HGE401 Group Project Brief Page 1 of 7
Context:
This assessment task requires you to explore the concept of guest experience in a hospitality service
setting, integrating both the perspectives of customers and operators. It aims to enable you to
recognise the importance of co-creating positive experiences for an ever-changing customer market,
in order to engage and meet the needs of both consumers and providers. The task also aims at
developing your capacity to identify strategies and opportunities for improvement, and subsequently
propose practical recommendations for the enhancement hospitality firm’s experiences.
This assessment task gives you the opportunity to work with a group of your peers and investigate a
topic that is important to the hotel sector. The purpose of this assessment is threefold. First, as a group
project it is designed to be a practicum for learning leadership skills including group decision making,
conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, and critical analysis. Second, communication (oral,
written and visual), is an important skill in any profession and this is an opportunity for you to work
with a variety of communication skills. Finally, the assessment provides you an opportunity to
investigate what service firms in hospitality are doing to provide distinctive customer service.

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Instructions:
This assessment task requires you, as a group (of 5), to write a 5,000-word report based on the case
study “A day in the life of experience stagers: The case study of Saffire Freycinet” (Case study provided
separately). The case describes the hotel experience of Charles and Karen through the eyes of the staff
operating the luxury lodge.
As a group you are to write a business report, complemented with two (2) infographics, that provides:
1. An analysis of the elements of the Saffire Freycinet experience Charles and Karen had.
2. An evaluation of the importance of co-creation in creating a memorable experience and the
role the staff have in managing this experience.
3. A critical reflection on the strategies utilised by the luxury lodge to manage the quality of their
guest experience and the impacts that quality experiences have to the hospitality business
success.
Written report structure guidelines:
The written part of your group project should follow the structure of a business report and should be
written in third person.
In your report you will have to provide the analysis of the case study, the evaluation of Charles and
Karen’s service experience and a reflection of the strategies used by the luxury lodge to co-create and
manage positive experiences. To do so you must frame your analysis around research from academic
literature and industry publications. You should read widely and incorporate this reading into your
discussion. As a place to start you should include in your report the readings provided throughout the
unit, however additional research is expected for this assessment.
To help you better understand how to integrate research and your case analysis please follow the
below report structure:
Structure Guideline:
• Group Assignment Cover Sheet
• Executive Summary* (approx. 500 words)
➢ Report aim
➢ Main problem
➢ Method of research used and sources used for the report (e.g. academic articles, blogs,
online magazines)
➢ Key findings and recommendations summarised
• Table of Contents
• Introduction (approx. 500 words – structural elements only)
➢ Background information on the topic
➢ Aim of report/Thesis statement
➢ Structure of report
1. Evaluation of the Saffire Freycinet Experience (approx. 1500 words)
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➢ In this section you are required to analyse the Saffire Freycinet experience of Charles and
Karen. Your analysis should focus on breaking down the experience Charles and Karen had
at Saffire Freycinet, identifying all the elements that contribute to determine their
experience. This section should contain the following elements and answer the following
questions:
i. One (1) Infographic visualising Charles and Karen’s Saffire Freycinet total
experience (a customer journey map or a service blueprint are some of the best
tools you can use to do this).
ii. Utilising the case study as a reference point, reflect of the theatrical metaphor
Hemmington (2007) provides to define the hospitality experience. Who is the
audience? Who are the front stage actors? Who are the backstage technicians?
What are the supporting activities? What constitutes the theatrical stage? How
do these combined elements create the Saffire Freycinet experience?
iii. Applying Walls et al. (2011) model of luxury hotel experience, identify and analyse
all the elements that, in the case study, have contributed to create Charles’s
experience at Saffire Freycinet Lodge? How do these elements make Charles’
experience a luxury experience?
2. Co-creating and managing the Saffire Freycinet experience (approx. 1500 words)
➢ In this section you will present your evaluation of the role that co-creation, and
particularly the staff, has in co-creating and managing Charles and Karen’s experience. To
help you frame your report this section should address the following points:
i. Reflect on the role that co-creation has in creating positive guest experience.
Provide examples from the case study to support your analysis.
ii. What is the fundamental role that staff has in delivering memorable experiences?
What competencies do they require? How can they acquire them? Utilise the
Hospitality intelligence framework proposed by Bharwani and Juanhari (2013) to
frame your evaluation. Use examples from the case study to support.
iii. Based on the case study, evaluate what are the most impactful challenges the
staff at Saffire Freycinet Lodge experience on a daily basis in co-creating, staging
and managing their guests’ experiences. How do they overcome them?
3. Managing the quality of Saffire Freycinet experience (approx. 1000 words)
• In this section, you are to identify strategies used by Saffire Freycinet to manage the
quality of each guest experience. Tactics and strategies proposed to manage and enhance
the quality of Saffire Freycinet experience should be, in fact, explained under the lens of
the theories and models studied in class on total customer experience management and
experience quality (see Alnawas & Hemsley-Brown, 2019). This section should contain the
following elements:

