Week 3 - Wiki Assignment

Q1. Do an Internet research and give real life examples (with hotel names, location, services offered with photos) of different types of hotels and unusual hotels.

1. Treehotel, Harads, Sweden

A total of 6 unique ‘Treerooms” are built to look like capsule-like Cabins, a birds nest or even a UFO.

2. Palacio de Sal, Uyuni, Bolivia

This so called Salt Palace is built on the salt flats of Uyuni, and is constructed entirely from salt, including some of the furniture. Made up of a large, airy lobby, bar and a total of 16 rooms with their own private bathrooms, central heating and electricity.

3. Icehotel, Jukkasjarvi, Sweden

Every November ice that has been frozen from the Torne river is fused with snow to make ‘snice’ to remake the hotel, the theme changes every year. Guest’s can enjoy the unique experience while the cold and the snice lasts.

4. The Manta Resort, Pemba Island, Tanzania

This hotel has its own underwater bedroom where you can enjoy the wild sea life, not to mention the floating structure of 3 storeys has a roof from which you an dive into the clear blue waters.

Q2. Find out more detailed information about the agreements of franchising, management contract and vacation ownership of hotel business. Give at least three hotel examples for each of them.

1. Franchising

Owner's obligation:

• Follow the operator’s“brand standards manual” which is applicable to the brand. 
• Take part in the company's group marketing, advertising and reservation system; acquire the approval from the operator for the associated plans and details during the hotel construction and renovation. 
• Open the hotel on the particular day, sometimes also arrange the grand opening events. 
• Provide the accounts and records to the operator on a regular basis. 
• Comply with all other legal restrictions.

Operator's obligation:

• Inform the owner about the update of the brand standards manual.
• Provide informative training on the operation of the hotel according to its own system.
• Provide ways to the operator's marketing, advertising and reservation team or system.
• Offer technical services if that is written in the agreement
• Offer pre-opening services if needed, which may be charged later.

Personnel:

All people working in the operation of the hotel are employed by the owner because management and operation of the hotel remains with the owner.

Legal requirements and agreement term:

The operator or brand owner is commonly required to disclose the franchising information because franchising is a regulated commercial activity in countries. The term of agreement usually is between 5 to 15 years , can more. There are often options to renew the agreement.

Examples:

1.Hatt City of Dreams Manila

2.Affordable Suites of America

3.Baymont Inn & Suites

2. Management contract

Owner's responsibility:

• Comply with the operator's brand standards.
• Responsible of the maintenance and repairing cost and insurances.
• Sometimes, owners are required to obtain renewals, zoning requirements.
• Seek right to approve annual budgets, capital and FF&E budgets, approve key personnel position, check the hotel's accounts although these are not obligated. 

Operator's obligation:

• Operate the hotel in accordance to the Brand Standards
• Include the hotel in the operators marketing, advertising and reservation system.
• Conduct daily operation of the hotel like purchasing goods and services, also including conducting litigation and managing staff.
• Provide technical services if stated, sometimes with extra charges. 

Personnel:

The key management positions are employed by the operator and the remainder of stuff are often required to be employed by the owner.

Legal requirements and agreement term:

Hotel management agreement is a contractual document and is not specifically restricted by any laws. However, it is applied with the local laws notwithstanding governing laws of the agreement. The agreement usually last for 15 to 25 years and often can be renewed. 

Examples:

1.Grand Hyatt Macau

2.Mamaison Hotels & Residence

3. Dragon Hotel Swansea

3. Vacation ownership

Vacation Ownership, also known as Timeshare, is a popular option for people who want to secure a long-term booking for a specific place. It’s indeed quite common in some of the popular vacation spots in America, like Hawaii, Arizona and Florida etc. Some of the hotel worldwide also adopted this scheme.

The cost of purchasing a timeshare depends on the time period the customer chose; higher price will be charge for the peak time of the year. The annual maintenance fee for the property and the annual property taxes will be divided in proportion within the timeshare owners. A person who does not show up during the specified period may rent the timeshare to a third party, but the chances for the situation will be less likely occur since no one wants to waste their money.

The advantages for vacation ownership is that the customer do not have to pay for the fee in once, after the contract was signed to purchase the timeshare, the customer is agreeing to pay the owner a sum of money periodically in order to obtain the exclusive right to stay in the property for a certain time period. As they pay time by time, hence they usually obtain the room in a lower price, which ease their financial burden in avoiding one-time payment, as well as to make sure they can get the room in the peak season. But they may also being restricted to choose particular hotel as they have already pay for that.

