Handling Problem of Lacking Customer in Kedaton Hotel Bandung.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya membahas suatu masalah yang dihadapi oleh Hotel Kedaton ; tempat dimana saya magang selama bulan Juli 2014 hingga bulan Agustus 2014. Hotel Kedaton adalah salah satu hotel lokal yang ada di Bandung yang beralamat di Jl. Suniaraja no 14. Saat saya magang di Hotel Kedaton, saya menemukan satu masalah yaitu Hotel Kedaton yang sepi pengunjung. Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya membahas penyebab dan dampak, mengapa Hotel Kedaton sepi pengunjung serta solusinya. Berdasarkan analisis, saya menemukan penyebab yang pertama adalah terlalu banyak persaingan, penyebab yang kedua adalah Hotel Kedaton kurang dalam hal promosi. Saya pun menemukan dampak dari masalah ini yaitu pemasukan dari Hotel yang semakin menurun dan juga Hotel kedaton harus mengurangi karyawannya.

Saat saya menganalisis penyebab dari Hotel Kedaton yang sepi, saya pun menemukan beberapa solusi untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan ini. Solusi yang pertama adalah Hotel Kedaton harus meningkatkan fasilitas dan mempertahankan kualitas pelayanan, supaya pelanggan dapat

merasa nyaman ketika tinggal di Hotel dan dapat menjadi pelanggan tetap. Solusi yang kedua adalah Hotel Kedaton dapat melakukan promosi agar pelanggan tertarik untuk mencoba dan tinggal di Hotel Kedaton. Solusi yang ketiga adalah Hotel harus mempunyai Customer Service yang baik karena, pelanggan harus dibuat senyaman mungkin dan harus

mendapatkan pelayanan yang sangat baik agar mereka menjadikan hotel ini sebagai prioritas atau pilihan utama.

Setelah saya menganalisis solusi tersebut, saya berpendapat

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Hotel business is one of the promising businesses, because there are

many people who choose to stay at hotels when they are traveling for

some days. On the other hand, it is also a challenging business, because

in Bandung there are many new hotels nowadays, which create a

competition among them.

Customers are the most important part in a hotel business. It is

stated in “Why Customers are Important” that ”Customers are the most

important people for any organisation. They are the resource upon which

the success of the business depends” (par. 1). Therefore, it can be said

that the number of the customers will determine the growth and success of

the hotel. A lack of customers can become a serious problem for a hotel.

One of the hotel which has such problem is Kedaton Hotel.

I did my internship at Kedaton Hotel from July 2014 until August 2014.

In my internship, I worked as one of the Front Office staff. As a Front

Office staff, I need to greet the customers, help them in making

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“Smart? Approachable? Flexible? Then making the right impression could

be the right career for you” that “Front office (or front of house) staff are

often the first people guests meet. You might be checking people in,

dealing with questions or complaints, so you’ll need to be friendly, flexible

and happy to help. People like you make a hotel service memorable for all

the right reason” (par. 1).

During the internship, I found one problem that Kedaton Hotel had. The

problem is Kedaton Hotel was lacking in customers. Based on my

interview with Ibu Restu, the Front Office staff who has been working

already there since Kedaton Hotel was built, she said that the number of

customers had been decreasing since 2012 and the worst situation was in

2014. (21 June 2015). She mentioned the number of customers per month

in June until August 2014. In June 2014, there were 1313 customers

staying in Kedaton Hotel, in July the customers were decreasing into 969

customers, and in August 2014 the number of customers kept decreasing

down to 823 (21 June 2015). Kedaton Hotel has around 108 rooms, but

unfortunately there were just few customers who staying in that hotel.

Finally, Kedaton Hotel had to reduce the staff because Kedaton Hotel had

to reduce the cost of expenditure. That is why this problem should be

handled as soon as possible.

During my internship in Kedaton Hotel, I found that Kedaton Hotel only

had a few customers even in high season periods such as Eid holiday and

New Year holiday. There were only 22 rooms sold out of the 108 rooms

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Based on this problem, I would like to find the solution to solve the

problem.

