Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts: Adapting to Local Markets and Delivering Superior Service

What is it like to stay at a Four Seasons?

In 2002, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts was arguably the world’s leading operator of luxury hotels, managing 53 properties in 24 countries and delivering what observers called “consistently exceptional service.” For Four Seasons, that meant providing high-quality, truly personalized service to enable guests to maximize the value of their time, however the guest defined doing so. In 1999, Four Seasons opened the Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris (hereafter, “F. S. George V”), its first French property, by renovating and operating the Hotel George V, a historic Parisian landmark. Doing so was, according to John Young, executive vice president, human resources, “one of our great challenges and triumphs.” Young mused on what Four Seasons had learned from opening a hotel in France, wondering what lessons would be applicable to other openings given the firm’s growth plans, which suggested that new opportunities would be largely outside North America. (Exhibit 1 illustrates property locations in 2002.)

Sharp once told me that one of our key strengths is diversity. McDonald’s is the same all over. We do not want to be that way. We are not a cookie-cutter company. We try to make each property represent its location. In the rooms, we have 40 to 50 square meters to create a cultural destination without being offensive. When you wake up in our Istanbul hotel, you know that you are in Turkey. People know that they will get 24-hour room service, a custom- made mattress, and a marble bathroom, but they also know that they are going to be part of a local community.

David Richey, president of Richey International, a firm hired by Four Seasons and other hotel chains to audit service quality, believed that “Four Seasons has done an exceptional job adapting to local markets. From a design perspective they are much more clever than other companies. When you sit in the Four Seasons in Bali, you feel that you are in Bali. It does not scream ‘Four Seasons’ at you.”

A manager explained Four Seasons’ ability to be somewhat of a cultural chameleon with an analogy to Disney: “Unlike Disney, whose brand name is so strongly associated with the United States, Four Seasons’ brand doesn’t rigidly define what the product is. The Four Seasons brand is associated with intangibles. Our guests are not looking to stay in a Canadian hotel.” In general, Four Seasons managers were wary of being perceived as an “American” company. They found it useful in Europe to position Four Seasons as the Canadian company it was.

According to Crowl, Four Seasons learned from each country and property: “Because we are an international hotel company, we take our learning across borders. At our new property in Egypt, we are going to try to incorporate indigenous elements to the spa, but we will still be influenced by the best practices we have identified at our two spas in Bali.”

Answer each question with at least 1 paragraph (3-5 sentences each). If additional citations are used, please cite them using your preferred citation method (APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard). Once completed, submit your question responses as a Microsoft Word or PDF file in the D2L Submission drop box prior to Module 5.

Question 1: What is it like to stay at a Four Seasons? What are the intangible and tangible variables that impact service quality? How is Four Seasons doing in closing Gap 2? 

Question 2: In the context of Gap 3, what role does corporate culture and human resources strategy play in the success of Four Seasons? 

Question 3: How do you feel about the way the Four Seasons entered the Paris/French market? What was good and/or bad about the entry strategy? Why? 

Expert shall use a minimum of three references and site them in references page in APA FORMAT. (Include case study in reference page)