NN GRADUATION PAPER AN INVESTGATION INTO THE REAL SITUATION AND SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE SPA SERVICE AT MUONG THANH LUXURY SONG HAN HOTEL

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING DUY TAN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH GRADUATION PAPER PHAM BAO TU AN INVESTGATION INTO THE REAL SITUATION AND SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE SPA SERVICE AT MUONG THANH LUXURY SONG HAN HOTEL Major : English of Tourism Code : K22.702 Course : 2016-2020 DANANG – May, 2020 Graduation Paper Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING DUY TAN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH GRADUATION PAPER PHAM BAO TU INVESTIGATION INTO THE REAL SITUATION AND SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE SPA SERVICE AT MUONG THANH LUXURY SONG HAN HOTEL Code : K22.702 Course : 2016-2020 SUPERVISOR: BUI THI KIM PHUNG, M.A DANANG – May, 2020 Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my teachers, friends, and family This graduation paper couldn’t have been successfully completed without their invaluable help, advice, and encouragement First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Kim Phung, for his insight, guidance and helpful suggestions during the preparation of this thesis He has assisted me in improving my abilities and skills Next, I am particularly grateful to all of my teachers at the Faculty of English of Duy Tan University for their endless enthusiasm and valuable knowledge they have given to me over the past four years Thirdly, I am thankful to my family and my friends for their love and moral support during my studies and my research work as well Finally, I should also express many thanks to all staff of Duy Tan University for their helpfulness during my attendance at Duy Tan University STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in the whole or in Graduation Paper Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A part from a thesis by which have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution Danang, May, 2020 Pham Bao Tu Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim ABSTRACT This graduation paper investigates the real situation and provides solutions to improving the service quality of the Spa Service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han This case study is carried out based on the theoretical background and the practical data To obtain the results, I have collected a lot of the main related information about Spa, tourist, etc from the primary and secondary sources, such as textbooks, the Internet and the customer’s evaluations of spa through my survey, findings, and observation Based on this information, I would analyze some characteristics of staff, service, organizational structure and tourist resource of Spa, then propose some suggestions to improve the service quality of Spa Service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel Graduation Paper Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A TABLE AND FIGURES List of Charts Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MTLSH : Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Graduation Paper Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, tourism has played an important role in the economy of many countries including Vietnam Every year, it contributes a lot of money to the government budget and creates many opportunities for job Together with tourism are some accompanied services such as restaurant, accommodation, entertainment, spa, and so on One type of business that is growing strongly in recent times is beauty Spa Currently, the demand for beauty and health care is very popular and is a factor to attract tourists, especially women Because guests not need to travel far but still enjoy the comfortable moments in the space of accommodation and guests can experience in a short period of 1-2 hours at any time of the day This helps the hotel increase the value of the accommodation package and bring a large source of revenue Besides, the hotel can take advantage of available facilities to design Spa space, not to waste Spa is also easy to combine with promotions, gratefulness to attract guests in the tourist season and the low season Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel is one of the luxurious hotels in the coastal city of Danang of Muong Thanh Hotel Group Located at 115 Nguyen Van Linh main street of the city, Muong Thanh owns a convenient location, just only 1.5 km from Danang International Airport and km from My Khe Beach, from the hotel, the guests can easily move to the center of Danang and famous tourist destinations: the poetic Han River and beautiful My Khe beach etc Although the quality of the spa is very good but besides, there are a number of factors that need to be overcome Spa services has not really attracted guests For this reasons, I decided to chose this topic: An Investigation into the Real Situation and Some Solutions to Improving the Quality of the Spa Service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel in order to find out the effective measures to remedy the current situation and make spa services more developed in the hotel Aims and Objectives 2.1 Aims This paper aims to study the actual situation of leisure travelers to Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel and I will investigate the real situation of The Spa Service Besides, I also focus on analyzing the quality of spa service, summary of customer feedbacks about service quality from that It helps to understand the problems and I will give some suggestion to improve the quality of the service 2.2 Objectives This paper hope to provide an analysis of service quality at the Spa Service of Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel, find out some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Spa Service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel and suggest some solutions to overcome the weakness Graduation Paper 10 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A Scope of the Study This study mainly focuses on investigating the working of staff at the Spa Service, the attitude of guests about the service and analyzing the number of guests from 2017 to 2019 at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel Then we will find out the measures to satisfy the needs of guests, and recommend some solutions to improving the service quality of the Spa Service Method of the study In this study, I used some methods to support my work Firstly, I used the observation method to direct observation of activities, services and work process of spa service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel has been carried out Secondly, I collected the data from resources at the hotel, books, websites and researches Finally, I used the analysis method to analyze the real situation of the spa service at MTLSH hotel Organization of the study The case study consists of five chapters: Part A is the introduction of the graduation paper including Rationale, Aims and Objectives, Scope of The Study, Method of The Study and Study’s Organization Part B includes: Chapter I is the Theoretical Background about Hotel Business and The Spa Service in Hotel Business Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 35 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Body Therapy Massage The Body Therapy Massage is a traditional therapy with a combination of techniques: reflexology, punching, skin roll, rubbing, pinching, pulling, pushing principles that combine to create micro-wave vibrations generated by the difference in temperature will impact on the human body, helping them to increase energy in the body, wake the body out of state tired With the skillful skills of hands, combined with professional massage technique will help you relax legs and body, eliminate fatigue, aches, and pains Hot stones at a certain temperature will cause small frequencies, impacting acupuncture points throughout the body, giving a sense of sublimation, excitement, and comfortable Price: 790.000 vnd for 60 990.000 vnd for 90 Graduation Paper 36 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A 1.190.000 vnd for 120 Shiatsu massage: Shiatsu massage therapy relies on the use of fingers, thumbs and palms to apply pressure to different areas of the body surface to help heal common diseases and conditions, and correct the imbalance in the body The pressure exerted on points on the body promotes energy flow and adjusts the discord throughout the patient's body In addition to being a profoundly relaxing experience, Shiatsu helps to reduce stress, treat pain and illness, and contribute to the patient's overall health and wellbeing Price: 890.000 vnd for 60 1.090.000 vnd for 90 1.290.000 vnd for 120 Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 37 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Chapter III: ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION 3.1 The Real Situation of Guest’s Arrival at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel in Recent Years Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han hotel is located in the heart of Danang city, 1.5 km from Danang International Airport and easily accessible to famous tourist areas With good service quality, favorable terrain, and extremely favorable prices, the hotel is considered the first choice for airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet to stop at the hotel to rest after each flight and main hotel markets are Korean, Japanese, Chinese However, hotel guests still depend on airlines and casino guests and are not independent about attracting current guests to the hotel Unit: Guest 2017 2018 2019 Quantity % Quantity % Quantity % Target Total Guest 3837 100 8267 100 12845 100 Korean 1782 46,44 3759 45,47 6084 47,36 Japanese 250 6,51 325 3,93 365 2,84 Chinese 1532 39,93 3653 44,19 5670 44,14 Vietnamese 148 3,86 352 4,26 476 3,71 Others 125 3.26 178 2,15 250 1,95 Table 2: Structure of guests by the nationality of Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han in 2017 – 2019 The table above shows the number of guests coming to Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han hotel has increased slightly over the past three years In 2017, the number of guests in this years was just more than 3,000 mostly is Graduation Paper 38 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A Chinese with 1,532 guests But the number of guests increased significantly from 8,267 to 12,845 in the two years 2018 – 2019 with most of the visitors are from Korea and China 3.2 The Real Situation of Spa