Strategic Management for Tourism and Hospitality Business: The Luxe Manor Hotel in Hong Kong
Background of the Company
The Luxe Manor was established in 2006 that shows the eclectic mix of the Oriental, Post-modern and European décor that help to create and provide weary travelers with the refreshingly out of ordinary experience. The hotel is the intriguing celebration of the abstract and unreal that had been designed by Salvador Dali (The Luxe Manor, 2008). It is located at 39 Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon, Hong Kong.
The Luxe Manor Hotel in Hong Kong is considered as one of the primary players of the hotel industry in the country, primarily in the sector of 5-star hotels.
Analysis of Internal Environment of The Luxe Manor Hotel
Strengths
One of the most important strengths of the hotel is their ability to know the demands, needs and desires of their customers, particularly the foreign tourists. This is important because the behavior of the consumer is important in different process of decision-making inside and out the company because it set as a basis for the different strategies that must be done and implement in order for a given company or organization to maintain its competitive advantage and position in the industry.
The hotel had been able to cater to the needs and demands of the Chinese tourists and the business travelers, two of the most important group of tourists in the country.
Primarily, the growing number of Chinese visitors to the country had affected the competition in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Competition is considered as a vital aspect of factors that influence the decision-making as well as the different policies and strategies, not only of the Luxe Manor Hotel but the entire hotel industry of the country. Due to the said growing competition, the hotel uses their state-of-the-art facilities and other technologies in order to offer their customers, primarily those business travelers the comfort that they are asking for, like different Internet services as well as Wi-Fi, that enables the visitors, mostly those that are using mobile devices to use the Internet anywhere inside the vicinity of the hotel. The hotel is also one of the leaders in terms of applying Internet technology in order to improve the facilities, particularly for those business travelers. This can be seen in the application of different updated technologies such as VoIP telephony, WiFi, business centre, Broadband Internet Access, AV Facilities and security key card systems (The Luxe Manor, 2008).
On the other hand, the hotel is also offering the other more important visitors, which are the growing number of Chinese tourists from mainland China that can be considered as price sensitive and they are spending less for hotel accommodation. The hotel is offering different packages that would cater to the limited budgets of possible visitors in the country.
The Internet created a great mean of marketing and customer relationship for the company. Furthermore, it had also helped the company to offer cheaper packages for the price sensitive customers or visitors.
Another important strength of the hotel is their ability to innovate and offer something new to their visitors. The said activity is important because the taste and preference of the tourists changes all the time. The hotel offers different themed suites that will complement to the characters of their visitors. This is due to the fact that the hotel is considered as a trend leader of the designer’s hotel in the country because of its artistic presentation that is blend with modern technologies.
Weaknesses
On the other hand, there are different reactions and comments in the Internet that focuses on the services, advertisements as well as facilities of the hotel.
One of the most important is the system that is being used in booking or monitoring the occupancy of the rooms, whether it is available or not. This is important because overbooking is considered as a mortal sin in the hotel service. This can be solved by installing real-time system that will handle the check-in and check-out of the customers, as well as maintain the number of rooms that are available.
Another thing is the relationship of the service staff towards the customers. There are different comments that shows that the hotel service provide poor as well as unprofessional and unfriendly service. This will affect the image of the company to possible customers or visitors that are searching information about the hotel in the Internet. This can be solved by applying intensive training that is supported by different human resource policies that will focus on the staff’s service and behavior towards the customers. As we all know, the relationship between the hotel staff and the customers is the most important aspect of the hotel, after the facilities.
Resources
Tangible resource
Financial Resources
Maintaining adequate financial resources is considered as one of the most important principle for a business or organization (FSA, 2008). Financial resources focus on the different resources of the company with connection to the money that are used by the company in order to continue the flow of their services.
The cash flow of the company focuses on the in-flow and profit of hotel in terms of online and personal selling of their rooms. Furthermore, the hotel also focuses on the cash inflows from other businesses and services of the hotel such as their resorts as well as restaurants.
In addition to that, the hotel also joined the Small Luxury Hotels of the World that enables the hotel to have a greater access to different financial and marketing needs coming from the organization.
Human Resource
Human resource is considered as one of the most important, if not the most important resources of any company and organization. This is due to the fact that the said resource is the one that controls other important resources of the company and create the finish product or service that will be served and offer to the possible customer.
The human resource is important in any business or organizations that are connected to the hospitality and tourism industry due to the fact that they have the direct relationship and contact to the customers.
In terms of the hotel, the human resource management is considered as one of its weaknesses due to the different negative comments and feedbacks of the customers regarding the attitudes and behaviors of the hotel’s staffs towards the visitors. This is important because in hotel business, image is considered as one of the essential elements of success.
That is the primary reason why the upper management of the hotel said that the improvement of their current human resource policy. The hotel must implement new policies and rules that will help to motivate the staffs of the hotel that will reflect to their relationship and service to the visitors.
