🏨

Al-Munir Hotel Group: Building Customer Relationships

A hospitality management case study. Work through the background and survey data, listen and compare, discuss the meeting agenda with your department group, agree an action plan, and write a personalised sales letter.

📊
Ex A – Background & SurveyAnalyse the case background and the customer satisfaction survey
🎧
Listening TaskListen to a conversation and compare it with your own answers
🗣️
Ex B – Group DiscussionDiscuss the meeting agenda with your department
🤝
Ex C – Action PlanRun the live meeting and agree an action plan
✍️
Ex D – Sales LetterWrite a personalised offer letter to a loyal customer
How this session will run:
  1. Work through Exercise A and the listening task individually.
  2. Split into breakout rooms by department: Guest Relations and Marketing.
  3. One member of each room leads the discussion and takes notes (this is Exercise B).
  4. Bring both rooms back together as one group.
  5. One student plays the role of Head of Guest Relations and chairs the joint meeting.
  6. Share ideas on every agenda item, then agree on a single action plan.
  7. One student presents the action plan, as if to the Al-Munir Board of Directors.
Enter your details to begin
Exercise A

Background & Customer Satisfaction Survey

Read the background, study the survey results, then answer the questions.

Background

Vanessa Schultz has recently been appointed Director of Customer Relations at the Al-Munir Hotel and Spa Group, which operates hotels in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Her first priority is to build stronger, longer-term relationships with guests — especially those who could become regular visitors.

Over the last five years the group has seen some worrying trends:

  • Staff turnover has fallen by 22%
  • Room occupancy has dropped from 81% to 62%
  • Customer surveys show increasing dissatisfaction
  • Guest retention has fallen from 25% to just 8%
  • There is little sign of customer loyalty across the group
  • Two hotels have recently been downgraded from four stars to three

A local hospitality consultant, Abd Al-Halim Hamdi, has been interviewing guests by phone and questionnaire to find out why so many do not return — and is about to report his findings to Vanessa.

Results of the Customer Satisfaction Survey

Average scores this year (5 = outstanding, 4 = good, 3 = average, 2 = below average, 1 = poor)

CategoryScore
Location5
Rooms4
Amenities (restaurant, spa, gym, etc.)3
Service2
Staff (helpfulness, enthusiasm, knowledge)2
Information (about the hotel, local sites & attractions)1
Value for money3
Your analysis
Listening Task

Listen & Compare

Listen to the conversation and compare it with your own answers from Exercise A.

Audio

Listen to the conversation between Vanessa Schultz and the hospitality consultant.

Compare your answers
Exercise B

Meeting Agenda – Group Discussion

Vanessa Schultz has called a meeting of the Guest Relations and Marketing departments. Discuss each agenda item with your group (breakout room) and note your combined ideas.

Agenda item 1–2: Making guests feel valued
  • How can the group make guests feel "special" and "highly valued"?
  • What can be done to reward loyal guests, and to persuade first-time guests to return?
Agenda item 3–4: Staff & guest information
  • What can be done to make staff more motivated and customer-focused?
  • What information should management gather to build an accurate, up-to-date profile of each guest (e.g. how did they hear about the hotel)?
Agenda item 5–6: Long-term relationships & next steps
  • How can the group maintain its relationship with guests after they have left the hotel?
  • What other actions could improve loyalty, raise survey scores, and help the group regain its four-star rating?
Exercise C

Live Meeting & Action Plan

Now bring both departments together in your video call and turn your ideas into a single action plan.

Record the outcome of your meeting
Exercise D

Writing Task: Sales Letter

Apply your action plan to one real guest.

Task

Write a sales letter to Marion Wise, a businesswoman who stays frequently at Al-Munir hotels and is one of the group's most loyal customers. Describe a special offer you are making to a small group of priority customers like her. Make the letter as personalised as possible — use an appropriate greeting, sign-off, and a tone that reflects the relationship-building ideas from your earlier discussion.

✅

Task complete!

Review your answers below, then send them to your teacher.

Click the button below to send your answers directly to your teacher.