The Cloud Inn is a $150-$room full$-$service property with several medium$-$sized

conference rooms; it caters mostly to business travelers and visitors

affiliated with the local university. The bulk of the revenue is generated

between August and May, with periods when classes are not in session being

extremely slow. The hotel is at full occupancy only during football weekends

and commencement.

Occupancy has been declining for the last year or so$,$ with last month$$s

RevPAR at a record low. Since arriving at the Cloud Inn, James has made

several observations about the hotel$$s situation. It seems that most of the

problems involve the front desk. After analyzing several previous months$$

comment cards and informally chatting with guests at the hotel, James has

sensed real dissatisfaction with the check$-$in process.

Several common themes have emerged: The process seems to take forever,

the paperwork at check$-$in is perceived as lengthy and hard to fill out, the

front desk clerks always appear to be running around $$like chickens with

their heads cut off,$$ and guests have been checked into rooms that were not

clean. After discussing the problems with the front desk manager, James is in

a quandary about how best to move toward a solution.

The front desk manager complains that the reservations staff does not

always submit the day$$s reservations to the front desk in a timely manner.

Thus, guests arrive, and the desk clerks have no idea what rate was quoted

or the room preference of the guest. This results in the guest having to

refurnish information that was previously given when making the

reservation.

Many times, clerks are forced to leave the guest at the counter while they

attempt to retrieve missing information from the reservations. Further, with

over $65$ percent of the housekeeping staff speaking a first language other

than English, communication is difficult at best, and room status is often

mistaken.