- Primary Research-
- Interview with the owner of RDB Palace
- Survey of Tourists
- Survey of Business Corporates
- Survey of Hotels
- Secondary Research-
- Finding out information about hotels through their websites.
● ACTION PLAN:-
The current marketing mix of RBD Palace
RDB palace runs as a budget hotel and provides rooms at cheap rates. It also provides a banquet hall with a capacity of 40 people and a dormitory with a capacity to accommodate 30 people. All the rooms are air-conditioned, have a color television and have 24 hrs running hot and cold water. The hotel has STD and ISD facilities and also provides lockers to keep precious items. RDB Palace provides taxi on request and doctor if needed. It also has a restaurant which serves food only to those who stay in the hotel.
RDB Palace has a pricing strategy. Prices are generally kept low to attract more customers; demand for rooms plays a very important role in setting the prices. RDB Palace has two categories of rooms: - semi-deluxe and deluxe rooms. The price of semi-deluxe rooms varies from Rs.750-1200 where as the price of deluxe rooms varies from Rs.1300-1800. As the rooms are low priced, it will easily attract the customers.
During the peak season (oct-march), price of rooms is more than the price of rooms during the off season (may-august). This is because of the fact that a large number of tourists visit the city of Jaipur during winters and because of demand being unpredictable.
The location of RBD Palace is the key factor for its existence in the market. The area where it is situated is preferred by the tourists because of its distance from the railway station (.5 Km) and the bus stand (1.5 Km) and also it is not too far away from the main city.
RDB Palace regularly advertises in Dainik Bhaskar (one of the leading newspapers) and also in the RTDC (Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation) book of hotels. The hotel has not yet introduced itself to the latest technology i.e. it does not have a website of its own and does not promote online. RDB Palace has a set budget on promotion i.e. Rs.1 lakh per annum and cannot exceed the limit. This is because it is a low budget hotel and the promotion costs add on to the overheads and eventually constraints the profits but still promotion plays a very important role in marketing.
ANSOFF MATRIX
The Ansoff matrix is an analytical tool that helps managers to devise their product and market growth strategies. After referring to the above diagram and analysing the current situation of RDB Palace and its position in the market, it is clear that it is trying to exist in the market with existing product. The management feels that there is a need to grow because of the increased competition.
Analysis of the survey:-
- I took survey of 30 hotels which are of the same category and provide low prices to their customers. Survey of 30 tourists and 30 business corporate. A few questions were asked and I analyzed the answers.
Analysis of the survey of 30 hotels, 30 tourists and 30 business travelers
- The survey has brought forward the fact that 36 % of the hotels promote their hotel online and 33 % of the tourists and 37 % of the business corporates book their rooms online. The survey has also proved a point that hotels promote their hotel through taxi drivers and agents in railway station and in the bus stand i.e. 17 % and
- Only 6 of the surveyed hotels provide food to local customers and 1 is in the process in doing that.
- All those hotels that have a website get a greater number of international customers than those which don’t have a website.
- All the business corporates and a majority of the tourists prefer to stay in the same hotel and the most important thing that they look for in a hotel is price followed by service and location.
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70% of the times, the firm pays for the business corporates and 30% of the times, they come on their own.
NEW ANSOFF MATRIX
MARKET POSITIONING
Market positioning is an analytical tool that ranks different products, services or firms in relation to others in the market according to the views of the general public. By positioning itself in the market, it can promote itself accordingly to create a brand name. To create a brand name, brand development is needed. It is a part of the firm’s long-term marketing strategy. It is the process of strengthening and building the name and image of a brand in order to boost its sale, leading to increased profitability.
A position map is a visual tool which shows the customers’ perception of a product or brand in relation to others in the market. It is also known as the perception map.
On the basis of the perception map, I would suggest RDB Palace to target the business corporates. This is because more and more business deals are taking place in Jaipur, thus the number of the business travelers has increased to a great extent. Also, because if you target business travelers you will have to keep the standard of the hotel very high because they give preference to both price and quality and if you are successful you will create a brand for yourself and would be known for your pricing scheme and quality and will be able to retain consumer loyalty.
Conclusion:-
After analysing I have finally reached to the conclusion that though RDB Palace does not lag behind but it still needs to look upon certain things such as starting a new website, targeting the business corporates, opening a new restaurant, having agents in railway station and bus stand etc, in order to differentiate and increase its profitability.
Recommendations:-
My recommendations to RDB Palace would be:-
- To specialise in one sector in order to create a brand name and differentiating itself.
- To start a new website and to promote online because of the advancement in the e-commerce industry and increase in the awareness of online bookings in India and in order to get direct customers. 36 % of the hotels promote their hotel online.
- To have a good relationship with the taxi drivers and also with the agents who get customers from railway station and the bus stand in order to increase the occupancy rate and only 17% of the hotels do that.
- To focus on the pricing strategy, service and location in order to retain consumer loyalty because these are the most important things that the customers look for in a hotel.
- To target the business travelers and to tie up with several companies because more and more business deals are taking place in Jaipur and to target business customers during the off season by providing rooms at lower rates in order to increase the occupancy rate during the off season.
