Ho Chi Minh City, 6th June 2022.

FINAL GROUP ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATION ABOUT GOLDEN SEA

HOTEL NHA TRANG CASESTUDY

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GROUP’S MEMBERS

Student ID Name
SS160013 NGUYỄN NHÃ QUỲNH
SS160412 HOÀNG TRUNG KIÊN
SS160640 LÊ TRUNG TÍN
SS160185 NGUYỄN HOÀNG THU PHƯƠNG
SS160540 NGÔ THỊ THU TRANG
SS160511 TRẦN NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG NHI

Course: MKT202

Class Code: MKT1603

Lecturer: PHO THI MY HANH

 ________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION: 2
II. SWOT ANALYSIS: 2
Strengths: 2
Weaknesses: 2
Opportunities: 3
Threats: 3

III. MARKET SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, DIFFERENTIATION AND POSITIONING: 3

3.1. Segmentation and Targeting: 3
3.2. Differentiation and Positioning: 4

IV. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: 4

4.1 Hotel search method: 4
4.2 Criteria for choosing a hotel: 4
4.3 The most popular travel time: 5

V. RECOMMENDATION: 5
5.1 Problem: 5
5.2 Aim: 5
5.3 Detailed objectives: 5

VI. COMMUNICATION CHANNEL PLAN: 6

6.1 Golden Sea Hotel's own fanpage: 6
6.2 Website: 6
6.3 Third party: 7
6.4 WOM strategy: 7

VII. BUDGET: 8
VIII. EVALUATION & MONITORING: 9
8.1 Based on communication channels: 9
8.1.1 Golden Sea Hotel fanpage (Facebook): 9
8.1.2 Website: 9
8.1.3 Third parties (Traveloka, Agoda, Booking, etc.): 9
8.1.4 Collab with tours, car booking companies: 9
8.2. Based on indicators to evaluate hotel business performance: 9
8.3. Expected risks and proposed solutions: 9

IX. APPENDICES: 10
X. REFERENCES: 12

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 I. INTRODUCTION:

Golden Sea Hotel is a family business hotel founded in 2011, located in the center of the Nha
Trang City, with its ideal position close to the beach and tourist attractions, it has gained
recognition and been rated as a three-star hotel.

However, the business has been slowed down over the years because of several reasons such
as changes in tourism trends, many newer and bigger hotels in town, the impact of the covid
pandemic, ineffective marking plans.

II. SWOT ANALYSIS:

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Strengths:
- Prime location: Located at Hung Vuong - a
road that is practically next to the beach in
Nha Trang City, near famous tourist
attractions.
- There are many types of rooms: Standard,
Superior, Deluxe, VIP, Family room with a
mid-range price (from 350,000 ~ 700,000
VND).
- Staff are friendly, informative and can
speak foraign languages (English and
Russian).
- Quick check-in process.
- Clean room, fully equipped.
- Provides many useful facilities: laundry
service, shuttle service, tour booking
assistance, breakfast, etc.
Opportunities:
- The situation of COVID epidemic has
improved, Vietnam opens its border to
international tourists.
- Policy to stimulate tourism.
- Domestic tourism continues to be the top
choice.
- Nha Trang is one of the tourist destinations
that attracts visitors thanks to many
festivals, beautiful scenes, and places of
entertainment.
Weaknesses:
- Relatively old rooms, outdated design
compared to new competitors in the same
segment.
- Uneffective marketing communication
strategy: Website is underutilized. The
website attached on the Fanpage is not
accessible and does not appear when
searching for keywords about Golden Sea
Hotel on search engines like Google.
Fanpage (Facebook) has not been
popularized and attracted viewers.
Specifically, only have an average number
of followers (about 3,000 followers) and
posts only have a few dozen interactions,
many duplicate image posts and
unattractive content, etc.
- Bookings and reviews on third-party
booking platforms (Booking, Travoloka,
etc) are not high compared to 3-star hotels
in the same segment in the area.
Threats:
- Labor and financial resources are cut
after the pandemic.
- The emergence of a new strain of
COVID is worsening the disease situation.
- Competitors in the same segment
appear in the area.
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III. MARKET SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, DIFFERENTIATION AND POSITIONING:

3.1. Segmentation and Targeting:

a. Segmentation:
- Geographics: domestic tourists and foreign tourists, mainly use Vietnamese, Russian and
English.
- Demographics:
+ Income: average income from 6 million to 10 million VND/month.
+ Age: adulthood, mainly early adulthood (roughly 24 to 34 years of age) and middle
adulthood (roughly 34 to 60 years).
+ Life Stage: mainly serves young families, mature families, couples without children,
mature singles.
- Psychology:
+ Middle-class families, who want safe, family-friendly vacation packages that make it easy
and fun to travel with children.
+ International tourists who want to experience Vietnamese culture, people, and food. Ask
hotel staff who can speak foreign languages, to be friendly and knowledgeable.
+ Business People: who need a hotel in a central location, which is convenient for
transportation, has transportation support, is quiet and fully equipped.
+ Couples without children, mature singles: people who like to move and have a middle
income. They want to use a 3-star hotel at a reasonable price, in a convenient location
for a short trip to explore and experience.

b. Targeting: Golden Sea’s main target customers were middle-class families with children.
These amenities are designed for longer vacations that mirror the comforts of home. In
addition, they also target international travelers who want to experience Vietnamese culture,
people, and food.

