The previous evening's banquet for Plastix International had been a complete disaster and Walter Hollestelle, the hotel General Manager, was still recovering from the series of telephone conversations of that morning.
First, with the Vice-President of Global Marketing, Plastix International Plc: 'I had hoped that by having our annual sales conference at your renowned hotel in Amsterdam, we would be treated to an even better level of service than last year, when we were at Rotterdam; but we were to be deeply disappointed. After all the problems you have caused us over the last two days, from faulty video projection to shortages of cups at coffee breaks, I had hoped that at least the final conference dinner would run smoothly, but you let us down badly. The cocktail reception was a farce: the choice of non-alcoholic drinks that we specially ordered didn't appear until the last minute, and as the president's wife is teetotal, you can imagine the embarrassment that caused! A spilt tray of snacks was not cleared up quickly and several guests got food all over their shoes and dresses. And why did the reception drag on for so long?
'When we were finally asked into the dining room, it clearly wasn't properly prepared. Some of the tables (including ours) were without flowers, which upset my wife, who had been involved with the selection of arrangements.
Even the flowers that were there were the wrong variety and looked as if they had been on the tables since yesterday.
'The meal was the worst I have ever seen! I never expect banquet food to be as good as à la carte, but this was awful! The starter was dried up and chewy and the sweet soufflés were flat and rubbery. And we couldn't believe that anyone could mess up a simple entrée. We were served the cutlets and potatoes, but the sauce and vegetables didn't appear until I'd nearly finished mine.
'And what happened to the microphones on the top table? The photographer didn't turn up either, which is perhaps a blessing as the tables weren't cleared completely after the sweet and I'm sure that everyone would have looked in a bad mood after all the mess-up! I can tell you straight - we won't be paying all your exorbitant charges for this banquet and I expect a written apology for all the upset we have been caused. The president must think I am an idiot to have chosen this hotel, and I think he has a point.' Next, with the Manager of Aalsmeer Electronics: 'I was told that the public address system had to be set up by 7.00 pm. We often do jobs of this type and two hours is more than enough, so we allowed an extra half-hour and started at 4.30 pm. Your staff wouldn't let us get to the tables to wire them and we had to wait until they cleared them off for us.'

Questions
1. Why did things go wrong at the banquet?
2. How could a TQM approach to the hotel’s operations help to prevent such disasters occurring in the future?
3. How could ISO 9000 help the hotel?

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Source: Corbis/Richard T. Nowitz CEPTIO 1300