Service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel in Recent Years Although the total number of customers of the hotel was up to more than 12,000 in 2019, but the number of guests using the Spa service was not high That means the revenue of the Spa Service was not numerous 3.2.1 The Number of Guests Using the Spa Services at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel in 2017 – 2019 Unit: Guests 2017 Services 2018 2019 Quantit y Rate 3837 100 8267 100 12845 100 Spa 185 4,82 207 2,5 259 2,02 Casino 1752 45,78 5784 69,96 8734 68 Food 3837 100 8267 100 12845 100 Others 69 1,8 157 1,9 248 1,93 Total Guests (%) Quantity Rate Quantit y (%) Rate (%) Table 3: The Number of Guests Using the Hotel Services at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel in 2017 – 2019 The table above shows the number of guests using spa services at hotels from 2017 to 2019 As we can see from the table, most guests stay at hotels use food services and casinos Meanwhile, the other services and spa service just accounted for from to percent of total guests From the table, we can Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 39 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim see that the ratio of guests used food service in the hotel stabled through three years The casino increased sharply from 45.78% to 69.96% but by 2019 there is a decrease but not significantly In terms of the spa service, the rate of guests using the service compared to the total number of guests is not high and there appears to be a sharp decrease from 4.82% to 2.02% through three years 3.2.2 The Number of Guests by The Characteristics of Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel in 2017 – 2019 Total of Guest Korean Japanes Proportion (%) Target Quantity Unit: Guests 651 100 499 76,65 Characteristics Sex Male 346 Age Group Femal e 153 45 315 184 0,46 e Chinese 147 22,58 95 52 69 78 Vietnam 0 0 0 Others 0,31 2 Table Structure of guests by the characteristics of MTLSH hotel in three years The table above shows the number of guests by the characteristics of MTLSH hotel in three years We can see that guests using spa services are mostly Korean with 499 guests and Chinese with 147 guests Japanese and other guests have a very low rate of guests accounts for about 0.31-0.46% of total guests and Vietnamese doesn't have any guests using the service All are both falling between 30-45 and over 45 years old The total of the male has Graduation Paper 40 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A about 443 guests and the total of the female has about 206 guests on the total of number guests 3.2.3 The Service Quality of the Spa Services from 2017-2019 2017 2018 2019 Quantit Percentag Quantit Percentag Quantit Percentag y e y e y e (person) (%) (person) (%) (person) (%) 185 100 207 100 259 100 Satisfied 158 85,41 177 85,51 200 77,22 Normal Dissatisfie 25 13,51 29 14,01 56 21,62 1,08 0,48 1,16 Attitude Total of guests d Table Customers’ evaluation about Quality of the Spa Service from 2017 – 2019 Table 3.2.3 shows how guests felt towards the quality of the spa service at MTLSH Hotel In general, 158 guests were “satisfied” and 25 were “normal” However, there were still two guests feeling dissatisfied about the quality of the service accounting for 1,08% in 2017 In 2018, the number of guests feels “dissatisfied” has dropped to one guest Instead, the number of guests feels "normal’ increased from 25 to 56 in years and the "satisfied" rate decreased from 85.4% to 77.22% From the described above, we can see that the spa service has no breakthrough or innovation in the service 3.3 Guest’s Feedback To know more about the quality of the service, I surveyed 100 guests about customer satisfaction with the spa service at the MTLSH hotel Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 41 Very Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Facilities Spa’s equipment is modern The arrangement at Spa is convenient The decoration in Spa is very beautiful The area around the Spa is very peaceful The Spa area is clean and tidy Norma l Satisfied Very Satisfied 51 39 43 35 11 21 56 16 36 46 14 0 14 27 59 41 52 0 24 37 39 49 42 514 11 54 29 14 62 16 Staff Beautiful uniform Staff’s attitude is very friendly Staff’s skills are professional Communication and reaction skills are good Staff’s level of foreign languages is good Services Always take care of 0 28 59 13 timely to all guests’ 0 16 28 56 demand Know how to solve 31 44 19 guests Always respond customers’ Graduation Paper complaints Make an exact bill 42 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A 0 Table 6: Review of Customer 17 56 27 3.3.1 Feedback of customers about facilities at Spa In Spa, equipment is a part contributing to the successful operation of the hotel, and it is an element making guests feel satisfied according to the review of guests, more than 50 people are feeling satisfied and normal, and 27 people felt “dissatisfied” about the facilities of the service It showed that the facilities of Spa still not good The arrangement of Spa was not suitable too There were guests feeling very “dissatisfied” and guests feeling dissatisfied On the other hand, the Spa area makes guests quite pleased Most of the guests liked the air of the spa it’s quite tidy and clean with 59 guests feeling