Individual Assignment

DoubleTree By Hilton
Johor Bahru

Nurul Nabila Bt Zainal Abedin

2018424818

HM2406B

Lecturer

Dr Nadia Hanin Nazlan

Submmittion Date

18 June 2020
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Company Overview
DoubleTree by Hilton Johor is a part of Hilton Worldwide Holding Inc as an
American hotel chain. There are many DoubleTree hotels around the world that owned
independently and operated by franchisees, but some of the hotels are still managed under
Hilton Worldwide. Hilton brand which is DoubleTree has been known as the fastest growing
Hilton brand with numbers of properties since 2007. As of December 31, 2018, DoubleTree
has 559 properties with 130,714 rooms, including 117 that are managed by Hilton Worldwide
with 33,779 rooms and 442 that are franchised with 96,935 rooms (Annual Report 2019).
DoubleTree by Hilton in Johor Bahru was opened since 2014 as the second property after
Penang in Malaysia. There are 335 guest rooms including 52 suites room offered by Johor
Bahru franchise, and the location are strategic with many tourist attractions around the hotel.

1.2 Doubletree By Hilton Mission Statement

To be the most hospitable company in the world by creating heartfelt experiences for Guests,
meaningful opportunities for Team Members, high value for Owners and a positive impact in
our Communities.

1.3 Doubletree By Hilton Vision Statement

Our Vision is to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality.

1.4 Doubletree By Hilton Core Values ( Pratap. A, 2017)

i. Hospitality
DoubleTree believes to deliver excellence experience towards their guest. 
Integrity
Do all the job duties and responsibility accurately.
ii. Leadership
Be a leader of industry and community.
iii. Teamwork
Inspired to act as a team in the business.
 iv. Ownership
Sense of belongings towards the company and be responsible in any actions and
decisions
v. Now
Discipline and focus on the important thing at the moment.

1.5 Goals

Develop a strong emotional bond and loyalty by creating positive and long lasting memory
for guest with the brand for their future travel around the world.

1.6 Structure of report

This research study and analyze on the how DoubleTree by Hilton in Johor Bahru was
affected by the global Pandemic which is Novel Coronavirus diseases (Covid-19). Firstly, the
company direction and goals will be identified in the first part including company overview,
vision and mision, core values and goals. Secondly, the external analysis or impact due to
global pandemic on Double Tree by Hilton Johor Bahru using broad environment forces
inclduing economic forces, sociocultural forces, technological forces and political forces.

Thirdly, the report will show the internal analysis on Doubletree By Hilton Johor
Bahru resources and competitive advantages. Forth, there are recommendations for the
company in near term and long term business survival in hospitality industry. Lastly,
conclusion on the overall research about how DoubleTree by Hilton in Johor Bahru was
affected by the global Pandemic.
2.0 The impact of global pandemic on Double Tree by Hilton Johor Bahru
Hotel industry is one of the sector that was severely affected due to the Corona Virus
or Covid-19 that led to global pandemic and economic performances for every countries are
slowing down as no tourist or tourism activities are allowed during pandemic. DoubleTree by
Hilton in Johor Bahru is one of affected hotel due to the crisis. The impact were identified
according to broad environment forces for external analysis.

i) Economic forces
 Revenue loss

Source : Associaltion of
hotels

According to Ganesan. Vasantha (2020), Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH)

CEO Yap Lip Seng stated that for the January to June period, hotels will loss RM3.3 billion
in the first half of the year from room revenue alone. Moreover, it can lead to worse situation
where some hotels might permanent close their business if the situation continue in the future.

 Low occupancy
 Sources : Ministry of Tourism, Art & Culture

As DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru is one of the rated hotel under Ministry of
Tourism, Art & Culture (Motac), there is a statistic shows number of rooms supply and
hotel’s occupancy in 2020 during this pandemic. The statistic shows year 2020 recorded the
lowest occupancy with 30% occupancy with 296,965 rooms supply for hotel guest.

 Unemployement

Source: Malaysia Association of Hotels

The employee of DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru were affected during this
pandemic as they decided to have employee lay off, pay cut and unpaid leave in order for the
company to deal with the financial issues. The employees may have financial crisis during
this pandemic.

ii) Sociocultural- Attitude changes

Sources: Malaysia Association Of Hotels

Due to Covid-19 cases rise up in the country, customers starting to concern their safety
and health during their hotel stay. It leads to room cancellations due to travel fears and
restrictions. DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru is located in Johor states and they recorded
20,977 room cancellations from January to March 20,2020 with RM7,711,923 losses

iii) Technological forces

DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru started to use their online platform such as official
hotel webpage and social media like Instagram and Facebook to give awareness to the public
about the hotel business everyday.

