Birchfield Manor Bed and Breakfast - Case Study Example

Birchfield Manor Bed and Breakfast Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 The organization: A General Review 3 Objectives 4 Organizational Structure 4Analysis 6 Scope of Products and Services 6 The Issues 6 The Remedies: Effectiveness of the same 7 Project Details 7 Timeline 7 Acceptance Criteria 9 Necessary Resources 9 Conclusion 9 Recommendations 10 Reference 11 Executive Summary Birchfield Manor Bed and Breakfast is a company that offers bed and breakfast, fine dining and banquet hall facilities to the customers in the country side of United States. The striking natural beauty has made Birchfield more attractive to tourists. The company aspires to become an upscale and leading establishment of its kind. However, as of now, the company has not made much investment in advertisements and promotional activities to make people aware of its lovely surrounding and excellent services. The company can capitalize on its lovely exterior to cater to the niche market. However, the company is required to invest more on advertisement and promotional activities to bring into view its quality services. Projects aimed at beautifying the establishment as well as carrying out promotional activities can be initiated as the company is expected to create positive net present value from the respective project. The organization: A General Review Birchfield Manor Bed and Breakfast is aspiring to become a leading establishment of its kind. The organization offers bed and breakfast package, fine dining in an environment known for its pastoral appeal. Apart from this, the organization organizes large projects such as weddings and awards banquets. Located in the extensive countryside of United States, Birchfield intends to take on a full-fledged hospitality approach to this ‘bed and breakfast initiative’ and curve out a loyal customer base in the market place. The charm of Birchfield comes from its unique perspective of selling pass time to a popular demographic pool of urban professionals in the United States. Objectives The organization aims to be one of the most elite and upscale establishments. However, this needs enough advertisement. The company’s objective is to attract the prospective customers to their establishment. Adding to it, the company wants to create a niche market for their services. Organizational Structure The organization has a comprehensive structure to define departmental activities and responsibilities. The structure brings order to every facet of hotel operation, from the front desk activities to the human resources department. In an establishment like Birchfield, the organizational structure is necessary to ensure that maximum profitability is reaped from rooms, restaurants and bar on a regular basis. Brichfield is a lodging establishment with various departments such as rooms department, food and beverage department, human resources department, marketing and sales department and finance department. Typically, Birchfield’s rooms department includes front office, reservations and housekeeping activities. Following is the organizational structure in a full service lodging establishment like Birchfield. : (Source: Wiley, p.30) The primary function of the food and beverage department is to offer quality food and fine beverage to the guests at the lodging establishment. Although, the company now offers only breakfast to its guests, they have decided to extend it further to meet the dining requirements. The company also offers banquet hall facilities for wedding and other events. Sometimes, they even have multiple event bookings at a single time. In such a case, the food and beverage department is required to show a great diversity in the activities performed. Human resource management assumes considerable significance in the hospitality industry. The main function of this department is to recruit and train employees. The head of this department is an exponent in the related labor laws and even provides expert advice to the managers of other departments. The marketing and sales department has the responsibility to sell off the lodging services to the individuals and groups. However, in near future they will have to work more to make the establishment more look more lucrative to the prospective guests. Accounting and finance department is responsible for recording the financial transactions, preparing and interpreting financial statements, appraising the prospective projects and allocating budget for the departments. The organization has a wide span of control. Birchfield is a flat organization, which gives enough control to its employees. Analysis Scope of Products and Services As of now Birchfield is offering a package constituting of bed and breakfast. The company has the advantage of rich rustic ambience to lure its customers and present a pleasant stay with a fine dining. There are tourists who come from nearby places and therefore do not consider staying back. However, as Birchfield only provides a package of bed and breakfast, it misses out the opportunity to cater to these kinds of customers. Brichfield can extend its restaurant facilities further to serve the customers who only look for food and beverages. Adding to it, the company provides banquet hall facilities for wedding and other events. The halls can be decorated further to attract more customers. The Issues As of now Birchfield does not have extensive and appropriate promotional activities. The lodging establishment has only one advertisement being aired on TV. However, its competitors in that region have carried out significant activities to make themselves visible to the prospective customers. As a consequence, the establishment is losing out its customers. Apart from that the organization provides food and room services as a package; that is why they are losing on customers who are either looking for lodging or dining facilities. The Remedies: Effectiveness of the same Looking at the increasing number of tourists in that region, the company is planning to create a niche market for its facilities. It requires appropriate promotional activities, striking architecture and fine dining experience to create an amazing experience for the customers. A study has revealed that most of the tourists coming to this region are adventurous in nature. Apart from advertising on digital and print media, the company can organize some sport and adventurous events. This will be more effective as these kinds of promotional activities are supposed to attract the prospective tourists. As the lodging facility is on country side, people often come here to spend their weekends. Birchfield can advertise its services in the industrial areas, so that it can attract the prospective customers. Project Details Timeline The organization is required to enhance its room and dining facilities. Apart from that, Birchfield is required to establish a prominent and visually striking building structure. The interior is required to be both sophisticated and attractive. The rooms are required to be fully furnished and technologically sound to meet the requirements of the customers. However, this would not only require considerable monetary investment but also a great deal of time. The time period to complete all these activities is assumed to be 1 year, as the establishment has an attractive exterior design to act as the base for further enhancements. Acceptance Criteria As specified earlier, the project requires enough financing to accomplish its objectives. However, after calculating the estimated cash inflow of the project is assumed to exceed the initial cost incurred. Apart from that, payback period for this project is calculated to be 2 years, which seems to be affordable for the company. As a consequence, the project has been accepted for the future benefit of the company. Necessary Resources The organization has skilled and qualified human resources for its services. However, the company needs to recruit employees with high architectural and technological capability to enhance its exterior and interior facilities. Moreover, the company needs sufficient funding to finance its project. The company has goodwill in the capital market, which it can capitalize, to fetch the required funding for the project. Conclusion Birchfield bed and breakfast is a country side lodging establishment. Tourists come here to spend their leisure time amidst the natural beauty. Visitors primarily constitute the professionals, who come to spend their weekends and adventurous people who love to explore the virgin beauty of nature during their leisure periods. As of now, the company offers a package comprising of bed and breakfast to the customers. As a consequence, the establishment is losing out many tourists who are on the lookout of fine dining. The company is required to enhance its services in order to cater to more tourists so as to meet its aspiration of becoming the leading establishment in the region. Recommendations Birchfield intends to be an excellent and upscale establishment in the region. However, there are certain issues which are hampering its growth prospects. As of now, the company has not yet made any considerable investment in the advertisements apart from having a TV commercial. As a result, the lodging establishment is unable to reach out to the prospective customers. The company is advised to develop strong advertisement and promotional activities to make it more visible to the prospective consumers. Apart from that, the company is required to enhance its exterior and interior designing to cater to the sophisticated and adventurous tourists coming there. The company can have some rooms designed with specific themes to make them more attractive. Technology and other facilities in the rooms must be at par with the demand of the professionals. In a nutshell, the company must endeavor to curve a niche market for itself. Reference Wiley. The Lodging of a Lodging Establishment. No Date. Organizational Structure. October 28, 2010. < http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/78/EHEP0004/EHEP000478.pdf>. Read More