In the next five years, not only does Kimpton aim to double its numbers of boutique hotels all over the country but it also wants to venture into any management opportunities that are presented in the future. Furthermore, Kimpton’s aspiration is to launch more hotels in territories other than the U. S, such as Canada. With many new recent openings, the enterprise dominantly seeks to launch new hotels at various states in the United States to expand its market share in the hotel business industry. As far as management opportunities, Kimpton has been successful in improving “other” hotel projects that are not their own.
For example, a property in Cupertino was sold 2 years ago to KHRG Krug Inc. and since they did not specialize in hotel management, the new owners began rapidly losing revenue. They then enlisted Kimpton management in the once previously owned Kimpton Hotel, and sales began to climb once again. The dual philosophy of opening new hotels and acquiring management positions in already existing hotels together will expand Kimpton to markets and clients all over the world. Revenue is projected to double in the next few years for the Kimpton enterprise.
As a result, our net sales will be improved in time, which will lead to an increase in both gross margin and the bottom line. Tying up all these financial components together, Kimpton’s market share will begin to dominate the upscale hotel industry. In order to achieve all these goals, effective leadership is a must in attaining these desirable results. Management at Kimpton needs to pay attention to the wants and needs of their customer and implement various loyalty programs for their repeat customers, to show them that they are of value to the company.
Employees are also an important part in the hotel’s success because after all, they are the ones who have direct contact with the customers in every transaction. Ongoing training programs for employee’s is vital in keeping proper work efficiency and etiquette in order to maintain professionalism with their customers. As mentioned in the above section, Kimpton offers their employees the golden opportunity to update their knowledge in the hotel business with semi-annual seminars and gatherings.
With these strategies and programs, Kimpton’s strategic leadership in the future should improve further and expand in the current stage if it wants to compete with other hotels in the business. The focus should be placed upon customers and employees because happy-informed workers provide excellent services which leads to a priceless corporate environment. In summing up, people are the core strategy that Kimpton should put their effort in. Since Kimpton aims to acquire and merge with various hotels in the country to expand their market share, they should put some resources into the Research and Development (R;D) division of the enterprise.
By doing so, it will enable them to invest into various designing programs to map out efficient and future hotel launch components such as location, local demography of customers, and the standard of living in such areas. In addition, venturing into new projects helps to create attractive workshops and seminars that encourage employees to attend and improve corporate culture. Furthermore, the more involved the employees are into the corporation, the better they feel about working for the company which ultimately results in better customer services.
Employees also feel more encouraged to offer their own ideas to improve the hotel’s management if the feel empowered and know they will actually be listened to. Kimpton should offer their employees a competitive edge by hosting an annual event of innovations and improvements within the company. This should give their employees an opportunity to pitch their own creative ideas to make the enterprise a better place to work for. One of Kimpton’s most effective core competencies is its ability to customize their services to customers’ needs.
In the future, Kimpton should keep up with such differentiated elements by putting more resources into researching, analyzing and updating their customer database. By doing so, the company can put their attention toward loyal customers’ special needs and design their services and rooms accordingly. It will garner positive feedback and responses from customers, which equals effective word of mouth advertising as well as publicly known feedback. It is a marketing strategy that the enterprise is depending heavily on, which should be maintained in the future.
Competitively speaking, apart from attaining their current customer flows, the enterprise should also put great resources in acquiring new customer bases. In order to effectively compete for new customers, the enterprise should put much focus on making their hotel attractive to new customers by putting attractive packages together such as giving discounts in the hotel restaurant and offering freebies. This will help the hotel differentiate themselves and create a positive “brand” image. Since Kimpton is a boutique type of hotel, it is essential that they keep a close check on all the details in the hotels they disperse around the country.
They need to make sure that all the Kimpton branch hotels meet the standardized expectations of services and products. Bad customer service at one hotel under the Kimpton branch could lead to the customers’ natural perceptions that all Kimpton hotels could be providing the same services. Therefore, it is essential that Kimpton create an effective management team to keep track of all of their hotels issues such as customer needs and wants on a persistent basis. From the beginning years of establishing Kimpton, the hotel enterprise focuses on being a differentiator because of the competition it faces in the upscale hotel industry.
Cost is not in the spotlight of their worry because most of the customers know pretty well what they are paying for. They have a clear idea on what the hotels are offering, and expect the best at all times. Additionally, most of these customers are segmented by previous history of wants/needs. They are stratified from the same working class and most likely are familiar with the brand image of Kimpton. Besides, the hotel compensates for such costs by providing their customers with specialized services such as transportation to and from airports and loyalty programs that earn them free night stays.
Due to their future ideal expansion of an acquisition or merger, Kimpton wants to cooperate and do whatever is asked by other firms in order to expand its market and innovations. However, with such specialized assets, it is wiser for the company to focus their corporate level strategy on vertical integration as opposed to the visible horizontal integration, because it is best for the enterprise to be more efficient in specializing their assets as well as protecting their unique corporate culture, and will allow them to take the company as a whole to the next level.
