Carlton City Hotel’s Continuous Quality Improvement

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Categories of Customers of Carlton Hotel

The hotel receives five categories of clients: Tourists, families, the elderly, business travellers and delegates (carltoncity. sg).

Tourists: These guests travel specifically for recreation, sightseeing, visiting, as well as non-official activities (Goodman 2006). The hotel management provides them with the information they may need to enjoy their stay at the hotel (Evans & Lindsay 2011). Tourists are always looking for things such as beverages, recreational facilities and other services that meet their demand.
Families: Usually, they travel when they have no serious or work-related commitments, especially on weekends, because they want to break a little bit from their daily practice (Gössling 2011). The hotel serves their specific needs by offering services such as meals and a playground for babies.
The elderly this group of people finds it hard to survive without being assisted, so they are always looking for accommodation with a pleasant and sociable environment (Hoyle 2006). Carlton City Hotel responds to their needs by being considerate and patient with them.
Business travellers: They make the huge bulk of the guests of Carlton City Hotel (Michman & Greco 2000). The hotel has modern facilities such as the Graffiti Sky Bar, plate, Tuxedo Café and state of the art swimming pool that cater to the needs of this group of guests.
Delegates: the hotel has facilities that cater to this group of clients (Dimmock, Breen & Walo 2003). They usually look for a place told their meetings. The hotel serves their specific needs by ensuring they are allocated enough space, offering them free Internet to facilitate their meetings.

Value addition

The hotel adds value to its offerings in differing ways. For example:

Guest rooms

The Carlton City Hotel has added value to guest rooms with free Internet and big-screen TVs (Carlton city.sg). In addition, dining rooms are spacious, fitted with air conditioners and have TVs (Jones 2010).

The Graffiti Sky Bar

The hotel has added value to the bar by ensuring that different drinks from different countries are offered. In addition, the bar is located on the 28^th floor just enable clients to have the sky of the entire town (Weygandt 2005). The hotel has also equipped it with sporting facilities such as a pool table, computer games and smoking zones where smokers can enjoy their cigars.

Staff

Since employees are the face of the hotel, the management has developed schemes that enable them to enhance their skills for better service (Ragins & Greco 2003). The hotel sponsors employees to pursue online self paces courses. This adds value to the services of the hotel as the management knows how to handle its visitors.

Front office

The front office is spacious, with many receptionists to serve clients. In addition, the hotel has benchmarked time limits in which certain things linked to clients are supposed to be carried out (Bardi 2007). For instance, the front office is supposed to apply the 10-5 rule when greeting guests, answer the phone call within three rings (Riley, Lloyd & Propst 2007). The staff is also supposed to complete a meal order within twelve minutes.

Gym and Swimming pool

The hotel has added value to the gym through the provision of trainers. They usually help the client with various needs ranging from training to inquiries on how to keep fit. The hotel has also employed divers to manage the swimming pool area. They also help those who want to train how to swim. A bar has also been located where the swimming pool is to provide drinks to those who want to enjoy their drinking at the swimming pool (Sommerville 2007). In turn, this has had a positive impact on both internal and external customers.

Using all staff as points of information

Hospitality uses its employees as the main sources of information (Kusluvan 2003). These employees are meant to give visitors reasonable facts that they can use to better their experience at the hotel. This creates a highly personalized value and also shows that the hotel is operating in line with the latest shifts in the industry.

Enhanced Package

Carlton City Hotel has long been a great innovator in attracting visitors, and their collection of freebies is as well attractive (Hill & Jones 2009). The hotel employees several approaches to promote its services and products, particularly to local residents. For instance, “fractions” for locals include two free nights, at least two free alcoholic drinks and free passes to attractions.

CorVu Cor strategy application

Among the essential factors which impact a hotel’s success are centralized accounting and careful financial planning (Vault 2005). Whilst all accounting procedures were initially supervised through its corporate offices, the implementation of its web-based accounting system through the CorVu Cor strategy increased effectiveness by one hundred per cent (Moutinho 2000).

Reduced costs

During special occasions like valentines, the hotel usually make offers such as a romantic dinner for couples with sparkling strawberries and wine, a Kama Sutra kit and silk rose petals on the bed, all worth US$25 (Brotherton 2006).

Provision of clean and safe rooms

The hotel enhances the value of its offerings by making sure that rooms are clean and safe. Each room is fitted with CCTV to ensure that safety is not compromised. In addition, only one person is responsible for keeping the keys to the rooms (Wisner, Tan, & Leong 2009).

Cost Down

Item	Descriptions
Energy	The hotel uses tapped energy from the recycling section and also solar through solar panels as they are cheap.
Transport	Instead of renting, the hotel has its own means of transporting customers. It is cheaper than renting outside.
Engineers	The hotel has its own full-time engineers who work on the projects with occasioning extra expenses to the hotel.
Water	The hotel recycles used water for use in the hotel.
Supply chain	The chain of supply of the hotel is simplified, making it easier and cheaper to deliver the goods and services.
Going green	The hotel has adopted environmentally friendly approaches. Most of the products are made from natural materials as they are cheaper.
Exchange program	The hotel has specific arrangements with other companies where they can obtain certain skills at lower prices
technology	The hotel is equipped with state of the art equipment that is cost-effective. Some of these include emails for conducting clients.
Waste management	The hotel usually recycles most of its remains for future use. Food remains are used to make organic fertilizers.
Online booking	By making reservations through the internet, clients are able to save and spend more on other products offered by the company.

