Case questions

The Park Hotel

Ans 1
TPH had tried as well as carved out a distinct role in that of the hotel industry with help of its
different positioning’s as well as with a services offered
• The Park Hotel (TPH) had created a unique Indian boutique hotels network that
infuses every other property with local ideology as well as with a charming distinction,
emphasising the intimate and the personalised service along with that positioning each of the
hotel as a customer's entertainments desired location.
• The Park also communicated its positioning with help of various channels including
publicity, public relationships, personal sales, events as well the social Medias. Bulks of an
advertising spending for The Park has been allocated to the printing media.
• Health and wellness is being used by the Park as the forum to support Aura, its
luxurious day spa along with it an Aqua, and its poolside bars. To inspire them so as to feel
the Atmosphere, it mainly used exclusive packages along with it they used promotional deals
to an embassies, airlines, corporate clients, individual clients.
• The Park has used a social media to commercialise its activities. It had built brand
accounts for That of Park on the Facebook and further for some of the sub-brands including
Tantra, Roxys, Someplace Else.
• The positioning of a park took place in that of different cities such as Delhi,
Bangalore, Mumbai, and even hotels in a different cities were built in a specific way as a
hotel in the Delhi was inspired by five natural elements of the Hindu science.
• Shortly afterwards, the Parks Chennai was opened on an historic property of an
Gemini Films Studios in the downtown Chennai with that of its theatre-like lobbies, reel-like
tapes and also the screenings of classic movies on the floating screen in atrium at night.
Ans 2
The positioning of the park hotel is sustainable and it can be said because of the following –
1. A NEW VISION
Among the first people Priya Paul recruited was Vijay Dewan, the Managing Director, The
Park. A graduate of the Oberoi School of Hotel Management, Dewan had just returned after
serving as the General Manager of the Oberoi Hotel in Iraq. Even as the team focused on
enhancing the quality of service, Priya Paul realized that The Park would need to differentiate
its product. The renovation of The Park Kolkata that her father had initiated provided her
with an opportunity to test her ideas The restaurant opened at the end of 1992 and met with
rave reviews. Its success prompted further experimentation The bar at The Park Kolkata was
next. When it opened on August 19, 1994, it was different from all other bars in the city.
Branded Someplace Else, the bar, hosted live bands. It too proved to be a big hitmThe
success of both Zen and Someplace Else, prompted Priya Paul to formally articulate a new
vision for The Park: ‘Leadership through Differentiation’
2. PIONEERING A NEW PARADIGM
The acquisition of two properties in quick succession in Bangalore and Chennai provided
Priya Paul with an opportunity to create a new paradigm on the lines of what Ian Schrager4
had done in New York. While the centrally located Bangalore property was small enough, its
transformation was not easy. The company hired the UK firm Conran & Partners to design
the hotel. Even as she pioneered the concept of boutique hotels in the country, Priya Paul was
clear that her notion of boutique hotels differed from the Western models.
3. INDULGING CUSTOMERS
In addition to building new properties, the company, renovated its older properties in Delhi,
Vizag, and Kolkata. The Park Delhi got a complete facelift. Its new design was inspired by
the five elements of nature (water, fire, air, earth, and space) from the Hindu science of
Vaastu Shastra. The Park Kolkata focused on further enhancing its reputation as a fun and
happening place. place. The company also offered its customers a wide variety of culinary
experiences through its exciting range of award-winning restaurants. According to Vijay
Dewan, what made the customers experience memorable, in addition to the company’s
distinctive products, was the quality of its service.
4. EMPOWERING PEOPLE
We give our people responsibility far beyond their age. We encourage them to take decisions
and back them if they falter The Park trained its people to look at things differently. It
expected each of them to think of their property first and The Park Hotels next. The General
Manager of The Park Chennai thinks of The Park Chennai first and then The Park Hotels.
That is because he has to create a differentiation in his product and service to be competitive
in his market The Park was the first hotel in the Indian hospitality sector to embrace SAP for
managing its human resources (HR). In addition to streamlining and standardizing
administrative systems, SAP enabled the company to improve efficiency through better
planning and superior MIS (Management Information System). Further, it engineered its
technology and other associated systems to enable its people to excel
5. MARKETING THE EXPERIENCE
The differentiated product and service experience enabled The Park Hotels to compete
against its much larger and perhaps better-known rivals The Park’s alliance with ‘‘Design
Hotels’’, a consortium which marketed select 162 hotels across 42 countries through a global
distribution system enabled it a fair share of foreign guests To improve its share of online
sales , the company set up a web marketing department. The Internet was increasingly
becoming an important source of bookings for the hotel industry Bookings through brand
websites comprised a lion’s share of the bookings through Internet. To encourage embassies
to hold their parties there, as well as encourage industry bodies such as CII, FI CCI, etc. to
hold their conferences at The Park. The Park’s loyalty program ‘‘Preferred at The Park’’ was
a recipient of the prestigious national ‘‘Golden Peacock Innovative Product Award’’. A smart
card with an embedded chip recorded all the information – the guest history, her/his profile
including the likes, dislikes, requests, and preferences such as newspapers, pillows, etc. After
every visit, the feedback from customers was collated and reviewed by senior management.
Ans 3
The following could be the strategic and organizational challenges faced by Priya Paul and
her team in 2010:
1. For upcoming properties in Hyderabad, Jaipur, Pune and Kolkata, Goa and Mumbai
were to increase the room capacity in a large number. This was a strategic move
which was taken in order to enter the golden tourist triangle of Delhi- Jaipur- Pune. It
was expected to have presence in at least two of the mentioned cities in order to be
serious market player. Because of this, financial aid was taken from the financial giant
“Credit Suisse”.
2. As a part of their expansion plan, the hotel chain wanted to remain the top boutique
hotels in India. Expansion abroad was not a major priority in the expansion plan. Yet
they were looking for properties abroad, but they only considered placed with heavy
tourism. Cities like London were not easy going as they felt the city was too
congested and was fairly tough to compete for a new comer in the market.
3. In terms of other hotel chains, the Park Hotels felt small in from of other giants such
as the Taj or the Oberoi. The fact that these chains of hotels had a prominent presence
and reach in the market. They felt this could be countered by differentiating
themselves on the basis of a differentiated positioning in the market.
Ans 4
1. Park hotels planed new strategies for the improvement of management.
2. The hotel maintain it competitiveness in the market with the new plans as they identified
their strong resources , their capacities, their weak areas and opportunities.
3. As there were opportunities for TPH from international market, they focused on growth
plan of binding hotel chains both national as well as international.
4. The hotel Resources were weaker and not sufficient compare to other hotels in the market.
5. Their one of the advantage was they were in public relationships and also in social media
which give them opportunity to gel up with other hotel to attract foreign investment in their
sector.
6. They focused on re arranging the structure and practices. They also focused on team
building which result in no union.
7. The team focus on quality services which would help park to differentiate it product from
others.
Ans -5
Recommendations:
1. Expansion to more cities/ wide reach - TPH should expand itself to more cities so that they
can earn good amount of profits and there will be a good word of mouth.
2. They should focus more on the main idea which define them as they should’ve continued
making chains with the international hotels rather than their own one for better reach.
3. Adapt technology with time: As times were changing they should have adapted technology
also for the better working of the things.
4. Try to be a more creative player in the market as change is the new constant these days, it
may really help them in scaling.
5. Should try to attract the foreign crowd more as the customer base is more according to
their type of business.
6. They should’ve worked more on their resources so that they would give more quality to its
people as due to weak resources they can get in problem, competitively as well as personally