How Our Hotel Used Data to Make Our Laundry Service Glamorous (By Ana Brant)

Case Study Analysis

At the request of Ma’am Maryyam Khan

November 3, 2022

By Sharon Arif – 231451536

Terms of Reference:

This case analysis will include introduction to The Dorchester Collection hotels, it’s PEST &

SWOT analysis, the issues it faced in 2016, how Dorchester used research to find out the true

crux of the problem & how they overcame it, and how the company is doing now. The intended

outcome of the report is to see whether the strategies The Dorchester Collection hotels came up

with were effective or not.

1
Table of Contents

Terms of Reference:..................................................................................................1

Executive Summary..................................................................................................3

Introduction:..............................................................................................................5

Situational Analysis:..................................................................................................7

Positive Attributes of Dorchester:..........................................................................7

Negative Attributes of Dorchester:........................................................................7

SWOT Analysis of Dorchester:.................................................................................7

Strengths.................................................................................................................7

Weaknesses............................................................................................................8

Opportunities..........................................................................................................8

Threats....................................................................................................................8

PEST analysis:...........................................................................................................9

Political Factors:.....................................................................................................9

Economic Factors:................................................................................................10

Socio-cultural factors:..........................................................................................10

Technological factors:..........................................................................................10

Main Case:...............................................................................................................11

Recommendations:...............................................................................................12

Bibliography............................................................................................................14

2
Executive Summary

The Dorchester Collection hotels -- collection of nine of the world’s most iconic and

luxurious hotels, located primarily in major European and American cities.

In early 2016 complaints about Dorchester Collection’s luxury hotels laundry service

were on the rise, as was the cost of compensating guests for the damage to their clothes. One

hotel had 55 laundry-related complaints in January 2016 alone. This caught leadership’s

attention and they arranged an innovation team to investigate this.

The innovation team started by compiling data about the guests’ clothing behaviors and

the hotel laundry processes, getting housekeeping and bell staff involved, as well as searching

social media for customer posts. This investigation led the team to start thinking about what our

guests wear and why they wear it. 

The research indicated that the current laundry service was subpar, partially due to lack

of expertise and partially due to the mindset of employees, that considered laundry service as less

than desirable career path.

The research helped the organization understand that there was a critical problem

internally. They had to improve their laundry service because clothes meant much more than

material and cost to the guests, and if they wished to provide the best customer service to their

guests something had to be done asap.

Dorchester invested in training and educating the employees about clothes, materials &

how to care for them. Even taking the employees to Bond Street, a high-end fashion destination

3
in London. Investments in improving our laundry employees’ skill sets have made them feel

more essential to our mission and made their jobs more interesting. Customers are super satisfied

and Dorchester, is now able to offer its services to selected high-end residences in the Mayfair

district.

4
Introduction:

 In 1987, the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, bought the Dorchester Hotel and

the Beverly Hills Hotel and then transferred the ownership to the Brunei Investment Agency in

1991.The Dorchester Group Ltd. owns the Dorchester Collection which was established in 2006

to manage several luxury hotels in Euro Dorchester Collection is a luxury hotel operator owned

by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. The

Dorchester Collection hotels, collection of nine of the globally acclaimed and opulent hotels,

located primarily in major European and American cities. The hotels are a mix of wholly owned

and part-owned hotels as the Dorchester Collection acquires them and manages them on behalf

of third-party owners. From Hotel Eden becoming the first hotel in Rome to offer facilities such

as lifts and electricity in 1889 to The Dorchester hosting post World War II royal charity balls in

London. Their heritage is deeply rooted in the historic structure of some of the most astonishing

cities in the world. ‘By our people, for our guests’ is at the heart of everything they do. They take

enormous pride in their rooms and interiors, but their people are the real reason guests come

back to Dorchester Collection hotels, through their commitment to uncompromising service.