Physical Resources
In terms of the physical resources, it can be said that the hotel is considered as one of the most famous hotel in the country in offering innovative facilities and technologies. As a matter of fact, the design and structure of the hotel is considered as one of the most unique luxury hotel in the country that enables them to have a product differentiation.
The hotel is considered as a trend setter not only in terms of the arts and designs that are applied in the overall structure of the hotel but also on the different facilities and gadgets that are can be used inside the vicinity of the hotel. The hotel is considered as one of the first hotels that applied WiFi or wireless Internet connection for their business travelers.
Intangible Resources
The most important intangible resource of the hotel pertains on the informational assets. As of now, information plays an important role in the overall management of any department and aspect of the entire organization. It can affect the decision-making process of hotel. The said information is used in different parts of the hotel, particularly in terms of marketing and customer relationship.
In terms of managing the intangible resources, the hotel is using different computerized, particularly online systems that will handle the different important information and data, particularly regarding the requests of the customers for room booking and reservation.
On the other hand, this is one of the important problems of the hotel that causes annoyance and other negative feedback from the visitors, and it causes overbooking.
Capabilities
The main capability of the hotel focuses on its innovativeness or its continuous development in terms of its services, facilities and technologies that will cater to the ever-changing demands of meticulous business travelers. The said aspect enables the hotel to become one of the trend-setters in terms of offering different features that will satisfy and make the life of their business travelers easy.
It is also important to consider the intense relationship of the hotel to the possible customers around the globe by their creative and functional website, where in the customer or visitor can visit the hotel in virtual manner.
Competitive Advantage
A competitive advantage is an advantage over the competitors gained by the process of offering the consumers a greater value, by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits as well as services that justifies the higher prices (tutor2u, n.d.).
The competitive strategy of the hotel focuses on the differentiation focus. This can be seen in the overall structure as well as the design of the overall establishment of the hotel. Furthermore, the hotel also offers different themed rooms that will cater on the different demands of their customers, particularly those business travelers. By doing the said strategy, the hotel had been able to provide products as well as services that are different from its other competitors that enable them to target the broader group of the customers (tutor2u, n.d.).
The said strategy can be seen in the effort of the hotel in offering new and improve services and features to its facilities and structures.
Company Strategies
Functional-Level Strategies
In terms of marketing strategy, the company focuses on the use and application of the Internet in connecting and communicating with the possible tourists or visitors. This can be seen in the hotel’s creative and useful website of the hotel, where in the user can take a peek of the hotel’s offerings, services and other important packages. The hotel also offers online booking and reservation that will enable its customer to book in effortless manner.
Business-Level Strategies
In terms of the business-level strategies, the hotel is considered as one of the trend-setter in the entire hotel industry of the country. Furthermore, the hotel also offers a different experience and ambiance that will capture the imagination and will give comfort to the visitors. The hotel focuses on giving different environment for the visitors, as well as gives them the chance to choose in varieties of their themed rooms.
Corporate-Level Strategies and Global-Level Strategies
A strategic alliance is one of the most important corporate-level strategies in any organization. This gives the hotel a connection and relationship to other hotels. The corporate-level strategies and global-level strategies of the hotel greatly focus on joining different organizations and chains of hotels in the world, in order to improve their relationship, not only to the customers, but also to the entire hotel industry in the world.
This year, the Luxe Manor in Hong Kong has joined the Small Luxury Hotels of the World; it is a collection of over 440 independent hotels in more than 70 countries (China Hospitality News, 2008).
By joining the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the Luxe Manor in Hong Kong will be able to boost its competitive edge via the worldwide exposure as well as great marketing support. This is due to the fact that the said organization offers more than 440 hotels in over 70 countries. This will result to strong brand awareness in the key source markets. Furthermore, the hotel can use its award winning directory with more than 500,000 global distribution and dedicated account management (Small Luxury Hotels of the World, 2007).
Conclusion
The internal analysis shows that the main important aspects that must be considered by the management of the Luxe Manor hotel focuses on the customer relationship, services, human resource management as well as marketing. The hotel shows a great advantage in terms of the marketing and relationship to the possible customers or visitors by application of the Internet. Furthermore, in terms of service, the hotel also offers innovative services and products that will help to capture the attention of the visitors. This will serve as a great competitive advantage that will enable the hotel to stay to and maintain its position in the local and global market and industry.
On the other hand, there are also different factors that must be considered for improvement. Primarily is the human resource management of the hotel. The relationship of the hotel staffs and the visitors is important, that is why it will be applicable to plan and implement more training and meeting that will enable the staffs to understand their important role in positioning the hotel in the entire hotel industry.
Furthermore, the internal system must be decentralized in order to make sure that all of the data and information that are connected in the process of monitoring the real-time availability of rooms.
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