Background and Context
According to research conducted by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) in collaboration with Oxford Economics, the Travel and tourism sector is closing in at its 2019 peak, recovering by more than 95% (WTTC 2023). In 2023, the sector is forecast to reach $9.5TN, just 5% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels, when travel was at its highest.
The global tourism body forecasts that the sector will grow its GDP contribution to $15.5TN by 2033, representing 11.6% of the global economy. It will employ 430MN people worldwide, with almost 12% of the working population employed in the sector. To capitalize on such growth, many of the well-established brands have experienced rapid growth, and we expect brands to become a more important factor in the choice of luxury travelers in an increasingly crowded market. In this light, apart from differentiation, consistency via standardized services remains a key challenge for luxury brands.
Raffles Hotel is a leading hotel Group operating in the luxury hotel industry. Raffles Hotel was founded in 1887 by the Sarkies Brothers, Armenian hoteliers. Raffles is a Singaporean chain of luxury hotels that commenced its global development in the late 1990s.
The unique selling point of this hotel group is the set of standards for the hyper-personalization of hospitality and luxury. It offers customized, personalized encounters and flawless, instinctive service. The chain of hotels has grown from a well-esteemed and respected hotel in the Asian region into a globally luxury hotel brand and now operates in many countries or is developing new investments in more than 17 nations (Caswell, 2020). The place is where a person arrives as a guest, leaves as a friend, and returns as a family.
Further, Raffles intends to expand into Asia and the rest of the world while offering standard and quality services that match the standards of their hotel in Singapore. Raffles has recently opened hotels in Qatar, China, Indonesia, Bahrain, and India. The group’s strategy is to open the hotels presently under development in London, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Macau, Egypt, the USA, and other countries while continuing to look more for selective avenues for expansion globally.
The hotel has a unique strategy for its expansion worldwide, and it is one of the most interesting cases in the luxury hotel industry. The hotel is leading in the upscale hotel sector and stands in a unique position (Sun 2011). However, the hotel experiences stiff competition from its competitors in the sector.
Raffles has a unique strategy for its expansion, combining multiple approaches, such as preserving the brand’s heritage and history, choosing unusual locations, and creating unique designs for each hotel. Thus, this strategy differs significantly from the standard tactics used in the hotel business. This helps the brand promote its marketing campaigns and capture the attention of customers. Combining an exclusive location with an original appearance allows you to better fit the hotel into the architectural style of different countries and adjust to the client base.
From the perspective of this expansion, the research aims to review Raffles Hotel Group’s organizational structure and recommend a suitable structure that could sustain its
unique features and selling point of Raffles. Further, to reviewing Raffles’ structure, the study has evolved into one that has reviewed the effectiveness of the entire Raffles organization, particularly the corporate office. The review will involve seven key factors of the company comprising structure, strategy, processes or systems, staff, skills, shared values, and style of management and directors.
Problem Statement
Based on the group’s current growth strategy and the number of hotel openings that have doubled its footprint in three years, it is critical to examine and understand the current hotel opening model of Raffles. The paper aims to determine whether Raffles’ current opening model is structured and effective and which areas possibly need enhancements. The Hotel Group understands that only an effective and structured opening model will ensure successful openings; this will satisfy the group, its consumers, employees,
shareholders, and investors. Hence, Raffles will need an effective and structured opening model to successfully meet its future openings without reinvading the process in every new location, guaranteeing openings are time and cost-effective (Hermes, 2023). Further, the group needs to remain cautious not to develop a cookie-cutter model in its opening to maintain each hotel’s individual and unique offerings.
Research Questions
Is Raffles’ Hotel Group opening model structured and effective? The research will examine and assess the effectiveness of Raffles’ current hotel opening model based on a review of its recently opened hotels in Dubai, Shenzhen, and Doha. Further, the evaluation and analysis will comprise the review of the group’s available opening guidelines, critical paths, and corporate support function’s effectiveness, recruitment process and talent pool, the assistance of associates hotels, training programs, and opening tactics of other hotel firms.
Relevance and Importance of the Research
The study will lead to an effective and structured hotel opening manual designed and executed at Raffles Hotel Group, which could help in the effective and structured opening model of new hotel properties. Raffles’ global expansion is still in its early stages based on actual hotel openings compared to its rivals in the industry. Examining the research data will reveal the diverse views between operational and corporate managers regarding the overall effectiveness of Raffles’ existing hotel opening model. Further, information from the technical services management perspective will be of significance in reviewing their current practices (Nyaga, 2021). The discussion also needs to emphasize the knowledge management framework for recording best practices from previous openings in detail.
Literature Review
Key Concepts, Theories, and Studies
There are few studies done concerning the opening model of hotels. Raffles Hotel Group is one of the interesting hotels in the luxury hotel industry. A study done by Sun to determine the internal and external business atmosphere of the Singapore Hotel sector revealed that Raffles is rather successful in developing and executing strategies (Sun, 2011).
The study recommended that Raffles’ management needs to focus on driving reform in any relevant trend and continuously enhance internal capacities to respond to the changes swiftly and effectively to guarantee the hotel’s success.
Further, Raffles’ historic hotel was reopened after a massive renovation, which made the hotel look a lot fresher and maintained its colonial architectural heritage. The renovation team managed to keep the architectural charm while offering modern travelers the comforts and tech they have come to expect in their luxury accommodations and stay (Cripps, 2019). The hotel’s modernity and facelifts stood out in this modern era in Singapore.
Nevertheless, innovations are acting as a mechanism to differentiate the group from its competitors in the hotel industry. For example, the openings in Boston, US, are its first luxury hotel brand in North America (Palma, 2019). Furthermore, Raffles Hotel Group may adhere to total quality management to enhance the engagement of frontline workers. Therefore, Raffles management works to guarantee that consumers perceive value from its facelifts, construction, and innovations.
