TRM 361.01 Service Marketing W Hotel
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Transcript of TRM 361.01 Service Marketing W Hotel
TRM 361
SERVICE MARKETING
INTERIM REPORT
W
Ezgi Özgümüş
Neşe Roman
Yasemin Aksoy
W Istanbul is a sub-brand of Starwood Management Company, which is among top 5
most prominent management companies of the world. Starwood has a total of 1000
hotels of 9 hotel chains, those are namely Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton, Four Points by
Sheraton, St. Regis, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Element, and Aloft. W Istanbul
is the first W Hotel founded on Europe continent. Previously there were Ws in America,
W Hongkong or W Doha but it was the first time a W Hotel was established in Europe. In
this sense W Istanbul is lucky and worthless. Furthermore, it is a very unique
opportunity for Istanbul to prove itself since in the other metropoles in Europe W is still
in construction but did not get opened.
W Istanbul property has a total of 134 rooms of 10 different categories. It has 44
Wonderful rooms, 23 Spectacular rooms, 26 Fabulous rooms and 12 Mega rooms of
Standard room category; in addition, 15 Studio Suites, 8 Fantastic Suites, 3 Marvelous
Suites, 1 Cool Corner Suite, 1 WOW Suite and 1 EXTREME WOW Suite. As the names
would imply, W has a lingo of its own. W does not have employees; it has talents. There
is no housekeeping service offered, but instead Style will handle the cleaning. These
names should give the guest a certain picture that he/she is supposed to meet.
W Istanbul places itself as a concept city hotel. In the property there are no swimming
pools nor tennis courts or large meeting spaces. That is why W Istanbul does not have 5
stars. However it has the special category according to Turizm Bakanlığı Turizm Tesisleri
Nitelikler Yönetmeliği.
The hotel welcomes its first guests at April 1st, 2008. Thus it can be remarked that the
property y is quite recently established. In spite of this his fact, W Istanbul is very well
settled, thanks to Starwood. W has extremely detailed standards because Starwood
regulates every aspect of the service quality it provides. These standards are called HID
– How It’s Done – Operating Standards and every talent has to memorize most of it so
that he/she can give the proper service the guest expects from every W hotel property
worldwide. When making important decisions, even top managers first take a look at
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HIDs and then take the action. It is crucial to stick with these values to keep the brand in
one piece. “To speak the same language” matters the most.
W Istanbul is an establishment which cares for and focuses on senses. It has the aim to
make the guest live in Wonderland and to create memories for every guest. In order to
do so, the surroundings are set based on this feeling. In the rooms as well as public
spaces (for example lobby or elevators) a special scent is sprayed that has the name “W
Perfume”. In every W property it smells the same. Moreover, every corner in public
spaces has lots of candles that are ignited each day at 8 o’clock to give the same
welcoming feeling.
One of the most important aims of W Brand is to make the guest a part of W’s
extended family. Every mailing to guest is concluded with “…from your W family”.
Talents learn these aims in training sessions. Each and every talent has to participate in
these seminars in order to feel the W spirit. There are 2 important basic trainings, which
are called WOO (Winning Others Over) and W-hoops! (How to make it up to the
guest when something is wrong). In WOO training; the basic concept to learn is the
Secret Seven. Secret Seven comprises of;
1) Smile & Eye Contact
2) Warm Welcoming
3) Active Listening
4) Appropriate & Friendly (friendly, sincere but appropriate attitudes to be
adopted)
5) Name Usage (W talents call the guest with their first names.)
6) Whatever / Whenever ( Whatever you want, Whenever you want it)
7) 10 to 5 rule (When the guest is 10 steps away, make eye contact and smile;
when the guest is 5 steps away, present yourself and initiate conversation)
These secret seven points summarizes the W attitude every talent has to adopt. Since
the power behind the brand is the people working for it, it is extremely important for
the talents the keep these seven points in mind.
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On the other hand in W-hoops training, talents learn how to apologize and make it up to
the guest. In this sense, LEAST model is applied.
