Contents Executive Summary2 Introduction4 Purpose of this report4 Introduction to the property and department4 Department that been addressed4 Discussion and Issue4 Communication4 Influence to the staff, guest and management6 Analysis7 Reasons why communication is the biggest issue in food and beverages department. 7 Recommendation and Conclusion9 Recommendation9 More brand training for staff and manager. 9 MBW (Manage by Walking) system10 Know the staff better10 More respect to staff10 Conclusion10 References:12
Appendix13 Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to identify, discuss and analyse one major managerial issue that occur in a hotel or resort property during the placement. This report also shows how good a student in understanding the managerial condition and even managerial issues that occurs in the property, also providing the discussion regarding the managerial issues from not only the student’s point of view but also Team Leader, Supervisor and customer’s point of view supported by a guest review on web.
Then analyse the reasons regarding the occurring of this issues incorporating with some studies and researching and interviewing some staff that also working in the property, the effects that influence the staff, the customer and the management itself, then consider few points of recommendation and conclusion about the issue. There is always a major issues in a hospitality industry, because in property such as hotel or resort, there are a huge range of department such as housekeeping, food and beverages and front office, each department has their own function to aim and achieve a same goal which is maintain the brand standard and optimum guest satisfaction. In this case, Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas is carrying a responsibility to keep up and maintain a Starwood standard as a 5 star resort and Global Winning award as the best resort in North Queensland.
In a hospitality industry, even every singled department has their own issues to deal with. For example housekeeping department that obligates to clean up and tidy the guest room might be has some issues with the equipment that used for operation process, budgeting issue that seems to be like every resort’s issue or even rostering issues.
In the food and beverages department, that is very connected with kitchen department most probably has the same issue such as cost control and labour control, especially for Lagoons Restaurant that most likely serves a seafood buffet and buffet breakfast, and also waste control for foods is most likely to be issue for both kitchen and food and beverages department, in this case, food and beverages department need to work with covers they did to make some prediction on the foods for the future to meet the right amount without any minimum waste.
But unfortunately, cost and budget issue is not the major issue in Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas. Apart from budget and cost control, communication is most likely to be a major problem, especially in food and beverages department. After observing and did some research thus made some interview with some managerial people communication seems to be like the most troublesome issue that currently is overwhelming in food and beverages department.
It is cause by many factors such are upper level of management such as food and beverages manager and general manager that do not really communicate with lower level management such as staff and team leader, many staff that acting childish that sometimes brought up personal matters to workplace that causing chaos due to lack of communication, out-dated advertisement that creates some false interpretation to the guest, etc. These factors will be explained further in the body of this report.
It could be concluded that this issue plays a big role in food and beverages department because apparently it is also affects other department such as kitchen even housekeeping department, so some recommendation has been analyse and made in order to improve or at least to minimize this issue such as food and beverages manager needs to put more respect and time to the staff, listen what all the staff are thinking and be more critical in operating and leading the food and beverages department and also be more open to all of the staff incoming opinion, thus insisted of brand training to maintain the Starwood standard.
Introduction Purpose of this report The main purpose of this report is to address, identify, discuss and analyse one major problem or issue that this resort has been dealing with which is communication. Based on mouth-to-mouth words, it seems that communication is the big and main problem that food and beverages department is dealing with at the moment. This report also made to considering some recommendation that made by incorporating some knowledge that obtained in the academic learning, thus some information that had been gathered or observed personally.
Introduction to the property and department Sheraton Mirage Resort Port Douglas is a biggest resort in tropical North Queensland, also a winning award of best resort in North Queensland of one of the best restaurant in Australia. This resort has 4 food and beverages outlet, Lagoons Restaurant that serves buffet and a-la carte breakfast, a-la carte lunch and seafood buffet dinner that currently only open on weekend due to the low occupancy at the moment. There is also Il Pescatore Restaurant that serves a-la carte Italian dinner food.
This restaurant also won some awards due to the quality of food. There is also Daintree Lounge that opens from 5pm until late, this outlet serves wide range of drinks and offers happy hours from 6pm until 7pm with 25% off discount and also serves light supper menu and in room dining menu. The menu is most likely similar with Il Pescatore’s menu. The last outlet is Zai Japanese Restaurant that currently not opening but on going for re-opening on June. Department that been addressed This report will be focusing on Lagoons breakfast shift and a bits and pieces from Daintree Lounge.
