Hotel Design: Website Plan - Case Study Example

Hotel Design Website Plan Name Institution Hotel Design Website Plan Introduction and Business Background MGI Hotels and Resort is an Australian based hotel that was registered and started in 2012 comprising of enterprising young entrepreneurs focused on offering customized restaurant services for the market. The business has a wide range of services that are offered for different market audiences and has managed to customize its services so that it focuses on specific audiences within the food, beverages, and nutrition industry. The hotel has invested over the years in research and development from an array of nutrition consultants and chefs to develop cuisines that are not only unique but nutritionally exceptional within the market. With this experience and expertise, MGI Hotels and Resort provides a global sample of cuisines specializing in those from the Mediterranean, Asian, African, and Far East. The hotel was founded on the principle of community empowerment, MGI Hotels and Resort has a big heart for community and boasts of a robust social corporate responsibility approach to its business strategy. The business is involved in extensive social programs all over the country focusing on raising profiles of local communities and youths through provision of platforms for self expression to be heard and socio-economic empowerment. Business Goals and Website Goals Business Goals MGI Hotels and Resort has an expansive reach in its business strategy that is aimed at ensuring that there is success in what it engages in both from an business point of view as well as a socio-cultural point of view. At the center of this business is not only the need to become profitable and one of the most reputed hotel in Sydney but also to become one that is socially responsible and reflective of the society in which it thrives in. In this regard, this business is guided by the goal of offering hotel and resort facilities and services for its clients in the most effective, homely, and humane way possible. In order to achieve this, MGI Hotels and Resort is guided by the following objectives: 1. To maintain high ethical, and intellectual standards in the practice and delivery of its products and services 2. To provide high quality restaurant services in the hotel business for its clients 3. To instill the culture of creativity and innovation in service delivery for its target customers in the market In addition to this, MGI Hotels and Restaurant has five core values that define its organizational culture and environment. These are the following: 1. Professionalism – the hotel shows confidence and skill in what it does and the manner in which it provides its services and products 2. Relevance – within its niche market, MGI Hotels and Resort seeks to ensure that the services that it provides are specific to the needs of the market and the clients that it serves 3. Creativity – the hotel ensures the customization of services that are provided to meet the needs within the market as a way of becoming ethically relevant and compliant with the needs in the market. 4. Commitment – the hotel’s service delivery is based on excellence and professionalism to ensure the utmost consumer experience and satisfaction. 5. Integrity – the hotel employs a code of ethics and professionalism that ensures integrity in its dealings with its clients in the market. Website Goals The following are the goals for the website: 1. To provide a platform where the values of MGI Hotels and Resort can be properly shared and communicated to the intended audience 2. To ensure that clients interested in using MGI Hotels and Resort facilities, services and products are able to do so with ease and comfort by the click on their computers 3. To create traffic on the website as a show of quality in the contents contained on it 4. To create a good platform for easy and user-friendly interaction when using the hotel facilities and resources Competitor Website Analysis There are many hotels in Sydney Australia with different areas of focus and specialization. All of these hotels have websites that indicate the various areas of specialization that are focused on by the individual businesses as well as corporate businesses that have been raised and developed as mergers. In this regard, MGI Hotels and Resort website has to be designed in a way that ensures a level of superiority in the way information is shared and presented on it for use and access by customers (Lundberg, 2014). This means that there are different functionalities that have to be incorporated on the website in order to have a competitive advantage over its competitors in the market. The key functionalities that have to be included on the website include the following: User interface that allows customers to create individual accounts from which they are able to obtain information about the hotel facilities and services as well as make payments based on their choices Customer care communication tools have to be incorporated in the website as backhand tools to ensure that customer care agents and front office assistants are able to remain in contact with customers at all times using different mobile and social media platforms. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the website has to be exceptionally done to ensure that for any search made about hotels in the Sydney area, MGI Hotels and Resorts has to always appear among the top give search engine results. Target Audience The target audience for this website and business is middle class earners and high-end earners in the society. The business has been designed to serve these two different but largely similar audiences based on the nature of services desired and the amount of money a specific audience is willing to pay. This means that the design of the business model of this hotel is designed to categorize the audiences as Gold Clients, Bronze Clients, and Silver Clients. These are the three categories under which services are provided from reservation to meals, as well as conference and resort facilities. Being a business that is set at the heart of Sydney city, it is important that the approach taken in developing it ensures that there is a specific cut-line where services are differentiate through price discrimination strategies to ensure that only the intended audience are able to access and use the facilities while at the same time maximizing business profits. Forecasted Use Environments It is forecasted that this website will be used in two main environments: commercial environment as well as corporate environments. This means that the users accessing and using the website will either be private individuals seeking hotel and resort facilities for personal and family use of corporate organizations seeking hotel and resort facilities for business use as corporate organizations. In this regard it is envisioned that the website will enable users to choose their respective environments by which they would like to be defined before proceeding to obtain pricing and offers available for facilities of their interest. This will be important in ensuring price discrimination for the purposes of customizing services and products based on customers’ user profiles (Lundberg, 2014). User Tasks The guiding principle for any website design is successful accomplishment of tasks set out to be achieved by users. This means that a good website has a homepage design outlook that enables users to achieve their goals. The following are the key user tasks that enable users who come to any given website to achieve their goals: 1. More Detail – given that the hotel business is content-based, this means that users who come to website will be interested in additional details about hotel and resort facilities available for them and this will be achieved through timely updated news headlines handles. 2. Complete a booking – being a hotel and resort website, it is paramount that users who come to the site are enabled to make easy and hustle-free bookings and purchases that they would be interested in. This also means that it has to be effective, safe, and straight-forward. 3. Searching and browsing – to ensure that users can find whatever they are interested in easily, this website will have well designed and detailed internal search engine that allows users to search and find what is of interest to them easily and conveniently. 4. Customer Care Service Tasks – given that this is a service-based business, it is important to have customer care tasks well handled with the customers being adequately managed, responded to and followed up to ensure that they are satisfied with the things for which they need and seek clarifications. Website Content and Development Tools In order to achieve a successful marketing strategy for this website, there are many different tools that can be used which can also help in the execution and monitoring of any campaign that is conducted by the hotel. These include the following: Trapit – this helps in the discovering, sharing and publishing of content providing valuable recommendations that are based on contextual analysis of hotel user preferences (Burger, 2014). This will help the hotel to identify content that specifically relates to what users on the website are interested in which will go a long way in helping the hotel refine its hotel and resort services. Trapit Quora – this is a content development tool that finds content ideas based on FAQ which capitalizes on top and recent stories as well as unanswered questions as a way of ensuring relevant information is obtained (Burger, 2014). Quora Website Content Storyboard There are different content storyboard tools that can be used for this website such as Podio. This is a tool that helps in project management and collaboration when developing content. In addition to this, this tool also has an application market which adds many different functionalities for marketing and campaign programs that may be of interest to the hotel business. Podio References Lundberg, D. (2014). The Hotel and Restaurant Business (6th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Burger, M. (2014). Web Development Design Tools and Tips. New York: Sage Publishers. Read More