Improving Breakfast Guest Satisfaction Tourism Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

In this chapter the subject of this assignment will be introduced. An orientation of the problem can be found. This chapter will outline the main problem of this report, namely the satisfaction of breakfast guests and the breakfast operations in The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. After a description After exploring the subject and the company of this case study the problem is stated together with the research questions.

1.2 Problem orientation

The hotel subject to this research is The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. This hotel is situated in the center of the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam. It is situated close to the central station of Amsterdam and all major tourist attractions. The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel has 8 floors and one extra wing of 3 floors with 402 guest rooms of which 4 junior suites and 2 royal suites.

The Renaissance Hotel is part of the Renaissance Brand of the hotel chain Marriott International. MI has several different brands (Appendix 1). According to Renaissance, guests are Discoverers. This means either leisure or business travelers whose mission is to "take in all in". These guests are considered to be people who travel frequently with a sophisticated taste an appreciate style, decor, and interesting beverage and food.

The three core values of the Renaissance brand are: Intriguing, Indigenous and Independent. These three core values are also taken into consideration with the design of the hotel which can be described as 'boutique'. Boutique hotels differ in regular or mass hotels because of their unique design and personalized services, opposed to big chain hotels with all the same design and services.

One of the indigenous aspects of the hotel is the Koepel Church, a big meeting hall in a dome church with a spectacular outlook. The total meeting facilities are occupy 4.922 square meters. These consist out of 11 meeting rooms of different sizes and the Koepel Church.

Besides meeting facilities, the hotel also has several F&B outlets. These are "2B Lounge Bar" a lounge bar serving cocktails and finger food, but also provides a full-menu when asked for. Besides that the 2B Bar can be used for more casual business meetings or receptions, up to 200 people. The Koepelcafe is a typical Dutch Brown café. The food served here is typical Dutch bar food. In the summertime there is a terrace outside overlooking the beautiful crooked houses of the Kattengat and the Koepel Church. In-Room Dining is the room service outlet of the hotel, offering a full menu 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At last the hotel has a restaurant, Restaurant 'Scossa'. The concept of the restaurant is "Contemporary, Casual and Cool" and offers Mediterranean inspired dishes from an open kitchen, 6 nights a week. Restaurant Scossa is also used as breakfast restaurant of the hotel.

This research focuses on the breakfast service in restaurant Scossa. In a hotel, dinner is often promoted on the website, throughout the hotel and through other channels. The hotel invests on employees that have enough experience, are known to deliver good service and are representative. This is a different case in breakfast service. In the RAH employees from different departments ended up in breakfast service, because they were not functioning well in their first position. Where for dinner new menus and promotions are created every couple of months, breakfast is basically always the same. The average age of the employees working in breakfast is 40+ and they have been doing the same work for a long time. Such a work environment can result in demotivated employees if nobody engages them in learning new skills or encourages them to change there work routines. Although this work environment, the employees are expected to deliver service up to the standards of MI. MI has a global vision, mission, goals and core values (discussed in chapter 3 of this report). Each single hotel has to perform conform these core values and service standards have to be reached. But what is actually done to motivate this people to do so? Where other employees get trained in several aspects of their job, breakfast employees never get training. They are expected to know already what they have to do, and often the only time they hear about their performance is when something is not going the way it is supposed to.

On the moment the research of this assignment started the guest satisfaction is 62.5%, too low compared to the brand standard (72%) and just under the RAH goal (62.7%) for breakfast(appendices 2-3)In this assignment it will be researched if guest satisfaction can be improved by training, motivating and engaging the employees.

Breakfast service and dinner service should be up to the same standards, guests leave a hotel mostly after having breakfast, not after having dinner. If the breakfast experience is really bad, guests will forget the good dinner they had and the overall food and beverage experience will be downgraded.

1.3 Problem statement and research questions

The problem statement is derived from the above described problem in the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel.

"Improving breakfast guest satisfaction by improving employee satisfaction"

A case study in the Renaissance Amsterdam hotel

The following questions are designed to answer this problem statement:

1. What is the hotels' current position?

2. What is guest satisfaction?

3. What is employee satisfaction?

4. How is the breakfast service currently operated?

5. How to motivate and train the employees of the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel?

6. What is the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction?

1.4 Overview

The next chapter will elaborate on the methodology of this research. It will give a theoretical overview of different research methods and instruments. Furthermore all research questions will be discussed together with the research method and instrument chosen for this question. At the end of this chapter there will be an overview of all research questions, methods and instruments applied and there will be explained why certain choices have been made. Once all research methods and instruments are decided on, the actual research can be done.

Chapter 2: Methodology

2.1 Preview

In this chapter the methodology of the research will be discussed. A theoretical overview over different research methods and instruments will be given and for every research question it will be discussed what method and instrument will be used in order to get the best answer to the question. And the end of this chapter an overview can be found of the different research questions and the different methods and instruments.

2.2 Research methods and instruments

2.2.1 Research Methods

When designing a research, it is very important to consider the different research methods in order to get all the information relevant to the research. In this paragraph it is described wich research methods can be used and when these methods are applicable. After discussing these methods a decision will be made which method is usefull for this assignment.