Discussion and Issue Communication As stated before that communication in Lagoons Restaurant has been a major issue that occurring. There is been some miscommunications regarding work between all of the management in food and beverages department, manager to staff, team leader to staff etc. This issue sometimes gives a big impact to operation because most at the time, staff that plays the big role in operating the restaurant is not given accurate information from the upper level of management and it is causing some confusion between staff since there is no certainty.
Food and beverages manager also takes a big part in this issue since staff barely meet the manager and talk with the manager to even discuss some works. Manager most likely being in the office with some paper works and barely brief the staff. There was also one time that this behaviour causing to slow down some breakfast service caused by miscommunication between team leader, public area and food and beverages manager. From staff point of view From a personal point of view, this communication issue is a very disturbing issue since confusion is most likely occurring all the time and it is affecting the whole operation system.
Also it is also been discovered that food and beverages manager does not put enough respects to lower level management which is staff. For example transferring to another department without even discussing with the staff first or even changing the roster suddenly without any prior notice, also putting staff’s name in banquet roster without any notice and most staff get accused of missing in action because the staff did not even put their name on banquet roster. From team leader point of view
Hitesh (Team Leader of Lagoons Restaurant) stated that communication is the biggest issue in food and beverages department and confusion almost occurring at most the time due to the food and beverages manager that sometimes gives some instruction but in fact, the instruction given was not accurate. For example, there was a time that the team leader was given instruction to come in to work an hour earlier to set up terrace for breakfast and was told that the terrace will be cleaned by the public area attendant and ready by 6. 0am, but when the team leader arrived at work at like 6. 45, the public area were not there and when the team leader tried to re-confirm, the housekeeping supervisor said that there is no instruction from the food and beverages manager to clean up terrace. The team leader thought that this act would detain the operation. From Guest point of view This might be the most important reasons why communication becomes the most disturbing issue in the food and beverages department because the resort main goal is to optimize the guest satisfaction.
From some of the guest comment card that had been analysed it could be implied that miscommunication causes some confusion and disappointment regarding the service. JCPTX (2010) stated in the resort review in one of the most famous travel website which is TravelAdvisor. com, that Lagoons Restaurant that advertised as a ‘great’ restaurant which serves the seafood buffet was keep on closing and left them no choice to dine in. They felt disappointed that the information given in media advertisement was not match the situation in the resort. Same case went to Wendychivas52 (2010) that complained about the operating hour of Lagoons Restaurant. Both of the guest comment will be attached as a appendix) From Supervisor point of view Pauline Tan as a supervisor in breakfast shift also agreed with the statement that communication is the biggest issue because of the lack of acknowledgement of the food and beverages manager about standard operating. Sometimes manager would help to run the breakfast shift and telling the staff to work in a different way, or in the other words, different with the training that the staffs was given, it would cause some confusion about the working standard and procedure.
Another thing about communication was the way food and beverages manager approaches the staff was not supportive and was not encouraging staff to do a better job. This could bring the spirit down and disrespect. From Human Resources point of view (Academic Learning) Excellent interpersonal or human relation skill is vitally required for the management in order to become a successful leader as in supervisor, team leader, food and beverages manager or even an owner of a hospitality property.
This is especially true for both side of management as in upper level and lower level management to having a daily contact everyday and of course with valued customer. In this case, communication process contributes significantly to the overall interpersonal skills, thus ability to communicate effectively will undoubtedly play a huge role in the success or failure of a operation system (Sommerville, 2007) Influence to the staff, guest and management Influence to the staff
The staff would definitely felt no respect from the upper level of management because a lot of things kept changing without any prior notice and it would affect the job performance. Kusluvan (2003) implied that communication positively related to job performance, though it can be mediated by communication overload. It is most effective when it is timely and appropriate and enables employee to develop a clear understanding of what is required for job.