They’ve focused on nurturing one-on-one relationships and living by core human values in all

their operations:

 We care

 We champion diversity and inclusion

 We work with passion and compassion

 We encourage creativity

 We take responsibility

5
  We are continuously learning

 We work as a team

The Dorchester serves a very elite clientele that demand luxury, and out of ordinary treatment,

and the hotels are very good at providing such service. In 2019 the pandemic hit the Hotel chain

hard. with revenue falling from £373.1m in 2019 to £128.9m in 2020. This resulted in a pre-tax

loss of £208.5m in 2020, having posted a £10.3m loss the prior year. Business travelers claimed

28.5% of the market, vacation travelers 25.7%, conference travelers 25% and personal or family

travelers 20.8%. The group's hotel occupancy rate was 18% compared to 60% in 2019, while the

average room rate decreased from £672 to £566 and revenue per available room decreased from

£402 to £104.

After the lockdowns and quarantine ended the company posted a £26.8m pre-tax profit in 2021,

up from a £208.5m loss in 2020. Its hotel occupancy rate was 33% in 2021 compared to 18% in

2020, while the average room rate increased from £566 to £829 and revenue per available room

rose from £104 to £273.

Despite these difficulties, the group said it aims to “increase the exposure and value” of its brand

through “organic growth, acquisitions or through third-party management contracts.

6
Situational Analysis:

Positive Attributes of Dorchester:

 Friendly and courteous staff that go above and beyond to make their customers stay

memorable Great experience

 Customers are made to feel like royalty

 Fashionable restaurants

 Outstanding Locations

 Beautiful property

Negative Attributes of Dorchester:

 Management only responds to positive reviews from guests.

 No price uniformity across the chains.

 No brand recall.

 Not very active online

SWOT Analysis of Dorchester:

Strengths

• Exceptional service.

• Personalized service.

• Prices vary across the chain of hotels.

• Situated in Iconic locations.

7
• Enjoys good online reviews

Weaknesses

• No brand recall—individual hotels are more popular than the collection.

• Very little online marketing promotions.

• No corporate tie-ups or marketing partners.

• Limited social media presence.

• Pricey.

• Appeals to a very niche group.

Opportunities

• Explore partnership options.

• Develop the social media aspect.

• Invest more in online marketing efforts.

• Take advantage of the iconic locations.

• Increase brand awareness.

• Build brand values and personality.

8
Threats

• Highly competitive category.

• Foundation of new luxury hotels.

• Budget chains.

• Boutique hotels exceptional service at a lower price.

• Vacation home rentals.

• Economic recession

PEST analysis:

PESTEL allows you to consider the influence of six factors: political, economic, social,

technological, environmental, and legal. A detailed PESTEL analysis of the Hotel Industry can

show how these factors support the expansion of the hotel industry or hinder its growth.

Political Factors:

The hospitality and tourism industry are vastly affected by the decisions of the local

government. In case of political unrest or any other emergency, the government can impose a

travel ban. This decision can directly harm the hotel industry. This was what happened with

Dorchester in 2019 when the Pandemic hit.

9
Economic Factors:

The hotel industry is a massive contributor to the global economy. There are more than 700

thousand hotels, which account for the employment of about 173 million people. Besides

keeping the circulation of money intact, the hotel industry hugely impacts the global economy.

The hospitality sector is experiencing stagnant growth because the current economic

situation. The Dorchester is saw much better results after 2020 because the travel ban was lifted,

and economy was stabilizing. However, recently due to the Russian War on Ukraine and the

rising inflation has caused the world economy to move towards a recession. As there is less

money in people's pockets, they are limiting their expenses on travels. Due to the unstable

conversion rate between different countries, there has been a decrease in traveling and hotel

occupancy rate.

Socio-cultural factors:

People's preferences and spending habits shape the society and the culture they belong to, thus,

making it a crucial external factor for the hotel industry. The present-day hotel industry is highly

competitive, and many new players are coming now and then. A massive section of the guests

books a hotel after reading reviews. Or because of family, friends, or peers' recommendations.

Thus, making the hotel industry depends on people's opinion and their general impressions.

Technological factors:

Technological advances have brought a new era to the hospitality sector, and the hotel industry is

enjoying its benefits. Mobile users worldwide have reached 7.26 billion users, accounting for

91.62% of the world population. 4.15 billion are currently active on their social networks. its

10
impact on travelers’ decisions through the social network, setting itself as a new influential trend

in the hospitality industry. Hotels have been adjusting their management to take advantage of

this social trend by promoting their marketing campaign. 

