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HOSPITALI
TY
INDUSTRY
(A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF
MAURYA SHERATON & PRIDE
HOTELS)
Helped With unique efforts by government and all other stakeholders, including hotel
owners, resort managers, tour and travel operators and employees who work in the sector,
Indian hospitality industry has gained a level of acceptance world over. It has yet to go
miles for recognition as a world leader of hospitality. Many take Indian hospitality
service not for its quality of service but India being a cheap destination for leisure
tourism.
With unlimited tourism and untapped business prospects, in the coming years Indian
hospitality is seeing green pastures of growth. Availability of qualified human resources
and untapped geographical resources give great prospects to the hospitality industry. The
number of tourists coming to India is growing year after year. Likewise, internal tourism
is another area with great potentials.
The hospitality industry is a 3.5 trillion dollar service sector within the global economy.
It is an umbrella term for a broad variety of service industries including, but not limited
to, hotels , food service, casinos, and tourism. The hospitality industry is very diverse and
global. The industry is cyclical; dictated by the fluctuations that occur with an economy
every year.
Today hospitality sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India. It is expected to
grow at the rate of 8% between 2007 and 2016. Many international hotels including
Sheraton, Hyatt, Radisson, Meridien, Four Seasons Regent, and Marriott International are
already established in the Indian markets and are still expanding.
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Nowadays the travel and tourism industry is also included in hospitality sector. The boom
in travel and tourism has led to the further development of hospitality industry.
The hospitality industry consists of companies within the food services , accommodations
, recreation and entertainment sectors.
The hospitality industry is a several billion dollar industry that mostly depends on the
availability of leisure time and disposable income. A hospitality unit is such a restaurant,
hotel or even an amusement park consists of multiple groups such as facility
maintainance, direct operations(servers, housekeepers, porters,kitchen workers,
bartenders,etc.) management, marketing and human resources.
Usage rate is an important variable for the hospitality industry. Just as a factory owner
would wish to have his or her productive asset in use as much as possible ( as opposed to
having to pay fixed costs while the factory isint producing), so do restaurants, hotels and
theme aprks seek to maximize the number of customers they “process”.
In viewing various industries, “barriers to entry” by new comers and competitive
advantages between current players are very important. Among other things , hospitality
industry players find advantage in old classics(location), initial and ongoing investment
support (reflected in the material upkeep of facilities and the luxuries located there in) ,
and particular themes adopted by the marketing arm of the organization in question
( such as a restaurant called the 51st fighter group that has a WW2 theme in music and
other environmental aspects). Very important is also the characterstics of the personnel
workin in direct contact with the customers. The authenticity, professionalism and actual
concern for the happiness and wellbeing of the customers that is communicated by
successful organizations is a clear competitive advantage.
In 2003-04 the hospitality industry contributed only 2% of the GDP.
However, it is projected to grow at a rate of 8.8% between 2007-16, which would place
India as the second-fastest growing tourism market in the world. This year the number of
tourists visiting India is estimated to have touchedthe figure of 4.4 million. With this
huge figure, India is becoming the hottest tourist destination. The arrival of foreign
tourists has shown a compounded annual growth of 6 per cent over the past 10 years.
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Besides, travel and tourism is the second highest foreign exchange earner for India.
Moreover, it is also estimated that the tourism sector will account for nearly 5.3 per cent
of GDP and 5.4 per cent of total employment.
GDP Employment Visitor Export Personal T&T Capital Investment Govt. Expenditure
Outlook for 2006 :- 7.80% 1.40% 10.90% 6.90 % 8.30% 7.70%
Outlook for 2007-2016 :- 6.60% 1.00% 7.80% 6.70% 7.80% 6.60%
ATITHI DEVO BHAVO (guest is God)- we have all heard this phrase many times
during our childhood from our parents and grand-parents. We can also find its presence
in the earliest Vedas and religious epics. Hospitality is deep-rooted in our traditions and
comes as an integral part of our heritage. In very simple terms, hospitality is the art of
being warm to strangers and has been derived from the Latin word hospitalitem,
which means "friendliness to guests". The hospitality industry covers a diverse range
of establishments in the form of accommodation, food and drinks. It includes hotels,
motels, restaurants, bars, ships, airlines and railways. The concept of hospitality business
started when people started traveling away on business and they needed a place away
from home which could cater to all their needs. Today hospitality has evolved from the
basic food and accommodation industry and taken a very important position in almost all
businesses. In fact, it has become a huge industry and drives economies across the globe.
The scope of hospitality/ service industry today is far more than one could have ever
imagined a few years back. Earlier people who graduated from a Hotel School could get
employed either in Hotels, Cruises or Airlines.
