Marketing Strategies of Riverview Hotel - Case Study Example

Riverview Hotel Executive Summary The Riverview Hotel is located at Notown USA. It is a representative of the five star hotel brands within the private Business Hotels located worldwide of the World' group. All Hotels are boutique properties that offer 25 and 35 rooms. The Hotel offers benefits and value to its clients, above and over the standard of the hotel’s facilities as well as affordable rates. The company seeks to provide its guests with an exemplary service, and high level of recognition, which they have come to truly rely upon (Cooper 2005, p.11-17). The hotel also provides its guest with a relaxed, luxurious environment within which they can easily conduct their business; an environment that they cannot find anywhere else especially from other competitors (Cooper 2005, p.11-17). The guests have a chance to develop a strong relationship with the hotel, which ensures value for their money, efficiency and reliability in the process of supplying them with anything they need, and when they need it. The Riverview Hotel also operates in a city ideally with the strongest sense of community, and its owner’s prospect to stay an integral part of the general community. Place The Business Hotels owned by the World' group is positioned as the ninth largest Hotel chain internationally in the world, with at least over 320 wholly managed and owned properties. The group of hotels specializes in occupying inner city and strategic, locations and serving chiefly corporate clients. The properties of the hotels range from high-class three to five star among other categories, and comprise the following brands including River Post Houses, River Inns, and Riverview Hotels. The group of hotels has a high case in point of repeat business transversely all its brands, predominantly the Riverview Hotels properties that account for 68% of revenue within the group. The Riverview Hotel is reliant on annually tapered clients from the travel trade, IT and automotive sectors with surefire room nights per year. The Riverview properties in general are renowned for their strategic and convenient locations within big and large cities all over the country. Product Product is a critical element of the marketing mix (Goldsmith 1999, p. 178-185). For Business Hotels owned by the World' group such as Riverview Hotel they high-quality facilities well accompanied by consummate personal service, that differentiates from its strong competition quality with the by and large brand strategy have established to be a strategically successful approach that generate high levels of business. Also, tantamount with the brand are the high-level of service that the guests receive personally, and the across-the-board range of comprehensive facilities of business available in highly luxurious settings. The Riverview Hotel has at least 35 exclusive rooms and in they provide appropriate services in accommodations for the customers. Pricing Riverview Hotel’s pricing strategy has been a terrifically consistent trend with the differentiation objective, providing added value for a sensible rate, as opposed to de-valuing and discounting its services. Room rates from the hotel quoted are net of service and tax, are per room, per night, with continental breakfast in the offer. They include corporate single for only $95.00, corporate double for only $125.00, corporate double deluxe for only $ 175.00 and corporate suite for only $225.00 with maximum occupancy of at least 2 persons. The respective prices are fixed, but reservations are made based on offers. Conference room rates at Riverview Hotel are net of service and tax quoted per day use ideally with coffee and tea breaks included. They include the Riverview Boardroom for roughly $260.00, the Riverview Conference Hall for only $320.00, and the Riverview Ballroom for $875.00 among many other subsidiary arrangements for conference rooms. Promotion Promotion for Riverview hotel has the primary focus remaining on mass communication through print ads on the Internet and the trade publications. Direct mail campaigns (Goldsmith 1999, p. 178-185) to prospective and existing clients are of use in increasing as cost-effective processes of targeted campaigning. Personal selling (Schultz 2001, p.7)for Riverview hotel in the local market also remains a critical element of the mix to help continue to building long-term relationships particularly within the community locally and generating high levels of ideal corporate activity. Public relations activities (Yudelson 1999, p.60) for the hotel have also been continued in operations to play as critical roles in the marketing mix. This presents the hotel as an ideal supportive member of the local community and helping in its active participation within the same community. People For the People concept, in the marketing mix (Schultz 2001, p.7) of Riverview Hotel the concept is diverse. Riverview’s management develops the habit of thinking ideally in terms of the people outside and inside of the business who are totally responsible for the element of the service sales offered by the hotel. It is astonishing how the Riverview entrepreneurs work extremely hard in thinking through all elements of the marketing mix, and paying little attention to the fact that a single decision and policy ideally has to be carried out by a particular person, in a unique way. The hotel’s ability to hire, retains, select, and recruit the proper people, who have the abilities and skills to do the job in the hotel service industry has been the strength for the hotel. The hotels target for people or customers (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62) is the corporate guests with a three-night stay requirement. Target business sections include the IT sector, because of the proximity of the developed property to Silicone Hill, the automotive industry to benefit from the strategic location of the Riverview hotel in relation to the Motors Plant and Headquarters in Notown and