Premier Inn Case Study: Analyzing Structure and Environmental Impact

This case study report analyzes Premier Inn's organizational structure and the impact of environmental factors on its performance, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the hotel's functional structure, which is part of Whitbread PLC, and uses SWOT and PESTLE analyses to evaluate its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental influences. The report highlights Premier Inn's strengths in profitability and brand image, weaknesses in global presence and hygiene concerns, opportunities in strategic tie-ups and digital marketing, and threats from competitors and reduced tourism. It concludes that understanding the business structure and environmental factors is crucial for surviving in the hospitality industry and developing effective strategies for recovery and long-term sustainability.

CASE STUDY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Organisational structure of Premier Inn Hotel............................................................................1
Environmental factors ................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business organisation defined as an entity that is operate to fulfil the purpose of carry on
commercial firms. Thus, organisation is based on the system of laws and regulation governing
contract and exchange, incorporation and property rights. There are various type of business
organisation such as sole proprietorship, partnership, corporations and limited liability company
(Beynon-Davies, 2021). This report is based on a Premier Inn leading private limited company
since 1987. This company belongs to hospitality expert organisation Whitbread PLC. Premier
Inn is a UK largest hotel chain that has around 800 outlets and 72000 rooms within UK,
Germany, UAE and beyond. The hotel offer great quality food and comfortable accommodation
facilities to customers along with also take pride of supporting charity GOSH (Great Ormond
Street hospital Children Charity). Due to COVID 19 situation occur in all the world it hits the
many business industry specially hotels because of this their sales and profitability would be
affected more. To overcome with this issue this report helps Premier Inn to by suggesting rthe
recovery from COVID 19. To fulfil this activity, this report develops organisational structure,
environmental analysis using Pestle or SWOT so that hotel internal and external factors are
analysed that helps in developing proper strategies in relation to generate profitable results.
MAIN BODY
Organisational structure of Premier Inn Hotel
Organisation structure defines the system that draws how several activities are directed
and oriented within organisation to attain the organisational goals effectively and efficiently. The
activities involved in organisational structure includes rules, roles, responsibilities and helps
company how the information is flow between the levels of business enterprise . To understand
the situation of COVID 19 and their impact on Premier Inn profitability and sustainability, this
report research the hotel organisational structure because organisation structure play a crucial
role in performing the strategies effectively that hotel adopts from recover the pandemic
situation. Therefore, Premier Inn is belong to Whitbread PLC and adopts also adopts the
structure belongs to Whitbread. Premier Inn is a leading group in UK and as per their size and
product offerings they adopts the use of Functional structure.
Functional structure is one that divides major functions of an organisation into smaller
groups such in HR department, finance department, IT department, housekeeping department
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etc. Premier Inn follow functional structure that helps in completing the targets effectively
because in this major functions are divided into smaller groups. This structure help hotel to
develop strategies to beat the pandemic impact on company profitability (Whitbread, 2021).
Illustration 1: Oganisation chart, Premier Inn
Environmental factors
It defined as a number of forces that influences the organisation performance within
marketplace. In terms of Premier Inn to effectively understand the forces that impact on their
performance SWOT and Pestle analysis is used that are demonstrated below:
SWOT Analysis
It is a technique that is used to analyse the four determinants of an organisation i.e.
strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. In terms of Premier Inn, outline SWOT analysis is
use to explore the opportunities and reduce the threats concerning hotel. It is a leading group of
Whitbread PLC. The swot analysis of Premier Inn are discussed below:
Strength
 Profitability- The major strength of Premier Inn is that it is popular hotel in UK and
represent as highly advertised chain of hotel. It is recognised for their quality services due
to which they gain several awards (Maréchaux, 2020). By having all these quality, hotel
attracts number of customers and because of this their profitability would be increased.
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 Brand image- Premier Inn developed a quality image over past many years by offer kid-
friendly or Bike-friendly image along with free wi-fi and automatic check in and check
out facilities has been attract a customers attraction due to which they become a selling
point of hotel. They enjoy number of award for their glorious services that helps in
maintaining and increasing brand image.
Weakness
 Limited global presence- It is one of the major weakness of Premier Inn. In comparison
to other large hotel Premier Inn operates in a limited number of countries. Big issue related to hygiene- It is a weakness of Premier Inn at the time of COVID 19
when people are highly conscious about safety and hygiene. For instance- the
housekeeping worker use the same guest towel to clean the all floor, bathrooms and
toilets. This create negativity in employees mind.
