An Introduction: Service Excellence Analysis of Premier Inn
Introduction
Service industry offers intangible goods or
services to the customers and meets their demands and requirements. Unlike
manufacturing sectors, service industries do not depend on sale of physical
goods instead they provide the necessary and valuable services to the society. Premier
Inn, a UK-based one of the largest hotel chains has been selected for this
report. Current report will shed light on both positive and negative facets of
service excellence for Premier Inn hotel. The report will evaluate these
aspects by using the service quality gaps model and discuss what gaps are
prevalent in Premier Inn. Further, the report will present three
recommendations for the hotel to apply into their service to bridge the gaps
which were identified in the report.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Premier Inn is largest hotel brand of the
United Kingdom that operates its hotels at different locations such as;
airports, suburbs and city centres. The hotel gives tough competition to their
competitors like Travelodge, Holiday Inn, Marriott and many more. Premier inn
was founded in 1987 and its head office situated in the Dunstable, England. The
company operates above 800 hotels across the United Kingdom, United Arab
Emirates, Ireland and Germany. Currently, the hotel provides almost 80,000 rooms
and has nearly 20,000 employees (Premier Inn, 2019). Whitbread PLC is a parent
company of the Premier Inn and provides outstanding services, offering individuals
more ways to explore, connect and experience their world.
The mission of the Premier Inn is to become
favourite destination of choice providing flexible, professional and
personalised hospitality services to the leisure market. The hotel appeals to various
markets by a combination of locations and services, including, luxury, premium
and budget-friendly accommodations services. Premier Inn is owned by Whitbread majority
of hotels are in the United Kingdom. The group generated 3.0 billion British
pounds in revenue in the year of 2023/2024 (Statista, 2025). The organisation
has seen growth after the Covid-19 pandemic because of its outstanding
performance which further helped to obtained greater competitive advantages.
In recent years, Premier Inn has experienced
different challenges and controversies that have adversely affected the
reputation and image of the brand. The issues involve staff shortage, hygiene
and maintenance, refund issues and poor customer service. Undercover operations
performed by a reporter of Channels 4 has disclosed the unhygienic and
unethical cleaning practices of the London Bridge Branch of Premier Inn (Tomorrow's
FM, 2018).
FINDINGS, ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
Service
Quality Gaps Analysis
Figure 1: Service Quality Gaps Model
(Source: BA Theories, 2023)
From above image, it can be seen
that the service quality gaps are divided into two parts internal and external marketer
gap and consumer gap.
Gap one: The knowledge
gap
The gap shows the lack of knowledge of the
organisation among what they assume consumer want and what consumer really need
(Wijaya et al, 2021). It is analysed that this kind of thing happen when there is lack of
marketing research, insufficient utilisation of market research and
unsatisfactory customer relationship focus. This is evident with Premier Inn
whose guests complain regarding hygiene and situation of rooms. The company does
not focus on the feedback which would provide better insights about guest’s
needs.
Gap two: Standards gap
The second emphasises the difference
among what management identify and understand about expectations of consumers
and service quality being delivered. This happens because of ineffective
service design and poor service standards. Management of Premier Inn fails to provide
the quality services and it is clearly evident in Premier Inn. The customer
reviews about the services on Trip Advisor ‘poor service and unresolved issue’
(Trip Advisor, 2024). It is most crucial for the management to address these
issues effectively.
Gap three: Delivery
gap
Gap three highlights the gaps in delivery of the services. The gap exists when the delivery of service fails to meet the service related standards as well as specifications (Al Shibli and Al-Dhahri, 2021). Again, this gap is clearly apparent in the Premier Inn. The delivery gap arises from deficits in human resource strategies and policies, failure to meet the demand of customers, solve customer’s complaints and ineffective service recovery. The hotel faces the staff shortage issue that prevent the organisation to match the supply and demand. The screen shot which is given below where a customer complaint on social media that they have not received refund.
Gap four:
Communication gap
Gap four shows the gap between
service provided and what was sold to guests by marketing and external
communication. This gap occurs because of poor marketing practices, ineffectual
co-ordination among advertising and business operations and over promising. This
gap is Premier Inn is quite small. The website of the hotel highlights they
offer flexible rates which is true, the hotel offers budget-friendly services (Premier
Inn, 2025). In this terms, the hotel does overpromise with their services.
Gap five: Service
quality gap
The fifth and final gap demonstrates
the gap between overall service quality. It is the variance between what consumers
expect to get in exchange of money and their perception about the service delivered
(Byrd et al, 2021). Although, Premier Inn tries to offer excellent services but due to
the shortage of staff members the hotel is unable to fulfil the demand of
customers immediately.
Service
Blueprint
A service blueprint refers to flowchart of a service that facilitates evaluate the process and to identify the number of contact points among staff members and customers. It also facilitates the company to understand the perspectives of the customers along with the possible bottlenecks or fall points that could assist managers and companies in designing the better services (Lechuga et al, 2023). The service blueprint which is given below is showing the contact points between guests and employees.
In this context, the contact points are
comparatively limited which is typically expected in the budget-friendly hotels.
The staff members only contact with the guests when they arrive in the hotel.
