Quality Management at Britannia Hotels - Issues and Recommendations

Britannia Hotels which has 61 branches across the country has been rated Britain’s worst hotel chain for the seventh year running in an annual satisfaction survey carried out by the consumer group Which? (Hobbs, 2019).

Additionally, Britannia hotels has been on the news for various reasons particularly with regards to one of their hotel’s in Scotland, Aviemore Coylumbridge where employees were sent a letter in March informing them that they were ‘no longer required’ blaming the coronavirus outbreak (BBC,2020).

The Scottish Tourism Alliance added in on the controversy, accusing the company's action as "deplorable"(O’Reilly, 2020). Also, the hotel group has received many poor reviews within Trustpilot and TripAdvisor with regards to their provision of customer service.

The following are examples of some of the poor customer reviews on Britannia hotels from Trustpilot-

· “Birmingham Britannia Hotel is a horrible, dirty ran down hell hole. Walls in room had holes and marks everywhere. Double bed was 2 singles pushed together with rock hard mattresses that you could feel every spring through” (Trustpilot, 2020).

· “Disgusting sacking staff because of Covid-19 and turfing onto the street out of hotel accommodation with under 24hrs notice will never stay in Britannia Hotels again. The government is even underwriting 80% of salaries what a dreadful hotel chain” (Trustpilot, 2020).

· “Stayed once. Really, really poor quality. Staff good but Management atrocious” (Trustpilot, 2020)

Prepare a report for the Quality Managers of Britannia hotels. In your report you are expected to identify and describe the concept of quality management. Additionally, you are expected to outline the major issues currently experienced by the organisation and assess the impact of one of the techniques like Kaizen

Benchmarking could have in terms of delivering consistent and effective quality management. Also, you need to provide applicable recommendations to improve the quality.

Please follow the recommended format for an academic report.

· Executive Summary

· Table of Contents

· Introduction

· Main body

· Recommendations

· Assignments should be correctly referenced using the Harvard system of referencing. Incorrect or insufficient referencing will be penalised.

1. Identify and describe the concept of quality management. /25

2. Outline the problems being currently experienced by Britannia hotels. /25

3. Assess the impact that one of the following techniques could have on Britannia hotels in terms of delivering consistent and effective quality management.

· Kaizen or Benchmarking

4. Recommendations/Conclusions /15

5. Layout and Referencing /10

1 Please consider the evolution of quality and quality gurus whilst identifying and describing the concept of quality management.

2 Please consider the reviews given by customers of Britannia hotels on Trustpilot or Which? or TripAdvisor or Twitter/ while outlining the problems currently being experienced by the organisation.

Also, consider providing a rationale in terms of the review provided, from a theoretical context, examine whether Britannia hotels meets the following requirements of Dimensions of Service QualityI. Reliability

II. Responsiveness

III. Assurance

IV. Empathy

V. Tangibles

3 You should consider advantages and disadvantages associated with your chosen technique Kaizen or Benchmarking while assessing the impact of the technique will have in terms of delivering consistent and effective quality management.

4 You should provide recommendations to the problems identified and recommend briefly at least one Total Quality Management concept like Juran’s trilogy or Balanced Scorecard.