. It is important that the guests greeted at the lobby during arrival, every check-in
has to be personal and all the details of the guest need to be taken into account. It is possible that
the guest is checked-in with a help of a tablet and the lines in the queue are reduced. The author
of the article confirms that the guests’ attitude begins to change once they are approached by the
employees and not vice versa. The behavior of the guest changes when there is an employee
standing side-by-side. It contributes to creating more of the peer to peer relationship. The guests
become less nervous in the queue. The author provides different examples of hotels with such
redesigned check-in process that creates a more welcoming experience. (Solomon, M. 2014)
26
Eftekari M., a general manager of a famous world luxury chain of hotels claims that
most of the times the hotel knows when the guest is going to arrival and the information of the
guest such as passport and credit card details that is needed for check-in and this is an
opportunity to greet the guests and speed up the check-in process. He confirms that there are
customers that would enjoy if technology based check-in is done, and no actual interaction with
employees takes place when everything is done online. This concept of online check –in is
brought from the airlines experience.
Furthermore, he states that there always has to be an ongoing element of surprise in
the service. It is important to mention that the guests’ experience of the hotel begins before one
arrives at the hotel, which gives the management an opportunity for excellent service delivery.
The hotel chain introduced a new smartphone application that allows the guest to organize their
stay, the guests may book extra services such as spa, dinner, make housekeeping requests, any
extra amenities in the room. This creates an outstanding first impression and allows making
everything up to the guests’ expectations. This hotel also provides free wi-fi and an ipad in each
room increases the level of service and affects in a positive way the hotel brand image. The
general manager states that to impress and satisfy their guests, the hotel focused on providing
the latest technology. (Eftekari, M. 2016)
Using careful employees whom guests felt comfortable and important with, from the
moment of their registration on arrival, advance five-stars service through their best asset people. Employees are engaged based on their personal attitude and welcoming personality, but
not their experience. They have a wide experience in reading the emotions of the guests, looking
at the habits and actively anticipating their requirements that are on interactions. These nonmaterial qualities that hotels do unambiguously attract the guests and leave them with positive
impression when they leave. (Eftekari, M. 2016) This general manager also states that as part of
the standards that they instill at their hotel, reservation agents are encouraged to gather as much
information as possible in order to personalize the booking process. This allows them to create
personalized welcome amenities for guests celebrating special occasions, during awards season
or traveling with children. (Eftekari, M. 2016)
Trends list
27
Based on the comparison of the new innovation in hotel management and service
improvements in foreign countries and in Russia, the author has created a check list for
implementation in every five star hotel. The list was generated based on the multiple opinions
from recent reviews by leading top-manager of the hotels with a heavy brand image.
The first part of the check list is dedicated to the guest-reception relationship and
how it can be brought to a next level.
1) Low desk
A lot of times it was mentioned by the managers that it is very important for the
perception of the guest not to be separated from the guest services and not to experience the
barrier. When a reception desk is massive and high, the guest might feel intimidated and
distanced from the person who is supposed to provide the service.
In Radisson chain, for example, that is considered of the highest standard in the
Carlson-Rezidor hotel group, the reception desk is set a small island on purpose, so that it
always easy for the guest service agent to approach the guest.
2) Gathering information
The guest needs to feel special even before the check-in and before being greeted in
the hotel. This can be influenced by gathering as much information of the guest as possible. This
would contribute to creating an amazing experience at the hotel and affect the entire image of
the hotel, as well as increase the loyalty of the guest.
3) Greetings out of the desk
In lots of five-star hotels there is a rule of meeting the guest outside of the hotel and
walking to the reception desk. However, lots of times it is done by the Host or the bell-boy and
not the reception employee. It is extremely important for the hotel staff to make every guest feel
special and pay as much attention as possible. If there is no opportunity for the guest service
agent to meet the guests outside, at least the guest needs to be met in the lobby.
The second part of the check-list for the new technologies introduction is dedicated
to the check-in process.
4) Using tablets to check-in the guest
28
Following the previous point, a check-in could be improved, if the guest is not only
met in the lobby, but in fact stays in the lobby and the guest service agent is using a tablet to
check in the guest. This would emphasize the idea of the employee approaching the guest
instead of the guest approaching the reception desk. This would save a lot of trouble for the
guest and speed up the process.
5) Application for guests to check-in
Another rapid way for the hotel to check in the guest is to allow them to use the
application to enroll to the hotel by themselves. This would save a lot of time and satisfy the
guests who do not want to visit the reception desk at all and want to proceed right to the room.
This way of check-in is inspired by the airlines who allow enrolling on the flight 24h before the
plane leaves. Of course this type of service has a lot of complications; however, with the idea of
the customers being able to follow the new technology tendencies it could be adopted by a
certain market in a short period of time. This way of service could be difficult to be introduced
and educated.
