At a recent staff meeting, the General Manager of The Times Hotel asked if anyone wanted to address any conflict within the group. The Director of Housekeeping indicated he was at a loss in trying to work with the front desk clerks. He had repeatedly called the desk clerks last Tuesday to let them know that general housecleaning should have been performed on the seventh and eighth floors on Wednesday morning, and that they should not assign rooms on those floors to guests on Tuesday night. When the cleaning crew came to work on Wednesday morning, they were faced with 14 occupied rooms on the seventh floor and 12 occupied rooms on the eighth floor. This cost the hotel since the cleaning crew was from an outsourced contract company, which charged the hotel a basic fee for failing to comply with the contract. The Front Office Manager responded that a bus group called two (2) weeks ago and asked if any rooms were available because there was a mix-up in room rates at the group’s original hotel. The Front Office Manager indicated something must have gone wrong in the computer system.
After all, this was a good opportunity to bring in 26 additional room-nights.

Question:

• What is the problem based on the case? If you were the General Manager (GM), how would you solve such a problem? Discuss your recommendations.
• What key job functions and roles of a GM are exercised in solving this case? Support your answer.