获取竞争力的低价经营策略-low price business strategy for gaining the competitive power
1. Introduction 引言
随着公司业务的多元化,充分利用土地可以为投资的占领者带来最大的回报(迪拉德,2009)。有一个为了潜在的酒店的可用的土地总计9.5英亩,以及其他一些工业用途,其中有一些位于爱丁堡南部东侧。内外部经营环境的分析,经济型酒店是此地的最佳选择,是爱丁堡旅游业开发的结果。由于酒店业的激烈竞争,经济型酒店被设计为一座两层高的建筑,经济型酒店周围的交通和商店很方便。With the diversification of the business, make the full use of the lands can create the biggest return on investment for the occupiers (Dillard, 2009). There is an available site totals 9.5 acres for potential hotel, and some other industrial purposes, which located on the south east side of Edinburgh. Within the analyzing of external business environment, the budget hotel is the best choice for this site, as a result of the tourism industry is developed in Edinburgh. Due to the serious competition in the hotel industry, the budget hotel is designed as a two-storey building with the convenient transportation and shops around the budget hotel.
为了吸收越来越多的人关注,经济型酒店的目标是低廉的价格与为客户提供优质的服务。这项建议将分为三个方面。首先,背景评估将表明对经济型酒店的外部环境利用的波特五力模型。For absorbing more and more people’s attention, the objective of the budget hotel is to supply the high quality services with the low price to customers. This proposal will be divided into three aspects. First of all, the background evaluation will indicate the external environment for the budget hotel by using the Porter’s Five Forces. And then, the planning and design will point out the expected plan and financial management for hotel. Lastly, the justification part is used to appraisal the expected project from many different points.
2. Background Evaluation 背景评估
The prime commercial site lies adjacent to Scotland’s leading retail park, Fort Kinnaird, which is the largest retail park in the UK. The budget hotel is built for offering the suitable accommodation on a leasehold basis.
2.1 Location
The site is situated on the south east side of Edinburgh and benefits from direct access to the A1 which in turn links with the Edinburgh City Bypass. In addition, the available site is 9.5 acres in total, which divided into five plots.
2.2 Demographics
Wray (2009) pointed out that the Edinburgh is the biggest city of the Scotland, which is the famous tour city. The total population of Edinburgh is totally 500,000 in the city, and 700, 000 in the suburbia of Edinburgh. However, the city will add about 250, 000 people suddenly when there have some film festivals or art festivals in Edinburgh every year. In addition, the city has the famous university, which is the Edinburgh University that founded in the 1583 can also bring many extraneous people for travelling to Edinburgh (Freya, 2008).#p#分页标题#e#
2.3 Industry Trends
With the development of the society, economic and transportation, the hotel industry has the rapid development all over the world with the characteristics of more luxury and modern (Chang & Liao, 2009). The closed relationship between the tourism industry and hotel industry determines the huge potential clients in a certain degree, so that the budget hotel is a strong active business.
On the other hand, there is some pressure for the hotel operators which caused by the recent financial crisis. Therefore, the trend for recent hotel industry is to reduce the price for absorbing people’s attentions, which means to develop in a popular style (Wray, 2009). In addition, another aspect is to advance the activities of environment protection in the budget hotel, which is also a trend in the global hotel industry.
2.4 Porter’s Five Forces
Porter (2008) has pointed out the Porter’s Five Forces is an effective tool for analyzing the industry’s competition, which colligating five main forces. In addition, the constitution of competitive strategy of a business can be based on the five forces of the model, so that the model can identify the competitive power with the competitors (Narayanan & Liam, 2005). The Appendix 1 has shown the Porter’s Five Forces model.
2.4.1 The New Entrants
The competitive power of new entrant for budget hotel is weak, as a result of new competitors can enter the hotel market and weak the position. The feature of hotel is quite similar, so that the business can mainly gain the competitive power from the position and promotions.
2.4.2 The Substitution
The threat of substitution for budget hotel is strong. The most of the customers for hotel is the tourists, so that they are hard to find a different method for finding a temporary accommodation. Although there are some information on websites can supply cheap places for travelers chosen in the modern society, the hotel is still the first choice for most tourists.
