Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World 13th Edition by Kathryn Rentz,Paula Lentz

Exercise 14

The management of Goodnight Hotels, a regional chain of mid-priced hotels, wants to know why some of its hotels are doing much better than others. They have contracted the services of your company, LJR Research, to find out.
As a senior researcher for LJR, you and a team of four associates have been researching the problem for four weeks. As authorized by Dora Smitherman, VP of Operations for Goodnight, your team visited 20 hotels in the midwestern U.S., where Goodnight operates. The hotels, which Goodnight chose, were roughly equal in size, traffic flow past the hotel, and facilities. But they differed in one crucial way: 10 of the hotels were underperforming on sales, while the other 10 were thriving.
To find the reasons for high or low sales volumes, you worked out a detailed plan for collecting data. First you had your trained evaluators visit each hotel posing as customers and spend one night in the hotel. While they were there, they observed and recorded data on such features as the hotel's appearance, cleanliness, and service, as well as on the complimentary breakfast. The evaluations were based on a detailed assessment guide. Later, the researchers returned to interview the manager to gather pertinent information on the hotel's personnel.
The research is done, and you have the summary tabulations before you. Your next step is to put these data into a meaningful order. Then you will analyze them in light of the problem. From these analyses you hope to identify possible reasons for the different sales volumes of the two groups of hotels. Finally, you will prepare a report presenting the information to Ms. Smitherman. (You'll be careful to refrain from making specific recommendations for corrective action. Since your company does not specialize in hospitality research, it does not have the expertise to make such recommendations.)
The summary findings are presented in the table below. Use your logic and imagination to develop any additional details you may need to write a successful report. For example, in describing your research procedure, you may add specifics that your reader would find helpful, and you may generate some plausible specifics when discussing your findings. You can assume that the tabulations and notes for each of the 20 hotels are attached as an appendix. [Note that "S" = Satisfactory and "U" = Unsatisfactory in the table's column heads.]