Qualitative research vs. Quantitative research

When conducting a research, a distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is made.

"Quality is the essential character or nature of something; quantity is the amount. Quality is the what; quantity is the how much. Qualitative refers to the meaning, the definition or analogy or model or metaphor characterizing something, while quantitative assumes the meaning and refers to a measure of it" (Steinbeck, 1941)

Qualitative research is a type of research that provides information about the "human" side of a subject. The data of a qualitative research will reflect behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions and relationships of people. Qualitative research is a good type of research to use when researching the behavior, perspectives or feelings of a small population. (Denzin NK, 2001)

Qualitative research methods are for example; in - depth interviews used for collecting more personal information, or focus groups where a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a certain subject, mostly questions are asked in an interactive group setting.

Quantitative research is a research technique that is used to gather quantitative data, information dealing with statistics and numbers, everything that is measurable. Statistics, tables and graphs are methods to present this type of information. The most common quantitative research method is a survey questionnaire done by a large population (over 100).

The main difference between qualitative and quantitative research is that the outcome of a qualitative research is more reliable on the skills of the researcher, interview skills and observations skills for example are very important. On the other hand the outcome of a quantitative research is more reliable on the strength of the research instrument. (Clark M, 1998) A well set-up survey with the right questions is really important in order to get a good overview of the population. Furthermore quantitative surveys use pre-coded closed questions. If a research is done to "how much…" or how often…" those questions are perfect, but, when a researcher wants to know more about for example how people feel about a certain topic a qualitative research would be more appropriate. Although people can scale their negative feeling towards the working atmosphere between 0 and 5, with 5 the most negative, you never know exactly how much this negative feeling really is. Amongst a lot of researchers it is discussed what would be the best type of research. But, the type of research should always be driven from the type of subject and therefore be the most applicable to that subject. (Andrew Sanchez, 2006)

Into addition to this separation between qualitative and quantitative research methods, there is also a distinction between desk research and field research. Desk research is a research of information already gathered for other purposes that the current research. This information or data are also called "Secondary Data". The main purposes of desk research are to gain information about the company, hotel, subject of the research, the competitors, economic trends, market trends and demographic trends. All already produced information is used to gain more information about the research topic. Desk research is often done throughout the research and therefore can also help to do a proper field research. A field research is done by direct contact with the researcher and the subject of research. The information derived from this research can't be found by doing desk research. The data gathered by this research is called "Primary Data" these are data that has been only gathered for the purpose of the specific research. Research I

2.2.4 Research Instruments

Research instruments are data collection tools helping the researcher to answer the research question. Different research instruments can be used to answer the same research question. Different research methods request different research instruments. In this paragraph different instruments are discussed and the instruments useful for this research will be chosen

In-Depth interview

This instrument is a qualitative instrument and can also be called a personal interview. This is a two way conversation initiated by a researcher to obtain information from a respondent. The greatest advantage is the depth of information and detail that can be secured. It far exceeds the information secured from telephone and self-administered studies, mails surveys or computer. The interviewer can also do more things to improve the quality of the information received than with another method(Cooper, 1998). The interviewer does have more control, they can see the behavior of the respondent, if the person is cynical, emotional or angry about a certain subject. A disadvantage is that personal interviews are time consuming. If a high amount of respondents is needed, a lot of interviews have to be done. Besides that, people can be reluctant to talk with strangers (if the interviewer is a stranger) or on the other hand doesn't want to give too much personal information or show feelings if the interviewer is known to the respondent.

Focus groups

A focus group is a panel of people led by a moderator who meet for 90 minutes to 2 hours. The facilitator or moderator uses group dynamics principles to focus or guide the group in an exchange of ideas, feelings, and experiences on a specific topic. Focus groups can be used to generate and evaluate ideas or assessment of needs (Cooper, 1998). The advantages of focus groups are that they provide a manager or researcher a quick grasp of the core issues of a topic or problem. Participants can respond in their own words and they can react to each others responses what can lead to interesting discussions about the subject. A disadvantage is that there is a limited sampling accuracy and to get a better overview quantitative instrument will be needed.

Case studies

Case studies place more emphasis on a full contextual analysis of events or conditions and their relationships (Cooper, 1998). Single case studies can be done as well as multiple case studies. The advantage of a single case study is the in-depth information and knowledge that is gained about a single subject. The disadvantage of a case study that it relies on a lot of qualitative and quantitative data.

Self-Administered (mail) Surveys

In a mail survey, the respondent can take more time to collect fact, talk with others, or consider replies than is possible with personal interviews. May surveys are more impersonal and providing more anonymity than other interview methods. The main advantage is that it is not too time consuming and anonymity will stimulate people to give honest answers. The major disadvantage is that there is no control over the response. Furthermore there is a limitation on the length of an interview, as respondents will refuse to cooperate with long or complex questionnaires.

