Comprehensive Analysis of the Crowne Plaza Hotel Chain Industry

This report provides a detailed analysis of the Crowne Plaza hotel chain, examining the hospitality industry through PESTLE and SWOT analyses. The report explores various external factors influencing the industry, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects. It also evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) specific to Crowne Plaza. Furthermore, the report identifies current and potential trends within the hospitality sector, such as automated services, customer relationship management, and digitization, as well as emerging trends like Millennial preferences and green living. The analysis concludes by assessing Crowne Plaza's ability to adapt and develop products and services to meet these evolving trends, highlighting its efforts in online booking, customer service software, and eco-friendly initiatives. References to relevant academic sources and online resources are also included.

Hotel Chain Industry
Analysis

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................1
P6 PESTLE Analysis of hospitality industry as a whole............................................................1
P7 SWOT analysis of Crowne plaza...........................................................................................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
P8 Trend analysis of hospitality industry....................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Crowne Plaza is a hotel chain industry of UK. It operates its business in 52 countries and
have 400 hotels. It was established in 1983 in Rockville. The report shows PESTLE of this
industry along with SWOT analysis of the industry. The present report includes a trend analysis
for identification of current and potential trends and evaluation of ability to develop product and
services in the industry.
TASK 3
P6 PESTLE Analysis of hospitality industry as a whole
Hospitality industry includes hotels, restaurants, pubs and leisure companies
(Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, 2015). There are many external environment factors which
effects the business of hospitality industry. Being external factors, industry do not have control
over these factors.
Influence of these factors can be analyzed by conducting the PESTLE analysis of the
industry as under:
 Political factors: Political factor's stability is a key requirement of success of any
industry. This factor includes rules and regulation of government, legal issues of
government, etc. For analysing political factors, following points need to be understand
carefully by hospitality industry:
▪ Country's law relating to tourism affects the business of industry, as hospitality
industry's business majorly depends upon tourism.
▪ Minimum wages act of country, as industry needs to provide salary to its
employees accordingly, in case, company don't provide salary accordingly, it may
affect the reputation of business.
▪ Another major political factor is political troubles in country, which effects
political stability ion country. It may result in frequently change in company's
policies. In this regard company's efficiency may be effected.
 Economic factor: economic factors include inflation rate, interest rate, foreign exchange
rate, etc. of country. This factors have influence overall sales of any industry. Following
factors need to be taken into account for analysing economic factors' influence:
▪ Inflation rate of country, as it effects spending power of customers.
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▪ Education level of population, because it effects interest of consumers
(Hospitality Industry Pestel Analysis, 2018).
▪ Saving rate of population, as amount to be spend by population on leisure depends
upon their amount of saving. It influences business of leisure organisations.
 Social factors: It includes society's cultural trends in county. It decides customer's
lifestyle, which can be consider as the main factor having influence over business of any
industry in the country. Social factors can be analysed as:
▪ Trends in society effects customer's demand from the industry. It effects the
business structure of industry.
▪ Attitude of customer's towards the industry also influences sales of the industry.
▪ Customer's buying interest depends upon Demographics of population of country.
It effects business environment of industry and types of services to be rendered to
customers also depends upon it.
 Technological factors: Today, technology has become a major factor to be consider by
every industry for its sustainable growth. Technological factor's influence can be
analysed as:
▪ Recent technological development in country. If company do not compete with
the latest technological changes, it may lose its market share.
▪ Hospitality Industry has to analyse impact of technological changes over services
provided by it as it affects the attitude of customers towards industry.
▪ Lodging organisations need to analyse impact of technological changes over its
cost structure.
 Environmental factors: environment factors are weather, pollution, climate change. All
these factors influences number of customers of hospitality industry. For the purpose of
these factors, following need to be analysed:Weather of country effects the number of
tourists arrival in country, which directly influences the business of hospitality industry.
(Domingues and Nunes, 2018).
▪ If industry provides eco-friendly products and services, it also helps in enhancing
sales of industry.
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 Legal factors: It includes legal framework of the country. This factor need to be
analysed carefully, as ignorance of these may result in imposition of penalties over
business. Following legal framework need to be analysed by hospitality industry:
▪ Anti-trust law of county.
▪ Tourism law of country.
▪ Employment law.
▪ Health and safety law, etc.
If company do not take into account these laws, it may result in increasing legal proceedings on
company which will affect the company's image in the market.
P7 SWOT analysis of Crowne plaza
By SWOT analysis, company can identify its own strengths, weaknesses, threats and
opportunities for the purpose of developing plans and strategies accordingly.
Strengths: Crowne plaza have following strengths:
 Strong management of supply chain
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Illustration 1: PESTLE Analysis
source : (Advantages and Disadvantages of PESTLE, 2018)

