Reference no: EM13234545

The Hotel Monaco Tatyana Kasykina, manager of the Hotel Monaco, 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 peak check-in time of 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Observation of arrivals during this period shows an average of 90 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 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register each guest. Ms. Kasykina 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 pre-registered , 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 3.4 minutes. Under this plan, non-corporate guests would choose any of the remaining four lines. The second plan is to implement a single line system. All guests would 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 use of an automatic teller machine ( ATM) for check-in's is the basis of the third proposal. This ATM would provide about the same service rate as would a clerk. Because initial use of this technology might be minimal, Kasykina estimates 20% of customers, primarily frequent guests, would be willing to use the machines. ( This might be a conservative estimate if guests perceive direct benefits from using the ATM , as bank customers do. Citibank reports some 95% of its Manhattan customers use its ATM's.)

Ms. Kasykina would set up a single queue for customers who prefer human check-in clerks. This line would be served by the five clerks, although Kasykina is hopeful the ATM machine will allow a reduction to four.

a. Determine the average time a guest spends checking in. How would this change under each of the stated options?

b. which option do you recommend? Specifically state the type of queue configuration. Do NOT say, for example, ‘option 8.