Value and Costs maintained

Energy

The energy-efficient systems have been installed to save on the amount of energy used by the hotel. Some of the gadgets installed include digital thermostats as well as cooling systems in all guest rooms (Sommerville 2007). This helps the hotel to save a lot of money which would have been used to pay electricity bills.

Water

Carlton City Hotel has installed a water softener that minimizes water for laundry. This technology saves the hotel more than 400,000 litres of water daily (Steingold 2009). The heat energy produced from various systems is also used to heat other systems such as swimming pools and bathing water.

Waste

The hotel introduced a waste management program that promotes the recycling of materials and a savings of more than US$5000 per year (Steingold 2009). The practice of waste management has been successful because the rate of occupancy has increased.

Green building practices

Each guest room is fitted with air conditioners that modified. That is, they do not use power to help minimize the overall use of power (Steingold 2009). Most of the materials used, especially for interior design, are natural, and this significantly reduces the costs associated with repairing the building.

Purchasing

The hotel has been partnering with local farmers to be supplied with organic products that are safe in terms of environment and health.

Staff engagement

The company has a program through which employees are sponsored to study (Sommerville 2007). This saves a lot on the cost that would otherwise be used to employ or hire other people. In addition, the hotel encourages clients to use local services such as local guides to save on costs.

Customer education

Tourists and guests can easily cost the hotel a lot if they are not given sufficient information on certain things. Some of the costs may result from court cases following client petitions for perceived poor services (Rutherford & O’Fallon 2007). The hotel provides information in guest rooms and on their website regarding how they operate and where client go for assistance.

Supply chain

The supply chain management of Carlton City Hotel is referred to as a one-stop source that brings together value-based and end-to-end supply management services. The chain connects them with the best services and products of suppliers that exceed or meet their specifications and standards at reduced costs.

Yield management

Yield managers at the hotel usually capitalize on the returns per available room and by renting rooms to the right clientele, at the right time, at the right price. To avoid rooms from going unoccupied, an aspect that increases the operating cost of the hotel.

Interactive Reservation Systems

Carlton City Hotel guests have access to the online interactive reservation systems.

Ideally, the number of reservations organized over the internet has continued to swell. Over 20 per cent of all reservations are usually made via the internet.

Plan, Do Check, Act

PDCA at Carlton City Hotel is evident mainly in services being implemented. For instance:

Money-back guarantee

The result the hotel wants to achieve is satisfaction from customers. The responsibility is solely dedicated to the management of the company (Carlton city. sg). Checking, in this case, involves the identification of nonconformity in order to take corrective actions. The area identified for improvement is timely reimbursement if the paid money.

Cancellation policy

The main aim of this policy is for clients to adhere to the laid down procedures when cancelling their reservations. The responsibility is allocated to the front office as they usually deal with reservation matters (Steingold 2009). Results, in this case, are the number of people who successfully go through the process of cancellation. Improvement by the hotel is to allocate time when the cancellation can be made.

Labor Cost Issues

Labour costs in Carlton City Hotel account for about 44.5 per cent of entire operating costs (Liu & Chen 2006). The hotel wants to achieve is to reduce the cost of labour. The way forward for the hotel is to provide training to relevant staff to avoid hiring others. In terms of the check, the hotel ensures that costs are significantly reduced. In terms of action, the hotel ensures that training and knowledge transfer is adequate.

Multicultural Issues

With the advancement in globalization, multicultural issues are confronting and troubling the industry managers (Sommerville 2007). What needs to be achieved is to have a diverse staff that serves the needs of a diverse clientele. To implement this, training must be given to the employees on how to manage a diverse clientele. Results are measured by the positive feedback received from clients.

Increased Competition

Players in the hospitality industry face tough competition from other players. In this case, the Carlton hotel wants to find ways of enhancing its competitiveness (Steingold 2009). The hotel responds to the issue by cutting down prices and offer greater value to guests. In terms of checking, the hotel ensures that products and services being produced are of the highest standards. To ensure this happens, the hotel allocates appropriate resources.

Cost Containment

Hospitalities are more and more challenged to find better ways that are helpful in minimizing costs without compromising the quality required to consistently meet the expectations of guests (Reisinger 2009). In this case, the hotel wants to find ways to run more efficiently and to scrutinize potentialities for cost savings that do not result in negative effects on the value of their offerings. This can be achieved through training of available staff.

Poor Employee service

The expected results comprise no complaints from clients. In terms of performance, there are logical and clear ways to achieve the stated aims (Steingold 2009). Some of these include close supervisory and signing of contracts. Improvements in the process shows indicate the success of the process. In this case, proper resources were offered to the concerned persons.

Guest room disorganization

The main focus here is for management to tighten up nuts in order to raise the standards of service. The path to achieving the corrective mechanism is very clear (Ragins & Greco 2003). That is, ensuring that enough time is allocated to ensure that rooms are not disorganized. In this case, the results were achieved. That is, guest rooms are no longer disorganized.

New management

The aim of having new management is to introduce new insights into the company. This can be achieved through the training of the existing staff members. In the case of changing the management, the hotel can change considerations applied successfully.

Conclusion

From the findings, continuous quality improvement is a standard that ensures quality in the services and products of a company. Evidently, Carlton City Hotel’s brands have engaged several aspects of quality management programs like employee training, supply chain management and CorVu Cor strategy. The aim of the hotel is to provide services or products that meet the expectations of all clients.

References

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