MBA6304 Hospitality Management Report 2 Sample

MBA6304 Hospitality Management. Ass 2

Management – Report

Introduction

This assessment is to be completed in team of minimum of 2 students and maximum 4 students. A group participation form, which is available in LMS, needs to be completed, signed by all group members and submitted till week 8. Once submitted, the teams will remain fixed and no member additions or deletions will be allowed unless by approval of your unit facilitator/lecturer.

Task

The purpose of this group assessment is to develop a well-analysed and well-researched report and present their research report. The students will be asked to work together in project teams to evaluate hospitality practices and initiatives within a specific situation using the appropriate theoretical concepts, tools and frameworks. This will include the analysis of appropriate hotel / Hospitality Company, clientele and stakeholders’ data, their conclusions and a set of recommendations or strategies for improvement.

Report

Your report should have 2000 words, excluding references. It must cover the criteria that are required. The report must have Executive Summary, Table of Content, Background information, sub-headings, critical analysis, findings and conclusion along with important plots/diagrams/figures created by yourself or taken from any source. Note that all the references must be stated clearly and properly. Your report should be a single word or pdf document containing your comparison and need to be submitted through Moodle. One submission per student.

Your report must include:

› Title Page: The title of the assessment, name and student ID.

› Executive Summary

› TOC

› Introduction: A statement of the purpose for your report and a brief outline of your work (one or two paragraphs).

› Body of the Report: Discuss the elements according to the criteria as mentioned in the task.

› Conclusion: A summary of the points you have made in the body of the paper. The conclusion should not introduce any ‘new’ material that was not discussed in the body of the paper. (One or two paragraphs)

› References: A list of sources used in your text.
They should be listed alphabetically by (first) author’s family name. You need to provide at least 15 scholarly references.

› The footer must include your name, student ID, and page number.

Solution

Introduction 

The business environment is becoming dynamic and competitive. Customer needs and desires are changing along with the change in external environmental factors. Therefore, organizational leaders are analyzing the situation of their businesses and developing relevant strategies. As per MBA Assignment Expert, There is no exception in the case of the hospitality industry. The strategic leader communicates with stakeholders such as customers, middle managers, and investors to develop strategies. These strategies further help the firm to meet the needs of customers and thrive in the competitive industry (Simsek, et al., 2018). This report aims to explore strategies that are adopted by Marriott International to ensure exceptional guest experiences. It is an American multinational company that operates in the hospitality industry. It is identified to be one of the largest hotel chains that includes almost 30 brands (Gourtsilidou, 2022). Following the analysis, few recommendations are provided that can improve the current operations of the organization and enhance the satisfaction level of the stakeholders. 

Analysis 

Hotel 

Marriott International has been successfully operating in the hospitality industry because of their strategies. This segment of the report aims at critically analyzing the operations of the selected hotel with the help of various models 

Hospitality Model 

This model demonstrates the interaction between the needs (N) and goals (G) of clients, their product behaviors, and the environment of the service provider. Such interactions lead to certain experiences of guests who are visiting the hotel, lodge, or restaurant (Chibili, 2017). Moreover, it is the responsibility of the strategic team to enhance the guest experiences to make the organization successful. The strategic leaders of Marriott International believe that understanding the customers is most important in order to meet their needs. They believe in listening to the needs of the clients before developing any strategies. According to the hospitality model, there is a difference between serving and hospitality. Serving is an economic activity whereas hospitality focuses on building relationship with client. The fundamentals of Marriott’s customer service are dealing with one customer at a time. Moreover, complaints from customers are handled responsibly. The strategic leaders of Marriott International not only resolved the complaint. They consider complaints as an opportunity and feedback from customers. Such feedback is further used to improve their services. This is how the strategic leaders of Marriott International build a strong bond with their customers (Hyken, 2022). 