It’s the LEAST we can do!
Listen
Empathize
Apologize
Solve
Thank
In W Hotels, talents do not carry name tags but they do carry W pins. The basic
logic behind it is to give the talent a chance to present himself/herself. As long as you do
not have your name on your chest, you have to talk to the guest and present yourself to
prove that you work for W.
Strengths
Strong Brand name:
Weaknesses
High Turnover Rate:
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W hotels are new in Europe but
prominent in America and Asia. So there
are many guests coming to W Istanbul just
as a loyalty to the brand. W Istanbul did
not live through the hardships a young
hotel chain may live since W is a known
and strong brand and people all over the
world already know and trust the brand.
In this sense, employees also trust the
brand equally. Thus, this element is the
most important reason why employees
are attracted powerfully to the brand.
Association with Starwood:
Since W is a chain created by Starwood,
Starwood supports the brand in a very
obvious way. Putting aside the monetary
support, Starwood knows how to play the
game. That is why W Istanbul had not live
through a hard time in the opening
season. Marketing know-how came along
as a part of Starwood support.
Starwood also inspects the properties
regularly to help the brand grow and
nourish, just like a father helping his
children. As a consequence, it is a big
Tourism sector by its nature has a
problem with turnover because of long
working hours. Not every person can
endure these conditions. Especially
women quit often because of their will to
rise up a family.
Bad Management:
W Istanbul established by Bilgili Turizm
Co. So Bilgili family is the main
shareholder. They interrupt the
management very often and most of the
time they contradict the managers.
However since they have the money, they
are the ones in charge. Even the decisions
of General Manager are pointless and
passive when it comes to Bilgili Family.
The board of managers are invisible.
The main misfortune of W Istanbul is to be
a part of Bilgili Co.
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chance that W Istanbul is a part of
Starwood.
Opportunities
Uniqueness:
W Hotels all over the world are known by
their young and hip style. In W, there are
no bureaucracies between the guest and
the talent. One of the main service
promises of W is to be friendly and flirty.
W talents are free to interact in any
(appropriate) way. In this sense, W
Istanbul is unique compared to its
competitors. In hotels like Hilton, Ritz
Carlton or Ciragan Kempinski, there are
many rules regulating the relationships of
employees and guests. Even the heavy
uniforms of other hotels are banned in W
Istanbul. W talents dress T-shirts and jeans
instead of suits.
The W soul creates the main difference
Threats
Too many alternatives:
There are many chain 5 star hotels in high
quality so W has to work hardest to be
different than the others. Its competitors
take away its share day by day.
Global Economic Recession
Economic recession caused many
institutions to lose Money and W is one of
them. Decreasing revenues and increasing
costs do not help W to improve itself as
much as it need. Since the revenues go
down, W cannot pay its employees higher
salaries and raises. Thus, this results in
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among its competitors and that is an
opportunity .It is noticed by management.
high turnover.
Hotel Industry in Istanbul
The facilities that you offer are essential in hotel industry but the location of destination
plays a significant role on this importance. Istanbul is the best well-known city in Turkey.
For example, Taksim is the newer part of the city and the main business district.
Sultanahmet Area is the historical old city part. Şehzadebaşı Area is a subarea of
Sultanahmet with Grand Bazaar. Airport Area is ideal for short term stays and business
visits. Lastly, Beyazıt Area includes Beyazıt Tower and many historical attractions as well.
So it can be said that in this industry each hotel has to choose the right place according
to its target market. W is located around the Beşiktaş. It is easy to get Taksim,
Sultanahmet and Beyazıt due to tramway service.
Why do tourists visit Istanbul?
*Business Travel
*Package Tours
* Island Tours
*Compact City Tours
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*Bosporus Tours
*Meeting Congress Organization
*Nights Show Tours
*Shopping Tours
*Football Tours
*Airport transfer and Private Tours
*Culture Heritage Tour
*Sport Center (Paint Ball, Fitness Center) Tours
*Whirling Dervish Ceremony Tours (Sufism)
*Horse Riding Tours
*Tours with Health Purposes (dentists, transplantations, eye hospitals…etc.)
