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CHAPTER CONTENTS:
4 Characteristics
Innovations
Technology
Users
Segmentation
Classification of hotels
8 P`s
PEST Analysis
Additional matter
INTRODUCTION:
The concept of hotel originated in the 6th century B.C. in the form of Inns. These were run
by couples and provided sleeping arrangements in big rooms, similar to dormitories in the
youth hostel. Hence the hotel industry has its roots in the past in almost every country.
According to welester : “A building of institution providing lodging, meals & service for
the people.” According to “Chamber twentieth century dictionary.” says: “It means a
superior house for the accommodation of strangers”
A hotel is a place where all who conduct, themselves properly and who being able and
ready to pay for their entertainment, accommodation and other services including the
boarding like a temporary home. It is home away from home where all the modern
amenities and facilities are available on a payment basis. The aforesaid viewpoints
regarding the hotel clarify that hotel is a public place where all possible facilities are
made available to a person or persons who stay. The facilities like entertainment, food,
accommodation etc- thus become the core services of a hotel.
1) Intangibility: Intangible services are difficult to sell because they cannot be produced
and displayed ahead of time. They are therefore harder to communicate to prospective
customers. Marketers of services can reduce these risks by stressing tangible cues that
range from the firm's physical facilities to the appearance and demeanor of its staff to the
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letterhead on its stationery to its logo. Thus the industry has to provide these tangible
cues.
2) Inconsistency : The services performed in the hotel industry are largely dominated by
relationship management- that is performed by individuals. Since no human is perfect, it
is difficult to standardize the quality of the human effort in this industry. The fact that
service quality is difficult to control compounds the marketer's task. Services are
performances, often involving the cooperation and skill of several individuals, and are
therefore unlikely to be same every time. The only solution to this problem is to design
services to be as uniform as possible. Mc Donald’s- the world’s largest fast food chain is
renowned to standardize the quality of its service by making the whole process as
standardized as possible. This is supplemented by training personnel to follow closely
defined procedures, or by automating as many aspects of the services as possible. The
appeal of some service personnel - particularly, the hotel industry- lies in their
spontaneity and flexibility to address individual customer needs. The service provider
must find ways to reduce the perceived risk due to variability - one method is to design
services to be as uniform as possible – by training personnel to follow closely defined
procedures, or by automating as many aspects of the services as possible. The hotel
industry’s ability lies in their spontaneity and flexibility to address individual customer
needs. The danger with too much standardization is that of loosing customization and
hence reducing much of their appeal. A second way to deal with perceived risk from
variability is to provide satisfaction guarantees or other assurances that the customer will
not be stuck with a bad result.
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customer and totally under the control of the manufacturing firm, service production
often requires the presence and active participation of the customer - and of other
customers. Depending upon the skill, attitude, and cooperation and so on that customers
bring to the service encounter, the results can be good or bad, but in any event are hard to
standardize. In hotel industry, the customer has to go to the service provider in order to
avail the service. He cannot use the services just by sitting at his residence. Thus hotel
industry is an inseparable service.
4) Perishability: If the full capacities of the services are not utilized, the service becomes
perishable. If a hotel having an accommodation facility of 100 rooms is able to lease out
only 70 rooms a particulars day, then the remaining 30 rooms or 30% capacity gets
perished a can never be reversed. The product is perishable a room not sold tonight is lost
forever. Hoteliers hence give off season rates, do contract bookings with large tour
operators etc. They also try to do maintenance/ room renovation during non-peak
seasons.
Strategies to deal with Inventory: The nature of demand for hotel services is more –
less seasonal. In case of peak seasons, the demand is much greater than the supply
capacity. However in case of off seasons the demand is very less as compared to the
potential supply. This is more relevant in case of hotels located at places of tourist
attraction like Matheran and Mahabaleshwar.
During off-season; hotels can tie-up with some agencies like travel and tourism agencies.
These agents play a key role in recommending services to the customers and can form an
important distribution channel. Also hotels can design attractive packages and schemes
to attract customers. The best example of this is the Taj.
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• Wi-fi
In marketing hotel services, it is important to know about the different types of users
availing the services with diverse aims and objectives. This would ease 'the task of
marketers specially while studying the behavioral profile. Below given is the
classification of different categories of domestic and foreign users.