But service is the BUZZ word for all businesses today. Be it the Retail Sector, Banking
Industry, BPO, Telecom world, Real Estate or any other sector having direct customer
contact, a person with hospitality background has an edge above the rest, because of their
sheer capability of understanding the needs of a customer better and handling difficult
customers/ situations efficiently. Hotel industry depends largely upon the foreign tourist
arrivals further classified into business travellers (around 65% of the total foreign
tourists) and leisure travellers. The following figures show that business as well as the
leisure travellers (both domestic and international) formed major clientele for hotels in
2004.Over the last two years, the hotel industry has seen higher growth rates due to
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greater number of tourist arrivals, higher occupancy rate (being around 75% in FY'06)
and significant increase in average room rate (ARR). The major factors contributing to
this growth include stable economic and political conditions, booming service industry,
FDI inflow, infrastructure development, emphasis on tourism by the central as well as
state governments and tax rationalization initiatives to bring down the tax rates in line
with the international levels.
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Top players of the industry
✔ ITC Hotels
✔ Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (The Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces)
✔ Oberoi Hotels (East India Hotels)
✔ Hotel Leela Venture
✔ Asian Hotels Ltd.
✔ Hotel corporation of India
✔ ITDC hotels
Some of the main features of the Indian hotel industry include the following:
➢ The industry is more dependent on metropolitan cities as they account for 75% to
80% of the revenues, with Delhi and Mumbai being on top.
➢ The average room rate (ARR) and occupancy rate (OC) are the two most critical
factors that determine profitability. ARR depends on location, brand image, star
rating, quality of facilities and services offered. The occupancy rate depends on
other seasonal factors.
➢ India is an ideal destination for tourists. Approximately 4.4 million tourists visit
India every year. Thus the growth prospects are very high.
5 Star and 5 Star Deluxe. These are mainly situated in the business districts of
metro cities and cater to business travelers and foreign tourists. These are
considered to be very expensive. These account for about 30% of the industry.
Heritage Hotels. These are characterized by less capital expenditure and greater
affordability and include running hotels in palaces, castles, forts, hunting lodges,
etc.
Budget Hotels: Budget hotels cater mainly to domestic travelers who favor
reasonably priced accommodations with limited luxury. These are characterized
by special seasonal offers and good services.
Unclassified: These are low-priced motels spread throughout the country. A low-
pricing policy is their only selling point. This segment accounts for about 19 % of
the industry.
The Indian hospitality industry is going great guns presently, with high operating margins
and increase in the number of travellers visiting India - both inbound and outbound.
Thus, the only direction left for the sector points upwards. However, what needs to be
focussed on is the fact that opportunities are not missed, which presently include the large
gaps in rooms supply as compared to demand.
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➢ India has approximately 100,000 rooms only in totality, which is lesser than that
in Las Vegas, besides contributing to an insignificant portion of the GDP - just
5.4 per cent says Sudeep Jain, executive director of JLLM.
➢ In comparison to nations like China, Thailand and Malaysia where the hospitality
share ranges between 12 and 15 per cent, India's growth potential is boundless.
➢ "By 2020, the hospitality and tourism sector would be a major contributor to the
Indian economy," says Jain. South Asia is and will remain a must-visit destination
and India is looking more and more lucrative.
Within the nation, major contribution as destinations will be from the growing tier I and
II cities with a special emphasis on business hotels across categories as well as the prime
leisure destinations like Goa, Rajasthan, etc, which will remain on the growth path,
creating the aura for India as a leisure destination. Accordingly, the needs of the traveller,
will be nothing less than perfection. Jain says, "They will be more discerning and more
value conscious." With an increase in choices available, they will be less forgiving of
service deficiencies. Guests will require higher levels of service in the full-service
segments, which will warrant greater training requirements for hotel staff. The limited
service hotels will require a complete shift in the perception of customer service.
Nevertheless, this is directly related to the travellers' travel persona. "The same person
will have different standards when he/she is on a business trip, versus an escape with his
partner versus a leisure trip with the family," he explains.
Being part of a real estate money management and services company, there are various
driving factors for growth opportunities. It is believed that if the country is able to sustain
its economic growth specially in the service sector, it will have a direct influence on the
hotel industry. This is directly related to the incoming foreign investments, not just in
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the hotels but the economy as a whole. Also equally important is the fact that India has
now discovered the power of marketing and with campaigns like Incredible India,
there are also the various large scale regional and global events like the upcoming
Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the recent Indian Premiere League that builds
interest about the nation. "These are just external factors. The policies and incentives
that will be provided over the next decade could further act as a catalyst to this
industry," . Apart from these external factors there are other factors where the industry
can be given a great boost.
