Tourism
2016-04-13
Introduction
This paper is devoted to the issue about the hospitality industry in the United Kingdom and the impact of the customers (especially, women). Nowadays, the hotel business is one of the most promising and, at the same time, growing industries, which bring considerable profits worldwide. The hotel industry as an economic activity includes the provision of hotel services and the organization of paid short-term accommodation in hotels, campgrounds, motels.
The hospitality as a component of the tourism industry differs by high potential for the UK market. It is able to generate a steady income to the budget of the country. The number of hotels and complexes increases in the UK and other countries each year. The high competition in the market of hotel business services forces managers to use a variety of PR campaigns, as well as numerous non-ordinary marketing ideas in order to attract more customers (Gilligan & Wilson, 2003).
The nature of the marketing activities in the hotel business is often dependent on the distinctive specificity and level of services (Lazer, 1971). It should be noted that women are more demanding of the services in hotels. Women use additional services more frequently than men in hotels. They choose hotels more meticulously than men through analysing all proposed services in a particular hotel and compare them with others. Thus, feminine opinion can be decisive in choosing the hotel for family holidays (when wife chooses the hotel) or business trip (when secretary choose and book the hotel for her director).
Rationale for the Study
The accelerated development of the world tourism industry is characteristic of the last years. This industry has become global in numbers, forms and techniques of recreation. The international tourism globalization is better tracked on such example, as a tourist accommodation sector, which expands rapidly, and the development of hotel chains.
The hotel industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. Dramatic shifts have occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. They have changed the understanding of the hotel as a place to sleep and have brought the hotel segment in a leading position among components of the tourism industry. The main trends of the modern hospitality industry are the following:
the expansion of the hotel services market;
the irreversibility of the integration processes;
an increase in marketing expenses;
a reduction of the life cycle of the goods and the organizations themselves;
the need for constant updating of its own product;
the formation of a category of commercial secrets;
the introduction of know-how (Rotfeld, 2001).
All above mentioned issues requires the combined efforts of all organizations in order to create a system of cooperative relations in their various forms and types. This confirms the relevance of the chosen research topic.
It should be noted that the UK market of hotels focuses preferable on business trips. The regular business travellers spend on average twenty one nights away from home during their travels. Around seventy six percentages of such business travellers use the services of a hotel or motel. As a rule, they are managers, sales representatives, skilled professionals with high levels of education and income. Most travellers are males. However, the number of women grows among business travellers from year to year. It can lead to an increase in revenues of the enterprises of the hospitality industry, as women prefer to use additional services, such as hotel food services or others to a greater extent than men.
One can say that requests of clients-women can be higher than average ones. In this case, women use the more thoroughly approach to the choice of hotel and can spend more money on different hotel services. Thus, the opinion of clients-women becomes more important for the hotels in the UK, which specialize in serving business travellers.
It should be noted that preferably women choose the hotel and plan the family holidays. At the same time, the majority of travel companies’ staff is presented by women. So, their opinion can strongly impact on the clients’ choice of the particular hotel in the UK.
Questions
It proposes to find answers to the following questions during the research:
what part of all guests are women in different hotels in the UK?
what is the average price of rooms, in which women live?
what hotel services are the most important for women in different hotels in the UK?
what is the number of complaints or suggestions, which women leave in the hotels?
what is the frequency of usage the additional services by women and men in the hotel?
It also needs to identify how much women spend on hotel additional services. One other important question concerns the crucial factors, which women primarily take into account, when choose the desired hotel.
Aims and Objectives
Research Aim
The aim of proposed investigation work is to analyse how women can impact on the hotels in the UK and how this impact reflects on the hotels’ activity and their revenues. The object of proposed research is the hotels in the UK. The subject of research is the relationships between women-customers and hotels in the UK.
Research Objectives
It needs to perform several objectives in order to achieve above mentioned aim of the research. Firstly, it needs to consider the theoretical and methodological aspects of the service organization in the hospitality industry. The next part of the research includes the examining organization of the sales and marketing services in the hospitality industry and how hotels use data about their guests (preferably, women). Based on the information collected, it will be possible to analyse the main trends of women’ expenses in the hotels and to identify the most important factors, which play the crucial role, when women choose the hotels. One more important objective is to perform the analysis of those, who advise or recommend the particular guest of the hotel to choose exactly this one (this information is based on the feedback data from customers in hotels). The last section of the research will be devoted to the development of recommendations for hotels to improve their services in accordance with the impact of women opinion and requests.
