Today's audit report will focus on the Vale resort, situated in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The resort includes a 4 star hotel, spa, gym, restaurant, golf club, events venue as well as a training ground for the Welsh Rugby Union. To design this audit in the most effective way, I will methodically structure the report into different topics. This will include who the customers are and what they expect, hospitality standards, a comparison to another 4 star venue, development during covid and finally what they can improve on. 

Straight from the The Vale website, Vale Resort (2023) they state they have one aim when it comes to fine dining, “to make it as perfect and memorable as possible”. They advertise themselves well through their site by giving a brief description on each facility the resort has to offer. It mentions how very few resorts within the UK offer a range of leisure facilities. The Vale Life (2023) indicated how the venue is always aiming to achieve higher and higher. One of these aims included joining the Meeting Industry Association (MIA) which according to mia (2023), is an association that supports businesses to help them grow with training and opportunities. The Vale successfully achieved this accreditation in March this year. The resort has a wide range of customers, whether it’s those involved in and staying overnight for business meetings, a family afternoon tea, a date to their spa or those participating in the leisure facilities such as the golf course or pool and gym. Guests could even be a big party attending a wedding, gala or other events, the hotel seems to have something for everyone Vale resort (2023). 

The Vale’s website states that they are “passionate about high quality food” and that whatever dining experience you choose from, all dishes are unpretentious. A review written by “Abbi T” on Tripadvisor (2023) stated that she “cannot fault the chefs” and her food at the grill was “delicious”. On the other hand, a user named “slallen123” had a totally different experience. They mentioned how their food was atrocious while waiting an hour for their food to arrive, when it did arrive it was the wrong order which led to the guests waiting an overall of two hours. There are mixed reviews on the restaurant side of the resort, while back in 2016, Pritchard, H (2017) revealed that the restaurant was given a 0 star food hygiene rating. The agency stated that “urgent improvement is necessary” when a year later, Walesonline stated that the hotel got their rating up to three stars after being rerated. Many reviews compliment the staff on their helpfulness from behind reception, the chefs and restaurant workers with very few people commenting on bad customer service standards, they are very minor and on average seem to be polite and accommodating. It is important that customers see this side of the resort's staff, however, the reviews on how staff are treated from management are very poor. Reviews stated on indeed (2023) include a substandard organization and bad management as well as a toxic environment to work in. The majority of reviews are rated 1-2 stars in the more recents years whereas reviews prior to 2018 are a lot better. 

To compare the Vale Resort to another venue, the Airds hotel in Scotland is a perfect example for comparison due to both hotels rated a 4 star. It’s “an award winning boutique hotel and restaurant” according to Airds Hotel (2023). To compare prices, for bed and breakfast at The Vale, totals to £200, the same deal in the Airds hotel is £305.10. The Scottish hotel only offers a hotel and restaurant with The Vale offering a lot more leisurely activities. Food reviews at the Aird were typically positive, however, the price of food and drinks were commented on a lot. 

Another thing to consider when auditing the hotel was how they dealt with the covid pandemic and what procedures were put into place. The resort stated that the wellbeing of both guests and work colleagues was the hotel's “number one priority.”. The hotel started to adapt to the new ways of living with deep cleaning and multiple sanitising stations placed around the venue. They complied to the Welsh government guidelines by implementing a one way system through corridors as well as signs to encourage social distancing. Alternately, reviews shown on Tripadvisor (2023), show evidence that the resort did struggle to satisfy guests in covid linked situations. Matthew C was left disappointed due to any covid regulations being ignored within the spa and pool area. For instances such as Covid, it is detrimental that the resort applies the hospitality law that states that legal and social practices related to a treatment of a guest are meant to protect hosts and guests against injury. 

When reviewing the different aspects of the hotel, it’s important to analyse guestology and the steps to quality service. These steps. Include considering the guests, determining what they want, developing ways to deliver guest desires, training empowered staff, implementing a revised system and lastly evaluation and modifying service delivery. When evaluating The Vale I used ‘the Disney approach’ compass to analyse their integration, guestology, delivery system and quality standards. The compass consists of Needs, Wants, Stereotypes and Emotions (North, East, South, West) according to Jackson, L (2019). I could analyse if the resort could identify the customers needs, anticipate what the guests want, have an understanding how negative impressions can have an impact on the business and lastly if they showed empathy towards their customers emotions. According to Which? Travel (2020) a four star AA hotel must at least include 24 hour room service, a restaurant open to both residents and non residents, Wi-Fi, en suite bathrooms and enhanced services. The Vale succeeds these expectations for a four star hotel. Among having 4 stars in accommodation, the Vale also has a four star AA Rosette award within their restaurant. This means the restaurant has national recognition where they display a passion for excellence and superb technical skills. However, many reviews and previous guests may beg to differ that the restaurant is lower than their expectations. 

After researching the 4 star resort, it's clear there are a lot of things the business can improve but also have areas in which they're doing well. To improve on the amount of time people wait for the food to arrive, as mentioned in a review on Tripadvisor, the restaurant needs to have the maximum staff needed to gain customer satisfaction. As for those who didn’t enjoy the food, chefs and waiters could put in place a personalised system for the guests to assure they will like the food they receive and live up to the “perfect and memorable as possible” standard that the business set themselves. This is the vital area that they need to improve before their star rating drops as badly as it did in 2017. Another area that is paramount is the treatment of staff. The majority of staff reviews commenting on the work environment is concerning and needs to be fixed, without staff, the business wouldn’t run. New management or training needs to be put into place and possibly a support system for staff. Overall, The Vale resort needs a lot of tweaks and improvements to not drop any stars or even be considered to be a 5 star resort. However, when comparing and contrasting the Vale to the Airds hotel in Scotland, the Vales standards are a lot higher with a lot more customer satisfaction. Their prices are appropriate whereas the Airds hotel was over prices in both their accommodation and restaurant. 


Reference list 

Indeed (2023). The Vales resort employee reviews. https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/The-Vale-Resort/reviews. Accessed 4th may 2023. 

Jackson, L (2019). Formstack. Applying Disney's Customer Service Model. https://www.formstack.com/blog/disneys-customer-service-model. Accessed 4th May 2023.

Mia (2023). The mia. https://www.mia-uk.org. Accessed 4th may 2023.

Pritchard, H (2017). Walesonline. One of Wales’ best hotels was recently given a zero food hygiene rating. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/one-wales-best-hotels-recently-12130348. Accessed 4th may 2023. 

The Vale Life (2023). The Vale resort Aims high.  https://valelife.co.uk/the-vale-resort-aims-high/. Accessed 4th may 2023

The Vale Resort (2023). One resort two unique business venues. https://www.valeresort.com/media/1894/vale-business-brochure_lowres.pdf. Accessed 4th May 2023.

Tripadvisor (2023). Vale resort. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g1077133-d251188-Reviews-Vale_Resort-Hensol_Vale_of_Glamorgan_South_Wales_Wales.html. Accessed 4th may 2023.

Vale Resort (2023). Offers. https://www.valeresort.com/offers/?category=SUMMER+BREAKS&subCategory=All&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SummerBreaks&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr82iBhCuARIsAO0EAZy2QDF1_qEqYdYKEjmISDT9qv3eBiQZW-424U_MdHTz4eD2lEsnJFUaAnwbEALw_wcB. Accessed 4th may 2023.

Which? Travel (2020). Hotel Star Ratings Explained. https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/uk-hotel-chains/article/hotel-star-ratings-explained. Accessed 11th February 2020.