Saturday, 12 July 2014

Justification of Selection

In Classical Rome, people invited guests and family members into their homes, shared meals with them and celebrated with them. This was how the concept of relationship started.

We selected boutique hotel because of three reason:

·        Firstly, boutique hotel has a very one of a kind experience due to the personal feeling and heady ambience. A personal feeling and heady ambience will give the guest a sense of belonging.
·        Secondly, a boutique hotel is concise and information from the internet explained that a hotel not more than 100 rooms can be called a boutique hotel. A small hotel can be more professional in service because there can be special care towards each individual guest. For example, staff at hotel lobby can recognise the guest and give recommendation based on their own preferences. This will allow them to feel that each individual self is unique and different and needs are customised to their own liking.
·        Thirdly, a boutique hotel has a sense of intimacy. A sense of intimacy refers to professional caring, warmness and personalised services. An atmosphere filled with sense of intimacy is a must have factor for boutique hotels. Staffs greets customers by their first name instead of Sir or Madam is a form of familiarity. This will allow the hotel to focus on building a relationship instead of a form of job scoop.

For our portfolio, we picked five different countries to do our evaluation based on our given problem. They are mainly, Singapore, New York, Korea, Thailand Bangkok, and Italy.

·        Firstly, we picked these five countries is to explore the different cultures that all of them have. With a different culture, their hospitality industry will definitely varies from one another. For example, Korea’s boutique hotel are more creative in terms of design while Italy’s boutique hotel are mostly all in the nature and their themes are mostly historical or garden-y.
·        Secondly, these five countries are generally more well-known in terms of tourist attractions and they are more frequently visited.
 
From the five different countries, we choose the boutique hotel based on popularity, comfort and creativity.
·        In terms of popularity, the hotels we picked have a majority of good reviews and are recommended by website like tripadvisors. These hotels are either there for a while with historical meaning (for example, Sancheong Hanbang Oriental Medicine Resort in Korea – the birthplace of Heo Jun, a legendary doctor of traditional Korea Medicine) or exist because of the positive reviews.
·        In terms of comfort, we are looking at 2 factors. Firstly, the interior and exterior. Interior must be of good facilities and well-furnished. Good lighting is also necessary as it helps to provide a soothing effect to the guests. The environment or surrounding of the hotel must be peaceful and calming to the guest as they are there to relax and get away from their hectic lifestyle.
·        In terms of creativity, the boutique hotel must have a variety of theme to fit the guest’s expectation. It must consist of original artwork that is able to interest and attract the guest’s attention. Original artwork in lobbies, designer equipment in bathrooms, complimentary wine and champagne, guest's favourite CD collection, all these are very important factor in making a hotel a boutique hotel.

From the above points, this are the reasons why we chose a boutique hotel and the five different countries. (557 words)


Friday, 11 July 2014

Project Log


Project Log (Detail your project timeline and milestones.)



Team Members
Week 12
Zhen Ming
Lesson itself - Popplet, IAIA template contribution, Selection of research destination,
Outside of class - Finalization of country for research details (through whatsapp group)
Nigel
Lesson itself - Popplet, IAIA template contribution,  Selection of research destination,
Outside of class - Finalization of country for research details (through whatsapp group)
Jayde
Lesson itself - Popplet,  Selection of research destination,
Outside of class - Finalization of country for research details (through whatsapp group)
Claire
Lesson itself - Popplet, IAIA template contribution,  Selection of research destination,
Outside of class - Finalization of country for research details (through whatsapp group)
Bernice
Lesson itself - IAIA template contribution
Outside of class - Finalization of country for research details (through whatsapp group)
Yi Ling
Lesson itself - Formation of the skeleton of website, Popplet, IAIA template contribution,  Selection of research destination,
Outside of class - Finalization of country for research details (through whatsapp group)

Research Destination - Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong kong, Malaysia


