The Rosewood Hotels & Resorts

A brand is a powerful tool, especially in the hotel industry where services are intangible. Many hotels of the 21st century have made branding one of their top most priority with the realisation that hotel branding helps to set them apart from their competitors and create a firm customer base. Branding creates brand recognition, brand preference, increase customer satisfaction and most importantly, customer loyalty.

For instance, in the hospitality industry, the Hilton brand symbolises high-end properties, elevated quality of service and a unique guest experience. Brand name and brand image are essentially two factors that differentiate companies which operate in the same industry and market. Therefore, the brand name must be unique. Hotel companies like the Hilton have established strong national brands and seek to use them globally with an intention of increasing profits. Once its established as a global brand, the company has successfully created an international image that can lead to increased efficiency through branded marketing efforts and cost savings on a much larger scale. Nowadays with an increase in international travel, the competition among international hotel corporations is becoming a lot more competetive. Those tourists that travel to foreign countries tend to stay in one of the known hotel brands and their standardised quality of service. Hotel chains are motivated to maintain a high rate of global expansion as a key marketing strategy of creating brand loyalty (King,

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

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

For my luxury brand marketing analysis I choosed the Four Season Hotels chain, as on my mind it is one of the most successful and well-known hotel chain, providing 5 star service all around the world.

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.

Delicate consideration of factors pertaining to the internal and external environment, are a necessity in executing Hyatt’s ultimate goal of “being the preferred brand”. Internal and external environments are factors that may be within or beyond the control of the firm. Theses factors influence the direction, action, structure, and internal process of an organization. The operating, industry, and remote environments are sub-environments that are associated to a firm’s environment (Pearce and Robinson, 2013). Its associates, guests, and owners through its presence in each community it is located in impact Hyatt’s environments.

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts is a private hotel management company established in 1979 by the Caroline Rose Hunt Trust Estate. It is a well known company in the luxury hotels market which owns 17 iconic properties in 7 different countries (http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/the_company/). The first hotel was The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas; afterwards the company expanded its “collection of unique properties” all over the world by converting and repositioning existing sites and by building up brand new luxury hotels. The distinctive feature of this collection is the so called “A sense of Place”. In fact in a Rosewood hotel every single

Having been in the hospitality business for more than 25 years, the Kimpton Hotels Corporation is a national and global company, which had been widely recognized all over as an industry leader in the boutique brand hotel with a tradition of innovative hospitality. According to the Kimpton Hotel Corporation, “Our mission is to be the best-loved hotel and restaurant company by our employees, guests, owners, and communities and to genuinely support our co-workers, provide heartfelt care and comfort for our guests, and deliver superior financial returns to our investors.” Being immensely focused on this mission, the hotel’s primary goal is to be the most preferred boutique hotel brand in the industry.

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 report focused particularly on the following hotel chain Hilton Worldwide. Hilton legacy began in 1925, it was founded by Conrad N. Hilton. The first hotel was built in Texas and had 40 rooms; today Hilton is one of the most respected brands in the world. The company owns, manages or franchises a hotel group of some of the most famous and highly regarded hospitality brands worldwide, including Hilton, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Double Tree by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hampton, Hilton Grant Vacations, Homewood Suites by Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts. With 4000 hotels and 650,000 rooms in 90 countries Hilton Worldwide is one of the world’s leading hotel. (Hilton Worldwide, 2013)

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

As a primary worldwide provider of travel-related services such as rentals, lodging, conference facilities, and timeshare exchange, Wyndham Worldwide has overcome inconsistent branding strategy, unstable mergers, and acquisitions, as well as the 2008 economic recession to retain its top position in the industry. An internal and external analysis of the company, opportunities, and threats faced by the firm, its competitive advantage, and a strategic focus reveal the issues that need to be addressed henceforth for it to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive global market. The paper provides a problem statement, alternatives, and recommendations that Wyndham Worldwide can engage.

The organization has explicitly kept this advantageous environment over other organizations by improving its service capacity. Additionally, the organization ensures that it stays ahead of its rivals by engaging in research and development that focuses on luxury products and markets analysis. The Ritz-Carlton hotel uses data from its research to predict the future of the industry; therefore able to dictate what and how the market will trend in the foreseeable future. Another factor that keeps the organization’s advantage over its rivals is that while rivals tend to become a hotel brand in the industry, Ritz-Carlton has rather position itself to be a leader and lifestyle brand that constantly develop new properties and ensure that customers live the culture of the hotel. The final factor that has kept the advantage of the organization intact is the culture of trust that exists between the management and employees. The leadership of the hotel lives and communicates the organization’s value to its employees who in turn satisfy customers in a way that they often anticipate a return visit. These are some of the reasons that the Ritz-Carlton hotel continued advantageous environment over its rivals has persisted in the hotel and resort industry (Reiss,