Business Strategies For A Hotel Chain

Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the systematic identification of the firm 's objectives, nurturing policies and strategies to achieve these objectives, and acquiring and making available these resources to implement the policies and strategies to achieve the firm 's objectives. Strategic management, therefore, integrates the activities of the various functional sectors of a business, such as marketing, sales and production to achieve organisational goals. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually

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

Price discrimination is where a firm changes different consumers different prices for the same service.

7. Which one of the following generic types of competitive strategy is typically the best strategy for a company to employ?

The process outlined by Mr. James reflects a growing practice today. I was not surprised by the charge given us. Companies in the hotel industry are looking for and expecting a documented favorable financial return on their expenditures. Admittedly, sales and marketing has lagged behind other functions, such as lodging operations, in showing measurable profit results from its efforts. The new planning and budgeting process will be a challenge because it is “bottom-up” and profit driven rather than “top-down” and revenue driven. But it is a worthwhile undertaking to achieve profitability within two years. I hope the planning and budgeting process doesn’t turn into a cost-cutting exercise.

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.

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.

Maverick Lodging is a hotel management company that manages the day-to-day operations of third party franchisees of the Marriott Corporation. The company has recently implemented a balanced scorecard in an effort to align company strategy, structure, performance measurements, and incentives. The organization strategy involves growth in revenue and customer base with the use of differentiation. Issues with the current scorecard and its measures have been identified. Alternative solutions have been researched. A recommended course of action is presented that will allow Maverick Lodging to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.

Hilton Hotels is one of the biggest players in the hospitality industry with over 2900 (as of September 2007) hotels worldwide consisting of numerous brands and products. The hospitality industry is service centered and highly competitive. The challenge for Hilton is to create and deliver value better than its competitors. Hilton understand that it is important to improve customer experience and build strong relationships with the customers. Hilton Hotels adopted a Customer Really Matter (CRM) strategy out of necessity to cater for

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.

In the case of the Hamilton hotel, Snow needs to make a decision as to if 60 additional rooms reservations should be accepted which could lead to overbooking (Weatherford & Bodily,1990). It is a problem of capacity utilization that is being faced in this particular case where revenue maximization is aimed while minimizing customer dissatisfaction.

To remain profitable, hotels must operate with around 65-70% capacity . Due to seasonality, political and economic events, some hotels are finding it difficult to maintain profitable occupancy levels and have started to provide services along multiple levels within the industry's

The Hyatt Corporation was founded by Jay Pritzker in 1957. The first hotel purchased was located in Los Angeles, California. Hyatt is a management company that runs the operations of each hotel even though most of the Hyatt hotel properties are privately owned. They currently have two hundred sixteen hotels around the world and recently purchased one hundred forty three AmeriSuite hotels which were renovated and are being operated under their new name, Hyatt Place. Hyatt is known for specializing in luxury hotels that also provide meeting facilities and special services. The Hyatt Regency in Columbus Ohio was built in 1980. This hotel has six hundred and thirty one guest rooms, which makes it the largest hotel in the State, based on

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