Team Members
Week 13
Zhen Ming
Lesson itself - Justification of Selection, Own Respective hotel research (singapore), Evaluation Checklist
Outside of class - Individual reflection
Nigel
Lesson itself - Justification of Selection, Own Respective hotel research (new york), Evaluation Checklist
Outside of class -
Jayde
Lesson itself - Own Respective hotel research (bangkok)
Outside of class -
Claire
Lesson itself - Own Respective hotel research (korea), Formation of blogger.com (www.boutiquehotell.blogspot.com)
Outside of class -
Bernice
Lesson itself - x (absent)
Outside of class - Individual Reflection, Justification of Selection
Yi Ling
Lesson itself - x (absent)
Outside of class - Editing of the project log, Individual Reflection, Own Respective hotel research (Italy)

Finalise of 5 research countries: Singapore, New York, Thailand, Korea, Italy


Team Members
Week 14
Zhen Ming
Lesson itself - Finalise Justification of Selection, Own Respective hotel research and interview from students (Singapore), Bibliography for respective resources, Team Analysis of Driving Question
Outside of class -
Nigel
Lesson itself -  Individual Reflection, Finalise Justification of Selection, Own Respective hotel research and interview from students (New York), Bibliography for respective resources, Team Analysis of Driving Question
Outside of class -
Jayde
Lesson itself - Own Respective hotel research and interview from students (Thailand, Bangkok), Individual Reflection
Outside of class -
Claire
Lesson itself - Individual Reflection, Own Respective hotel research and interview from students (Korea)
Outside of class -
Bernice
Lesson itself - Finalise Justification of Selection, Interviews, Team Analysis of Driving Question
Outside of class -
Yi Ling
Lesson itself - Finalise Justification of Selection, interview from JiaLing for Italy's boutique hotel, Bibliography for respective resources, Team Analysis of Driving Question
Outside of class - Evaluation Checklist (responses - summary), Response to driving question

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Evaluation Checklist



Question Outline:

1. What do you think of our webpage?
2. Is our information detailed?
3. Is it easy to navigate around?
4. When you first came to our webpage, do you feel like you want to find our more?
5. Are the artefacts useful?
6. Which Artefact do you like the most? Why?
7. Did you learn something of boutique hotels from our blog?
8. Suggest one thing that our webpage could be improved on?
9. What is one thing that you like about our webpage?
10. Any other comments?

Our responses

We picked out the main questions and points that we took references from.




We asked this few main questions is to get a more in-depth view on the blogpost. By knowing the main thing that our artefact can improve on, this will help us to improve our blog further and better.

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Team Analysis of Driving Question

 1)      Search strategies taken and how the information gathered is evaluated and deemed relevant.

We used various websites channels and resources to gather our information. For example, getting reviews from trip advisor will help us get our research done as there will not be any prejudice in the reviews of the people who went there. One of the strategies we used was corroboration, whereby we compared different sources to finalise our data. We also made use of popplet and the IAIA table in our research. We brainstormed our ideas in the popplet and used the IAIA template to help us organise our thoughts and information. Popplet enables us to sort out our information and thoughts more clearly, it breaks down the major question to sub-questions to further understand the driving question. This allows us to have a better picture of the driving question and aid us further in our research on boutique hotels.
boutique hotel2.jpg
Capture (IAIA).PNG
Image: Popplet & IAIA Table


2)      How feedback solicited from peers and facilitator is used to enhance your response to the Driving Question.

We conducted a survey to evaluate our website. Majority of the responses are positive, they like the artefacts that we provided, and they think that our information provided are detailed enough for them to understand what a boutique hotel is. However, some of the responses said that our website is too wordy and suggested that we shorten or summarize our information but still as detailed.
Hence, we finalized our website by these few points:
  • Firstly,we included more pictures to brighten up the blog post. This is to make the website less dull and attract readers’ attention.
  • Secondly,we also included videos in order to give the readers a better picture of the boutique hotels we researched on. It also serves as an entertainment to readersas we know that it is not easy to read a whole chunk of words.
  • Lastly, according to our responses, there were readers saying that our website is too dull and suggested we change our background. So, we changed our website background to a simpler layout and better contrast with the fonts so the readers will have an easier time reading our website.
 

