Tavistock House Hotel Business Report: Semester 1, 2019

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SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
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Executive Summary
Tavistock House Hotel is a small business enterprise, operating within the UK Hospitality sector,
as one of the leaders in the small hotels offering its services to the tourists. The significant
strength of the organization is its establishment and position in the market and its weakness is
the lack of experienced staffs. Training to the staffs is a significant way of combating the
weakness; however there are a number of hindrances in the implementation of changes like
training and technological advancements of working systems, which are oppositions from the
staffs and their dislike to get trained for the purpose. The ways in which the changes can be
successfully implemented has been studied in this section, identifying few hindrances and the
effective ways of overcoming the same.
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
Task 1............................................................................................................................................5
A. A profile of the chosen hospitality business (M1)..................................................................5
B. Analysis of the current business performance in relation to the previous years (D1)...........6
Task 2............................................................................................................................................8
A. Recommend, with justification, appropriate actions to overcome the weaknesses identified,
using any appropriate model (M2).............................................................................................8
B. Analyse the ways in which the current performance could be maintained and strengthened
(M2)............................................................................................................................................9
C. Recommend, with justification, appropriate actions that can be taken to expand the
selected business (D2)............................................................................................................11
Task 3..........................................................................................................................................12
A. Business plan for organization detailing the assessment of current objectives and plans
(M3)..........................................................................................................................................12
B. Revise plan to incorporate changes and business objectives of the organization and
prepare an action plan (with chosen strategy) to implement changes in the organization......14
Task 4..........................................................................................................................................16
A. Investigate and report on the potential impact that the changes may have on the
organization, both internally and externally (D3)......................................................................16
B. Develop a plan outlining how the changes will be managed (action plan for managing
proposed changes) (D3)..........................................................................................................16
C. Devise methods to monitor and improve performance after the changes are implemented
.................................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................20
References..................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
The Small Business Enterprises are the ones which have a limited number of staffs working in
the organization and exhibiting limited flow of finances as well as materials to and from the
organization. As per UK standards, companies with less than 50 employees on its payrolls and
turnover of less than or equal to 6.5 million Great Britain Pounds are termed as ‘small
businesses’ (Ward and Rhodes, 2014). Almost 71% of the organizations operating in the
hospitality industry, employing around 53% of the employees originally functioning for this
industry, belong to the category of “Small-and-Medium Enterprises”, with around 29% of the
businesses being solely owner-operated, without any staffs (Warwick.ac.uk., 2019). The present
assignment aims to study a particular small business enterprise functioning within the hospitality
sector of UK in detail, with focus on its current business performance and the ways in which the
same could be enhanced. The aspects in which changes needs to be introduced and monitored
within the organization, in order to ensure expansion of business and increased profitability, will
also be discussed herein.
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Task 1
A. A profile of the chosen hospitality business (M1)
a. The type of business
Business Overview
The structure of the organization- Tavistock House Hotel encompasses tall organizational
structure, wherein all the staffs reports directly to the managers and receives instructions for the
actions they are required to perform
The size of business- It is a small, boutique hotel, offering cozy residential services to the
tourists, at economic rates.
The mission statement for the organization is to provide premium services to the visitors,
making them feel at home, at economic prices
The goals and objectives of the business
The goal of the business is to retain its position in the market, as a market leader, in the UK
hospitality sector.
The objectives of the organization are:
 To expand the size of the accommodation that they are currently offering, from a 8-room
boutique hotel to a 20-room boutique hotel
 To expand into other posh markets of the UK
 To reach out to larger number of customers
b. Internal constraints and restrictions on the business:
Resources- The resources required for a successful hospitality business are experienced staffs,
ample financial resources for innovation and improvisation, technologically-upgraded working
systems and raw materials for food. These are constraints for Tavistock House Hotel since
improper availability of these might hamper the performance of the organization adversely.
Expertise- The expertise of the managers, Brad and Gill, in handling the business effectively is
undoubtedly very good. However, the expertise among the employees working in the hotel is a
bit unsatisfactory; they are basically staffs who are used to serving as per the instructions from
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the leaders and cannot handle the functions as per their own discretion, which is a significant
constraint.
