Strategic planning for the globally branded luxury city hotel

505 savjetovanje consulting


THE SITUATION

Our client is the leading hotel of a capital city situated in the South-East Europe region. It is a luxury city hotel with a strong conference business, several food and beverage outlets and spa facilities. Hotel is franchised by one of the top global hotel brands. The hotel is performing well and has a high global ranking in terms of service quality. To have a mid-term plan, the client has invited us to develop a strategic plan.


THE APPROACH

We have applied a standard approach in hotel strategic planning and involved the hotel's executive team in the process. In that way, the hotel team gained the practice of strategic planning, independently preparing the updates of the strategic plan in the years to come. We have implemented a series of subsequent sessions and workshops with the executive team to jointly produce a strategic plan. Our objectives were focused on the following.

  • Realistic evaluation of the financial potential of the hotel for the next 3-year period, which stems from a comprehensive Market Analysis, Sales & Marketing Plan, and Operations, Investment and Financial Plan.
  • After completing the Market analysis, the hotel's sales team strengthened their skills in how to realistically determine the competitive position of the hotel in a market environment based on a structured approach of market analysis, identifying the key market risks and possible mitigation measures.
  • Four possible strategic options for the hotel have been analysed. All the options have been thoroughly assessed and evaluated from the various aspects, and the hotel's team proactively participated in the process. The two realistic options were defined to be elaborated in Strategic Plan: Ongoing Scenario and Challenging Sales Scenario.
  • Market opportunities regarding increasing the revenues have been researched, and a proactive approach to activate different sales channels and market segments have been defined in the Sales & Marketing Plan.
  • Standards of strategic planning have been implemented and adopted by the Hotel's Team. The Strategic Plan will be regularly updated in the next period, thus serving as an effective strategic management tool.
  • CEO has shown top-notch managerial capability in maintaining positive cash flow under COVID-19 radical negative impact. Hilton's CEO has an in-depth strategic understanding of the hotel's market position, the competencies of its team and the opportunities to improve the operating performance. During the project, the CEO has involved the whole executive management team in various project segments, thus demonstrating an excellent understanding of the significance of people engagement by empowering the entire team.

THE RESULTS
  • Straightforward and hands-on strategic plan, prepared for two business scenarios, due to the uncertainty of the post-Covid recovery period; it will enable the executive team to steer the performance over the next three years effectively
  • Increased awareness of the hotel's executive team on the market trends and competitive position of the hotel
  • Acquired know-how on strategic planning according to standard procedure