the high number of travel trade guests who attend International and National Travel Fares at the Exhibition Halls. This business area is what accounts for at least 70% of the hotel’s property's revenue. The current market of the hotel business is somewhat depressed, because of the economic downturn as well as restrictions made on corporate travel all over the U.S. Process Refers to the systems in used to assist the organization to deliver the appropriate service (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62). The service delivered by Riverview hotel is excellent in that it is timely. The accommodation is offered in due time with exactness in preparing the rooms as well the same case with conference halls. In booking accommodation, the process takes only five minutes from the booking to the payment and the tourists can get the best of room service. The room service is also abrupt and on time with a high level of workforce employed at the hotel. The entire process for the hotel is well arranged and allows customers to obtain a competent service delivery. The hotel has excellent services with collaboration with many banks that work out customer Credit Cards transactions by design and fast when their customer requires the translations to pay out the hotel. Physical Evidence This is to mean where the service is delivered (Yudelson 1999, p.60) in this case being the ideal location of Riverview hotel. Physical Evidence is generally the element of the service mix that allows the consumer to make judgments on the firm and it has been excellent for Riverview hotel in providing the same. Walk into a restaurant, a customer’s expectations are of a friendly, clean environment, and this is what Riverview Hotel aims at providing all the time for customers. It does this by employing expertise professionals who have been working 24 hours a day all year in ensuring that everything is perfect for the customers. The customers therefore, judge the service provided (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62) by Riverview as excellent which is why it has been receiving high sales because of the built reputation. Recommendations Once a firm obtains their research data on behaviour of consumers, tourism organizations opt to manipulate the ideal marketing mix (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62), in helping reflect the nature of the respective target markets. The tourist behaviour has considerable influences on the set marketing mix concepts and the ways that tourism organizations seek exploiting market trends via the use of the variables in the marketing mix. When an organization in the tourism industry identifies its target customers, the same must try understanding their behaviour and reflect this in its overall marketing programmes (Cooper 2005, p.11-17). This is what Riverview hotel should opt to do and apply in their operations. The marketing mix for Riverview should set all the variables right which the organization alters in the long term in satisfying customer requirements. Four components, can be separately amended or in absolute combination with more of the other marketing mix components (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62). The marketing mix thus, as a set of levers, which Riverview can adjust in meeting their aims should be tightly monitored. Competitive room rates have been cut dramatically in order to attract contract clients at least over the successive 10-12 month period. The Riverview Hotel's continued existence in the current environment strongly will be dependent on ideal repeat corporate contract business as well as customer loyalty to the hotel brand. This is what will keep the business rolling and strategically set the hotel at a better place in the market (Cooper 2005, p.11-17). It is outright that the hotel brand should hence continue in delivering on its values and promise for it to keep its primary customers and attract more in the industry for their services. In a best-selling book, titled good to Great, Collins Jim discovered the most critical factor applied by the companies as first of all "getting the right people on the bus, and relatively getting the wrong people precisely off the bus (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62)." This is something that Riverview should consider doing. The company has done extensive in hiring and retaining people within the work force, but there have been turnover rates increasing by day meaning that this is something they need to handle within time. Once Riverview Hotel hires the right people, it should then prospects to "getting the right people in their right seats (Schultz 2001, p.7)." This means that the hotel should face the fact that not everyone can work within all sectors and that there are specializations. Therefore, managing people and strategizing them in the appropriate departments is what the hotel has to do to prevent role play blunders. This keeps the hotel running in order and all people playing their roles appropriately. Generally, being successful in business, means developing the habit of thinking ideally in terms of who is going to carry out a particular task and responsibility exactly (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62). In many cases, it becomes impossible to move forward particularly until the business can attract and put the right people into their right positions. For the promotion (Popovic 2006, p. Popovic, D 2006), the hotels should apply Direct Marketing. This is because it is an effective strategy in implementing promotion and increasing the sales of the service from the company. Direct marketing should be handled by the PR agency (Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996, p. 44-62) within the hotel. The hotel should buy select targeted corporate companies list and send them hotel’s information about Riverview for them to understand and have the awareness of the hotel services. The company should know that they are no experts in proposed direct marketing