Introduction
The hospitality industry is a sector that has received plenty of attention in the recent past, and that more research is also being carried out in order to ascertain the needs of this lucrative industry. Businesses in this industry have fetched a lot of revenue and foreign exchange because of the needs of humankind at the moment that center mostly on leisure, food, and accommodation.
More people are moving around the world in search of education, to set up their companies through globalization, to study, for tourism purposes, etc. hence the need to tap the money used for such requirements through the hospitality industry is evident. One of the ways of taping these proceeds is through the development of good restaurants for both leisure and accommodation purposes.
In the UK, for example, there are many restaurants promoting various cultures and providing the necessities of different nationals visiting the UK for varied reasons. One of them is the Mortloch Hotel, situated on 30,000 acres of mature gardens and woodlands with splendid views of the surrounding hills; it provides accommodation, conference facilities, among other services. (Powers, 1995).
Research indicates that this hotel has failed in its business operations whereby we find that its employees are said to be demoralized, the hotel is said to have employed more than five managers, its facilities and equipment are terrible, the customers are reported to be complaining about the hotel’s operations, we also find that this hotel is reported to have a lot of debts which if not handled the hotel will probably run to bankruptcy. As a result of these challenges, the owner has decided to put the Hotel on sale.
As a result of the need for diversification, the PDR Hotels & Resorts has developed an interest in purchasing the Mortloch Hotel; the management of PDR Hotels & Resorts believes that investing in the hotel can be made perfectly by ensuring excellence in product and performance, therefore by committing themselves in purchasing the hotel they should always consider their reputation in the market place since it is regarded as the highly successful international luxury hotel & resort group, specializing in the premium end of the market.
Therefore for PDR Hotels &Resorts to revive the Mortloch hotel and ensure that its customers are served with good quality beverages, excellent entertainment, music, live bands, comfortable seats (chairs, sofa, and room tables), good customer service, and other great client services so as to place the hotel at a global perspective since the PDR Hotels & Resorts is already a global company with branches all over Europe, America, and Asia. Its management should ensure that the following factors are considered and adhered to:
Structure and Organization
The organizational structure for the hotel should be such that there is a board of directors at the top of the management with a chairman as its head and various departmental head-to-head sections such as the human resource managers, supervisors, customer care representatives, financial controllers, sales executives, apprentice, and secretaries. All these people should be made to obey some form of command style in which the communication starts with junior officials to the senior officers and finally to the board of directors.
Products, services, and facilities
The PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that the Mortloch Hotel engages itself in the provision of various services and products such as hotel rooms, various delicacies, entertainment, bars, refreshments and drinks, a modern GYM, conference facilities, and a boxing arena. The hotel should be made to comfortably accommodate more than 500 visitors at ago making it one of the largest hotels in the UK. (Laursen K and Foss, 2003)
Image and Atmosphere
The hotel should be able to create a positive image with many of its clients and the members of the public at large. In this case, the hotel should be able to successfully employ a diverse workforce who has mastered the art, culture, and food preparation for the existing population. This will make it possible the fact that more and more nationals will begin to acquire meals and other services at the hotel. (Allen, 1997).
Customer Base, Needs, Wants, and Expectations
Being a stylish hotel, Mortloch should be put in a position of attracting and maintaining a huge customer base ranging from 200 to more than 500 people per day depending on the time of the day. The main reasons for this will include; the blending of various cultural food and drinks with those in Europe, good advertising techniques, proper promotion, and excellent customer service, among other things.
Human Resource Management
There are some sets of human resource practices that are essential for any company, and that if they are not implemented well and in a proper manner, they will lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and general failure of the company. Recent research has suggested that HRM practices play important roles in the development of any organization. Therefore the Mortloch hotel should embrace this reality and come up with strategies for employee recruitment, planning, selection, evaluation, and dismissal by the management. This is because the Mortloch hotel management did not realize that there exists a distinctive link between the human resource management practices and systems that should be employed by the hotel and its overall productivity.
The PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that the Mortloch hotel has a good human resource department that gathers for the needs of its employees. It, however, needs to have some improvements to make in terms of formulating corporate strategies that incorporate systematic scrutiny and elucidation of the Hotel’s management avowal. The PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that the Mortloch hotel human resource department should also offer strategic plans to the rest of the administration when considering how the Hotel services should develop and in what ways the restaurant should propel for its success with regard to its future developments.
Despite all setbacks, PDR Hotels &Resorts should be able to foster an environment of growth and development in the next few years. The hotel also needs to be recognized with a superior corporate forecast whose object is to improve in general the assimilation of development schemes within the hotel, such as the improvement of human resource practices that should incorporate both tactical and strategic development agendas. (Allen, 1997).
Promotion and Marketing
Marketing can be illustrated as a set of processes that are undertaken by an organization in order to construct, adapt and sell its products and services that the restaurant or any other organization for that matter engage in. One of the main objectives of marketing is to create consciousness and association between the company and the customers in a manner that will benefit the organization. Selling and marketing can therefore be described as any activity of any company that entails bringing more clients to the hotel in this case.
Inventiveness in marketing is very important and indispensable today because it helps a company to come up with appropriate marketing techniques that are relevant to the market needs. In addition, it makes the company save on costs that could have otherwise been wasted. Every company requires an efficient marketing and promotional strategy in order to remain competitive. Therefore the PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that the Mortloch hotel utilizes telemarketing as a strategy to meet with its prospective customers. (Aviad, 2007)
The figure below describes the functions that the Mortloch hotel should employ in order to satisfy the needs of the government, environmental concerns, and customer needs, e.g., security.
The PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that the Mortloch hotel is able to engage itself in promotional activities such as the cultural festivals in the UK, and significant results should be achieved because consumers will definitely respond well in the process of making the company a cultural site for meetings, occasions and a center of attraction. the Mortloch hotel should also employ vigorous advertising campaigns through print media and billboards and which will attract a large number of customers to enjoy its products and use the services available there. (Davidoff, 1994).
Pricing
Pricing is one of the techniques of marketing which gives the organization the revenue it requires. When an organization overprices or underprices its products and services, there will automatically be a problem. There are various factors that are being undertaken in the hospitality industry before a pricing industry is adopted. With reference to Mortloch hotel, the factors that should be taken into considerations are; competition, market share, product identity, the income of prospective customers, season of the year, and government issues. The Mortlock should focus on producing quality products at a premium price which will help the restaurant meet its external costs.
Despite the fact that services and products from the company seem to be having an elevated price and cost, it can be attributed to the quality of the services being offered. This hotel should therefore adopt the following pricing methods; premium pricing, penetration pricing, and unit pricing to enable products and services to reach their marketing levels. (Aviad, 2007).
Hygiene and Sanitation Methods
Reviewing the current hygiene practices in this hotel shows that the practices are not excellent. First of all, the management in Mortloch hotel does not ensure that all the employees that handle food are in good health; since the employees of the hotel are unhygienic, this clearly indicates that the food being sold is always contaminated.
Therefore to regain its reputation, the PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that Proper sanitation measures are ensured during food handling. This includes maintaining a high standard of cleanliness by washing utensils and cooking facilities well. The Mortlock hotel should have employees in charge of this sector who will ensure that all utensils are well cleaned after use. It should also ensure that the hotel has the necessary machinery that helps in the cleaning process.
Food storage in Mortloch hotel has not been taken seriously. To solve this issue, the PDR Hotels &Resorts should ensure that there are various storage facilities therein, including freezers which should be used to store the food that can easily go bad. There should also be food storage cabinets that will help to store foods separately to avoid the issue of food poisoning. The management should also keep in mind that food stored in containers is well labeled. This helps to minimize the problem of cooks confusing one to another.
Front office house cleaning in Mortloch hotel should be done on a daily basis. This cleaning should be carried out by the auxiliary staff that will ensure that all the surfaces are clean. Dusting and wiping should be done with disinfectants. There should be vacuum cleaners which will aid in cleaning the restaurant. Various sanitation methods should be used, and this will ensure that sanitation is maintained in the hotel. (Powers, 1995).