Literature Review
Classification of Hotels
It needs to analyse different literary sources before starting the study. They include books, journal articles, reports and some Internet resources.
Let’s focus on the classification of hotels in more detail, because the prestige of the hotel plays a major role, when the client is a woman. The classification of British hotels is quite complicated. Some directories offer a completely traditional star system, but as a rule, crowns are depicted on the facade of hotels instead the stars. It needs to take one from the total number of crowns in order to put the category of the hotel with “crowns language” on the star (for example, four stars = five crowns) (Ning Ning Yu, 2016). The most correct hotel classification is proposed by the Association of British Travel Agents – “British Travel Authority” (BTA). It includes five levels:
budget hotels (*), which are located in the central part of the city and have a minimum of facilities;
tourist class hotels (**). There are a restaurant and bar in such hotel;
hotels of middle class (***). The level of service is quite high;
first class hotel (****). They offer very high quality accommodation and excellent service levels;
hotels of the highest category (*****). The level of accommodation and services is as an extra-class (“British Hospitality Association”, 2016).
The British hotels have a number of features in comparison with other countries. It should be noted that some London hotels are entirely privately owned, some are owned by the joint-stock one or more companies (Report of BHA, 2015). The preference is given to hotels which are in the hands of one owner, other factors being equal. Despite the fact that the majority of the British hotels is managed by local managers, many of them are the part of a large international hotel chain. The representatives of hotel chains become more interested in the British property from year to year.
The UK is also known for its high cost hotels. The average price of rooms is about 120 euros per night. The most expensive hotels are located in England in Bath, spa resort that has been founded by the ancient Romans. The average price per room in hotels in Bath is about 150 euros.
Hotel Innovations
Large hotel chains can quickly adopt and adapt innovations, which are developed in other industries. At the same time, small hotels quite easily and constantly introduce changes in response to specific customer needs (especially, women needs). The UK hotel industry is replete with innovation and new ways to improve service to customers. Official organizations (UKIS), which study the British innovation, report that the hospitality sector introduces several new practices.
According to the opinion of specialist Shaw, the hotel industry in the UK tends to innovate and can serve as an example for many other service industries. Innovation is crucial for the business success in the UK economy (Samli, 1996). The innovations in the service sector have traditionally been neglected in terms of official statistical measures, especially in the hotel industry that is characterized by the lack of interest of politicians to the implementation of innovation.
For example, many hotels have introduced environmental measures, which vary from switching to energy saving lamps to the pre-installation of solar panels. Other hotels include recycled materials in their interior design, using furniture from renewable sources, and bedding/towels from the natural fabrics.
One of the most important areas of innovation lies in the growth of new types of property. Known networks such as Travelodge or Holiday Inn, now make up about 12 percentages of the hotel funds in London. Innovative design plays a key role, especially in the growth of the luxury hotel market.
Changes in small and medium hotels can consist of developing a new website or marketing materials, the purchase of new software for asset management systems or simply update the decor. Women-customers play an important role in shaping the innovation as hotels increasingly seek their feedback through the social networks. By the way, the knowledge about new events spread rapidly in the hospitality industry, partly because of the high staff turnover (Lucas, 2004).
Around two-thirds of managers of small and medium-sized London hotels were born abroad and play an important role in the introduction of innovations (McCalley, 1992). Large corporations tend to lead innovation only in the crucial systems and business processes, information technology and marketing. Small hotels demonstrate better results relative to the needs of customers and provide more personalized services as well as a “quick on the rise” in the implementation of the ideas of modern design.
Hotel Selection Factors
Let’s identify the main factors that have an impact, when all customers and women separately choose a hotel. The majority of customers choose a particular hotel based on reviews, recommendations, and, of course, the money factor (Varey & Lewis, 2000). In the case of a good reputation and popularity of the chosen hotel, guests from the UK will necessarily seek to get it there. However, first of all, customers choose a hotel to relax by price, category, as well as availability of suites.
Visitors, who choose a hotel for longer stays turn their attention to the additional services, which are offered in the hotel. The additional services may include gyms, billiards, tennis, heated pool, organization of excursions and others. If a customer has arrived on a business trip, the quite important factor for him is the ability to use the internet services and communication.