In the view point of the property owner, by offering the vacation ownership scheme, the owner can foreseen the approximate number of booking in the future and can decide the number of room they have to reserve in advance. Besides, the property owner can keep the running cash to avoid financial risk by receiving cash time by time, even though in case the customer does not show up, the owner will not bare as much cost for under-booking. In the meantime, the vacation ownership scheme may advocate some issue about refund if the customer cannot come accidentally.

Examples

1. Starwood Hotel, Westin

2. The Legacy Golf Resort - Phoenix, AZ

3. WorldMark Resort Rotorua - New Zealand

 

Q3. Discover more latest trends and development about hotel business.

1. Millennials become the fastest growing customer segment.

Millennials are willing to pay more for a greater experience. Many of them are looking for an overall gourmet experience for a reasonable price

The demands of millennials influence new lobby designs in the hotel sector. Lobby bars and hotel restaurants are wide open with combination work, play and eat/drink spaces designed with this millennial customer in mind. They are looking for a unique and novel experience and this has and will continue to command change within the market.

Millennial is interested in utilizing technology to do things, checking in at hotels, paying their restaurant and bar bills and looking up places to eat, shop and play to name a few.

2. Self-sufficient Customer service

Self-sufficient Customer service will affect the customer’s behaviors and the make the market to a “high tech, high touch” market. Guests will use smart phone and online information to know a hotel, booking and review. Hotels need to meet the customized requirements

3. “WOW” Service and truth of moment

“WOW” Service is a way to ensure repeat business. By creating an impressive, unique guest experience that exceeds all expectations, we are able to capture the customer whether it is with or without technology. On the meeting and event side, planners are expecting hotels to have tools to assist them. These tools may include online requests for proposals; dynamic package pricing that allows the planner to pick and choose certain amenities and more.

4. Expectation of more international visitors

International leisure travel has increased markedly due to the visa waiver program in America. The peak seasons will be changed compare with the traditional modes. And hotels also need to prepare customized services to people come from different areas.

5. Innovative technology

Mobile check-in, and seamless connectivity across platforms and devices are useful facilities in hotel business. There are mobile Apps which provides booking and review functions.

6. The sharing economy

The introductions of Uber, Airbub share the economy with hotel industry. The challenge here is that users like these services, government legislation is not generally keeping up with these rapid developments, and hoteliers are unsure of how to react.

7. Real time marketing

Although it would be unwise to discount the impact of traditional marketing, real time marketing must take place on a regular basis and incorporate guest-generated content, especially via social media such as Facebook, Twitter. This must be a crucial component of the marketing mix. Take an example, some hotels will use Facebook page as a second websites with the option for guests to contact hotel staff and make reservations.

Q4. Choose one topic from today’s lecture that you’re interested; do further research and provide real life examples.

Sustainable Lodging

Sustainability attempts achieve a balance among financial, environment and social factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term.

In the 21 century, the hoteliers expand their scale of the their sustainability efforts by implementing environmental actions into fulfilling the corporate social responsibility approach, which mean they also pay efforts on building a partnerships with a variety of public or private environmental organisations. 

Current Trends

Hotel usually focused on three different aspects in facility management in order to optimise the operational efficiency and thus the operation costs. They are energy, water and waste respectively. There are over 300 certification programs in all aspects of hospitality and tourism sector to approve hotels different sustainability policies. 

Examples

1. Holiday Inn

• An IHG® Green Engage Hotel

IHG® Green Engage™ system

• measures energy, waste and water use
• recommends over 200 Green Solutions to reduce the impacts our energy, waste and water use have on the environment
• supports hotels to create environmental action plans and targets
• helps hotels achieve energy savings of up to 25%
• make hotels more cost-effective and ultimately allows us to improve the value of service we offer our guests
  

Reflection:

We may have differnt experience of hotel services when we go travelling, but we seldom take a look at the operation or identify the type of hotels that we are living. This lecture introduce us a great variety and its difference of diffierent kinds of hotels, specially some of the usual hotels are totally new to us. Moreover, the most impressive topics mentioned in the lecture is the vocational ownership, which allow customers to rent the hotel in the future by a regular payment in advance. After this lecture, we think that we will be more able to evaluation the hotels when we receive their services.

