SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
Starwood has created a brand name for itself worldwide and has been able to gain a high number of loyal customers. The group has provided good service to customers and has received a number of positive feedbacks from the customers. The popularity of the group is seen clearly by its ranking in the Worldwide Top 10 hotels.
Starwood has over 897 hotels worldwide which shows the large operational scale. Starwood has grown by 3.0% in one year (in Rooms) and this shows how rapidly the company is expanding and now has almost half the number of rooms as its biggest competitor (Intercontinental HG - 556,246 rooms vs. Starwood -.265,598 rooms as per Table 1) (Hotel-Online, 2007).
The main assets of a hotel are the
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There is a major growth possible in the developing countries (Ferguson and Hlavinka, 2006). This would help them improve market presence and also help them spread their brand far and wide across the world. The travel and tourism industry is a booming one here and the company will be able to make its mark in the area.
The group has large opportunities to get into franchising with third party to spread the brand. Also opening of restaurants would help them create more public awareness and help the brand be popularized (Ferguson and Hlavinka, 2006).
The business travel that was affected by the drop of the US markets can now be recovered and improved. This would open up avenues for the Element hotels that specifically deal with business travelers.
Also a small part of Starwood’s revenues are earned from resort ownership. This now is set for rapid growth, which should also help increase the revenues.
Threats:
Starwood has shown a good growth rate of 3.0%, according to figures in table 1. However competitors’ growth rate is a threat to the group as well. In table 1 Hilton has shown a growth of 5.30% increase in rooms in one year, this could cause a major threat to the group.
As mentioned above, the company has over 50% of its operations in US, this makes it very dependent on the US markets and adverse happening in the markets would also affect the company to a great
Tourism is one of the most international industries. Globalisation is the gradual forging of links between groups and societies until they finally reach around the globe in several directions (Smith, D,2006). Globalization is one of the serious challenges facing managers today. It is critical to develop services that are able to satisfy a highly diverse customer base (Ueltschy et al., 2007) Now to keep up with the rising levels of globalization in the hotel industry, there’s a need to understand not only the positive, but also the negative impacts of globalisation. I’ll also talk about the growth and rise of one of the most respected brands in the hospitality industry - the Hilton Hotels. Throughout the evolution of this famous organization, the Hilton has
The growth strategy of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Inc is multifaceted. Their growth strategy is driven by opening the finest hotel, in the right destination, which will lead to the right economics for the hotel owner. They not only discover destinations where their consumers want to go, but target those markets where they want to create their presence and to increase awareness for future Four Seasons’ travelers. But at the same time investigate opportunities to engrain their positions in those destinations, where they have already operated. According to Kathleen Taylor ‘Four Seasons has approximately 50 projects in various stages of design and construction. The vast majority will come outside the U.S., with a focus on China, India and Latin America. There are lots of cities in those areas where Four Seasons needs to
Mergers and acquisitions are common in the hotel industry. One of the most recent is the acquisition of hotels from CTF Holdings Ltd. (ElBoghdady, Washington Post) This acquisition caused second quarter profits to drop, however second quarter revenue jumped to 2.66 billion up 11% from 2.4 billion in the previous quarter. Marriot reported that revenue per available room rose 11.1 percent, a key measure of a hotel company's strength. Rising demand drove up room rates increasing to 8.9% worldwide and 8.5% in North America.
The hotel industry is a very hard industry to enter into, due to one of the biggest obstacles, which is brand recognition. Right now there are a few large hotel chains that make a large footprint in the market. It is hard for a new entrant to come into the industry and compete with these large hotel chains without bringing something new to the table. Many large chains in the industry dominate the industry due to economies of scale due to franchising.
This was mainly due to the large number of diversified hotels in the chain across the globe
1. Think about size, growth, locational aspects and segmentation 2. Market Structure 3. Performance metrics used 4. Trends
Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).
Premier Inn is the name of a British Budget Hotel chain running the largest hotel brand in the United Kingdom. Hotel chain is running 690 hotels with more than 50,000 rooms built in different countries. The hotel chain listed in London Stock Exchange in 1987 with brand name of “Whitebread” and started trading of its services under the chain of “Travel Inn” in order to compete with travellodges. Business operation of Premier Inn is not only limited to city centers but also covering suburbs and airports locations Hotel chain is following the expansion and acquisition policies since the time of its inception and acquired hotel chain named as Premier Lodge in 2004 (Whitebread, 2013). This acquisition increased the number of hotels and the profit as well. Premier Lodge was running with 141 hotels and contributed 70% of the total profit of “Whitebread”. Target market of the hotel chain is not only the leisure visitors and families but also the world business class seeking countless business and travel facilities. Award winning business services, comfortable sleep on king size beds and delicious breakfast are further adding value for the hotel chain while elevating the status of Premier Inn to be the first choice of families and business class to take their stay decisions at Premier Inn. The ambitious and high paced profitable progress of the Hotel chain is opening new ways of expansion and development. The hotel chain is therefore, planning to increase around 45% i.e. 75,000 rooms
From the perspective of investor relations, the new tasks of the new confidence in the BA can only be beneficial. In addition, its signal is BA's business from last September, the recent studies about the efficiency of world tourism program of the future is not a one-off, but a new millennium as part of a larger plan. (Morrell, 1999)
A lot of business travellers want to stay in well known hotels like Mariott or Hilton. Only 16% want to stay in individual hotels. So for the industry it is important to have a very good reputation. Of course the people try to get the best price for a room and most hotels have company rates which are below the normal rack rate. Also important for a booking is the location of the hotel and the bonus programs. For 26% of the guests Airline milage is important. So the hotels have to work with airline companies and they want special conditons as well.
To remain profitable, hotels must operate with around 65-70% capacity . Due to seasonality, political and economic events, some hotels are finding it difficult to maintain profitable occupancy levels and have started to provide services along multiple levels within the industry's
The majority of the five-star hotels are controlled by foreign hotel management group while the one, two, three, and four-star hotels are mostly controlled domestically without any strong chain brand. By August 2017, the profit of five-star hotels stands at 64.83 billion yuan, four-star hotels at 2.09 billion yuan, three-star hotels at 6.13 billion yuan, two-star hotels at 0.54 billion yuan, and one-star hotels are at 0.11 billion yuan. This shows that the majority of the profit share is earned by five-star hotels. Besides the starred hotel, there are 95000 individual hotels in China market, which occupies 27% of the market share; and economy hotel for around 7000, occupies 1.9% of the market share; social inn, hostel for about 234,000, which occupies 67% of the market share. In China, the main body market is filled with non-brand individual hotels, social inn, and hostels, but their competitive power and profitability indexes are relatively weak. Economy hotels, on the other hand, in terms of economic perspective, are lying in the ascendant mode with lots of domestic brands appearing having strong competitive power and profitability indexes.
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)
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,
Marriott International within their respective market segments are one of the largest hotel groups globally.