Repositioning the operation of a luxury hotel
The clientAn Asian domestic hotel owner-operator that presently engages Leading Hotels of the World for GDS distribution and sales representation for its 450 room capital city hotel.
What did Hotel Solutions Partnership achieve for the client?
The business has started to invest and change is recognised. The business will require a steady hand the tiller through what will be necessarily be a turbulent period is obvious. Our experience with current business leadership suggests that leadership and the team has started the process of change and understands well the route to be followed.
Background
The client had decided upon a strategy that calls for the repositioning of the hotel from Upper Upscale to Luxury and for it to be operated henceforth in a way that reflects the best practice as provided by international operators.
Consultants:
A team from around the world led by Duncan MacArthur and including Doreen Boulding, LarryBowman, Doug Fiedler, Ian Graham, Daphne Hampson and Mike Wrigley.
Project objective
The consulting assignment had as its goal to establish the gaps that needed to be addressed by the executive and management team and to assist in the prioritisation of change programmes. The output was a gap analysis:
for brand touch points, against generally defined "Luxury Standards" - using Asian Five Star hotels as a goal for back office departments, against best practice in international hotel management companies.
Project scope
Both front of house and back of house processes.
Methodology
Brand touchpoints
Prior to travel to the hotel, the team worked virtually to develop a completely customised questionnaire based on the type of questionnaire used by Mystery Shopping service providers; the resultant questionnaire sought to evaluate more than 3,000 touchpoints that could be expected to define the brand to the customer. During their stay at the hotel each consultant scored their actual experience and these were then summarised by the team's subject matter expert and fed back to the client. The evaluation showed the client where the current guest and customer experience fell short of or exceeded that which might reasonably be expected at an Asian Luxury hotel.Back office processes
Knowledge was gathered from more than 70 separate structured 1 to 2 hour interviews conducted by Hotel Solutions Partnership subject-matter experts with hotel management in a week and a half. The interviews provided the consultants with a high level understanding the present business methods.
An evaluation was made for each department that compared the processes used, the organisation and the technology deployed against the standard expected by an international operator.In making recommendations, the consultants made reference to their individual and collective professional and consulting experiences with global and regional Luxury hotel brands including Ritz Carlton, Conrad, InterContinental, Fairmont, Luxury Collection, Preferred, W Hotels, and Peninsula.
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Associated Experts
Ian Graham: leads and contributes to complex advisory assignments for hotel owners and operators around the world, leveraging his deep understanding of the goals of the guest, the hotelier, the investor, the lender and the brand owner - and all this from a unique base of experience that has seen him working on hotel issues in more than 60 countries.
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Larry Bowman: is a specialist in the 'people dimensions' of the international hospitality business, helping clients to achieve their strategic goals by making effective use of their people as a source of competitive advantage.
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Doug Fiedler: provides advice in building quality, customer satisfaction and ROI for all aspects of food and beverage operations.
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Duncan MacArthur: offers clients straightforward advice to improve all aspects of operational excellence in hotels, resorts and mixed use developments including those with leisure components such as Golf and Spa
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Mike Wrigley: provides hotel consulting solutions across a wide range of technology issues including system research, start-ups, IT strategies, new-build infrastructures and project turnarounds.
Read more >Associated Areas of Expertise
Asset management Read more >
Benchmarking performance Read more >
Booking engine selection Read more >
Brand management Read more >
Business systems knowledgebase Read more >
Business turnaround Read more >
Central reservation systems (CIS) Read more >
Change management Read more >
Content management Read more >
Customer relationship management Read more >
Distribution channel management Read more >
Due diligence Read more >
E-commerce Read more >
Finance Read more >
Food and beverage management Read more >
General management Read more >
Golf course, marina and other recreational facilities Read more >
Human resources Read more >
IP telephony, WAN, VoIP, HSIA, WiFi Read more >
IT strategy and investment planning Read more >
Leadership development Read more >
Management development and training Read more >
Organisational development Read more >
Performance management Read more >
Pricing Read more >
Process design Read more >
Process improvement Read more >
Procurement Read more >
Product definition and launch Read more >
Project management Read more >
Room management Read more >
Sales and marketing management Read more >
Service strategy and skills Read more >
Spa health and fitness management Read more >
Standard operating procedures Read more >
Strategic planning Read more >
Sustainability Read more >
Tour operator contracting Read more >
Web site development Read more >
