Initiating The Home Concept In Hotel Industry: A Case Study Of Park Royal Hotels In Australia

The Importance of Home Concept in Hotel Industry

Question:

Discuss about the Hospitality Analysis of Park Royal Hotel.

Contemporary business organizations initiate various innovative strategies in order to attract more customers towards their services or products. This is due to the reason that, the current business scenario is more competitive than it was a decade ago. Moreover, with the recent boom in the hospitality and service sectors, strategies to enhance the customer satisfaction are more being implemented by the service providers (Chen 2014). One of the most competitive service sectors is the hotel industry. In the Australian scenario, huge numbers of players are operating in the hotel industry catering to different sets of customers across different price segments.

However, there are various opinions being provided by different authors and scholars regarding the probable approach of the hospitality industry. On the other hand, with the change in the business scenario, the core concept of the hospitality industry is also changing along with the change in the perception of the customers (Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan 2015). The basic rule being maintained by the contemporary players in the hospitality industry is the providence of the top notch customer service in order to attract new customers and retain the existing ones.

This report will discuss about the initiation of the “HOME” concept by the hoteliers in the recent time along with finding the ways to initiate it. Moreover, this report will recommended various ways for the Park Royal hotel, Australia in utilizing the home concept in their business operation.

Park royal hotels are one of the leading hoteliers in the Asian and Australian regions with having 15 hotels in different locations. They are also known for their effective and positive customer services along with providing holistic experiences for their visitors (Parkroyalhotels.com 2018). However, in the recent time, the popularity of the home concept in the hotel business is encouraging them to find out ways to implement in their own business. However, implementation of the home concept will require determination of different approaches along with identifying different dimensions of the hotel business. Moreover, it is also important to identify the different perspectives of the hospitality in order to find ways for home concept.

As discussed earlier, business organizations in the current service industry is facing the threat of increased competition in the market. Thus, it is important for them to initiate strategies to enhance the customer satisfaction (Prud’homme and Raymond 2013). In the case of the hotel industry, the more customers will feel the vive of their home, the more will be their satisfaction for the particular hotel brand. Previously, the approach of the hotel industry is to provide the accommodation for their visitors.

Different Elements of Home Concept

However, in the current business scenario, customers are expecting home like services and feels during the hotel stay. In accordance to that, major hoteliers initiated the concept of the home. With this approach, the primary consideration of them is not only to provide accommodation but also providing added facilities in enhancing the value for their visitors (Durna, Dedeoglu and Balikcioglu 2015). The marketing and service is being designed in such way that, the customers will have the home like feelings during their hotel stay. In the current business scenario, one of the major portions of the hotel visitors is the working professionals who have to travel in different places. Thus, they feel more comfortable if they are being provided homely feeing during their hotel stay. Thus, in accordance to this market trend and requirement, major hoteliers designed their service offerings to create the homely feelings.

According to some of the authors, hotel industries can be considered as social approach due to the reason that, hotel industry is being directly related to the hospitality. According to these authors, the basic objective of the hotel industries is to provide accommodation to the travelers, which can be termed as social cause. Moreover, the added facilities being provided by the hotels in enhancing the user experience of the visitors can also be termed as social approach (Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-Garcia and Marchante-Lara 2014).

However, this concept of social approach of the hotel industries is also being countered by various critics. According to the various critics, quality of the hospitality is being determined the prices being charged. Major hoteliers charge good sum of money from the visitors and thus, their services cannot be considered as social (Niewiadomski 2014). According to the critics, the key objective of the hotel businesses is to earn and maximize profits rather than just providing accommodation to the visitors.

Authors backing the concept that hotel industry is actually concentrating on the maximization of the profits rather than just doing social service are having the opinion that, in order to stay ahead in the competition, it is important for the contemporary hoteliers to initiate the added services for their customers. Thus, the more homely environment can be provided and offered by the hoteliers to their visitors, the more will be the rate of satisfaction of them, which will in turn increase the retention ratio of the customers (Abbott, Mary and Meyer 2016).

Thus, it is important for the hoteliers to have both the social and economic considerations in initiating the marketing strategy. This is the key reason behind the initiation of the home concept. Initiation of the home concept will help them to enhance the social approach by providing added services, along with meeting the economic criterion with maximizing the profit.

Recommendations for Park Royal Hotel Australia

There are various ways being available for the Park Royal to initiate the home concept. The following sections will discuss about the various available elements.

