Business and Operations of Marriott International - Essay Example

? Describe the particular business and its operations, as well as industry challenges and opportunities it faces Introduction Company overview and position of its sector in hospitality or tourism industry Global hospitality and tourism industry is becoming highly competitive due to increasing market demand and presence of several leading global organizations. The essay will focus on the hospitality industry. This essay will discuss about the operations of Marriott International. Moreover, the essay will help to determine the challenges and opportunities for global hospitality industry. Marriott International was founded by John Willard Marriott. It is one of the largest luxury hotel chain headquartered in Maryland. Hospitality industry is one of the emerging industries around the globe. The hospitality & tourism sector is one of the major global economic growth drivers (Papatheodorou 2006). Company’s product, services and facilities Marriott International has nearly 3,800 properties around the globe. The organization has employed almost 144,000 employees globally. Marriott International is considered as one of the most ethical companies. The organization is recognized as a US based MNC. The organization manages and franchises an extensive portfolio of hotels, resorts and lodging facilities. The organization operates its business practices in more than 74 countries around the globe. Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels and Gaylord Hotels are the successful and popular properties of Marriott International. All the properties and extended brands provide simple, elegance and inviting atmosphere to its guests. As these are luxurious hotels they provide several premium services to its guests including fine dining, signature service amenities, twice-daily housekeeping, 24-hour room service, business & fitness centers, concierge services and deluxe & suit level of comfort-personal services. JW Marriott is one of the leading and popular brands of Marriott International. The properties of Marriott International are considered as one of the largest accommodator in global luxurious hotel chain industry. Discussion It is clear from the above discussion that the luxury hotel chain has a significant client base. The organization is popular for providing luxurious and premium hospitality services to its customers. Target Market Luxury, comfort and premium customer service are the major business mantras of Marriott International. People of upper income level are the major target customers of Marriott International. They mainly target business executives as their potential customers. In addition to these Marriott International tries to influence several people of middle class income level through select services. Fairfield Inn and Suits is the example of select service lodging group that influence the people of middle class income group to experience the facilities and services of Marriott International (Tranter 74). However, it can be stated that effective product and service differentiation and effective customer satisfaction help Marriott International to achieve a potential competitive edge within hospitality and tourism industry. Effective marketing mix strategy helped Marriott International to reach its chosen target market. Marketing Mix Marketing Mix is one of the important strategic tools that help an organization to develop product, price, distribution and promotion strategy. Product Hotels and resorts are the major products of Marriott International. The organization has different kinds of brand and hotels like Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels, Gaylord Hotels, Fairfield Inn, Marriott vacation Club and Springhill Suites. Each brand has its own theme or style (Brotherton 81). The organization generally targets the people of different groups of income by providing customized and selective services. Effective product and service differentiation strategy helps an organization to develop potential client base around the globe. Price Each and every Marriott brand has different price levels as different brands of Marriott International try to attract different customer base. For example, the properties generally charges high premium price for the executive suite rooms. The target customers for these kinds of suits are high level officials or business executives. The organization provides superior amenities and services against the premium prices (Buttle 32). On the other hand, several brands try to attract the people of middle class income level by providing selective or optional deluxe room and guest services. In this case, the hotels charge minimal price comparing to the price of luxurious suit rooms. Different pricing strategy helps the organization to target the people of both middle and upper income group. Place Marriott International has hotels in many developed and developing countries. The hotels are majorly situated in the developed urban areas like airports, business parks and center of the city. Recently several brands of Marriott are trying to open new hotels near high ways and emerging towns. The organization is trying to target all kinds of people through this strategy. This strategy will help to filter and target the appropriate customers. Promotion Marriott International implemented several types of promotional strategies to promote its different properties and brands. Marriott International utilized its own company website to attract the potential target customers. It provides extensive amount of data, information and clarification in its company website (Barth 281). Moreover the organization used to send notification e-mails regarding new packages and services to its existing business clients and customers to maintain its potential global client base. In addition, word of mouth strategy is another significant way of promotion. Satisfied customers used to tell their experiences to their friends, relatives and belongings. It helps the organization to acquire new customers. In addition to these, new innovative campaign and print media advertisements increased the brand awareness around the global hospitality and tourism market. The organization is promoting its properties in different ways to target the people of income groups. Happy summer and weekend package is one of the popular promotional campaigns of Marriott International. Attributes and Qualifications of Staffs The organizations try to provide effective customer services to its guests. People generally expect premium and valuable customer services against their package and room night cost. Therefore, Marriott International always tries to recruit skilled and effective employees to justify their organization’s mission and business values (Lleiman 23). Operation and sales are considered as the two major and prime department of a hotel. At the junior executive level, Marriott International tries to hire employees with dynamic skills and hardworking ability. The organizations try to recruit skilled and devoted front office and housekeeping executives in order to enhance effective customer services. At the managerial level, the organizations try to focus on the work experience and effective management skill of the managers. Operation is the major department of Marriott International. Effective in-house operation and customer services ease the responsibility of