For instance if land prices became more realistic, the process of getting approvals and
licences to build and operate hotels are streamlined, together with strong infrastructure
development and investment and more tax/levy incentives being provided to build hotels,
it would prove very fruitful for the industry. It is believed that there would be no
stopping the growth in the industry if these measures were undertaken. But the fact
remains that half of these changes will only occur if the government begins to take some
proactive measures and provide the much needed stimuli to further accelerate
development.
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Challenges For Hospitality Industry
CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether it is
sales or service related. It even uses technology to streamline processes that impact
customer loyalty, service delivery and quality management.
CRM is a business strategy; one that puts the customer at the heart of the business. The
value of a customer relationship is well recognized by many leading companies,
especially by those in the service sector. For high quality hotel enterprises, application of
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a great opportunity to increase customer
value and provides a way to systematically attract, acquire and retain customers.
In the future also, customer relationship management and knowledge
management together will help businesses accumulate customer knowledge build up
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better relationships between them and their customers enhance customer satisfaction and
achieve business excellence
One of the greatest strength is to attention to details, to focus on the bif abd small
little things that make the difference when it comes to comfort, productivity and also the
staff. In CRM the detailed attention is made which is unattended and which can really
reduce the cost.
HISTORY OF CRM
Following on from Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP (the business strategy
that promised to automate the “back-office”), the term CRM was first coined in the mid-
1990s. CRM in those days referred to the software used to help businesses manage their
customer relationships. From sales force automation software (SFA) that focused on
customer contact management to integrated knowledge management solutions, these
were the early foundations of CRM.
The last couple of years have seen the term broaden to encompass a more strategic
approach and the investment of billions of dollars worldwide into CRM solutions and
services has followed
Customer relationship management is more than the practice of collecting guest-centric
data. It’s the art of using historical, personal, and experiential information to personalize
a guest’s stay while generating incremental revenue opportunities. Knowing a traveler is
an avid sports fan creates the opportunity to market tickets to a game; knowing a guest
had a less-than-memorable experience in the hotel restaurant gives you a chance to win
them back the next time they are in town.
Microsoft partners have developed a number of leading CRM solutions based on
the latest generation of Microsoft technology. Using the Microsoft suite of applications,
devices, and technology, Microsoft partners can provide you with CRM solutions that
personalize the guest experience and help you generate more revenue.
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The Future
CRM has already made a big impact in the world of Customer Service and will
continue to do so. As more and more companies become customer-centric those that fail
to do so will lose competitive advantage. As technology increases to develop at a startling
rate the key emphasis will be how we can fully utilize it within our business.
However let's not lose sight of the fact that Customer Relationship Management is
about people first and technology second. That’s where the real value of CRM lies,
harnessing the potential of people to create a greater customer experience, using the
technology of CRM as the enabler.
CRM may or may not prove to be the answer to providing excellent customer care, but
the philosophy of putting customers at the heart of our business is definitely a step in the
right direction.
Key Benefits
• Maintain one set of customer information and make that accessible (role based)
wherever and whenever it is needed.
• Enable to have a 360-degree view of the customer and achieve excellence.
• Increase in customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and profitability.
• Automate the sales process; increase in number of opportunities through constant
follow-ups.
• Empower sales team with real-time pipeline and forecasting to direct focus to
most profitable opportunities.
• Quickly identify and provide response to your most profitable customer issues
and prospects.
• Enable marketing professionals to quickly measure response to marketing
initiatives (Advertisement, Exhibition, Trade shows, Cold calls, E-mails, TV
shows etc.) Real-time basis and leverage the most successful campaigns.
• Achieve customer satisfaction by decreasing customer response time.
• Reduce call-handling time by providing knowledge base that incorporates
powerful search capability in order to quickly locate the relevant data and solve
customer problems.
• Document management saves time in searching the required document when on-
line with the customer.
• Send and receive fax from the application.
• Schedules appointments, meetings, calls. Set reminders; keep you alert of all the
important activities.
• Marketing activity reports are available on-line for analysis and immediate action
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Some Applications of Technology in CRM
1. Call centers: These are organizations which deal directly to the customer
interactions. These are otherwise known as "Customer Care Centre" or "Contact Centre"
indicating more technological sophistication and multichannel support. Call centre
technologies entered the market place to effectively alleviate some of the repeat work
and increase efficiencies, allowing companies to handle escalating call volumes.
Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) could look up similar calls and resolutions
while a customer was on the phone, without having to repeat research. The software tools
being used in the call-centers also provide forecasting of call volumes to ensure
adequate call centre staffing. (Lemon, et al, 2002)
2. Web based self-service: The customers themselves, without the help of a live person
can resolve their problems or find out answers to their queries using the web. This model
is founded on the principle of enabling customers, partners and employees to obtain
information’s or conduct transactions directly over the internet, avoiding time-
consuming and costly traditional processes involving multiple verbal or written
interactions. It provides control, performance, convenience and efficiency.