Regulatory Compliance- Compliance with legislations regarding the quality of services rendered
as well as quality of food delivered, besides policies governing delivery of different services to
the customers often proves to be a constraint; however it is not so in this case. Tavistock House
Hotel maintains a high level of compliance with all the policies and regulations governing the
interests of the stakeholders as well as the customers.
Organizational Culture of Tavistock House Hotel is supportive of innovation and conducive to
the personal growth and development of the staffs, which is another advantage rather than a
constraint.
B. Analysis of the current business performance in relation to the previous years (D1)
Performance measures are indicators, which helps in understanding the extent to which a
particular business is being able to realize the organizational as well as business objectives.
The strength of performance measures is that it allows identification of flaws and extent of
realization of organizational objectives; however, it’s most significant weakness lies in the fact
that the extent to which improvements is required cannot be understood from these measures.
Application of the performance measures in the chosen business:
Revenue- The net income of the business had been 83,165GBP for the first half of 2018,
yielding a profit of 22,510GBP for the term. This indicates that the business has been able to
gain stable market position in the past year.
Occupancy percentage- The occupancy rate refers to the percentage of the rooms that are
available for occupancy by the guests. The rooms of Tavistock House Hotel are available for
occupancy at all times, apart from the time when it is fully occupied by existing guests; this
proportionately points out to the revenue performance of the hotel in the market.
REVPAR- This KPI indicates the profitability and success of the organization; the REVPAR of
Tavistock House Hotel is high, though it fluctuates slightly with the tourism seasons
Staff performance- Brad and Gill are both qualified management students, with adequate
understanding of the ways in which the small business should be handled, for extracting
ultimate profitability. However, the staffs are not all qualified as much; in order to keep up with
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the superior expectations of the customers, thus, Brad and Gill need to instruct the staffs about
their actions and demeanor.
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Task 2
A. Recommend, with justification, appropriate actions to overcome the weaknesses identified,
using any appropriate model (M2)
The analysis of the Key Performance Indicators, both in relation to the financial as well as the
non-financial aspects, revealed the fact that the Tavistock House Hotel has been performing
rather well for a small hotel, run by a limited number of staffs and the experienced hosts, Brad
and Gill (Tavistockhousehotel.co.uk., 2019). However, one of the significant weaknesses
identified in the functioning of the organization is the total reliance of the staffs on the owners for
the directions regarding the ways in which the guests need to be treated and handled as well as
the ways in which all their demands need to be catered to, in order to help them enjoy their stay
at the hotel (Jaiswal and Dhar, 2017).
In order to train the staffs for enabling them to function on their own, which is necessary since it
will help maintain the quality of service without intervention from the owners, Senge’s five
disciplines of learning organizations might prove to be fruitful. According to this model, the
organizations wherein a learning environment is imminent, the staffs tend to perform better, thus
improving the overall performance of the organization. Developing a common vision regarding
the kind of responsibilities that the staffs are expected to play in the hotel as well as the
echelons of success that Tavistock House is expected to achieve, as per the owners, would go
a long way in improving the contribution of the staffs, as per this model. Moreover, this model
also focuses on systems thinking, which would allow Brad and Gill to identify the flaws with
delivering immaculate instructions to the staffs and rather arranging for training and
development programs, which would boost the performance of Tavistckn House. Team
Learning, which is another important aspect of this model, would encourage the staffs to
venture on their learning endeavors as a team and function in sync with the owners, thus
maintaining a healthy organizational culture, conducive to treating guests properly and well as
achieving ‘personal mastery’ of the vision of the organization and the ways to realize the
same.
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Fig 1: Senge’s Five Disciplines of Organizational Learning
(Source: Bertram et al., 2015)
B. Analyse the ways in which the current performance could be maintained and strengthened (M2)
The Tavistock House Hotel needs to maintain its performance flawlessly in order to continue
with its profitability and image among the customers and stakeholders. According to a model
developed by RETHINK Inc., which delivers help to the clients, with the identification of
challenges, opportunities and appropriate responses, in order to thrive in the market segment,
focus of the managers as well as the management Board, at different levels of management, is
necessary for maintaining as well as strengthening performance (Mattimoe and Tivnan, 2017).
