Occupancy has been so high this year that the hotel has regretted a large number of res-ervation requests. A registered couple was scheduled to leave at 6:00 am on the morning of March 31. A family emergency with their young child called them home late on March 30. The airline accommodated the couple on a red-eye flight without charging for the ticket change. They ask the desk for a late checkout, 9:00 pm, and a half-day rate of $110. The hotel was full that Sunday; most of the business crowd had already filled the house. The manager on duty denied the request because of the late hour and the unlikelihood of servicing and reselling the room. A full nights charge was made, $220. In his letter of complaint, the husband asks to be reimbursed and questions the mean-ing of being a FSG. He notes that I am not a big customer of yours. Adding, Youll prob-ably see me even less frequently now. The FSG profile shows three stays from the family since their membership was launched almost 3 years earlier.

Questions:

1. Was there a management failure here? If so, what?

2. What is the hotels immediate response (or action) to the incident?

3. What further, long-run action should management take? If any?