Introducing new technologies to the room
6) Following the idea of using more tablets in the hotel, each room could be
provided with a tablet. This devise could be used to order any service or contact the reception –
from food and spa to housekeeping and temperature in the room requests. A lot of people are
travelling for business and adding a nice touch to the room maintenance could be the great
contribution to the brand image of the hotel.
7) Room maintenance could also be brought to another level. There are some
technological innovations that are already used in a great number of foreign hotels that still lacks
in Russia and St-Petersburg. These are the small details in the room, that are most often found
frustrating if not functioning perfectly:
a. Light
A lot of hotel still do not have a panel system in the rooms, where one can switch off
the light before going to bed without wondering around the room. Even if the hotel has this
devise close to the bed, sometimes even the hotel staff cannot educate the guest on how to use it
properly. The fact is that most of the contemporary technologies are already introduced in the
hotels.
29
b. Conditioning
Conditioning has been introduced a long time ago, however, it is lots of cases it is
still not working properly in the room and it is difficult to manage and maintain the personal
level of temperature in the room. Most of the hotels have central heating systems and sometimes
they do not change the temperature according to the personal requests of the guests. So, the
following point in the check list is dedicated to having a properly working conditioning system
with a simply manageable control panel.
c. Keys
Any person that travels a lot can say that probably every hotel has the same problem
– the keys that you are given at the reception stop working after a while due to the contact with
the phone. Consequently, the guest needs to come up to the reception desk to fix the key.
d. Plug extensions
All of the new hotels have the easy to use panels for different kinds of cables in the
rooms for the convenience of the guest, so that it is not necessary to unplug anything or search
for an adaptor to charge guests’ personal devises.
Adoption in St-Petersburg, Russia
The author has analyzed the previously mentioned point of the check-list for
standards improvement and here are the main conclusions on the adoption of the following.
To provide reliable conclusions on the objectives two assumptions need to be taken
into account. Firstly, the target market in Russia is still in transition to adopting new
technologies. As an example Tripadvisor and Uber case could be used to support the idea that all
of the technologies that involve the customer in the process are adopting late in comparison to
the European countries. Secondly, the hotel business in Russia is influenced a lot by the
economic and political factor and any new introduction in the following 3-5 years need to be
done with the plan of cost minimization.
The final check list for the hotel to improve standards would include the parts with
additional trainings to the staff and improving the already existing technologies.
30
1) The guest-reception relationship
2) Applications in the room based on the existing devises, e.x. television sets
3) Room maintenance improvement
The following points are represented in the order of the easiest to introduced
(number one) to the most difficult to introduce (number three).
The choice of these particular trends is base on mostly juridical analysis of the
implementation process and possibility. What is more, the budgeting and economic situation is
analyzed.
2.1.3. Research framework design
Based on the existing standards it is the author transform the information into the
cross functional diagram (Figure 3)
Figure 3
On figure 3 the author presents the basic operation procedure in the hotel. this system
may differ with details, however it is quite the same in all hotels in Russia. The guest send a
request to the hotel for accommodation. The guest mat send the request directly or make the
request through a third party. After that the guest ought to receive a confirmation of the booking.
On the arrival date the reception department needs to prepare to accommodate the
guest. This includes cleaning the room according to the standards, checking the reservation,
fulfilling any special requests.
31
During the actual arrival, the guest needs to submit the passport, for international
guests this also includes visa and the migration card. The guest needs to sign the registration
card, that is the legal agreement between parties. After that payment or preauthorization of the
accommodation and extra services is submitted. In the end of this process the guest receives the
keys to the room. The reception department checks in the guest and the bill of the room opens.
During the guests stay several processes occur. Basically, the guest makes several
different requests for reception and different departments of the hotel fulfill those requests. The
AS-IS model shows that the coordination in the organization is quite complicated and has a lot
of small extra procedures to do the process. Those requests may be connected with different
defects in the room or a service.
In the end all of those requests are added to the room bill. To the end of the stay the
guest requests a check out and pays for the bill. After that the guest leaves the hotel.
The author provides the diagram that shows which parts of the existing processes are influence if the new
trends
discussed
before
are
introduced.
(Figure
4)
Figure 4
32
Firstly, with the new standards of the check-in procedure, the guest will be treated
differently from the moment one enters the premises. Secondly, with the updated room
equipment, less issues will occur during the stay of the guest and less complaints will be
received. The updated system for request procedures will reduce the estimation for service time
and will give more time for the departments for other job responsibilities.
After the analysis of the influence is made, the author designs the TO-BE model of
the implementation of the new standards. This is a framework for implementation of the new
standard with innovative global trends integration. This model will be later planned to be
applied in the cases that are studied and specific recommendations will be provided to
implement this framework. (Figure 5)
Figure 5
33
2.2 Research methods
The following thesis was written based on the analysis of the case company behavior
and the analysis of their internal business processes. Continuous application of the qualitative
research method provides information on the examined companies and the detailed analysis of
the case company. The author chose the mixed qualitative method that consisted of the
interviews conducted in the respondent companies and the personal observations that helped the
author to support the facts extracted from the interview or disprove them. That way the
reliability of the data collected increases.