Reference:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotels/11604863/50-of-the-worlds-most-unusual-hotels.html

Sample agreement from the website Escape to Julian, CA,2015,

http://www.julianvacationrentals.com/form592.pdf

http://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/8736

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/ownership_vacation/index.html

https://www.extraholidays.com/phoenix-arizona/legacy-golf-resort.aspx?LID=GGLLOC&utm_medium=referral-GooglePlaces&utm_source=maps.Google.com&utm_campaign=SEO

http://www.wyndhamap.com/wps/wcm/connect/Wyndham/home/Resorts/New_Zealand/Nth-Island/Rotorua

http://www.ihgplc.com/index.asp?pageid=742

http://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/6618

Week 2 - Wiki Assignment

Discover more recent trend and new development in tourism industry.

Hotels:

With the higher quality of life and expenses, customer are more likely to look for right product at the right time and price. Mass services are out already as customer focus more on personalisation. Therefore, a bigger database is needed for the hotel industry in order to reach every customer. Just like a hotel will point out the preferences of every customers who frequent the hotel and will offer room rate which include all the services the guest needs at a price point that is different from normal room rates. With more data is available, higher possibility for service providers to offer personalised services.

Moreover, peer to peer accommodation is getting more popular in the tourism industry. Like Airbnb and Homeway, they offer accommodation like visiting others home with different style and services. These peer to peer accommodation have no doubt that gain a success within the industry. To boost the image in order to attract more customers,they are moving into the food sector in a big way. For example, they provide home cooks to visitors for free or even invite them into the host’s home to dine and experience the culinary world of a region. This certainly increase the experiences that bring to the travellers and also a higher personalisation. It is for sure that, the demand for personalise rate for every segment in tourism will increase in the coming years.

Mobile and Apps:

Nowadays, everyone hold a mobile phone no matter what they are doing. Mobile phone should be the most convenient way for people to plan their trip by purchasing their air ticket and booking their hotel. All they need is just a phone and a credit-card. Regarding to a research found on the net, more than 25% of the travel booking in US were made via the mobile device and sure that this trend will keep going up in the coming years. Therefore, efficient mobile strategy become one of the most important way for travel company to compete in the industry.

For travel and booking Apps, like HotelQuickly which primarily operate on the mobile has worked a well strategy. It rely on its app to do business only. For travellers who are impulsive and has arrived a city and looking for a hotel to stay can easy to find a hotel via the app. Moreover, talking one of the world largest shares mobile company, Apple, is having significant improvement on its iBeacon technology which can be used by airlines to seamlessly communicate with customer, hotels can push across information and helping travellers to check in quickly, also using the technology as a remote key to open the door of the hotel’s room.

Choose one topic from today’s lecture that you’re interested; do further research and provide real life examples. 

Hub-and-Spoke System

•  In mainland China, Xi’an worked as ‘Hub’ in Hub-and-Spoke system
• Xi’an is in the center of China, so it is convenient for tourists to transfer.
• Tourists who want to go to northwestern part of China need to transfer in Xi’an, as there are fewer airlines flying to that part.
• At the mean time, the tourists from northwestern part of China who want to go to overseas need to transfer in Xi’an, as there are less airlines flying to overseas.
• Xi’an is one of the most famous tourism cities in China. Thus it is a good choice to make Xi’an become the ‘Hub’ of Hub-and-Spoke System. The reason is that it is convenient for people to tour in another city that is not included in their plan.
• Hub-and-Spoke system can also be used in logistic. It can help companies to save money and extend coverage of the company. 

Reflection:

Hospitality industry has become the largest and fastest growing industry around the world. While in the industry, customer and guest impressions are the most important element for illustrating efficient service.

Tourism which is the world’s largest industry has certain benefits. Aside from providing governments with substantial tax revenues, it also offers the greatest employment prospects in the human resources sector. In Hong Kong, Tourism is the main economic pillars. In 2013, tourism accounted for 5% of GDP. Employment in the tourism industry about 269,700 people, accounting for the total territory employment by 7.2%. This shows the important of Tourism in Hong Kong’s economic sector.

With higher living standard and education level, people are more willing to go travel in order to experience new cultures and for relaxation. It is no doubt that Tourism will keep having a great impact within the world ’s economic and cultural social sector.

Reference:

"Five global trends for travel & tourism industry in 2015", The Economic Times, 14 Jan, 2015

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/travel/five-global-trends-for-travel-tourism-industry-in-2015/articleshow/45883038.cms?intenttarget=no