Opportunities
 Strategic tie-ups with companies- Ties-ups with organisation like Costa Coffee
company develops their brand image in marketplace and in many more countries where
they does not have presence. High investment done in digital marketing- In today's world, digitalisation has been
increased and Premier Inn invest more on digital market by using social media
application to promote brand and create awareness regarding services that they offered to
customers. This helps hotel to attract large base of customers and attain more profitable
results in pandemic time (Ziora, 2020). Because due to digitalisation contactless services
are enjoyed by customers.
Threats
 More Rivals- It is a threat that was face by Premier Inn because number of competitors
are present in market such as Travelodge, Easyhotel, Ibis etc.
 Decline in tourist or visitors due to pandemic situation- Another threat that Premier
Inn face is decline in the visiting of guest because they prefer to stay at home in this
pandemic situation.
Pestle Analysis
It expressed as a framework that is used to scan the environmental component of strategic
management. In context of Premier Inn, the factors of pestle analysis are demonstrated below:
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 Political factor- This factor involves government stability, tax regulation etc. In terms of
UK, government is highly stable and also the tax rates are low because government
support hospitality industry highly. This positively impact Premier Inn to operate their
business appropriately that helps business to generate more profitable results. On the
other hand, the pandemic attack impact the major flotation on currency because it impact
many business industry and also impact customers purchase. This impact negatively on
the Premier Inn profitability.
 Economical factor- It is based on GDP, Growth rate, buying power of buyers etc. In UK
the growth rate is high that attracts number of customers to spend money on spend their
leisure time in Hotel. This helps Premier Inn to earn profits by developing more sales
(Acquah and Chen, 2021). But due to Pandemic attack the inflation rate is high that affect
profit margin of Hotel and also customers because they avoid to book hotel rooms while
they enjoy take away facility that Hotel offer by delivering meals to customers.
 Social factor- This factor accumulates the several aspects such as population growth rate,
health conscious people, health and safety, culture, norms etc. People of UK are highly
modern as they alive their life on their won way. As they population growth rate is also
effective of UK all these factor help Premier Inn to attract large base of customers who
want to spend their time within hotel and enjoy services. Whereas Premier Inn have
major weakness that they lack in offer hygiene to customers due to which customers
purchase impact because in pandemic situation health and safety are more important.
 Technological factor- In current scenario, world is around the use of emerging
technologies. UK is a country that is full of using advanced technology and also support
companies to invent in technology to grow business operations. Therefore Premier Inn is
a leading Hotel in UK that emphasis on using advanced technology by investing more on
digitalisation to promote and offer services to customers. This attracts large base of
customers towards company and this helps hotel to recover from pandemic situation for
long life. Because due to advanced technology Premier Inn give contactless service to
customers that helps hotel to attract large base of customers.
 Legal factor- This factor reflects laws and regulation imposed by government for
employees benefits, import and export of services etc. In context of Premier Inn, they
treat every employees equally and pay as per their performing job role. As they adopts
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the use of Equality act where every employee enjoy fair treatment from company side.
This helps Premier Inn to attract large base of customers because employees work
effectively and satisfactory.
 Environmental factor- This factor present environmental practices that organisation
adopts to reduce global warming impact on environment (Anshari and Sumardi, 2020). In
terms of Premier Inn, They adopts the use of technology in offer services to customers
and invest more in sustainable practices that helps customers to retain with hotel longer
time period.
CONCLUSION
From the above case study report it is concluded that to survive within business industry
it is very crucial to understand the business structure and their internal and external weaknesses
and opportunities. By this report, an individual person enhanced their knowledge regarding
organisational structure of Premier Inn because it helps employees to work appropriately and
attain the targets related to survived in hospitality industry in pandemic situation up-to long life.
Therefore to sustain in marketplace Premier Inn elucidates environmental factors analysis using
swot or pestle so that Premier Inn developed their strategies properly to recover from the
Pandemic situation until 2023 or later.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Acquah, A. and Chen, H., 2021. The Impact of Workplace Stress Management in a Business
Organisation in the Service Industries–A Case Study on Kingstel Hotel Limited-
Takoradi, Ghana.
Anshari, M. and Sumardi, W.H., 2020. Employing big data in business organisation and business
ethics. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics. 14(2). pp.181-205.
Beynon-Davies, P., 2021. Business Analysis and Design: Understanding Innovation in
Organisation. Springer Nature.
Maréchaux, B., 2020. Business organisation in the Mediterranean Sea: Genoese galley
entrepreneurs in the service of the Spanish Empire (late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries). Business History, pp.1-32.
Ziora, L., 2020. Machine learning solutions in the management of a contemporary business
organisation. Journal of Decision Systems, pp.1-8.
Online
Whitbread, 2021. [Online]. Available through: <https://theorg.com/org/whitbread/org-chart>
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