WEEK 6: CRISIS ACTION PLAN AND RESPONSE

For this assignment I have to create a crisis action plan and compose a positive reply to send to Mr. Ward in order to handle this bad news situation. you have to read all of the information below and then construct a crisis action plan for the company, while also writing a positive reply to Mr. Ward's email. I am not sure how I am supposed to write thie Crisis Action Plan

The information found on Persuade Cafe on this home page, Mr. Ward's Email, the TripAdvisor Review, the Tweet, and the YouTube Video found in Tabs at the top of the page. II have posted that information below as images.

1. Begin with a title page.
2. Create a two- to three-page paper showing your crisis action plan to handle this situation.
3. Prepare an email response to Kevin Ward's email.

Posted below is the information you will be using in order to create the crisis action plan and compose a positive reply to send to Mr. Ward to handle this bad news situation.

Email from Kevin Ward

Customer Review

TWEET

Colonnade Hotel and Resort Case Developed by Amy Newman and Sherri Kimes, Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration Home Mr. Ward's Email TripAdvisor Review Tweet Responding to a Customer Complaint Scenario You are the general manager of Colonnade Hotel and Resort, an independent property in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Having worked at the Colonnade for four years, you are no stranger to customer service complaints. As the general manager, you rely on your front desk agents to provide quality service and prevent most issues from being escalated to you; however, of course, not all customers can be satisfied. When you arrive at the property on Monday morning, you are faced with one of those customer situations that requires your attention. As you open your email inbox, you see a message with the subject line, "Shut out of the Colonnade." You take a deep breath, sip your latte, and open the message. As an experienced manager, you know to gather more information before responding to the guest. You discuss the situation with Kathy, the front desk agent on duty, who confirms Mr. Ward's version of the incident and tells you that his son got the whole thing on video." When you go back to your office, you do what you know must be done: search the Internet for posts about the situation. On TripAdvisor, you see a negative review about the hotel. On Twitter, you discover Mr. Ward's tweet. And on YouTube, you find the video that captured the front desk exchange (below). Assignment Write an email response to Mr. Ward. In your message, you will want to acknowledge and apologize for the incident and invite his family to return to the hotel. If done well, your email will encourage Mr. Ward to post an update on TripAdvisor that presents Colonnade Hotel and Resort in a more positive light. You might consider how much detail to provide about the overbooking policy. Regardless of your rationale, overbooking may be difficult for even the most agreeable customer to accept. Background Information For more context, read about the Colonnade, overbooking policies, and the hotel's procedure for "walking" guests. About Colonnade Hotel and Resort The Colonnade is a 250-room, 4-star hotel that caters to business and leisure travelers. The hotel has been open for ten years and recently went through a complete renovation. It is centrally located close to both the major office centers and the well-known city parks and museums. The hotel has received fairly good reviews on TripAdvisor and other travel sites and has a high rate of repeat guests. In addition to the 250 rooms, the hotel has approximately 50,000 square feet of meeting space and three restaurants. Overbooking Policies Like most hotels, the Colonnade overbooks to protect itself against no-shows. The number of rooms the hotel overbooks depends on how many no-shows are expected each night. Management tries to predict this number with 100% accuracy, but they are not always successful, which is what happened when Mr. Ward arrived with his family. The hotel asks guests to guarantee their reservation with a credit card. If guests with a credit card guarantee do not show up, their credit card is charged for the room. Customers are informed of this policy when they make their reservation, and it is reinforced in an email confirmation. For more information about overbooking at hotels, you may read a recent New York Times article about the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Colonnade Hotel and Resort's Walking Procedures The following information is communicated to employees in the Colonnade handbook: As you know, even though we take credit card guarantees, we still have some no-shows. Because of this, we will sometimes overbook the hotel. This is usually not a problem, but there are times when you may need to relocate guests to other hotels. When this happens, be sure to follow the Colonnade Hotel and Resort Walking Procedures: Negotiate walk rates with referral hotels before walking guests. Obtain the selling status of comparable area hotels. Avoid walking Colonnade Prestige Club level members whenever possible. Inform the guests that the hotel cannot honor their reservation because of unexpected stayovers, but that we will pay for their room at a comparable hotel. Offer to forward all messages or calls to the guests at the other hotel. Provide relocated guests with a "walk letter" from the shift leader so that charges can be directly billed to the Colonnade. Enter the walked guests' name and the referral hotel's phone number in the property management system under the VIP guest section. This ensures that we provide the guests with exceptional service and do not walk them on a future stay. If the guests return the following day, provide an upgraded room, if possible. Also, a personal note of apology from the general manager should be placed in the guests' room. Send a VIP gift from the front office manager or general manager upon the guests' return. if the guests do not return to the hotel, send a personal note to their home address. . Email from Kevin Ward To: Pat Fielding, General Manager From: Kevin Ward Subject: Shut out of the Colonnade Dear Pat Fielding I'd like to bring to your attention a horrible experience I had with my family last week at the Colonnade. For my parents' 50th anniversary celebration, 15 of us booked rooms at the hotel eight months ago. We had heard good things about the Colonnade and were all looking forward to the trip. However, when my wife, son, and I arrived at about 10 p.m. last Friday, we were told by Kathy, the front desk agent, that the hotel was booked, and no rooms were available for us. How could this be, when we pre-paid for our rooms so far in advance? My brother and his family also were shut out (although my sister and parents had already checked in earlier). My family and my brother's family were both sent to different hotels in different directions. I appreciate receiving the first night's stay courtesy of the Colonnade, but this really misses the point: We all wanted to be in the same hotel. We live in different cities and don't get to spend much time together. I want to understand your policy. How can this happen?? And what can you do for my family, who spent four days negotiating meeting times and taking taxis back and forth to see each other? I look forward to your response, Kevin Ward o tripadvisor World's most trusted travel advice" Home Hotels Flights Restaurants Vacation Rentals NEW Trip Ideas Write a Review City, hotel name, etc Search Fort Lauderdale Colonnade Hotel and Resort Fort Lauderdale Tourism Fort Lauderdale Hotels No available room for our parents' 50th anniversary! Vacation Rentals 00000 Save Review Flights to Fort kward55 20 contributions various Lauderdale Sep 17 | Trip type: Family Fort Lauderdale Deals 7 people found this review helpful More On Fort What a scam! My whole family (15 of us) made plans 8 months ago to celebrate my parents' Lauderdale anniversary together. We heard great things about the CHR (and it was beautiful), but when Restaurants my wife, son, and I arrived at 10 p.m., we were told the hotel was overbooked, and we had to stay at another hotel 15 miles away. The front desk agent was nice enough (although she didn't look Things to Do too happy about the situation), and CHR paid for our first night, but what a hassle! And my poor Travel Forum parents -- this was their dream...to celebrate their 50th with their 3 children and 7 grandchildren from all over the country. My brother came in later than we did, and he and his family were sent to yet another hotel in another direction. What's the point of making reservations far in advance and reserving with a credit card?? Every day, we were on the phone trying to make plans and taking taxis to and from the hotel to see each other. It was crazy. Check out our video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqPeva-fiNA Travel Guide Photos Videos twitter Kevin WardLA Follow Lists Arrived at the Colonnade, but they were overbooked! Now our family is scattered among three hotels-not the 50th anniv. my parents hoped for