Strategic Planning in Hospitality: Crowne Plaza Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic planning within the hospitality industry, using Crowne Plaza London, Kings Cross as a case study. It begins by defining strategic planning and its importance in enhancing profitability and efficiency, then critically analyzes factors essential for implementing franchising strategies, such as maintaining a loyal customer base, achieving a clear market position, and ensuring sustainability. The report further explores creative business strategies, including pricing strategies, product differentiation, improving customer service, leveraging digital technology, and effective marketing. Additionally, it evaluates different performance metrics, particularly key performance indicators (KPIs), to assess the success of strategies. The report emphasizes the significance of adapting to the evolving market, especially considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlights the importance of hygiene and quality service. It concludes by underlining the value of successful strategy selection in influencing customer numbers, boosting profitability, and maintaining a competitive edge in the dynamic hospitality sector.

Strategic Planning for the
Hospitality Industry 13

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Critically analyse the most appropriate factors to implement a chosen strategy.........................2
Research about creative business strategies for your chosen organisation’s future strategy
selection to be competitive in the hospitality industry................................................................3
Analyse and evaluate the different performance metrics............................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic planning is conducted as an on-going way to leading to the creation of, and
execution of, new business strategies and standards with strong understanding, with aid of an
successful strategy that is essential in improving profitability and efficiency (Ansari and Kant,
2017). The technique is used to handle activities and improve capability with effective aim of
rising higher wages and profits. For this reason, the aim of each company is to recognise the
present situation and afterwards making planning with the proper intention of optimizing the
efficiency of company and its profitability. It's indeed useful in generating successful concepts
and thoughts for achievement of key business goals that lead to improvements and progress. This
study is focused on Crowne Plaza London, Kings Cross that established in 1983, which offers its
customers outstanding service and popular for adoption of new innovations and introduction of
advanced technology for long-term sustainability in the market. The report contains numerous
factors, such as the implementation of the business strategies in terms of being competitive in
hospitality sector and the success indicators that are useful for assessing success.
MAIN BODY
Critically analyse the most appropriate factors to implement a chosen strategy
In particular, strategy includes establishing objectives and outcomes, deciding measures to
meet the goals, and mobilizing funds and resources out the activities. A strategy explains how
the ways (funds) can accomplish the objectives (targets). It is important for all company to
formulate a plan as it is a key factor for success. It is course out over lengthy period along with
business reach. In addition, the plan aims to support the organisation by configuring capital in a
competitive and demanding economic environment in order to meet market demands, in addition
to considering the aspirations of investors. Crown Plaza is an Intercontinental hotel franchisee.
The business provides a large range of guest rooms, including suites. There have been some
important variables that are expected to be considered by managers during the implementation of
the franchising strategy. The required factors for the implementation of the franchising strategy
are evaluated in the context of The Crown Plaza. The franchising strategy is one of the business
strategy that use by the business to capture large market share. This business strategy used by
business to getting and keeping customers. This strategy mainly adopted by the business to grab
the market opportunities in large manner and increase more customers compare than of their
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competitors. To become successful in the market require to business change their strategy and
compete with the competitors. There are Crown plaza adopted Franchising strategy to get many
advantages.
Having a loyal customer base: The probability earns by customers will become repeat
buyers is enhanced by a loyal client base. If hotel can draw and maintain a customer base that
provides continued sales with a solid foundation (Okumus and et.al., 2019).
Having a clear market position: Market position is the aspect that involves phases in
which the corporate reputation and brand are generated to generate interest among clients in
many ways. The variable encourages companies and their customers to compete for identical
product offerings. The Crown plaza management needs to evaluate the company’s market
positioning in order to implement a franchising plan in order to obtain competitive equity needed
for a viable business existence. Having a strong market place is an adaptive variable which
forces franchising processes to handle the relevance of brand awareness in a way that satisfies
homogeneous mixture. The aspect allows franchise brands to differentiate them from competitors
and reinforce emotional connections with existing and future customers.
Sustainability: In order to being economically viable, the series needs to thrive. Looking for
franchises which have been in operation or have enormous growth potential for a century more
than. The corporate strategy is to be a small businessman and gain long-term financial stability,
and whether they are searching for long-term success, an extremely fashionable franchise than
one that is quite temporary may be difficult. However there are other aspects to think, including
the practical terminology of the franchise agreement, the appropriate expenditure, and the
earning capacity, the factors mentioned above should tend to evaluate a franchise business early
in the investigation.
Business expertise of operators: Franchisees profit through their franchisor's experience in
extending the business strategy into the potential alongside their leadership and guidance. In
order to provide experience in business and a great work ethic, the manager is highly dependent
(Köseoglu and et. al., 2019).