3.2. Differentiation and Positioning:

a. Differentiation:
- The hotel is right in the city center, close to the sea and tourist attractions.
- Reasonable, transparent and stable room rates.
- The rooms are cozy, private, clean, comfortable, secure to make customers feel like they are
staying in their home.
- Dedicated service staff with the motto "customer is king".
- Many additional utilities such as cleaning and laundry services; transportation means; tour
support services; etc.

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 b. Positioning: Optimal choice for travelers looking for a hotel with convenient location,
comfortable facilities, diversified services and professional staff with a reasonable price to
bring them an unforgettable journey and cozy like their own home.

IV. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS:

We conducted a small survey of 33 people to research for this report. The survey results show
that this group of surveyed people is suitable for the target customers, so the following data is
completely a basis for analyzing and evaluating Golden Sea's customer behavior.

4.1 Hotel search method:

With a level from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree), the survey respondents mostly
agree with the methods offered by the questionnaire. However, the three methods that received
the highest agreement: Searching for hotels through relevant keywords on Google, Through
referrals of acquaintances, Searching on several apps for reservations and hotel reviews.
(Details can be found in the appendix).

4.2 Criteria for choosing a hotel:

Similarly, we provide surveyors with six criteria when choosing a hotel including Location, Price,
Facilities, Service Attitude, Additional Services, and Brand Reputation. The results obtained the
three criteria that influenced them the most including location, price, and good facilities. (Details
can be found in the appendix).

4.3 The most popular travel time:

Most of the survey respondents chose summer vacation as a golden time to travel.

V. RECOMMENDATION:

5.1 Problem:

Prior to the Covid epidemic, the bulk of Golden Sea's customers were foreign tourists. Therefore,
they have lost a large number of tourists due to the impact of the Covid pandemic, which has
stalled the tourism industry and restricted entry. Next, despite the fact that the hotel's service
quality is excellent and the pricing is affordable, it does not attract visitors because the hotel has
several problems in terms of marketing strategy when compared to competitors in the same
segment of the market. Golden Sea Hotel relies on traditional types of marketing such as word of
mouth, leaflet distribution, etc., but has yet to fully use the potential of digital and media platforms.

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 5.2 Aim:

As the survey results in section IV, summer vacation is the golden time of the tourism industry.
Therefore, the following objectives have been created with the common goal of improving the
business situation (increasing revenue) of Golden Sea Hotel during the last two months of
summer vacation (July and August):
- Increase brand awareness & make loyal customers.
- Increase bookings through owned platforms and 3rd parties.
- Motivation to encourage old customers to create new customers through:
+ WOM
+ Offers
- Create posts, news, blogs, experience clips, etc to attract attention and retain customers.

5.3 Detailed objectives:

- AOR (Average Occupancy Rate) index maintained above 65%/year, GOP (Gross Operating
Profit) increased at least 5% over the same period last year.
- Increase the number of followers and interactions on Fanpage, website visits.
- The number of bookings on 3rd party platforms such as Booking, Agoda, Traveloka
increased by at least 12%.
- Increase number of bookings on Website and Fanpage, at least 500 bookings/month.

VI. COMMUNICATION CHANNEL PLAN:

6.1 Golden Sea Hotel's own fanpage:

The content posted on the Fanpage did not attract viewers and the interaction was very low due
to the sketchy content and images, which did not provide much attractive information about the
hotel. Therefore, it is necessary to innovate and be different to create accents and increase
interactivity.

It is necessary to focus on the issue of building a more correct image, attractive posts with
specific content focusing on the advertising of room price, reviews and images of guest
satisfaction about the service of the hotel (content plan on keywords related to the hotel) and
information about promotions, offers, attractive events. In addition, provide incentives or discount
vouchers for customers when contacting to book through the fanpage.

At the top of the page will be a video pin, a panoramic shot of the hotel, a record of the
customer's experience from check-in to check-out and all the amenities the hotel provides. This
helps to improve service intangibles so that the target audience easily visualizes the hotel's
services and rooms and wants to experience the real thing.

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 Content plan: All postings will utilize beautiful and impressive titles and photos while targeting
keywords that are qualities of the hotel:

- Affordable prices, stable year-round, many attractive offers

- Location near the sea, right in the center of the city
- Clean, airy room
- Enthusiastic service staff
- Many facilities like airport transfers, tour ticket sales, etc.

Frequency of posting: Post content on the fanpage, 3-4 posts per week to keep the amount of
interaction and display on the profile of potential customers.

Supporting Tactics: Run Facebook Ads, before each weekend and before the schedule of big
events (Yacht Festival, Culinary Week...)

6.2 Website:

Used to introduce hotels, amenities, advantages, hotel locations, types of rooms ... Post reviews,
customer feelings.

