Hospitality - History - Politics and Culture

Question: Discuss about the Hospitality, History, Politics and Culture. Answer: Introduction Marriott International Inc. headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in the USA has acquired more than 5700 properties in 110 countries with consists of 1.2 million rooms in total (One Mile at a Time 2015). The company consists of the broad portfolio of hotels and lodging facilities (Marriott News Center 2016). Marriott International was founded in the year 1993 when Marriott companies divided its operations into two: Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation. Marriott was the first company which provides its customers an option to book the rooms online. Marriott was founded in the year 1927 by John William Marriott (Marriott News Center 2016) Marriott brands Marriott internationally operates in 30 brands (Marriott News Center 2016). The names of the brands of the Marriott are: Classic Luxury- It consists of hotel named TheRitz-Carlton, St. Regis, JW Marriott Distinctive Luxury- Consists of hotel named the Luxury Collection, BulgariHotels Resorts, W Hotels, Edition Hotels Classic Premium- Consists of hotel named- Marriott, Sheraton (Marriott News Center 2016) Marriott Vacation Club(MVC)- Consists of Delta Hotels Distinctive Premium- Consists of hotels named Le Mridien, Westin, Autograph Collection, Design Hotels, Renaissance Hotels, Tribute Portfolio, Gaylord Hotels (Marriott News Center 2016) Classic Select- Consists of hotels named Courtyard by Marriott, Four Points, Springhill Suites by Marriott, Protea Hotels by Marriott, Fairfield Inn by Marriott (Marriott News Center 2016). Distinctive Select- The brand contains the hotel named AC Hotels, Aloft Hotels, Moxy Hotels (Marriott News Center 2016). Classic Longer Stays- The brand consists of hotels named Marriott Executive Apartments, Residence Inn by Marriott, TownePlace Suites by Marriott (Marriott News Center 2016). Distinctive Longer Stays- The brand consists of Element by Westin (Marriott News Center 2016) About Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide is located in Stamford and operates in hotel and leisure sector (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). It operates the world largest chain of hotel companies which owns manages and franchises hotels, resorts, spas and vacation ownership properties under the name of its 11 brands (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). Recently the hotel has taken over by Marriott International Inc. on September and act as the subsidiary of the Hotel. The Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide operates in following brands: Westin The Westin Hotels and Resorts is the Starwood most luxury Hotel and resort brand (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). Sheraton Sheraton provides resort rooms and luxurious rooms to its customers (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). Sheraton consists of various sub-brands and some of the sub- brands are as follows: W Hotels, St. Regis, Le Mridien, Aloft, a Vision of W Hotels, Element by Westin, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). The Starwood Hotel is recognized as the world's largest chain of hotels and luxuries brand and it comprises of nine luxurious brand Our brands include: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Mridien, Sheraton, Four Pointsby Sheraton, Aloft, and Element (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide is in loss Starwood hotels that operate brands such as St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton and W hotels and which merged with Marriott Internal Inc. in the year 2016 are now facing huge loss in terms of rooms revenue (Times 2015). The revenue per room has been increased by 07% this growth of income will result in the reduction fee in the second quarter results of the year 2016 (Times 2015). The quarter 2 results were not in favor of the hotels and the result reported a loss of $263 million (StamfordAdvocate 2016). On per share basis the company reported a loss of $1.56 (StamfordAdvocate 2016). Since the share price of the Starwood Hotels Resorts worldwide were increasing from the beginning of the year 2016 and the analysts were of the opinion that the earnings from the share price would be increased to 75% but the earnings from investing in the share reduced to 71% (StamfordAdvocate 2016). The stocks have decreased by 6% since last year (StamfordAdvocate 2016). The second Quarter results showed losses on asset dispositions and impairments which was a total of $114 million in the year 2016 and in 2015 the losses were recorded $118 million (Bloomberg.com 2012). The net loss of the hotel for the second quarter was $263 million whereas; the last year the Hotels bear the net loss of $ 136 million (Bloomberg.com 2012). The losses made by the Company in 2016 are almost the double. The companys growth has been lowered in the year 2016 (Bloomberg.com 2012). Starwood Hotels have a total of 1300 hotels that operates worldwide (Chaturvedi 2016). The bottom line of the financials figured out a loss of $228 million from the discontinuing operations this resulted in selling off of the Vistana vacations one of its business to interval leisure group (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). $15 million were related to the cost of the Marriotts International and its merger this also contributed to the loss of the Company (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). Why Starwood Hotels are underperforming The reason why Starwood hotels are underperforming they have a dozen brands operating under it but they lag behind in terms of competition (StamfordAdvocate 2016). The reason behind their underperformance is because they operate largely on lifestyle Brand which means they have left apart a huge size of the market is not there target audience (StamfordAdvocate 2016). The profits have shown a downturn for the Starwood Hotels as the demand for the rooms slowed down (Bloomberg.com 2012). The report tells us that the Starwood saw a drop in revenues generated from per room which showed a 9.1% drop in revenue per available of room in all over Europe and Starwood Hotels reflected a drop of 3.3% which was $51.66 in monetary terms (Bloomberg.com 2012). The Hotel is underperforming when compared to other large cap hotels companies i.e. Hilton and Marriott (Bloomberg.com 2012). The Hotel is selling off its brands and assets and the equity and debt is pouring in the Company. Starwood Properties are categorized as luxury and where the investors and bidders are very less in number and striking deals between the two takes a lot of time (Bloomberg.com 2012). Basis on ranking the hotels When the Hotels are underperforming the owner must look for the opportunity for growth (Mail Online 2015). The aggressive discounts on the room are not possible since the Hotels have taken the concept of modifying them because the hotels are rated between one to five stars (Mail Online 2015). These rates are given by the guests of the hotels and these depend on the facilities provided by the hotels, the location of the hotel does play a major role while getting a good rating from the visitor, architecture and designs of the lobby also play an important role and given utmost importance by the visitors (Mail Online 2015). The concept of homes that is linked in with the hotels is now very much new to UK as compared to other countries like Europe, Asia and United States that have already started with such concept (Mail Online 2015). As far as the designing project of the hotel is concerned the main focus of the public lies in the design and architecture of the hotel. The hotel should be fully equipped with prevailing tastes and preferences and designs (Mail Online 2015). The hotel generates revenue by maintaining efficient designs in the hotels and attracting the customers. The role of the architects is to meet the demand of the customers. Firstly, the importance is being given to the lobby. The lobby creates the first impression of the hotel as the visitor first visits the lobby and gets an impression of the hotel (Mail Online 2015). The Starwood Hotels provide the visitors an option to book their rooms online and while doing so the visitors will be provided with extra points and to stay in the hotel the visitors according to the points will be provided with the free nights (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). With the selected hotel the visitors can avail a discount of 10% when using the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) online (Starwoodhotels.com 2016). Recommendation The Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide are the hotels that serve only one section of the society where the other section of the society is not targeted by the hotels and it includes the large chunk of people (Marriott News Center 2016). The tourists largely dominate the hotel market. The competition for the hotel market is rising and becoming competitive in nature (Costa et al. 2012). The companies must apply certain strategies in order to get the number of footfalls and achieve higher targets. The strategies that the travel and lodging Companies must follow are stated as follows: Targeting key locations: The hotels should have their presence in the key cities and places where the where the lodging companies are growing and can target both domestic and international travellers (White 2016). Targeting key visitors: As the income rises visitors travel more and would like to stay in luxurious hotels various travellers would travel to the city of their interest and would also get an opportunity to stay in a luxurious hotel (White 2016). Market Leadership: The hotels who try to acquire properties and maintaining their presence in all around the world to get hold of the market leadership. This strategy seems to be very complex and requires a huge chunk of investment that has to be made by the company (One Mile at a Time 2015). The Lodging Companies should have a tie up with the travelling agencies where the travelling agency will provide discounts to the visitors who with the help of the agencies will book the rooms online (Marriott News Center 2016). The discounts provided by the Companies should be comparable with the competitor. The Hotel and the Lodging companies whose main target audience includes businessmen can make up a strategy to make a tie-up (Picker 2016). The businesses who sends their employees overseas for training or for client visit in connection to that the Hotels can tie- up with the businesses and provide them with certain discounts, for example, the businessmen can get complementary lunch or dinner during his/her stay (Starwood Hotels #038; Resorts Worldwide et al. 2016). The guests who are visiting the hotel should be given a reason as to how one can differentiate between the two hotels (Thomas 2016). One should not focus on dropping the room rates by a certain percentage rather one should give the visitor an understanding of the basis the hotel is different from the other (Thomas 2016). The Hotel Companies can offer discounts on extra holidays. The member of the Hotel when visits the hotel and pays the entire amount for two days but if in case, the member, tourist or businessmen needs to extend the holidays for a one or couple of days in that case the hotel can provide them with discounts (Thomas 2016). The Hotel can take help of the extra space to host the business gathering, reunions and other social gatherings. Space can be provided for holding a training session in a conference room the ground can be provided for the wedding purposes as well (White 2016). Employees should be rewarded for providing good suggestions. If an employee of the Company comes up with the idea for generating profit, in that case, the employee/staff will be provided for rewards (White 2016). Conclusion The Hotel Industry is developing and Marriott International Inc. Having the biggest chain of hotels the company is making losses. In order, to make the company profitable the company should take certain measures like tying up with the businesses and providing them with a complementary meal or some discounts attached to the rooms. The company should tie up with the travelling agency and provide discounts in order to meet the competition in the market and make the goodwill. Though Marriott International Inc is forming the greatest chain of hotel and lodging company. The company is going through a huge loss this year. If the company follows the rule of people first, money and then comes to the other things the business built on this logic will become a success in the long run. References Bloomberg.com. (2012).Starwood Hotels Shares Fall on Weakening Demand for Rooms. [online] Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-10-25/starwood-hotels-third-quarter-profit-gains-as-room-rates-rise [Accessed 1 Oct. 2016]. Chaturvedi, A. (2016).Marriott International completes Starwood acquisition - The Economic Times. [online] The Economic Times. Available at: https://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-09-23/news/54476685_1_marriott-international-completes-starwood-acquisition [Accessed 1 Oct. 2016]. CNBC. (2016).Marriott buys Starwood, becoming world's largest hotel chain. 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