Due to the low number of case companies in St.-Petersburg a qualitative method for
research was chosen. This method provides the author the opportunity to get as detailed
information on the current situation as possible. What is more, it gives the author the
opportunity to compare the results in a structured way and create a full picture of the check-list
applicability in the field. Multiple case study approach is chosen for the research. The criteria
for the case hotel companies chosen is the rating of the hotel. Only hotels with high rating were
chosen. From the one hand, the rating of the official star rating was used and 5 star hotels were
chosen, due to the assumption that this rating implies the presence of high quality of service and
they should be the first to be obligated to deliver it. From the other hand, independent rating
based on the netnographic research was used - 7 companies that are evaluated as best at
delivering the service. It would be significant for the research to assess the possibility of the
framework adoption.
2.2.1 Interviews
The following thesis basic assumption is that apart from the main business process
management calculations for profit maximization, employees intentions and opinions must be
considered. The author suggests that the main start for the research needs to be the semistructured interview for the staff of the company, so that when the observation stage begins, the
author has the data to compare it with the personal opinion on the case.
The first block of questions needed to be marked with the basic information about
the interviewee. Such things as the department, work experience and position in the company
need to be asked. This is questioned to be aware of the level of the persons’ involvement in the
process management in the company and the belonging to the studies department.
34
The second block of questions was dedicated to the level of the awareness of the
problem. The author asked the interviewees if in their opinion the problem of high number of
errors and lack of development in the processes and if miscommunication exists.
The third block included the questions about the interviewees’ awareness of the new
standards in the field and their applicability on their company. The author asked if these
standards were in the plan of being used in their company in the future.
Among the companies questioned, all of them were eager to participate in the
process and so the author received a 100% response rate. As for the type of employees that were
questioned, middle management sector was aimed to check the awareness level of the company
and the employees and to get a more detailed and in-depth view of the business processes inside
the companies.
2.2.2 Observations
The second part of the qualitative research was the observations of the business
processes done by the author. This part of the research took 4 weeks in the case company, when
the generated plan of the solution was checked on the case company and applied.
The observations in the field were done together in parallel with the interview on
sight. The author used the existing interview questioned plan to conduct the interviews which
was supported by the previously generated check-list for observations interrelation.
While conducting observations on sight the author paid attention to the business
processes inside the companies and how they influenced the relationships between the
employees and the guests, including the personal experience. The author compared the
responses of the interviewees and the actual presence of the features that were mentioned in the
check-list, which was generated earlier in the research.
Such type of the research method is applicable in the case, because in the companies
it is most likely that the interview responses are different from the actual facts and the current
situation. The entire research is based on the questions of how the quality may be improved in
the hospitality sector in St.-Petersburg and to answer this question, first the current situation data
needs to be collected in the corresponding way.
2.2.3 Secondary data
35
To understand the behavior of the companies that were taken for case studies, the
author collected secondary data. This was information about the companies’ economic activities,
their brand background and their abilities to implement the innovative trends in their basic
operations.
It was also important to collect data on the hotels background and history to
understand their attitude to their traditions, flexibility and willingness to adopt to new operations
planning.
2.3 Research results
2.3.1 Field interviews
After the check-list was generated, the author created the plan for field interviews
with the managers and followed it accordingly. The list of approximate questions is enclosed in
the Appendix 2. The questions were not asked in any particular order and were mainly followed
by the respondents’ introduction into the hotels services. All in all there were 7 hotels visited
for interviews.
The first block of questions was asked after the premises of the hotel were entered
and the author had a chance to meet with the manager at the hotel.
1) What is your position in the hotel? (in the hierarchical aspect)
All of the information was provided by hotel administrators and the guest-relations
managers. The information was sufficient for the research and provided the required data for the
companies’ awareness analysis. All in all, 3 out of 7 hotels had their guest relation manager
providing the information on services in the hotel.
2) What is the basic procedure of the check-in of the guest?
All of the 5 star hotels have the procedure of check-in. The guest needs to provide
the passport, guarantee of the accommodation payment and the extra services payment in the
hotel. A registration card is sighed which is basically the legal agreement between the service
provider and the customer.
3) Is it possible to check-in the guest without approaching the reception desk?
36
The guests need to come to the reception desk to proceed with check-in. Only in one
hotel, w, the author was informed that the check-in can be done without approaching the
reception desk by providing all the information in advance. However, this does not correlate
with the basic aim of the research to determine the usage of new technologies in the 5 star
hotels.
4) What application can the hotel offer to improve the services at the hotel?
None of the hotels could offer any applications to improve the service process except
for the above mentioned application which is basically the reproduction of the website which is
adapted to the phone application.