Document analysis

Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents. The documents contain text or images that were not recorded for the purposes of the research. It is a qualitative research that requires that data are examined and interpreted by the researcher in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge(Corbin & Straus, 2008). This instrument is often used prior to a study and the information will be incorporated in the report. It is often used in combination with other qualitative instruments. The advantage of this instrument is that it gives a lot of in-depth information about the subject. A disadvantage is that there is a lot of information available and it depends on the researchers' skill to separate the useful information and interpret it in the right way in order to make it applicable for the research.

2.3 Chosen research methods

Due to the subject of the research both types of research are needed in order to come to a proper outcome. Nevertheless most of the research will be Qualitative research. This because, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, qualitative research is all about the human aspects. Satisfaction is an emotion or a feeling people have in a certain situation and is therefore very human. Qualitative research will help answering the research questions about guest satisfaction and employee satisfaction, and to get an overview of the current breakfast operations in the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. Quantitative research is needed to get an overview over a larger population of guests and employees. This will give an outcome that can be measured and presented in a table. All these data used for the research are Primary data gathered through field research. Furthermore secondary data will be gathered by conducting a desk research searching information about the hotel, and theories about guest- and employee satisfaction.

2.4 Chosen research instruments

In order to find answers to the research questions different research instruments will be used. First of all document analysis will be used to gather in-depth information about the subject, but also to get a better understanding about the subject. In order to get a good overview of the hotel, documents will be analyzed that give information about the environment in and outside the hotel. To analyze this information different strategic analyzing tools will be used. To gain better knowledge about guest- and employee satisfaction, literature about these subjects will be reviewed. This instrument is chosen because it is necessary to have in-depth information about guest- and employee satisfaction before it can be analyzed for this specific hotel.

Case study will be used to get a good overview about how the breakfast is operated in the hotel. This will be a single case study. As it has been said, case studies do rely on qualitative and quantitative data. This data will be gathered through the use of focus groups and self-administered surveys.

To determine guest satisfaction, email surveys will be used. Every guest that visited gets the opportunity to leave there email address upon check-out. After the checkout, surveys about the overall experience during the guests stay will be send to these email addresses. In these surveys guests can score there breakfasts experiences from 1-10, judging on the food quality experience and service quality experience. All rates above 7 will be counted as 'satisfied' to calculate the guest satisfaction percentage. The expected response will be 30 per month based on previous months. A higher response would be preferable but according to Marriott Standards, it is not allowed to push a guest to fill in a survey, or ask the guest to fill out surveys during their stay (MGS). However, these 30 guests will be representative for the other guests that stayed in the hotel at that moment. This instrument in preferred above in-depth interviews because more honest answers will be given, as the guest will react anonymous.

The employee satisfaction is measured by a self-administered survey. This survey will be an automated survey and every employee can fill this out anonymous. Therefore it is excepted to receive honest answers from all employees. The questions of this survey can be found in appendix .. This is not the original outlook of the questionnaire, which is conducted by computer, but gives an overview of the questions asked. As all employees are obligatory to fill out this survey a response of 30 is expected. Although this survey might have the limitation that less in-depth information is received, the outcome of the survey can be discussed in a focus group when necessary.

The focus groups instrument is used to determine the training and motivation needs of the employees. In this focus group will consist of all breakfast employees, both full time and part time. The breakfast team consists of 30 people in total. Not all people will be reached at the same time, therefore 3 sessions with 10 people each time will be scheduled. During these sessions the training and motivations needs of the employees will be the main discussion point. In appendix .. the design of this focus group discussion will be presented. As the employees are working in a team and interact with each other, this method will be more useful than in-depth interviews. Furthermore in-depth interviews will be more time consuming and therefore found of less use for this research.

2.5 Research instruments applied

2.5.1 Overview

In the following table for each research question is stipulated what kind of research will be done and what instruments will be used to answer the research question.

Problem statement

Quantitative or

Qualitative

Desk or

Field

Instruments

What is the hotels' current position? (strategic analysis)

Qualitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Document analysis.

Several strategic analyzing tools from management books.

Hotel Data

MGS

What is guest satisfaction?

Qualitative and quantitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Field, use of primary data

Document analysis

Hospitality books (literature review)

Hotel data.

GSS surveys

What is employee satisfaction?

Qualitative and quantitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Field, use of primary data

Document analysis

Hospitality books (literature review)

Hotel data

Employee surveys

How's the breakfast service currently operated?

Qualitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Field, use of primary data

Hotel data, guest comments, employee comments, focus groups.

How to motivate and train the employees of the Renaissance Amsterdam hotel?

Qualitative

Desk research,

Field, analyzing motivation &training needs

Document analysis

HR books.

Focus groups

Comments from employees

What is the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction?

Qualitative

Desk research

Field, GSS

Document analysis

GSS comments

2.4.2 Explanation overview

What is the hotels' current position? (strategic analysis)

This question is chosen in order to get more inside information about the hotel. To come up with recommendations, an in-depth vision of the hotel is necessary. Therefore is chosen to do a strategic analysis of the company.

This analysis is a qualitative research since the intention is to find out about the essential character (Cooper & Schindler, 1998) of the company, and can also be characterized as a case-study.

Both desk and field research will be applied to answer this research question the best way. Desk research will be done by document analysis, reviewing data gathered from the hotel (Secondary information). All this information will be put together in order to analyze the company with the help of strategic analyzing tools from management books.

