Recommendation Report on West Indies Yacht Club Resort
Purpose of the report
The vacation industry in British Virgin Island (BVI) is developed into a profitable, but highly competitive market. One of the major players is the West Indies Yacht Club Resort (WIYCR), operates successfully since its inception in late 1980s. However, recently some problems became alarming, seriously affect the operating performance of the resort. Investigation is needed. I, Patrick Dowd, am honor to be the investigator. The purpose of this report is to discuss the problems in the resort, why they exist and the corresponding solutions.
Problems in the resort
WIYCR is troubled with internal problems that started to affect its normal operation. Expatriate turnover rate is nearly high enough to be problematic; there is a three-fold increase in guest complaints recently; relationship between expatriate and local staff is poor; and there appear to be low employee motivation.
Analysis of the problems
Management
In WIYCR, management team is divided into two parts: head office in Chicago and resort management in BVI. Due to the lack of sensitivity of BVI vacation market, the Chicago office had over-booked the resort by 20 percent without telling the guests. Therefore, during the peak season the number of guests is much greater than the carrying capacity of the resort. There was no enough staff to serve the guest, even there were no enough rooms available for guests, so they had to stay on boats for few nights until rooms become available. Complaints from guests are inevitable. Moreover, since Chicago office continues its over-booking practice over the past 3 years, ignoring the opposition from the Rooms Division Manager and staff under the department. This partly contributes the current low staff morale.
Culture
The structure of the resort is as follows: managers are mostly expatriates; while local staff works at lower-level positions. Their cultures are very different. Therefore, lack of cross-culture sensitivity is
The vacation industry in British Virgin Island (BVI) is developed into a profitable, but highly competitive market. One of the major players is the West Indies Yacht Club Resort (WIYCR), operates successfully since its inception in late 1980s. However, recently some problems became alarming, seriously affect the operating performance of the resort. Investigation is needed. I, Patrick Dowd, am honor to be the investigator. The purpose of this report is to discuss the problems in the resort, why they exist and the corresponding solutions.
Problems in the resort
WIYCR is troubled with internal problems that started to affect its normal operation. Expatriate turnover rate is nearly high enough to be problematic; there is a three-fold increase in guest complaints recently; relationship between expatriate and local staff is poor; and there appear to be low employee motivation.
Analysis of the problems
Management
In WIYCR, management team is divided into two parts: head office in Chicago and resort management in BVI. Due to the lack of sensitivity of BVI vacation market, the Chicago office had over-booked the resort by 20 percent without telling the guests. Therefore, during the peak season the number of guests is much greater than the carrying capacity of the resort. There was no enough staff to serve the guest, even there were no enough rooms available for guests, so they had to stay on boats for few nights until rooms become available. Complaints from guests are inevitable. Moreover, since Chicago office continues its over-booking practice over the past 3 years, ignoring the opposition from the Rooms Division Manager and staff under the department. This partly contributes the current low staff morale.
Culture
The structure of the resort is as follows: managers are mostly expatriates; while local staff works at lower-level positions. Their cultures are very different. Therefore, lack of cross-culture sensitivity is