Donna
Shader, manager of the Winter Park 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 the peak check-in
time of 3:00 pm. To 5:00 pm. Observation
of arrivals during this time shows that an average of 80 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 3.2
minutes for each front-desk clerk to register each guest. Donna is considering three plans for
improving guest service by reducing the length of time 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
3.8 minutes. Under Plan 1, noncorporate
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
third proposal involves using an automatic teller machine (ATM) for
check-ins. This ATM would provide a
service just slightly better than a clerk, 3.0 minutes. Given that initial use of this technology
might be minimal, Shader estimates that 20% of customers, primarily frequent
guests, would be willing to use the machines. (This might be a conservative
estimate if the guests perceive direct benefits from using the ATM, as bank
customers do. Citibank reports that some
95% of its Manhattan customers use its ATMs.)
Donna would set up a single queue for customers who prefer human
check-in clerks. This would be served by
the five clerks, although Donna is hopeful that the machine
will allow a reduction to four.

Discussion
Questions

1.
Determinetheaverageamountoftimethataguestspendscheckingin
under the current mode of operation. Howwouldthischangeundereachofthestatedoptions?

2.
Whichoptiondoyourecommend?

3.
What other
considerations or limitations should be considered/evaluated?