What is guest satisfaction?

This question is chosen to understand the definition "guest satisfaction". To answer this question a literature review will be conducted. This analysis is a qualitative analysis and can as well be characterized as document analysis, desk research.

What is employee satisfaction?

This question is chosen to understand the definition "guest satisfaction". To answer this question an extensive literature review will be conducted. This analysis is a qualitative analysis and can as well be characterized as document analysis, desk research.

How is the breakfast service currently operated?

This question is chosen to get a better view of the breakfast in the hotel. The question is separated from the first question (a view of the hotels' current position could also discus breakfast) because this is the main focus of the research. This analysis is a qualitative research and can as well be characterized as a case-study. Desk and field research will be done. Information from the hotel will be used in order to get a better insight in how breakfast is currently managed. The breakfast service operations will be studied and employees will be interviewed through focus groups.

In this part the actual guest satisfaction of the RAH will be measured. This will be done trough an survey conducted by email. This will be a quantitative research done by field research.

Furthermore the actual employee satisfaction of the RAH will be measured as well. This will be done trough a self-administered survey conducted with all breakfast employees. This will be a quantitative research done by field research.

How to motivate and train the employees of the Renaissance Amsterdam hotel?

To answer this question a literature review will be done to get more insight in motivation and training employees. This analysis is a qualitative analysis and can as well be characterized as document analysis, done by desk research. Furthermore another qualitative research instrument , focus groups will be used to observe the motivation and training needs of the employees.

What is the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction?

With this question the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction will be researched. There for an desk analysis will be done by document analysis (Qualitative Research) Furthermore the data of the Guest satisfaction surveys and employee satisfaction surveys (Quantitative data) will be discussed and linked to the theory, this field research can be characterized as a case-study.

2.5 Summary

In this chapter the different research methods and instruments were discussed. After a study of the theory about these subjects, the methods and instruments for this research were chosen. The main research method will be qualitative, this because satisfaction is a feeling a person has about a certain experience and therefore very human. Qualitative research is about the human aspects of an subject, opposed to quantitative research, where outcomes are measured and can be put in tables or graphics The main instrument will be document-analysis (secondary data analysis), this document analysis will be done by using literature about the subjects discussed in this report.

To analyze the current breakfast operations, the breakfast operation will be observed and the employees will be able to discuss their opinion in a focus-group. The focus groups is important to analyze the interaction between the different employees en get a more in-depth view in their opinions and experiences.

There will be also quantitative methods used in this research. This is used to give guests and employees the opportunity to give an anonymous feedback on the breakfast service. This is used instead of in-depth interviews as people can feel more limited when not being anonymous.

These methods and instruments are used to give a proper answer on all research methods. The information gathered by using these instruments are displayed in the next chapter of this report.

Chapter 3: Results

3.1 Preview

In this chapter the results of the research will be presented. The results will be presented per research question....etc etc nog niet af.....

3.2 What is the hotel's current position?

3.2.1 Internal analysis

The internal analysis was done using the 7 s Model, developed two consultants of the McKinsey Company in the early 1980's (Proven Models B.V., 2011). This model discusses internal aspects that should be analyzed and aligned in order for a company to function properly. These factors are the following; strategy, structure, systems, staff, style, skills and shared values. In the introduction the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel major characteristics have already been described. In this chapter the internal environment of the hotel will be described according to the previous mentioned 7 S Model.

Strategy

The vision, mission, objectives and core values of MI are the driving forces behind every hotel part of the Marriott chain.

- Vision: "To be the Global Hospitality Leader". This vision is grounded in the intense focus on taking care of the guest, extensive operational knowledge, the development of a highly skilled and diverse workforce, and offering the best portfolio of lodging brands in the industry. As MI is considered in the top three of hotel chains worldwide, this is an achievable vision.

- Mission: "To build brand loyalty and preference to maximise shareholder value". The ideals from the vision are expressed in this mission statement. A mission statement guides a hotel as it seeks to achieve the long term objectives (Olsen, 1998). This mission statement indicates that through brand loyalty and preference, which includes guests as well as employees, the shareholder value will be maximized. As almost all Marriott Hotels are managed by the chain and not owned, it is very important maximise the shareholder value and be able to grow.

- Goals: as an extension of the mission and vision goals were designed. The first goal is: "Solidify product and service leadership, drive profit and optimize growth". This goal gives a method for achieving the mission. The second goal gives a more measurable indication of the vision: "Double the presence of Marriott in Europe"

- Core Values: The core values are based on the concept of the "Spirit to Serve" this spirit includes fundamental ideals of service to associates, customers, and community which serve as the cornerstone for all Marriott Associates (MGS)

To adhere to this strategy, the Renaissance brand has developed its own set of standards and initiatives to reflect on the values stated above, these are called the R-Ways. There are 20 R-Ways and those are strategy, behavioural or community based (Appendix ..). The R-ways are rotating every day and discussed at pre-shift meetings. Herewith the operational staff is able to discuss the different R-ways and get more involved in the objectives of the hotel.