Research about creative business strategies for your chosen organisation’s future strategy
selection to be competitive in the hospitality industry
On the basis of above considered strategies, it is established that strategies are necessary
for organisation to establish its objectives and to manage its main activities. Management
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implements these successful strategies in terms of improving productivity and often contributes
to major improvements in performance (González-Rodríguez and et. al., 2018). For this reason,
the next business strategy chosen by Crown Plaza in order to be successful and it is defined as
follows:
Pricing strategy: It means that high price of goods is of considerable concern to
individuals, since most customers are price conscious and take a long time to select the right
product at fair prices. For this business, it needs to deliver high-quality infrastructure services at
competitive rates that represent a successful opportunity for the development of attracting a large
number of guests and encourage buying decisions. The Crowne Plaza must also concentrate on
price of services they offered their guest in order to compete well against its rivals. In addition,
Crowne Plaza’s future strategy of delivering facilities at low rates against its rivals is helpful in
gaining a competitive edge (Chen and et. al., 2017).
Product differentiation: It demonstrates the popular goods and services provided by
company ought to be distinctive and eye-catching, although this is useful in gaining and
attracting a wide proportion of market areas and also helps improve competition. In view of
competitive business climate, it is necessary for marketer to comply with consumer desires and
demands and it is essential to create successful goods and services that are helpful for increasing
productivity and sales. That is another potential plan for the management of Crowne Plaza in
term of providing an effective experience of beverage, food and services that is exclusive to their
competitors and helpful in gaining competitive advantages.
Improving customer service: it is important for business plan which is also used by
organisation to enhance customer experience and also serves to maintain its competitive. This
customer needs to create major issues in selection of appropriate goods, taking into account the
need for customer support, by understanding their needs. For this reason, the management of
Crowne Plaza performs a proper study of situation in terms of bringing about improvements in
customer experience that are useful in affecting the huge number of candidates and growing
competition.
Usage of digital technology: In the modern business environment, organisations
are continues to evolve in terms of different practises and its aim to eliminate problems (Mair,
Ritchie and Walters, 2016). This move is being implemented as an obstacle for companies with
the need to choose for them to make their existence easy with goal of ensuring a competitive
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environment for the achievement of business goals. In order to become competitive in hospitality
market, Crowne Plaza needs to concentrate on emerging technologies, like digital checkout,
online bookings of rooms, chat-box for any query and much more that is beneficial in assessing a
popular consumer field and retaining a competitive edge.
Marketing business strategy: In order to gain popularity or maximise their sales,
marketing strategy should be effective to target right people. It is necessary to inform their
customers about their services which they going to offer and encourage them to experience those
services. In order to promote their hospitality products efficiently, a range of outlets and an
efficient method need to be followed which are useful for acquisition of a popular consumer
vision. In association with the management of Crown Plaza, online marketing, magazines
advertisement, digital marketing and many more can be used for the goal of informing
consumers and supplying them with influential services.
Maintain quality services and hygiene: By recognising the present situation of COVID-
19 pandemic that is entire world is facing and people are becoming more conscious about health
safety and hygiene, so they are looking forward to sanitation area for safe food and shelter. It
represents a strong market and an important opportunity to choose a business in order to develop
a strategic advantage by providing significant facilities (Moro and Rita, 2018). To this end, the
administration of Crown Plaza decides for a variety of strategies by offering efficient hygiene
and sanitised areas with regard to public health and protection. It is beneficial in optimising
market efficiency in a competitive world and in improving profitability.
Consequently, after proper analysis it has been established that successful selection of
approaches is useful in terms of affecting the huge amount of customers and increasing
profitability. To this end, the tools are effective to rivals in terms of a demanding and complex
world that helps sustain a competitive edge.
