Improving the usability of hotel appliances with minimum engineering assistance

Abstract

The TV, AC, and faucet in a hotel room should be the easiest things to operate. Although complaints from the guests to the engineering department have increased significantly over the years. The primary goal of this study is to investigate the guests' difficulties and identify the relationship between guests' abilities and what are the influencing factors. The objective of this study is to develop clear-cut recommendations to solve these concerns by focusing on complaints related to guests’ inability to use appliances. The method uses an exploratory research design, and the first phase of the research is based on a qualitative approach, while the second phase is based on a quantitative approach. This study categorized the main influencing factors into two: technical factors and personal factors. Interviews conducted with duty runners and duty engineers were the primary data collection, as well as the complaint database can be identified as a secondary data collection method. Process modeling, Pareto analysis, cause and effect diagram, and correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. The results show that there are some correlations between technical factors and guests’ abilities as well as personal factors and guests’ abilities. One of the recommendations includes a video that contains instructions on how to use the appliances presented using Sri Lankan traditions, which is a solution and emerged as an expert opinion during the discussions with duty engineers and duty runners in the hotel.