3. Customer satisfaction measurement: Survey mails are the major way for companies
to monitor customer satisfaction. Nowadays, these survey forms are even personalized to
specific customers or customer groups. Responses are input into customer databases and
included as part of individual customer profiles. Such tracking of customer satisfaction
over time enables a company to fine tune how it communicates with its customers
according to their preferences. (Mohan Babu, 2003) Now, the paper based surveys are
giving way to electronic surveys.
4. Call-scripting: Automatic scripts generated for customer service representatives,
based on an individual customer's segment and/or customer profile contents. Scripts
remove the guess work from determining how to respond to a customer query or
complaint, guiding representatives through a dialogue with the customer and thus
optimizing discrete customer interactions.
5. Cyber agents: This is a kind of an improved or modified form of the concept of self-
service. Cyber agents are 'lifelike representatives' normally depicted on a company’s web
site as a real person. This attempt to pull together the best of both personalization and
advanced technology. It is given a personality and is having facial expressions and
volume. Usually a cyber agent addresses the web visitor with his/her first name. It can
draw from the wealth of detailed information to answer basic FAQs as well as guide a
customer to the appropriate screen for a definite purpose/action.
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6. Web site: It is the efficient and effective use of worldwide web for providing
information to the customers, by a company who had created that site, in a hassle-free
manner. The main advantage of a web site is its 24 hours accessibility. Usually gathering
information from the site is a simple task and is cost-effective. In the US and in the
developed countries web is extensively used. In the case of monetary transactions, if it is
a high involvement activity most of the customers prefer the offline mode mainly due to
their concern over security problems in monetary transactions, through the net. (Key
Note , 2003)
Industry Definition
CRM is a business strategy to select and manage the most valuable customer
relationships. CRM requires a customer-centric business philosophy and culture to
support effective marketing, sales and service processes. CRM applications can enable
effective customer relationship management, provided that an enterprise has the right
leadership, strategy and culture.
In hospitality, each customer relationship has value and should be managed effectively.
There is opportunity for repurchase and recommendation from each past customer. The
administration of the information about this past guest and the effective integration of the
information into frontline guest services programs is the challenge of CRM
implementation.
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Generate a realistic profile on the spending and stay patterns of guests, allowing the
property to create guest-centric marketing for increased loyalty and spending.
It’s All about Technology – Technology certainly plays an important role in the
implementation of a successful CRM project. However, it is not a silver bullet that will
solve all problems or open all doors. It is important to remember that all technology
decisions are only relevant in a business context. All the technology in the world is cool,
but if your business processes aren’t set up to effectively utilize these resources, your
company will be added to the statistics of failed CRM implementations.
e-CRM application in hotel industry are straddling across business functions to retain,
capture and capitalize on customer data, i.e. integrating all aspects of business process
and systems by keeping the customers as the core. e-CRM projects are no longer viewed
as stand-alone implementations but are now being increasingly pursued in context of
larger business objectives and core strategic agendas. Corporations realize that the true
values of their customers in down turn are the ones that will be equipped, tied over the
slump and jump start, consolidate and thrive.
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• Time management functionality: single user and group
calendar/scheduling, e-mail
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Customer Relationship Management Software for the
Hotel Industry
Guest Ware is installed in over seven hundred hotels and resorts worldwide; including
Marriott International, Kimpton Hotel Group, Hyatt Hotels, Star wood and many
independent hotels and resorts.
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Guest ware Enterprise Solution – For Effective Means
Intended for hotel chains, brands and management companies, the Enterprise Guest Ware
database maintains a single view of the customer essentials for CRM. Enterprise Guest
Ware enhances property management systems (PMS) and central reservations systems
(CRS). It allows hotel companies to implement enterprise CRM while leapfrogging
existing hotel technology investments.
• Drive guest-centric data down to the transaction level, allowing employees and
guest-facing technology to deliver greater value to the guest/customers.
• Generate a realistic profile on the spending and stay patterns of guests, allowing
the property to create guest-centric marketing for increased loyalty and spending.
ITC Maurya Sheraton - Field selling, Loyalty programs, Reservation systems, Web &
Call centers are the major sources of database development. The hotel has 35,000
members in its database. They regard this management of their database as an asset
because it enables a superior customer understanding.
For example: A sales team of Mughal Sheraton, Agra had completed a review of an
upcoming weekend. This review revealed that bookings to date were some what below
forecast and that a special promotion may be done in order to speed up the business. The
sales team then enveloped special promotion packing to encourage bookings for
weekends. They searched their welcome break holiday package database and scratched it
to identify and segment the customers who tend to (Sheth, 2002):
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• Book on long weekends
• Book on a short term basis
• Respond to promotional campaigns
•
The direct mailing was used as a principal means to reach out to these customers.