5) What application can the hotel offer to speed up the services delivery or the
request procedure at the hotel?
Unfortunately, none of the hotels had any applications that could speed up the
process of the check in, except for the website or the application that could help the guest to
make a reservation in advance before arriving at the hotel.
The next block of questions was dedicated to the room, its premises, its applications,
devises and maintenance.
6) How is it possible to adjust the temperature in the room?
Most of the hotels had the same system of the temperature adjustment. It is easy to
use and the managers claimed that the temperature may stay the same as the guest has adjusted it
to.
One hotel administrator actually admitted that sometimes the conditioning is not
working properly and it not easy to adapt to the temperature outside.
7) How is it possible to adjust the lights in the room?
Most of the hotels, 6 out of 7, had the same principal of the main switcher of the
lights next to the bed. The managers claimed that it is easy to use the switcher and it is switching
off all the lights of the room.
8) Is it necessary to use the key in the room to keep the electricity working?
37
In most of the hotels, 5 out of 7, it is not necessary to use the key to keep all the
electricity working in the room.
9) Is it possible to get the plug adaptors in the room?
Most of the hotels, 5 out of 7, had the necessary adaptors in the rooms.
2 out of 7 hotels had the speakers for the iPhone.
10)
What kind of applications can be used in the room to order services except
the phone?
This question was dedicated to the applications in the room that could be used to
order the room service.
Only one hotel had the mobile application to order the room service food, make
housekeeping requests, order concierge services, etc.
Three of the 7 hotels had the application on the TV to order room service food, make
housekeeping requests, order concierge services, etc.
One hotel also claimed that they had a WhatsApp application where the guests can
contact 24/7 the hotel from any location in the world.
2.3.2 Observations of the business processes in the case companies
As already mentioned by the author, the interviews were supported by the
observations, to increase the objectivity of the data.
All of the opinions of the managers were evaluated. The author concludes that the
answers to the first block of questions contains reliable data and is supported by the secondary
data that was gathered in the literature review.
The answers to the second block of questions might be relatively objective, due to
the desire of the managers to maintain the brand image of the company. Here are the
observations of the author in relation to the check-list created in the literature review.
1. The guest-reception relationship
38
As the interview results show the guest indeed needs to approach the reception desk
to deal with any of the issues that come up at the lobby or during the check-in.
Added to the interview, the author wants to emphasize the idea of the reception desk
structure. As mentioned on the literature review, small separate reception stations are considered
to be more client-oriented. 2 out of 7 hotels had the reception desk divided into small stations.
2. Room maintenance improvement
Added to the interview results, the author does not find the light-conditioning
maintenance in the room reliable except for 1 hotel. However, in every hotel according to the
netnographic analysis the room maintenance is showing failures.
3. Applications in the room for orders
The interview results in this section were immediately checked by the author and
thus the answers to these questions can be considered reliable.
3 Empirical findings on business process management in luxury hotels
3.1 Case descriptions
3.1.1 Four Seasons Hotel
The four Season Lion Palace hotel is considered the best hotel in St-Petersburg. It is
the five-star hotel that has the best ratings based on the customer feedback. Consequently, based
on several additional factors such as location, brand image, variety of services, it has the highest
price on the market and it is one of the hotels in that has one of the closest stage of designed by
the author framework implementation.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
1. The guest-reception relationship
Unlike the next two trends this trend of reformulating the guest-reception
relationship is not that much introduced in this case company. according to the previous
standards the guest is greeted at the reception desk, no guest-employee interaction is noted.
39
2. Room maintenance improvement
As for the room maintenance improvement, the rooms have standard technical
services. However, no central panel for light, temperature and curtains is introduced. Based on
the authors observations, the current system is not considered up-to-date.
3. Applications in the room for orders
Due to the fact that the hotel is a part of a global brand, this case company has the
prerequisites to having the application for order that is installed in the room devices. What is
more, the company has, and promotes a lot the application that they have for phones and tablets.
Things to be improved
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be partly applied to the current case company. The guest-reception relationship needs to
be influenced from the cultural organization point of view. What is more, the company could
introduce the trend of the control panels in the rooms to secure the brand image and the
price/quality ration of their services.
3.1.2 Hermitage Hotel
The Official State Hermitage Hotel is a part of the closed joint-stock company
“International Baltic Investment Company”. The Hotel itself is a unique project, since it is the
only merge of a hotel and a museum. There are around 150 employees in the hotel. The
Hermitage museum is a complex set of buildings. During the summer of 2013, the building of
the Official State hermitage Hotel has joined it.
It is essential to mention that when the hotel appeared on the market, it managed to
make a lot of guests prefer exactly this hotel to all the others and all the other companies’
market share dropped significantly. In 2015 the Official State Hermitage Hotel managed to win
in two nominees in the World Luxury Hotels: the best hotel and the best design.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
40
1. The guest-reception relationship
Unlike the next two trends this trend of reformulating the guest-reception
relationship is not that much introduced in this case company. According to the previous
standards the guest is greeted at the reception desk, no guest-employee interaction is noted.