Receptionists contact with the customers at reception desk and assign the rooms
to them which are obligatory. In addition to this, there is the absence of
feedback and review system which is not good at all. It is most essential for
the hotel to ask feedback from the guests after their check out. If the
management focus on improving feedback system then \it would help the hotel to
improve its services by knowing the customer’s perceptions about hotel room
services.
The service blueprint shows three possible fall
points such as; receive order and save room for the guest, registration system
after check-in and billing system after check-out. Premier Inn must focus on
improving their services so that they can attract more customers and meet
guest’s needs.
Application of Servqual Model on Premier Inn
|
Dimensions or factors of Servqual |
Definition |
Example at Premier Inn |
|
Tangibles |
Physical
facilities, appearance of employees and equipment. |
The
physical facilities is somewhat good but there is shortage of staff members (Hoque et al, 2023). |
|
Reliability |
Capability
to execute promised services |
Although
the customers enjoys the budget-friendly rooms but customers also complaint
about refund issues. |
|
Responsiveness |
Readiness
to help customers and promptness |
Because
of lack of staff members, the hotel is unable to provide immediate services
to the company (Sumi and Kabir, 2021). |
|
Assurance |
Trustworthiness, consistency, safety, capability
and security |
The
management does not focus on the hygiene and use unethical work practices that
reduce the trust of customers towards Premier Inn. |
|
Empathy |
Attention on customers and good communications
|
The hotel
has good marketing strategies but they also have to focus on collect feedback
from the customers and pay more attention to their complaints. |
Strategic
Recovery: Root and Cause Analysis
Here are
the solutions for the organisation to fill the gaps.
|
Gaps |
Context of Premier Inn |
Recommended Solutions |
|
The knowledge gap |
Avoiding
complaints of the customers regarding poor room services. |
The hotel
needs to increase customer service team and provide training. If the hotel
has enough staff then they can quickly solve the issues and handle customer’s
complaints more effectively. Premier
Inn can increase the interactions of the customers with the managers (Ifie,
2023). The
management must quickly close the gap after identifying and notify customers
about improvements. |
|
The standards gap |
Poor
hygiene practices and poor state of room |
To reduce
the hygiene related issues, the organisation requires focusing more on their
existing safety standards and making changes. Premier Inn can emphasis more
on improvement of service excellence through making sure that the management
will take corrective actions to improve services (Van Herck, Decock and Fastrich, 2022). |
|
The delivery gap |
No refund
after customer’s complaint |
Offer
compensation to the customers if they cancel room bookings or face any other
problem. This would increase the trust of the customers towards the hotel and
they will definitely choose the Premier Inn gain in future (PJ et al, 2023). |
From research, it has evaluated that most of the
customer complaint about the value, rooms, hygiene, cleanliness, sleep and
service (Trip Advisor, 2024). The Premier Inn operates many branches
across the UK BA Theories, 2023 and other regions. Some customers
provide positive reviews about services. Therefore, it can be said that Premier
Inn has ability to offer more fruitful services can easily close the gaps
through increasing their efforts and paying more attention to the customer’s
complaint. It would help to make large customer base and increase profitability.
Pareto Chart
A Pareto chart analysis was carried out on the basis of grouping and blending 85 Trip Advisors reviews from one of the Premier Inn’s branch. It is apparent to see that 80% and more of the problems happen from the quality of room and staff practices at hotel. Customers said rooms were not clean that is really a major issue. Thus, Premium Inn needs to address the issues as soon as possible.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion, it has been articulated that
Premier In has faced several problems which adversely impact their reputation
and image among people. From the reviews on trip advisor, it is proven that the
hotel did not refund after customer’s complaint and some customers also faced cleanliness
and hygiene related issues. The company had to put efforts to improve services in
order to survive in the constantly changing hospitality industry. If the hotel
enhances its services, then it would not only change customer perception
towards the hotel but also help to achieve greater competitive advantage in the
UK market. Here are three recommendations for the Premier that can help to fill
the gaps and enhance service quality.
Ø The biggest problem is unhygienic
practices which must be improved. Premier Inn is recommended to ‘establish the
standards and make the strict regulations’. The hotel can conduct the audit on
regular basis and supervise daily activities and operations. It would be
helpful to identify the employees who show unethical behaviours and the hotel
can take immediate actions against. Moreover, the hotel should pay attention on
enhancing quality of rooms and make sure the housekeeping staff cleans the
rooms before arrival of guests.
Ø Another recommendation would be to ‘enhance
current complaints management’. This could be done through different options
such as; online customer service system or asking feedback from the guests
face-to-face at the time of checkout. The hotel staff can also talk with the guests
during their stay in the hotel about services. It would help the managers to
understand whether the services are fulfilling the customer’s expectations or
need some improvements. By doing so, Premier Inn can immediately solve the
issues, deliver quality services to the guests and enhance brand image in the
market.
Ø Further, Premier Inn needs to make
focus on ‘improving its recruitment and selection practices’. The hotel is
facing many problems because of shortage of employees. If the organisation has
an adequate workforce then they can improve its quality of services. The human
resource department should hire the potential and skilled employees and offer
the training to boost performance and productivity.
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