Strategic Planning for the Hospitality Industry: Park Plaza London

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic planning within the hospitality industry, using Park Plaza London as a case study. It begins by defining strategic planning and its importance, then delves into the critical factors for implementing a successful franchising strategy, including dedicated resources, commitment, clear market positioning, and workforce management. The report further explores creative business strategies, such as value chain analysis, to enhance competitiveness, emphasizing customer service, technological advancements, pricing strategies, and product differentiation. Finally, it examines various performance metrics, including critical success factors and the balanced scorecard, evaluating their roles in assessing and improving the company's performance. The impact of external factors like COVID-19 is also considered, offering a holistic view of strategic planning in the hotel industry.

Strategic Planning for the
Hospitality Industry

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
Critical analyze of most appropriate factors for implementing a strategy................................................3
Researching about creative business strategies of organizational future strategy selection for being
competitive in hospitality industry...........................................................................................................5
Different performance metrics:................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Strategic plaining is defined as a process of documenting & establishing a direction of a
company by assessing where they are going and where they are. In addition to this, strategic
planning gives a place to record value, mission and vision of long term considered to achieve
objective and plans action successfully (Ali, 2018). For the present report, Park Plaza London is
taken into consideration. It is one the hotel chain which offer luxurious service to customer. It
was founded in the year 1997 and it has presence in all over the world. In addition to this, it also
has resorts, luxurious suites that involve services such as Wi-Fi, TV, air conditioning and many
more. The report will discuss about appropriate factors to implement strategy. In addition to this,
there is discussion about creative business strategy for future growth that assist in remaining
competitive at marketplace. Moreover, evaluation of various performance metrics such as
balance scorecard, key performance indicators and critical success factors were elaborated in a
proper manner.
Critical analyze of most appropriate factors for implementing a strategy
Strategy is defined as plan which is used by business entity to attain both short-term as
well as long-term objectives. It is significant for organizations to formulate an effective strategy
in order to become successful at marketplace. It is determined that an effective strategy help
company to deal with the challenges and cope up with this diverse environment. Park Plaza
London is used franchisee method in order to expand operations and enhance market
performance. At the time of implementing franchisee strategy, there are various factors that is
needed to consider by higher authorities. In context to Park Plaza London, the appropriate factors
to implement franchising strategy is discussed below:
Dedicated resources: In order to become successful in executing franchising strategy,
dedicated resources plays an important role. Resources are basically any form of talent and
outside supply that support & assist in enhancing performance level. The major factors needed in
order to implement strategy are financial resources, intellectual resources, human resources and
so on. At the time of execution strategy, the main factors needed by higher authorities of Park
Plaza London is dedicated resources as it assist in declining the level of cost and improve

revenue level. It is important that a franchisee champion have effective skills level which are
empowered and trusted in order to execute strategic direction.
Commitment: It is basically an agreement of pledge in order to perform actions with full
efficiency and dedication as well (Konovalova, 2018). At the time of implementing strategy,
commitment is significant from all the employees and higher authorities which are the part of
strategy. There are different kinds of commitment that is significant for implementing
franchising strategy. These are normative commitment, affective commitment, continuance
commitment and so on. In relation to franchising strategy of Park Plaza London, commitment of
offering high quality service to customers by its staff members is one of vital factor needed for
implementing such strategy. It is determined that commitment is important factors that makes all
members of company to five their full potential and dedicatedly achieve objectives.
Clear market position: It is one of the factor which involves stage of developing brand
image and identity of business entity for generating awareness in market in an effective way.
This factor assist companies as well as audiences to aim for similar target market (Soulard,
2018). To implement franchising strategy, administrators of Park Plaza London require to
analyze market position of brand as it help in gaining aggressive shares which are needed for
sustainable future of business. It is analyzed that by having clear market position is important
factor which pressurize franchising system in order to manage perception of brand and meet with
the expectations of customer. In addition to this, it is determined that clear market position assist
franchise brands in distinguishing them from competitors and also help in making emotional
bond with potential customers. It is important for franchisee to follow business structure which
are set out by franchisor. This will help Park Plaza London to execute franchising strategy in an
effective manner.
Workforce: Execution of franchising strategy is directly driven by a main factor which is
human resource. It is important for an organization to maintain effective relationship with
employees as it help in execution of strategy in an effective manner. It is determined that
implementation of strategy is getting failed because of disputes and ineffective relationship
among company and employee because of lack of trust as well as commitment. It is important
for Park Plaza London to ensure adequate presence of staff members who have the capability and