2. Room maintenance improvement
As for the room maintenance improvement, the hotel has a up-to-date system with a
centralized control panel of lights, curtains and temperature. Sometimes there are cases of the
technical errors that are not possible to be fixed without the presence of specialist.
3. Applications in the room for orders
Due to the fact that the hotel is an independent brand, this case company has the
prerequisites to having the application for order that is installed in the room devices. What is
more, the company has, and promotes a lot the application that they have for phones and tablets.
Things to be improved
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be partly applied to the current case company. The guest-reception relationship needs to
be influenced from the cultural organization point of view. What is more, the current system that
is installed needs to be monitored more carefully and current operational procedures for
monitoring need to be improved.
3.1.3 Grand hotel Emerald Europe
Grand Hotel Europe is a part of the world brand chain of hotels and thus has a strict
list of standards to be used. What is more, it is based in a historic building which was redesigned
with rooms introduction in 1930s. These too facts actually reduces flexibility. The last redesign
of the rooms was made in 2005-2008, the time before economic crisis and the time when the
new trends in services began to evolve.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
1. The guest-reception relationship
41
The guest-reception relationship is operated at a high level, the employees are well
trained. The hotel has a distinctive system for servicing the guests and emphasize the role of the
quest relationship activities.
2. Room maintenance improvement
As for the room maintenance improvement, the rooms have standard technical
services. However, no central panel for light, temperature and curtains is introduced. Based on
the authors’ observations, the current system is not considered up-to-date.
3. Applications in the room for orders
After the analysis of the data collected the author received negative results in this
section.
Things to be improved
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be partly applied to the current case company. The operations in the company need to be
changed drastically and new trends need to be implemented from the technical point of view.
3.1.4 Astoria
Astoria Hotel is a part of the world brand chain of hotels and thus has a strict list of
standards to be used. What is more, it is based in a historic building.. These too facts actually
reduces flexibility.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
4. The guest-reception relationship
The guest-reception relationship is operated well but not perfectly. The hotel has a
distinctive system for servicing the guests and emphasize the role of the quest relationship
activities.
5. Room maintenance improvement
As for the room maintenance improvement, the rooms have standard technical
services. However, no central panel for light, temperature and curtains is introduced. Based on
the authors’ observations, the current system is not considered up-to-date.
42
6. Applications in the room for orders
After the analysis of the data collected the author received negative results in this
section.
Things to be improved
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be partly applied to the current case company. The operations in the company need to be
changed drastically and new trends need to be implemented from the technical point of view.
3.1.5 Domina
Domina hotel belongs to an Italian chain of hotels. It is located in the city center and
has 109 rooms. It is relatively small hotel that has five star accreditation. Compared to other
five star hotels in St-Petersburg, it is not the not impressive one, however has nice reviews due
to well-done service. Still, the level of the new hospitality trends implementation is not that
high.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
7. The guest-reception relationship
The guest-reception relationship is operated well but not perfectly. The hotel has a
closed reception desk although on the website they claim that the atmosphere at the hotel is
barrier-free. The estimation time for service at the reception desk is quite long.
8. Room maintenance improvement
As for the room maintenance improvement, the rooms have standard technical
services. However, no central panel for light, temperature and curtains is introduced. Based on
the authors’ observations, the current system is not considered up-to-date. There were some
devices; however, the hotel staff could not explain what they were for.
9. Applications in the room for orders
After the analysis of the data collected the author received negative results in this
section.
Things to be improved
43
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be fully applied to the current case company. The operations in the company need to be
changed drastically and new trends need to be implemented from the technical point of view.
3.1.6 W
The W hotel is considered as a well-designed hotel in St-Petersburg. The design is
aimed at a high-tech concept and exclusive designer decisions. This concept helps the hotel to
emphasize the up-to-date services.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
4. The guest-reception relationship
As well as the next two trends this trend of reformulating the guest-reception
relationship is not that much introduced in this case company. According to the previous
standards the guest is greeted at the reception desk, no guest-employee interaction is noted.
5. Room maintenance improvement
As for the room maintenance improvement, the rooms have standard technical
services. However, no central panel for light, temperature and curtains is introduced. Based on
the authors observations, the current system is not considered up-to-date.
6. Applications in the room for orders
The company has a concept for 24-7 reachable staff and promotes a WatsApp
application or guest-service interactions; however no applications for phones or other devices
are introduced.
Things to be improved
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be partly applied to the current case company. The guest-reception relationship needs to
be influenced from the cultural organization point of view. What is more, the company could
introduce the trend of the control panels in the rooms to secure the brand image and the
price/quality ration of their services.