They also increase their advertisement on social media about food and beverages
delivery from the hotels’ restaurant, in order for guest to purchase their product while staying
at home and also able to generate revenue during this Pandemic.

iv) Political/legal forces- New law & regulations

Source: KKMPutrajaya

DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru is located in red zone and the district was subjected
to a stricter Movement Control Order by the Federal Government decisions in order to deal
with the rising Covid-19 cases. With the new regulations that is more stricter in Johor Bahru,
there are less to no guest at all for DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru.
3.0 Internal Analysis of Doubletree By Hilton Johor Bahru
3.1 Resources and competitive advantages
Tangible Business resource Competitive advantage

 Doubletree by Hilton in Johor Bahru was under Hilton

1. Strong Financial Worldwide Holdings Inc which have $9.45 billion revenue
position in 2019 compared to $8.90 billion in 2018 (Annual report,
2019).

 This shows that Doubletree By Hilton has a strong financial

position in the hospitality industry.

2. Strategic location of  Doubletree By Hilton has total of 66 properties with 18,511

property rooms in Asia Pacific including Malaysia (Annual Report,
2019). Then, Doubletree By Hilton in Johor Bahru has a
strategic locations for the firms as Johor Bahru is one of the
fastest growing cities in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur.

 Besides that, Doubletree By Hilton Johor Bahru are

surrounded with many tourist attractions such as Legoland
Theme Park, Johor Zoo, Angry Bird Theme Park and even
located 7KM away from Singapore Causeway that provide
magnficent view.

3. Advances technological  Develop a personalized webpage for meeting facilties and

event.

 Convienience for guest to book and customized their event

through online for 24/7.

Intangible Business Resouce Competitive advantage

4. Good reputation  Doubletree By Hilton has a strong global reputaion since it

is under Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Therefore, they
have the abiltity to attract and retain their guest, due to the
public recognition of Hilton brands and their associated
reputation (Annual report, 2019).

 According to TripAdvisor 2020, Doubleetree by Hilton

Johor Bahru ranked 13 best value of 410 hotels in Johor
Bahru

5. Excellent service  Doubletree by Hilton employees in Johor Bahru are highly-

quality trained to serve their guest with care during the stay in the
hotel

 The guest are warmly welcomed upon check-in with

chocolate chip cookie which the hotel takes a lot of pride of
 their special cookies

3.2 Vrio Analysis of Doubletree by Hilton Johor Bahru

Resources or Valuable Rare Inmitable Organizable Impact on
capabilities Competitive
advantage
Strong Yes Yes Yes Yes Sustainable
financial competitive
position advantages
Strategic Yes Yes No Yes Temporary
locations of competitive
property advantage
Advances Yes No No Yes Competitive
techonology parity
Good Yes Yes Yes Yes Sustainable
reputation competitive
advantage
Excellent Yes Yes Yes Yes Sustainable
service quality competitive
advantage

To summarise, DoubletTree by Hilton Johor Bahru able to identified and use their
resources efficiently to operate their business in hospitality industry. The hotel has a strong
financial postion, good reputation and excellent service quality that become their competitive
advantages that differentiate them with others competitor. These competitive advantages also
are sustainable which means DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru able to utilize the resources
for a long term and it is difficult to be immitated by people. Then, strategic locations of
property were identified as temporary competitive advantages. This shows that DoubleTree
by Hilton Johor Bahru strategic location will not last long. Since there might a lot of new
hotel within Johor Bahru city in the future. Lastly, advance technology are competitive parity
for the hotel. This is because DoubleTree by Hilton is on par with othe competitors in term of
tech ology that makes them undifferentiated in the industry.
4.0 Specific near-term and long-term strategic recommendations.

4.1 Near-term strategic recommendations

a) Flexible cancellations of booking policies.
DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru already suffered great revenue loss during the
pandemic that force the hotel to shutdown at the beginning of Movement Control Order
(MCO). A flexible room cancellations will help the hotel to reduce the financial burden to
refund the booking fee.
Set a clear policies that offer return booking for guest to stay in future instead of
giving them a full refund. This will give benefit for both parties which the hotel will reduce
their financial expenses and the guest also able to keep and carry their hotel booking to later
dates that they find it suitable to check in.
b) Sell product at low price to increase sales.
DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru are not able to sell room as usual due to pandemic
that encourage the people to stay at home for safety and it will prevent people from travelling.
Therefore, the hotel may focus into selling their food and beverages from the hotel’s
restaurant (Yuki, Eva & George, 2020)
The demand for food delivery are high during this pandemic, so the hotel may sell
their product at low prices by giving discount. This action will help the hotel to increase their
sales in volume and generate profit for the company.
c) Effectively use social media to connect with csustomers.
Social media will encourage interactions between the company and customer’s touch
points either online or offline (Francis, 2018). Since people are encouraged to stay at home to
keep themselved safe from the virus, they spend most of their times with gadgets and social
media. The hotel should grab this opportunites to give daily updates about the hotel in official
social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. This is important for the hotel to keep
in touch with their potential customers because they might lose their interest if there is no
engagement are made with them for a long period.
d) Be a Covid-19 quarantinne centre for guest who returned from abroad.
According to the Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Senior Minister (Security Cluster)
states that government will cover up to RM150 per room for guest who are staying at the
hotel. Even the prices might be lower than DoubleTree by Hilton in Johor Bahru lowest room
rate which is RM293. It will contribute to increase hotel revenue with RM150 payment per
room daily.
The location of DoubleTree Hotel are very strategic as it is near to Senai International
Aiport and only 7KM from Singapore Causeway, this shows that the hotel are suitable to be a
quarantine centre for guest who came back from oversea. The hotel should take the
opportunities to generate revenue despite the pandemic that cause many hotels to shutdown
their business. It will also help to increase the hotel occupancy percentage.