Involvement in decision making by the lower level management could have a positive impact in hospitality industry because the front line employees can quickly respond to the customer service request. Influence to the guest Guest would be the person that influenced because Sheraton Mirage’s most priority is for guest satisfaction and as it was mentioned before that this miscommunication lead the guest to disappointment and confusion. Influence to the management or property
The food and beverages management was a little bit mess with this kind of system, there is no proper standard as it most likely changing without any notice and it would be a little bit difficult for management to keep on maintaining the standard because also there is no proper training had been held for each staff to learn how the standard procedure is. Analysis Reasons why communication is the biggest issue in food and beverages department. Food and beverages manager did not really communicate with the staff. In this case, it was very crucial for the manager to actually approaches staff and supportive to staff whether the staff made some istakes, but in fact, manager barely even communicate and talk to the staff or even did some briefing. As stated also that the way manager communicates with the staff was attacking to the wrong point instead of supporting and explaining how it was supposed to be done, for example instead of teaching staff a better and correct way how to do the cash up procedure (cash up procedure is the most difficult after-operation procedure that not many staff were trained to do it), the manager just simply ask the staff to not undergoing any cash up procedure.
This act will obviously made staff felt like they were not trusted and disrespected. Thus, manager was too busy with some paperwork’s and sometimes neglected the operation and gave all of the operation matters to the Assistant Food and Beverages Manager that sometimes was too much under pressure. Inconsistent job allocation In breakfast shift, all the staffs were allocated to take care one of the section, except for buffet and dishes runner.
Sometimes when it gets too busy or one section is busy, another section that was not busy would jumped in and give a hand, but the problem is when it was busy, sometimes the staff did not do the hand over explanation properly, so the whole situation was not clear and it would create some confusion. Outdated media technology and advertisement Outdated Media Technology It was not a secret that Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas was a very old resort with an outdated technology and facilities. This outdated technology also takes role in miscommunication.
For example some of the guest list for the breakfast buffet that included in the room rate was not always accurate. Based on the personal experience, a guest name was not stated that the guest was entitled a breakfast buffet for 2 person, it made the guest unhappy and it slowed down the service because the team leader needed to re-confirm with the receptionist regarding this issue, and it was discovered that all of the guest list was done manually so there was some possibilities that the guest name was missing in the list due careless of the receptionist. Outdated advertisement
Advertisement plays a very big role in up selling the resort and the whole Sheraton’s product, but when the advertisement and commercial was not updated with the current and correct information, this may cause disappointment and confusion for both guest and staff. As stated before about the Lagoons dinner seafood buffet that advertised open every day due to the high occupancy and currently only open on weekend due to the low occupancy, but the advertisement was not updated that causing many guest complaining about the false information in media communication.
There was no permanent supervisor in Daintree Lounge There were 3 different supervisors with different standard that had been working in Daintree. There had not been a single supervisor up in Daintree Lounge since November 2009 and it kept going until a third week of December 2009, and this supervisor resigned on January 2010 without any prior notice that left all of the staff that had not undergo training with no standard procedure. Up until June 2010, there were more than 3 people that were given a supervisor and team leader position.
Every supervisor has their own standard and insisted staff to follow them Since there were so many turnover in Daintree Lounge in management operation, the entire staff as well need to adjust themself for a new supervisor and standard and it was not an easy thing because every single supervisor had their own standard and staff were obligated to followed it so it could be said that actually there was no permanent standard operation procedure. It was been difficult for staff to always keep adjusting themself with a new leader and new standard because most of the supervisor that came up to Daintree did not have a proper bar experience.
Recommendation and Conclusion Recommendation More brand training for staff and manager. In this case, training is crucially important because it not only incredibly helps in communication but also helps the resort to maintain the Starwood standard. Training for staff It is staff’s right to get a proper training and it is also crucial to conduct a regularly standard just to maintain the Starwood standard. With training not only standard is achieved but also communication would be mproved because with training management team would know the characteristic of staff even better, because in order to approach the staff, management should be using a different kind of method. Also it is important for some foreigner that English was not their mother language, to have a proper training procedure as well. Chen and Clark (2007) stated that Hyatt has communication training for non-English-speaking-employee which is called ‘English as a second language’ (ESL) that aimed to improve the communication relation between management, staff and guest. Training for food and beverages manager.
In this case, based on personal research and acknowledgement, the food and beverages were lack of leadership and knowledge that was crucial as for food and beverages manager, it would be much better if the management arrange some training for the manager to giving more concept and cognitive of being a good manager and leader. MBW (Manage by Walking) system Manage by walking simply means observe every single outlet in the resort such as housekeeping, food and beverages, front office, porter, etc. Also having a little bit chat and ask about the work etc would be very good to improve the communication within management and staff.