Analyse and evaluate the different performance metrics
Performance metrics are known to be an appropriate procedure for assessing the set of
releasing documents associated with the performance of team members and companies. It is
valuable to quantify the efficiency of influential operations and full stop impact of the
organisation in performance assessment is necessary and essential to define the strategies being
used by employees to achieve their goals and objectives. It is known to be an essential part of
progress as successful performance metrics provide prominent details with an appropriate
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outcome which attempts to identify the volume in term of throwing of improved cognitive. In
relation to Crown Plaza, the department head uses efficiency metrics for the influential
assessment and use of organisational offerings. This is due to the fact that critical considerations
for future have been well educated and defined; taking into account the different types of
performance indicators that hospitality sector can receive in terms of managing the business
operations. Influential performance metrics which can be used by Crown Plaza are evaluated as
follows:
Key performance indicators: The KPI is refers to as a quantitative measure that is
beneficial for the company in process of reaching results and organization's strategic goals and
objectives (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). For the organisation, it needs to understand
the important activities and results of business and their attempts to improve it. It is an important
strategy that is used to assess the overall success of the organisation and also able to strengthen
strategies that are helpful in overcoming crucial challenges by increasing values. For this reason,
each hotel and company must consider the main performance measures at different levels that are
applied only at time of progress in terms of achieving the goal and high level of measures. In the
light of these low-level metrics, the operation of a specific division, like sales, marketing, HR
and many others are described. It is leads to the use of different types of financial metrics, and
Crown Plaza Management prefers for using key financial and non-financial performance analysis
to measure performance and establish a strategy that is effective in increasing productivity and
revenues. With the aid of a financial metric, the manager of Crown Plaza tries to recognise
effective practises that are useful for creating more profit and are also effective for clients. In
addition, the metric is effective in recognising popular promotional strategies and other
supporting functions that significantly boost the evolving climate and are also beneficial in
increasing competitiveness or profitability. The competitor Marriott international use this
performance indicator to analysis the performance of employees at qualitative and quantitative
basis. It will help to know the performance of staff member then promote them for good position.
Same as Crown plaza follow the same indicator so it will help to know the performance of
employees and accordingly provide training and development to improve their performance.
Balance Score-card: It is described as a strategic success measure that represents the
improvement of multiple internal organizational functions with a meaningful outcome (Wang
and et. al., 2016). To this end, the successful goal is by using a balanced scorecard to assess and
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exchange input within the company. Crowne Plaza must use this strategy to measure its financial
side, such as the financial procedure for development and change of clients. The Hotels
experts clearly describes the variables that could become obstacles to success and also explains
strategic improvements in monitoring of future score board. It is established that a balanced
scorecard offers an important structure for the creation and communication of a popular strategy.
It also contributes to increased coordination on execution of an effective plan and to participation
of the staff with external parties in the successful functioning and implementation of strategies.
This Matrix is in line with the programmes and initiatives to ensure that it reflects on providing
important strategic topics. This framework is effective for supervisor and administrator in
designing efficient metrics and optimising the output report on a factor-by-factor basis by
providing consistency and data collection. Performance metrics often mislead some words, as
they may not concentrate on rivals and external influences with the aid of a strong risk analysis
and often create difficulty in maintaining competitive planning.
Critical success factor: It includes the effective and influential performance metrics
which reflect effective circumstances and incentives that are needed to achieve project
implementation practises. It contributes to appropriate situations and factors which are necessary
in order to provide a positive result for overall success of business (Yoon, Jang and Lee, 2016).
In the case of Crowne Plaza, this framework is effective in ensuring the performance factor. The
success factor of the hotel involves a strategic emphasis on financing people's activities and
marketing and identifying critical success factors are necessary for project manager to analyse
the key success factors of goals and also to convey them to staff members. It is helpful for
Crowne Plaza as it provides goals and benchmarks for both the company, since it also wants to
gain market share in terms of producing successful revenues, and this worker needs to
understand the objective.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it has been concluded that, strategic planning is critical
to analyse a significant plan and to control this with a successful strategy to be successful in the
market environment in order to achieve success. Along with these, there are several factors that
is useful to improve the efficiency of business by concentrating on major competitive edge. In
addition, strategic implementation needs to establish key priorities by making useful efforts,
preserving healthy relationships and increasing efficiency. Lastly key performance assessment
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Instruments and methods have been used that contribute significantly to creativity in terms of
growing revenue.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ansari, Z. N. and Kant, R., 2017. A state-of-art literature review reflecting 15 years of focus on
sustainable supply chain management. Journal of cleaner production, 142, pp.2524-
2543.
Chen, J. S and et. al., 2017. Business co-creation for service innovation in the hospitality and
tourism industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
González-Rodríguez, M. R and et. al., 2018. Revisiting the link between business strategy and
performance: Evidence from hotels. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 72, pp.21-31.
Köseoglu, M. A. and et. al., 2019. Evolution of strategic management research lines in
hospitality and tourism. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 28(6),
pp.690-710.
Mair, J., Ritchie, B. W. and Walters, G., 2016. Towards a research agenda for post-disaster and
post-crisis recovery strategies for tourist destinations: A narrative review. Current
Issues in Tourism, 19(1), pp.1-26.
Moro, S. and Rita, P., 2018. Brand strategies in social media in hospitality and
tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Okumus, F. and et. Al,, 2019. Strategic management for hospitality and tourism. Routledge.
Wang, D and et. al., 2016. Assessing hotel-related smartphone apps using online
reviews. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(3), pp.291-313.
Yoon, D., Jang, J. and Lee, J. J., 2016. Environmental management strategy and organizational
citizenship behaviors in the hotel industry. International journal of Contemporary
hospitality Management.
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