Micro-Environment Analysis
PESTLE Analysis
This kind of analysis is very crucial for any business because it gives an overview of how the company will perform given specific conditions in the host country, such as the UK in the case of the PDR Hotels &Resorts. In an effort to expand its market share, the PDR Hotels &Resorts has been able to utilize this concept and come up with factors that may either hinder or improve Mortloch’s hotel market share in society. The first one is the political factors, and since this is a hotel in the UK, it works under the laws and regulations of the country and which may not favor the operations of the restaurant.
A lot of taxing, laws and other political systems have in one way or another interfered with the running, growth, and development of the company. In general, the business-political linkage for this hotel in the UK has been good, and there is minimum political prying that may hinder its growth in the future. (Hurst, 2007).
The other factor that affects the business environment is the economic factors that deal with the financial forces affecting the restaurant. There have been noticeable complaints regarding the adoption of a single currency such as the Euro, balance of payments, counter trades, fiscal policies, inflation, and monetary policies that may affect the growth of the hotel. Being a business that utilizes hospitality strategies to market its products, the social, cultural issue is very important here.
Forces within the society, including social structures, family, education, and religion, may impact negatively or positively on the company’s performance. Societal aspects that affect our feelings, opinion, attitude, and interests on the way people view the populations’ culture, food, clothing, religion, and integration in the UK plays a role in the development of the Hotel.
Another factor is technology, and technology has changed the way this hotel operates markets and even promotes its business. As it plans to advance and go global, this is the major factor that will help boost its growth. The UK, for example, has well-defined technological systems, including ICT, that help company doing business in the country to improve. The rule of law and legal factors summarizes this analysis and, therefore, the way Mortloch Hotel functions in terms of operating rules of law, for instance, how it copes with the legal rules in the UK, is more imperative since it shuns legal fights and conflicts. (Hurst, 2007).
Decision-Making Process
The most critical factor is that of the inability of senior managers to provide the necessary support for the accomplishment of organizations’ goals in Mortloch hotel that supports change management. It is evidenced that the behavior of many senior managers has contributed immensely to the poor success of the organization. This is explicitly witnessed in the decision-making process.
Senior managers have adopted the behavior of self-centeredness, and they always think that they are the only one who makes viable decisions in relation to goals being attained. This has resulted in lower-level managers and employees not performing quality work because they are always not motivated when carrying out their respective duties. No matter how well the organization’s values and culture are drafted, it requires the will of senior managers to maintain such values and cultures.
The senior managers can change the attitude of their employees if only they can by example, which will lead to good motivation and thus successful attainment of set objectives. Human resource is the most vital asset in any organization, including Mortloch hotel and its senior staff has to enhance management efforts in their staff development in order to boost their morale and thus increase productivity (Schon and Allan, 1995).
Capital Investment Appraisal (Return on Investment)
The hotel should also use the capital investment appraisal, which is commonly referred to as capital budgeting which is regarded as the planning procedure that is meant to establish whether an organization will benefit from its long-term investments, for instance, various developments such as new machines. The hotel may do this by applying the Return on Investment which is actually the measure of the benefits in the monetary value obtained by an organization within a specified time. These benefits are normally for specific investments in a business transaction.
In simple terms, ROI is the extent to which outputs exceed the inputs. In other words, the benefits accrued from the business surpass the costs. This process cannot be used single-handedly as a measure of the success of an organization. It can be used to evaluate the extent to which the desired return was achieved and also to justify a planned investment. There are also promotional costs that have to be considered in ROI. This is because many business organizations such as the PDR Hotels &Resorts make efforts in promoting their training programs. (Baumol, William, and Alan, 2006).
In this case of investing in the Mortlock Hotel, the management should ensure that the days of promotional activity have to be considered and also costs incurred in external agencies. This also includes other direct costs of promotion like the use of brochures and posters. Administration costs are also included in ROI. This includes the time taken by the administration in organizing the entire promotional activities of the hotel. This includes direct administration costs in relation to an employee, for that matter.
In calculating ROI, one has to include the cost of facilities. These could be external or internal. Facilities, in this case, include equipment used, open learning or self-study rooms, and training rooms. Student costs have to be included in the evaluation. This especially includes the productive work time that is used by employees. This is because organizations normally have to pay for employee’s payroll costs when employees undergo training during work time.