 

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Individual Reflection


Reflect on the following questions

  • What are the qualities which I possess now that is crucial to being a successful professional in my field?
  • What are the areas which I need to develop in order to speak, think and behave like the professionals in my field?


Team Members
Reflection
Zhen Ming
I’m pretty unsure what qualities i have. I only know how to understand the topic and give my personal thinking or experience i know. I need to improve on my communication skills as i do not speak properly and cannot form proper sentences to let others know what i am speaking. I need to speak louder and reduce my movements, since i always think and walk around as it makes me feel less stressed. For Thinking skills i need to think faster and more efficiently, i think i that too long to think of the answer. Also, i should keep track on what i am doing and not answer something out of point.
Nigel
Personally, I think that the quality I possess that are crucial to being a successful professional are that I am able to work well with my peers / colleagues. I think that this can help me work better with my peers / colleagues instead of working alone.
But there are some areas that I need to develop in order to speak, think, and behave like a professional, which I think is communication skills. I think I must learn to speak with more confidence so I can build a more professional image for myself. In order to build communication skills, I must learn to speak with more confidence, speak louder and clearer when presenting or when speaking to my colleagues and superior.
Also, I think that I need to think more like a professional, think out of the box, so that I will be able to think of more ideas in my future work.
Jayde
I think I am able to get along with anyone, and it’s quite important since we have to and will be working with many different people in future. Thus, being able to get along with everyone is important and crucial in any industry.Being able to deliver what I want to say, and also not being so easily distracted is something I have to improve on. Sometimes when speaking, my mind is not able to process what I want to say as fast as I speak. Also, I’m quite distracted easily that my focus is not on the work but other things. I would just lose focus on the work.  
Claire
I feel that I am pretty cooperative because I was able to work with my team members well in the previous weeks and teamwork is one of the most essential qualities that is required in a team work. I have also assisted my team members when they need help.
Another qualities that I feel that I have demonstrated is initiative. I have initiate on several discussions so that our group can get started with our research and clarification on our doubts.
However, there are many areas that I need to improve on, in terms of my sense of urgency, patience and leadership skills. For example, I should know well of the dead line of the submission so that I will know if I need to fasten up or slow down, because I often find myself not having enough time to finish up. Also, I should be more patient to my team mates because I tend to rush them at times. I should also build up leadership skills so that I can be able to lead my team and work more efficiently.  
Bernice
The qualities which i possess now i feel that is crucial to being a successful professional in my field are the good interaction and the good observation skills. In terms of good interaction, it means in terms of having good interaction with the guests and also my employees. With good interaction, it shows that i will be able to get along well with my peers. In terms of good observation skills, it helps my group to improve better.
The areas i need to develop in order to speak, think and behave like the professionals in my field would be how the rest can understand so quickly, i need to have a better understanding so that i can excel in my profession like my professional. Everyone excel in something, thats why we should all share and help us improve better.
Yi Ling
In order to be a successful professional in my future work field, I believed I already possessed three qualities that I think will be crucial for me in the future.
Firstly, strong inference skills. Having this skill can help me to infer and think about the possible answers from a source that is not clearly elaborated. This will allows me to break down the message into small parts and then tackle it slowly.
Secondly, sense of urgency. Having sense of urgency is very important as it make sure that I met the date line. I am very aware of the time I am left in things that I do, hence, I can say that this is the reason why I am able to meet date line given by my facilitator.  
Thirdly, I believe I am able foresee situation. For example, when a miscommunication happens, I am able to foresee the possible areas that a conflict or a disagreement will happen. This allows me to actually prevent it from happening.
There are 3 different areas I think to improve myself on.
Firstly, the way I speak. I need to make sure I project my voice properly and be more confident in things that I am saying
Secondly, by changing the way on how I behave, I will be able portray myself in a positive manner. For example, the gestures I show.
Thirdly, I need to be able to think on spot. This will make sure I am alert to my surrounding environment. (249 words)

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

Bibilography



Nigel:


Yiling:
First hotel -
http://www.bastiacreti.it/ (official website)
Second hotel -
http://www.lestrompeurs.it/ (official website)
Third hotel -
http://www.theyardmilano.com/ (official website)