- Targeting business travelers will turn out to be more profitable as they are more loyal to a hotel. 100 % of the business travelers prefer to stay in the same hotel on the other hand 70 % of the tourists prefer to stay in the same hotel.
- To provide food to local customers. Although RDB Palace has a restaurant but it does not provide food to local customers. One big advantage of that would be increasing awareness.
The above recommendation is on the basis of the survey and ansoff matrix and could vary from hotel to hotel as many factors also come into play.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Business and Management, Paul Hoang, IBDP Press.
APPENDICES
INTERVIEW with the OWNER
Q. How is your hotel?
Ans: RDB Palace has been running successfully fir the past seven years.
Q. Who started the hotel and what was the main purpose behind this idea?
Ans. I took the initiative to start the hotel. Jaipur is a tourist destination and it has a bright future. Many tourists visit the city so keeping in mind I started the hotel.
Q. What do you have to say about the location of RDB Palace?
Ans. It is situated in the heart of the city of Jaipur. The location of RBD Palace is the key factor for its existence in the market. The area where it is situated is preferred by the tourists because of its distance from the railway station (.5 Km) and the bus stand (1.5 Km).
Q. What are the services that you provide to the customers?
- 24 hrs running hot and cold water
- ISD and STD facility is available
- 24 hrs room service
- Taxi
- There are lockers available
- Restaurant which operates for 24 hrs.
Q.What is the room rates and how many categories of rooms do you have?
Ans. We have 14 rooms in total
- Semi-deluxe- Rs.800-1200 (8 rooms)
- Deluxe- Rs.1400-1800 (6 rooms)
It mainly depends on the demand. If the demand is high, higher prices are charged from the customers.
Q. What is the occupancy rate of RDB Palace?
- Peak season (October-march)- 90-95%
- Off season (may-august)- 40-50%
Q. Who are your main customers?
- Tourists- 60%
- Business corporate- 30%
- Others- 10%
Tourists are our main customers and we have Indian as well as foreign tourists. Indian tourists account for 70% of the total number of tourists and rest are foreigners.
Q. What about wedding parties?
Ans. We don’t encourage them for several reasons:-
- They make the hotel dirty.
- There are no timings whatsoever.
- Suppose, if we give 8 rooms to the wedding party, the other guests staying at out hotel complain. It has happened that is why we don’t encourage wedding parties.
Q. What food do you serve to the customers?
- Indian (north and south)
- Chinese
Q. Don’t foreign tourists face a problem with the kind of food that you provide?
Ans. Generally, they eat outside but we do provide omelettes and they are happy with that.
Q. What, according to you, are the major problems that Hotel RDB Palace is facing?
Ans.
- Infrastructure
- Traffic
- Parking
- Increased competition
- Low promotional budget
Q. Who are your main competitors and why?
Ans.
- Hotel Kartikey
- Vaishnavi Guest House
- Bani Park Hotel
- H.K.Palace
They are the main competitors because they are of the same size. They almost provide the same kind of facilities at the same rate.
Q. As you said that you have a low promotional budget. How do you promote the hotel to create awareness?
Ans. Once in three months, we give advertisements of RDB Palace in Dainik Bhaskar (leading newspaper) and RTDC (Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation) book of tourism has the name of RDB Palace.
Q. What is the cost of advertisements per annum?
Ans. The budget on promotion is Rs.1 lakh per annum.
Q.What is the response of advertisements?
Ans. Satisfactory.
Q. How do you know?
Ans. We maintain a book in which we ask our customers to tell us the way they came to know about the hotel. On the basis of that we can analyse and decide the amount of money that needs to be spent on promotional activities.
PEST analysis of RDB PALACE
POLITICAL:
- Government has taken a lot of action to support the tourist industry. It provides subsidy to many hotels in Jaipur to promote Rajasthan tourist industry.
- There are lesser political barriers in opening a hotel than starting any other business.
ECONOMICAL:
- Jaipur is the most developed city of all the cities in Rajasthan making it a very good tourist destination.
- Strong competition from other budget hotels constraints the profit.
- High traffic, pollution and delayed bus and train services also create a problem.
SOCIAL:
- As most of the population is middle clas, there is a high demand for the budget hotels.
- Many business activities taking place in Jaipur has led to an increase in the number of corporate clients.
TECHNOLOGICAL:
- Advance in technology has led to an increase in demand for Wi-fi and internet services; this in turn has affected the number corporate clients in hotels which do not provide this service.
- Many hotels have their websites where a person can book rooms online; RBD PALACE has not yet introduced itself to this technology.
SWOT analysis of RDB PALACE
SWOT ANALYSIS:-
A SWOT analysis is a very useful decision-making tool. It can be used to assess the current and future situation of a product, brand, COMPANY or decision.
A SWOT analysis of RDB PALACE was carried out in order to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
CORRECTIONS
- Bibliography
- Analysis of all the tools
- One ansoff matrix
- Editing
- Product differentiation
- Current position maps
