An Elon University professor's work sheds light on emerging ethical issues in the hotel industry as travelers and employees confront a rocky economy.
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Recent economic woes and the growth of Internet travel sites have led to a new crop of ethical concerns for the men and women who manage hotels, and as Elon University associate professor Betsy Stevens documents in new research, those quandaries create implications for preserving a brand’s reputation as well as its bottom line.
“Hotel Managers Identify Key Ethical Problems: A Survey of their Concerns,” which appears in the October issue of FIU Hospitality Review, summarizes interviews Stevens conducted with 35 general managers at hotels across the Southeast and Midwest. “Something has brought out rude behaviors in people, and I think it’s a combination of the recession and the Internet,” Stevens said. “When you get general managers talking, you hear all kinds of stories.”
Her most recent article is a follow-up to a similar survey conducted a decade ago. In that time, the proliferation of hotel rate information on the web – coupled with a prolonged recession in 2008 and 2009 – created new ethical situations for managers juggling high turnover, low work motivation and owner demands to maximize profit. The most recent interviews she conducted produced a “rich trove of stories.”
For instance:
– One manager found a handyman living in a room on a floor closed for remodeling
– The manager of a luxury hotel said he was offered $59 for a room; the customer said he would leave if his offer was not accepted
– Theft by employees and guests was a key issue mentioned by some managers, including the theft of toiletries and toilet paper, even M& M’s being taken from the gift shop by the night front desk crew
Stevens found that managers worry most about the ethics of maintaining rate integrity in the hotel management industry. Rate integrity, which involves maintaining the value customers perceive of a commodity through pricing, is threatened on two fronts – from customers who arrive at the front desk and insist on paying only a certain amount knowing the hotel has empty rooms, and from corporate clients who sign large contracts to guarantee rates before applying overt pressure to renegotiate prices.
For instance, airlines will purchase a bulk number of rooms from a hotel near an airport to house flight crews. A hotel may face pressure from an airline to rework the contract, Stevens explained, or the company will not-so-subtly suggest that it will find a neighboring hotel with which to do business once the contract expires. Yet the most aggressive behavior is from the guests themselves.
“Verbal aggressiveness from boorish customers can be unsettling for employees and cause undue stress,” Stevens writes in the article. “Several managers reported the would-be customers were aggressive in their communication styles and spoke in demanding tones. Managers were concerned that their front desk employees had to endure some abuse along with the rate negotiations.”
The challenge, she said, is for managers to also balance the need for profit with the importance of maintaining brand integrity. If the building is half empty, why not take a low offer to fill a room if the guest may purchase alcohol or food from the hotel restaurant, which is where larger profits are made? The trade-off, Stevens said, is that customers may continue to act aggressively on their next visit, and accepting low offers can harm a company’s reputation.
Other industry concerns included low motivation or lack of work ethic; owner-versus-management issues; diversity issues and theft from both guests and employees.
“Part-time employment is a common feature in hotels and brings with it turnover, a lack of commitment, and a workforce that is often less educated,” she writes. “Hotel rooms are frequently used for purposes of questionable legitimacy. Managers are challenged by the very nature of the industry and its unique features. The right thing to do is not always apparent and they must make close calls in difficult situations.”
Stevens is a faculty member in the Department of Management in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. An internationally recognized scholar in the field of business ethics and corporate ethical codes, her academic interests are in business and management communication, business ethics, international communication and hospitality management.
An active researcher, she has published more than 25 articles in refereed journals such as The Journal of Business Ethics, Business Communication Quarterly, The Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Journal of Business Communication, the Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organizational Studies, the Journal of Employment Counseling and FIU Hospitality Review.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Stevens taught at Tomsk State University in Russia and at the Australian International Hotel School in Canberra, Australia. Stevens taught a study abroad course in New Zealand for seven years and is currently teaching “Business and Culture of Vietnam,” a course which focuses on business and the hospitality industry in Vietnam.
She joined the Elon University faculty in 2001 and holds her doctorate in organizational communication from Wayne State University.