The current generation of the global travelers is diverse in nature and is belonging from different social backgrounds. Thus, in accordance to their difference in the social backgrounds the food habit of them is also different in nature (Giritlioglu, Jones and Avcikurt 2014). Offering of diverse cuisines and delicacies to the customers helps to cater to different social segments. This will also lead to the fact that, customers from different social backgrounds will have their ethnic food available. This will enhance their home feeling.

Customization or personalization is one of the key strategies being implemented by the contemporary service providers in offering services according to the requirement of the individual customer. With the initiation of the personalization, the customer service is being provided according to their culture and social background (Amin et al. 2013). For instance, if Japanese visitors are being welcomed in the authentic Japanese manner with maintaining the Japanese culture in providing the customer service, then the feelings of them will be more positive (Torres and Kline 2013). They will feel like they are in their home. Thus, the customer service should be made flexible enough in order to adapt according to different cultures.

As discussed earlier, one of the key objectives of the hotel industry is to provide accommodation for their visitors. Thus, the extent of the homely feeling for the visitors is depending on the ambience, amenities and the design of the room (Kim and Perdue 2013). It is important for the hotels to the design the rooms, which will meet all the basic criteria of the visitors. Determination of the basic facilities than the visitors expect from their hotel stay should be met by the hoteliers (Masiero, Heo and Pan 2015). The more effective will be the fulfillment of the basic facilities for the visitors, the more will be the homely feeling for them.

It is one of the prime responsibilities of the hotel industry to engage their visitors to as much as possible during their hotel stay (Wei, Miao and Huang 2013). The more holistic will be the entertainment for the visitors, the less they will feel alone during the hotel stay. The engaged visitors will have homely feelings and will less get bored. Providing entertainment to the visitors also helps to ensure the connectivity between the visitors and the hotels.

Conclusion

Majority of the services industries is thriving on the interior design and ambience. Minimal features such as the color of the wall are also having influence on the perception of the visitors. Thus, hoteliers should design their interiors in such a way that, it will create homely atmosphere for the visitors (Radovic 2015). In the Australian market, there are various higher end hotels, which are being perceived more as corporate offices rather than hotel. This will reduce the level of satisfaction of the customers. The decoration in the lobby and other public areas in the hotel create the homely environment for the visitors.

Thus, from the above discussion, various elements of home concept are being discussed. However, the approach of the implementation of these elements will be different in different hotels. The following sections will discuss about the recommended steps to be followed by the Park Royal in accordance to the social and economic perspective of their business operation.

• One of the key recommended steps to be implemented is the complementary services. However, the complementary services should not be universal for all the visitors rather it should be provided according to the social background of them. The complementary services should be provided in accordance to the basic facilities expected by the different customers. For instance, customers from the African regions should be provided complementary services in accordance to basic elements of their culture. This will further enhance the homely feeling for the visitors. On the other hand, one of the key factors to be considered during the providence of the complementary facilities is the commercial aspect. The complementary services should be basic in true sense and should not involve much cost for the hotels.
• In terms of the customer service, free internet should be provided to the customers. In the current state of affairs, internet is one of the basic amenities for the visitors. Moreover, providing of the free internet services will also enhance the customer engagement. Having the internet facility will maintain the connectivity of the visitor with the outer world. Thus, the customer engagement will be more.
• The Park Royal hotel is having customer loyalty programs for their existing customers. However, it is being recommended that, loyalty program for the customers should be provided in terms of the personalized services. For instance, the loyal customers can be given the complementary service of ethnic dinner for single night. This will create positive impression among the existing customers along with increasing the competitive advantages of them.
• Relationship marketing is one of the key aspects to be maintained in the service sector. This is due to the reason that, the effective relationship with the customers will determine the level of the satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, the more effective will be the relationship with the customers, the more will be the homely feeling for them. This is due to the reason that, if the customers will have effective relationship with the hoteliers, their requirements will be more efficiently met. This will in turn enhance the homely feeling for the visitors.
• It is also being recommended for the Park Royal hotel, that they should design their entertainment activities in more diverse manner. For instance, they can have a weekly roster of having different cultural activities from around the world in each day. This will have dual benefits for them. One of the key benefits will be the homely feeling of the visitors whose home culture is being portrayed. Another advantage will be the engagement of the visitors from different cultures.

Conclusion

Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, home concept is one of the most effective and popular strategies being initiated by the hoteliers. It helps them to enhance the homely feeling of the visitors and implement the phenomenon of “a home away from home”. This report discussed about the various elements of the home concept, which will help the hotels to implement it in their operation. In addition, this report also discussed about the recommended steps that should be implemented by Park Royal hotel in order to implement the home concept in their business operation. Effective implementation of the recommended steps will not only initiate the home concept, but also increase the level of the engagement of the visitors.

References

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