Activities like these are today referred to as database marketing. It is aggressive selling
to the potential customers who have particular needs and wants and building a match or
“fit” the needs of the noted. Therefore, out of the database of 35,000 members, only a
few but almost some customers were contacted by direct mailing which resulted in
sizeable sale during the otherwise lean weekend at Mughal Sheraton Agra.
Database Mining
Starkov, (2006) points out that Database mining is the process to distill the target
customers groups out of the massive data files typically found in hospitality operations.
In other words, these are systematic ways to distill through a database of a multitude of
databases to get the information for which one is reaching.
Some hotels outsource these tasks to companies that specialize in this field or at best, do
it internally. It enables users to easily integrate company/ property management
reservations and point of sale systems, automatically extracting operating data from
legacy databases for use in the marketing database. The systems analysis tools allow
users to profile their most profitable customers, analyze their buying habits, develop &
assess the performance of targeted marketing campaigns. The biggest advantage of
database mining is that it helps to focus the efforts and available resources into one
direction which is most profitable and out-base mining helps to eliminate the non-
profitable customers and hence reduces the costs and enhances the profits. The profits
enhanced are not only in monetary terms but also in terms of customer loyalty and long
term retention. Companies in hospitality that are adopting the database marketing
approach to enhance sales are seeing increased customer satisfaction which further results
in increased revenues. From the point of view of the internal customers also, a new
profession is emerging in the hospitality industry of getting and keeping a customer.
Relationship Marketing
Rama (2005) suggests that frequent customer programs and database marketing efforts
contribute to a more comprehensive approach to satisfying customers called relationship
marketing. Relationship marketing depends on the goodwill generated by frequent-
buying programs as well as on the information provided from database marketing efforts,
goes beyond simple short term awards and involves all the elements of a firm’s and
services to encourage a personal relationship with each customer. Relationship marketing
is “knowing the customer and using that information to bond with them.” Form the initial
personal contact and then serve as the foundation for nurturing this brief encounter into a
friendly and accommodation relationship by focusing on personal guest information. In
addition to knowing the purchase habits of members (room selection, certain amenity
preferences, and so forth), personal information such as spouse’s name and hobbies are
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added to a member database The company uses this information to tailor special events
and products to small segments of the membership.
Complaint Handling
Few companies, use or pay attention to complaints. Who wants to hear what they’re
doing wrong, especially if the criticism is well founded. It is estimated that 90 percent of
dissatisfied customers whose problems were not solved will never do business with the
retailers that sold them the product nor will they again buy the product that caused the
problem. In case of hotels customer/guest is more likely to switch if the provided service
is not satisfactory to their expectation.
On a personal level we all know what our faults are but we get defensive way they’re re
pointed out. We’re also aware of weaknesses in our job performance, problems in our
organization and imperfections in its products and services. But reacting to criticism is
difficult. We tend to respond in a guarded and defensive way, which may avoid squarely
confronting the real problem. Likewise, companies tend to let themselves off the hook
too easily: “We never could have satisfied that customer.” (Schneider and Bowen, 1999)
The astonishing news is that those people who do complaint and have their problem
taken care of, tend to be more loyal to the company than the people who were satisfied in
the first place. World-Class companies see complaints as opportunities to improve, to
impress customers and to turn complaining customers into loyal ones.
Priority Marketing
Priority Marketing focuses on what’s important to the customer. What is important to one
customer however, may not be as important to another.
Consider the varying demand placed on a hotel: An airline stewardess may find the 24
hour room-service extremely valuable, a retired couple may need dietary menu options, a
tour wholesaler may favor low prices, and a young female executive considers a security
a priority.
Hotels should break down their services and ask customers what is important to them.
This approach can field very valuable insight about changing customer preferences.
Identifying groups of customers who have similar preferences or even similar tastes (such
as sharing common perceptions of quality or states), hotels can target promotions to
capitalize on known characteristics and individualize the presentation.
It is important that hotels involve their guests and stay in touch with customer
perceptions of current services.
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VALUE CHAIN OF CUSTOMER INTERACTION IN HOTEL
INDUSTRY AND POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF e-crm
Short-term
payments/
redemptions
Accuracy Decision Speed Speed Accuracy
Comprehen- Making Accuracy Transparency Fairness
siveness Customizatio Delivery Speed
n Transparency
Scrutiny
Source : Raghunath S., Joseph Shields (2001, "Introduction of e-CRM in Indian Hotel Industry, CRM
– Emerging concepts, Tata McGraw Hill,).