 Large number of loyal customers.
 Strong brand image.
 Global business.
Weaknesses: Weaknesses are those areas at which company is not working efficiently. Along
with strengths, Crowne plaza also has some weaknesses like:
 No technological innovation (Qiu, 2015)
 Poor communication system
 Ineffective remuneration system
Opportunities: there are number of opportunities that can be captured by company in order to
gain maximum profitability and market share:
 Innovation in strategies and plans
 Technological improvement.
 New market entry.
Threats: Being a part of competitive market, Crown plaza have to face following threats:
 High level of competition in market.
 Threats from substitutes
With the help of SWOT analysis, Crowne plaza can enhance the profitability of its
business and attracts maximum amount of customers towards company as well. SWOT analysis
makes company aware about its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities present for the
company in market and develop strategies and plans accordingly,
From the above SWOT analysis, it can be analysed that company has strong supply chain
management and also have large number of loyal customers. In this regard, Crowne plaza should
innovate its strategies for its loyal customers and should provide them more facilities to maintain
strong relationship with them and maintain them with business for long time. To reduce
weaknesses like outdated technology, company should frequently make research on
technological changes in market and should develop innovation in services and products
accordingly it can help company in attracting more customers towards services of company.
Crowne plaza should make strategies and plan to capture maximum opportunities of
business. Company has a major opportunity to enter into new market. It can enhance market
share of the company. Company can also make strategies to compete with technological changes
in order to attract customers and also making company more efficient in working by using the
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latest technology. Company should develop strategies to improve customer services, and to
develop some unique products and services to remain customers with company and reduce threat
of substitutes and competitors as well.
In this way Crowne plaza can improve its business with help of SWOT analysis.
TASK 4
P8 Trend analysis of hospitality industry
Hospitality industry includes travel and tourism, hotels, restaurants, leisure companies,
etc. Trends in hospitality industries keep changing. Current and potential trends can analyzed as
under:
Current trends of hospitality industry
Following are the current trends in various hospitality industry:
 Automated services:
It is the current trend in hotel industries to develop self services in the hotel. Providing online
booking facilities attracts the customers, as nowadays, no one wants to wait in queues, rather
they want to book hotels with their mobile. Providing these facilities can enhance their number
of customers (Ryan, 2015).
 Customer relationship management with software:
Today, having a separate customer relationship management is the current latest trend in the
hospitality industry. For example, hotel industry can manage customer relationship by keeping in
touch with them through mails, calls, etc. also by providing them online table management and
best online booking facility by providing them various options on app regarding venue, types of
rooms, amenities, etc.
 Digitization
Currently, trend of mobile applications is developing rapidly. Development of apps can help the
company in providing the best online facilities to its customers (Schuckert, Liu and Law, 2015).
For example, organisation of tours and travel industry can develop its own app which can
facilitate its customers to book traveling vehicles seats as per their requirements. Application of
this trend attracts many customers towards thew company.'
 Mode inclinations towards Self service
It has been researched that, customer attracts more towards those industries which provides them
services as per their choice (Top 10 Trends Impacting the Hospitality Industry, 2018). For
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example, currently, restaurants provides number of foods options to the customers and gives
them an option to combine foods as per their choice and get the best taste from the food available
as per their requirement.
Potential trends of hospitality industry
 Millennial
As per study, customers wants to spend less and gain more experience. For this purpose, tour and
travel industries can develop Millennial for becoming more cost effective for customers. It can
be a potential trend for industry.
 Green living
Nowadays population has become more health conscious. In this regard, hotels can install
updated solar system, automatic lights, etc. as potential trend. It will make industry cost
effective.
Ability of Crown plaza to develop products and services to meet current trends
Crown plaza has provided online booking facility to customers containing images of its
room to choose rooms as per their requirement. It has developed a software to provide table
customer service to them on their mobile. It has helped the hotel in enhancing its ability to meet
customers requirements and attract customers towards the hotel.
As per the analysis of current trends, Crowne plaza has installed the latest air conditioner
which automatically turn off when customers leave room, it helps company in making itself cost
effective. It has provided free WiFi to its customers in their rooms and traveling vehicles as well
in order to attract more customers toward company's services. In this way Crowne plaza has
developed its ability to develop innovated products and services to meet current trends.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that, both external and internal factors have
major influence over business of hospitality industry. Crowne plaza has analyzed its internal
factors and has developed its strategies accordingly. Current and potential market trends also has
influence over hospitality industry's business. Crowne plaza has analyzed all current trends and
has developed strategies accordingly in order to enhance its profitability and sustainability.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Domingues, J. and Nunes, M.M.M., 2018. A first effort to understand the impact of Web Summit
in Lisbon 2016-2017 on the hospitality industry and Dand development of
startups(Doctoral dissertation).
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. and Bilgihan, A., 2015. Customer loyalty: a review and future
directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(3). pp.379-414.
Qiu, H. and et.al., 2015. Exploring antecedents of employee turnover Intention–evidence of
China’s hotel industry. Journal of China Tourism Research. 11(1). pp.53-66.
Ryan, C., 2015. Trends in hospitality management research: a personal reflection. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(3). pp.340-361.
Schuckert, M., Liu, X. and Law, R., 2015. Hospitality and tourism online reviews: Recent trends
and future directions. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 32(5). pp.608-621.
Online
Advantages and Disadvantages of PESTLE. 2018. [ONLINE] Available through
<https://www.google.com/search?
biw=1445&bih=753&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=rK45XKnGJZKm9QOltI6wCw&q=pestle&o
q=pestle&gs_l=img.3...16821.17984..18843...0.0..0.0.0.......0....1..gws-wiz-
img.BQuS9vU_FJw#imgrc=OECb4zqKnB8ENM:>
Hospitality Industry Pestel Analysis. 2018. [ONLINE] Available through
<https://www.cheshnotes.com/2017/03/hospitality-industry-pestel-analysis/>
Top 10 Trends Impacting the Hospitality Industry. 2018. [ONLINE] Available through
<https://www.smartmeetings.com/news/trends/74256/top-10-trends-impacting-
hospitality-industry>
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