Department of Accountancy

School of Business and Economics

University of San Carlos
P. del Rosario St., Cebu City, 6000

HOTEL BRAVO
______________________________________________________________________

A CASE STUDY
Presented to
Mr. Cris Edren L. dela Peña, MBA-TRM

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements of the Course
GE-FEL-HAFH (Home Away from Home)
______________________________________________________________________

Submitted by:
BAHANDE, TRISHA MAE G.
BSA-2 | MW | 4:30-6:00

April 16, 2020

Discussion Questions

1. What alternatives does the hotel have to improve the service issues mentioned by
the guests? Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of providing a fully automated hotel
versus keeping their current systems.

Toll-free number to call for reservations

Having a toll-free number provides convenience to customers since they can

make reservations free of charge. Through this, guests can reach the hotel
easier and get their questions answered. Making the reservations easier and
hassle-free would more likely keep the guests booking reservations again in the
future. This can greatly help in addressing the hotel’s current problem of regular
guests not returning. Moreover, it can also bring brand recognition and credibility
to the hotel.

However, the management must note if the costs in implementing this service
would outweigh the benefits. Another drawback could also be bearing calling
charges for fake and casual calls. These can happen more likely with a free
calling facility.

An alternative to this would be providing more ways of hotel reservation, which

can make use of online platforms, such as social media. It can be easily
accessed and can also be a good marketing tool for the hotel.

Training for New Employees

One of the issues identified is a lack of frequent guest recognition by the newer
front desk employees. This must be greatly emphasized since front desk
employees play a key role in the success of the hotel and the satisfaction of
customers. The hotel must give off a good first impression to its guests to
increase the likelihood of the guests returning. Training the employees will no
doubt incur expenses, however, the benefit outweighs the costs since this will
bring long-term benefits to the hotel. Training employees increases job
satisfaction, motivation and morale among employees and will make them more
efficient and effective in their assigned responsibilities.

Supervision and Frequent Evaluation of Employees

To make sure that the training was effective, managers should frequently
supervise and evaluate its employees to make sure that each process are
performed by the employees efficiently and effectively.

Fully automated (Computer Based) System

Hotel Bravo is currently making use of a semi-automated front desk which entails
manual encoding of reservations and arrival lists. Under this system,
communication across the different departments are manual and decentralized.
This type of front desk system certainly contributed to the issues identified,
specifically, slow registration processing and slow check-out processing. To
address this issue, Hotel Bravo must greatly consider implementing a fully
automated system wherein there is an excessive use of departmental software
package programs integrated and connected to a main frame or terminal situated
at the front office department.

In the pre-arrival stage, the reservation department can automatically generate

letters of confirmation and handle pre-registration activities with more ease with
the aid of the system. Moreover, these important data are also filed more
securely since the system makes use of a database which stores information
digitally. It will be then easier to retrieve important information which makes
transactions with the hotel faster.

In the arrival stage, various reservation records are then easily transferred to the
front office department and all other information gathered are saved in electronic
guest folios. This will be then followed by the occupancy stage, where guest
 purchases at different revenue outlets are posted to the appropriate guest
accounts. Lastly, in the departure stage, cashiers can automatically produce bills
which will be sent to the respective guests. Due to the system used, billings will
be more accurate, which will address Hotel Bravo’s issue of frequently inaccurate
guest billing.

As explained above, implementing a fully automated system bring about a lot of

benefits for the hotel, however, this is very costly to implement. The hotel would
not just incur expenses for the system itself but must also invest time and money
in training the personnel who will man such system. However, it cannot be
denied how this would provide long-term benefits to the hotel.

2. If the hotel’s owners decide not to implement a fully automated front desk, what else
can Ace do to minimize the problems identified by the guests? Are there other
systems besides a front desk computer that can help this situation?

Pre-register guests

These are activities which are done prior to guest arrival which helps in
accelerating the check-in process. In this process, the reservation staff must get
most guest information while making the reservation so that the guest would only
verify the information instead of writing them down at the time of check-in.

Better accounting controls

It was pointed out how billings are frequently inaccurate. To address this, the
hotel must systematically file all of their source documents in a more logical way
so as to prevent loss or inaccuracies in computing for the guest’s final billing.
There must be proper verification, which must be done both in a manual and
automated process.
Other Systems that can help besides a front desk computer:

Establish a digital employee portal

Employees must have access to information which are necessary in carrying out
their respective tasks at the highest level. Through the portal, different types of
resources are shared, which may include incoming VIP guests, best practices
and maintenance announcements.

Development of clear policies and processes

The manager must frequently evaluate if there must be changes made to the
processes of each department. Afterwards corresponding action must be made,
may it be restructuring of the company policies or providing additional training to
the employees.

Manual back-up of Important data

Although storing important information digitally is secure, Hotel Bravo must still
have a back-up of its important documents in response to system breakdowns
which may arise.

3. What forms and reports should Ace be reviewing to see if they can be simplified or
eliminated? What other department managers should he include in this review?

Reports which can be simplified or eliminated would be:

Housekeeping Report

This provides details on room status, room notes and current guests. Ace should
review the format of such report since this report is crucial for communicating
housekeeping information.
 Daily Manager’s Report

This recaps all the activities which took place within the last 24 hours. It includes
hotel statistics, like the total earnings from a hotel’s different revenue centers,
from its rooms, as well as its food and beverage outlets. The structure of this
report must be structured in way that it is easily comparable to previous earning
figures and forecasted budgets.

Departures Report

This shows who is scheduled to leave the hotel in the current day and the next
day. This will help in identifying guests that did not check out and other potential
issues such as overbookings. The report must include all necessary information
so as to correctly audit the hotel’s current occupancy situation.

The other department managers that Ace could include in the review would be the
managers of each respective revenue center, specifically the rooms department and the
food and beverage department. Moreover, the users of the reports which are
enumerated above must also be consulted to identify the issues with such reports and
make corresponding changes to improve the processes of the hotel.