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CRM OF ITC MAURYA SHERATON
There are various contact points where the hotel comes in direct contact with the
customer which are known as ‘Touch points’ in the CRM language. These touch
points are considered important as there is direct interaction with the customer and
they provide valuable input to the hotel. The input provided by the customer has to
be captured in such a way that it becomes information and can be used by various
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processes within the hotel. This can be done with the help of technology and the aim
is that whenever there is a customer interface with any of those processes they are
able to use that information in servicing the guest in a most efficient manner.
Customer Service is now more fashionably called Customer Relationship
Management. ITC Maurya Sheraton has been following an unstructured form of
CRM with a narrow focus of serving the customer well and in a most efficient
manner. The concept of Customer Relationship Management has a broader focus of
not only serving the customer but also creating the customer and retaining him for
measurable and substantial returns. CRM is a vast subject where the concept of one
to one marketing is supported by Database Marketing.
Maurya Sheraton has identified 5 such vehicles (from marketing point of view) which
are also the touch points for the hotel in the process of managing its Customer
Relationship. These vehicles are:-
○ Field selling
○ Loyalty Programs
○ Distribution Points
○ Web
○ Call Centers
Field Selling
When a sales group or a marketing executive of the hotel makes a sales call to a
corporate, then it is called Field Selling. Field Selling includes Prospecting which
means searching and seeking for new customers. Current Accounts are one of the
best sources to uncover new business that is within these current accounts, as they
harbor many sources of untapped business potential. They also provide Leads and
referrals. Leads are potential customers with whom no contact has yet been made and
learning of potential customers from current customers is called Referral. Field
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selling is considered the most important vehicle for the CRM function as the initiative
is on the part of the hotel to contact the prospective guest. Since the representative of
the hotel meets the customer personally, he is able to strike a chord instantly and has a
fair chance of representing the hotel. The difference between the customer and
consumer is apparent at this stage as, the person who uses the hotel is a consumer
(guest) and the person who helps him make this choice is the customer (link), this
link, in most cases, is the administration personnel who are responsible for making
reservations. So with the help of field selling, the executive is able to make a direct
contact with the ‘link’, the administration person and is able to take the feedback on a
continuous basis and helps to customize the offering. The main objective of this is to
maintain ‘one to one’ contact with the customer on a regular basis and also to
maintain reasonable visibility so that whenever there is a requirement, the hotel is the
most obvious alternative for the customer to consider.
Loyalty Programs
Second vehicle for CRM identified by Maurya Sheraton are the Loyalty Programs.
These programs are designed to reward the loyal guests of the hotel. Every time a
guest checks in the hotel at his every touch point or interface with the hotel, every
time he spends on a service provided by the hotel (use of Room, Restaurant, Laundry,
Telephones etc.), the transaction is recorded at each individual point and is added to
the final bill presented to the guest at the end of the stay. There are certain points
attached to the number of rupees spent by the guest. Therefore higher the amount of
the bill, the higher will be the number of points attained by the guest. These points
are credited to the account of each guest with the help of technology. These are called
Loyalty points. These accounts having the loyalty points are unique to every guest.
Therefore, whenever after the first time that guest checks into the hotels, the guest
history also affects the loyalty points. The higher the number of points, more loyal is
the guest. The points can be redeemed by the guest for either free stays at the hotel or
free gifts as listed by the hotel or free meals depending upon the number of points
accumulated.
The objective of having a loyalty programme is not only to make the guest feel
rewarded for his stay but also providing a chance to the guest to reduce them at the
hotel, they essentially “gross self” the other services which would be used & paid by
the guest. In case he redeemed (for example) his points for a free stay, he would
spend on the supporting services like laundry, telephones, restaurants etc. and the
revenue generated from these could be earned by the hotel. Therefore, instead of loss
of revenue by providing free stay, they actually gain the revenue as well as certain
customers for life with the help of the loyalty. The Loyalty Program is called
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welcome avail which is for the consumer. They have another loyalty programme for
the link. The administration personnel, who is called welcome link, is motivated to
provide more business to the hotel. Therefore, the more the number of bookings the
links gives to the hotel, the more number of points are credited to his accounts which
are again redeemable at the hotel either by way of free stay or gifts. This is seen as an
important way to keep the source of business motivated towards a long term
relationship.
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his moment of truth is experienced by the customer with a feeling of recognition and
feels it as good service at the first touch point itself. The input or instruction received
from the customer at the stage is recorded in the reservation system for further
reference by the hotel operations. Therefore the wheel does not get reinvented every
time a standard instruction is to be followed. This leads to removal of an irritant and
that ultimately leads to a satisfied customer willing to return.
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CRM OF THE GLORIOUS GROUP OF HOTELS
OVER VIEW:
The Pride Hotel is one of the best luxury hotels which possesses unparallel
elegance and grace. it is a world-class five star hotel, They provide finest amenities and
accommodation, exotic cuisine at restaurant with bar, state-of-the-art conference hall and
banquet hall to host any occasion. Blending sophisticated urban flamboyance with a
relaxed attitude, hotel is ideal for an enthused business trip, social events, or indulgent
escape from the chaos of the city.