knowledge to deal with customer and deliver quality service to them (Alharbi, Dowling and
Bhatti, 2019).
Researching about creative business strategies of organizational future strategy selection for
being competitive in hospitality industry
Business strategy is determined as planning that develop by higher authorities to run
business and gain growth and success at marketplace. If a business entity is able to develop
various forms of strategy them it is able to measure performance and execute plans that assist in
attaining competitive advantage at marketplace. In United Kingdom, there are a lot of hotels that
are selling different forms of services in order to satisfy customer. It is important for an
organization to analyze requirements of customer and then develop new products as it help in
attracting people and also help in fighting with rivals at marketplace. For this Value chain
analysis is adopt that is discuss below:
Value chain analysis: This is business strategy that consider set of activities in relation to a
business for operating the specific industry by delivering valuable and reasonable products. This
strategy is adopted by organization by managing the quality of products and attaining the
business goals that are as explained:
Primary activities:
Inbound Logistics: It is a primary activity which refers as products that is being obtained
through suppliers and used to develop final products. The higher authorities of Park Plaza
London is following such step in order to transform raw material to final services (Peters and
Kallmuenzer, 2018).
Operation: Herein, tip level authorities of Park Plaza London uses developing raw materials
and cover into effective services which create value for customers.
Outbound Logistics: It is associated with distribution which means once goods have been
developed then it is distribute to different places such as wholesalers, retailers, direct customers
and many more. The managers of Park Plaza London make use of this process in order to reach
large number of customers and give offerings of different websites for increasing number of
bookings.

Marketing & sales: This process is mainly used to introduce and create awareness about
products and services in market that has positive impact on sales as well as profit level. The
management team of Park Plaza London uses such process in order to target right customer and
attain competitive advantage at marketplace.
Services: It is basically after sales service that is give to customers by Park Plaza London in
order to turn them as loyal customers towards brand. They maintain good relation with
customers and remain in touch with them after providing services as well.
Support Activities
Firm Infrastructure – It means that respective organization is required to ensure that
management structure, finance, legal structure & other activities are working properly in order to
improve performance and profitability level.
Human resource management – It is consider as one of the important resource which help
company to offer quality and on time service to customer which fulfil their requirements and
develop positive mind set of customers towards brand.
Technology development – It is important for Park Plaza London to make use of new
technology in order to offer innovative and attractive service to customer (Vij, 2019). This also
help in offering 24*7 service to customer which attract large number of people and enhance
performance of respective hotel.
The another strategies uses by management for developing more services in future &
attaining higher profitability is discuss below:
Improve customers services: In order to attain higher profitability, it is important for Park
Plaza London to improve customer service, for this, it can take feedback from customer after
providing service to them as it help in making customer feel valued and also assist in fulfilling
their requirements in an effective manner
Technological strategy: The choice and preference of customer is changing rapidly and for
this, it is significant for Park Plaza London to adopt new technologies that attract people towards
its services and raise sales and profit level of the organization.

Pricing business strategy: It is consider as one of the most significant strategy as price of
services offered to customer matters a lot at marketplace. It is important for Park Plaza London
to make use of effective pricing strategy that attract customers to take its services rather than
taking service of its competitors.
Product differentiation: If a business entity is able to give quality and unique service to
customers then it is easy to achieve competitive advantage at marketplace & maintain brand
image in an effective manner.
Different performance metrics:
Performance metrics is termed as information, figures and data which are indicating
ability, quality as well as actions of a companies performance level (Al-Dhaafri and Alosani,
2020). In addition to this, there are various forms of performance metrics which is used by
business entity in order to evaluate growth, success as well as failure of specific strategy which is
being adopting in company. With reference to Park Plaza London, there are different
performance metrics which is used for present strategy of Franchisee:
Critical success factors:
The idea of critical success factor is proposed by D.Ronald Daniel in the year 1960.
Critical success factors are those activities, areas as well as procedure which a company is
depend on for survival in market for longer time period. This factors are unique for business
entity that represent present business and future goals as well. There are different factors which
reflect that success of Park Plaza London. It is analyzed that hotel have more than 12 brands and
also have resorts that offer luxurious and quality service to customer. In addition to this, it has
high market presence which is undertaken as important factor for success of company.
Moreover, the hotel has achieved higher rate of flexibility via corporate social responsibility by
altering its influence on society as well as environment. It is determine that various CSF software
assist respective hotel as it assist in identifying as well as analyzing present and future business
objectives.
Balance score card:

