W Hotel is ideally located in the heartland of the financial and business districts, a 10 minute walk from SICEC (Singapore International Conference and Exhibition Centre). There are 5 primary competitors to the Hotel. These hotels are within a 1 kilometer radius of W Hotel itself. Market research on our competitors is accomplished through;
Ways to gather competitor information:
- Study of their brochures, which consist of information of packages and prices, which they are currently offering to their potential clients. From their brochure, we also managed to find out our competitor’s unique hotel products.
- We sent someone to study our competitor’s hotel’s features and facilities.
- We came out with a questionnaire to get customers feedback. 200 meeting planners worldwide were involved in this survey.
- We also studied Advertisements and Promotions in International Magazines, on Travel Websites and Newspapers put out by our competitors.
- The trade show organized by NATAS held in the previous week from 12 July to 15 July has also given us a chance to set up our showcase. At the same time the trade show has allowed us to study our competitor’s products.
Through our research, we have found out that our 5 competitors basically have their strength and weaknesses. They are well known in the local scene and are better known in Singapore. This is also partly due to W hotel being a new player on the scene.
All our competitors provide a free shuttle service to Singapore Expo. They are also basically smaller than W Hotel, thus with less human traffic and not so crowded. With a smaller premise, guests usually don’t easily get lost. But none of the hotels have a convention centre in their premises. These hotels also do not have a direct link to the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system. None of them are also linked to a major shopping mall, unlike W Hotel. Our competitor hotel’s facilities are basically inferior to W hotel. Their facilities are smaller, their restaurants and F&B (Food and Beverage) outlets not as numerous. W Hotel also has a much more modern and bigger business centre. We also have a larger number of meeting rooms each with a larger capacity.
Besides knowing our competitors, it is important to know what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that W Hotels has.
W Hotel is a member of an acclaimed International chain of Hotels with many great Hotels in various parts of the world, especially in the United States of America and Europe. This chain is well known in the USA and Europe and is now lending its name and prestige to W Hotel, Singapore as well as powerful financial backing.
W hotel Singapore is located in the heartland of the city’s business, historical, cultural and shopping districts. It is linked to a major shopping complex and MRT train station. It is just a 10-minute walk from the SICEC and only 15 minutes coach ride from the Singapore Expo.
W Hotel’s facilities include:
- A Business Centre with the facilities for high speed Internet, fax machines, small discreet discussions/meeting rooms and also a complement of staff with good knowledge in secretarial work.
- 2 swimming pools, one indoor and one outdoor Olympic size pool.
- A fully equipped and modern gym with aerobic equipment and also traditional weight machines.
- A huge Convention centre with 2 large, pillar-less ballrooms each capable of sitting 1000 guests. The ballrooms have the breath of an amphitheatre with unrestricted view due to the absence of pillars. An almost limitless variety of configurations using wall partitions is also possible.
- 15 meeting rooms with the full facilities of a modern office. LCD projectors, Video Conferencing equipment and the like.
- The Hotel is organized into 4 wings, each with a separate theme or motif. This will allow us to segregate tourist guests from convention guests alleviating the problem of congestion and overcrowding.
- 1000 standard modern guests room with each with in-room high-speed Internet connection port and Internet television. 250 Executive Suites with additional fax machine facility with a separate study room. 40 Gold Priority Suites with additional in-room Jacuzzi and bar. 2 Presidential Suites with luxurious fittings and with additional Audio-Video Facilities and in-room computer.
- There is also a club lounge, a separate health spa and gym facilities and business centre for guests who stay at the executive floor.
- Total of 10 restaurants and lounges, including 2 lounges, Chinese restaurant, Italian restaurant, Nyonya restaurant, Thai restaurant, Japanese restaurant, Jazz bar, 24hours coffee house and Bakery and Delicatessen.
- There is also a 24-hour Concierge service. In addition, Executive Level guests have the privilege of a 24-hour butler service.
- There is also an Airport shuttle, City Tour shuttle, Convention Centre or Singapore Expo shuttle.
W Hotel Singapore is still relatively new in Singapore being only open for a year. From customer feedback, the Hotel is not very well known in Singapore. We also gather that guests felt the Hotel was too impersonal due to its size. Guests also found that it is easy to get lost within the premises.
One other complaint was that our food was of mediocre quality. This is probably due to the mass production qualities and the quantity that we have to cater. There is also high noise with high human traffic of locals and tour groups in the lobby and driveway. All these negative traits and weaknesses will be addressed later in this proposal.
Target Market
To increase the convention market share of W Hotel by 10% within the next 12 months, we have come up with an action plan. Our main target is to increase the occupancy rate of our Convention Centre and meeting rooms. Our main customers are the people who will like to hold a conference. The first person to meet up is the company’s meeting planners. These are a few suggestions to increase or promote our convention centre and meeting rooms.
Below are the actions to be taken:
- Promotion
- Advertising
- Advertise our products in publications and magazines e.g. Asia Week, Travel Journal, Far East Economic Review, Condenast Traveler, Global Finance, Media Magazine.
