Strategic Marketing Report

This assignment is an individual assignment.
This assignment requires you to produce a report that proposes a strategic marketing report for the Relaxing Times
Hotel (please note the case is fictional).
The Relaxing Times Hotel
The Relaxing Times Hotel is located in Sussex a few miles South of the M25, close to Gatwick Airport. It is a family
owned business which was started in 1990 by the Watson family and is located in twenty acres of grounds close to
the main train line from London to Brighton and within easy striking distance of the cross-channel tunnel and
ferries to France. Local attractions include the Chartham Park and Lingfield Park Golf Courses. Valerie Watson, who
had financed the purchase of the hotel from her earnings in the City in the 1980s, had represented England at golf
and was the Captain of the Ladies Team at Chartham Park Golf Club. Her daughter, Charlotte, was also a promising
golfer and, having represented England at junior level, was now making a name for herself internationally, while
Charlotte’s brother was a promising tennis player. A short distance away, water sports, which tend to appeal to
younger and more athletic people, are available at Weirwood Reservoir. Crawley and Felbridge Lawn Tennis clubs
are also nearby. In addition, for the more mature visitor, there are several National Trust Properties including
Standen and Wakehurst Place.
The hotel has been developed over the last thirty years by investing profits in expanding parts of the business. The
original hotel consisted of some 60 bedrooms which, whilst of a good standard, would be termed as business or
tourist rather than luxury accommodation. Following a boom in international business in the late 1990s the hotel
was expanded to accommodate an additional 20 suites, suitable for affluent guests, or potentially families, and a
further 20 bedrooms of the same standard as the existing ones, making 100 in all. In addition, a small conference
centre (the Relaxing Times Conference Centre) was added and the hotel continued to concentrate on the business
rather than the tourist market, attracting companies from London and the South of England, particularly those that
needed to accommodate conference attendees from overseas, who could use Gatwick Airport.
As technology had advanced, however, the conference centre was beginning to look a bit “tired” and it was felt
that it was beginning to require a substantial makeover. Other facilities included the Relaxing Times Bar and Bistro
together with the Relaxing Times Restaurant that could accommodate and cook for some 150 people: all of these
had enjoyed good custom from the business guests. In addition, the indoor swimming pool had proved to be an
attraction for these guests. The purchase of the hotel attracted some attention in the early 1990s because of
Valerie’s background and even now its and Valerie’s names are widely recognised since Valerie continues to have a
high profile in the sporting world, appearing from time to time as a pundit on television, and remains involved in a
number of national sporting organisations. As a consequence of this, occasionally a guest with an interest in
sporting activities of some kind seeks out the hotel.
In addition to catering for guests staying at the hotel, the restaurant had also enjoyed considerable custom from
the local residents in the surrounding villages, where it enjoyed a good reputation. The restaurant opened only in
the evening, relying on the bistro to cater for the needs of hotel guests at lunchtime. Historically, it has served
traditional English food, using high quality ingredients sourced from long-standing suppliers. Because of this, it has
been popular with businessmen, although there was some doubt as to whether the occasional overseas visitors to
the conferences that stayed at the hotel were as appreciative of the type of food offered. It has always worked to
two sittings an evening, starting at six o’clock and nine o’clock. The Hotel was aware that serving times could be
important because guests often had to catch trains or planes, but there had been occasional complaints about
timings of the service that it had put down to problems with temporary staff. The question of speed and standards
of service had also arisen in the Bistro, possibly due to differing customer expectations there, and the family felt
that this needed to be addressed. Generally, however, the permanent staff were reliable and enjoyed a good
relationship with the guests, often discussing local attractions and activities with them.

Following the credit crunch, the level of business guests declined significantly and the hotel suffered from a low
occupancy rate in its rooms. It had decided, therefore, to focus more on the UK tourist and holiday market with a
reduced emphasis on business guests. This approach, which had involved a reduction in prices, had proved
moderately successful, attracting mainly UK and a few overseas visitors. While the latter found the proximity to
Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted airports convenient, they had no good reason to seek out the Relaxing Times
Hotel and, realistically, the family, having focused on the UK market for some years, knew little about them. The
Watson family believes, and anecdotal evidence from other hotels in the area confirms, that as the economic
climate improved, business guests had been making more use of hotels in the UK generally and particularly those
with easy access to London and the airports. They had noticed a particular “bounce” in the number of business
guests in 2013, following the London Olympics. Consequently, the family had been considering refocusing on the
business market. However, both the tourist and leisure markets as a whole also picked up and the Watsons had
seen a slight upturn in the room occupancy by these groups and so the family had been undecided.
However, the “Brexit” vote following the referendum brought about a number of changes. As the pound became
weaker against virtually all the other major currencies, the family has noticed that overseas visitors are becoming
more inclined to visit the UK, as it becomes cheaper for them to do so – the number of UK hotel nights taken by
overseas residents has increased by an estimated 31% between 2011 and 2016 and the family believes that this
trend will continue. UK businesses, however, have been less inclined to spend due to the uncertainty that Brexit
has brought. Similarly, consumer spending by UK residents on short breaks, which rose by some 14% between
2011 and 2015, has seen a pause due to the Brexit uncertainty. Overall, Mintel expects a slight increase in annual
trip volume of around 2% per annum up to 2021.
