How the Coronavirus Pandemic will affect the Hotel Industry.
How the Coronavirus Pandemic will affect the Hotel Industry.
Background
In BUMKT2601, you have learned about redesigning processes in services industries. Currently, many
newspaper and Internet articles are covering how the hotel industry will redesign its processes in
response to the coronavirus pandemic. Any redesign will have to consider the balance between
quality and productivity carefully.
Requirements
You are to consider how the Four Seasons Hotel chain will achieve that balance in response to the
current environment. Some of the key questions and theories you should consider are:
1. In what ways will customers now change their assessment of the five Dimensions of Service
Quality (i.e. Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, Tangibles)?
2. Which hard and soft measures will the Four Seasons Hotel chain use to measure its service
quality?
3. Which tools (e.g. Fishbone, Pareto) are suitable to analyse the service problem of new and/or
redesigned processes?
4. How will Four Seasons improve service reliability without becoming uneconomical?
NB: Please address any other salient issues and apply appropriate theories/concepts that you feel
are not covered by the above four points.
Sources of information
Chapters 14 & 15 of the set textbook covers relevant topics, and Video 15 on the BUMKT2601
Moodle site shows how the Four Seasons Hotel has built a world-class service organisation before
the pandemic. The Four Seasons website will also give you some insight into how it is currently
adapting.
The above are some of the sources that you should use but you are expected to use a total of 10-12
sources. Normally, the majority of these sources would be academic texts and journal articles.
However, because the coronavirus is so current, many of these sources will not refer to the
coronavirus. Therefore, your sources are likely to be a balance of the set text, academic sources, and
articles from electronic media (e.g. websites). Remember, they should still be credible sources,
though.
Format
Structured Analytical Essay (3,500 words).
Background
In BUMKT2601, you have learned about redesigning processes in services industries. Currently, many
newspaper and Internet articles are covering how the hotel industry will redesign its processes in
response to the coronavirus pandemic. Any redesign will have to consider the balance between
quality and productivity carefully.
Requirements
You are to consider how the Four Seasons Hotel chain will achieve that balance in response to the
current environment. Some of the key questions and theories you should consider are:
1. In what ways will customers now change their assessment of the five Dimensions of Service
Quality (i.e. Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, Tangibles)?
2. Which hard and soft measures will the Four Seasons Hotel chain use to measure its service
quality?
3. Which tools (e.g. Fishbone, Pareto) are suitable to analyse the service problem of new and/or
redesigned processes?
4. How will Four Seasons improve service reliability without becoming uneconomical?
NB: Please address any other salient issues and apply appropriate theories/concepts that you feel
are not covered by the above four points.
Sources of information
Chapters 14 & 15 of the set textbook covers relevant topics, and Video 15 on the BUMKT2601
Moodle site shows how the Four Seasons Hotel has built a world-class service organisation before
the pandemic. The Four Seasons website will also give you some insight into how it is currently
adapting.
The above are some of the sources that you should use but you are expected to use a total of 10-12
sources. Normally, the majority of these sources would be academic texts and journal articles.
However, because the coronavirus is so current, many of these sources will not refer to the
coronavirus. Therefore, your sources are likely to be a balance of the set text, academic sources, and
articles from electronic media (e.g. websites). Remember, they should still be credible sources,
though.
Format
Structured Analytical Essay (3,500 words).
word limit:3580