2.4.3 Buyer Power
The bargaining power with buyer is high; due to the hotel industry needs to drive the price down to compete with other hotels. If the budget hotel can keep the cheap price with high quality service, it will let more and more people coming as a promotion.
2.4.4 Supplier Power
Compared with the buyer power, the bargaining power with supplier is quite low because the main product of the hotel industry is to supply service to customers.
2.4.5 Competitive rivalry
The competition in the hotel industry is so serious, as a result of the appearance of many hotels with similar products and service. The feature of the budget hotel is the good position which has many different kinds of leisure places and shops around the hotel, but every hotel has their own characteristic. Therefore, the competitive rivalry is quite strong.#p#分页标题#e#
3. Planning and Design 计划和设计
3.1 Quality
Cooper et al (2005) indicate that quality is the totality of relationship between service providers (functional aspects) and the features of the product (technical aspects) in relation to the delivery of satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to create systems of quality control checking and monitoring to make sure measurement of service delivery takes place in the budget hotel.
3.2 Design
Design is the general form or arrangement, particularly in a building and thus design includes the planning, drawing and arrangements of properties (Ransley & Ingram, 2004). Budget hotels are mainly for temporary markets requiring reliable accommodation at economy room rates (Lawson, 1995). In order to control quality and costs the designs are highly standardised with extensive prefabrication in building and fitting out.
3.2.1 Hotel Building
There will be a two-storey hotel building with 100 rooms on Plot 3, Plot 4 (see Appendix 2).
3.2.2 Restaurant
A restaurant will be built on Plot 2 (see Appendix 2). .It will provide basic food and beverage to residents and non-residents
3.2.3 Car park
A car park will be constructed on Plot 1 because it is accessible to the existing road (see Appendix 2).
3.2.4 One pound shop
A one pound shop will be built on Plot 5. There is no similar shop in the retail park. The shop will be welcome by the residents and the other customers.
3.3 Financial Management
Ransley & Ingram (2004) claim that the hospitality industry is cost and value driven and all the capital projects need to be delivered within tight financial constraints. As such, the expenditure of the project is limited to the minimum.
3.3.1 Budget
In order to minimise the cost of the project, the following cost drivers are important in determining overall cost levels:
l Site conditions and characteristics
l Building plan, layout and massing
l Quality levels
l Building services installations
l Extent of prefabrication
l Furniture, fittings and equipment (FF&E) expenditure
l Leisure facilities
l Extent of external works
l Requirements of local and statutory authorities
l Unforeseen work and change to client requirements
l Speed of construction
l Location
(Ransley & Ingram, 2004)
3.4 Time Scale
A well-prepared programme is important to every construction project (Ransley & Ingram, 2004). All the activities have to be defined in detail and a time scale should be given. A construction programme is a ‘statement of intended actions’ which can provide management with the whole planning. It must be realistic, capable of achievement and unambiguous. #p#分页标题#e#
4. Justification 理由
4.1 Site Appraisal
Lawson (1995) thinks that the area evaluation should have a detailed site analysis including site description on size, boundaries, topography. In addition, the analysis should focus on visibility, accessibility and suitability to hotel use. The site fulfils all the requirements of a hotel.
4.1.1 Place
(Medlik & Ingram, 2000) cites that hotel services are supplied to the consumers directly and they are consumed and produced at the point of sale. Therefore, hotel services must be provided where the demand exists and the market will be the important influence on hotel location. In addition, location is a portion of hotel product and it plays a vital factor to the success in the hotel business. There are many factors affecting the location of hotel and they are transport modes, holiday markets and economic activity. The place can serve all the purposes.
4.2 Market Research
Market research should be started before the site appraisal and will go on afterwards (Ransley & Ingram, 2004). The research techniques include personal observation and measurement, telephone and face-to-face interviews, questionnaires (postal or e-mailed), Web-based searches, other database interrogation, press searches and various literature reviews.
