Impact of External Factors on Britannia Hotels: A Hospitality Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Britannia Hotels within the context of the contemporary hospitality industry. It begins with an introduction to the hotel group and its position in the UK market, followed by a detailed PESTLE analysis to identify the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting its operations. A SWOT analysis assesses Britannia Hotels' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report examines the impact of external factors on the hotel's development, highlighting both positive and negative influences. It then delves into current and potential trends in the hospitality sector, such as contactless payments, robots in hotel operations, and virtual reality tours, evaluating Britannia Hotels' ability to develop products and services in response. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and referencing relevant sources, offering valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing Britannia Hotels and the wider hospitality industry.

Contemporary Hospitality
Industry

Table of Content
• Introduction
• PESTLE analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Impact of external factors on development of Britannia Hotels
• Current and Potential trends in Hospitality industry
• Evaluation of the ability for the development of products and services
• Impact of external factors on current and potential trends and development.
• Conclusion
• References

Introduction
Hospitality industry is majorly composed of five businesses such as
lodging (hotels, resorts, motels, hostels; and Bed and Breakfast);
tourism and transportation, MICE, and food and beverages. Britannia
Hotels is a private hotel group founded in the year 1976 with the initial
purchase of Britannia Country House Hotels in Manchester and now
have become one of the largest hotel chains in United Kingdom with
more than 60 hotels across UK, headquartered at Hale, Great
Manchester, United Kingdom. The objective of the report is to
highlight current and potential trends and developments affecting
hospitality industry in addition with internal and external factors.

PESTLE Analysis
Evidently, business firms operate in the external environment and are more vulnerable to the
changes takes place which impact their long term growth and profitability. With the help of
PESTLE analysis Britannia Hotels determines the several factors which can impede the success
and take necessary measures through anticipating challenges.
•Political factors: Britannia Hotels is more likely to affect with the restrict travel policies,
political strife, travel ban due to terrorist attacks and political turbulences. However, on the other
Britannia Hotels can be beneficial with the government’s liberal tourism laws and lower tax rates
which attract more tourists.

PESTLE Analysis Continue..
•Economic factors: Economic factors are concerned with recessions, high inflation rate, changes
in the foreign exchange rates and interest rates. If the currency of a one nation is stronger than
other than there will be influx of more tourists due to easy affordability. On the other hand, high
inflation rate makes everything expensive and limits the purchasing power of tourist.
•Social factors: Young generation is showing positive and strong trends towards travelling due to
easy availability of hotels, desire to share their experience on social media and curiosity to learn
different culture which have increased the tourist foot fall and sales of Britannia Hotels. On the
other hand, new innovations like Airbnb can impact on client’s preference as they are providing
personalized services and feeling of being at home.

PESTLE Analysis Continue..
•Technological factors: Hotels are becoming more tech-savvy than before as technological
advancement has forced the hotel industry to integrated technology into their business and stay
ahead of competition. Britannia Hotels use digital marketing in place of print or broadcast media
to stay connect with clients, use of centralized reservation system, use of online payment
gateways etc. However company must be wary of these tools as can build and destroy the brand
image through instant sharing and posting of reviews.
•Environmental factors: Pressure from government, conservationist and environmentalist have
made the Britannia Hotels to opt for a more sustainable business practice with the aim of
emitting low carbon and pollutant elements. On the other hand, climate conditions and season
difference also affects the ability of tourists to visit the place.

PESTLE Analysis Continue..
•Legal factors: UK government is offering liberal tax and laws for the hotels
to operate successfully and having discrimination laws in place attracts
tourists across the globe and boosting overall hospitality industry. Britannia
Hotels also comply with several laws such as health and safety laws,
employment laws, minimum wages laws etc to operate successfully and
keeping the interest of employees and customer on priority.

SWOT Analysis
By analyzing the internal factors Britannia Hotels indentifies the areas of strength and areas of
improvement and make decision accordingly to maintain competitive edge over others and enhance the
profitability. Expansion of business, ability to keep the pace with current trends, factors of
differentiation, all these can be decided only after the assessment of SWOT analysis.
Strengths
•Britannia Hotels is one of the oldest Hotel chain operating at Budget market, having total 61 properties
across UK.
•Britannia has been awarded as the “Most group friendly hotel chain” by group travel awards in 2011

SWOT Analysis Continue….
Weaknesses
•The Hotel group had been criticizing for poor hygiene and maintenance issues.
•Amidst COVID-19 the hotel group sacked and evicted approximately 30 working staff with no prior
notice.
Opportunities
•Integration of technology and use of centralized reservation system have made it possible to extend
business operations and customer segment.
•Liberal tax policies and discrimination laws have made the several tourists to visit the country and
therefore boost up the sales revenue.

Impact of external factors on the development of
Britannia Hotels
From the Pestle analysis it has been revealed that these factors have both and negative
impact over the development of Britannia business in the hospitality industry.
Positive impact
•Most of government revenue is generated by income from tourists and taxes paid by
business in hospitality industry. Government’s attractive and liberal regulations, low tax
regimes and lower interest rates boost the business of Britannia Hotels in UK and other
parts of world.

Impact of external factors on the development of
Britannia Hotels (Continue...)
•Technological advancements have enhanced the competitiveness of Britannia Hotels as they have
centralized reservation system, secure and safe payment gateways for online payment, database
management system and use of other technological methods such as CCTV,s mobile key’s, use of
online bookings, etc.
Negative Impact
• Changes in the customer preferences and choices towards more budgeted hotel and concerns with
regards to the health and safety have increased the concern in overall hospitality industry primarily
because of pandemic.
• Rigid and complex laws and regulations by the government related with the environment and labor
laws them have impacted the decision making of managers related with foreign expansion and
growth.

Current and Potential trends within Hospitality
Industry
•Contactless payments: Emergence of pandemic and digitalization have increased the use of
contactless payments through payment gateways such as Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Paytm and use
of wifi cards which doest requires safety code to enter.
•Robots in Hotel operations: Apart from technological innovation, artificial intelligence and
automation have takes place in hospitality industry. Robots are used in hotels for greeting guests,
housekeeping chores and room services, whereas in restaurants they are used to serve food and
take orders.
•Virtual Reality Tours: Virtual reality enables customer to experience the surroundings of hotels
and restaurants while staying at home to analyze how the services will be like before making
consumption. 360 degree tours enable customers to have access to the facilities and gain
competitive edge over others.