Stark Resorts: Taking care of what’s “bugging” your guests
Publication Type
Case
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
Set in February 2019, Stark Resorts Hotel (“Stark Resorts”) is a case based on the real-world experiences of the authors. The hotel, a US$155 million investment, had been plagued by insects since its grand opening 15 months earlier. Of even more concern was the avid social media influencer who had stayed in the resort a year ago and was diagnosed for Dengue fever, which she allegedly caught at the hotel poolside. It didn’t take time for the negative word of mouth to spread. While the staff tried their best to handle the problem and were vigilant about initiating and overseeing the administration of pest control, even they were losing confidence and morale. Stark Resorts’ revenue rate per available room (RevPAR), a key hotel metric, had fallen 6% over the past six months. Other resorts in the area had pest problems as well, but they did not seem to be experiencing the same reputational and financial damage. Jack Lim, the manager at Stark Resorts has his work cut out for him – he has to tackle the pest issue at hand, repair the reputational damage, and win over customer loyalty of his guests. The case will 1) Identify the repercussions that service breakdowns can have on the business of a hotelier, namely its impact on loyalty, guest satisfaction, employee morale, and revenue, 2) Discuss and determine how to handle customer service breakdowns that can undermine the firm’s position in the market, its reputation, customer loyalty, revenue model and, its very existence, 3) Learn about hotel property management principles that can be translated and applied to other service encounters.
Keyword(s)
Service system design, service quality, Service system improvement, Customer experiences, Customer loyalty, Customer retention
Discipline
Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Marketing
Research Areas
Marketing
Data Source
Generalised Experience
Industry
Hotels
Geographic Coverage
Asia
Temporal Coverage
2018
Education Level
Postgraduate; Undergraduate
Publisher
Singapore Management University
Case ID
SMU-19-0035
Additional URL
https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/4216
Comments
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