The family now feels that it is important to invest in the business and possibly change direction in order both to
take advantage of trends in the market and also to grow for the future. It feels that following similar strategies to
other hotels in the area does not offer sufficient scope for growth and that it has to establish some point or points
of differentiation. It has, therefore, invited you, as a Marketing Consultant, to advise on its medium-term strategic
plan, which the family intend to finance by borrowing from their bank.
The bank is only prepared to lend money against one major project each year or two years, indicating that, if a
project was successful, it would look favourably on future projects. All of these projects are likely to involve
additional investment in marketing as well as, possibly, infrastructure, to grow the business in the short term.
Consequently, the bank has said that it will only lend money on the strength of a sound business plan, visibly
increasing cashflow and, importantly in view of the uncertainty caused by Brexit, a manageable level of risk. The
family is keen, therefore, for you to advise on ways in which it might increase its level of business and so improve
its cash flow.
You have gathered some information from Mintel and other sources to which reference has been made in this
brief. The family has asked that you do not invest time or money in further research at this time, indicating that it is
perfectly happy to validate any reasonable assumptions that you make before it embarks on implementing the
strategy that you recommend. Such assumptions will, of course, be based on your knowledge gained, as an
intelligent consumer, from the quality press, TV and Internet News.
The industry is facing an increased amount of bureaucracy with safety concerns paramount in the wake of the
Grenfell Tower disaster and the increase in terrorist activity. These come, of course, on top of the existing costs of
complying with Health and Safety Legislation and complying with anti- smoking regulations. The impact of binge
drinking by certain types of guests only adds to the challenges facing the industry! It goes without saying that
these costs affect profits and make it important to maintain a high level of room occupancy.
As the Credit Crunch took hold, budget hotel chains such a Travelodge, Premier Inn and Ibis gained in popularity.
Whilst they offer little in the way of service other than the most basic of facilities, they do offer the benefit of
being cheap. They have seen their level of business maintained as the economy recovered because they have
retained the customer bases that they built up in 2009-2010. There is a Travelodge very close to Gatwick Airport.
More recently, the advent of Airbnb, although currently extremely low in both volume and value, suggests
emerging threats to the whole hotel industry.
Despite the inroads made by the budget hotels, anecdotal evidence suggests that the Business Market for the nonbudget hotel sector, in which the Relaxing Times Hotel would be classified, grew by some 8% in volume terms
between 2011 and 2014. However, it is unlikely to return to the halcyon days of the late 1990s and early 2000s
firstly because businesses have become more cost conscious and, secondly, because technology like videoconferencing has reduced, and continues to reduce, the need for travelling for business purposes.
The Restaurant Industry in Sussex
Following a dip in overall revenue during the economic downturn, the restaurant sector has recovered and the
trend continues upwards. Informal research in the local area in Sussex suggest that consumer spending on sitdown meals is recovering with a market growth rate of some 1.5-2% quarter on quarter since the beginning of
2012. Consumers are increasingly demanding new styles of food and drink from different parts of the world (e.g.
French, Italian, Portuguese, Indian, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian and Middle Eastern) and restaurants serving these
styles are continually springing up. Eating out has been a growing part of the lifestyle of young cash-rich, time-poor
professionals for some time. However, the affluent “grey market”, born in the 1940s and 1950s and free of
mortgage costs and the responsibilities of bringing up its children, has become an increasingly important part of
the market in all parts of the Western World, particularly as the disposable income of young professional has been
limited to some extent by the higher cost of living, particularly housing and mortgage costs. Other influences have
included an increasing awareness of health issues and a consequent trend towards healthy eating. Additionally, an
increasing number of pubs in Sussex have come to rely on serving food, mainly traditional dishes, to their local
customers, and so have provided a cheaper alternative to eating in restaurants.
Competitors
The competitors for the Hotel can be considered in a number of ways. There are local competitors for both the
restaurant and the hotel. The local area provides an extremely wide range of restaurants ranging from Burger Bars
through medium priced restaurants offering virtually every style of food, through to restaurants able to offer both
a similar and higher standard of food to that offered by the hotel. In addition, further afield in Brighton and
London, a vast range of food is available. Whilst the hotel obviously faces competition from Brighton, London and
elsewhere, the competition locally is somewhat easier to quantify. A typical competitor would be the Selsdon Park
Hotel, some six miles to the North of the M25 and so some thirteen miles from the Relaxing Times. This is
somewhat larger than the Relaxing Times and boasts its own golf course. Closer to home, hotels such as the
Gatwick Hilton provide strong local competition.
They would like your report to be structured as follows (see mark allocation per section for further detail).
– Short Introduction (detailing structure)
– Marketing Audit (External and Internal Analysis) and SWOT
– Objectives and Growth Strategies.
– Marketing mix moving forward