It is natural that we fined a difference in the intensity of both the categories of uses.
Domestic Users: In the group of domestic users, the different categories are pilgrims
visiting the sacred places, students on educational tours, officials on deputation, political
representatives, and film stars on location shooting. Knowledge seekers on developing
their credentials, sportsmen playing national games. The domestic users stay in hotels
with a different motive. We find a change in the level of domestic users. Generally the
domestic customers pay less attention on value and more on price, a majority of the
domestic users are found price-sensitive and therefore the hoteliers are supposed to make
pricing decisions motivational.
Foreign Users: In the group of foreign users, we find political representatives on peace
mission, trade representatives on business promotion, educationists, sportsmen, cultural
representatives, film stars, pilgrims etc. These categories of foreign tourists visit-hotels
with diverse aims and objectives. They normally prefer to stay in the classified hotels
where the services are found standardized. We also find cases where foreigners stay even
in the unclassified hotels- To be more specific the existing world wide economic
depression has made even the foreign users sensitive to price and this makes it significant
that policy makers and the senior executives assign due weightage to this new
development.
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CLASSIFICATION OF HOTELS
2) Commercial Hotels -Commercial hotels are meant for people who visit places of trade
& commerce or for business purposes, thus these hotels are located at commercial &
industrial centers. These hotels focus their attention on individual business travelers.
They also provide added facilities like computer access, Internet facility, fax, conference
rooms, etc.
3) Beach Hotels - Resort hotels are meant for holidaymakers, tourists & those who seek a
change in environment & atmosphere mainly on healthy grounds. These hotels are
located near the sea, mountains or other areas having an attractive landscape & a healthy
climatic condition. Peninsular India bounded by the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Indian
Ocean
5) Floating Hotels - These hotels are located on water surfaces – sea, river or lake. These
hotels provide all facilities and services that are made available in good luxurious hotels.
In India, the houseboats in Kashmir’s lake are an example of floating hotels.
B. Classification on the basis of standards and controls: On the basis of standard and
control, we classify hotels into two parts, such as Approved and Unapproved. The
approved hotels are found of international standards where the accommodations are made
available as per the criteria laid down by the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation-
Since they have the stamp of official recognition, the customers trust on them. The
unapproved hotels may also offer quality services but they lack official recognition and
therefore, the customers or prospects don't believe offering of service-promised without
making any distortion.
C. Classification on the basis of star: The department of tourism has classified hotels
under the star system into various categories from one to five stars deluxe and heritage
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hotels. The department also classifies these hotels after every 3 years to see that the
requisites standards are maintained by them.
2) Budget Segment-This segment comprises of the 3 and 4 star hotels, which are
generally located in smaller towns and tourist destinations and cater to the average
foreign and domestic leisure traveler. This segment also caters to the middle level
business travelers since it offers most of the essential services of luxury hotels without
the high costs as this segment is not as heavily taxed as the premium segment and enjoys
a lot of incentives from the government.
2) Stand Alone Hotels -Stand-alone hotels have come up after the tourism boom of the
eighties and nineties. Due to the lack of prior experience in the hotel industry, these
players have preferred to opt for operating/ management arrangements with international
players. Some of the companies in this category are Hotel Leelaventure (with
Kempinski), Asian Hotels (Hyatt International Corporation)
3) Localized Hotel Companies -They comprise of mainly early entrants like the Surya,
Ritz who have not preferred to expand during the tourism boom and have instead focused
on building and catering to a loyal customer base. The private players among the hotel
chains are industry leaders.
I.PRODUCT
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POTENTIAL Exceed expectations Welcome flowers, Welcome Drink
Service Flower
Locker
facility
swimming
Card room
CORE: shopping
Food and
transport shelter
casino
Medical
services lounge
Supplementary
services
At the very center is the core product which satisfies the basic need of the consumer. The
core product in the hotel industry is ACCOMODATION. The role of Hotel International
is to provide basic accommodation facilities. Like a bed for the night and a room with a
bathroom.
