The Impact Of Uber Eats On Hotel Room Service: Essay On Diverse Strategy Options." (70 Characters)

Discussions

Some of the things she heard had her worrying about the potential impact on the more traditional aspects of the industry.  She has heard about your outstanding work as a Hospitality Business consultant and understands that you have a strong reputation for developing sound but diverse strategic options for the hospitality industry in Perth Western Australia.  She has retained you to investigate the impact AirBnB may have as a disrupter to the hotel industry and to make recommendations on how best to deal with the phenomenon in relation to Utopia Arena Hotel.

Investigate the size, scope and impact that AirBnB has had on the hotel sector in other parts of the world.  You may find that in some jurisdictions nothing has been done, while in others laws have been enacted to regulate its’ influences.  Still others have banned hotels and other accommodation providers from listing on AirBnB.

As a consultant you are to develop a minimum of 3 (three) diverse strategy options for the private equity firm CEO.  You are further charged with making recommendations to the CEO and current hotel management (local SBU not corporate) as to which strategy option you think will prove to be most beneficial into the future. Be aware that what may be most beneficial to the equity firm may not be most beneficial to the hotel management.

We don’t think AirBnB is going to have an impact and if it does it won’t be for decades.

This is happening now and is likely to siphon off around 50% of your current bookings leading to the financial ruin of the Arena Utopia Hotel.

1.You are to prepare a written submission and include references.

2.Argue the case for your recommendation of strategic direction (choice) to both the equity firm CEO and the hotels management team lead by Ms Tess Chong.

Your written submission needs to be supported by reference to materials which have led you to the option you have decided upon.  To do this you will need to access, read and reference information about the impact of the  AirBnB phenomenon and what has been done to support/counter/control/regulate its introduction and use in other parts of the world.

1.You are to prepare a written submission and include references.

2.Argue the case for your recommendation of strategic direction (choice) to both the equity firm CEO and the hotels management team lead by Ms Tess Chong.

Discussions

Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivering platform based in America. (Uber Eats., 2018).  The Uber Eats was launched by Uber in the year 2014. It is headquartered in San Francisco , California ,United States . The Uber Eats users can order food from the restaurants participating from the website or smart phone application of Uber Eats. The Uber Eats expanded its operations and it is now located in 250 cities in more than 300 locations. The concept of home food delivery through the online food delivery platforms like Uber Eats has changed over the years . Nowadays people staying in a hotels prefers to order foods from online food delivering platforms from their desired restaurants at the doors of the hotel. People can browse through the menu of dishes , they can even get to know about the delivery time of the food and order their food accordingly navigating through the list of dishes in the Uber Eats application from their smart phones itself . One can even track the order of the food which are provided through the hands of the delivery service person .Thus online food ordering and delivery platforms like Uber Eats can be deemed as the new room service for most of the people. Many people have several complains with the room service that they are expensive and many times they are not happy with the food offered to them as they had expected something better or other options . There are also some sections of people who do not want to dine in the hotel and are reluctant to accept the food which are traditionally offered by the hotels. All these sections of people are turning to food delivery apps like UberEats , which provides level of comfort ,convenience and familiarity .Uber Eats have expanded their business operation in almost around 250 cities in all parts of the world and in more than 300 locations . Thus, it is very evident that the Uber Eats had a negative impact on the hotel room service sector in all parts of the world as more and people are opting to order services from Uber Eats and it has led to drop in room service from the respective hotels. The paper discusses the three major diverse strategy options that are required to be followed considering the current problems and issues. The paper also recommends strategy options that would be beneficial to the Utopia hotel in the future to combat the problems that has arise due to Uber Eats.

Diverse Strategic Options

Several diverse strategic options needs to be followed in order to counter the disruptions offered by the hotel room service sector by the private equity firm CEO and considering that the revenues in the room service has declined over the years (Rothaermel, 2015) . The three diverse strategy options are as follows:

• Provide a faster room service to the guest using latest technologies -  To counter the online food ordering and delivering apps like Uber Eats , the Private equity firm CEO should ensure that the food service that are to be provided to the guests should be delivered faster and the latest innovations of the technology should be utilized to the maximum extent . They can make use of the Bluetooth temperature sensors in order to ensure that the food and the equipments are up to the mark (Piramuthu & Zhou, 2016). They can make use of the handheld probes and fixed sensors, restaurants can manually or automatically measures the temperatures of the important assets in few seconds. Each of the food items and the equipments can be programmed with customized limits and they should be aware that the temperature does not go beyond acceptable threshold.
• Hire a quality Chef and a Quality assurance manager –  In  order to counter the food ordering and food delivery apps like the Uber Eats it is necessary to provide the guests with superior quality products so that they do not have any complains . For that they need to hire a well trained and experienced chefs so that they can ensure that the food provided to them are up to the mark and they do not feel the need to order their foods from any food delivering and food ordering apps like the Uber Eats . They should also hire the Quality assurance manager who would ensure the quality of the food (Gould,  2013).
• Obtain Feedback from the Guests – The feedback should be obtained from the customers of the guest regarding the offered room service provided to them (Pizam, Shapoval & Ellis,  2016). It would help to know whether they are happy with the room service of the hotel or not and if they are not opting for the room service, it should also be noted why they are not preferring to take the room service offered to them (Li,  Ye  & Law, 2013). It would help the hotel and the Private equity firm to analyze what are  the needs of the customers band guests and what are reasons for their reluctance to take the offered room service. According to the feedback of the customers or the guests the strategies taken for the room service needs to be amended or modified. A survey can also be conducted using a questionnaire so that it can identify the needs and issues the customers are facing regarding the room service provided by the hotel (Kim, Vogt & Knutson, 2015).