4.2.1 Market Research
Ransley & Ingram (2004) cite that the objective of the market research is to identify and get useful information to enable the consultant to reach conclusions about the project proposal. The Appendix 3 shows the types of information sought, the reasons for obtaining that information and examples of typical sources.
4.2.2 Market Positioning
In the last two years the budget hotel sector has made major inroads into mid and full service market share. Low cost hotels have increased the number of room nights sold by 26 per cent, whereas the rest of the hotel market slid by 7 per cent, research by BDRC found (Allcock, 2009). Accordingly, it is aimed to the market of budget hotel.
4.2.3 Competition
It was recorded that the budget hotel supply growth was at 10 per cent per year in 2008, and it is predicted to treble by the year 2027 to see a new low-cost hotel open every three days for the next 18 years (Allcock, 2009). In 2000, there were over 47000 beds in the UK in budget hotels, and in 2005 this was in excess of 57000 rooms (Page, 2007). Therefore, the demand for budget hotel is still increasing constantly.
4.3 Information review
To review information is not an independent activity, it will continue in the first two stages (Ransley & Ingram, 2004). A lot of information can be found and they should be sorted, assimilated and oriented to reach conclusions. In the process, two people are better than one and professional team such as architect, project manager and cost consultant may be involved.#p#分页标题#e#
4.3.1 Price
Price is described as a flexible and important variable in the marketing mix (Knowles, 2001). It is a powerful tool to increase sales because it can be quickly and frequently adjusted to balance supply and demand. Price considerations consist of level of prices, discounts, allowances and commissions, terms of payment and credit. In the hotel industry, perishability of service has large impact on pricing consideration. Moreover, Bowie & Buttle (2004) argue that hospitality organisations should consider pricing strategies that must be connected to the quality standards given by the operation. Alternative pricing strategies consist of the market leader and market follower options. Similarly, Ransley & Ingram (2004) suggest investigating the average room rates achieved by the existing competitive hotels and assume an achieved average rate relative to those benchmarks. The rate multiplied by the number of room nights sold, equals rooms revenue.
4.3.2 Promotion
Promotion is a must to communicate with targeted and potential customers for effective selling via personal selling, advertising, public relations, sales promotion, packaging and merchandising (Knowles, 2001). Due to the high degree of similarity among hotels, it is necessary to communicate with target customers. Advertising plays one of the important roles in the promotion of hotel, some advertising is aimed at building a company image while other advertising are promotional and seek immediate patronage.
4.3.3 Product
Cooper et al (2005) express that the traditional thought of a hotel was an institution providing accommodation, food and beverage services to short-stay guests on a paying basis. Now, various kinds of hotel provide different facilities and services to the consumers. Sometimes other facilities and services will also be provided. They are not only for its residents but also for non-residents. In budget hotel market, only basic products are provided due to limited resources.
4.3.4 Image and Atmosphere
Medlik & Ingram (2000) argue that the image of a hotel is defined as the way the hotel shows itself to the customers. It is a by-product of its location, facilities and service. It is enhanced by its name, appearance and atmosphere. According to Cousins et al (2002), atmosphere development can lead to the creation of emotions and atmosphere is affected by sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Also, it is created through the attitude of the staff. A pleasing environment will become an unbearable one if staff is rude and unhelpful.
4.3.5 Infrastructure
Since the site is situated on the south east of Edinburgh and benefits from direct access to the A1 that in turn links with the Edinburgh City Bypass (see Appendix 4), it can enjoy the existing transport system. The site also lies adjacent to Fort Kinnaird, a retail park, therefore, the existing water and power supplies systems can serve the project and future use.#p#分页标题#e#
4.3.6 Economic climate
In the current financial crisis situation, budget hotel can attract more customers because of its competitive price. Price is a flexible and important variable in the marketing mix (Knowles, 2001). Accordingly, the demand for budget hotel will increase in the present economic downturn situation.