II.PRICE
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discounts. Special Discounts: In the hotel industry, we find special function room rates
for overnight convention.
b) Pricing for Room Tariffs: The average room rate should not be much higher than the
competitive hotels otherwise the market will not welcome it. A hotel may also adopt a
policy to give high pay roll to provide a higher standard of services which the customers
are ready to pay.
c) Pricing for Food and Beverage: We can't deny the fact that pricing food and beverage
is much more complicated. In a majority of the hotels, there are three or four types of
rooms but so far as the menus are concerned we can have dozen of dishes.
There are some of the important points to be considered in the process:
• Do you find that your guests are eating in the hotel restaurant or coffee shop where the
competitive restaurants are very close to the hotel. Generally a proportion does eat in but
a significant proportion goes out.
• Where a hotel has two or more restaurants, they compete with each other and help
splitting the market down the middle rather than offering a true price.
• The business in the function room.
III.PLACE
Location: Location involves considering where to deliver the services to the customers.
As far as the service location is concerned, we normally encounter three situations:
1) Customer goes to the service provider
2) Service provider goes to customer
3) Service provider and consumer transact at an arm’s length
In the Hotel Industry, it is the customer who goes to the service provider. In case of
Restaurants, the customer s goes to the service providers to satisfy their hunger. In case of
hotels, the customers go to the hotel both to satisfy his hunger and for the purpose of
accommodation. Hence in order to receive the benefits of hotel services, the customer
must physically enter the service system, i.e. the service factory. However in case of free
home delivery, it is the service provider that goes to the customer. Since in most of the
cases it is the customer that goes to the hotel, the location assumes a very important role.
A well-located hotel/restaurant can pick up demand, as the customers will locate these
hotels easily, quickly and comfortably. The customer today has become convenience
oriented. Hence it is very important to locate the hotels at a convenient place. Hotels
should be easily accessible. Accessibility can be measured in terms of visibility and
proximity to different modes of transport. Similarly it makes more sense in locating a
five star hotel in a sophisticated area.
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Zero Level Distribution: This is a process of direct distribution without any middlemen.
The hotels book, confirm and cancel with the help of their own system.
One level distribution: We find one-level distribution system where between the hotel
companies and their ultimate users, we find travel agents responsible for distributing or
processing the services.
The aforesaid facts and figures make it clear that all the three systems of distribution are
found important to the hotel companies.
IV.PROMOTION
Promotion mix of hotel industry like any other service encompasses of following
communication mix. These are Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotions, and
Direct Mail.
2) Personal Selling: It is rightly said that ‘Receptionist is the nerve of the hotel’. An
effective receptionist must possess an impressive personality, should have high degree of
knowledge about his hotel - variety of room. Receptionist should also be provided with
facility like computer containing up to date information about room availability and other
information about hotel so that he can answer any unique query of the customer. Also
attractive photograph of different types of rooms available should be displayed at the
receptionist desk.
3) Sales Promotions: These are paid form of marketing communication activity (other
than advertisements) to stimulate the customer to come to the hotel.
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b. Folder: We find folder the most commonly used sales promotion tool. In this respect,
it is essential that folders have an impressive appearance in totality. The particulars are
required to be in brief but clear. The hotels can use folders for promoting the business.
d. Attraction leaflets: This is exclusively meant for presenting a view of the different
theme parks, museums, amusement parks, outstanding points of attraction in the hotels or
so.
f. Direct Mail Materials: The sales letters are found to be a direct mail material which
can either be used alone or in combination with brochures and folders.
4) Public Relations: Hotels keep the data base of their past customer and send them
‘good wishes’ card on their Birthdays, Anniversary. This creates good image of hotel in
the mind of old customers.
1) Hotel sponsor various TV quiz shows & contests, and the person winning this contents
will get some nights free day stay at that hotel. This creates indirect publicity of the hotel.
2) Hotel also give free or low priced rent to travel shows like ‘Musafir Hoon Yarro’ and
other TV serials, which also creates indirect publicity of the hotel.
3) Hotels also maintain good relation with travel agents & tour operators as they form a
link between customer & the hotel. So, to keep them happy & satisfied hotel gives these
tour operator & agent – high commission, Gifts like bags and also informing about
various scheme hotels introduces.
