Impact of Uber Eats on Room Service Revenue: Diverse Strategic Options for Arena Utopia Hotel

The paper discusses the concern encountered by the Arena Utopia Hotel and associated private equity firm, who are apprehensive of the impact of online food ordering and delivering platform Uber Eats. The paper develops three diverse strategic options to the CEO of the private equity firm that are required to counter the potential impact of Uber Eats on the room service revenue of the Arena Utopia Hotel. The paper also identifies and highlights recommendations for both the CEO of the private equity firm and the team management of the hotel that would be beneficial for them in the future.

Running head: HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT
Hospitality and Tourism Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary
The paper discusses the concern encountered by the Arena Utopia Hotel and associated private
equity firm, who are apprehensive of the impact of online food ordering and delivering platform
Uber Eats. The paper develops three diverse strategic options to the CEO of the private equity
firm that are required to counter the potential impact of Uber Eats on the room service revenue of
the Arena Utopia Hotel . The paper also identifies and highlights recommendations for both the
CEO of the private equity firm and the team management of the hotel that would be beneficial
for them in the future.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussions......................................................................................................................................4
Diverse Strategic Options............................................................................................................4
Beneficial Strategy Options.........................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivering platform based in America. (Uber
Eats., 2018). The Uber Eats was launched by Uber in the year 2014. It is headquartered in San
Francisco , California ,United States . The Uber Eats users can order food from the restaurants
participating from the website or smart phone application of Uber Eats. The Uber Eats expanded
its operations and it is now located in 250 cities in more than 300 locations. The concept of home
food delivery through the online food delivery platforms like Uber Eats has changed over the
years . Nowadays people staying in a hotels prefers to order foods from online food delivering
platforms from their desired restaurants at the doors of the hotel. People can browse through the
menu of dishes , they can even get to know about the delivery time of the food and order their
food accordingly navigating through the list of dishes in the Uber Eats application from their
smart phones itself . One can even track the order of the food which are provided through the
hands of the delivery service person .Thus online food ordering and delivery platforms like Uber
Eats can be deemed as the new room service for most of the people. Many people have several
complains with the room service that they are expensive and many times they are not happy with
the food offered to them as they had expected something better or other options . There are also
some sections of people who do not want to dine in the hotel and are reluctant to accept the food
which are traditionally offered by the hotels. All these sections of people are turning to food
delivery apps like UberEats , which provides level of comfort ,convenience and familiarity .Uber
Eats have expanded their business operation in almost around 250 cities in all parts of the world
and in more than 300 locations . Thus, it is very evident that the Uber Eats had a negative impact
on the hotel room service sector in all parts of the world as more and people are opting to order

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services from Uber Eats and it has led to drop in room service from the respective hotels. The
paper discusses the three major diverse strategy options that are required to be followed
considering the current problems and issues. The paper also recommends strategy options that
would be beneficial to the Utopia hotel in the future to combat the problems that has arise due to
Uber Eats.
Discussions
Diverse Strategic Options
Several diverse strategic options needs to be followed in order to counter the disruptions
offered by the hotel room service sector by the private equity firm CEO and considering that the
revenues in the room service has declined over the years (Rothaermel, 2015) . The three diverse
strategy options are as follows:
 Provide a faster room service to the guest using latest technologies - To counter the
online food ordering and delivering apps like Uber Eats , the Private equity firm CEO
should ensure that the food service that are to be provided to the guests should be
delivered faster and the latest innovations of the technology should be utilized to the
maximum extent . They can make use of the Bluetooth temperature sensors in order to
ensure that the food and the equipments are up to the mark (Piramuthu & Zhou, 2016).
They can make use of the handheld probes and fixed sensors, restaurants can manually or
automatically measures the temperatures of the important assets in few seconds. Each of
the food items and the equipments can be programmed with customized limits and they
should be aware that the temperature does not go beyond acceptable threshold.

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 Hire a quality Chef and a Quality assurance manager – In order to counter the food
ordering and food delivery apps like the Uber Eats it is necessary to provide the guests
with superior quality products so that they do not have any complains . For that they need
to hire a well trained and experienced chefs so that they can ensure that the food provided
to them are up to the mark and they do not feel the need to order their foods from any
food delivering and food ordering apps like the Uber Eats . They should also hire the
Quality assurance manager who would ensure the quality of the food (Gould, 2013).
 Obtain Feedback from the Guests – The feedback should be obtained from the customers
of the guest regarding the offered room service provided to them (Pizam, Shapoval &
Ellis, 2016). It would help to know whether they are happy with the room service of the
hotel or not and if they are not opting for the room service, it should also be noted why
they are not preferring to take the room service offered to them (Li, Ye & Law, 2013). It
would help the hotel and the Private equity firm to analyze what are the needs of the
customers band guests and what are reasons for their reluctance to take the offered room
service. According to the feedback of the customers or the guests the strategies taken for
the room service needs to be amended or modified. A survey can also be conducted using
a questionnaire so that it can identify the needs and issues the customers are facing
regarding the room service provided by the hotel (Kim, Vogt & Knutson, 2015).
These recommendations are very crucial and are needed to be followed in order to counter
the impact that Uber Eats are having presently on the revenues of the hotel and if these
recommendations are not followed it would surely siphon off a large amount of revenue from the
room service of the Arena Utopia Hotel (Utopia Hotel – Vivre avec art. , 2018).