Istanbul hotels are addressed to foreign tourists in general. Most attractive feature of
Istanbul is its deep history. Therefore, many tourists are coming to Turkey for wander-
lust tourism. In recent years, Istanbul has become a significant meeting center. At this
point, there have been a plenty of large congress and meeting spaces around Istanbul.
W offers meeting rooms and offers everything you need to make your business
beautiful, meeting memorable and special event spectacular. Creative in approach and
innovative in design W Hotels knows how to energize and engage your attendees.
Many types of hotel categorizations which can be counted as historical hotels, special
class hotels, residence hotels, 5 star hotels, 4 star hotels, 3 star hotels, 2 star hotels and
guest houses and boutique hotels are in Istanbul. Boutique Hotels Istanbul provides
quality accommodation services in small, charming and luxury Istanbul hotels.
They offer excellent service, highest standards, notable beauty and competitive fair
prices. They are boutique because they are unique.
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Staying a small specialist in our field is the only way we can achieve our aim to provide
with as much time and advice you need and to provide you with excellent service and
truly reliving and memorable holiday. W is a boutique hotel and in Istanbul it has not
much more competitors from the point of categorization. When we consider W in terms
of competition analysis, we see that Park Hyatt and Four Seasons Sultanahmet are the
most challenging competitors in Istanbul because these hotels have similar type of
customers (targets) and similar capacity and quality of product. They all offer
exceptional small meeting rooms and weddings. The meeting rooms are well- equipped
in order to reflect a sense of excellence and style and for the wedding is that you have
always dreamed of. They respond to the needs of the most demanding leisure and
business travelers.
Customer Trends
In today's highly competitive business world hotel chains are constantly striving to
improve the possibilities that potential customers will choose their business over their
competitors. Successful entrepreneurs have strived to outpass others in their field by
finding ways to make their business stand out from the competitors.
In terms of customer trends, what guests count mainly the high level of service is. “Less
than perfect” service is the real ingredient necessary to ensure a brand's success.
Perfecting customer service basics, such as gratitude and guest recognition is necessary.
This is possible and realistic since regardless of the amenities and most advanced
technology offered to guests, it ultimately comes down to how you make your guest feel
throughout their stay. By taking actions and using words of gratitude and recognition
the guest feels like a valued individual.
More and more customers value high technology devices as another trend. W Istanbul
differentiates itself by having even iPod docking systems in the room, which the
competitors like Four Seasons of Park Hyatt definitely have not. In addition to
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technological aspects, spacious rooms are also appreciated by guests. An high-paying
guest would not like to confine himself/herself into a tiny room.
Customers divide in themselves in terms of their purposes of travel. Leisure guests
mostly focus on luxury aspects the room whereas business travelers cannot stand a
room without wireless connection. Luxury aspects of W Istanbul are quite satisfactory.
Especially the modern, sexy and cool design attracts young people. As an unwritten
principle, W Istanbul generally strives to attract young customers under the age of 50,
because some aspects of the design might annoy senior citizens. Guest Satisfaction
Indexes (GSI) by Starwood Corp. shows that elderly people most of the time complain
how dark the rooms are, whereas young people adore it for they find it romantic. (That
is one of the reasons why more and more honeymoon couples choose W Istanbul to
spend their honeymoons.)
On the other hand, business customers value accessibility as a must factor.
Unfortunately W Istanbul does not have a business center; therefore, most business
customers find it very ironic and this fact plays a negative role among the reasons to be
chosen. Furthermore, internet connection is told to be very pricy and unproffesional
because it gets disconnected very often while business customers try and try to send an
email in vain.
Another customer trend is the pet policy. Since people appreciate flexibility in a hotel,
they would like to go anywhere with their pets, as long as they do not harm anyone.