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V.PEOPLE
Human Resource: Recruit, train, motivate and retain managers and other employees who
can work well together for realistic compensation package to balance the twin goals of
customer satisfaction and operational effectiveness.
Operations: Create and deliver the specified service package to targeted customers by
selecting operational techniques and operational staff that are well equipped to
understand customer needs and preferences.
Operations Marketing
Management Management
Customers
Human Resources
Management
VI.PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
It’s the front of the hotel that the guest sees; so must be designed in such a manner that it
- sells the hotel to the potential customer. This includes the space, color, light & such
other element; as these affect guest impression about the hotel. Lobby- It being the first &
the last part of the hotel that the guest sees; its designing plays a very important role. It
must be designed with fine art, elegant finishing & comfortable furnishing. And also the
lobby must be functional with receptionist area apparent to the incoming guests. Though,
the architect of the lobby grabs the customer’s interest but it’s the guest room that keeps
them coming back. Guest room with conformable furnishing, space, color is a must.
VII.PROCESS
It’s the manner in which service is delivered. Since, in hotel industry service are rendered
by hotel & experience by the customer simultaneously, because of the inseparability
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nature, the process in which these services are delivered becomes very important. This is
because every process is carefully by the customer & the customer is judging the quality
of the service on this basis.
Service Encounter: There are around 250 moments of truth in a hotel industry where the
customer comes in direct contact with the service provider, equipment, and physical
asset.
Out of these 250 service encounters, there are certain encounters which make the
customer extremely delighted or extremely disappointed. These are:
Check-in -If the customer who had booked the hotel in the room arrives & to his surprise
finds that no room is vacant or him. Another hand, if in a festival season when there no
hotel rooms available in the city, a hotel makes arrangement for accommodation for a
customer who has not booked his room in any hotel.
Bell person carrying the luggage to the room- When the bag arrives in the room, its in
extremely bad condition. This leaves a negative impression in the mind of the customer.
Wake up call- As wake call not made by the receptionist, the customer misses his flight)
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PEST ANALYSIS
1) Political Analysis:
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• An unstable political situation in India made the foreign investor cautious leading to both a
slowdown in foreign investment and business travel. However, government is trying its best
to boost tourism in India which will further boost hotel industry.
• The hotel industry is at present going through one the toughest periods. Weak economic
conditions have lead to a steep decline in foreign as well as Indian business arrivals. Tourist
arrivals have also seen a major decline following 9/11 and because of increasing terrorism.
• The US government’s appeal to its citizens not to travel to Asian & African countries affected
the tourism & hotel industry as the occupancy crisis hit the industry.
• Crumbing to WTO pressure Government of India has reduced the tariffs & duties on various
items which proved attractive for foreign traders to invest & perform business in India. With
improved relations & trade affairs with other countries encouraged trade & travel which
proved to be a boon for the Indian Hotel industry.
• The FDI policy on 100% investment through the direct route is still offshore this has created
confusion in the minds of foreign venture capitalists as the laws in Joint Venture investment
reveal a different story.
• With the limitations on granting of visas by the External Affairs Ministries & policies of the
embassies in granting visas & maintaining relations has affected the growth of hospitality
industry over the years.
• The Central Government and the State Governments are expected to be taking various
opportune steps in the hotel sector like divesting its stake in the Indian Tourism Development
Corporation (ITDC) and the Hotel Corporation of India, both organizations own a large
number of hotels in prime locations.
2) Economic Analysis:
• The economic liberalization of the early 90s led to a boom in the hotel industry, especially in
1994:
• When the economic conditions are favorable, hotels enjoy high occupancy rates. This gives
them the flexibility of increasing their room rates. During the boom phase most hotel
companies operated at very high occupancy rates, which gave them the leeway of increasing
their room rates.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is entering Indian shores and foreign institutional investors
(FIIs) are increasing their exposure to India. All these positive signals spell more business
travelers and better times for the hotel industry.
• The hotel industry is heavily taxed. Expenditure tax, luxury tax and sales tax inflate the hotel
bill by over 30%. Effective tax in the South East Asian countries works out to only 4-5%. As
these taxes are the domain of the state government, the rates vary accordingly.