Fig 1: Hospitality Model 

Source: Chibili, (2017)

Hostmanship 

There are six different pillars of Hostmanship that aims at showing genuine interest to the guests and fulfil their desires. (Chibili, 2017). The employees of Marriott International are currently leveraging the benefits of social media in order to serve people. The digital team uses social media platforms to engage customers and their needs. It is further analyzed to provide them personalized experiences. The customer handling team of the company always focus on providing a memorable experience to their guests (Ferrante, 2016). This makes them unique from other players in the market. 

Fig 2: Customer satisfaction Index score of Marriott International

Source: Statista Research Department, (2023). 

The index score concludes that customer satisfaction rate of Marriott International, fluctuates. However, the organization has made sure to improve the index score with their unique strategies and customized services. 

On the contrary, customers who have lived in hotels of Marriott International have complaint about the rude and unprofessional behavior of hotel staffs. According to the Hostmanship model, one of the six pillars of customer service is showing empathy to the customers. The reviews in TripAdvisor concludes that customers who have lived in one of the Marriott Hotel in Portsmouth have encountered rude and unprofessional behavior. They have also commented about the overpricing with lack of proper services (TripAdvisor, 2023). Such comments can have an impact on the financial performance, reputation, and goodwill of the hotel chain. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the strategic leaders to resolve such conflicts. Effective conflict resolution techniques can also help the firm to gain competitive advantage and increase their share in the market. 

Clientele 

Target Groups and Type of Clients

Marriott International uses luxury branding for its clients and target customers who prefer quiet, relaxed and laid-back atmosphere during their hotel stay. These customers are generally individuals, businessmen, groups and others willing to experience delightful hotel service at premium prices (Barreto & Mayya, 2022). It also includes business individuals, luxury travelers and other corporate personnel involving in meetings and conferences. Furthermore, hotel businesses like Marriott International comprise of business travelers, groups like friends and families, solo travelers and couples (Fuentes-Moraleda, et al., 2020). 
A buyer’s persona of Marriott International has been given in the below figure, which helps in better understanding the target customers of the hospitality chain.

Table 1: Buyer Persona of Mariott International

Source Markets

These refer to the markets from where customers of Mariott International are coming. This can be determined from various regions where the hotel chain operates across the world.

Fig 3: Marriott International Properties by Region

(Source: Statista, 2023)

From the above graph it is evident that Marriott International operates in various regions by catering to its customers worldwide. It comprises of most customers from North America, followed by Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Caribbean and Latin America (Statista, 2023). This implies that the brand has least presence and operations in the Caribbean and Latin America regions, which makes it essential to enhance customer base in these areas.

Purchase Motivations

There are various factors influencing purchase intentions of customers in the hotel industry. Marriott International guarantees best rates for its customers, enables them to engage in activities, provides membership offers, enhanced travel experiences, travel insurance, deals and packages and conducting meetings and events. It ensures high-quality hotel experience to its guests through the four dimensions, namely, convenient stay, providing benefits, offering incentives and improving hotel environment (Pourabedin & Migin, 2015). This helps in driving improved hotel experience of the guests.

Hotel customers also look for certain product-related and channel-related factors, which influence their purchase motivations (Chibili, 2017). Such product-related factors affecting their choice to stay at Marriott International are price, hotel brand, conditions, reviews and varieties of services (Liu & Zhang, 2014). On the other hand, channel-related factors like superior website quality providing adequate information, improved services, accessibility and ensuring trust and privacy and proper payment also help in enhancing customers’ satisfaction. Moreover, these customers also depend on their previous experience and loyalty programs of the hotel for making decisions about choosing the hotel (Liu & Zhang, 2014).