very satisfied and guests feel “dissatisfied” 3.3.2 Feedback of customers about the staff Firstly, the uniform of staff at Spa was not so beautiful enough to impress guests, it still had guests feeling dissatisfied The second element was the attitude of the staff Most of the guests felt satisfied with this element It makes guests feel that the staff is friendly and easy to talk to However, the staffs’ skills were not good enough It also means that the foreign language of staffers was not so good More than half of the guest’s percent evaluated that the skills of staff were not professional That means the hotel needed to further train staffers in foreign language skills 3.3.3 Feedback of customers about services Through the investigation, I could see that most of the guests felt satisfied with services at the hotel and Spa Customers were always taken care of by staff More than 70 percent of the surveyed guests said they were satisfied with this criterion The demand of customers is always responded timely That makes guests feel very satisfied More than 50 percent of guests Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 43 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim agreed with this Other things make customers pleased are the bill Their bill was counted exactly and they just had to pay what they bought That makes them feel like they just have to pay for what they have bought and they are satisfied with that 3.4 General evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the Spa Services at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel 3.4.1 Strong points Firstly, MTLSH Hotel is a five-star standard service, and the hotel is located in a beautiful area, with roads crowded with tourists Besides, MTLSH Hotel is also located in the center of Da Nang city At the hotel, visitors will easily visit other famous places such as Ngu Hanh Son, My Khe beach, Han river, etc and convenient for traveling to the airport The location is one of the important strengths that attract a lot of visitors to the MTLSH Hotel Secondly, because of the convenient location, the main source of hotel guests is flight attendants, pilots, and tourists such as Korean and Chinese Especially, there is also have casino service, so the hotel is very popular with tourists as a place to have fun and relax 3.4.2 Weak points Firstly, spa services at the hotel have not attracted guests Because the hotel is primarily tourists, they often operate on tours so they not often use the service at the hotel and still passive in promoting the service Secondly, because the service has been open for a long time, the facilities are too old and need to be upgraded and renovated Thirdly, spa services are now very popular, and it also affects staff because employees tend to change the working environment This disrupts the business of the service because the new staffs lack of experience and skills and need to spend a lot of time Graduation Paper 44 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A training Finally, the staff's foreign language skills are still poor, because hotel guests are almost Asian tourists like China and Korea, most of whom not speak English Sometimes, it's hard to understand and communicate with guests In addition, products of services play an important role in attracting guests The products of spa services are still monotonous, similar to most spa and hotel businesses That makes the service less competitive, lacking new products to attract tourists Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 45 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim PART C: SOME SOLUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1.1 Summary of the findings By realizing the situation of spa service at MTLSH hotel My graduation paper with topic: “An investigation into the Real Situation and some Solutions to Improving The Spa Service at hotel” has been finished There are parts in my investigation including Part A, Part B and Part C In each part, I have discussed different issues In part A, I want to introduce my graduation and explain the reason why I choose that topic Part B has chapters: Chapter is the Theoretical Background of Hotel Business and The Spa Service in Hotel Business Chapter is a Case Description describing the overview of Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel Spa Service and organizational framework at this hotel Chapter includes the real situation of the service quality of the spa service with the Analysis and Evaluation Part C is the suggestions for improving the service quality of the Spa service at Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel and the conclusion I hope that investigation and some solutions could help the hotel can improve the service to attract more guests and improve the quality of the service to develop more and more in the future However, due to limited time and professional qualifications and experience, my paper cannot avoid the shortcomings Thus, I hope I can receive additional ideas from my supervisor, teachers, and readers to help me complete this investigation During my training at the Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han hotel, I realized that Spa service is still not become an important income in the hotel With the strong points of the Hotel and the staff