Foundation Year Project: Analyzing COVID-19's Impact on Hyatt Hotels

This Foundation Year Project examines the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Hyatt Hotels. The research begins with an introduction to the background of the pandemic's effects on the hospitality industry, specifically focusing on Hyatt Hotels. The project aims to identify the specific challenges faced by Hyatt, investigate the operational impacts, and analyze the strategies adopted to overcome the crisis. A comprehensive literature review explores existing research on the challenges, operational impacts, and strategic responses within the tourism and hospitality sector, with a focus on Hyatt's context. The methodology section details the research approach, strategy, and data collection methods, emphasizing the use of secondary data for analysis. Findings from secondary data sources, including industry reports and academic journals, are presented to illustrate the challenges like reduced occupancy, financial losses, and operational adjustments. The project concludes by summarizing the key findings, emphasizing the pandemic's negative implications and the need for innovative strategies. The report highlights how Hyatt has adapted through technological advancements and customer-focused approaches to maintain its business operations during the crisis and suggests how the tourism industry can deal with future uncertainties.

Foundation year project

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................3
Background.................................................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................3
Research problem........................................................................................................................3
Research questions......................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................5
What are the challenges faced by Hyatt hotels due to outbreak of COVID-19?........................5
What is the impact of COVID-19 over operations of Hyatt hotels?...........................................5
What are the strategies adopted by Hyatt Hotels to overcome the outbreak of COVID-19?.....5
CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 4- RESEARCH USING SECONDARY DATA..........................................................8
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background
The pandemic COVID-19 has created higher implications for different industries in
which industries were thriving for their survival. The major impact was seen on hospitality
industry as due to different restrictions the customers was not able to enjoy such services
provided by hospitality and tourism industry (Škare, Soriano. and Porada-Rochoń 2021). The
current research is related with examining the impact of COVID-19 on operations of tourism
industry and different strategies used by the industry in order to overcome from the outbreak.
The organisation taken for the report is Hyatt which is an American multinational hospitality
organisation headquartered in Chicago.
Aim
To identify the impact of COVID-19 over operations of tourism industry and strategies
adopted by them to overcome this outbreak. A study on Hyatt hotels.
Objectives
 To determine the challenges faced by Hyatt hotels due to outbreak of COVID-19
 To investigate the impact of COVID-19 over operations of Hyatt hotels
 To examine the strategies adopted by Hyatt Hotels to overcome the outbreak of COVID-
19
Research problem
The major issue within hospitality industry is related with business operations as due to
implication of COVID-19 the industry was not able to manage their operations. There were
several restrictions which were imposed by the government and these directly impacted
profitability and businesses of hospitality industry (Riadil, 2020). During the time of COVID
several businesses were shut down and this is the reason that the industry needed different
strategies to overcome from these issues.
Research questions
 What are the challenges faced by Hyatt hotels due to outbreak of COVID-19?
 What is the impact of COVID-19 over operations of Hyatt hotels?

 What are the strategies adopted by Hyatt Hotels to overcome the outbreak of COVID-
19?

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
What are the challenges faced by Hyatt hotels due to outbreak of COVID-19?
According to Kaushal and Srivastava, (2021), due to the implication of COVID-19 the
industry of tourism and hospitality have faced severe issues as these industries are directly linked
with the audience. Due to worldwide lock-down and government restrictions sales of the
businesses was decreased with massive ration and at the same time some businesses was not able
to bear the slump in sales so they had to shut down their businesses. On the other hand, the
tourism industry have faced uncertainties within business environment as the business focus have
changed from customer service to managing hygiene functions.
What is the impact of COVID-19 over operations of Hyatt hotels?
According to Agrawal (2021), the issues raised due to Covid-19 have created differential
impacts over the business functions of tourism industry and businesses. The industry have faced
issue of massive booking cancellations but at the same time the company were needed to pay
salaries to their employee without earning a single penny which is the major negative impacts
over the businesses. The price elasticity is also the another impact seen by tourism industry due
to the implication of COVID-19 as the organisation have faced lack of demand and occupancy
but in order to meet their expenses they had to keep their prices high and this have created
additional burden on individual pocket.
What are the strategies adopted by Hyatt Hotels to overcome the outbreak of COVID-19?
According to Madani and et. al., (2020), there are different strategies adopted by tourism
industry so that to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and to overcome from the issues of the
pandemic. The industry have adopted practices of sustainability so that to protect environment
for longer duration of time. The organisations are creating value chain for their businesses so that
redundant processes can be eliminated. Besides this measures are taken by the organisation in
respect of developing customer interactions so that appropriate feedback can be taken and using
information from the feedbacks business functions can be enhanced.

CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY
Research Philosophy: It is one of the research methods which has two main forms that
are: positivism and interpretivism philosophy (Babii, 2020). Researcher will be using
interpretivism philosophy so that recorded non-numerical content can be easily analysed.
Research Approach: This is the other method which provides two kinds of approaches
for analysing data (Skains, 2018). Inductive and deductive are two forms. Investigator will use
inductive approach as it accommodates in establishing and forming new theory to analyse
relevant theoretical information.
Research Strategy: It is of several forms which are grounded theory, action research,
case study, survey etc. Researcher will be selecting case study as the strategy because it
facilitates in the process of collecting authentic information directly from the websites or other
platforms of the selected organisation (Batallán, 2019).
Research Choice: Researcher will take help of qualitative choice so that theoretical and
text type of data could be collected, used, evaluated and interpreted (Knottnerus and Tugwell,
2018). This also assists in finding apt research gap in a systematic manner.
Data Collection: This has two forms: primary and secondary data collection method.
Investigator will show dependence over secondary data collection method. The main advantage
of using this method is to assemble published theoretical data about the proposed research
subject (Wang and et. al., 2019). The secondary sources are: journals, books, newspapers,
articles, publications and many more.
Data Analysis: Researcher will be considering thematic analysis technique so that
relevancy, accuracy and authenticity of theoretical information can be easily carried out. This
assists in making study accurate and relevant (Fryer, Larson-Hall and Stewart, 2018).
Time framework: Researcher will be taking assistance of Gantt chart. Gantt chart will
assist investigator to schedule each activity of the study with proper time interval (Motjolopane,
2021). This assists in achieving objectives and aim of the investigation in a systematic and
precise manner. This categorises activities into small tasks so that every effort can be put into
right direction.

CHAPTER 4- RESEARCH USING SECONDARY DATA
Presenting findings
As per the data assembled in the section of literature review, it is understood that
COVID-19 has hit the tourism and hospitality industry most. Managers and leaders of hotels
have faced uncertainty in COVID-19 environment with the motive of survival. The outbreak of
global pandemic COVID-19 created multiple challenges for hotel due to lock-down restrictions
imposed by the Government.
Illustration 1: Furlough of employees in UK
With the implication of COVID-19 restrictions, business and personal travel of people has
reduced because people were forced to stay at their home so that spread of disease could be
easily controlled. It has created pressure on hotel to refund amount that tourists, guests and
travellers have paid for their advance bookings. This activity has decreased the financial
performance of the hotel and made survival of hotel difficult. Hotel has also faced lower
occupancy due to restrictions imposed by the Government and the mind-set created among
people due to fear of global pandemic COVID-19.

Stakeholders of the hotel also faced many challenges and hurdles that include: reducing room
rates, negative consumer opinions and views, oversupply, severe liquidity and operational
challenges and many more. Hotel owners were forced to cut down their costs by using measures
such as leave without pay, reduced employee strength, laying-off employees, partial closure of
hotels and many more. Therefore, COVID-19 has put pressure on hotels to put their activities on
hold and face financial crisis. Tourism industry is one of the areas of whole nation that
contributes in developing and increasing GDP of the whole country. Thus, COVID-19 made this
industry to face multiple challenges in their operations.
Summarising findings
With the above assembled data, it is summarised that outbreak of global pandemic
COVID-19 had put hotel in uncertain and risky situation. The pandemic made hotel to shut down
their each and every operation. With the impact of global pandemic COVID-19, hotel has faced
high variable and fixed expenses. These expenses were increased because hotel had invested
their great amount on investing advance technologies so that cleanliness and physical touch
among could be reduced in the workplace. Hotel has also adopted advanced electronic check-out
and check-in so that guests do not need to contact human staff members of the hotel.
Implementation of advanced techniques and technologies have helped hotel to continue their
business operations and activities during COVID-19. Hotel has also adopted social media
Illustration 2: COVID-19's impact on hotel

marketing technique to keep their guests and travellers aware about the various strategies
adopted by them to keep their staff and guests safe. Thus, COVID-19 has created negative
impact over operations of the hotel (Ocheni and et. al., 2020).. However, it has also opened many
opportunities for hotel such as working with advanced technologies and techniques rather than
depending upon human workforce. Hotel has also gained trust of their customers as well as
employees by giving importance to their safety during global pandemic COVID-19. Thus, this
pandemic made hotel to work with innovative and renewed form. Thus, pandemic created
negative implication over operations of hotels and it's employees along with guests.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
From the above report this can be concluded that for tourism their customer play
prominent role in which the industry is wholly dependent on their customers. The industry is
facing negative implication due to COVID and these issues have developed significant impact
over the industry. The industry have adopted crisis management practices so that to deal with
future uncertainties in effective manner and to regain their business existence into the market.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Agrawal, A., 2021. Sustainability of airlines in India with Covid-19: Challenges ahead and
possible way-outs. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 20(4), pp.457-472.
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету, 97(1), pp.77-87.
Batallán, G., 2019. Anthropology and Research Methodology. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia
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Fryer, L.K., Larson-Hall, J. and Stewart, J., 2018. Quantitative methodology. In The Palgrave
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Kaushal, V. and Srivastava, S., 2021. Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19
pandemic: Perspectives on challenges and learnings from India. International journal of
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Knottnerus, J.A. and Tugwell, P., 2018. Ethics of research methodology requires a methodology
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Madani and et. al., 2020. The impact of Covid-19 outbreak on the tourism needs of the Algerian
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Muragu, M.M., Nyadera, I.N. and Mbugua, C.W., 2021. Gearing up for the new normal: Kenya’s
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Ocheni and et. al., 2020. Covid-19 and the tourism industry: Critical overview, lessons and
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Riadil, I.G., 2020. Tourism industry crisis and its impacts: investigating the Indonesian tourism
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Skains, R.L., 2018. Creative practice as research: discourse on methodology. Media Practice and
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Škare, M., Soriano, D.R. and Porada-Rochoń, M., 2021. Impact of COVID-19 on the travel and
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