TYPES OF DECISIONS AT THE HOTEL THE RITZ LONDON

The Ritz London Hotel was a luxury boutique hotel in West London. The hotel started as a 20-room boutique hotel but recently moved into a new building with 120 rooms. Jerrome Laizfertt, the hotel manager, designed a unique hotel that prides itself on providing excellent customer service with individually designed high-quality rooms and a first-class dining experience. However, since moving into the 120-room hotel, reservations and reception manager Scarlett Marie Boise has become increasingly concerned about the level of service. Scarlett says, "When they had 20 rooms, it was easy to provide a quick check-in with check-in forms and regular customer folder. But now, it can be chaotic, especially at the time of departure, when everyone can arrive 5 minutes before the departure time expires. The reception can't cope with this large volume." He goes on to explain, "I used to have 3 receptionists and they all knew what to do, now I have 6 and they don't seem to understand the booking process.

Ended up with rooms with double booking and all kinds of problems that they have to solve. They wish they had time to sit down and do a clearer process and empower everyone, but right now they don't have a lot to do, to make sure customers are happy."

Problems at the reception of the Ritz London Hotel create problems for the maintenance of the house. Chandler Hingham explains, "They don't seem to have any idea which rooms are occupied, and which aren't. My poor ladies run from room to room trying to figure out which ones need a full cleaning service and which ones are busy and need to be tidy. We are tired of throwing clothes and making beds when the client stays in the room. Scarlett needs to figure this out; she can't cope with the reception right now and is doing more work for us."

It's not just the reception at the Ritz London Hotel that's struggling, chef Jacques Piorit explains: "When they had a smaller kitchen with a capacity of 20 toppings at a time, I could guarantee the quality of the meals and that they were delivered quickly. To the restaurant or room service. But now, they had more sous-chefs and waiters, but I just can't do it all. There must be some division between room service and decks in the restaurant, I can't be responsible for both. Their reputation for excellence is at stake." Jacques is also worried about the lack of variety, Jacques says: "They don't have time to develop new special offers or a changing menu that complements the season, they are afraid to end up using the same menu for months and months, but worst of all I fear that the Ritz Hotel London is becoming a chain hotel.

"Jerrome Laizfertt is deeply concerned about the problems the Ritz London Hotel is having, he concludes: "Maybe the expansion of the hotel was not a good idea. He is afraid of losing loyal customers. They believe they need to be a more efficient way, to serve our customers and monitor our service. We believe that to continue, we need to think carefully about our processes and use technology to help us get to know our customers and serve our customers better."

The Ritz London Hotel is struggling with expansion and is finding that becoming a bigger business is more complicated. They don't have clear processes or a system to support their decision-making.

The different decisions they are making in the different areas of the business:

? Strategic

? Tactical

? Operational

Summarize the types of decisions made at each level (top-level; tactical and operational) for the Ritz London Hotel in the following table:

Level of Decision Making Strategic decisions Tactical decisions Operational decisions Types of decisions made