Royal Crown Hotel - Barcelona

Case Study Scenario

As the Event Planner for International Events you were given a brief to find and organize a pharmaceutical product launch and conference for Lombard Pharmaceuticals in Spain. You selected The four star Royal Crown Hotel , Barcelona as the venue mainly because there had been excellent on-line reviews, the conference facilities met your clients requirements and the sister Crown Hotel was within 1 miles walking distance of the main venue. It was also within budget. There were 500 delegates attending the conference of which 276 had chosen to bring partners along.

However, following the conference in June 2013, you were called into your managers office to discuss the series of telephone conversations that had taken place that morning. Your manager, Richard Whittington and the client are both absolutely livid. From the clients point of view it had been a complete disaster.

The first phone call had been from the CEO of Lombard Pharmaceuticals.

‘I had hoped that by having our Product Launch and Conference booked by a supposedly professional Events Planning company that the launch would run extremely smoothly and the hotel venue would have the requisite location, facilities and level of service required. However, the whole event was a complete shambles and has damaged our image in the eyes of our customers. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Didn't anyone check that the route from the Airport to the hotel was clear? Major road works meant that the journey from the airport to the hotel took one and a half hours not the 30 minutes as specified. All the delegates were directed to the Royal Crown Hotel although many were actually booked into the Crown Hotel. This resulted in delegates having to then embark on another journey to get to the hotel they were actually staying in. And all this after sitting in a hot bus in a traffic jam for a very long time. As the buses arrived together at the hotel, the queues at the hotel reception were very long and many delegates queued a long time to then be told to go to another hotel which just added to their frustration. The reception staff were rude and surly as if it was the delegate's fault that they had arrived at the wrong hotel. And clearly whoever chose this hotel did not carry out enough research, as we were advised by the hotel not to walk out at night on our own and not to wear expensive clothes or jewelry. It was the red light district for goodness sake which did not go down well with the delegate's wives and partners. The accommodation at the Crown Hotel is of a much lower standard than The Royal Crown and many delegates took offense and felt that they had been "downgraded".

One of the delegates told me

"When we first arrived at the hotel we were rudely treated and told to sign for our rooms, when going into the room we noticed a horrible damp smell that didn't seem to cease in the 2 days that we were there. The ceiling of the bathroom had black mould growing above the shower and the wallpaper reminded me of the 1970's. Also the towels that were provided were not changed since the previous guest as there was make-up on them…. The bar staff were very rude and treated us as though we were an inconvenience to them for using services that they provide!”

This is just so embarrassing for Lombard.

There was a Spa at the Royal Crown but not at The Crown so the delegates partners who were booked into the Crown had to travel if they wanted to use the facilities and all this when they had been advised not to walk alone in the area. This meant that these partners had little to entertain them during the day. And the spa was nothing to write home about as one of the wives told me as many of the wet facilities were closed for refurbishment. This is not the sort of hotel I want my delegates to stay in. I cannot understand why we have ended up in this situation.

I had hoped that at least the final conference dinner would run smoothly, but again we were badly let down. The cocktail reception was a farce: the choice of non-alcoholic drinks that we specially ordered didn’t appear until the last minute, and as the President’s wife is teetotal, you can imagine the embarrassment that caused! And why did the reception drag on for so long? Why didn't the function run to time?

But, worse was yet to come. The meal was the worst I have ever seen! I never expect banquet food to be as good as à la carte, but this was awful! The starter was dried up and chewy, and the sweet soufflés were flat and rubbery. And we couldn’t believe that anyone could mess up a simple entrée. We were served the cutlets and potatoes, but the sauce and vegetables didn’t appear until I’d nearly finished mine.

I can tell you straight – we won’t be paying all your charges or the charges to the hotel for this complete fiasco and I expect a written apology to all the delegates for all the upset we have been caused. The Chairman must seriously wonder why I let you organize our conference and I think he has a point ...’

Next, with the Deputy General Manager of Royal Crown, Senora Rodriguez in the absence of the General Manager :

Please be assured that I will investigate this matter fully, however, I have been informed by my Conference Manager that your event planner was informed that the delegates would be split between the two hotels and that this is a very vibrant part of Barcelona. Your company gave no detailed rooming list or indication over who should stay at each of the hotels. The fact that the Crown Hotel is only a 3 star hotel should have been evident from the difference in room rack rates.

Behind the scenes at the Royal Crown various staff involved in the banquet made the following comments

From the Conference Manager:
'….The liaison with the Event Planner was poor and she spoke no Spanish. The last minute requirement for non-alcoholic beverages was telephoned through at the last minute and misunderstood. It should have been on the booking form. Some of these problems are down to International Events: if they don't follow the system, it's their fault. We were also hampered by 3 of the event team who called in sick at the last minute and it was too late to find replacements to lay up the room. This delayed the start of the banquet.'

From the Head Chef:
‘... I always get a detailed schedule from the head waiter. I get the fish, the sauces, the vegetables and the desserts ready according to that schedule – if things run as late as they did last night, you can expect a few problems. Cooking is an art. All the chefs know how to cook to perfection every time, but if we can’t serve the food when it’s ready, it will be messed up. I can tell you that if you think the customer was angry, you should have come into the kitchen. Some of the conference delegates were rude to the waiters, who came back into the kitchen and told the chefs. All the staff were really upset and Juan, our sauce chef, refused to start on the cutlet sauce until the fish course was cleared.’