4.4 Financial Analysis
The Appendix 5 shows an example outlines a method of appraisal applied to a proposed hotel project. Redwin (2008) tells that Travelodge is pioneering a new construction method that will cut millions of pounds from the cost of its hotel development strategy. The strategy will enable to cut 10 per cent from the cost of each build and improve construction speed by 23 per cent. If the new construction method is used in the project, the average cost of a room will be reduced to about 10 per cent and the profit will be increased accordingly.
4.5 Reporting
Based on the above information and analysis, it is trusted that it is a right time to invest on budget hotel. Not only the demand for budget hotel is increasing but the cost of building a room will be reduced due to new technology. In addition, the proposed site is suitable to build a budget hotel for its convenient transport system and the mature surrounding area. All the existing infrastructures are already there.
5.0 Conclusion 结论
From above, it shows the budget hotel project is suitable for the proposed site in Edinburgh. Based on the external environment analysis, it indicates that the budget hotel should adopt the low price business strategy for gaining the competitive power in the hotel industry in Edinburgh. In addition, the design for the available site can give the customers the most convenient environment with the good transport system. The financial management of the project is based on the minimum the cost for creating the biggest return on investment for shareholders within the time scale. On top of that, the justification of the project shows the budget hotel is quite suitable for the site under the market research. Therefore, the project of the budget hotel can achieve the original objective which is supply the best and convenient services to the customers by the low prices.
Reference 参考文献:
Allcock, S. (2009), Travelodge is coming to get you, Hospitality, issue 13, March/April 2009.
Bowie, D. and Buttle, F. (2004), Hospitality Marketing - An Introduction. Oxford: Elsevier.
Chang, C.P. & Liao, I.F., (2009), Individual characteristics, organizational justice and job attitudes of employee under non-standard work arrangements: study of employees of international tourist hotels, International Journal of Management, Aug 2009, Vol. 26, Issue 2, pp. 224-239.#p#分页标题#e#
Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Fyall, A., Gilbert, D., and Wanhill, S. (2005), Tourism Principles and Practice. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Cousins, J., Foskett, D., and Gillespie, C. (2002), Food and Beverage Management. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Dillard, B., (2009), Demand up for downtown hotels, year ahead looks brighter, Fort Worth Business Press, Vol. 25, Issue 49, Dec 2009, pp.13-19.
Freya, H.D., (2008), Justice tourism and alternative globalisation, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 16, Issue 3, pp. 345-364.
Knowles, T. (2001), Hospitality Management – An Introduction. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Lawson, F. (1995), Hotels & Resorts Planning, Design and Refurbishment, Oxford: Butterworth Architecture.
Medlik, S. and Ingram, H. (2000), The Business of Hotels, Oxford: Elsevier.
Narayanan, V.K. & Liam, F., (2005), The relevance of the institutional underpinnings of Porter’s Five Forces framework to emerging economies: an epistemological analysis, Journal of Management Studies, Jan 2005, Vol. 42, Issue 1, pp. 207-223.
Page, S. J. (2007), Tourism Management, Managing for Change. Oxford: Elsevier.
Porter, M.E., (2008), The five competitive forces that shape strategy, Harvard Business Review, Jan 2008, Vol. 86, Issue 1, pp. 78-93.
Ransley, J. and Ingram, H. (2004), Developing Hospitality Properties & Facilities, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Redwin, R. (2008), Travelodge saves with new construction method, Accommodation Management, February 2008.
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Appendix 1:
Porter’s Five Forces Model
Source: Porter, 2008, Harvard Business Review
Appendix 2:
Picture showing proposed site Plot 1 to Plot 5
Source: Edinburgh Napier University
Appendix 3:
Source: Ransley, J. and Ingram, H. (2004), Developing Hospitality Properties & Facilities, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann, p 31.
Appendix 4:
A map showing the location of proposed site which sits adjacent to Fort Kinnaird Retail and Leisure Park
Source: Edinburgh Napier University
Appendix 5:
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Sample of overall costs of development
Source: Lawson, F. (1995), Hotels & Resorts Planning, Design and Refurbishment, Oxford: Butterworth Architecture, p133.