Stakeholder  

Types of Stakeholders

Marriott International is a global travel company managing and franchising lodging operations (Marriott, 2015). Thus, it comprises of various stakeholder groups, such as hotel owners and franchisees, suppliers, shareholders, customers, associates, community organizations, governmental and non-governmental entities and industry associations. Here, hotel owners and franchisees, customers, suppliers and associates are primary stakeholders while secondary stakeholders are community organizations, industry associations and governmental and non-governmental entities (Abdel-Maksoud, et al., 2016). These stakeholders are diverse possessing different needs, issues and priorities. The international hotel chain focuses on collaborating with these stakeholders for understanding their needs and social and environmental concerns (Marriott, 2015). It also enhances engagement with both customers and associates through internal processes like annual associate engagement survey and guest satisfaction survey, which helps in leading towards continuous improvement. Marriott also educates and communicates with other influential stakeholder groups and maintains robust policy agenda for addressing a wide range of issues (Marriott, 2015). This implies that the hotel chain extensively focuses on identifying and addressing needs of its diverse stakeholder groups.

Despite its focus on ensuring fulfilment of stakeholders’ needs and enhancing customer satisfaction and experience, Marriott experienced hacking that led to the data exposure of more than 500 million guests (Perlroth, et al., 2018). This breach affected customers making reservations for Marriott owned Starwood hotel brands between the years 2014 and 2018. Information such as names, addressed, birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers and encrypted credit card details were stolen (Perlroth, et al., 2018). Along with this, travel histories and passport numbers of another small group of guests were also taken through this hacking incident. This shows that security and privacy of customers at these big companies remains vulnerable, which can affect customers’ satisfaction levels and experience with the brand.

Stakeholder Mapping

Fig 4: Stakeholder Analysis of Marriott International

From Fig 4, it is evident that hotel owners and franchisees and customers are the most important stakeholder groups of Marriott International, who possess both high power and high impact on the hotel chain (Carroll & Brown, 2022). The company should closely manage these groups for identifying and meeting their needs. Suppliers and associated also generate high impact on the company’s operations despite having low power, thus, they should be kept informed about all changes and issues (Doh & Quigley, 2014). Industry associations and governmental agencies have high power to influence decision-making but low impact on the company, thus, they are kept satisfied. Lastly, non-governmental agencies and social activist groups are the least important but should also be monitored (Eskerod & Vaagaasar, 2014).

Recommendation 

The objective of this part of the report is to recommend actions that can help Marriott thrive in this competitive business environment and track the evolving needs of customers. 

The price of hotels and food menus in Marriott International is extremely high because they cater to the needs of high-end premium customers. However, the strategists are also recommended to offer discounts once a month. Such discounts can frequently attract customers. This can further have an impact on the financial performance of the organization (Mohammed, 2020). These discounts can also be included in the customer loyalty cards. This is how frequent visitors can be motivated to visit Marriott and enjoy a luxurious dine-in or stay. 

In the above part, it is mentioned that the brand visibility of Marriott in the Caribbean and Latin America is less. Therefore, it is recommended that the digital team of the organization leverage social media platforms to enhance brand visibility in these areas. Social media platforms can be used to engage customers in these areas. Moreover, digital intelligence can be leveraged to get a holistic view of customers in these areas (McGuire, 2015). It can further be used for customer interactions. 

Finally, it is suggested that the IT team of the organization focus on cyber security. Employees within the workplace should be trained about cyber-attacks. This can help them to avoid any kind of suspicious mail. Moreover, secured file-sharing solutions must be used to ensure data encryption. This is how data leakage can be avoided by Marriott International. 

Conclusion 

The report aimed at analyzing various aspects of Marriott International including the hotel, its clientele and its stakeholders for reviewing how the company ensures exceptional guest experience. For this purpose, the hospitality model was used to demonstrate how the products and services of the hotel are satisfying needs and wants of the customers. Furthermore, the target group and customers of the hotel chain were identified and analyzed by showing a buyer’s persona model. Besides, the stakeholder analysis was conducted with the help of stakeholder matrix to show the impact of various stakeholder groups and reasons for managing them. Lastly, recommendations for offering discounts to customers, enhancing brand visibility and increasing IT security were provided based on persisting issues.  