Among the competitive set (Four Seasons or Park Hyatt) none of the hotels accept pets
in the hotel since having a pet inside increases the costs. However customers demand
that they are allowed to travel with their pet companions. Thus, W Istanbul stands out
as the only hotel which welcomes cats, dogs or other domesticated pets.
A further trend is the location. Customers prefer hotels to be near to downtown,
although in Istanbul downtown concept is very vague. If downtown means being near to
luxurious shopping district like Nişantaşı or Akaretler, or if it means to be near to hip
night clubs such as Vogue or Joke Perestroyka , then W Istanbul definetely outpass its
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competitors. However, once again it should be noted that “downtown” does not mean
the same thing for everyone is Istanbul.
Competitive Trends
Generally boutique hotels are individual hotels, they do not depend on management
companies. However, boutique hotel‘s success prompted management companies to
create their own boutique brands to get a market share. Global giants from
InterContinental to Marriott and Starwood launched boutique brands in Europe.
Boutique hotels focus on business and leisure tourism. Location, capacity and quality of
product is very important for boutique hotels. In İstanbul, W Hotel has 2 competitors
which are Park Hyatt Hotel and Four Seasons Sultan Ahmet Hotel.
Competitor
Hotel
Strengths Weaknesses Tactics used:
Park Hyatt Out door swimming pool
Emporio Armani, Gucci and
In-Formal stores within the
hotel building
Exclusive bathroom amenities
by the French Parfumeur
Blaise Mautin
90 rooms
Combination of the historic
architecture of an Art Deco
building with innovative
interior design
Walking distance to Istanbul
No indoor pool
Traffic congestion
around area
Limited number of
employees
It emphasizes the
location of hotel
which is in in the
fashionable Nisantasi
residential and
shopping district
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Convention and Exhibition
Centre.
Four Seasons
Sultan Ahmet
Location
Historical Building
Services and amenities for
younger guests
Umbrellas
24-hour business services
65 rooms
Complimentary newspaper
with breakfast
Off Site Recreation activities
(tennis and golf)
Gift Certificate
No pool
Room size
Old decoration
It emphasizes
historical view of
rooms, historical
location of hotel and
off site recreation.
Industry-related trends
The world and people’s minds are changing. You should follow the global world in order
to survive. In decades, there are more destinations and so higher competition occurs in
the industry. You should differentiate your product, your price in order to cover your
competitors. There are not only more destinations, but also the product variety in the
destinations is increasing year by year.
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Worldwide, the hotel sector is the backbone of the accommodation industry. The
amount of accommodation is still growing and the number of rooms in hotels, as well.
The hotel sector is characterized by increasing chain penetration and a growing number
of franchisees.
Technological evolution affects the industry, as well. Transportation and information
technologies are the two different aspects of technology. Transport technology will lead
either to further decreases in transport costs or the shorter travel times. Larger and
faster aircrafts and newer and faster high-speed trains are being developed. IT has an
essential role on supporting the business development. IT is significant for the efficient
and timely processing and the distribution of all necessary information. The largest and
most important IT system is the computer reservation system (CRS) as the dominant
technology. Global Distribution System (GDS) takes the inventory from a CRS and
distribute it via travel agents.
Branding is becoming significant trend for the large tourism groups and for destinations
in order to separate themselves from competitors and completing products.
Information Related To the Demand for This Product
The expansion of the international hotel chains results in standardization and
commoditization. There is no differentiation between hospitality products and services.
This systematic standardization of the hospitality product provoked a counter-
movement inspired by consumers searching for hotels with unique or sophisticated and
innovative characteristics, called boutique, design or lifestyle hotels. Sophistication and
innovation explain the growth of the design and lifestyle hotel niches.
Turkey in 2009
Turkey had high revenue due to international meetings. 5th World Water Forum
continues during 7 days and also some of the attendees make early or late departure for
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going around in the city. Hence, they can accommodate in the hotel more than 7 days.
