The Baldrige Framework for the Hotel Industry

          The Ritz-Carlton Hotels L.L.C is the only hotels

industry that receives the Baldridge Award twice. They
received it 1992 and 1999. The Ritz-CarltonHotel
Company, L.L.C. has identified key production processes
as part of the ir important criteria in achieving the
Baldridge Award.
Changing customeased on the success of Ritz-Carlton
Hotels, the Baldrigr/market requirements is
incorporated into production and support processes,
which assists in prioritizing processes and each
production and support process is assigned an
“executive owner” at the corporate office, who is
responsible for the development/improvement of these
processes.Be framework can indeed be implemented in
the hotel industry by putting the customers as the focus
of the hotel industry. To do this, the leadership triad is
implemented thoroughly with the focus on quality
management implementation.the pyramid approach is
utilized by putting the customers' needs as the most
important things of the whole hotel sector. The Results
Triad will be achieved as it is an interrelated criteria for
the Leadership triad. Ritz Carlton strategy to achieve 100
percent loyalty can be followed by other hotels.  In its
operations, the Ritz Carlton set the target of“ defect-
free” experiences for guests, implementing a
measurement system to chart progress toward
elimination of all customer problems, no matter how
minor.To cultivate customer loyalty, The Ritz-Carlton has
instituted an approach of“ customer customization,”
which relies on extensive data gathering and capitalizes
on the capabilities of advanced information technology
and information gathered during various types of
customer contacts, such as responses to service
requests by overnight guests or post-event reviews
conducted with meeting planners, are systematically
entered into a database, which holds almost a million
files (NIST, 1999).     In order to satisfy the needs of the
customers, the management of the hotel must at first
change and plan for a better strategic management and
quality. Quality planning must start from the president
and other senior executives. They need to meet
frequently to review and discuss the best way to
improve and serve their customers. The discussion can
be about quality of products (food, facilities,
equipments, etc) and services, guest satisfaction, market
growth and development, organizational indicators,
profits and competitive status. A detailed planning
approach by the management must be adopted by the
upper management and cascaded down to the rest of
the organizations.The management must set up a quality
team which will serve as are ference and implement
their quality plans. The quality must be measured and
analyzed yearly to ensure that the planning and decision
making can be smooth. The hotels cannot be satisfied
with their current situation and they need to make sure
that quality and excellence services are provided daily
throughout their years of services.
     In order to satisfy the needs of the customers, the
management of the hotel must at first change and plan
for a better strategic management and quality. Quality
planning must start from the president and other senior
executives. They need to meet frequently to review and
discuss the best way to improve and serve their
customers. The discussion can be about quality of
products (food, facilities, equipments, etc) and services,
guest satisfaction, market growth and development,
organizational indicators, profits and competitive status.
A detailed planning approach by the management must
be adopted by the upper management and cascaded
down to the rest of the organizations.The management
must set up a quality team which will serve as are
ference and implement their quality plans. The quality
must be measured and analyzed yearly to ensure that
the planning and decision making can be smooth. The
hotels cannot be satisfied with their current situation
and they need to make sure that quality and excellence
services are provided daily throughout their years of
services.
In order to achieve customers' satisfaction, all
employees must go for an intensive employee’s
development training frequently. During the quality
training, the employees must learn the concepts, control
tools, techniques on how to do the jobs in the highest
quality set by the hotel management. They also need to
learn as a team. Employees are not allowed to bean
individualistic. Each employee must understand adhere
to the standard set by the management of the hotel.his
will lead to the empowerment of the employees in
handling customers need and because of this
empowerment, employees would beable to act at first
notice of the customers' complaints. The other
employeesregardless of their post and jobs description
need to work as a team andsupport the employee that
handling the customers' complaints. In Ritz Carlton,the
corporate motto is "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies
andgentlemen."The employees are trained to do quality
work fast but in a veryefficient manner. To provide
superior service, Ritz-Carlton trains employeeswith a
thorough orientation, followed by on-the-job training,
then jobcertification. Ritz-Carlton values are reinforced
continuously by daily"line ups," frequent recognition for
extraordinary achievement, and aperformance appraisal
based on expectations explained during the
orientation,training, and certification processes (NIST,
2001).
Ritz-Carlton has taughtother hotel industries to focus
oncustomer satisfaction and this satisfactions and
needs must come from the management processes of
the hotel and it must be supported through an
integrated system of information analysis, total
employeeparticipation, training, and the continuous
effort to improve service andproduct quality. The
Baldrige Award comprises a framework that is an
integralpart of achieving the best and highest quality
service. The criteria is not astandalone criteria. It
compliments each other and by focusing on the
customerneeds, the whole hotel system will be required
to change as the support systemwill come from the
management and the other employee.