Another very important strategy is the selling strategy of the hotel, as how the hotel performs depends on the sale of rooms. The most important channels for this are online bookings and the group bookings done by the Events Booking Centre. The pricing strategy used for the sale of rooms is "rational" this means that it is easy for the guest to understand why a rate is asked for a specific room. Therefore a base price is set for the Deluxe room (standard room) and between the different room types, always the same price difference is used. Furthermore MI has the "look no further" guarantee. Herewith it is guaranteed that the price listed on the Marriott website is the best rate available everywhere, with exception of corporate rate promotions. The daily rate is based on an estimated demand. This estimated demand is determined by the system Marriott One Yield LRTP (Long Range Project Tool). This system uses historical data and current reservations to determine trends that help to predict the demand for that specific day. In appendix .. a table is shown that compares the figures of the RHI to the figures from the Hosta Benchmark Report. This figure shows that the occupancy and room rate are higher than benchmarked.

Structure

The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel employs around 215 employees of at least 25 different nationalities. The structure of the hotel is of functional design. This means grouping managers and employees according to their areas of expertise and the resources they use to perform their jobs (Hellregiel et al, 2005). This structure has economical benefits because the simple structure keeps administrative expenses low as everyone in a department can share training, experience and resources. Furthermore, career paths are clearly to be seen by employees within their own department. An organizational chart can be found in appendix ... Disadvantages of the structure can be that an inadequate communication between units can occur as departments focus more on their departmental rather than organizational issues and goals. Furthermore horizontal linkages are difficult to make as employees are specifically trained. For example an food and beverage employee won't be able to assist at the front office. However, since the tasks and responsibilities are very specific and different per department, it is important to have the company structured clearly and therefore this structure beneficial to the way of operating in the hotel. Furthermore the lines of communication are very clear to all employees, an operational employee will report only to the Supervisor on Duty and the supervisor will communicate if necessary upwards to their manager. In this same way managers or directors will communicate information to operational employees.

Systems

The Property Management System that is used in the RAH is OPERA used mainly by the rooms department. Used by the rooms department but also the sales and marketing department is MARSHA an Global Reservations System used by all Marriott's over the world. The F&B department uses MICROS as an Point of Sale System. Each department has its own system to process, analyse and update data, but the main systems mentioned above are used to have all departments informed about important guest data. Another important system is MGS, Marriott Global Source. This is a website only accessible for Marriott employees and is a source of information and knowledge for all Marriott's worldwide.

Next to the computerized systems, the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel also has operational systems in place. One of these systems are the Brand Standards. These standards are developed by the Head Office and every different Marriott brand has the same standards a hotel has to adhere to. These standards range from reservation procedures to check-out procedures and all processes in between and do not only describe the procedures for guest contact, but also, for example, the design and equipment for a guest room, the desired cleanliness of a storage room or the desired amount of training given to the employees.

To translate these brand standards into operational systems, every hotel can develop their own Local Standard Operation Procedures, or LSOP's. This allows the hotel to still adhere to the Brand Standards, but make it more practical, informal and adjusted to local standards. Nevertheless these LSOP's have to be approved by the director of the department, in order to make sure it is still up to Brand Standard.

These standards are checked by an external auditing team, that visits the hotel on a regular basis. After each audit an report is send to all department heads in order to follow up on the feedback given.

Staff

The staff of the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel are not called employees. According to the Renaissance brand the employees are the brands "Ambassadors". This name is given in order to give the employees a feeling of involvement, and engagement towards the hotel in order to feel more responsible and feel less hierarchy. Nevertheless in this report the term "employee" will be used. As mentioned before in this chapter, the hotel has employees of 25 different nationalities. This is divided in 65% Dutch employees and 35% other nationalities. Furthermore it can be seen that the percentage of international employees is higher in the operational departments. Marriott International has strict rules about equal treatment and a zero-tolerance policy towards racism (MGS), and therefore there is a low amount of cultural misunderstandings. The official languages spoken in the hotel are English and Dutch and it is not allowed for people from other nationalities to speak in their own language if there is an employee involved who does not speak or understand that language. Furthermore, since a hotel is an international environment, the Dutch natives are used to deal with international people. Also, many of the international employees in the hotel have taken the time to learn the Dutch language. The supple integration of employees into the working environment and is beneficial to the working-culture of the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. And this not only works positive on the work floor, but also has an additional benefit for the international guests; often guests can be served in their own language.

Another important aspect about staff is the employee motivation and satisfaction. This subject will be extensively dealt with in paragraph ...Marriott International has al wide range of training material and educational material available on the MGS website. However, when it comes to practice, it seems that not all available resources are used to train or educate the staff. Although the work environment is acceptable, the salaries paid are above minimum, there are good company policies in place and employees and managers are encouraged to create a pleasant and sociable work environment, the Hotel only scored 65% (average ) on satisfaction according to the employee satisfaction survey of January. The food and beverage department scored higher with an score of 76% on satisfaction.