- Newspapers e.g. The News Straits Times, The Straits Times, The International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, U.S.A Today, New York Times, Australian Post, The Guardian and The Observer.
- Trade-Out or Exchange Trade Advertising
- Since we are planning to spend money on advertising our product, I would suggest to do a trade-out with the advertising firm. By offering them our guest room, meeting rooms and Foods and beverages facilities on non-peak period. This will increase hotels occupancy rates on non-peak periods and at the same time the hotel facilities will be utilizes too.
- Joints Advertising or Co-operation
- W Hotel is a Chain Hotel, even though it is new in Singapore, it is well known worldwide. Compared to our competitors, our hotel is modern and new with the latest facilities. It will be an advantage to do Joint Advertising with our competitors. Through our research on our competitors W Hotel have a lot of strong points compared to them. One of the advantages of joint advertising with our competitors would be to use theirs brand name in the advertisement to draw attention to our hotel. Joint advertising is also cheaper.
- Price
- Price is a power tool in increasing sales because it can be rapidly and frequently adjusted to bring supply and demand into balance.
- Give discounts to our existing customers, who book our ballrooms for more than 3 days as well as the free use of meeting rooms.
- 1% commissions will be given to the meeting planners or our hotel staffs who manage to sell bookings of the convention centre.
- Terms of payments etc. Allow a 2 installment payments beside the deposit.
- A free all-inclusive personal accident and loss of valuables insurance policy worth $100,000 to all our convention customers during their stay in Singapore.
- Personal Selling
- Actively push our sales personnel to be proactive to call our existing customers and meeting planners as well as our past customers. Update them with our latest promotions. Face to face communication can enhance a deep personal relationship with customers and generate a quicker response.
- Set up a special task force to seek out potential new customers. One of the methods to use is also to send out sales personnel to meet with potential new customers and apprise them of our hotel’s facilities and promotions. This task force should comprise of staff from various departments so as not to burden any department too severely.
- Direct Mail
- Update our customers and other company’s meeting planners with the latest promotion by mail which may include:
- Brochure – A colourful brochure which highlights the facilities, ballroom and meeting rooms with a floor plan of the Convention Centre and also the seating capacity in the various avaiable configurations.
- CD-ROMs – A special CD-ROM with a tour of our facilities and facilities. The CD-ROM would also contain relevant information such as the floor plan of the ballrooms and convention centres, the available configurations and seating capacity and also even a panoramic view of the facilities.
- Public Relation
- Uses newsworthy events related to an operation to gain news coverage. As a suggestion, perhaps we can donate 10% of our Convention sales to go to charity e.g. National Kidney Foundation, The Presidents Charity Ball and The Courage Fund.
- Sponsoring major events like The Annual Singapore Duck Race, The New Paper Big Walk etc.
- Familiarization
- I would suggest we offer our potential clients or meeting planners a complimentary stay in our hotel. By staying at W Hotel, they will have a better idea of our products. Our sales personnel will have chance to personally conduct a tour and impress them with our convention centre. Besides having a better picture of our facilities they will also have chance to gauge the efficiency and friendliness of our hotel staff.
- Cross Selling
- Since W Hotel is a chain hotel, it provides the opportunity to carry out cross selling. It will be good to carry out the activities especially in China, United States, Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and Malaysia. Similar promotions like the ones in Singapore can be offered.
- Internal Selling Techniques
We are also targeting customers already staying in the hotel.
- Printed Promotion
- Big posters promoting the convention centre will be displayed outside the hotel, as this a central location with high human traffic. Posters will also be hung it at the poolside and the lobby area to show our main promotion for the month.
- Promotional sheets and notices will also be placed at places like the hotel entrance, the entrance of a restaurant, hotel rooms, inside the lifts and also the front desk.
- Brochures will be placed inside hotel rooms, the hotel lobby, front desk and also at the concierge.
- Employee Promotion
- Every employee plays a sales role. To encourage our employees, we can come out with a “Staff Award Program”. Whoever manages to sell the convention centre will be awarded incentives. This may come in monetary form or some other rewards.
- Another program is “Catch me doing something Good”. This includes compliments from guests and also your direct boss. Indirectly this will motive the staff because it involve in their promotion too. This will show the involvement and support of management.
- Training will be provided to our sales staff to improve their efficiency. Training can also be provided to interested staff from other departments.
- A clear introduction of our motive or objective will be announced to all the employees. It is important to let our employees know that this project will be beneficial for both the company and the employees. As we know every employee in the hotel plays a important role in his or her own respective area of work.
Discussion on weaknesses of W Hotel
W Hotel Singapore is still fairly new in Singapore. Many people do not yet know the full extent of our facilities and services that we offer. From our customer feedback, we also perceive that W Hotel is not well known in Singapore yet. Guests felt that the Hotel is impersonal due to its size. They also complained that it is easy to get lost. Another main concern of our customers is that they may get poor quality food due to the large amounts of food that we have to cater. Another main concern is also noise. This coupled with high human traffic of locals and tour groups in the lobby and driveway is a major concern for many of our customers.
