Case Study The Case of the Missing Earrings The UCC hotel is a small property wi
Case Study
The Case of the Missing Earrings
The UCC hotel is a small property with a limited staff. It was the first hotel built in Kingston when the high way came through 20 years ago. Mr. Ricardo Esson and his wife Ikiesha Taffe- Esson, checked into UCC hotel on January 6, 2020 at 5:00 PM
January 7, 2020
Shantel looked up and smile as a guest came towards her cart. “Good afternoon, Mr. Esson”.
“I bet you think it’s a good afternoon,” Mr. Esson snarled at her.” The best afternoon of your life, eh?”
“Sir?’ Shantel queried, looking bewildered.
“Oh, the very picture of innocence!” he said sarcastically. “I suppose you don’t know anything about my wife’s earrings.”
Shantel eyes got wide and she shook her head slowly. “Mr. Esson, I don’t know what you are talking about”.
“The earrings you stole from my wife. She left them in the room after she took them off last night, and this afternoon they were gone after you’d cleaned the room. If you fork them over right now, maybe I won’t tell your supervisor.”
Shantel continued to shake her head, “Sir, I do not steal things! I am not a thief!”
“Then would you care to tell me where they are? Surely you are not so obtuse that you would vacuum up a pair of $1,000 diamond earrings!”
“Sir, no, I……….”
“Forget it,” Mr. Esson snapped at her. “I’ll just go to the front desk, and you can be sure if I don’t get them back, I’ll have the $1000 out of your paycheck!”
Mr. Esson turned and stomped off to the front desk, leaving a distraught Shantel, who immediately abandoned her cart and headed straight to the housekeeping office. She entered the stockroom where Druzila, the executive housekeeper, was going over inventory with the assistant executive housekeeper, Samantha.
“Ms. Samuels, a guest just accuse me of being a thief,” Shantel burst out.
Druzila set her clipboard down. Shantel seemed on the verge of either crying or screaming. Druzila wished once again that the hotel had security officers who could handle this situation. She motioned to Samantha to follow her and gently said,” Shantel, let’s go to my office and you can tell me what happened”.
The three quickly retreated to the executive housekeeper’s office where Druzila sat down beside Shantel, and Samantha moved to the chair behind Druzila’s desk.
“Ok, Shantel, you seem very upset. What happened?” Druzila asked.
“Mr. Esson said I stole his wife’s earrings and he was going to have $1,000 held out of my paycheque. How am I supposed to feed my family, if I am to pay him $1,000? It’ll take months to pay him back! And it’s not fair! I didn’t take anything. You know I wouldn’t take anything, Ms. Samuels. I’ve worked for this hotel for 20 years and no one has ever called me a thief! I don’t have to put up with this, Miss Samuels. I’ll quit before I will put up with this!”
Druzila picked up a notepad, “I understand you’re angry, Shantel, I would be upset too if someone accused me of theft. So, Mr. Esson claims his wife’s $1,000 earrings are missing?
Shantel nodded, “of course I’m angry, everyone is going to hear about this and say that I am a thief.”
“Well I am not going to call you a thief, Shantel. Take a deep breath, and let me ask you some questions so we can try to sort this out. Did you clean the Essons’ room this morning?
“Yes but I didn’t even see any earrings!
“So, the earrings weren’t there when you cleaned the room?”
“How should I know? I didn’t go through her purse or their suitcases.”
“What time did you clean the room?”
“It was around 9:30 a.m. I saw the Essons leave for breakfast and wanted to get their room cleaned for them before they returned.”
“Did you notice any unusual activity around the guestroom? Did anyone else enter the room or try the door?”
“I’m not sure,” Shantel answered. “But Vincent was working the rooms across the hall; he might have seen something. I only cleaned the poolside rooms on that floor. There was a basketball team checking into rooms down the hall.”
“Ok, when you cleaned the room, did you remove the suitcase or open up the drawers?”
“Let me try to remember,” Shantel said, closing her eyes. “It was my second room, they had a makeup bag on the bed that I moved to the night stand so I could make the bed.” Shantel opened her eyes again,” I didn’t open the drawers, I never do in stay over rooms. You told us not to”.
Just as Druzila was about to ask another question, the phone rang. Samantha picked it up quickly to minimize the interruption, but then handed the phone to Druzila.
“Druzila, its Courtly at the front desk. He says he need to talk to you immediately.”
“Excuse me for a moment, Shantel. I’ll make this short”. Druzila apologized, taking the phone from Samantha.” Good morning, Courtly, what can I do for you?”
“Druzila, I have a hotel guest, Mr. Esson, here. He tells me that one of your room attendants stole his wife’s earrings.”
Druzila sighed and looked over at Shantel, whose distress was slowly turning to indignation. “I’m aware of the situation, Courtly. What did the guest tell you?”
“Mr. Esson’s wife took her earrings off last night and placed them in the unused ashtray inside the dresser drawer. She went to put them on this afternoon and they were gone. Mr. Esson is convinced that the room attendant took them. Would you like the description he gave me of the room attendant?” He said angrily.
“That won’t be necessary, Courtly. I have Shantel here in the office. Mr. Esson spoke with her this morning”, Druzila said, wishing to head off any disparaging description that the angry guest might have given. Shantel began muttering about the guest’s method of “speaking with her”, as Druzila continued her conversation with the front desk agent. “Courtly, is Mr. Esson still standing there in front of you?”
“Yes, he is,” Courtly replied.
“Ok, I’ll be right out. Ask him to sit down in one of the offices so I can talk to him away from the lobby”.
“I’ll inform him, Druzila. Thanks,” Courtly said and promptly hung up.
“Shantel, take a few moments to calm down if you need to, then go finish your rooms. I’m going to talk to Mr. Esson and I will let you know by the end of the day what has happened.
Activity
A) Summaries the case study above and provide a clear description of the issues/focal points. 10mks
B) Did Druzila and Courtly display a professional behaviour in this situation? Provide reasons for your answer. 12mks
C) What steps should Druzila take to investigate the situation? 14mks
D) Do you think Shantel did the right thing by reporting the matter? Give reasons for your answer. 8mks
E) What steps should Courtly take to inform his team members about the situation? 6mks
Total 50mk