These recommendations are very crucial and are needed to be followed in order to counter the impact that Uber Eats are having presently on the revenues of the hotel and if these recommendations are not followed it would surely siphon off a large amount of revenue from the room service of the Arena Utopia Hotel (Utopia Hotel – Vivre avec art. , 2018).

There is one strategy option that is only beneficial to both the hotel management team and the equity firm CEO. Out of the recommended diverse strategies the most beneficial strategy options that must be followed is –

• Introduce In-room Dining technology- With the hope to restore the guest loyalty back with the room service of the hotel and counter the online food order and delivery apps like Uber Eats, it is essential to look for innovative ways to stand out of the competitors (Liedtka, 2014). It would also help to gain an edge over the online ordering and delivering apps like Uber Eats, who are siphoning off large amount of revenues from the room service sector of the hotel, Arena Utopia. The hotel should make use of the in-room dining services, in this service the guests would be able to make food and beverages orders with great efficacy by using the in-room tablet (Bilgihan et al., 2016) . This approach to in-room dining offer take-out from either their own hotel or from external options which are nearby. This would enable the guests with more options and provide them with better guest experience. The Utopia hotel can also come up with their own pre-installed hotel guest app on in-room tablets and equip all the rooms with Wi-Fi , that would enable them to use the internet without making use of their own internet resources (Mishra, Mhetre,  & Mahendran, 2016). By updating the hotel’s in-room dining services with technology, the hotel would be able to provide the guest with better quality service which would be essential to further increase their experience and earn more revenues. Thus, it can be said that with use of right technology and resources hotels can maintain and improve the traditional amenity and infrastructure of in –room dining. The food ordering and delivering platform are disrupting the hotel room service and it is siphoning a fair share of room service revenues and if proper recommendations are not implemented it would surely negatively affect the hotel room service sector (Falcone,  Viola,  & Reinhold,  2014).

Conclusion

 The Arena Utopia Hotel and the associated private equity firm , which owns the land ,bricks and mortar (real estate) of the Arena Utopia hotel was apprehensive about the impact that the online food ordering and delivering platform like Uber Eats may have on the room service sector of the hotel industry . The paper assesses the situation and it provides three diverse strategy options from the point of view of a Hospitality Business Consultant. The developed three   diverse strategy options provided  to the CEO of the private equity firm should be implemented and followed considering the fact that people are preferring to opt for online platforms like Uber Eats . If it is not controlled and countered , it is expected that the these online platforms like Uber Eats would siphon out fair share of room service revenues from the hotel . The proper strategy option has also been recommended in the paper to both the equity firm CEO and the hotel management team, which emphasizes the use of the latest technology in the room service of the hotel in order to gain an advantage over the competitors like the Uber Eats.

References 

Bilgihan, A., Smith, S., Ricci, P., & Bujisic, M. (2016). Hotel guest preferences of in-room technology amenities. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 7(2), 118-134.

Falcone, R., Viola, J. J., & Reinhold, D. J. (2014). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/020,874.

Gould, W. A. (2013). Total quality assurance for the food industries. Elsevier.

Kim, M., Vogt, C. A., & Knutson, B. J. (2015). Relationships among customer satisfaction, delight, and loyalty in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(2), 170-197.

Li, H., Ye, Q., & Law, R. (2013). Determinants of customer satisfaction in the hotel industry: An application of online review analysis. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(7), 784-802.

Liedtka, J. (2014). Innovative ways companies are using design thinking. Strategy & Leadership, 42(2), 40-45.

Mishra, M., Mhetre, S., & Mahendran, A. (2016). WInfo: Cloud-Assisted Automation System Using WiFi. International Journal of Engineering Science, 2668.

Piramuthu, S., & Zhou, W. (2016). RFID and sensor network automation in the food industry: ensuring quality and safety through supply chain visibility. John Wiley & Sons.

Pizam, A., Shapoval, V., & Ellis, T. (2016). Customer satisfaction and its measurement in hospitality enterprises: a revisit and update. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 2-35.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Utopia Hotel – Vivre avec art. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.utopia-hotel.com/en/

Your Favourite Restaurants, Delivered Fast | Download Uber Eats | Uber Eats. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ubereats.com/en-IN