HGE401 Group Project Brief Page 4 of 7
fulfilled by the “experience stagers”. How does this contribute to their evaluation
of the quality of their experiences?

unsatisfactory experiences? Use examples from the case study to support your
reflection.
• Conclusion (approx. 500 words – Structural element only)
• Recommendations (OPTIONAL)
• Reference List*
• Appendix or Appendices*
Please note that a discretional + or – 10% marks could be awarded or deducted for individual
performance based on peer evaluation.
Suggested readings:
Aggett, M. (2007). What has influenced growth in the UK’s boutique hotel sector?. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 19(2), 169-177.
Ariffin, A. A. M., Maghzi, A., Soon, J. L. M., & Alam, S. S. (2018). Exploring the influence of hospitality
on guest satisfaction in luxury hotel services. e-Review of Tourism Research, 15(1).
Bitner, M. J., Ostrom, A. L., & Morgan, F. N. (2008). Service blueprinting: a practical technique for
service innovation. California management review, 50(3), 66-94.
Carù, A., & Cova, B. (2003). Revisiting consumption experience: a more humble but complete view of
the concept. Marketing theory, 3(2), 267-286.
Gilmore, J. H., & Pine, B. J. (2002). Differentiating hospitality operations via experiences: Why selling
services is not enough. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 87-96.
Harkison, T. (2018). The use of co-creation within the luxury accommodation experience–myth or
reality?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 71, 11-18.
Harkison, T., Hemmington, N., & Hyde, K. F. (2018). Creating the luxury accommodation experience:
case studies from New Zealand. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 30(3), 1724-1740.
Hemmington, N. (2007). From service to experience: Understanding and defining the hospitality
business. The Service Industries Journal, 27(6), 747-755.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T., & Jaakkola, E. (2018). Customer experience management in hospitality: A
literature synthesis, new understanding and research agenda. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(1), 21-56.
Mcintosh, A. J., & Siggs, A. (2005). An exploration of the experiential nature of boutique
accommodation. Journal of travel research, 44(1), 74-81.
Meyer, C., & Schwager, A. (2007). Understanding customer experience. Harvard business
review, 85(2), 116.
Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard business review, 76,
97-105.
Walls, A., Okumus, F., Wang, Y., & Kwun, D. J. W. (2011). Understanding the consumer experience: An
exploratory study of luxury hotels. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 20(2),
166-197.
HGE401 Group Project Brief Page 5 of 7
Submission Instructions:
1. Typed and formatted following the Assessment Structure Style Guide and uploaded to
BlackBoard on time on the due date. Recommendations are OPTIONAL.
2. The total word count, excluding executive summary and references, must be within 10% (+
or -) of the assessment word count. Penalties will apply when word count restrictions are not
met.
3. To be submitted in electronic form as a word-processed file to BlackBoard
4. You are expected to refer, in text, to a minimum of twelve (12) academic sources, plus
others as required in order to show competency in the assessment. Up to four of these can
be academic textbooks, with a minimum of eight academic journal articles. Blogs and other
unverifiable sources will not count as references
5. All referencing must be in accordance with the Academic Writing Guide: APA 6th Edition on
SharePoint.
6. A TUA cover sheet to be attached to your paper (Group assessment cover sheet)
7. See marking rubric below, you do not need to attach this rubric to your submissions.
NOTE: For the group assessment, only one copy of the report is to be submitted to Turnitin with all
group members name of the cover sheet, and a BMIHMS Peer Evaluation form MUST BE completed
and submitted either in person or emailed to the lecturer by Monday 2nd December at 5pm.
HGE401 Group Project Brief Page 6 of 7