• These units will be allowed to import capital goods under the EPCG scheme at zero duty, the
minimum amount of imports being capped at Rs10mn.
• The infrastructure facilities like the Airports, Communication facilities & commuting
facilities not being at par with oriental countries affects the attractions of the tourists.
• Generally 50% of the hotel’s revenue is dependant on the tourism industry. The Average
Room Revenue (ARR) has increased from 3.47 USD in 1947 to 347 USD in 2002 (AH&LA
report).
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3) Social Environment Analysis:
• Globally, leisure and entertainment are seen to be growing industries. Hence stable socio-
political and economic conditions coupled with an improvement in infrastructure facilities
(roads, airports etc) will improvement the sentiments of the tourists towards India.
• The hotel markets its business with the help of the local festivals and long trusted &
cherished Indian culture like Ayurveda in Kerala, Beaches in Goa and traditional melas.
• Consuming beef is considered as a taboo for Hindus. Similarly, India being the place of
domicile for 24 crore Muslims ranking 2nd only to Indonesia in the world is highly influenced
by the ‘Islamic’ culture and Poke is considered as a taboo for Muslims. But, Beef is a part of
the daily food for the foreign tourists. Hence, the hotelier has to cater the needs of various
people from both Occidental and Oriental culture.
• Indian customers are highly price sensitive. Many of them compare service offered with
price. There is always a limitation on the part of the hotelier to design the service within the
price constraints.
• Technology has influenced not only the basic product in the hotel industry, but also the
supplementary services to a great extent. Right from order taking to billing to payment has
been computerized nowadays.
• Technology has revolutionalised the booking system in hotels. One of the major source of
booking is Global Distribution System (GDS) where the travel operator can book for various
hotels though it. Also, hotels provide online booking systems where the hotelier tries to
personalize the booking and minimize the customer interaction.
• The hotel is now equipped with all the modern facilities which adds to the service offering.
System allocation is the key to any hotels success. The frontline service provider should be
able to satisfy customer’s demands.
• Eg:- Hotels provide LCD, Laptop & conference facilities.
ADDITIONAL MATTER
Characteristics of a Motel:
• Meets the demand of travelers for transit overnight stay
• Usually located on highways and outside city limits
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• Usually provide facilities like car park, garage, accommodation
• Some motels are also equipped with filing stations
• Eg. Suman Motels
Time sharing concept is applicable when a group of people use property by dividing
among themselves the rights to use the property for specific periods of time. Time sharing
concepts are used in houseboats, campgrounds and recreational vehicle parks, besides
hotels. The develop divides occupancy of each unit into time based intervals. No financial
and property management burdens are felt by users. Each time sharing user “shares”
usage of property along with all the other owners.
The Oberoi Chain (now Hilton Hotels): They run some of the finest hotels in India and
abroad. The group was founded by M. S. Oberoi who was honored by the American
Society of travel agents and admitted to ASTA Hall of fame for his contribution to the
hotel industry. Today Oberoi chain has thirty hotels in nine countries.
The Ashoka Chain: it is the largest chain of hotels in India and is run by the Indian
tourism development Corporation which is a public sector undertaking. It runs hotels all
over India. Their accommodation includes five star deluxe hotels as well as motel types.
The Taj Group: This group is managed by the Indian Hotels Company Limited. It was
Jamshedji Tata who opened this hotel in Mumbai in 1903. by 1983, the company had 17
hotels in India and 11 overseas.
Others:
The Ritz Chain
The Hotel Corporation of India
The Calrkes Group
Pride Hotels
The Sarovar Plaze (Marine Plaza)
4)FLOATELS
These are hotels which are surrounded with water. They maybe either houseboats or
cruises or even hotels in the middle of the ocean or sea.
Examples:
1) Lake Palace Udaipur,
2) The Floatel, Kolkata
3) House Boats, Kerela and Kashmir
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4) Star Cruises
5) ECOTEL
Ecotel is a new concept in hospitality that claims to work for environment protection and
preservation. They recycle things, ask customers to reuse towels, etc. All eco-certified
hotels must pass a detailed inspection and satisfy stringent criteria designed by
environmental experts. The ecotel certification process requires undercover inspections
and staff interviews.
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