Why Boutique Hotels Attract More Guests Than Chain Hotels Research Paper

Introduction

All over the world, there is an insight that boutique hotel are attracting more guest from the chain hotels at very alarming rates and they have the potential to the provision of unequal services for their clients (kotler & Keller, 2008). The capability of taking care of the increasing guest transfer from the other well renowned hotels by the boutique types makes it an issue that is considerable to base a research on. Boutique hotels have over time in New York led to the reduction of the so used to be loyal clients of the chain hotels and hence the reduction in the profits that these units are likely to get is too brought down. Due to this and many other variables, this research has to be undertaken to ascertain the claims that boutique hotels are snatching chain hotels clients and the reasons that may be stimulating the success.

Background of the study

Since the emergence of boutique hotels in United States capital City New York, the chain hotels that used to enjoy a reasonable market share of the respective leisure clients have experienced reduction in the client’s base and this is believed to be due to their being: Boutique kind of hotels. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2009), a boutique hotel is defined as a small to medium-sized facility that is able to typically render to its clients a higher level of service than the majority of the chain hotel units and its presence is communicated to the potential clients through basic avenues of media.

They are moreover, marketed to the prosperous, and serve as a Boutique business hotel like any other. In addition to this, an organization is aimed at the provisions of enhanced service levels at a premium rate to particular clientele portfolio.

The aptitude of a boutique hotel to own a bigger share in the service industry is young and good nurturing would result to better performance and revenue increases. It has been found that the chain hotels that used to enjoy the visits of the affluent in the society have in recent time experienced the reduction on their visits a factor that is due to the exceptional service and product that Boutique hotel offer to clients. After a nonprofessional scrutiny, a conclusion has been arrived at that these wealthy clients are opting for the boutique hotels instead as they feel that the value for money they spend is achieved.

According to the researches that were conducted prior to this, boutique hotels have been the first option for the affluent as they plan for their holidays and getaways. Much of these shifts have downgraded other facilities and they are only reliant on the average customers who do occasionally take a trip for relaxation. This issue requires addressing if the chain hotels will at all be able to recover their customer’s base.

Problem statement

Boutique hotels are not out to downgrade the chain hotels. A thorough investigation of New York hotel and tourism business in recent years that was due to the fall in the chain hotel business as the Boutique commerce went up was realistic and a problem that needed an address. It is believed that the significance of the study would to investigate the secrets that the boutique hotels are using to facilitate the creation of a better market share through a snatch program of the former chain facility clients.

Management question: why do the affluent opt for Boutique hotels as opposed the former chain hotels?

Research questions

1. What account for the reduction in the chain hotel affluent customers?
2. What are the necessary actions that would ensure the chain hotels are able to retain their customers in this era of boutique hotels?
3. Is there any linkages flanked by the quality of service that the boutique hotels offer and the rise in customer preferences of their usage?

Hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between the rise in boutique hotel client’s base and the decline of the chain hotels affluent customers.

Objectives

The objectives of this research scheme are to:

1. Examine the factors that are conscientious for the decline in the chain hotels customer base.
2. Identify the particular actions that are needed to ensure that the chain hotels will not go on losing the customer to boutique hotels.
3. Establish the relationship between the service quality and the rise in the number of clients that are going to Boutique designed hotels.

Significance of the study

It will be a study to:

1. Come up with ways that the chain hotels will adopt to ensure that their customers do not run away from them.
2. Improve the service delivery specifications in the hotel industry.
3. Fulfill the Boutique hotels customer retention and owning strategy need.

Literature review

Boutique hotels have emerged recently or not so long in the United States of America capital city New York. The chain hotels on the other hand have been operational for long and they have an existing image in the global scale as compared to the regional New York Boutique hotels (Homes, Levinson & Gerber,2008). Boutique hotels are designed for specific market segment; the affluent in the society due to the levels of privacy and personal touch that is accorded to the customers at a premium charge. These hotels are medium sized and do not accommodate as much as the chain hotels but they do offer a lasting image more advantageous to their growth.

From, Abraham (2001), such an ability to create lasting memories to its clientele, gives a Boutique hotel an upper hand when the rich want to go on vacation in areas that are free from human congestion and disturbances as opposed to the wide and congested chain hotels. People go to places in their leisure time because they want to stay away from the normal ills that they are subjected to while at home. Boutique hotels have realized that this is the secret behind the astonishing clients booking and dissatisfaction in the noisy expounded chain hotels.

Chain hotels on the other hand, are reactant to change and still thrive on the market positioning and targeting that was used in many centuries back (Kennedy, 2006). Their products are no longer exciting and they are boring to customers due to lack of creativity and captivating designs. The kind of service that chain hotels do give to their clients does not change much, which is one of the reasons why the loyal clients have decided to move onto the Boutiques side.

Human satisfactions are dependent of many variables, which a compromise of one would create a discontent. Thus for a chain hotel to be able to retain the customers it has to revaluate itself and reinvent the product packages that it does offer to the customer for them to see the value for money and other realize significance of their revisiting the facility. I guess it is due to such factors that the business in chain hotels has gone down and led to the shifts in the customer who were even recruited into loyalty.

Boutique hotels have over time developed three strategies that they have decided to major on and facilitate the rise in their customer base. These are as follows:

1. Proficient practice scaffold that aims at ensuring that key service elements are followed to the latter for the creation of a memorable experience to the users of what they have in the market.
2. The development of human resources for the sole purpose of ensuring the service providers are able to able to excite the clients and influence the overall perceived service.
3. Eminence service pledge and improvement that is aimed at ensuring the customer get to integrate with the organizational employee who is in personal contact with.

