Case Study - Managing Quality Belaire Casino Hotel
The Belaire Casino Hotel is a 50-room hotel and casino in the Nyanga highlands of east-central Zimbabwe. Located 2700-kilometers and three hours drive from the capital, Harare, the hotel serves as a conference center and destination resort. Its facilities include two sizeable conference rooms, two restaurants, a billiard room, a swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, riding stables, a sauna, a fishing pond, slot machines, roulette, blackjack, etc. Single rooms with breakfast are provided for 44 Zimbabwe dollars per day. The main restaurant is open all week and serves a set lunch and dinner, while a small a la carte menu of light food is available in the bar, the common rooms and on the patio. During the weekends the second restaurant is opened with an a la carte menu.
Most guests come by car from within Zimbabwe and from South Africa via Harare. The area includes several hotels without casinos, Mt. Inyanga (7,500 feet) and the surrounding national park, lakes stocked with trout, golf courses, and many interesting rock formations and scenic vistas. The area is a popular summer resort with a number of private cottages nearby. Because of the long history of farming and cattle-raising in the area, there is relatively little evidence of wild game. Because of the elevation, the winters are quite cold.
Security at the Belaire is not a problem, despite being only 30 kilometers from the on-and-off fighting in Mozambique. Most of the staff live in the neighboring villages and walk to work. Underemployment in the areas is heavy and jobs at the hotel prized. However, the staff seems to have frequent difficulty remembering who ordered what at a table, mixes up the laundry on occasion, and occasionally writes down the wrong number for an international phone call. The manager, Mr. Tracy Andrews, 28, who had arrived six months before, posts on the bulletin board in the main hallway next to the front desk, the tabulation of client surveys and the listing of client comments.
The Belaire staff is friendly and courteous to all but the most boorish guests. The food is of lesser quality and style than the Troutbeck Inn, the standard of service in the area, which does not have a casino, but does have a golf course. The typical room contains two single beds side-by-side to serve as a double bed, a desk, two small armchairs, a large storage closet, a coffee table, a telephone, a "radio" in the nightstand playing taped music, and a separate bath which is functional, but spartan. Each guest is asked the hour at which they wished to be awakened and at that hour, a waiter arrives at their room door with their preference of tea or coffee. International telephone calls are usually completed in 15 minutes, while calls to Harare often take several hours to place. Power outages are infrequent.
The betting habits of the guests are quite varied, with the players at the roulette table wagering anything from 50¢ to thousand dollar chips. A sign outside the casino indicates that no jeans are allowed. Mr. Andrews said that the policy is not usually enforced with women, but is with men. His experience at another hotel had been that men who wore jeans to the casino tended to be more "rowdy, heavy-drinking and abusive of the croupiers." The advertising brochure for the hotel showed happy guests in the casino in black tie and evening dresses, but seldom does an actual guest wear such formal dress. A sign over the bar entrance said "smart casual only after 7 p.m." but is not enforced. A similar sign at the Troutbeck Hotel appears to have the same effect, although most of the diners at the Troutbeck's restaurant wear coats and ties, something seldom seen at the Belaire Casino's restaurant. The kitchens at both hotels close at 9 p.m., but the bar closes at 11 p.m. and the casino even later. The small gift shop with postcards, crafts, toiletry essentials, and souvenir clothing is open from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 2 to 5 p.m. Limited room service is available.
The Belaire Casino Hotel is owned by a well-known chain of medium-priced hotels in Zimbabwe licensed to use an international trademark, but it does not usually advertise itself as such. As Mr. Andrews says, "We are part of the chain and we aren't. So long as our bottom line is all right, they leave us alone."
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What tools can the Belaire apply to address issues of quality?
2. Conduct an analysis of both sets of data.
3. What is your recommendation to Mr. Andrews?