Evaluation costs are also part and parcel of this exercise. This includes the time that is spent in evaluating the promotion. This system should actually be implemented in order to compare the profitability of the hotel; this should be done with the object of comparing different projects in order to come up with the best project that proves to be profitable. (Worren and Moore, 1999).
Conclusion
PDR Hotels &Resorts in the UK is one of the operations of the hospitality industry that has adopted principles and values for its services and products from other sectors of the economy. It has been able to boost the various cultures, traditions, food, and religions in the UK, thus meeting the objectives and aims of any hospitality industry.
PDR Hotels &Resorts has also been able to utilize effective marketing, promotion, and pricing strategies that utilize conventional ideologies to meet the needs of its customers. Due to the cut-throat competition being observed in the hospitality industry and, more specifically, the restaurant business, PDR Hotels &Resorts has to come up with marketing strategies that can make Mortloch Hotel maintain its market share. As many observers put it, consumers in this industry have become more informed and require more information on buying and spending in these restaurants or the entertainment centers as such.
The HR department should formulate corporate strategies that incorporate thorough analysis and clarification of the corporation’s mission statement. The department should also offer guidelines to the rest of the management when considering how business should develop and in what direction it should be directed.
In this line, the HR department should clearly ensure that strategies developed in the organization should be the ones that direct efforts towards accomplishing the organizational basic mission or purpose (Jeffrey, 2000). In order to enhance the activities of the corporation, the HR department should redesign the following areas in order to remain competitive in the marketplace and to respond to any changes in the marketplace. (Powers, 1995).
Reference
Allen, Z. (1997): Marketing management for the hospitality industry: A strategic approach; Wiley; 2008. Web.
Aviad, A. (2007): Crisis Management practices in the restaurant industry; International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol 27; Web.
Davidoff, M. (1994): Customer service in the hospitality and tourism industry, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Powers, T. (1995): Introduction to management in the Hospitality Industry, New York Wiley.
Baumol, William J and Alan S (2006):-Macroeconomics. Principles and Policy- Tenth Edition Thomson South-Western Pg 56-78.
Bjbrkman, I. and Fey, C. (2001): The Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on MNC Subsidiary Performance in Russia- Journal of International Business Studies, Vol 32.
Brewster. C (1995): Towards a European Model of Human Resource Management Journal of International Business Vol 26.
Hoyer, S. (2001): HRM concepts, Practices and Strategies; 4th European Edition. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Hurst, R. (2007): Housekeeping Management for Hotels, Heinemann. Web.
Jackson, B. (1985): Build customer relationships that last; Harvard Business Review.
Jay, R. (2005) Brilliant interview: what employers want to hear and how to say it (2nd edition), Harlow, Prentice Hall.
Jeffrey, H. and Donald, K. (2000) – Human Resource Management in Small Business- Critical Issues for the 1990s- Journal of Small Business Management, Vol 28.
Kottler, P. (2002) Eight Steps to Successful Change. 2008. Web.
Laursen K and Foss N (2003): New human resource management practices, complementarities and the impact on innovation performance-Cambridge Journal of Economics.
Maund, L. (2001): An Introduction to Human to Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice: Macmillan, Palgrave.
Murray, D. and Schoonover, S. (1988): Changing Ways: A Practical Tool for Implementing Change within Organizations. New York, New York: AMACOM, A Division of American Management Association.
Palmer, I and Akin, G. 2006 – Managing organizational change; a multiple perspectives approach, McGraw- Hill Irwin.
Schon B and Allan B (1995): Links between Business Strategy and Human Resource. Management Strategy in U.S.-Based Japanese Subsidiaries; an Empirical Investigation-Journal Of International Business Studies, Vol 26.
Wagar T (1998): Determinants of Human Resource Management Practices in Small Firms: Some Evidence from Atlantic Canada-Journal of Small Business management Vol 36.
Worren N. and Moore, K. (1999): From Organizational Development to Change Management: The Emergence of a New Profession. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol.3.