Reference no: EM132262903

Gill Bates, manager of the Bates Hotel, is considering how to restructure the front desk to reach an optimum level of staff efficiency and guest service. At present, the hotel has five clerks on duty, each with a separate waiting line, during peak check-in time of 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Observation of arrivals during this period shows that an average of 90 guests arrive each hour (although there is no upward limit on the number that could arrive at any given time). It takes an average of 3 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register each guest.

Gill is considering three plans for improving guest service by reducing the length of time that guests spend waiting in line. The first proposal would designate one employee as a quick-service clerk for guests registering under corporate accounts, a market segment that fills about 30% of all occupied rooms. Because corporate guests are preregistered, their registration takes just 2 minutes. With these guests separated from the rest of the clientele, the average time for registering a typical guest would climb to 3.4 minutes. Under this plan, non-corporate guests would choose any of the remaining four lines.

The second plan is to implement a single-line system. All guests could form a single waiting line to be served by whichever of five clerks became available. This option would require sufficient lobby space for what could be a substantial queue.

The use of an automatic kiosk for check-ins is the basis of the third proposal. This kiosk would provide about the same service rate as would a clerk but this service rate would be constant. Every customer would take the same amount of time. Gill estimates that 20% of customers, primarily frequent guests, would be willing to use the machines.   Gill would set up a single queue for customers who prefer human check-in clerks. This line would be served by the five clerks, although she is hopeful that the kiosk will allow a reduction to four.

Determine the average amount of time that a guest spends checking in currently. How would this change under each of the stated options?

Which option do you recommend? If there are other considerations discuss them here.

Present the results in the form of a table that will help management understand them and help in the decision making process.