It is consider as an effective performance metric that is used in strategic management for
identifying and improving different internal function along with their impact on external results.
In addition to this, it is adopt to measure & also o give feedback to companies which help in
making improvements. In a business entity, data collection is important for providing
quantitative results as data collected is interpret by higher authorities & executives as well.
Financial balance score card is basically a practice that is undertaken financial data &
application of resources of finance of Park Plaza London (Köseoglu, 2019). It is determined that
the revenue of respective organization is declined because of COVID-19 and impact negatively
on its performance level.
Similarly, different stakeholders such as customers reviews performance level of business
entity from their view point. It assist in analyzing the quality of products as well as service
offered by respective organization. Therefore, some of the measures which are adopt by Park
Plaza London to manage review of customers are product quality, price management, brand
value and many more (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). In addition to this, the guests of
hotel has a positive mind set towards brand that can be measured through reviews that is put on
various portals like TripAdvisor and other official websites as well.
Internal process assist in gaining understanding about performance of Park Plaza London
by business process & product as well. It is determined that respective organization have large
number of talented and skilled staff members that offer quality and on-time service to customers.
All such are managed by Human resource department that reflect positively on the performance
of internal procedure. Moreover, the hotel properties are maintained and best facilities are
provided in order to give high customer experience.
Organizational capacity assist to view learning as well as growth capacity of Park Plaza
London. In addition to this, culture, technology & other similar factors is also measured. In
addition to this, there are different training programs which are offered to staff members of Park
Plaza London to maintain effective quality service and to enhance skills of employees which in
turn assist in offering best and on time service to customer.
Key performance indicator:

In an organization, there are various factors which plays significant role to analyze key
performance of company in an effective manner. In this process management of Park Plaza
London the most significant role is to analyze quality of service as well as facility provided to
them by using various business approaches. The factors of performance indicators in Park Plaza
London are categorized in various categories by which they manager working is given below:
Accommodation –This aspects is mainly based on factors such as labor cost ratio,
bedroom occupancy rate, average room rates and many more. Park Plaza London can easily
analyze performance of business that is based on analysis practices. The formula of key
performance indicator is ARR= Total Room Revenue divided by Total Rooms occupied. At the
same time, performance of accommodation is measured by various models that is average daily
rate, revenue per available room and many more. By the assistance of such tools, Park Plaza
London can effectively measure performance in various sections.
Food and Beverage – This department offers quality foods & services to customers according
to their requirements. The key performance indicator of food & beverage division are average
spending per customer, gross profit ratio, labor cost ratio and many more (BURKE, ROBINSON
and Choi, 2020). By the assistance of such tools, Park Plaza London can assure performance of
food and beverage sector.
Profitability – In this process, financial division of Park Plaza London plays significant
role. The main objective of such division is to increase profitability of business & growth by
which various business practice in an appropriate way. Therefore, the tools which are practice to
measure performance are operating profit ratio and net profit ratio.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that it is significant for a business
entity to conduct appropriate strategic planning as it develop managers to formulate effective
strategy and attain objectives within stipulated time period. In addition to this, it allow company
to achieve various benefits such as determining purpose, employee retention, improve
communication of objectives and many more. It is important for an organization to make use of
appropriate strategic option in order to expand operations and increase market performance.
Moreover, it is important to evaluate performance with the help of techniques such as Balance

scorecard, Key performance indicators and so on. It assist company to develop strategies and
improve their performance as well as profitability level.

REFERENCES
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