therefore, will be critical that the PR agency handles all aspect of the applied direct marketing (Schultz 2001, p.7) for the same. On the same context of promotion, the hotel has already an established website. However, there is a need to look into the improvements of the web Plan. The hotels’ website is already up and running, but requires to be revamped and giving it an updated feel and look, as well as adding secure interactivity. The content of the website is plentiful but overly, it need a little refresher to make it better and user friendly (Popovic 2006, p. Popovic, D 2006), this is what will make it better and improve the services sales of the hotel. The hotel needs a new home page navigation and design, printable brochure and online reservations capability. The website goals for Riverview hotel needs the ability to convey the hotels’ messaging of luxury, high quality business accommodations, indexed on leading travel websites so that customers find the hotel with ease, have the ability of taking reservations online and making appropriate changes to the hotel reservations online. The main hotel’s website marketing strategy should also hinge upon ensuring that all leading travel sites for instance Orbitz.com, Hotels.com and Expedia.com list Riverview hotel. In this case, it will make it easy that when tourists search for luxurious hotels in the area, they can find it and book for accommodation. In attaining the level of interactivity that Riverview hotel wants in the redesign, it needs to develop more features allowed (credit-card processing, security for reservations, daily back-ups, as well as real-time linking to other database) and service-level of the website’s hosting service (McGrath 1986, p. 45-50). This will be resplendent in slightly increasing the hotel’s monthly hosting fee. On the concept of product, the hotels provide services. In this context, there are some improvement requirements (Lee 2009, p. 162-267). The hotel’s service should provide guests with better alternatives to the impersonal, as well as large five star properties across the city. Strategically located, the hotel’s property should enable the guests to be at the strong hold of the business community and yet in a better environment of professionalism and calm. The hotel should seek to differentiate its services provided to tourists in areas of personal recognition of its frequent travelers returning time and again, luxurious rooms offering a sense of conducting business away from home or their work places, staff having a strong ethical customer-service and business facilities relatively second to none in town. The price offered by Riverview is enormous and has been pulling many tourists to the hotel for accommodation as well as other business people for conferences. However, there is a global development of many hotels and services of this kind have been offered by other competitors who are coming with better and lower prices (Peattie 1997, p. 142-150). The hotel therefore, needs to conduct an evaluation of the market and set prices according to the wave of the market not exceptionally high and not terribly low but on balance to keep the customers on board and attract many others from their customers (Mohammed and Ahmed 1995, p. 192-211). For the people, the hotel has been recruiting many graduates in the hotel to provide services. However, with the global trends in the market there is an element of diversity for the tourists who visit the region and look for accommodation (McGrath 1986, p. 45-50). Therefore, the hotel needs to uphold diversity within the work place and promote culture diversity in the workforce (Lee 2009, p. 162-267). This has been the main strength of many companies worldwide and has added skills and expertise in professional practice (Goldsmith, R 1999, p. 178-185) that is why Riverview Hotel needs to uphold the same. Conclusion Generally, Riverview hotel has an extensive marketing mix running and one that has kept the hotel alive and profitable all along. It has been holding many customers in the tourism industry within United States with services in accommodation within the hotel and conference halls for the business executives. However, owing to changes in the global trends of hotel business, Riverview needs to reconsider and make appropriate changes that are ideal in protecting its reputation within the industry and increasing its sales of services domestically. Differentiating the business service type offered, from that of the ideal competition, will help not only to build the Riverview brand in general, but will be a potential in the attraction of frequent business travelers, requiring a higher level of recognition and service than they can be given at competitive five star hotels in Notown. This will present the Riverview hotel with an opportunity to force its core competencies regarding servicing the business traveler in a comfortable environment. There is a threat to the critical corporate sector, which could be considered as short to medium term, as generally, indications of a return to the ideal business travel being observed. To handle this, the Riverview Hotel should continue focusing on making the business service extemporarily, at affordable rates, in developing the customer relationship even after a visitor's stay. Going online and improving its website to support booking of accommodation and allowing changes on the same is an excellent way of increasing the reach to customers with many other improvements as per the recommendations. References Cooper, C 2005, Tourism: Principles and Practice (3rd ed.), Harlow: Pearson Education, p.11-17. Goldsmith, R 1999, The Personalized Marketplace: Beyond the 4Ps, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 17(4), 178-185. Lee, G 2009, a review of Marketing Mix: 4Ps or more? International Journal of Marketing Studies, Volume 1(2) 162-267. McGrath, J 1986, When Marketing Services, 4Ps Are Not Enough, Business Horizons, 29(3), 45-50. 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