GRETCHEN HOTEL
Case Study
Strategic Management
By:
Lozada, Sofia M.
BSTM 3
I. Introduction
Gretchen Hotel is a five-star upscale hotel situated in Manila. Being one of the
most popular hotels in the city, tourists and professionals frequent the place. The
hotel boasts of its historicity as shown in the delicate architecture of the past while
complemented by pieces of furniture that harmonize the entire mood. Strategically
well placed, there is an intense but gentle ambiance of artistry and national pride.
This hotel was named after the lady owner, Gretchen, who passionately worked hard
to bring the best in the domicile service.
Today, Gretchen Hotel houses 375 cleanly maintained rooms of different
sizes and three restaurants: one for fine dining, another one serves that exclusively
Japanese food, and the other for casual dining. Two swimming pools invite guests
(children and adults) to relax and feel the cool water. It is supplemented by a gym for
physical and health aficionados.
On the ground floor are boutiques that sell antique items, shirts, bags,
imported cookies, medicine, and other items for casual needs. At night, one can hear
a string of soft music that so the otherwise tired travelers and professionals. The bar
is suitable for a quiet conversation while one sips the relaxing mellow taste of the
wines served. There are rooms for meetings and other business discussions,
equipped with technology gadgets and other communication requirements. In every
respect, Gretchen Hotel is proud of its complete and state-of-the-art facilities.
Gretchen Hotel has a total of 188 employees who are stationed in various
service offices, starting with administration, and front desk to concierge, bellboys,
restaurants, housekeeping, maintenance, and other service offices. They render
quality services to their customers and evidently, they are delighted with how the
staff, supervisors, and managers perform their jobs.
Similarly, the daily room rates of Gretchen Hotel are affordable, including food
and other facility prices. Note that the Hotel does not impose extra or hidden
charges. They are transparent and this makes their customers happy. While the old
and current customers of Gretchen Hotel generally come back and patronize the
Hotel, it is confronted with a great challenge. Its average monthly occupancy rate is
only 48.9%.
II. Central Issue:
Even if the Gretchen Hotel has a lot of strengths as a hotel, it only has an average
monthly occupancy rate of 48.9%. Creating an opportunity for Gretchen Hotel to
maximize its strengths by providing different strategies on how they will rack up the
occupancy rate and different action plans to help them on how they will be
consistent.
III. Statement of objectives:
• to strategies an action plan to help increase the hotel's occupancy rate
• to provide help and conceptualize an action plan that will not only stabilize the
hotels’ occupancy rate but consistently on a high rate
IV. Areas of Consideration:
a. Internal Environment:
Strengths:
• Gretchen Hotel houses 375 cleanly maintained rooms of different sizes and three
restaurants: one for fine dining, another one serving exclusively Japanese food, and
the other for casual dining.
• Two swimming pools invite guests (children and adults) to relax and feel the cool
water. It is supplemented by a gym for physical and health aficionados.
• On the ground floor are boutiques that sell antique items, shirts, bags, imported
cookies, medicine, and other items for casual needs. At night, one can hear a string
of soft music that soothes otherwise tired travelers and professionals. The bar is
suitable for a quiet conversation while one sips the relaxing mellow taste of the wines
served.
• There are rooms for meetings and other business discussions, equipped with
technology gadgets and other communication requirements.
• Gretchen Hotel is proud of its complete and state-of-the-art facilities.
• The daily room rates of Gretchen Hotel are affordable, including food and other
facilities. The Hotel also does not impose extra or hidden charges. They are
transparent and this makes their customers happy.
Weaknesses:
• Gretchen Hotel has only a total of 188 employees who are stationed in various
service offices, starting with administration, front and desk to concierge, bellboys,
restaurants, housekeeping, maintenance, and other service offices. (Lack of
manpower)
• Since the hotel is huge, the employees are having a hard time maintaining the
facilities.
• Lack of advertisements or promotions
• The interior design of the hotel isn’t that good anymore because most of people
now are into Instagram and prefer modern and trendy interiors.
b. External Environment
Opportunities:
• Gretchen hotel can be a venue for the people who needs to be in quarantine before
or after traveling
• It can be a venue for other events like parties, formal gatherings more.
• It can be a good place for staycations
• Online advertisements
Threats:
• Pandemic
• Terror attacks
• Political
• Theft
• Unsatisfied Customer
• Employees and customers
• Natural and man-made calamities
V. Courses of Action:
Acknowledge the problem,
Be open to innovations, accept suggestions
Hire new people for the hotel and train them well enough on how to always
innovate in order to fulfill high expectations and give excellent service. The
guests/customers should be at the center of everything, and services should
be tailored to their needs.
Research current trends
Hire marketing experts and strategist
Use the hotel as a place for travel quarantines
Decision Matrix
Average Weighted Mean for Alternative Courses of Actions
Scale 5 to 1: Best to Worst
Action Plan
VI. Conclusion
We concluded that while the Gretchen Hotel is an excellent establishment, it does
have some issues that need to be addressed. It requires innovation, new employees,
and training for existing staff to improve their performance and stay current with how
hoteliers handle customers and guests today. Additionally, they must research
marketing trends such as online advertisements or even television advertisements in
order to reach a larger audience.
VII. Recommendations
Based on the findings and conclusions presented, the following recommendations
are suggested:
• Change the old strategy, and think about what is more necessary, the executives
should consider new products or services that can offer to customers
• The company should start changing its environment in order for the customers to
feel new
• Employees' functional abilities are being instilled in order to meet the needs of the
hotel business and to improve management.
• The hotel can hold charity events to gain investors and loyal suppliers