This private website will include reservations. The room rate on this website will be cheaper than
the price on Booking, Traveloka,... (Nowadays, there are many customers who tend to look to
intermediary booking websites to refer to the price, reviews of the hotel intended to choose and
then book directly at the official website of the hotel without going through the intermediate
booking page. Because they think it's safer and more economical. The link of the website will
always be attached in the facebook fanpage.

Tactics:

- Run Google ADS, optimize SEO, SEM tools so that the hotel has the ability to show up on
the top of the search and push the traffic of the website up; this increases the hotel's
recognition as well as the chance to book a room.
- An indispensable thing in the service industry and especially the hotel business is that the
team of care, consulting, and customer feedback operates 24 hours because there will be
problems that need to be solved in a timely manner.

6.3 Third party:

Another way that the hotel can take advantage of to increase the number of visitors is to combine
with tours or booking parties or booking sites, with win-win benefits:

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 - Booking party: The driver recommends the hotel successfully booking, the hotel side will
divide the commission (20% for the days of the week, 10% for weekends). Accepting a high
share is not an exaggeration but in return to have a stable number of visitors.
- Tour organizers: deal with the tour provider so that your hotel is included in their tour and
provide promotions, combo services at preferential prices. Room rates will be quite cheap on
the package tour instead of booking separately.
- Booking pages (Booking, Traveloka, etc.): use a presence boost tool to push up the top of
the hotel's search on the pages.

6.4 WOM strategy:

In order to increase the effectiveness of the traditional WOM strategy, in addition to ensuring
service quality, it is necessary to apply a discount policy to promote old customers to promote the
hotel for new customers.

Each customer after checking out and leaving feedback on any Golden Sea hotel booking
platform such as (Fanpage, Website, Traveloka, Agoda, etc.) will be given a 10% discount code
for their next return. They are not necessarily the next customer to use the hotel's services, but
can provide discount codes for relatives and acquaintances traveling to Nha Trang.

In addition, if customers take photos at Golden Sea Hotel and post on Facebook to share their
feelings while staying there (with fanpage name tag) they will be given a breakfast voucher for
20% discount (Only one per customer and discount value cannot be accumulated in the same
bill).

VII. BUDGET:

Estimated Budget

Actions Cost

ADVERTISING FEE

Running Ads on Facebook 10.500.000

Running Ads on Youtube 10.000.000

Running SEO on Google 10.000.000

WEBSITE FEE:

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 Design the Website 10.000.000

Hosting the Website 1.000.000/year

3RD PARTY FEE:

3rd Party Application ( Booking, 31.500.000

Traveloka,...) (15%)

Moving Service (10%) 10.500.000

Tour Service (10%) 10.500.000

OTHERS:

Contingency cost: (10% of the estimated 9.400.000

budget)

10% VAT 10.340.000

TOTAL: 113.740.000

VIII. EVALUATION & MONITORING:

8.1 Based on communication channels:

8.1.1 Golden Sea Hotel fanpage (Facebook):

- Number of searches, number of followers

- Post engagement (reacts, shares, comments, minimum 3s views, reach, area)
- iTVC Views
- Secondary metrics (CPM: Cost per impressions, Frequency, Ad position)
- Average ratings

8.1.2 Website:

- Numbers of website searches, visits, website bookings

- Views, comments, shares on news, posts

8.1.3 Third parties (Traveloka, Agoda, Booking, etc.):

- Reach, searches, bookings

- Number of reviews and average review score

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8.1.4 Collab with tours, car booking companies:
- Number of guests introduced by the driver
- Number of guests from tours with contract period to use your hotel
8.2. Based on indicators to evaluate hotel business performance:
- AOR (Average Occupancy Rate)
- GOP (Gross Operating Profit)
- GopPAR (Gross Profit Per Available Room)
8.3. Expected risks and proposed solutions:
RISKS
- Reach, react for low posts
- Lack of content, ideas for quality posts
- Advertising and discounting costs
exceed expectations
- Overloaded number of rooms booked
- Some new marketing strategies don't
work
SOLUTIONS
- Innovating content, updating trends
and behaviors of target audiences,
increasing the frequency of posting and
sharing articles to Nha Trang tourist
groups.
- Refer to fanpages in the tourism and
hotels industry, rival fanpages.
- Closely monitor, update the accounting
table regularly, reduce advertising
policies, incentives and increase room
rates.
- Increase the room rate, consider
canceling the collaboration with the
driver, and focus on cooperating with
tours.
- Pause service, find out the cause, come
up with a new improvement strategy.
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IX. APPENDICES:

Article IV.1: The respondents are in the age group from 25 to over 50 years old

Article IV.2. The average income of the respondents mainly in the range of 5-10 million(accounting
for 48.5%)

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 Article IV.3. 66,7% of the respondents are often travel

Article IV.4. 57.6% of the respondents choose summer time to travel

Article IV.5. A large number of respondents find hotels by referrals of acquaintances, searching on
several apps for reservations and hotel reviews.

Article IV.6. A large number of respondents choose hotels based location, price, and facilities

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post1450606.html.

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