A. Overview of Starwoods Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

Marriott is renowned for its elegant and comfortable hotels and resorts. The company caters to a targeted customer base, ranging from the frequent corporate business traveler to the family enjoying their occasional weekend get-away. Marriott has continued its rise in the lodging, contract services, and restaurant industries. The company continuously strives to meet the needs and wants of its customers while strategically maneuvering the rigors of today’s competitive and ever-evolving market of glamorous destinations and convenient services. In order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive environment, Marriott must strike that successful balance of minimizing costs, and gaining and effectively

Customers are the backbone of every business which is why building a solid relationship is essential to the success of every business. In order to remain competitive companies must be able to meet the needs and wants of their customers. With new hotels and casinos on the rise in the Caribbean, the hotels and casinos operated under Diamond Cluster Entertainment are struggling to remain competitive. Their competitors are making themselves known via social media and other online marketing strategies. This company is ignoring the importance of social media which is why they are struggling to remain competitive and build a solid relationship with their loyal customers. Their competitors are also investing in loyalty programs that offer customers free rooms, room upgrades, casino credits, and other perks.

As we discussed in class, every business is faced with these issues and they are important to managers making strategic decisions. One of the first things learned about business is that if there is no demand for a good or service, the firm that provides it will not continue to exist. Over time the hotel industry has continued to change with market conditions and make itself attractive to business

The hotel chain, Astor Lodge and Suites, Inc., operates 250 properties in 10 western and Rocky Mountain states. The company’s customer base primarily comprises business travelers. In addition, the locations of the properties surround airports, large regional shopping centers, and major highways close to suburban industrial sites as well as office complexes. Projections of 2005 fiscal year forecast a fifth consecutive year of a gross loss for the firm. The estimates include an anticipated $422.6 million in company lodging revenues but a net loss of $15.7 million for 2005. As a result, Joseph James, president and CEO of Astor Lodge and Suites, Inc., initiated a challenging goal for executive management to devise a strategy achieving net profits in two years and sustaining positive growth in the future.

Amber Inn & Suite, Inc. was built in 1979 and is composed of 250 hotels chain empire of which each consisting an average of 120 exquisite guest rooms or suite units. The profits are $422.6 million and deficits of $15.7 million. The Amber Inns & Suite have total of 30,000 rooms. The Company’s objective is to cater mainly to professional clienteles that are traveling with fabulous guest rooms at an economical price. Amber Inn & Suites, Inc. is located in areas amid ten western and Rocky Mountain States with two hundred fifty numerous property hotel chains. In most cases, each property is made up of one hundred twenty single guest rooms or suite units. Amber Inn & Suites Inc. positions its properties on prime areas such as major

Hilton Hotels is one of the biggest players in the US lodging industry. It contributes to about 9% of the total rooms in US lodging market. It has presence in over 78 countries with more than 2500 hotels. Lodging industry is highly capital intensive industry, so to reduce capital expenditure Hilton Hotels opted for self-owned Hotels as well as franchising model with the real estate owners. One of the key features of lodging industry is low switching costs for customers. There is very little margin to differentiate from the major competitors in the industry which include Marriott international, IHG, Accor etc.

The success of the economic agents depends on a multitude of forces, such as the managerial ability to combine and exploit the resources in an efficient manner, the ability to manage the labor force or the ability to develop positive relationships with the external stakeholder, such as the customers, the business partners, the public and so on. Still, while all these factors are crucial, they are merely adjacent to the core operational function which builds towards organizational success, namely the organizational operations.

i. They mainly concentrate on value rather putting their thoughts on long term goals, that means they always concentrate in reduction of the costs in a strategic context and with a reasonable spotlight on their core. ii. They misuse opportunities one of a kind to the downturn, which can mean anything from utilizing misfortune to increase new clients to squeezing forward with advancement. iii. They act quickly, with a spryness that allows them to keep pace with, or development of, speedy changes in the business environment. Successful companies always put their eye on the growth of the organization and they will try to keep the customers as they don’t need to lose their valuable customers. So they will move on from their comfort zones and thrive hard towards their growth in the competitive world. They always show their commitment towards the innovation that helps in being a part of the successful company. (Berman, 2009).