ROOMS:
The rooms are of three types and when we asked them about the rooms they
replied as below:
Suite
These rooms are designed with a royal finesse, this exquisite Royal Suite is to
pamper customer completely. Whether customer is on a social visit or on a holiday,
customer can unwind themselves lavishly. Have a look at the suite and customer would
not like to go for an alternative”.
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Superior Room
Traveling on business trips can be clumsy & tiresome. Here is what customer can
look forward. A spacious contemporary suite to rejuvenate customer senses along with
giving them the best of business amenities. Work, Relax - the suite can surmount all your
needs graciously.
Deluxe Room
Have frequent business visits & desiring the solace of your home? Check out this
Deluxe Room. Having essential business aids, this room is expediently designed to make
your business trip full of leisure
TARIFF
ROOM CATEGORY SINGLE
INR US$
DELUXE 8000 220
SUPERIOR 9000 250
SUITES 12000 325
RESTAURANTS:
Seasons
The 24 hrs Coffee shops serve delectable cuisines from across the globe and are
the perfect place for a quiet rendezvous or dining out with family and friends.
Bandhani
Savor the essence of royalty at Bandhani, our fine dining multi-cuisine
restaurant. The display kitchen is a visual treat to see the exotic specialties created by the
experts themselves. Culinary traditions of most exotic and exciting cuisines of the world
are characterized by subtle spices and delicate flavors. Whether you are looking for
Indian, Chinese, Thai or Continental, we have it all there for you. To add to the
excitement, a live band would be playing your favorite numbers. If it is celebrations, it
has to be here.
ZING:
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It is the mocktail lounge bar. It is the only place where there is karaoke, hookahs
and exotic mocktails. And a DJ is also there to play customers favorite tracks
BANQUETS:
There are 6halls in all which can in all conveniently accommodate up to 1200
people for wedding receptions or from 25 to 800 people theatre style from seminars and
conferences. The Imperial, Royal, Majestic, Chancery Halls & Board Room offer
exclusive layouts & latest gadgets to give you truly memorable conferences, seminars,
weddings or parties
FACILITIES:
Swimming pool and health club, in house laundry, travel desk, business center.
1) Airport transfers
2) Welcome drink on arrival
3) Fruit basket on arrival
4) Buffet breakfast
5)24 hour room service
6) Refrigerators in all rooms
7) hair-driers in all rooms
8)24 hours in house satellite TV channels
9) Direct dial STD/ISD
10) Internet connectivity in all rooms
11) Tea and Coffee maker
Majority of the customer are for business purpose because there are very few places to
visit in Ahmedabad so mostly people come for the business purpose.
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MEMBERSHIP
Pride hotel provide membership to all those who visit their hotel frequently or vise versa
u can say that those who become the member of the hotel become its loyal customers.
There are basically 2 types of membership silver and golden and different offers are there
for different types of members. There are in all 2000 members which are day by day
increasing and front that 1100 holds gold card and 900 holds silver card
1) The member would get the discount on food if he goes with 2 more members.
2) Complementary cake on your birthday or wedding if u celebrate in pride
3) A reduction of Rs. 500 in the meal at Bandhani restaurant in Ahmedabad
4) 20% discount at all the pride hotel of India for accommodation on week days and
30% discount on weekends
5) Complementary room for night stay at pride hotel for one person and 40%
discount for two.
6) By paying the rack rate they will be allowed to shift or upgrade the superior
category of the room
7) Free usage of swimming pool, 20%discount in health club.
He becomes the gold card holder if he pays the amount of Rs. 49999.
1) You are entitled to special holiday at 3700 RCI affiliated resorts across the world
for 2 days and 3 nights.
2) 50% discount on food and beverages.
3) Free usage of swimming pool and 50% discount on health club
4) They will send a cake on the day of wedding anniversary or birthday if they are in
the any of the cities where pride is located.
5) They will get a voucher of Rs. 900 for meal at Bandhani restaurant in Ahmedabad
6) 40% discount at all the pride hotel of India for accommodation on week days and
50% discount on weekdays
7) Complementary room of your choice for night stay at pride for 1 person and 50%
discount for 2.
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REAL RELATIONS THROUGH….
Even though pride is far from that of the airport more foreign visitors are there in pride as
compare to the comfort inn and the main reason is its location which is in the middle of
the city an other important reason is its quality relation they have kept with their
customers.
1) Pride hotel has its own small call center at satellite from where they call and
invite the customer to visit their hotel.
2) Birthday and wedding anniversary wishing through calls and e-mails.