Definition of a hotel

According to Nicholas, (1998), it is a facility, which is able to offer services to the clients for a price. It avails the food and beverages paramount to the enjoyment of the stay in a hotel and other subsidiary factors such as the relaxation of body and soul in the message Parlor. Being a service industry, little things such as a delay to deliver a meal to the guests table result to complaints and it is not positive for any the overall experience.

A Chain hotel on the other hand stands for the wider hotel group that has managed to get through the tourism sector and establish itself significantly (Kragen, 1994). It is a string of hotels that are under single ownership, as well as related to the same product line or sector. Such hotels units are developed and have been in the tourism industry for a significant time to an extent that they are internationally celebrated, and receive customers from all angles of the globe (Kennedy, 2000).

This definition does actually seek to highlight the depth and breadth of chain hotels relative to the Boutique kind and then compare them to examine the organization that should be affected by the existence of the other (Caples & Hahn, 1998). Therefore, the scope of chain hotels is not limited to destination but it covers operations in literally the major regions of the continent.

The ability of the Boutique hotels to attract more guests from the chain hotels revolves around the marketing efforts and the product that they do offer to the clients. In addition, their marketing efforts are as well linked to it due to the manner in which they deliver to the consumers what they are had packaged.

Marketing requires the promotion of a product to be made intensive for reaching out to the clients who are interested to have a trial of the product. Together with a realistic product mix, the Boutique hotels are able to reach out to the clients and persuade them to try what they are availing to the market (Sugerman, Hugher & Hafer, 1999). Promoting a product that does not meet the client’s needs is another variable that might make the chain hotels to lose out from the market and due to the intensiveness of the efforts to promote their product, the Boutique hotels end up being the beneficiaries.

Proper product mix seems to be the secret that Boutique hotels are adopting and it involves the product design and quality as well as the features and branding. The Boutique Hotels may be designing products that are posing as the organizational selling points at the expense of the chain hotels. Secondly, the product quality must be at par with the other elements of marketing mix to ensure that value for money is realized through the usage of the product (Sugerman, 1998).

To give an emphasis to this, a premium-based model of pricing is advisable. What the Boutique Hotels offer to the market is in line with moderate pricing of superior products; a factor that Boutique hotel do adopt to give them a better market position. Product features might also be attractive to the clients as opposed to the dull ones that are availed or supplied by the chain hotels. Determination of the features that are going to add value of the product and merits to the target market facilitates the ability to capture the market.

The marketing theoretical concerns of promotions and product that an organization offer to its market might be the advantageous reason that is giving Boutique hotels more clients from the chain hotels

Methodology

This is the fragment that does illustrate the system that was used during the investigation process (Polynor, 2002). It covers the research design and population as well as the sample used and case techniques, data album, and analysis.

Research design

The study will rivet the evaluation of the likeliness of chain hotels missing their customer base because of the existence of Boutiques hotels. Accordingly, the research shall be premeditated to realize the objectives that the researcher already outlined.

Population

New York City is the biggest town with the largest number of Boutique hotels and chain hotels in the United States of America. The population that is aimed at in this study includes the following:

1. The clients who are using the services of the Boutique hotels more often
2. The marketing directors of both the chain hotels and Boutique kind
3. The National Tourism Board heads that are responsible for regulations of the tourism sector
4. Service provision members of staff that are working in both the chain and Boutique hotels

Sampling and case technique

It is not realistic to have a census in this study. The researcher shall on the other hand adopt the survey-oriented approach to this study and a sample of the population targeted shall be chosen for the study (Lupton, 1998). In total, a sample of 14 elements will be chosen from the total target population of 42.The minutiae of this sample shall be as it is hereby shown.

1. 4 marketing heads and 2 director of the organizations
2. 3 clients and 3 service provision employees
3. 2 National Tourism board heads

This study shall espouse a multi-stratified scheme of sampling the elements involved. There shall be a flaxen representation of the two organizations because the operations of each are different in a significant way.

Data collection

This study is focused on the business variations between the chain hotels, Boutique oriented hotels, and the connotation of crucial data cannot be over-emphasized. On top of that, the secondary data sources will also be used to support the study. Prior to the data collection process, the researcher shall seek approval from the hotel directors and the consent of the National Tourism board. More so, the researcher shall have to do an initial preliminary procedure where he or she will formalize with organizations of interest.

Data collection tools

Questionnaires shall be administered for the data collection process. It will apply the structured questions format that shall be inclusive of twenty questions subdivided into a three-section outline: A, B and C (Polynor, 2002).

Part A shall involve the at least 7 questions aimed at getting the answer to the first research goal and the six questions section B will be directed at the second objective of the research. Part C shall have question that are able to test the supposition beyond answering the research third aim.

The questionnaire shall look as follows:

Conclusion

After a careful investigation, it will be proven either to be true or false that the Boutique hotels are being preferred by the affluent as opposed to chain hotels.

References

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Holmes, C., Levinson, J & Gerber, M. (2008). The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies. Toronto: Portfolio Trade.

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Kennedy, D. (2006). The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Find Your Hook. Communicate Your Message. Make Your Mark. Sydney. Adams Media.

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Nicholas, T. (1998). Magic Words That Bring You Riches. New Delhi: Access Publishers Network.

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Sugerman, J. (1998). Marketing Secrets of a Mail Order Maverick: Stories & Lessons on the Power of Direct Marketing to Start a Successful Business, Create a Brand.NY. Delstar.

Sugerman, J., Hugher, R. & Hafer, D. (1999). Triggers: 30 Sales Tools you can use to Control the Mind of your Prospect to Motivate, Influence and Persuade.NY: Delstar Pub.

Sugerman, J. (1998). Advertising Secrets of the Written Word: The Ultimate Resource on How to Write Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs.NY: Delstar Pub.