Case Study Of The Portman Hotel

The Portman Hotel: Turning the 5-Star PV System into a 5-Star HR Strategy

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Summary

John C. Portman created the Portman Hotel and presented the mission of bringing Asian standards of hospitality to the U.S., a unique competitive advantage that differentiates it from other luxury hotels in San Francisco. To achieve a high level of personalized service, the hotel aims to please both the guests and the employees. For the guests, "no rules" apply, and for employees, a contract that provides their bill of rights and an organizational culture of employee voice and teamwork. Central to the mission are the personal valets (PVs) who are critical to offering an excellent holistic service to guests. Nevertheless, instead of improving work efficiency and quality service, the original PV system demonstrated design problems as the management did not devise a system for managing PV performance, employee retention, and clear guidelines for sanctioning poor work outcomes. Consequently, the top management applied the 5-star system as the heart of its PV system in which a team of PVs had 5 members each and had guaranteed hours of work.

However, the 5-star system did not resolve many of the PV system’s problems before. While it provided guaranteed hours, it failed due to the existence of floaters, new hires who did not belong to 5-star teams and resulted in problems of losing tips to them, poor working relationships, and a decline in the quality of customer