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Beneficial Strategy Options
There is one strategy option that is only beneficial to both the hotel management team
and the equity firm CEO. Out of the recommended diverse strategies the most beneficial strategy
options that must be followed is –
 Introduce In-room Dining technology - With the hope to restore the guest
loyalty back with the room service of the hotel and counter the online food order
and delivery apps like Uber Eats, it is essential to look for innovative ways to
stand out of the competitors (Liedtka, 2014). It would also help to gain an edge
over the online ordering and delivering apps like Uber Eats, who are siphoning off
large amount of revenues from the room service sector of the hotel, Arena Utopia.
The hotel should make use of the in-room dining services, in this service the
guests would be able to make food and beverages orders with great efficacy by
using the in-room tablet (Bilgihan et al., 2016) . This approach to in-room dining
offer take-out from either their own hotel or from external options which are
nearby. This would enable the guests with more options and provide them with
better guest experience. The Utopia hotel can also come up with their own pre-
installed hotel guest app on in-room tablets and equip all the rooms with Wi-Fi ,
that would enable them to use the internet without making use of their own
internet resources (Mishra, Mhetre, & Mahendran, 2016). By updating the hotel’s
in-room dining services with technology, the hotel would be able to provide the
guest with better quality service which would be essential to further increase their
experience and earn more revenues. Thus, it can be said that with use of right
technology and resources hotels can maintain and improve the traditional amenity

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and infrastructure of in –room dining. The food ordering and delivering platform
are disrupting the hotel room service and it is siphoning a fair share of room
service revenues and if proper recommendations are not implemented it would
surely negatively affect the hotel room service sector (Falcone, Viola, &
Reinhold, 2014).
Conclusion
The Arena Utopia Hotel and the associated private equity firm , which owns the
land ,bricks and mortar (real estate) of the Arena Utopia hotel was apprehensive about the impact
that the online food ordering and delivering platform like Uber Eats may have on the room
service sector of the hotel industry . The paper assesses the situation and it provides three diverse
strategy options from the point of view of a Hospitality Business Consultant. The developed
three diverse strategy options provided to the CEO of the private equity firm should be
implemented and followed considering the fact that people are preferring to opt for online
platforms like Uber Eats . If it is not controlled and countered , it is expected that the these online
platforms like Uber Eats would siphon out fair share of room service revenues from the hotel .
The proper strategy option has also been recommended in the paper to both the equity firm CEO
and the hotel management team, which emphasizes the use of the latest technology in the room
service of the hotel in order to gain an advantage over the competitors like the Uber Eats.

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References
Bilgihan, A., Smith, S., Ricci, P., & Bujisic, M. (2016). Hotel guest preferences of in-room
technology amenities. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 7(2), 118-134.
Falcone, R., Viola, J. J., & Reinhold, D. J. (2014). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/020,874.
Gould, W. A. (2013). Total quality assurance for the food industries. Elsevier.
Kim, M., Vogt, C. A., & Knutson, B. J. (2015). Relationships among customer satisfaction,
delight, and loyalty in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism
Research, 39(2), 170-197.
Li, H., Ye, Q., & Law, R. (2013). Determinants of customer satisfaction in the hotel industry: An
application of online review analysis. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(7),
784-802.
Liedtka, J. (2014). Innovative ways companies are using design thinking. Strategy &
Leadership, 42(2), 40-45.
Mishra, M., Mhetre, S., & Mahendran, A. (2016). WInfo: Cloud-Assisted Automation System
Using WiFi. International Journal of Engineering Science, 2668.
Piramuthu, S., & Zhou, W. (2016). RFID and sensor network automation in the food industry:
ensuring quality and safety through supply chain visibility. John Wiley & Sons.
Pizam, A., Shapoval, V., & Ellis, T. (2016). Customer satisfaction and its measurement in
hospitality enterprises: a revisit and update. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 28(1), 2-35.

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Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.
Utopia Hotel – Vivre avec art. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.utopia-hotel.com/en/
Your Favourite Restaurants, Delivered Fast | Download Uber Eats | Uber Eats. (2018). Retrieved
from https://www.ubereats.com/en-IN/