Style

The management style of the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel can be best characterised as bureaucratic. "In a bureaucratic culture, the behaviour of employees is governed by formal rules and standard operating procedures, and coordination is achieved through hierarchical reporting relationships" (Hellriegel et al, 2005 ). As discussed in before the structure of the business is hierarchical (organizational chart, appendix..) there is little communication between operational staff and higher management. Decisions by higher management will be made with consideration of all employees, but the employees are not part of the decision making process. This leadership style is not as rigid and controlling as the autocratic style, but also not as free as the democratic or laissez-faire style. In large companies like the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, strict and clear rules are needed, and therefore this leadership style is chosen. However, within each department other leaderships styles can occur in order to involve the employees more into the daily operations.

Skills

Skills refer to the actual skills and capabilities of an organisation as a whole (Proven Models B.V., 2011).

The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel has a some processes in place that make sure the people working in the hotel are skilled. One of these processes is the recruitment process, which is used in every hotel part of Marriott International. As soon as a there is a vacancy, the human resources ambassador will prepare a internal notice. As MI believes in promotion from within, the vacancy has to be posted for 72 hours internally before it will be placed on the Marriott Careers website. On the website applicants can apply online, where the first step is to send their CV, Reason of interest and personal information. If the applicant is found suited for the position by this first information, he or she will be invited to do an online assessment. The assessment consists of multiple choice questions related to the job applied for where several cases are presented. The applicant has to choose how he or she would react on or deal with every situation. Only applicants scoring 'green' on this test are invited for an interview. This method is very efficient as the skills and knowledge of the applicant is already tested before the interview. Because of this the interview can be an "behavioural interview" where the applicant is asked behavioural questions and is looked ad how the applicant would fit within the team. Behavioural interviewing is done trough the "STAR" method. (Situation-Task-Action-Result) This method allows the interviewer to have an easy check if every question is fully answered. When all applicants are interviewed, the human resource department and the respective department decide who will fill the position, where priority is placed on applicants from the Marriott Chain (internal) over external applicants. This recruitment process is the same for every level of the company, from operational staff to directors. In this way MI insures that the recruitment process is consistent and fair.

After being hired, every new employ of The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel has to follow the Renaissance official training program, called "In The Beginning". Again, every level of hierarchy is mandatory to follow this two-day training which is given in the first month of employment. In this training, new hires are introduced to all aspects of the Marriott Chain, the Renaissance Brand and the specific hotel. The new hires are treated as guests in the hotel to get the full experience they will provide to the guest. After three months a follow-up training is will be given, called "the Plot Thickens". In this one-day training the previous training will be reviewed as well as first experiences in the workplace. Furthermore the emphasis of the training is team work and service. In this training the Renaissance vision of service is explained and implemented. These trainings are given to ensure the people working for the hotel are skilled and have knowledge about not only their department, but also the vision of the Renaissance brand. The employees are encouraged to be an "Ambassador" of the Renaissance brand.

Although this intensive training at the beginning of employment, supervisors and managers fail to go on with continuous training for as well long-term employees and fairly new employees. As mentioned before, MGS has a wide range of training materials able for all employees. Every beginning of the shift a 15-minute training should be done, where the R-way of that day is discussed, the team is briefed, specialities of that day will be discussed and a tasting of the dish of the day will be given. This could be a very effective way for the employees to gain more knowledge and ask questions, but it seems not to be done consistently in practice. Furthermore there are a lot of trainings provided, but the managers and supervisors pay little consideration to these trainings and do not encourage the employees to attend.

Another tool to insure the employees are skilled is the "Passport to Success" program. This program consists of specified trainings per department and change every year to make sure all employees are up to date. The training has tests 12 disciplines (such as: "Host", "Breakfast service", or "Bar-Arts") and every year the department should have full compliance. As observed in the F&B department this is not taken too serious. The supervisors don't have or make the time to train the employees properly and fill out the test themselves in order to obtain this full compliance, rather than make sure the staff is up to date.

Shared values

The core values of Marriott International were already set in 1927 when the first hot-shoppe was opened. These are the words of of Marriott co-founder J. Willard Marriott, "When you take good care of your people, they'll take good care of the customer, and the customer will come back and back and back, and the business will take care of itself." Or, his wife , Alice S. Marriott, said it more simply by stating, "Happy people means happy customers." (MGS). All Marriott Hotels still work according to these values, although they changed in words and are more analyzed and expanded by know. Marriott now sets the following core values:

Put People first, take care of associates and they will take care of the customers

Pursue Excellence, dedication to the customer through service excellence

Embrace Change, success is never final

Act with Integrity, how we do business is as important as the business we do

Serve our World, Our "spirit to serve" makes our culture more vibrant, our business stronger and the world a better place (MGS).

These values are shared with all employees in the "In the Beginning" training and are interlocked in the daily operational practices. Examples are the "Associate Appreciation Week" were managers and directors organize and help with a week of festivities for the employees and the yearly breakfast that the hotel arranges for a child hospital in Amsterdam.

Next to the MI core values does the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel also have its own values. These values are shared with the employees during the in the "In the Beginning" training as well on a daily weekly basis through R-Way number 1: Live Renaissance Core Values - Intriguing, Indigenous, Independent.

