Case Study

We first had the pleasure of becoming involved with Dart Marina Hotel through our involvement with Classic British Hotels, and in 2006 the Managing Director of the then three star hotel invited one of our directors to carry out an anonymous overnight audit of the guest experience. The following afternoon the hotel management team were invited to a meeting with an unknown agenda, at which we presented a report of the detailed findings of the strengths and areas for development.

As with all our reports, it's important that feedback is presented in a constructive and developmental manner. Mystery shopping is all too often perceived as "management spying on us". Unfortunately for our measurement programmes to be at their most effective it's necessary that they are carried out covertly, and as in this case where we were invited in initially without the management team's knowledge, it is so important to let the staff know that this is not an adversarial relationship, but rather a partnership in improving the business and their own personal development.

The hotel team took the findings on board in a very positive manner indeed. Dart Marina was already part way through investing significant sums of money into developing the guest facilities, and a monthly mystery guest programme was initiated with the aim of making sure that the standards of service were to match, and ultimately turning three stars into four stars. As the result of a lot of hard work from the whole hotel staff, Dart Marina Hotel and Spa received their fourth star from the AA in October 2007.

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