Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end.

CASE STUDY -2

Servicing Global Travellers

The international hotel industry is so hugely competitive that it is heartening to hear that the general managers of two very different hotels recently acknowledged that they might learn something from each other.The Athenaeum Hotel and Apartments in London's Piccadilly is a small privately owned hotel with the majority of its guests comprising business travellers from the US. Sally Bulloch, General Manager, says one way of finding out if the hotel was giving customers what they wanted was to compare it with what they are offered in the US.She suggested swapping jobs for a week with Valerie Ferguson, general manager of the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, Georgia and Secretary of the American Hotel and Motel Association.Ferguson decided to take up Bulloch's offer and go ahead with the swap. She said: 'I had no idea what I would get out of it but I saw it was an opportunity to gain an insight into how I could further develop my product. About 35 per cent to 40 per cent of our guests are international and I wanted to walk away with a better idea of how to service that business and build it up.'Business travel is increasingly based on the notion of servicing global travellers with similar wants and needs. Ferguson said, however, that there could be enormous differences.'One thing that has left an indelible impression is that European travellers are not as vocal as Americans - you have to take more time to pull the information out. In America, a guest might go to the front desk and say, 'My breakfast was terrible,' but the British are just not going to do that. We've got to find a way of getting that feedback, rather than assuming that everything is OK.' One way might be to contact visitors after they have left the hotel. 'I don't think they will speak to you unless something major happens but once they get home or to the office, they might,' she said. Guests with limited English could be inhibited by language difficulties, and Ms Ferguson believes one of her achievements over the past five years at the Ritz-Carton is to ensure that staff speaking a number of languages are available at all times.She was impressed by the efforts made at the Arthenaeum to make guests feel at home. 'There are all these reminders that you are at home - whether it's a bowl of apples or wonderful nick-nacks on the lobby. We like to think you can get a homely atmosphere in a Ritz-Carlton - we have afternoon teas and a special breakfast for Japanese guests - but customers don't want it so comfortable that it's like an old pair of shoes.'For her part, Sally Bulloch of the Athenaeum believed there was a difference in attention to detail. 'It's higher over here. For instance, I've often found if there is a bowl of fruit in an American hotel, it tends to stay there all week, whereas we change it everyday.' But she admires the informality of US hospitality, and wanted to incorporate more of it in her hotel. 'We can sometimes be too British,' said Ms Bulloch. 'It took me 10 years to get a hamburger on our room-service menu. I kept suggesting that was what our guests wanted but kept being told 'that is not what we do at the Athenaeum.'She added: 'Many travellers want a quick tea or coffee but do not want to sit at a table. At the Ritz- Carlton, outside the breakfast room, they had this wonderful silver urn and attractive cups, not paper cups, so people could just have some coffee. It's very American but then why not give our American guests what they want rather than what we think they should have?'Despite the difference in size between the two hotels - the Ritz-Carlton has 457 rooms and the Athenaeum has 157. Ms Ferguson said the day-to-day management was very similar. 'It's the same except for the British accent.' But decisions can be made quickly in a smaller hotel, she said, 'Product development is managed quite differently in an independent hotel than in a chain. While our standards are very similar and our company is decentralized with a lot of decisions made at the hotel, the decision-making process here is faster - we're trying to regain that entrepreneurial spirit.'Ms Bulloch said she had been struck by the amount of time spent by senior staff in the US hotels on administration. 'My impression has always been that senior staff tend to be in meetings or handling paperwork.But you don't know what's going on unless you are on the floor, and guests often want to meet the manager,' she said.Ms Ferguson said she was going back to Atlanta with 'an increased awareness of the importance of face-to-face contact. Each employee here tries to establish a relationship with the guest; they try and remember the guest's name.'Both would like to extend the swap to other staff. 'I would eventually like some of our housekeepers and reception staff to do the swap and to experience what it's like to travel as a guest - especially when you are jetlagged,' Ms. Bulloch. 'There's nothing worse than arriving at 7:30 a.m. and being told by a smiling girl at the reception, 'Sorry, your room won't be ready till 11'. Since lots of people leave early, we get the maids to start at 6 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. With three maids, a room can be ready in eight minutes.'She went on to say: 'We ought to be able to understand our guest's needs. When you are in the US, for example, you notice how people will give detailed orders in a restaurant. I don't think our staff wants to know what a guest is talking about if they ask for a low-sodium meal.' Ms Ferguson would like to use the idea of a swap as an incentive to staff by offering it to the hotel's 'employee of the year.'

Questions:
Q1. What lesson might an international manager learn from this case?
Q2. What business characteristics lend themselves most to organizational learning from using this practice? What characteristics
are least conducive to learning from this practice?
Q3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the methods described in the case?