Key Debates and Controversies
The relationship between the attitude of staff and organizational structure or culture is critical for Raffles Hotel to accomplish its mission. However, organizational structure and culture cannot be established by only depending on physical aspects, such as the uniforms staff wear or buildings (Caswell, 2020). Recently, the hotel encountered an issue with employee motivation. Therefore, effective motivational factors at Raffles Hotel Group comprise supervisor relations, pay and benefits, training and development, and the working environment (Rabea et al., 2022). There are many aspects that influence how well a worker performs at work, but supervisor relations are a decisive factor in employee performance (Wilton, 2022). In addition, performance is higher than when workers understand and know their responsibilities and tasks through training and development.
Further, pay and benefits entail a basic motivational factor that is basic for all workers as they think of what they will receive from the hotel as per their effort on the job. The work environment has a significant influence on the performance of employees; hence, managers should try to ensure that individuals are motivated to contribute to the needed inputs (Armstrong & Taylor, 2023). Hence, work motivation initiatives like training and development, supervisor relations, and work environments that support self-efficacy can enhance the staff’s attitudes toward their work.
Gaps in Existing Knowledge
In the hotel sector, most hotels have no dedicated structure for the opening model, but their hotel opening system is persistently enhancing its effectiveness and structure over time. There is a lack of research on effective tools and information to support growth and profitability in this industry. A majority of the tools and information essential for a well-organized and efficient opening framework are established in certain parts of the company, although no combined endeavors are considered to uniform the information into the general Group structured and effective opening model. The research should be inclusive based on its participant samples to enable one to understand the diverse range of encounters rather than creating presumptions about all the participants and issues raised.
Research Design and Methods
Research Design
The research design will use a quantitative method, and original data will be collected from primary sources. The study will follow a descriptive research design using data from the executives considering both corporate and operational.
Methods and Sources
The primary data will be collected through the survey using a questionnaire that pertains to Raffles Hotel Group’s existing hotel opening model. The questionnaires were distributed to the top corporate managers and top operational managers of the group of three hotels that had opened in the Asian region. The study designated two separate questionnaires, one for the top managers and the other one for senior operational managers. Questions were particularly designated associating with hotel openings from the corporate strategic view to the operational view.
The version of the corporate survey will be administered to senior corporate executives outside of Raffles Hotel Group, which will include presidents, vice presidents, and chief executive officers (CEOs) of its partners, such as Fairmont. The responses given should be reliable and valid as per the job perspective of the selected managers. The designated questionnaire will be the most suitable tool to attain this information that was not available in journals, articles, books, literature, or on the Internet (Nyaga, 2021). The information gathered will be examined comprehensively and summarized in a chart.
Practical Considerations
The potential obstacles to this research are data collection and analysis. Some of the ethical issues that will be encountered in this research are ethical approval and study design, data analysis, conflict of interest, authorship, plagiarism, and redundant publication. There is a need to adhere to the ethical standards. Nonetheless, to address these issues, a researcher should abide by the following ethical principles in carrying out the study: having informed consent, respect for confidentiality and anonymity, beneficence, and respect for one’s privacy (Smith, 2019). In addition, to have good research, one needs to be well-adjusted, appropriately designed, well-planned, and ethically approved.
Implications and Contributions to Knowledge
The proposals they provide regarding improvements to support the general opening process will serve as part of recommendations to the board of directors. There is a need to provide clear suggestions on how the group could enhance its opening model to be in line with its global expansion plans.
Practical Implications
The research findings will help improve the process and inform policy for concrete change in the organization while expanding into other locations globally. According to the findings that will be attained from the questionnaires, both operational managers and corporate managers analyze Raffles Hotel Group’s opening model’s general effectiveness and structure, although many areas need enhancements, based on interviews.
Theoretical Implications
The research study will help to strengthen Raffles Hotel Group’s opening model to ensure effectiveness and success in the market. The study will highlight also the system of knowledge management for the process of documenting best practices from earlier openings.
References
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Armstrong, M. T., & Taylor, S. (2023). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice: A guide to the theory and practice of people management. Kogan Page.
Caswell, M. (2020). Raffles to operate residences as part of London old war office development – Business traveller. Business Traveller. Web.
Cripps, K. (2019). Singapore’s historic Raffles hotel reopens following two-year makeover. CNN. Web.
Hermes. (2023). Gin from Raffles descendant. The Straits Times. Web.
Mufudza, T. (2019). Dynamic strategy in a turbulent business environment. Strategic Management – a Dynamic View, 1(3), 1-63. Web.
Nyaga, D. (2021). Critical research methodologies. 7-23. Web.
Palma, K. (2019). This 33-story luxury hotel will open in Boston’s back Bay in 2022. Boston. Web.
Rabea, A., Ezzat, H., Mayouf, M., & Moawad, E. (2022). The relationship between service automation, service quality and hotel brand image in Egypt’s hotel chains: Guests’ perspective. Journal of Tourism, Hotels and Heritage, 5(2), 54-76. Web.
Ratten, V. (2022). Quantitative business management research methodologies. Research Methodologies for Business Management, 1(6), 88-100. Web.
Smith, R. (2019). Ethical issues in the publication process. Fraud and Misconduct in Biomedical Research, 6(1), 14-28. Web.
Sun, L. (2011). The Core Competences and Strategic Management of Raffles — A Case Study of Singapore Hotel Industry. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 2(4), 270-272.
Wilton, N. (2022). An introduction to human resource management. SAGE.
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