the sales team that helps them to conduct pressure free sales call. Legal Compliance Issues Gender discrimination in the workplace impacts the good reputation of the organization. Marriott International is well known as most sustainable and ethical organization. However, this gender discrimination issue helped some individuals within the workplace to make legal complaints against the management of the organization. It is quite true that workplace conflict and legal issues can affect the business performance. Several employees resigned from their job due to this reason in last three years. After looking into these issues, the management and governing body implemented clear review process to overcome this process. Sustainability Issues Marriott International is recognized as the most ethical and sustainable global organization. Following Triple Bottom Line model will help to discuss the sustainability issues associated with the Marriott International. Economic The organization operates under global luxurious hotel chain industry. The industry is facing several difficulties and challenges due to economic slowdown and its consequences. People are trying to avoid these kinds of accommodation options (Siegel 541). Therefore, Marriott International has to change its business model to support the buying power of customers. They are trying to focus on the middle class income group to maintain their global market share in this difficult situation. Social Marriott International is known as for its sustainable business operation practices. They always believe in global workplace diversity in order to maintain effective workplace environment and avoid workplace conflicts (Burgstaller 2). However, recently the management of the organization faced several workplace issues regarding gender discrimination. It affected the reputation of the organization. Marriott International appointed a review team in the workplace to avoid these kinds of conflicts in near future. Environment The government of the countries restricted the unethical business operations of several organizations to control the emission level of carbon. Several governments have developed several green policies to reduce the level of environment pollution. However, Marriott International strictly follows these rules, regulation and policies to bring sustainability in their global business process. They have significantly increased their water recycling rate to 69%. Zero solid waste, disposable product elimination, day-time cleaning and environment friendly energy consumption sustained the business process of the properties of Marriott International (Carter 14). It helped the organization to overcome its previous environment elated issues. Trends in the Industry In past years the global economy was experiencing economic boom. The people had the reason to buy or consume luxurious products or services due to favorable economic conditions. Recent financial crisis, global economic recession, real estate bubble and several hazards like terrorist activities and natural calamities are affecting the sales growth rate of this industry. People are trying to compromise with their luxury and satisfaction level due to unfavorable economic situations. Global luxurious hotel chain industry is suffering from economic downturn. Hike in price of raw material and fuel price can affect the present market share of luxurious hotel chains. Marriott International understood the market challenges and future threats. Several organizations within the industry are trying to target the people of middle class income level. Different brands and properties of Marriott International are providing selective and optional services to the customers based on the demand of customers. Different cost effective properties have implemented cost based pricing strategy to influence the global customer base. It can be stated that Marriott International adopted right strategy at the right time that can help the organization to overcome future challenges and threats. Contemporary Issues and Future Challenges Global economic slowdown and market saturation is affecting the market demand for the hospitality and tourism industry. The global economy is experiencing recession and its consequences. Low disposable income, limited purchasing power and high unemployment rate are the major consequences of economic slowdown. People are trying to save more rather than consumption and spending. Therefore it is becoming very hard and difficult for the luxurious hotel chains to secure their existing market share and developed client base. Now-a-days, people prefer guest house, villa and other price effective accommodation facilities to support their affected purchasing power. In near future the global luxury hotel chain industry can be affected due to several unfavorable factors like increasing compounding costs, dwelling market demand growth, confounding communication, long effect of global economic downturn, inadequate representative leadership and stagnant innovation level. Hike in raw material price, fuel price and reduced market demand may affect the industry (Muttitt 231). It would be very hard for the market to maintain the present market share if the organizations within the industry do not take sufficient and appropriate actions in order to overcome the issues. Conclusion Hospitality and tourism industry is considered as one of the economic growth drivers. It is true that service industry is contributing more to the countries’ GDP comparing to the manufacturing firms. Luxurious hotel chain sector is one of the emerging sectors within the hospitality and tourism industry. Marriott International is one of the largest and popular luxurious hotel chain organizations. This organization is known as the most sustainable and ethical organization. Several legal and external issues are affecting the reputation and sales growth rate of the organization. Recent financial crisis and economic slowdown reduced the purchasing power of people. Low disposable income has limited the travelling and tourist activities. However, the organization is trying hard to overcome these external and internal business and organizational challenges to secure existing market share. They are trying to target the people of both middle and upper class income level to avoid the future challenges. It is quite important for the organization to maintain business sustainability to achieve significance business output. Work Cited Barth, Stephen. Hospitality Law. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print. Brotherton, Bob. International Hospitality Industry. London: Routledge, 2012. Print. Burgstaller, Markus. Theories of Compliance with International Law. New York: Springer, 1995. Print. Buttle, Francis. Hospitality marketing. London: CRC Press, 1986. Print. Carter, Robert. Addressing Cultural Issues in Organizations. London: Sage, 2000. Print. Kleiman, Lawrence. Human Resource Management. New York: Dreamtech Press, 2003. Print. Muttitt, Greg. Fuel on the Fire. New York: Random House, 2011. Print. Papatheodorou, Andreas. Corporate Rivalry and Market Power. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2006. Print. Siegel, Paul. Communication Law in America. New York: Springer, 2011. Print. Tranter, Kimberly. An Introduction to revenue management for the hospitality. New Jersey: Pearson, 2009. Print. 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