Analysis on Competitive Approach For the Hospitality Hotel Diligence

Developing an industry approach is admirable but executing the approach is a key. One simple approach is to differentiate our operations via intangible assets. As an example, customer relationship administration or new and innovative products and services can provide differentiation from our competitors. One approach that has been employed frequently is the “balanced scorecard.” Simply put, this system allows a company to measure budgets and financial measurement devices as well as non-tangible assets such as customer relationships and brand awareness.

According to the book The Approach Focused Organization by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, “an exclusive reliance on financial measures in an administration system causes industries to do the wrong things.” Kaplan and Norton believe there are four basic strategic themes:  Build the franchise – in the case of hoteliers, this applies to the individual franchisee as well as the brand managers – optimize that brand name!  Increase customer value – today’s savvy customers may pay to stay in a luxury hotel, but they will require value for that dollar.  Achieve operational excellence – satisfactory service is not good enough with today’s fickle consumer, great service is now required. Provide “unanticipated” or “wow” service.  Be a good corporate citizen – I have found that this comes back in the way of increased revenues, better employees and hence more repeat industry.  This paper clearly indicates that effort by staff have a strong effect on guest's satisfaction judgments. Companies delivering services must broaden their examination of productivity to help settle conflicts – the activity is to conduct regularly scheduled review of progress by excellence council or working group and administration must establish a system to identify areas for future improvement and to track performance with respect to internal and external customers. They must also track the changing preferences of customer. Continuous improvement means not only being satisfied with doing a good job or process. It is accomplished by incorporating process measurement and team problem solving an all work activities. Organization must continuously strive for excellence by reducing complexity, variation and out of organize process. Plan-DStudy-Act [PDSA] developed by Shewhart and later on modified by Deming is an effective improvement technique. First Plan carefully, then carry out plan, study the results and check whether the plan worked exactly as intended and act on results by identifying what worked as planned and what didn't work. Continuous process improvement is the objective and these phases of PDSA are the framework to achieve those objectives. [Besterfield D. et al 2003] The 'services cape' -is a general term to describe the physical surroundings of a service atmosphere [Reimer 2005, p. 786] such as a hotel or cruise ship. Guests are sometimes unconsciously trying to obtain as much information as possible through experiences to decrease information asymmetries This causes guests to look for excellence signals or cues which would provide them with information about the service, which leads us to 'cue utilization theory'. Cue utilization theory states that products or services consist of several arrays of cues that serve as surrogate indicators of product or service excellence. There are both intrinsic and extrinsic cues to help guests determine excellence. Consequentially, due to the limited tangibility of services, guests are often left to accept the price of the experience and the physical appearance or atmosphere of the hotel or cruise ship itself as excellence indicators. Though there are many trade and academic studies discussing guest satisfaction has been published, one can note that limited attention has been paid to the value perception and expectations guests have towards product delivery and influence price guests pay for an experience has on satisfaction and future spending. Furthermore it is also known that the role of pricing in relation to guest satisfaction has been largely ignored. Considering that guest's expectations has gone up in the past few decades within the hospitality hotel diligence, and continue to do so, does not make it any easier for administration to understand what guests

In contrast, the perceived service excellence would be similar to an individual’s general attitude towards the service firm. Also, similar direct determinants have been suggested for both customer satisfaction [Liljander and Strandvik, 1992] and service excellence. This implies a close relationship between service encounter satisfaction and perceived service excellence. Parasuraman define service excellence as guests’ overall judgment or attitude concerning high-excellence service [Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman, 1988]. Their model treats service excellence not as an absolute, but as a relative concept determined by the gap between consumers’ expectations and their perceptions. The author describes five steps necessary to create a approach-focused corporation: 1. Translate the approach to operational terms 2. Align the organization to the approach 3. Make approach everyone’s job 4. Make approach a continual process 5. Mobilize change through executive leadership These are not difficult concepts, however, they require the hospitality hotel diligence leader to come across to

road. In this next section, we’ll discuss positioning, a cornerstone to any marketing approach.  Positioning Approach According to Philip Kottler’s book Marketing Administration, not all brand differences are meaningful or worthwhile. Kottler uses the Westin Singapore’s ad that it is “the world’s tallest hotel.” Is this relevant to most guests? After the September 11, 2001 attacks, height could actually have been a disadvantage. How does one determine what positioning approach to utilize? Kottler reviews seven areas [I included examples from hospitality for each area]: 1. Attribute positioning  Size, number of years in industry, etc. 2. Benefit positioning  Fantasy experience at various theme parks 3. Use positioning  An airport markets a 15 minute massage for a traveler on the go 4. User positioning  Magic Mountain as a theme park for “thrill-seekers” 5. Competitor positioning  We’re better than a regular hotel because we have all suites and a free breakfast 6. Product category positioning  Use of the word resort hotel can create an image of a full-service lodging atmosphere 7. Excellence or price positioning  Best value claim In the case of any company in hotel diligence, it is paramount to create a grid of qualities comparing our industries with the competition. For hotels, I like to rank location, brand, restaurant, lounge, meeting space, amenity package, ambience, cleanliness, design, website, use of social media, etc. circumstances, such as a recession or a weak current market due to oversupply will have impact as will the appearance of too many products under the same brand or marketing umbrella. The hotel diligence has gone through a most important change whereby suite hotels that include breakfast and a light dinner have a competitive advantage. What other strategies can we employ? Team up with golf courses, rental car firms, spas, tennis clubs, etc. What’s the bottom line on approach? If executed well, approach can provide for strong market share in the hospitality hotel diligence. It’s required in today’s competitive atmosphere. Many hospitality industries already have the foundation for a sound approach. All of us can improve by executing a well thought-out plan.

In this paper we found that the operational enhancement initiatives and cost containment strategies are critical. These efforts may include short-term measures such as staff layoffs or schedule reductions. Long-term solutions such as revenue administration, inventory organizes, purchasing systems and improved service standards are always helpful in profit improvement initiatives.

1. Parasuraman A., [2002] 'Service excellence and productivity: A synergistic perspective’, Managing Service Excellence Volume: 12 Issue: 1 2. Reimer A. & Kuehn R. [2005]. 'The impact of servicescape on excellence perception’, European Journal of Marketing, 39 [7/8]. 785- 808, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. [Online]. DOI: 10.1108/03090560510601761. [Accessed: February 12, 2008]. 3. D H, Besterfield C M, Besterfield G H, Besterfield M S, [2003, New Delhi, Total Excellence Administration , Pearson Education Inc. 4. Kotler P. [2006], London. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, Pearson education. 5. Liljander, V.; Strandvik, T. Estimating zones of tolerance in perceived service excellence and perceived service value, International Journal of Service Hotel diligence 6. Parasuraman A., [2002] 'Service excellence and productivity: A synergistic perspective’, Managing Service Excellence Volume: 12 Issue: 1 7. Parasuraman, A.; Zeithaml, V.A.; Berry, L.L. Reassessment of expectations as a comparison standard in measuring service excellence: implications for further research, Journal of Marketing, 58[1], 1994, pp. 111-124, ISSN 0022-2429.