When someone is intrigued he is curious for something. The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel calls it guests "Explorers" and explorers are always curious for something new. Employees can share these value by sharing "inside" information, not known by tourists, or tourists guides, such as a just opened museum or an new restaurant. Employees are encouraged to do so and also a special "Navigator" guide is made for employees to know about new, intriguing places.

Indigenous means that the guest has the feeling that the hotel is connected to the local community and has a history of its own.

Independent can be seen in the design of the hotel. Not one Renaissance Hotel is the same, all hotels have different design and outlook. The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel shows to be both indigenous and independent as it has The Koepelchurch, a 16th Century dome church connected to the hotel and now used for events. Another indigenous aspect is the Koepel Café, a typical Dutch brown café, visit not only by tourists, but also by locals, which give the guests the feeling that they are part of the local community. These three core values give the guests the feeling that The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel is an unique hotel and that their stay is an unique stay. Especially operational staff is encouraged to share these values with the guests and to learn and explore as much as possible to be able to provide the guests with the best possible recommendations and service during their stay.

3.2.3 External Analysis

To get a good overview of the development outside a hotel it is important to do an external analysis. This environment is also called the "Macro" environment. The macro environment is the environment the organization has no influence on. Nevertheless outside forces can have a great influence on the organization. Analyzing this macro environment gives a good insight in the opportunities and threats of a hotel. For this analysis the Environmental Scanning model by Kotler is used (Kotler, 2002). This model identifies the six most influential forces in a hotels macro environment. These 6 forces are as follows; Demographic forces, Economic forces, Natural forces, Technological forces, Political forces, and cultural forces. In this paragraph every force will be discussed

The Demographic Environment

"Demography is the study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, sex, race, occupation and other statistics"(Kotler, 2002 p.124). Demographic forces are very important for a hotel as it involves people, the guests of the hotel.

In order to analyze the right group of people first the market mix of hotels in Amsterdam should be considered. Therefore the HOSTA 2010 report is was used. This report is presented every year by Horwath HTL (appendix 4).

After reviewing these data, there can be concluded that the market mix of hotels in Amsterdam is consisting of Dutch, British and American guests (printed bold). Therefore the demographic part of the external analysis is based on these three population groups.

In the next figure the demographic mix of the three population groups is presented (appendix 5). Out of this figure can be concluded that the three populations are moderately the same demographics such as age distribution, growth rate, religion and life expectancy. Therefore, in this analysis the same trends can be applied to all three populations.

Appendix 6 shows the key factors of demographic changes in the Top 10 source markets. The top 10 source markets consists of; the Netherlands, the USA, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Japan (Grimm et al, 2009).

The changing age structure of the population

The single most noticeable demographic trend in Europe and other industrialized countries including the US is the changing age structure of the population (Kotler, 2002). According to a report of the United Nations the older population is growing at a much faster rate than the rate of the total population. The total fertility rate is below the replacement level in practically all industrialized countries (United Nations, 2008). The population has been increasingly ageing for the past sixty years and it is predicted it will continue to do so (Appendix 6). The changing age structure will influence different aspects of the society. Investments are predicted to decrease, while savings will increase, which influences the economic growth in a negative way. Furthermore the older the population, the lower the work force while the demand of healthcare will be growing.

The rising number of educated people

The United Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been collecting data for years regarding the education of the world's population. What has been observed is that the world is becoming more educated in general. More and more first world citizens are enrolling in tertiary educational programs (Appendix 7). This graphic shows that the enrolment in tertiary education has increased in North America and Western Europe as well as worldwide over the past ten years.

When looking at The Netherlands, education is also an important aspect in the society. In order to increase the return on educational expenses, the Dutch government focuses on the use of talent, on every educational level. Therefore quality of education is very important. Although the crisis, there will be less savings on education in comparison to other savings done by the government. This all is done to prepare the Netherlands for the expected knowledge-driven economy (Miljoenennota 2012).

The economic environment

Economic growth can have a large impact on consumer demand for hospitality services. Economic forces influence organizational behavior and performance. Forces that create growth and profit help organizations to take actions that will satisfy all stakeholders such as owners, employees and suppliers. But, on the other hand, negative economic trends make an organization face high pressures to deal with the different interests of the different stakeholders (Harrison, 2005). For example, decreasing revenues will make the owners of a hotel less satisfied. They might decide to decrease labor costs in order to still reach profit goals. Employees in this case will be less satisfied as they will feel there is more pressure on them to work harder.

Below an analysis of 3 different economic indicators can be found. The indicators are based on an analysis of the characteristics of 'advanced economies' by the International Monetary Fund. There is no established definition for an advanced economy, but Kofi Anan, former Secretary General of the United Nations defined an advanced country as follows: "A developed (advanced) country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment." The countries where the most guests of the hotel come from can be considered as developed countries.

Gross domestic product

The Gross domestic product is often considered the best measure of how well the economy is performing (Mankiw, 2003). GDP can be viewed at in two ways, first as the total income of everyone in the economy, second, as the total expenditure on the economy's output of goods and service. An economy with a large output of goods and service can better satisfy the demands of households, companies and the government. In this analysis the percentage growth of Real GDP is used. Real GDP measures the value of goods and services using a constant set of prices. This better represents how an economy is doing, as a society's ability to provide economic satisfaction for its members ultimately depends on the quantities of goods and service produced.

