Executive summary
The Coal Harbour Hotel is a 4 star full service hotel located in downtown Vancouver built in late 1980’s and signed a affiliation agreement with Stardust Hospitality in 1990. At first, this affiliation enhanced the business but when the 2000s hit, business started declining significantly due to increased competition in the Vancouver market. The mixture of global events and increased competition caused the GM of The Coal Harbour Hotel to panick and develop a tunnel vision focusing only on sales and marketing. To fight the opposing forces, The Coal Harbour Hotel must expand their target market, invest in a greener hotel, terminate the affiliation with Stardust Hospitality and use their significantly skilled employees.
Problem statement
In the beginning, The Coal Harbour Hotel had little to no competition as it was one of the only premier luxury hotels in Vancouver. The combination of global events and increased competition in Vancouver resulted in the hotel’s business declining significantly .
Analysis
Recent global events
-9/11
-recession
Increased competition
Knowing their competition
Overbearing GM
Recent global events
There have been two major events that have affected the hospitality industry since the turn of the millennium and they are 9/11 and the recession.
9/11
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked two airplanes and crashed them into the the World Trade Center in New York. This caused a fear of flying and a severely depressed market for the hospitality industry because people lost the perception of safety to travel.
Recession
Recession caused global downturn in markets around the world in 2008 and the hospitality industry was one of many industries that were affected. But, since then the Canadian market and similar ones such as the US and UK markets are both on the road to recovery.
Increased competition
When The Coal Harbour Hotel was first built in the 1980s, it was one of the only luxury hotels in Vancouver, which meant they had little to no competition. Vancouver soon started to become a more prominent tourist and business destination hence the increase of new hotel developments in the area that The Coal Harbour Hotel did not how to compete with its newer counterparts.
Knowing their competition
One way to beat the competition is to understand what they have and what they offer. Understanding the competition will help with creating solutions to draw customers to The Coal Harbour Hotel versus the newer competition. To analyze the competition the following should be considered the accessibility of the location, age, condition, cleanliness, amenities, service, pattern of demands, monthly occupancy rates, average room rates per moth, source of their demand, reputation, and reviews.
Overbearing GM
The GM and his team are so involved in sales and marketing that they cannot objectively consider solutions for the hotel to recover. The GM is neglecting his other responsibilities like planning the growth plans for the company, resource and funds management, reducing costs where it is allowed, being updated with the latest market trends, forming policies and procedures and functional analysis.This can only cause the business to suffer due to the GM’s tunnel vision.
Decisions, Criteria and Alternatives
Expanding target market
A greener hotel
Ending affiliation with Stardust Hospitality
Using skilled employees
Expanding target market
Developing a plan
One way of increasing revenue is to expand the target market. To expand the target market they must first research and assess the markets before creating a plan. Start off with smaller steps and gradually increase steps taken to attract the new markets and closely monitor and change the plans according to the outcomes.
Marketing to Generation Y
Marketing to the newer generation means that more technological methods versus the traditional methods. Including mobile marketing, increase in OTA vs direct bookings, meta-search with sites like