Also a letterbox of comment or anything about the opinion of the staff is also welcomed by the manager because the staff might be had something private to tell to the manager. Know the staff better Most of the employee and manager’s communication are most likely to involve large range different style of communication. Manager need to be able to assess the nature of the styles of communication that they engage with employees and ensure that they are not locked into a style that is inappropriate for a work context (Kusluvan, 2003).
It was also stressed that the fundamental importance of the effectiveness of these communication is one of the most powerful and pervasive supervisory in order to communicate better. More respect to staff Lastly but not least that food and beverages manager need to put more respect to the staff and treat staff equally because by more supportive and approachable, it would obviously increasing the quality of communication since staff will be more open to the manager and also improve the quality of work.
Conclusion To conclude, communication was a biggest issue in food and beverages department in Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas. By interviewed some supervisor and made some research it was discovered that most of the problems were originated from the food and beverages manager behaviour that lack of respect and knowledge about the leadership and brand standard. It was causing a quite big impact for service operation such as guest complaint and roster sudden changing without a prior notice.
For a better improvement, first of all the manager needs to realise that quality work came from a good encouragement, moreover staff could do their best to achieve the company’s goal since they were being supported, thus manager needs to be more open about personal opinion and critics, lastly, training is strongly encouraged to improve communication and brand standard. References: Hitesh Doultani, Lagoons Team Leader, (Personal Interview, May 18, 2010) Kusluvan, S, Managing Employee Attitude and Behaviours in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, 2003, Nova Science Publishers Inc, New York
Pauline Tan, Lagoons AM Breakfast Supervisor, (Personal Interview, May 18, 2010) Sommerville, Kerry L, Hospitality Employee Management and Supervision: Concept and Practical Application, 2007, John Willey and Sons Inc, New Jersey Wei, C, Clarke, A, International Hospitality Management, 2007, 1st Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, USA Save Your Dollars, Wendychivas52, Tripadvisor. com, 2010, viewed 20th May 2010, 3 Star Hotels at the Best. The most horrible service and rooms at the Starwood property ever, JCPTX, Tripadvisor. com, viewed 20th May 2010, Appendix “3 Star Hotel at Best…… he most horrible service/rooms at a Starwood Property ever” By JCPTX, 27th April 2010 My wife and I arrived to the hotel while on our honeymoon, after spending a week down in Sydney. We were recommended this hotel by SPG Gold concierge. They described it, just as the website says. “The only 5 Star beachfront hotel in Port Douglas! “. This hotel is not even close to 5 Stars, as they demonstrated the most poor service we’ve ever had at a hotel, while continuing to operate a hotel that is in so need of a renovation that it shoudn’t even be open, unless they want to call themselves 3 Star.
So I will be honest and fair with the notes below Guest Room- Great View of the lagoons. The carpet has a few stains on them. The room has these control panels next to the bed that looks like you should be operating a spaceship from it. This controls everything in the room, however it looks dirty and worn. The bathroom is very small, with a large shower/tub, that has a glass wall with large writing on it, that says in English and Japanese “Bathtub fills in 15 minutes”, like this is supposed to excite me that it will take 15 minutes to fill a tub?
If you want to close the blinds into the bathroom you have to search for a small gold knob which is not labeled, we had to call the front desk. The safe in the room is the size of a small show box, and if you want to use it you have to now go back to the front desk and ask for some weird key as they put in some kind of metal lockbox that is not user friendly at all. There are no working deadbolts or locks on the door. We called and spoke to Adam at the front desk in the afternoon and asked if they had any rooms with locks on them and he said no, they are all the same. Our lock didn’t work, we tried it multiple times.
The minibar in the room has small bottles of Evian in them for $8, a little steep considering you can find them in town for $3, i can get over 200% markup but $8 is quite excessive. The CD player in the room has been in there since I think CD players were invented, total piece of crap. The TV, has to be about a 14inch screen, super small, has small cracks and knicks all over it, looks like it had been dropped 10x on the floor just beaten up over the years. Towels for the pools- If you want a towel for the pool you have to bring this plastic key card with you and are only allowed one towel per card, they give you 2 at check in.