3) Free airport facilities are provided specially to the loyal customers at their prior
report
4) Greet the customer with name
5) There are 2 rooms which are kept specially for the card holders if they come
without any prior intimation
6) If the customer every time prefer the same room and his visits are also at certain
period of time then at that time they call them and ask for their visit and keep that
room block for them.
7) Also they have a children’s room for the Childers of the member person. They
can enter the room after showing the card.
8) And also at the time of Navratri they give the passes to the foreign customers.
This is offer especially for the foreign loyal customers. Some time they also give
tickets of movies also
9) They also have a travel agent who is available 12 hours every day of year to
provide knowledge regarding the places of the city and take them there if
necessary.
10) CUSTOMIZED SERVICE: One person of the staff is always there on every floor
and the moment they need the person is there in front of the customer’s door.
1) Information regarding the customers are taken at the time of checkout because they
think that in the beginning customer must be tired.
2) all the staff is given training before joining the hotel. A receptionist is given training of
40 days while 15 days to the house keeping person
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Software
THE SOFTWARES WHICH ARE USED BY THE HOTELS
ARE:
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Customer Profiling
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RESEARCH
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Objectives of the Study
This study will provide an insight into the hotel industry and the steps
being taken by them to improve their relationship with their
guests/customers.
From the study, one can infer the present scenario of the practices and
programs being followed by the leading players in this sector and the steps
being followed by them to enhance customer retention, customer satisfaction
and in turn, leading to enhanced profits and brand image in the minds of the
customers.
Findings
A survey was conducted with a sample size of 30. The age of all the
candidates was between 20-35, of which 12 were females and 18 were
males, the statistics of their occupation and annual income is as follows.
OCCUPATION
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ANNUAL INCOME
QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear Sir/Madam,
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Personal Detail:-
Name:-_____________________________
Age:- □ 20 – 35 □ 36-50
□ 50 -65 □ Above 65
City:- ______________________________
State:- ______________________________
Country:-___________________________
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(b) 3 to 5 times
(c) More than 5 times
5) What are the reasons that lead you to stay in particular hotel?
(Rank it from 1 to 7 where 1 is for least relevant reason and 7 is for more relevant
reason)
a. On time service _
b. Quality of service __
c. Employee’s Behavior __
d. Ambience __
e. Tariff __
f. Facility __
g. Convenience __
7) What are the extra services you get in your preferred hotel?
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____
(9) How satisfied are you by the overall hospitality of your preferred hotel?
a) Highly satisfied
b) Satisfactory
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(10) Being a loyal customer have you been given preference over the other
customers?
a) Yes
b) No
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ANALYSIS
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To this question most of the people mentioned that it is through their guest records and
recognition software that they identify a regular guest and depending upon the number of
times of your visit and potential of a future revisit they tag you as a loyal customer.
Q7) WHAT ARE THE EXTRA SERVICES YOU GET IN YOUR PREFERRED
HOTEL?
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CONCLUSION
From the data collected we have reached a conclusion which states that Hotel Pride
(GLORIOUS GROUP) has a better CRM system over the Hotel Maurya Sheraton( ITC
GROUP).
• Customers prefer it for the choice of food over others.
• Frequency of customers visiting this hotel is also higher.
• Customers visiting NCR prefer this hotel for a perfect Holiday stay.
• The quality of service provided by The Pride Hotel is also highly satisfactory.
• The extra services such as 24*7 high speed broadband service and provided by
the Pride Hotel are also superior to others.
• The preference is given to loyal customer over other customers.
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Recommendations
In this era of globalization where ‘Customer is the King’, customer expectations are
going up which is making the situation more and more competitive. As the product is
becoming generic in nature, the hotel industry can no longer rely on the traditional
marketing strategies to retain the customers.
Customer Relationship Management is one of the key tools to fight this cut throat
competition and stand out as a superior brand.
On the basis of the study, I would like to recommend some suggestions which could
be implemented profitably by the industry.
3. Taking feedback not only from external customers but also the internal
customers i.e., the employees.
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5. Keeping regular track of the sales data for further leads and follow-up
10. Giving the customers a more personalized and empathic services as building
good rapport with the customers goes along way in having satisfied and return
customers.
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REFERNCES
Jay Curry (2006) - Key to CRM Success for Small and Medium-size Enterprises, from
www.customermarketing.com
www.guestware.com
www.ascenantone.com/CRM.asp
www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/22438.html
www.expresscomputeronline.com/20030623/newsan1.shtml.
www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?cat_id=53&report_id=3929
www2.roanoke.com/columnists/shareef/5249.html
www.tajhotels.com
www.itchotels.com
www. crmguru.com
www.visiglobe.com
www.gloriousgroup.com
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