Main Case:

The Hotel chain is known for their customer service but there was a time in 2016 when the top

leadership saw an uncanny number of complaints coming from the laundry service of the hotel.

In one hotel the management had to replace a fabulously expensive Givenchy evening gown. At

another, an Hermès Birkin bag, which is almost impossible to buy unless you’re a celebrity, had

to be restored, at great expense, after a waiter spilled wine on it and our laundry made the

damage worse while trying to clean it.

The leadership had the innovation team investigate this increase of complains from the guests.

This was a very smart move by the top management as Common customer complaints can

indicate areas that are deeply important to customers. These may be areas where being “good

enough” is not good enough. For a luxury brand the key is to figure out what is most important to

your customers and do it better than anyone else.

The first challenge Dorchester Collection’s luxury hotels had to face was to figure out What

Their Customers Wanted.

The team dived deep into data and found what their guests wear and why they wear it. They

came to understand that the value of clothes is far more than material and cost.

11
Within the hotel, the team found that our employees saw the laundry service as removed from

our guests, physically and psychologically, and as a less-than-desirable career path. This mindset

was generating a high risk of us not meeting the high expectations of our guests.

Research revealed that fashion and clothing were central to the guests’ experience. The guest

who wears the Brioni likely sees themself as part of the world of fashion, and their shirt as an

investment rather than a consumable. When they hand it to us to be cleaned, the owner trusts us

to understand those priorities and the suggestion of status woven into the fabric.

Recommendations:

Dorchester understood that they needed to increase the resources that were being devoted to this

aspect of customer service, so step one was increasing the laundry budget by 30%. They also

hired an expert craftsperson to run the service the team designed a PR and social media

campaign around her, raising the status and morale of the laundry staff.

The team conducted workshops for the staff to familiarize them with fabrics, labels, and

designers. Feedback they received from customers indicate that these investments in improving

our laundry employees’ skill sets. Now, when a Chanel jacket is returned to a guest, it has tissue

paper stuffed into the sleeves and shoulders to preserve the proper drape. These service

improvements cost very little and have had great success. 

Appreciating their guests’ relationship to their clothing has encouraged Dorchester to improve

existing services and create new ones.

12
If the hotel had simply set out to reduce customer complaints about laundry service, they would

not have been able to recognize or act on the market opportunities presented by our guests’ love

of fashion.

For a luxury brand, it is not enough to do everything well; that’s table stakes. The key is to figure

out what is most important to your customers and do it better than anyone else.

13
 Bibliography

Brant, A. (2017). How Our Hotel Used Data to Make Our Laundry Service Glamorous. [online]

Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2017/03/how-our-hotel-used-

data-to-make-our-laundry-service-glamorous [Accessed 2 Nov. 2022].

Dorchester Collection. (n.d.). Who we are. [online] Available at:

https://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/who-we-are/.

Anon, (n.d.). Dorchester Collection returns to profit but remains concerned about global

economic and political context. [online] Available at: https://cpp-luxury.com/dorchester-

collection-returns-to-profit-but-remains-concerned-about-global-economic-and-political-

context/ [Accessed 2 Nov. 2022].

Edrawsoft. (n.d.). Detailed PESTEL Analysis of Hotel Industry | EdrawMax Online. [online]

Available at: https://www.edrawmax.com/article/hotel-industry-pestel-

analysis.html#:~:text=PESTEL%20analysis%20allows%20you%20to.

The Caterer. (2022). Pandemic widens losses at Dorchester Collection. [online] Available at:

https://www.thecaterer.com/news/pandemic-widens-losses-dorchester-collection-2020-

financial-results [Accessed 2 Nov. 2022].

14
Creating unique experiences for the discerning traveler. Background. (n.d.). [online] Available

at:http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/505876_uh83cnlPOvEhSWTJ

mEwOCmu6r.pdf [Accessed 2 Nov. 2022].

15