SWOT analysis of Carden Park

SWOT analysis of Carden Park Assessment Objective 2

SWOT is an abbreviation for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. SWOT analysis is an important tool for auditing the overall strategic position of a business and its environment. It is the first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors within the business opportunities and threats are external factors. A SWOT analysis is a vital marketing tool for the Carden Park to stay ahead of their competitors, cancel out any weaknesses and to focus on strengths to make them stronger within the market and stand out from competitors.

Strengths

An organisations strengths are its resources and capabilities which can be used as a basis for developing a competitive advantage for them to advertise and to improve the image of the company.

With Carden Park being part of the DeVere chain this is a popular and well branded hotel group throughout Britain. This is a strength as it can bring in brand loyalty with customers re-visiting and helps with their marketing strategy to advertise the company to bring in more customers as the name of the DeVere group is well branded and known. These is an advantage for Carden Park if customers have visited and stayed in other DeVere hotels and have a good experience then this can rub off on Carden Park as people will visit them.

Also Carden Park is located near a major heritage City in Chester with much history. This will help bring in a different types of customers who want to visit the City and the history surrounding it giving the people staying at Carden Park a place to visit in a well known City.

Carden Park has two PGA Championship golf courses which is probably their major strength. This brings in custom from all over the world as golfers want to play on these high quality courses. This also helps the business gain extra profit with the golf facilities being a different sector from the hotel as they have a lot of private members, a Pro Shop, PGA coaching, Driving range … This also brings in advertising for the hotel and the business as a whole.

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There is also a facility for the staff of Carden Park to stay in accommodation onsite for as little as £40 a week with food included. This is a strength to the hotel as people can always be on call if staff members call in ill or there is demand from the customers. It will also help the staff to become closer friends therefore will make a happier work environment.

Carden Park is a hotel that can cater for different occasions and is a hotel that is easily adapted and changed. The hotel does weddings, receptions, corporate meetings, meetings and ...

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Carden Park is a hotel that can cater for different occasions and is a hotel that is easily adapted and changed. The hotel does weddings, receptions, corporate meetings, meetings and parties. Through providing all of these services they provide an opportunity for their customers to upgrade, to stay over and buy bigger packages and is free advertising for them to re-visit in their own leisure time.

Finally Carden Park provides lots of different products and services for their customers to try out when they are staying at the hotel. This brings in extra profit and revenue and will give the customers the ‘feel good factor’ and will prevent them from being bored and encourage repeat business. The hotel also has a family feel. This is also a strength and could be a factor why people book into the hotel. Some of the main products and service are shown below;

Spa centre
Wedding halls and receptions
4 x 4 of reading courses
Gyms
Tennis courts
Corporate facilities

Weaknesses

The absents of certain strengths many be view as weakness to the business also different aspects of the business that the organisation don’t complete top the standard they require will be viewed as a weakness.

A weakness of Carden Park is the location of it. Carden Park is in Cheshire but is in a isolated, unique environment away from Chester City and other focal points therefore a means of transport is need and this could put people off as it another cost for the customer to add on. Also with it not being located within Chester City centre this might exclude the hotel as people might not have heard of the hotel therefore wouldn’t think of going to Carden Park. It is not located near any of the local visitor attractions.

The room sizes in Carden Park are a major issue. This is because the price the customer pays is not value for money on terms of the size of the rooms as they are very basic and are a petite size. The rooms just have a standard bed, T.V, wardrobe and bathroom, but if the customer wants a deluxe and high class room then they have to pay excessive prices which some people will be put off by it.

The hotel is not very well signed posted which makes it hard for people to find especially for people who do not live in the Cheshire area. Also inside the hotel there are a few signs and posters to say where different activities and rooms are. With it being a large complex it is very easy for people to get lost and to go in different directions. Also the signs they do have are primarily in English therefore they are not really catering for foreign guests.

The staff within Carden Park that we visited were friendly but were not to the nature or standard of what I had expected them to be. I would have hope for them to be more helpful and easier to get along with, and with them to not have the attitude that, ‘were better than you’. This could affect the business by repeat custom being lost and people leaving disheartening and negative feedback along with negative recommendations to trends and family.

Carden Park constantly upgrade their facilitates. At the current time they are refurbishing the Spa treatment area, expanding the area and developing the facilities. This will mean building work and areas out action for customers. This may put people off the hotel as they feel the need to use these areas also the noise and different distractions could have a negative effect on their experience during their time at Carden Park.

Finally with Carden Park being presented as a four star hotel but selling to the market with five star prices, this might have a negative effect on people considering staying the hotel as they may believe for the same price they could go to a five star establishment within the area. Also for the marketing team it will be easier to market a five star accommodation rather than a 4 star.

Opportunities

These are the different external factors that the company could use for new opportunities for profit and growth within the future.

With the upcoming Olympic games in London during 2012 opens a huge opportunity for Carden Park. This is because in London 2012 people will be coming to Britain from different destinations around the world and will need accommodation for them to stay in. The Olympics will bring mass tourism to the UK therefore opportunities arise for travel and tourism organisations like Carden Park.

With the future addition of the Spa development this will bring a new unique selling point and will help to market the hotel as a whole. This is because it will bring extra features to the hotel and the Spa will advertise it self as a superior attraction within the hotel which will make them stand out.

With the staff at Carden Park trained to sell and promote the hotel this will mean they will provide added business and revenue to the hotel and will aim to attract the customers to return and to bring in new and different clients. Also this will be a positive for Carden Park as it will mean the staff have product knowledge of the complex and more training for staff in the future could be a big opportunity to develop further.

Threats

These are external changes in the environment and other changing factors outside the companies control that threaten the business.

A main threat to Carden Park is other established hotels in the area of Chester and Cheshire. Although Carden Park is in a remote, unique area away from the City environment, the Grovenser Hotel and Hoole hall Hotel are their biggest rivals as they are both 5 star hotels and target the same market as Carden Park with the same pricing strategies. The advantage that these two hotels have is that they are in the centre of the City and have a higher class star rating over Carden Park.

A different threat to Carden Park is the economy with in the world at the minute called the ‘credit crunch’. The credit crunch is a massive problem within the UK economy and is having a negative effect on people’s spending patterns. The credit crunch means there is less money in the market as banks can’t afford to give out loans therefore the market tightens and money is less available meaning prices tend to rise. This will affect Carden Park as people don’t have the disposable income to spend on luxuries like a 4 star deluxe hotel which could mean people take business to a less expensive hotel. This will lead to Carden Park thinking about new pricing strategies to keep current custom and to also bring in new clients to their hospitality.

The changing weather patterns are a threat to the hotel. This is a threat that Carden Park can’t help nor control. This will have a major effect on the golf course of Carden Park as the weather can close the course or be of conditions whereby people don’t want to play. Also more people are likely to visit or stay at Carden Park when the weather is hot and sunny therefore the changes in current climates might have repercussions for Carden Park and the custom they receive.