The revenue, which connected with the occupancy rate, will be high in 2009.
The other important event is that World Bank IMF Annual Meetings was organized in
Istanbul. These meetings provide the hotels more occupancy and more revenue.
In 2010
2010 is a very important year for Turkey. Firstly, Istanbul will be culture capital in 2010.
2010 European Capital of Culture project is very significant for Istanbul and Turkey. With
a view to promoting Istanbul as a destination for culture tourism through culture and
arts events and cultural diversity, besides relying on the city’s existing wealth of history,
a concept of promoting Istanbul through culture and art is being developed and events
to this end are being organized. The aim is to reinforce and enhance the existing
perception through this direction both within Turkey and abroad; increasing the number
of visitors to Istanbul and enabling the city to gain further economic benefits from this
process. With these events, Turkey will be more popular country all over the world in
2010. In this way, the demand of the tourists will be higher and W will also expect
higher occupancy rate and revenue in 2010.
On the other hand, everything changes because of a terrorist attack or economic crisis.
Tourism is a very sensitive sector and these affect tourism all around the world
negatively.
In 2011
In 2011, Turkey has an advantage of Winter Universiade in Erzurum. Universiade is a
cultural and sport festival that brings variety of sport activities together. Due to this fact,
it is the one of the most important sport activities in the world. This festival will be in
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Turkey and we can expect high revenue, high number of room night, and occupancy rate
during in 2011.
Segmentation and Targeting
Three main methods of segmentation used in tourism which can be listed as;
segmentation by purpose, psychographic and interactional segmentation. Psychographic
segmentation is categorizing tourist types by psychological variables of tourists.
Interactional segmentation is segmenting tourists by the effects of their behavior in
terms of local people and environment. According to Gray1, we can categorize tourist
typologies within two main parts: sun-lust and wander-lust. Sun lust tourist travel for
rest and relaxation whereas the wanderlust tourists travel for to learn something new
and experience a different culture.
W hotel segments it market according to purpose of travel and origin of the traveler.
They provide corporate rates for business tourism and average rates for leisure tourism.
However they use geographical segmentation. The distance travelled is important
concept; because they create weekend packages for European Tourist not for American
ones. W Hotel has different rates for different nationalities.
W Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel. . Their target is not the leisure or business market.
Their target is people who have high discretionary income and high discretionary time
Positioning
After segmentation and targeting, positioning will create a distinctive place in guests
mind. When customer’s hear or see anything about W Hotel, they should remind that
understandable statement which is positioning statement. W Hotels are unique and
individual expressions of modern living, reflected in the brand’s sensibility to a holistic
1
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lifestyle experience with cutting-edge design, contemporary restaurant concepts,
glamorous nightlife experiences, and signature spas. W Hotel achieves it positioning by
stating “Live like a king in the W rendition of opulent seraglios for modern explorers -
rooms and suites with garden, terrace or cabana adorned with Wi-Fi, flat screen TVs, the
signature W bed and a whimsical harem of stylish luxuries. And yes, ottomans too.”
They try to create an image in people‘s mind which brings history, modernization and
luxury together. Another statement is“Whether you're here for business or pleasure,
we'll help you enjoy the best of both worlds.” W hotel welcomes leisure and business
tourism. Tourist (business or leisure), product (high quality, modern, different) , process
(efficient).
Future Positioning And Targeting
W Hotel tries to change its customer profile. They plan to construct a pool, which will
bring customers with children. Also they have opened new business meeting rooms,
that means W Hotel wants to increase their share in business tourism. As a a result, in
the future their targeting segment will be more in business. According to their business
target, they should create a different positioning statement which must emphasis more
on business concept.
REFERANCES
http://www.esade.edu/cedit2004/pdfs/23_Freund.pdf
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http://www.istanbul2010.org/index.htm
http://www.istanbul.park.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp
Vanhove, N. 2005. The Economics of Tourism Destinations. Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann.
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