One more crucial criterion is directly nearness to the city centre, when the customer chooses a hotel for business trips. At the same time, proximity to the downtown is not the defining criterion for the ordinal customers. Many tourists want to live on the outskirts of the city, where the environment is more acceptable and have less noise.
Women as a Specific Category of Customers
Women are the special category of consumers within the hotel industry in the UK. The majority of women use the same criteria when choosing a hotel (location, price, etc.), as men, but their priority system is different from that adopted by men. For example, the two-thirds of women put the cleanliness and attractiveness of the hotel as the basis for selection and only half of men have considered these factors that deserve attention.
Women tend to become regular clients of hotels, so it is particularly important to provide them with the execution of all most essential requirements (Brideson, 2015). The last ones are as follows:
Security: women are more concerned about safety than men. Many women find the door chain, eyes, and reliable locks as necessary components of the hotel room. They stay in hotels with only one (main) entrance, which is located near the port of the rack, and a well-lit central corridor, where it can see the doors of all the rooms. Women prefer hotels, which has its own restaurant with room service. Another essential component of security is closely located parking garage or a well-lit garage.
The hotel can also increase the confidence of women in the security, following such measures as prohibition of the hotel staff, restaurant or garage to report the names and numbers of guest rooms, the failure to report the same information to callers or other visitors of the hotel. In addition, the receptionist has to open the door and check the room before you invite a guest to enter (Brennan, 2014).
Comfort and Services. Women like clean, comfortable, bright rooms and friendly service. Such details as the full-length mirror and clothes hangers are pleasing to women. Women are more sensitive to the quality of service than men. The negative experience in this field is badly perceived by women and can significantly affect their desire to stay at this hotel again. The hotel staff should be adequately prepared in order to provide services in kind and in the same time the business style.
Convenience. Most women prefer that the room has enough space for work and meetings. This is the main reason of the popularity of room suites with a separate bedroom among women. When such rooms are not available, it may use folding beds in the ordinary room, but it can cause the controversial reaction among women. The room should be well lit and the phone must be near the table (Fromm, 2016).
Additional services. Typically, the duration of women living in the hotel longer than men, so the women’s services such as the pool or fitness centre are quite popular. It should be noted that women more often take mini-holidays than men and spend at restaurants by 25% more time than men. Therefore, women bring significant revenue to the hospitality company. In this case, a hotel should ensure the safety, comfort and all the necessary services that this particular segment of the market requires (Carrington, 2016).
There are even hotels only for women in the UK. For example, the hotel Dukes Hotel offers exclusive rooms (rooms for duchesses) only for women (Top 25 luxury hotels in the UK, 2016). The extremely professional female staff provides all services for guests of such hotel rooms. Women can dine at the renowned restaurant Thirty Six by Nigel Mendham (Official site of Dukes Hotel, 2016). Visitors of the hotel can also find stylish accessories, which undoubtedly will please them. Single room costs from €340 in this hotel (Rooms of Dukes Hotel, 2016).
One more example is Grange City Hotel that is also located in London. Single room costs from €157 (Official Site of Grange City Hotel, 2016). Women can find in special hotel rooms a hair dryer with long cords and large wardrobes with optional automatic lighting (Hotel Services in Grange Hotels, 2016). The door of each room is equipped with an eye and lock on a chain for safety reasons. Among other things, guests can enjoy dancing and spinning studios, as well as take procedures in the Ajala Spa (Alistair, 2016).
Research Methodology
As we know, the marketing and sales department in the hotel company that provides a single type of service are quite important, because the company’s success by more than half depends on their work. Above mentioned departments differ by sufficiently high level of relevance in the hospitality industry. Methods and techniques of the marketing service department can be quite useful for planned investigation.
It proposes to use two groups of methods: general scientific and special ones. The first group of methods includes the theoretical analysis (reading literature and hotel documents) and synthesis techniques, generalization and comparison method.
The group of special methods includes the following:
observation;
statistical investigation of the hotel guests, primarily women, their expenses, more attractive services and additional requests;
analysis of clients’ feedback in the hotel;
SWOT-analysis of the UK hotels and what management has to do in order to satisfy all needs of women and, as a result, to improve their performance;
qualitative and quantitative methods for analysing the information data;
prognostic method and others.
Above mentioned techniques are considered as the research methodology.
References
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