44
3.1.7 Taleon
Taleon hotel is situated in the city center on the main street of St-Petersburg. It has
all in all 120 rooms and a huge spa area with a swimming pool. The building used to be a palace
and the interiors are superb. The historic design of the hotel is not supported with any up-to date
applications in the room. The technical devices that create employee-guest communication look
outdated.
Current state of the framework application
The current state of the framework implementation is further describes based on the
three trends that were revealed previously in the research that influence the existing standards.
7. The guest-reception relationship
The hotel has a huge lobby and the guests might struggle to find the reception desk.
No assistance is offered when the guest is entering the hotel. The reception desk is quite massive
and creates a lot of distance between the employee and the guest.
8. Room maintenance improvement
There are no applications installed for guest-reception connection, however there are some
indicators near the door. It was not clear though, if that was set up by the reception or by the
guest. The devises that were present in the room seemed outdated.
9. Applications in the room for orders
Unfortunately, there were no special applications in the rooms that could be used to perform
requests. However, there was some basic information showed on the starting page of the TV.
Things to be improved
Based on the current situation analysis, the author revealed that the framework
should be fully applied to the current case company. The guest-reception relationship needs to
be influenced from the cultural organization point of view. What is more, the company could
introduce the trend of the control panels in the rooms to secure the brand image and the
price/quality ration of their services.
45
3.2 Cross case analysis of current innovative trends implementation in Russian hotel industry
Based on the cases review the author concludes the following similarities in the level
of hotels’ trends innovations implementation.
Firstly, the hotels have the same system of guest-employee relationship and it is quite
distanced. Most of the hotels have a massive reception desk and most of the employees “hide”
behind this desk. Almost none of the communication is detected out of the reception desk. If a
queue appears, this reflects negatively on the guest-reception relationship. This is considered as
an old-fashioned way of treating the guest and reason for such behavior is based on the absence
of the managements’ awareness of the issue as well as the old-fashioned corporate culture of
most of the hotels. Even if the hotel is a part of an international brand chain, which promotes
their corporate culture, still the employees’ perception is not influenced.
Secondly, most of the hotels have the basic number of service that the five star hotels
require for accreditation. It very rare to find a hotel that goes beyond this standards and that
creates a negative image for the guests, both international and local. The check-in process is
mostly slow and requires a lot of paperwork. There is not enough staff in the hotels to give a lot
of attention to the guests. Sometimes there are guest-relation managers present; however, they
are not always available.
What is more, the rooms are not well-equipped. Again, the hotels are doing the
minimum that is required with the standards and nothing additional. Of course there are some
exceptions that would be mentioned later, but the majority of the hotels provide the basic
amenities and outdated devices in the rooms. Most of the hotels do not use the devices in the
room with full potential and even if there is some technical support for maintenance, they are
not functioning well and have old fashioned design.
In addition, the organization of business processes is old-fashioned. This is a very
colorful example of the issue that was presented previously in this thesis concerning the barriers
of innovation introduction in the hospitality industry. It is quite resistant to changes and Russian
hotels do not seem to follow the world updates.
Some of the hotels, though, partly have shown progress in the business process
management. In 2 hotels there was a clear implementation of almost all of the trends mentioned
46
in the list by the author. This influenced positively on the KPIs for service quality of the hotels.
Still, the framework was not fully implemented.
There are different levels of quality levels throughout the hotels. There were cases
where there are no new trends implemented in the hotel and none of the employees were aware
of the issue. Some of the hotels have partly implemented the framework, however did not
manage it well. Such issues as employees’ awareness and corporate culture change were still
present.
3.3 Aspects of the change management plan
Based on the case studies analysis the following change plan of recommendations is
generated, for each parts of the framework implementation.
The guest-reception relationship
Preparation
Customer feedback evaluation
Firstly, it is important to understand the customers of the hotel and to confirm that
this is really an issue and the customers have a need in this special attention. Some of the guests
simply want to check in and not to interact with any of the staff and market research is needed to
determine the percentage of such guests in a particular hotel. If there is a lack in special
attention from staff for guests, the company needs to know how much does it affect the hotel
and what KPIs are affected.
Current situation evaluation
This includes the study of the current life of the hotel, what organization do they
already have. The management gets to know the level of the employees’ readiness to switch to
new plan and their willingness. What is more, it is important to evaluate to which extent the
potential changes are already implemented and perhaps the current operation plan just needs to
be adjusted.
Training project
47
The training project includes preparation of the material and the way of introducing
the topic. It is necessary to know how much time the transition to new changes in culture will
take and how to organize these changes. What is more, the management needs to know what
tools to use when training new employees and how to affect their behavior, since this particular
change is connected more with the cultural aspect of the operation, than with a technological
part.
Corporate culture evaluation
It is essential to assess the corporate culture of the organization to understand how
radical the changes need to be and predict the level of the resistance to the changes in the future.
Decrease strength of old attitudes
The employees need to be ready for this change and be warned about the new way of
managing operations. The employees could be inform that the new process would make the
guest-employee interaction that way much easier and positively affect the image of the hotel and
thus reduce complaint and stress at work.