B. Identification of the problem

The problem that I am going to discuss in this paper is formulated in

these questions:

1. Why did the hotel lack of customers?

2. How did this problem affect the hotel?

3. How could the hotel get more customers in the future?

C. Objectives and Benefits of the Study

The objectives of this term paper is to analyse the causes and the

effects of Kedaton Hotel lacking in customers and to give the best

solutions to solve this problem. There are also some benefits for the hotel

and the readers. The benefit for the hotel is the staff of Kedaton Hotel can

know how to atrract more customers in the future. While the benefit for the

readers is they can learn the difficulties that they may face if they want to

run a bussines hotel, and also know how to overcome the problem. The

benefit for me as a writer, I can know how to be a good receptionist so that

I can make the customers comfortable and choose Kedaton Hotel as their

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D. Description of the Institution

Based on the information that I get from the website of Kedaton

Hotel, Kedaton Hotel was built by PT Ajea Catur Eka Pratama in 1997.

It is located on Jl. Suniaraja no 14 Bandung. The hotel has a strategic

location from the centre of the city. It is near from Jalan Braga and it just

takes 15 minutes to Husen Sastranegara Airport. If people want to

depart by train it just takes 5 minutes by car. Kedaton Hotel has 116

rooms and it is divided into 4 categories. They are standard, deluxe,

excecutive and junior suite as the most expensive of all. Kedaton Hotel

has many facilities such as fitness centre, swimming pool, karaoke,

meeting room, sauna, and conference room.

E. Method of the Study

The data of this term paper is based on my internship in Kedaton Hotel

from 14 July until 13 August 2014, the interview with the front office

supervisor and front office manager, my internship journal and library

research. The data of library research are from printed and electronic

sources. The data that I found are used to analyze the causes, the effects,

and the potential solutions.

F. Limitation of the study

The subject of this research is Kedaton Hotel, which has had a lacking

in customers since July until August 2015. I will focus on finding the best

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G. Organization of the Term Paper

The term paper is divided into some parts. The first part of this term

paper is the Abstract, the overall summary of the term paper in Bahasa.

Second, is the Declaration of Originality, and then the next parts are

Acknowledgements and Table of Contents. Chapter One is the

Introduction, containing Background of the Study, Identification of the

problem, Objectives and Benefits of the study, Description of the

Institution, Method of the Study, Limitation of the Study, and the last one is

Organization of the Term Paper. Chapter Two is Problem Analysis. In this

chapter, I will discuss the causes and the effects of my problem. Chapter

Three is about the Potential Solution to solve the problem. This potential

solution has positive and negative effects to be discussed. In Chapter Four

I will explain the conclusion of all analysis. The last part is the Bibliography

and the Appendices which contain the flowchart, hotel brochure, the

transcription of the interview with Richardo, Urip Saefudin, and Restu as

the Surpervisor and Front Office Manager in Hotel Kedaton as well as a

Front Ofice staff who already worked there since Kedaton Hotel was built,

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CHAPTER III

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

In this chapter, I would like to discuss the potential solutions to solve

the problem that Kedaton Hotel had. There are some potential positive

and negative effects of each potential solution. The potential solutions will

be presented in the following paragraphs.

The first potential solution is the hotel should improve the facilities and the

maintenance service of the hotel. The conference room, WiFi, air

conditioner, water, and the food are the things that Kedaton Hotel should

improve. When I did the internship in Kedaton Hotel, many customers

complained about the WiFi was not good, the air conditioner which did not

work well, the water which was dirty, and the breakfast which did not have

many options. Kedaton Hotel has to contact some people such as the

technician to handle the WiFi and air conditioner, the maintenance

department to check the water condition, and the hotel’s food and

beverage department to discuss the menu options. Actually, the hotel

needs to add more meeting rooms because there are only 2 meeting

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Wulanto and Hadi said having complete facilities, and will bring benefit to

the hotel. Moreover, it will make the guests’ interest improve optimally (1).

There is one potential positive effect of this solution. The first potential

positive effect is the customer’s satisfaction will be improved. As Adi Anti

Teror said if a hotel provides more complete facilities, customers will be

more satisfied and finally choose the hotel as their top priority (7). By

having better facilities, the customers will feel more comfortable and

relaxed, so they will enjoy their time at the hotel. If the quality of the hotel

is improved, the customer’s satisfaction will be improved as well.

The second potential positive effect is the hotel will able to compete

with other hotels. By improving the facilities, such as by doing renovation,

the hotel will be able to attract more customers and compete with other

hotels. Renovation is needed to maintain the physical condition of the

hotel. If the physical condition is satisfying, it will give a good impression to

the customers. As Te Fu Chen said “where competition is intense,

renovation seems to be an important strategy for hotels to stay

competitive” (par. 1).