there, the hotel is gradually developing to become an attractive hotel in Danang City But the spa service at the hotel has still not attracted the attention of tourists and the guest source Graduation Paper 46 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A of the spa service still depends too much on the number of Casino guests, there is no breakthrough in attracting the source of the outside guests 1.2 Some Suggestions for Improving The Quality of The Spa Service From the weak points that I analyzed and evaluated in chapter 3, I wanna give some suggestions to improve the Spa Service for attracting more guests using the service 1.2.1 Price Policy Because MTLSH is a 5-star hotel, all services here use the best quality products Therefore, the service price here is relatively expensive, so customers are mostly high-income customers Therefore, in order to expand the customer market, we should offer many incentives for each service, promotions in installments or on major holidays, organizing many attractive price events to be able to expand the number of customers 1.2.2 Promotional Policy In addition to the pricing structure strategy, spas should apply flexible promotional policies depending on specific conditions: Seasonal prices: In the winter, the number of visitors decreases significantly Therefore, the spa should apply a seasonal price policy: increase all service prices in the main season to increase business efficiency, reduce off-season prices to attract more customers and prolong the business season Developing separate customer attraction policies for hotel guests and outside customers In the low season, if there is an optimal exploitation strategy - Spa will bring significant revenue for the hotel with the target audience is mainly people living nearby Guests staying in hotels and outside guests have differences in approach, needs Therefore, managers need to come up with two policies that are suitable for these two objects Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 47 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim For guests staying, you can give them free use of a spa service or encourage them to use the spa service will be discounted room rates However, for outside guests, no need to rent a room, you need to provide promotions, incentives - discount Spa services For example, with facials when signing up for a Massage - sauna or a 10-20% discount on the bill if you use multiple treatments at the same time When your guests are satisfied, they will definitely want to return to the hotel's spa again 1.2.3 Facilities Technical facilities are an important criterion in improving business efficiency It is also the first tangible element of service that the customer can see In general, the spa's technical facilities have met the majority of guests' requirements However, the hotel must regularly renovate and upgrade its technical facilities to ensure consistency and synchronization to best serve guests In order to create a good feeling for customers, the spa should pay attention to the beauty of the form and the arrangement of existing equipment Although the hard structure is difficult to change, but the excreted décor, the hotel can change to express and affirm its own uniqueness 1.2.4 Services The hotel should train to improve staff qualifications, specific training plans by week/month specific Besides, the hotel can combine to invite professional experts or experts in communication, customer care, from which to learn experience to improve the service In addition, the hotel must be constantly recruiting & vocational training Training staff to improve their language so they can communicate more with guests Always listen, absorb reviews or feedback from guests to be able to improve the quality of service in time Graduation Paper 48 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim Phung, M.A REFERENCES English Book [1] Kaye Chon & Thomas A Maier (1994), Welcome to hospitality Vietnamese Book [2] PGS.TS Nguyễn Văn Mạnh, TS Hoàng Thị Lan Hương 2008) - Giáo trình quản trị kinh doanh khách sạn, NXB Đại học Kinh tế quốc dân, Hà Nội Websites [3 https://www.cet.edu.vn/cac-loai-hinh-khach-san-tren-the-gioi [4 https://timviec365.vn/blog/san-pham-cua-khach-san-la-gi-new6549.html [5] https://luanvanviet.com/khai-niem-va-dac-diem-kinh-doanh-khach-san- hien-nay/ [6]https://webhotel.vn/kinh-doanh-khach-san/kinh-doanh-khach-san-cannhung-yeu-to-nao [7] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spa [8] https://www.hoteljob.vn/tin-tuc/6-dich-vu-spa-co-ban-nhan-vien-khach- san-can-biet Student: Pham Bao Tu Code: 2220328315 Graduation Paper Phung, M.A 49 Supervisor: Bui Thi Kim SUPERVISOR’S COMMENT ... Email: info@songhan.muongthanh.vn Website: http://luxurysonghan.muongthanh.com/ Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel is one of the luxurious hotels in Danang, the coastal city of Muong Thanh Hotel Group... Summary of the findings By realizing the situation of spa service at MTLSH hotel My graduation paper with topic: ? ?An investigation into the Real Situation and some Solutions to Improving The Spa Service. .. describing the overview of Muong Thanh Luxury Song Han Hotel Spa Service and organizational framework at this hotel Chapter includes the real situation of the service quality of the spa service with the