We forgot our plastic cards the first day and when we went for a simple brown beach towel we were refused, and had to go back to the room. Being treated like a child for something as simple as a pool towel is absolutely ridiclious, this policy should be completely revisited by upper management, what 5 star hotel keeps track of towels like they are handing out expensive jewelry? Pools- The pools are very nice size, however the sand surrounding the pools is full of ants and flies that were fortunately not biteing us very much but other guests around us, had to move and leave the area because there kids were getting bit by ants.
As Front Desk explained “We have a shuttle that takes our guests into town and it leaves every 30 minutes” WHen you get on the shuttle, they charge you $15 per couple per round trip, A 5 Star hotel should provide a comp shuttle into town especially when its a 3 minute ride into town. F- They advertise all of these “Great” restaurants buts they keep them all closed and only have one open a day, while we were there, leaving no choice to the guest on what they want to eat. Breakfast Buffet in Lagoons is $40, I’ll pay $40 but I don’t expect to be told when I ask for ice water to the server to go get it myself from the buffet.
The servers did absolutely nothing except clear plates. The 2 managers just sat at the host stand crossing off names the entire time, and half the time there weren’t even busy, but they didn’t move from this spot. They also told us when came in for breakfast that because of Annax day, since they had to pay more to the staff to work on a holiday the cost to the guest was 15% more. First-why tell a guest this? Second- Shouldn’t a 5 star hotel eat this cost, a guest is already paying a premium to be there on a holiday weekend, from a guests perspective this was just taking advantage of a situation.
Stella Artois Beer- $11. 80??????????????????????????????????? Coca-Cola- in Lagoons $5. 50 for a soda fountain drink in a small 8oz glass full of ice, dispensed through a soda gun. If you ask for a bottle of coke which they have in the minibar you are refused in the restaurant. Another sample of taking advantage of the guest. This is ridiclious……. While in Sydney we stayed at a very nice “5 Star Hotel” whose prices were comparable to these but somewhat cheaper, but they also had the facilites to backup the price.
They didn’t have a hotel that was built 35 years ago and looks like it hasn’t been touched. They also served the quality of food you expect at a 5 Star Hotel. The quality of food at the SHeraton was horrible. It should also be mentioned that the following complaints/feedback were expressed to numerous managers throughout our stay, Adam at the Front Desk, Peta at the Front Desk, some tall guy in F&B, that seemed clueless, another F&B manager in lagoons that always seemed like he forgot to shave.
All of them just said the same line, it appeared that they get this kind of feedback alot, “SIr we will pass along your comments to our upper management and co-workers”. I expected at a SPG Gold guest to be given some sort of attention when bringing these items to managements attention, but they coudn’t have cared less. Save yourself the time and the cash and go somewhere else, where they will actually appreciate you coming to their hotel and treat you the way you deserve to be treated. Numerous times for guest recovery with management, nobody cared we didn’t enjoy our stay.
Save Your Dollars By Wendychivas52, 23th March 2010 On our third (and last) return to Sheraton Mirage, we were looking forward to what used to be a great restaurant. The first disappointment was that it is only open on Saturday nights , apparently this is their off-season so as a guest, we have to cop it sweet, (even though the information compendium in the rooms says it’s open every night) – Then when we checked out the food on offer it (mostly) looked as though it was re-heated leftovers from the day before.
The kangaroo was dried out and looked revolting, the fried seafood in batter was soft and squooshy and pale and the biggest disappointment of all were the prawns – which ponged! Certainly not fresh, and completely flavourless. My husband ate one and refused to touch any more. (and felt ill in the night) Everything we ate was a disappointment, except for the desserts, which were all lovely. We were astonished to find that the buffet was $85 per person, PLUS $5. 50 each for a long black!!!!!!!! Including a bottle of wine, the total was around $250, which was a total rip-off.
We were very disappointed to hear another table discussing the wine buffet, which was about $22 a head – the staff didn’t inform us of this, which would at least have been some value for our money. We gave the restaurant another chance today with their high tea at $39. 50 for 2 people. This consisted of 4 sandwich quarters (1 sandwich total) and a scone each with packet jams & honey and a few buffet dessert leftover squares. Pretty lack-lustre. As we only returned to this hotel for the great food, they have lost us forever!!!!! VERY disappointing.
