Case Study and the information

HOTL: 1309 F 22:  Case Study: – Why is the Laundry Costing us so Much?

/16

Name:                                                           Student #:

Instructions: Use this document to add your responses to the questions.  Use the information provided by the Case Study and the information provided by Prof Beccario in lecture and within the Power Points.  Be sure to provide explanations to your points in order to receive full marks.  You need to show that you have an understanding of the questions and the content.

Case Study

When Jonathan, the Restaurant Manager opened his email he noticed a request for a meeting by the General Manager, Mr. Pullen. The participants of the meeting were himself, the Executive Chef, the Executive Housekeeper and the Comptroller. He was initially concerned as he seldom had dealings with the GM. The subject of the meeting was “Linen.” He was relatively new to the hotel and was extremely focused on his labour and beverage cost. He admitted to himself that he really hadn’t given much thought to his linen expenditures. The meeting was scheduled for later today at 2pm.

At the beginning of the meeting it was evident that the Comptroller, Mrs. Bergman was running the meeting. She started off by showing a slide that illustrated the growth of linen costs/rentals over the last two years. She posed the question to the group as to “Why?” The hotel did not add any new rooms, the hotel did not make a large capital expenditure for new linen, no new restaurants were added, hours of operation did not increase in restaurants, so “WHY?”

Both Chef Marcus and Jonathan looked on without an answer.

Mrs. Bergman then started to present her findings. She noted that her “gut” feelings had to do with “linen loss.” Where was it all going?

She then requested that Jonathan, Chef Marcus, and the Executive Housekeeper, Paula Smith investigate this problem and provide some answers as to “linen abuses” and ways to correct this situation. Mr. Pullen then stated a follow-up meeting would be scheduled at the same time a week later to address their findings. It was evident that the GM was not happy with his management teams answer thus far.

For the next 5 days the three managers payed much closer attention to their respective departments and linen usage. They decided on the 6th meet to meet and create a master list of oversights and recommendations.

By the end of the meeting, the list they produced a list that painted a very clear picture.

Laundry workers seemed to not care about linen. At times it was witnessed that staff ran over dirty linen on concrete floors.
RA’s were constantly using hotel room wash cloths as rags to clean floors, toilet bowls, and dust.
There never seemed to be consistency with regards to chemical usage when washing bath robes, and specialty linens.
RA’s were seen using bath towels to wipe down and dry bathtubs and bathroom floors.
It was witnessed that too much heat was used when ironing linen.
Public space cleaners and Restaurant employees were witnessed using restaurant linen napkins to clean ash trays, tables, etc.
Banquet employees were see wrapping broken wine glasses with restaurant linen.
All restaurant staff including kitchen were seen using linen napkins as potholders and rags to clean coffee stations, bread stations, etc.
After a large function for over 250 people it was witnessed that a banquet server took all the tablecloths and wrapped them in a large bundle and dragged them down to laundry.
On one occasion the restaurant was out of linen bags, they utilized a large black garbage bag to collect the linen. The linen bag was then dumped outside laundry. Is it possible that in past bags like this were used a mistakenly thrown away?
Kitchen staff were witnessed using new hand towel as rags
Banquet servers were seen taking clean linen that had been used on display tables and throwing it into the dirty linen pile.

As the three of them sat and looked at the list, they recognized that the GM and Comptroller would not be impressed. They also recognized that they need to get tough on linen abuses and fix these problems?

Answer the questions on the following page.

Case Study Questions & Expectations:

 
Marking Rubric
GRADE

 
Expectations – Completion, Understanding & Critical Thinking

·         All answers apply to the question being asked and contain clear reflective opinions.

·         Responses include logical thinking, supported with examples or evidence from the case study.

·         Responses draw from the course concepts and topics covered in class lecture power points.

·         All answers contain competent grammar, spelling, and are in full sentence/paragraph format.

·         All researched materials are cited using APA referencing guidelines.

The following scoring system will be used for all portions of this assignment:

Scores for each question range from 1 – 3 marks and are based on the levels below.

1 – Limited

2 – Basic

3 – Proficient

4 – Above Average Expectations

See question values below.

Questions:

What other potential abuses could occur within the hotel that would cause increased costs? (x2)

What is the most important thing that all three managers need to do right away? (x2)

Why do so many departments use linen as rags? How can this be corrected? (x2)

How can the Kitchen fix their oversights? (x2)

How can the Restaurant fix their oversights? (x3)

How can housekeeping fix their oversights? (x3)

Why is this “Linen Issue” such a big problem? (x2)