Some of the steps for maintaining as well as strengthening the performance can be enlisted as
follows:
Clearly defining the strategic and visionary goals of the management to the employees, as
well as helping them understand the necessity for achieving those stated objectives
Helping the employees develop logic models and gain clear understanding of the Key
performance Indicators, so that they are able to gauge their own performance on scale and
improve it, as per requirements (Rodrigues, 2018)
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The staffs need to be trained and made knowledgeable in managing the guests as well as
troubleshoot issues that might occur in any processes, since Tavistock House is a small hotel
and thus, full cooperation and close contact with each and every functional team is required, for
delivering impeccable performance
The staffs need to be motivated to follow ‘evidence-based best practices’ within the
organization as well as KAIZEN philosophy, which would help in continuously improving the
quality of services delivered to the guests, by utilizing aspects like improved morale among the
employees, collecting suggestions for improvement and catering to the same, encouraging
increased communication and teamwork as well as incorporating innovations within systems, for
organizational development (Jaiswal and Dhar, 2017)
Handing out details of job descriptions, short-term organizational objectives and
performance indicators to the staffs, for keeping them on track and maintaining the financial
performance of the organization (Boella, 2017)
Fig 2: RETHINK model of Performance Management
(Source: RETHINK Group, 2019)
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C. Recommend, with justification, appropriate actions that can be taken to expand the selected
business (D2)
In order to expand Tavistock House Hotel, the number of guests that can be accommodated
within the hotel needs to be increased first, for which there are a number of changes that needs
to be incorporated in the systems, since the hotel had been small from its inception and thus,
the systems are not supportive of big business functions (Amofa, 2018). Increasing the number
of rooms would allow the hotel to become a big boutique hotel, which can then expand to other
locations of the UK as well.
Firstly, the existent staffs need to be trained properly and made proficient enough to handle all
the functions of the organization as well as manage small issues, without the assistance of
others (Jung and Yoon, 2016). This experience would come in handy when new staffs are
recruited for the expansion purposes; the experienced staffs would be utilized for training the
new ones, on-duty, without requiring to arrange for separate training sessions
Technological support to the working systems, in aspects of booking rooms, maintaining records
of the customers, collecting their feedback and similar such aspects needs to be introduced at
Tavistock House. This would not only ease out the processes once the number of rooms and
guests increased but would also help in communicating amongst the branches and managing
effectively, once more than one branch of the hotel was launched.
Since the client base of Tavistock House is small, the hotel can resort to social media marketing
and advertising processes, for reaching out and attracting increased number of guests to the
hotel, once the capacity of the hotel increased.
The hotel can setup its branches in posh locations like London and England, wherein a large
number of tourists would be able to avail their services, thus enabling the hotel to expand
successfully. As a matter of fact, they can form mergers with other successfully-running
boutique hotels in the market segment, in order to form and established position in the market,
before venturing on their own (Zaitseva et al., 2016).
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Task 3
A. Business plan for organization detailing the assessment of current objectives and plans (M3)
Current business objectives:
 Maintaining the position in the UK market
 Developing the workforce and strengthening them
 Constantly improving the performance, in order to keep up with the demands of the
customers
Business plan
Market Analysis and Competition
The hospitality industry of the UK is very competitive, with almost 79% of the businesses being
small, but yielding great turnovers. The most significant competitors of Tavistock House Hotel
are Apple Tree Bed and Breakfast, Duke of Tavistock and The Harvest Home (Monk, 2017).
The competitive analysis helps in understanding the ways in which Tavistock House Hotel can
implement its strategies and improvisations to win over its significant competitors in the market.
Aspects of
Business
Apple Tree Bed
and Breakfast
Duke of
Tavistock
The Harvest
Home
Tavistock
House Hotel
Quality of
services
Good Superior Satisfactory Superior
Quality of staffs Good Superior Good Good
Location A bit into
residential area
Prime Not very prime
location
Prime
Pricing
strategies
Competent Premium Competent Economic
Popularity
among
customers
Popular Popular Not so popular Very popular,
with very high
incidences of
repeat visits
Table 1: Competitive analysis
Source: Created by the learner
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