4.2 Long-term strategic recommendations

a) Apply for a “clean and safe” certifications from Malaysian Association of Hotels
(MAH).
As the government announce Recovery Movement Conntrol Order (RMCO) that
allowed for domestic travel in Malaysia. There will be increment number of people travelling
and staying in any hotels in the country.But there might be some people who had attitude
changes that are still afraid and paranoid to stay in hotel without eligible certifications.
Therefore, DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru should join the campaign and get the
certificates from Malaysia Association Hotel (MAH) in order to build guest’s confident to
check in and stay at the hotel (Stacy & Daniel, 2020).
b) Create and implement new protocol for guest safety.
As there is no cure or vaccine for Coronavirus or Covid-19 founded at the time, people
need to adjust their life with new way of living called “new normal”. This is also applicable
for hotel business to implement new protocol or new normal in the hotel in order to avoid the
spread of virus among guest or employees (Stacy & Daniel, 2020)..
The hotel need to screen every guest and employees before entering the hotel and
immediately report to the hospital if there are any symptom of the Covid-19 disease such as
high fever, respiratory infection and others.The employees need to take record of everyone
that entered the hotel without exception. There also should be enforcement for every people in
the hotel to implement social distancing at least 1 meter away from each other. A clear sign of
instructions should be display in every area in the hotel.
c) Provide training for employees on dealing with customers in a “new normal”.
DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru should give intesive training to their employees on
how to work with the “new normal” which required social distancing, optimum cleanliness
and restrictions to certain activities (Hernandez, 2020). This is important for the hotel to avoid
any Covid-19 from spreading within the business and then might create a new cluster in
Malaysia.
Training is important to maintain the excellence service quality of DoubleTree by
Hilton Johor Bahru that was known by their customers. They should not lower down their
standard of quality due to the “new normal” but they need to adapt with it so customers will
still choose DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru as their top choice. The example of training
for employees are like houskeeping attendant need to clean the whole guest room with proper
standard of hygiene and chef in kitchen are also trained to implement social distancing among
co-workers plus regular cleaning of the utensils and the whole kitchen.
d) Use self service technology.
 DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru should use self service technology in certain
department in order to reduce human interaction, promote social distancing, enhance hygienic
practices and it will be convenient and hyper personalized experience for the guest (Dehler,
2020). Front office department would be suitable for this strategy which they can use self-
check in and self check-out machines at the hotel. Besides that, the hotel’s restaurant also can
implement the self service technology by using self ordering tablet at the guest table instead
of the old method where waiters will come and take orders from guest. This will reduce
interaction among employees and guest at the hotel.
5.0 Conclusion

As the conclusion, DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru was heavily impacted from the
pandemic Coronavirus or Covid-19 as the hotel need to shutdown their operations due to
government instructions. Based on the external analysis, the impact such as revenue loss, low
occupancy, unemployement, guest attitude changes, technology forces and new law were the
impact for DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru after been analyzed using broad environment
forces. If they do not take a proper actions to overcome this impact, DoubleTree by Hilton
will encounter difficulties to bounce back to the usual business after global pandemic.

Based on the internal analysis, which able to identify DoubleTree by Hilton Johor
Bahru resources and their competitive advantages. There are lot of resouces that able to help
the hotel to continue to survive in industry such as strong financial position, good reputation
and excellent service quality. These resources were identified as sustainable competitive
advantage that could help DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru to get back on track of the
business because these resources are valuable, rare, inmitable and organizable. DoubleTree
hotel are under Hilton chains which make them is a strong brand in the industry and their
service quality are acknowledged by many people. There are some resources such as location
that is temporary competitive advantage because there might be new hotel open up within the
same location as DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru and advance technology is a resource that
the hotel need to develop more as they are on par with other competitors.

Lastly, DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru should come up with short-term and long-
term recommendations for their business. This is important for the hotel survival because
these recommendation can be considered as their preparation and planning to run their
business in the future. A short-term recommendations such as flexible cancellations policy,
sell at low prices, use social media for marketing and be a quarantine centre are actions that
can help to generate revenue for the business in a short time and to avoid closure or
bankruptcy. Then, long-term recommendations such as get ”clean and safe” certificates,
implement new protocol of safety measure, give training and self-service technology are
actions for the hotel to adapt their business in the new normal in the future as as no one know
when the Coronavirus or Covid-19 vaccine will be found. Therefore, DoubleTree by Hilton
Johor Bahru should take procative steps to adapt themselves with the new normal and
continue to serve hospitality to their guest.

References

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https://www.etrafficwebmarketing.com.au/blog/effective-social-media-marketing/

First DoubleTree by Hilton Resort open in Asia (2009). Retrieved from

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4043848.html

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