Appendix 8 shows the decrease of GDP during the economic crisis. A negative growth in real GDP means that the economic output was less than the total expenditures. A small growth after 2011 is expected.

Private consumer expenditure

The private consumer expenditure (PCE) is a major component of the GDP. It covers consumer spending on goods as well as services. Appendix 9 shows the percentage change of the PCE. It shows one of the reasons the GDP has grown negatively in past years. If the spending pattern is not as much as previous years and the output continues as before, there will be too much supply and less profit.

Domestic demand

Another important component of the GDP is domestic demand. Domestic demand shows the demand for goods and services in a country. If there is a decline in domestic demand, the first components affected are mostly luxury products and non-essential services. Appendix 10 shows the drop in demand when the consumers were affected by the crisis. Again a small increase is expected, when the economy will be more stable and the consumer will trust the economy again.

Continuing economic uncertainty

Since 2007 the world knows a financial crisis, also called the Global Financial Crisis. This crisis started with the collapse of the housing market in the United States in 2007. This had a great impact on global economic markets and decreased investor confidence which eventually led to great losses on the stock markets in 2008-2009. Economies worldwide weakened and governments and central banks needed to take action and tried to solve the economic problems with fiscal help and change of monetary policies. The economic condition of European governments deteriorated as the income from taxes declined but the government costs increased. This all makes the central banks becoming more cautious (European Tourism 2011). The European Central Bank was the first major central bank raising rates in 2011. This indicates the concern about credibility.

The Social-Cultural environment

"The cultural environment is made up of institutions and other forces that affect society's basic values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors" (Kotler 2002 p.140). When considering the cultural environment of Amsterdam there has to be thought of all the tourists visiting the city, the different cultures influencing Amsterdam short term (tourists) and Long term (inhabitants). To find out the effect of changes in the social-cultural environment on the hospitality industry, there has to be looked at trends that affect the Dutch or Amsterdam hospitality market.

An recent article published in the New York Times (Benhold, 2010) analyses the trend toward part-time and more relaxed working hours called the "new world of work" with the Dutch as pioneers of this new trend in work and life balance. Predicted is that, within the coming years also work-focussed countries such as the United States and The United Kingdom will start reducing working hours to spend more time with their family, or for recreation or relaxation time. This is a result of more woman entering the workforce, but also productivity is becoming more important than actual worked hours. In addition to this, Carslon Wagonlit's business travel trends report (Koetting & Widener, 2010) predicts an decrease of quantity of business trips, focusing on minimization and productivity of each business trip. This means that companies will eliminate the unnecessary business trip and get more productivity out of less business trips. This will influence the Amsterdam Hospitality market negatively; as business trips are a large market for Amsterdam Hotels, including the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel.

Another trend in the social-cultural environment is regarding the leisure guests. Amsterdam is globally famous for its tolerance towards drugs. Coffee shops are as much as an touristic attraction as some famous landmarks in Holland. 26% of leisure guests visiting Amsterdam visits a coffee shop (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2007). For over already 10 years the government maintain stricter rules towards coffee shops, a so called "extinguish policy". This policy forbids coffee shops to continue their business after breaking the set rules for 3 times. Furthermore, since 2007 it is not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages in a coffee shop and there had to be decided to either continue selling soft-drugs, or continue the same establishment as a regular café. In 2011 the government decided to even strengthen the rules even more to decrease people from outside the country visiting coffee shops (Tweede Kamer der Staten Generaal, 2011). This will be the end of the "open-door policy" as coffee shops will only be allowed to sell to their "club members". This new policy will be effective from January 2013 in the whole Netherlands. Although the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel is a 5 star hotel and not aiming for "drugs tourists" it is likely that this will affect the whole Amsterdam Hospitality Industry.

The Natural environment

The past years there has been a growing pressure on the hospitality industry to "Go Green". This pressure comes from both the government as the public. (Brymer et al, 2012). This because the people are getting more and more aware of natural resources. With the increasing population, also more natural resources are needed. Environmental awareness increases, and therefore people are willing to do more to keep a sustainable environment. As hotels are often big companies and therefore can have a big impact on the natural environment.

The Technological Environment

"The technological environment is perhaps the most dramatic force now shaping our destiny" (Kotler, 2002 p.135).

Social Networking is one of the fastest growing technological trends at present time. Most used are Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Flick but besides these well known websites there were in 2012 246 social media sites available on the internet (Brymer et al, 2012). Social networking sites have become often used method of communication all over the world. It is a fast way for hotel to share information with (future) guests and update people on upcoming events or promotions. Furthermore a wide range of people can be reached at relatively low costs as the websites are already created by a third party. Nevertheless, because this is a fast paced communication tool, it is very important to keep all information up to date.

3.6 Summary

Chapter 4: Conclusions and recommendations

4.1 Preview

4.2 Conclusions

4.2.1 Sub sections

4.3 Recommendations

4.3.1 Sub sections

4.4 Contributions and limitations of the assignment