Persuasive Organizational Message Flowing Upward: Providing Handheld GPS Devices to Hotel Guests

Always seeking to solve problems, you have a great idea for an amenity at the hotel where you work. Hotel guests often ask for directions to local restaurants or special local sights. But they sometimes get lost or exasperated when they can't find what they seek. Guests also go walk- ing, jogging, or sightseeing and can't find their way back to the hotel.

As the assistant manager at an upscale hotel in your town or area, you saw a newspaper article about the five-star Rosewood hotel chain. It offers use of handheld GPS navigators free at select properties. You have a GPS device in your car, and you know how amazing it is when it can talk you right to your destination. Clearly, your hotel could distin- guish itself competitively and be among the first to offer this new perk to guests. Rosewood hotels offering this service include The Carlyle (Manhattan), The Mansion on Turtle Creek (Dallas), and Hotel Crescent
Court (Dallas).20 La Jolla Shores, near San Diego, also offers this amenity. You would like to convince your manager to offer this service. On the Web you discover that a Garmin nüvi 260 is just the right size. If a hotel guest is out jogging or sightseeing and loses the way, the guest can hit "home" and the GPS tells the direction back to the hotel from anywhere. The Garmin costs $250, which you think is not excessive. Although your manager is cost-conscious, he loves gadgets. You think that if the GPS device could attract just two guests per month, it would probably be worth it. You like the fact that when hotel guests at Rosewood hotels ask for directions, a concierge can plug in the desired location, hit "go," and the GPS will talk guests through the drive or walk until they arrive.

Your Task. Write a convincing message to Manager Martin Zatari. Before writing, decide what you want to ask. Should you ask for a meeting to discuss the proposal? Should you request a trial period in which you try out one or two GPS navigators? You haven't worked out all of the details of a GPS program, but you think the idea is worth talk- ing about. You will need to gather information about a GPS device that might work for your purpose. Name specific restaurants or local attrac- tions in your memo. What benefits can you suggest for your manager and for the hotel?