Premier Inn is the name of a British Budget Hotel chain running the largest hotel brand in the United Kingdom. Hotel chain is running 690 hotels with more than 50,000 rooms built in different countries. The hotel chain listed in London Stock Exchange in 1987 with brand name of “Whitebread” and started trading of its services under the chain of “Travel Inn” in order to compete with travellodges. Business operation of Premier Inn is not only limited to city centers but also covering suburbs and airports locations Hotel chain is following the expansion and acquisition policies since the time of its inception and acquired hotel chain named as Premier Lodge in 2004 (Whitebread, 2013). This acquisition increased the number of hotels and the profit as well. Premier Lodge was running with 141 hotels and contributed 70% of the total profit of “Whitebread”. Target market of the hotel chain is not only the leisure visitors and families but also the world business class seeking countless business and travel facilities. Award winning business services, comfortable sleep on king size beds and delicious breakfast are further adding value for the hotel chain while elevating the status of Premier Inn to be the first choice of families and business class to take their stay decisions at Premier Inn. The ambitious and high paced profitable progress of the Hotel chain is opening new ways of expansion and development. The hotel chain is therefore, planning to increase around 45% i.e. 75,000 rooms

Hospitality Management is a difficult and competitive market, and any lack in customer service can result in defecting customers or the termination of a relationship between a customer and a service provider. In this paper we will look at Hilton a company that has continually ranked amongst the top ranking hotels and continues to improve. Hilton’s customer service ranks as one of the top hospitality providers in the United States. We will look at the history of how Hilton came to be the name brand it is today and some of their process the used to narrow the customer service gaps such as Hilton Honors, the Hiltons Reservation Customer Care, and RESMAX. We will look at how they look at how Hilton manages the customer expectations through the use of employee training and their decreased the customer service gap through employee retention. We will also look as how Hilton co-partnered with Citibank in order to offer its Hilton Honors member additional benefits in order to keep in line with the customer service that the customers have come to expect.

Within the luxury tier, many of the players do not actually own the hotels themselves, but instead manage the operation of the business, similar to that of FSH. In the luxury segment, competition for acquiring new management agreements becomes very high as hotel owners make their choices based on the quality and value of a company's management service and most importantly, its brand name. Moreover, guests who choose to stay in luxury hotels are commonly not very price sensitive, and thus it is essential that a hotel distinguish itself amongst its competition by providing value added services as well as maintaining an untarnished, reputable brand name and image.

The majority of the five-star hotels are controlled by foreign hotel management group while the one, two, three, and four-star hotels are mostly controlled domestically without any strong chain brand. By August 2017, the profit of five-star hotels stands at 64.83 billion yuan, four-star hotels at 2.09 billion yuan, three-star hotels at 6.13 billion yuan, two-star hotels at 0.54 billion yuan, and one-star hotels are at 0.11 billion yuan. This shows that the majority of the profit share is earned by five-star hotels. Besides the starred hotel, there are 95000 individual hotels in China market, which occupies 27% of the market share; and economy hotel for around 7000, occupies 1.9% of the market share; social inn, hostel for about 234,000, which occupies 67% of the market share. In China, the main body market is filled with non-brand individual hotels, social inn, and hostels, but their competitive power and profitability indexes are relatively weak. Economy hotels, on the other hand, in terms of economic perspective, are lying in the ascendant mode with lots of domestic brands appearing having strong competitive power and profitability indexes.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company operates within the upscale & luxury hotel industry. While it could be argued that Ritz-Carlton operates in the more broad and inclusive lodging industry, they offer a highly differentiated product and service and therefore find themselves operating in an exclusive industry alongside very few direct competitors, such as Four Seasons Hotels, HongKong and Shanghai Hotels, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Therefore when analyzing this industry I will not be including cheap hotels, motels, lodges, or inns, unless to offer potential substitutes to luxury hotels. In order to assess the attractiveness of the upscale & luxury hotel industry, an analysis of the general environment surrounding the industry must be

The company has many strengths as Starwood has strong brand portfolio in the luxury and upper upscale segments of the lodging industry (Fox, 2016). They have a global footprint with a strong loyalty program and patron following (Fox, 2016). These strengths put Starwood in a unique position to maintain their brands as well as their potential value to buyers and stock holders has much potential.

Research indicates that whilst a price reducing strategy, which is commonly used in response to strong competition, may see short term gains, rarely does it attract and retain new customers (Chan & Wong 2005). In Hong Kong many hotels have reduced their room rates to remain competitive, however the above implies that hoteliers would do better to understand how their services and facilities influence customer satisfaction rather than simply reducing