Strategic Management Issues and Analysis for Holiday Inn Hotels

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the strategic management practices within the Holiday Inn hotel chain. It begins with an executive summary outlining the core issues and objectives, followed by an introduction that sets the context for the study. The findings section explores the challenges Holiday Inn faces, particularly concerning the ever-changing expectations of customers in the hospitality industry, and the impact of external factors such as political and economic influences. The report emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction and how Holiday Inn strives to maintain and improve it, while also acknowledging the difficulties in measuring satisfaction universally. The conclusion stresses the need for effective strategic management to ensure future growth and competitiveness in the tourism sector. The report offers recommendations for strategic improvements, including systematic planning, anticipating future needs, securing adequate resources, understanding strengths and weaknesses, and addressing environmental impacts. References and appendices are included to support the analysis.

Strategic Management in Tourism and Hospitality

Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Findings.......................................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.....................................................................................................................................................8
List Appendices.........................................................................................................................................10

Executive Summary
Strategy as the name suggest is a tool for achieving long term goals by management and taking a
step ahead strategic management is an organized process which is drafted, put in effect and
thereafter evaluating the effectiveness. Strategic management in Tourism and Hospitality are
considered to be the key decisions which are taken by any organization; and from these strategic
decisions which establish the underlying framework, a series of more detailed operational
decisions can be made. How skillfully and effectively these activities are carried out will
determine the long-term success or failure of the organization in such a complex dynamic sector
of tourism and hospitality. In below report, there is a description of the current strategic
management issue faced by one of the biggest hotel chain Holiday Inn. Such issues impact the
business in a direct or indirect manner. There are so many factors that impact Tourism industry
as well as hospitality industry. There are some recommendations as well by which the hotel can
improve its business by increasing in the efficiency. Conclusions are also there, mentioning
business models for which strategic management have set up an underlying string base to grow
up on in this dynamic and complex competitive industry. Recommendations with good tactics
and effective implementation for further development of business are emphasized on (Liu et al.,
2013).

Introduction
Holiday Inn was founded by Kemmons Wilson in 1952 and today it is one of the biggest hotel
chains. There is a discussion over the strategic management of Holiday Inn, and it is known as
one of the largest hotel chains with. 1173 active hotels all around the world. It has around
214,000 rentable rooms. It is owned by a British and subsidiary of InterContinental Hotel group.
Its headquarters are located in Denham, Buckinghamshire. It provides different services to the
customers like food services, meetings, timeshares and lodging. They have different variants like
high rise, full-service hotels, full-service hotels and low-rise. The strategic issue that has been
mentioned in this report is about the constantly changing expectations of customers in hotel
industry. Even hospitality industry tries to provide the best services to its customers, but the
needs and requirement of customer keep on changing.

Findings
A well-developed strategy is what considered being a backbone of any industry or business
model. A good strategy management links to the success story of many industry leaders in the
sector of tourism and hospitality achieving enhanced profits, inflated sales and ultimately
business growth. Below points discuss how strategy management can be depicted in programs in
a systematic way with only one focused goal of achieving objectives and success. Holiday Inn is
a big hotel chain and its business operations are always profitable because of its functional
strategies. It has made a good brand image in markets like Asia, America and Europe by
fulfilling their socio- cultural needs. The hotel has utilized the concepts related to the personality,
concept of product, behavior of the customer and purchasing power (Wang et al., 2014). There
are many strategic issues that Holiday Inn is facing like it is highly influenced because of the
political factors and there are concerns related to the law, employee’s health and safety,
environment and worker’s protection. One of the major strategic management issues is the
constantly changing expectations of customers in hotel industry (Demirovic et al., 2014).
Customer satisfaction means the assessment of the relationship between the customer
expectations and the performance of the service. It refers to the satisfaction level of the customer
with the hotel services. Customer satisfaction plays a very important role for Holiday Inn and it
always put efforts to improve the same and to maintain it. It is really important factor but there is
no method to measure it on universal level as different customers have different perception about
the same service (Dodds, 2013). Evaluation of services by a customer completely depends upon
the customer’s experience, context, evaluation criteria and circumstances. Expectation of
travelers are different as they belong to different countries and different cultural background.
There are some common factors that Holiday Inn take care of, in order to satisfy the needs of
customers like price, location, cleanliness and facilities they provide. Customer’s expectations
keep on changing as per the market trends but again it is a very difficult decision to apply
changes as per the market trend or the demographic customer segment. Application of frequent
changes involves high cost too (Dale & L'Espoir Decosta, 2017). Holiday Inn is a leader in
hospitality industry, and it needs to be flexible enough. Little changes in the market condition
can impact business operations ("Culture, Diversity, Interculturality and Cultural Competence:

Knowledge and importance of the concepts in Social Work perspective", 2019). They should be
innovative and ready to accept new challenges with future uncertainties instead of relying on the
success in past. This hotel focuses on services rather than the accommodation and have well
trained staff who provide excellent services to the customers (Mooney, 2017).
methodology. Section 4
presents the results of
the analysis and
discusses their
implications. Section 5
concludes the paper.
2. BACKGROUND
In this section, we
review existing studies
on customer
satisfaction, and present
the factor analysis
methods they use. We

then identify the
research problems and
state the
research goals.
2.1. Studies of Customer
Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction
means the evaluation of
the relationship between
customer
expectations and the
actual performance of
services; a customer is
satisfied when hotel

services meet or exceed
his/her expectations
(Oliver, 1997).
Customer satisfaction
plays a crucial role in
the hospitality business,
and so
considerable efforts have
been made to find ways
to maintain and improve
it (Yuksel and
Yuksel 1990; Oliver and
DeSarbo, 1988;
Parasuraman, Zeithaml,
and Berry, 1988).

Cronin and Taylor (1992)
examine different
service sectors, with
their empirical results
showing that customer
satisfaction significantly
influences purchase
intention in different
secto
methodology. Section 4
presents the results of
the analysis and
discusses their
implications. Section 5
concludes the paper.

2. BACKGROUND
In this section, we
review existing studies
on customer
satisfaction, and present
the factor analysis
methods they use. We
then identify the
research problems and
state the
research goals.
2.1. Studies of Customer
Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction
means the evaluation of

the relationship between
customer
expectations and the
actual performance of
services; a customer is
satisfied when hotel
services meet or exceed
his/her expectations
(Oliver, 1997).
Customer satisfaction
plays a crucial role in
the hospitality business,
and so
considerable efforts have
been made to find ways

to maintain and improve
it (Yuksel and
Yuksel 1990; Oliver and
DeSarbo, 1988;
Parasuraman, Zeithaml,
and Berry, 1988).
Cronin and Taylor (1992)
examine different
service sectors, with
their empirical results
showing that customer
satisfaction significantly
influences purchase
intention in different
sect