The potential negative effect of my first potential solution is the

customers will feel disturbed by the renovation. As I said before the

Kedaton Hotel just have two meeting rooms. The capacity of the first one

is only twenty people and the second is around fifty people. It will be better

if the hotel can provide some meeting rooms for a larger group of peoples.

Therefore, it can fulfil the need of customers who would like to have a

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renovation, it can have a negative effect as stated in “5 tips for A

Successful Hotel Renovation” that one of the biggest causes for

complaints during a renovation project is the noises it creates (par. 5). By

doing renovation, customers who stay in the hotel may give some

complains or feel dissatisfied because they are disturbed by the noise of

the renovation. As Dedy A., one of the hotel’s customer, said that their visit

was not at the right time, because the hotel was being renovated, so they

feel disturbed by the noise from the ongoing renovation activities (1).

The second potential negative effect of the first potential solution is the

renovation will needs budget. As stated in “Merenovasi Hotel Tua Dengan

Konsep Desain Terkini” that hotels need necessary actions such as

renewing and adding new elements to certain parts. This option need

large cost. (par. 5). Some renovation needs money because the hotel

must build more meeting rooms.

The second potential solution is the hotel should make promotions

such as giving discounts, making brochures, and putting advertisement in

social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Blog, etc. As “Marketing -

Promotion Strategy” said that there are many ways hotels can go about

bringing in more guest at anytime of the year such as make a cooperation

with travel agents, give membership card, etc. (par. 1). Actually, as

“Marketing – Promotion Strategy” said promotion is the method you use to

spread the word about your product or service to customers, stakeholders

and the broader public. (par 1). The right time to do a promotion is when

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condition and ready to be used maximally. Kedaton Hotel could make a

website, or use Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to promote it. The hotel

can have a special program, such as giving the discount during the holiday

or making event such as break fasting in Kedaton Hotel to attract more

customers. As Ivana Taylor said “treat this promotion program like an

event. Promote it, tell your newspaper about it and get the word put

anyway you can. Give new customer a reason to come and try something

new” (par. 13).

This potential solution has two potential positive effects. The first

potential positive effect is the hotel can get more profits. When the hotel

makes a promotion and gives special offers, the customers will be

interested to stay in the hotel. As Stefani and Mukti said for hotel

management, marketing purpose is to sales rooms, food and drinks. With

the increase in sales, the revenues will increase and at the same time will

increase the profit also (par. 1). Therefore, doing a promotion will result in

sales and the profit of the hotel will increase as well.

The second potential positive effect of the second potential solution is

the hotel can get new loyal customers. When the hotel does a promotion

or gives special offers by giving discounts for a few times in a month, it will

attract the customers as Stefani and Mukti said if you want to have loyal

customers, you need to give some appreciations such as a special

discount, to make them loyal to your hotel (par. 7). The hotel needs to

prepare the special offers such as discount or membership card to the

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customers to Kedaton Hotel. A successful promotion will attract the

customer and it will bring benefit to the hotel.

After discussing the positive effect, I will discuss potential negative one.

The potential negative effect of this potential solution, namely the hotel will

need more budget. As Stefani and Mukti said that in order to do a

promotion, it will needs a lot of budget, because promotion is not only

done once or twice but regularly, so that people will remember and be

loyal to your hotel (1). Doing a promotion will require more budget. When

Kedaton Hotel does a promotion such as making brochures, Kedaton

Hotel has to spend more budget for the promotion.

I will discuss the last potential solution for my problem. The third

potential solutions is, the hotel should provide a good customer service.

As K.A. Francis said “good customer service keeps customer coming

back” ( par. 1). It means that the Front Office staff must attend training to

give a better customer service. The good customer service is not just for

receptionists but for all the Front Office staff such as receptionist, bell boy,

and housekeeping staff.

The potential positive effect of the third potential solution is the hotel

will grow and be better than the others. Susanti Wahyuningsih said that

hotels that want to grow must be able to provide qualified and excellent

service (par. 2). When Kedaton Hotel has a good Customer Service the

customer will be satisfied with the service, they will recommend Kedaton

Hotel to their friends then the new customers will come to Kedaton Hotel

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The potential negative effect of the third potential solution is the hotel

will need some budget for training the staff. Training the staff is needed to

improve the hotel’s Customer Service, by hiring a profesional trainer. The

Front Office staff, including housekeeping, and food and beverage staff

need to be trained for a better performance. The hotel needs to spend

more budget for doing the training for the staff. As I. Sirdavanto said that

although workforce training requires a lot of money, but the training must

still be carried out because the training has great benefits for both the