References

Abdel-Maksoud, A., Kamel, H., & Elbanna, S. (2016). Investigating relationships between stakeholders’ pressure, eco-control systems and hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 59, 95-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.09.006 

Barreto, N., & Mayya, S. (2022). SWOC Analysis of Marriott International-A Case Study. International Journal of Case Studies in Business, IT and Education (IJCSBE), 6(2), 877-889. https://doi.org/10.47992/IJCSBE.2581.6942.0238 

Carroll, A. B., & Brown, J. (2022). Business & society: Ethics, sustainability & stakeholder management. Cengage Learning.
Chibili, M. (2017). Modern hotel operations management. Routledge.

Doh, J. P., & Quigley, N. R. (2014). Responsible leadership and stakeholder management: Influence pathways and organizational outcomes. Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(3), 255-274. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2014.0013

Eskerod, P., & Vaagaasar, A. L. (2014). Stakeholder management strategies and practices during a project course. Project Management Journal, 45(5), 71-85. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21447 

Ferrante, S. (2016). Marriott Gets Social To Deliver Great Service! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/marriott-gets-social-deliver-great-service-steve-ferrante/ 

Fuentes-Moraleda, L., Díaz-Pérez, P., Orea-Giner, A., Muñoz-Mazón, A., & Villacé-Molinero, T. (2020). Interaction between hotel service robots and humans: A hotel-
specific Service Robot Acceptance Model (sRAM). Tourism Management Perspectives, 36, 100751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100751   
Gourtsilidou, M., (2022). Top 10 major hotel companies in the world for 2022. https://ceoworld.biz/2022/01/03/top-10-major-hotel-companies-in-the-world-for-2022/#:~:text=Marriott%20is%20the%20largest%20hotel,with%207.642%20hotels%20including%201.423. 

Hyken, S. (2022). Customer Service The Marriott Way. https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2022/07/17/customer-service-the-marriott-way/?sh=3d4fe80c7807 

Liu, J. N., & Zhang, E. Y. (2014). An investigation of factors affecting customer selection of online hotel booking channels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 39, 71-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.01.011 

Marriott. (2015). Stakeholder Engagement and Policy Advocacy. https://www.marriott.com/marriottassets/Multimedia/PDF/CorporateResponsibility/serve360/2015_StakeholderEngagement.pdf 

McGuire, K. A. (2015). Hotel pricing in a social world : Driving value in the digital economy. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. https://www.proquest.com/legacydocview/EBC/4548095?accountid=175624 

Mohammed, R. (2020). How Restaurants Can Survive Right Now. https://hbr.org/2020/03/how-restaurants-can-survive-right-now 
Perlroth, N., Tsang, A. & Satariano, A. (2018). Marriott Hacking Exposes Data of Up to 500 million Guests. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/business/marriott-data-breach.html 

Pourabedin, Z., & Migin, M. W. (2015). Hotel experience and positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). International Business Management, 9(4), 596-600. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Melissa-Migin/publication/282179453_Hotel_experience_and_positive_electronic_word_of_mouth_e-WOM/links/57b9aa2c08aedfe0ec96e79a/Hotel-experience-and-positive-electronic-word-of-mouth-e-WOM.pdf 

Simsek, Z., Heavey, C., & Fox, B. C. (2018). Interfaces of strategic leaders: A conceptual framework, review, and research agenda. Journal of Management, 44(1), 280-324. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206317739108 

Statista Research Department, (2023). American Customer Satisfaction Index scores for Marriott hotels in the United States from 2008 to 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/194728/customer-satisfaction-with-us-marriott-hotels-since-2008/#:~:text=Marriott%20hotels%20in%20the%20United,out%20of%20100%20in%202013. 

Statista. (2023). Number of Marriott International properties worldwide 2016-2022, by region. https://www.statista.com/statistics/297262/number-of-marriott-international-properties-worldwide-by-region/?kw=&crmtag=adwords&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2v-o9bmQgQMVqAt7Bx2YngksEAAYASAAEgIlTfD_BwE 

TripAdvisor, (2023). Portsmouth Marriott Hotel. https://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g186298-d192502-Reviews-Portsmouth_Marriott_Hotel-Portsmouth_Hampshire_England.html