Many of the problems mentioned above can be resolved;
- In time W Hotel will become a superbrand in Singapore. To hasten that, we can promote the Hotel with exposure in the media and also tie-ins and sponsorship of events and charities.
- To convey to guests a great feeling of welcome and hospitality, our front office staff will have special action teams. Each select team will cater to a convention and or conference. This service starts at the airport itself where team members will meet and usher delegates to waiting coaches. During the ride over the delegates will be shown a welcome message from the General Manager W Hotel. Upon arrival at the Hotel, delegates will be ushered to a special lounge where they will be served welcome drinks and refreshments whilst their check-in is being processed. The team leader responsible for that particular convention together with his/her assistants will also welcome them.
- Each delegate will be given a special check-in package which will have a floorplan of the hotel and also pictorial directions to the convention centre. An area map of Singapore City is also included with major landmarks prominently marked. A shuttle bus service schedule is also provided.
- W Hotel has four wings of guest rooms. 2 of those wings will be dedicated to convention guests. This should help alleviate noise pollution due to other human traffic and or tour groups arriving. Also, delegates from a particular convention will be placed together on a single floor or a few floors for larger groups. The hotel’s rooms are also well furnished with soundproof walls, which will also enhance the customer’s privacy.
- Each room will have a service hotline, which will be directed to the team handling the convention. The hotline will be providing a concierge service as well as handle any enquires that delegates may have.
- The Hotel will provide shuttle services to Singapore Expo, SICEC as well as the City. Pickup Locations and schedules will be prominently displayed at strategic locations. A copy of this will also be given to each delegate.
- W Hotel is centrally located, thus will always have high human traffic in its lobby and driveway. However, the Hotel has separate pick-up locations and access areas for its four guest wings. Most public areas are only accessible with a guest room key. Also guest room’s floors are only accessible with a guest room key. Pickup locations for the various shuttles are also in different locations to prevent a high density of human traffic.
- W Hotel covers a vast area and in order to prevent guests difficulty in finding their way, clear and prominent signage will be employed together with strategically placed maps and floorplans. Hotel Security Guards will also be prominently visible in strategic locations to help those who lose their way. Location maps will be placed at every lift lobby, large public access area and also the main Lobby.
- Another major weakness is in Food and Beverage. To avoid the feeling of mass production quality in our food, we can offer special customisable menus for each convention. Also the locations for the meals can be varied to enhance the ambience and palate. We can offer different types of food for high tea, lunch and dinner from our Thai Restaurant, Chinese Restaurant, Nyonya Restaurant, Japanese Restaurant and Italian Restaurant each day. Special Novelty and Theme Dinners and shows can also be staged e.g. Western night with waiters and waitresses in old western costumes with Red Indians.
- One major concern for conventions is usually that the lunch break is fairly short and also somewhat staggered. This can be overcome by employing the Malay Wedding dinner plan. Tables that can sit only four will be catered. Larger parties are possible by combining the tables. Thus you need only gather 3 or 4 delegates to get a table. As soon as a table is occupied, food will be served. 4 dishes to be shared with rice for each table of 4. This will also prevent cold food being served to guests as the food is only dished out when guests are at the table.
- In a more traditional setting, starters can be pre-plated to cut down on the duration of the lunch. Such starters should be cold e.g. salads, sushi, canapés or cold soups. Desserts like ice cream and mousse can also be prepared in advance and placed in a coolbox with dry ice at each table.
Conclusion
In order to increase the convention market share in the W Hotel by 10% within the next 12 months, research was carried out on our competitors to find out their strength and weaknesses. Based on the research and the current situation, an action plan was formulated taking into consideration and by applying the “sales and marketing management” concept and the use of “promotional mix/selling techniques”.
With the war in Iraq over and SARS under control in Singapore as well as the region, tourist arrivals into Singapore is picking up once again. This shows an increase in passenger confidence to travel. Singapore Airlines and many other major airlines in the region having suffered debilitating losses during this period are wooing passengers with huge discounts in airfares and packages. The Singapore Government is also injecting funds to the tune of 20 million dollars into this sector to further jumpstart the economy. All these factors should bear fruit to show a marked increase in the Conventions and Conferences sector. This coupled with our action plan should net W Hotel a sizeable increase in market share.
References
- Power, Thomas F (1995),Introduction To The Hospitality Industry. -3rd ed.
- Tim Knowles, Dimitrios Diamantis and Joudallah Bey-Mourhabi (2001),The Globalization Tourism and Hospitality : A Strategic, first published 2001
- Patrick Forsyth (1999), Maximizing Hospitality Sales, first published 1999
- Bob Brotherton (2003), The International Hospitality Industry, first published 2003
- Kother, Philip, John Bowen, James Makens (1998) 2nd ed. Marketing For Hospitality and Tourism.