Hampton Inn Case Study

HAMPTON INN: THE 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

Mary Bourland

March 19, 2005

1. The philosophy behind the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee is to have the guests act as quality-assurance inspectors by identifying quality deficiencies and reporting them to hotel employees. I do think that this is a good way to improve service quality; however, I am not sure that it is the best way. While it may seem to consumers that employees will try harder to satisfy them, if employees are empowered to refund a customer's money, they do not have to answer to management, they can just do it.

2. The implications of the 100% Guarantee for (a) guests, (b) managers, (c) owners of the hotel buildings and (d) Promus are:

a) Guests - that no matter what happens, even if the hotel really did nothing wrong, they can get their money back.

b) Managers - that they have very little to no control over their property or employees. It seems like many important decisions have been taken away from managers, and they can not react in the best interest for the hotel chain because what's in the customer's best interest is usually not the same as the company's best interest.

c) Owners of the Hotel Buildings - that they need to keep their facilities in tip top condition or else customers will be dissatisfied with their experience and demand their money back.

d) Promus - that this is a program that can enhance the quality of their hotel system.

3. I think that since certain events are "uncontrollable" it would be more realistic to exclude them from the guarantee, but it seems like people really respond to the candor of the Hampton Inn employees and respect the fact that they are being honest