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Ritz Carlton Essay

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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 …show more content…

At Ritz-Carlton, electronic databases are used to track guest’s preferences and tastes enabling them to provide express check-in for their regular guests. Legal and political conditions, such as war or political strife between countries, limit international travel which can have a detrimental impact on international locations. In addition to these extreme circumstances, legal restrictions, such as zoning restrictions, may force Ritz to limit the height or size of their hotels in certain regions. Specific international events, such as the current economic recession, have had major impacts on the demand for luxury accommodations. Lastly demographics play a role in site location for a luxury hotel. The population surrounding a hotel can often dictate the type and amount of clientele the hotel will receive. (Exhibit 1)

Having just analyzed the general environment surrounding the upscale and luxury hotel industry, the next step in determining whether such an industry is attractive or not is to conduct an in depth external analysis of the threats and opportunities facing the industry. Thanks to the help of Michael Porter and his Five Forces Model, this analysis is not nearly as difficult or as time consuming as it may seem. According to Porter, there are five forces which determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. These forces include the threat of entry, the threat of rivalry, the threat of substitutes, the threat of buyers,

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