Change implementation
Amendments to corporate culture communication
In addition to the old training and new standards the employees need to be convinced
that the new way of the operations is the only right way. It is quite difficult to achieve. One of
the major parts could be leading by an example, where potential leaders such as supervisors and
managers actually show that such new way of communicating with guests is better for the
company and for the guest.
Personal assessment of employees
In parallel with training, it is important to monitor the employees while they are
implementing the new plan, since it will be necessary for further actions.
Concrete trainings aimed to modification of processes
The management needs to implement trainings to explain the new ways of operation
in the hotel and to emphasize the reasons why the hotel is going through these changes. What is
48
more, the trainings should contain not only the theoretical part of the new standards
introduction, but in addition the practical part where the employees learn how to implement the
new standards.
Results Evaluation
Feedback from customers evaluation
After the new framework was implemented it is important to evaluate how it affected
the customers. It is necessary to get the feedback from the frequent guests to know if they have
noticed the change and if it affected them positively or negative. Of course it should not be
direct questions; however, observations need to take place. What is more, the new customer
retention rate needs to be evaluated as one of the most important KPI.
Personal assessment of employees
In addition to other activities in this part of the change implementation, it is
important to control the standard quality and to assess each employee in following the new
directions. It is important for future steps of the implementation plan and for avoiding any
mistakes.
KPIs evaluation
KPIs evaluation is necessary for assessing the effect of the change on the
organization and for future strategies implementations.
Stabilization of new operating procedure
One of the most important parts of the change plan is the stabilization of the new
standards and the operation system. This is necessary to do if the change is successful, so that it
is permanent and the improvements in quality are stable.
Room maintenance improvement
Preparation
Budget planning
49
New trends implementation regarding the room maintenance requires a lot of
investment from the company and it is important to asses when to spend the budget on this
upgrades and when to install them. This is important to plan since this process does not allow
the hotel to sell its rooms during the installation period.
Test of the existing equipment
This is a part of the implementation plan where hotels asses the equipment that they
already have and decide whether it should be changed or completely replaced.
Headquarters consulting
This part of the implementation plan is dedicated to hotels that operate as a part of an
international hotel brand chain and need to confirm their actions with headquarters of the
company.
Plan for the readiness of the premises
Since this particular change is connected with the technological and mechanical
changes in the rooms and the building (ventilation, electricity, maintenance) it is essential to
assess the existing equipment and assess the risks. Depending on the age of the building the
installation process period may differ as well as replacement of old devices.
Change implementation
Purchase of the software & equipment
This part of the change plan is dedicated to the purchase of the equipment. At this
stage the most important action is to choose the right supplier in legal economic and level of the
applicability terms.
Installation
At this part of the implementation plan it is important to monitor the installation, to
control the process and to assess if the deadlines are net. What is more, it is always difficult to
perform construction at the hotel, since it is operating 24/7.
Trainings
50
Apart from installing the equipment it is relevant to train the employees how to use
this new equipment, as it adds value to it. The absence of trainings might add complaints from
the guests and not reduce the number of them.
Results Evaluation
Feedback from employees
After the change is implemented it is significant to assess what do the employees
think about this change and if they agree that this change is needed and working well. This will
help to find bottlenecks in the process and assess the resistance to change.
Feedback from customers
What is more, the hotel needs to check how the guests react to this new equipment in
the room and how does it affect their perception of the price/quality relation. This would affect
the evaluation in such KPIs improvement as level of guest satisfaction, number of complaints
for room equipment, customer retention rate, rating against competitors.
Monitoring by middle management
This huge step in the organization step needs to be controlled by monitoring the
details of the process. The managers need to assess the possible reasons for any bottlenecks and
fix any small issues connected with this new trend implementation.
Evaluating resistance
Every change process has some percentage of resistance from the employees and it is
necessary to evaluate this percentage for further actions. This could be connected with the
culture of the organization, the technical incompatibility of the new equipment or absence in
demand for this new trend.
Check for bottlenecks
As stated in the previous milestones in the change plan, it is necessary to monitor the
processes in details and create new plan for the equipment use to adjust the application process.
This is motivated by the fact that adjusting to change is a continuous process and requires
constant improvement.
51
Applications in the room for orders
Preparation
Budget planning
New trends implementation regarding the applications installation requires a lot of
investment from the company and it is important to asses when to spend the budget on this new
software and when to install it. This is important to plan since this process does not allow the
hotel to sell its rooms during the installation period.
Market research
Preliminary market research is influential to study the demand of this service at the
hotels, to evaluate the usage of these standards at the competitors’ hotels and to assess which
equipment would be applicable and efficient in this matter.
Headquarters consulting
This part of the implementation plan is dedicated to hotels that operate as a part of an
international hotel brand chain and need to confirm their actions with headquarters of the
company.
