READ THE SMALL CASE STUDY BELOW

AND ANSWER THE QUESTION

I WANT TO HEAR YOUR OPINIONS.

Rob Clifford is the director of food and beverage at the Peninsula Hotel in New York, New York, which has a ten$-$room, $6,000-$square$-$foot banquet$/$meeting facility. Sue Chase is an event planner in New York City who has been planning a very important employee recognition$/$ awards dinner banquet for a large, local company in the city. She has arranged to have the dinner at the Peninsula Hotel. The dinner will be for $450$ people, served buffet style with three separate buffets, and the total for the event has come to approximately $$10,000.$

The schedule for the evening is supposed to go as follows:

$5$:$30$ PM$$Arrival of Guests$/$Cash Bar Opens

$6$:$00$ PM$$Welcome speech given by the president of the company

$($Guests mingle after the welcome speech and before dinner$)$

$7$:$00$ PM$$Dinner $($Buffet is to be opened$)$

$8$:$30$ PM$$Awards are given

$10$:$00$ PM$$Adjourn

Rob has spoken to Sue about the schedule for the night, and she has told him that they still plan on eating, and want the food ready at $7$ PM$.$

During the welcome speech, the president of the company welcomed his employees, recognized the board of directors, and briefly talked about how the night will go$.$ Unexpectedly at the end of his speech, around $6$:$15$ PM$,$ he gives the board of directors the go$-$ahead to begin helping themselves to the buffet. The board of directors followed by three other groups of VIP guests sitting at reserved tables got up and proceeded to the buffet lines. The Peninsula Hotel hadn't planned to put their cold food out on the buffets until $6$:$35$ PM$,$ followed by their hot food around $6$:$45$ PM$.$ The banquet staff immediately began bringing out food, but it took almost $15$ minutes to get all the food ready on all three buffets. All food was brought out while the board of directors and the VIP guests were standing in line, waiting.

Although Rob and the rest of the staff acted quickly to this unexpected change, the president of the company was furious that the board of directors, his VIP guests, along with himself had to wait in line while the food was put out and into chafers. Because of how unhappy he was about the food, the president of the company is refusing to pay the full amount of money that he owes to Sue, and Sue is demanding a discount from the Peninsula Hotel food and beverage department. The Peninsula feels that they did their job by speaking to the event planner prior to the beginning of the event to confirm the time that the food should be out and that it is not their fault that the president invited guests to the buffets $45$ minutes prior to the scheduled time.

Do you feel that Rob should honor the request and discount their event? Why or why not?