Check for existing equipment
The software that needs to be installed in order to improve the business processes has
to be able to align with the current devices at the hotel and the software that they already have,
including the server. Otherwise, this change would include more expenses and affect the budget
of the company.
Change implementation
Purchase of the software & equipment
This part of the change plan is dedicated to the purchase of the software. At this
stage the most important action is to choose the right supplier in legal economic and level of the
applicability terms.
Installation
52
At this part of the implementation plan it is important to monitor the installation, to
control the process and to assess if the deadlines are net.
Trainings
Apart from installing the equipment it is relevant to train the employees how to use
this new equipment, as it adds value to it. The absence of trainings might add complaints from
the guests and not reduce the number of them.
Results Evaluation
Feedback from employees
After the change is implemented it is significant to assess what do the employees
think about this change and if they agree that this change is needed and working well. This will
help to find bottlenecks in the process and assess the resistance to change.
Feedback from customers
What is more, the hotel needs to check how the guests react to this new equipment in
the room and how does it affect their perception of the price/quality relation. This would affect
the evaluation in such KPIs improvement as level of guest satisfaction, number of complaints
for room equipment, customer retention rate, rating against competitors.
Monitoring by middle management
This huge step in the organization step needs to be controlled by monitoring the
details of the process. The managers need to assess the possible reasons for any bottlenecks and
fix any small issues connected with this new trend implementation.
Evaluating resistance
Every change process has some percentage of resistance from the employees and it is
necessary to evaluate this percentage for further actions. This could be connected with the
culture of the organization, the technical incompatibility of the new equipment or absence in
demand for this new trend.
Check for bottlenecks
53
As stated in the previous milestones in the change plan, it is necessary to monitor the
processes in details and create new plan for the equipment use to adjust the application process.
This is motivated by the fact that adjusting to change is a continuous process and requires
constant improvement.
3.4 Analysis of improvements effect and estimated results after framework implementation
During the research the author emphasized the usage of different standards in the
hospitality industry. Such aspects of the standards that were mentioned in point 1.4 Standards in
hospitality as general service standards, guest relations standards, service standards for prearrival and guest arrival, service standards for concierge, preventive maintenance and quality
control standards, room service and room turndown service in addition to housekeeping and
maintenance requests standards were discussed. Lack of the usage of the innovative trends was
described in subchapter 3.1 Case descriptions. As a result of further research such trends were
proven to be applicable in Russian hotel industry: improved greetings of the guests (out of the
desk communication), applications for orders usable by guest, new updated equipment in the
room for basic controls such as Light/Conditioning/Keys/Plug extensions. The implementation
of the new trends shows significant improvements in the current KPIs levels.
The most important KPIs chosen for the research were described in subchapter 1.4
Standards. Such KPIs connected with quest relations operations were improved as the level of
guest satisfaction, number of complaints for check-in procedure, customer retention rate,
estimation time of service.
All in all upgrade of the existing equipment at the hotel and the software for quests'
and hotel usage affected positive such KPIs as accuracy in bill formation, ratings against
competitors, profit maximization rate. What is more, training score as a KPI was monitored for
better implementation of the framework.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the author presents once again summarized answers to research
questions. The following conclusions were formed as a result of the authors' research and are
based on a complex study of the topic.
54
As stated in the first chapter of the thesis, the first research question was dedicated to
the way the key business processes are interrelated in luxury hotel industry. The author studied
the current standards that are used in the hotels and based on that described the process using a
visual aid. The standards are described in subchapter 1.4 Standards in hospitality.
The second question was about the innovative trends in the industry and how they
influence the current business processes in the hotels. Based on the chapter 2.1 Research
framework, the author conducted a research on the latest trends that influence positively on the
KPIs on the hotels and showed how they would affect the current system inside the hotels.
Finally, the author stated the third question of how to implement those trends in the
current business process system. The author designed a framework that describes how the new
system would be modified after the new trends are implemented and studied the applicability on
the case companies. The change management plan in presented in the subchapter of the
empirical findings 3.3 Aspects of the change management plan.
55
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Appendixes
Appendix 1 (Najda-Janoszka, M., Kopera, S. 2014)
59
Appendix 2 Interview questions
In the beginning at the premises:
1) What is your position in the hotel? (in the hierarchical aspect)
2) What is the basic procedure of the check-in of the guest?
3) Is it possible to check-in the guest without approaching the reception desk?
4) What application can the hotel offer to improve the services at the hotel?
5) What application can the hotel offer to speed up the services delivery or the
request procedure at the hotel?
In the room:
6) How is it possible to adjust the temperature in the room?
7) How is it possible to adjust the lights in the room?
8) Is it necessary to use the key in the room to keep the electricity working?
9) Is it possible to get the plug adaptors in the room?
10)
What kind of applications can be used in the room to order services except
11)
What kind of gadgets could be delivered in the room to be used?
the phone?
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