SWOT Analysis:

 

Strengths-

1. Our hotel provides a great variety of extensive guest service. These include internet access, laundry facilities, full valet services, housekeeping services, meeting spaces and 24/7 front desk services. With these features, we are able to provide a more hospitable overall experience for our guests.

2. Our hotel’s theme is recognizable and familiar to our guests. The Great Gatsby is not only a famous and classic novel, but also more recently a blockbuster film that has given the story a surge in popularity among younger audiences. We are able to provide a unique experience for our guests by applying this theming to every aspect of our hotel: the decor, the employee costumes and behavior, etc. Additionally, this familiarity with our theme creates greater brand recognition for our hotel and will help drive demand.

3. We offer a variety of unique luxury facilities and offerings. Our hotel is equipped with a state of the art wellness center, in-room spa treatment services, a saltwater pool, an upscale dining room with an in-room dining alternative, as well as one lounge. All of these facilities, coupled with our unique theme, provide us with opportunities to enhance the guest experience and maintain our status as a luxurious destination.

4. Our merchandise is popularized by our brand image association with “The Great Gatsby.” This brand image will increase the value of everything that we sell due to the preexisting brand equity of Gatsby.

5. The hotel’s Business Complex is a facility that can be used to house events for non-resort guests, providing us with greater outreach among theme park visitors and other guests at “The Resort.”

 

Weaknesses-

1. Our hotel has limiting dining offerings. We lack a low-cost alternative to our upscale dining experience (both in the dining room, and in-room services). This is a weakness because some guests will not be able to afford our upscale option, nor will they be looking for a consistently upscale dining experience.

2. Our hotel only has 54 rooms, which could become a bottleneck for revenue. If demand exceeds our capacity, then our only option is to increase prices, not guest volume.

3. Our hotel has a limited number of offerings for children. While we offer a wellness center, in-room spa treatments and a salt water pool, this leaves much to be desired as far as child entertainment is concerned. We will seek to turn this weakness into a strength by equipping these facilities with child entertainment, including a play gym in our wellness center, a baby pool to compliment our salt water pool, and in-room multimedia such as video games and children’s movies to compliment our in-room spa option.

4. Our hotel’s infrastructure is not state-of-the-art. For example, we keep track of our inventory through pencil and paper, whereas many businesses are switching to digital methods such as tablet computers and cloud technology.

5. Our building needs refurbishment. The hotel was built in the 1920’s, and while it has gone through extensive renovation throughout the years, it could use more work. Part of our hotel’s appeal is the fact that was built during the Gatsby time period, but we cannot allow this to be a weakness as well.

 

Opportunities-

1. Given that local average household income is above average, the hotel is affordable among locals. With this opportunity, we can provide incentives for local guests to stay at our hotel during slow seasons, such as discounts on rooms and partnerships with local businesses at our business complex.

2. The theming of our hotel is transferable to experiences in the theme park. We see an opportunity to incorporate the Gatsby theme into a ride or attraction at the theme park, which would provide a more consistent experience for guests at The Resort, and boost demand for our hotel.

3. As mentioned in our strengths, our business complex creates opportunities to host events for all visitors of the Resort, not just our hotel guests. For example, we can use the complex to host 1920’s-themed Gatsby Nights. We could bring in new revenue by charging for admission and open the event up to the public. This is just one way we could use the facility as an additional source of revenue.

4. Our hotel property has unused land where we could construct indoor and outdoor facilities, especially for children. Since one of our weaknesses is the lack of offerings for children, we see this land as an opportunity to build a playground or daycare center.

5. Our hotel’s location on the resort allows us to create an exclusive transportation service to all of the Resort’s other offerings, such as the theme park, Casino, indoor ski resort and water parks. We see this as an opportunity to expand on our theme by creating a “Gatsby Taxi” service, which our guests could purchase as a complimentary service to their rooms. These Gatsby Taxis would be themed vehicles that give our guests a unique and exclusive service during their stay at the Resort.

 

Threats-

1. Our hotel faces threats from our competitors, such as the Resort’s Premier hotel and a variety of local off-site boutique hotels. Some of our potential guests may be turned away from our hotel due to lower prices from our competitors. We must also ensure that our competitors do not surpass us in quality of service or variety of offerings.

2. Our hotel faces threats from alternative options for Resort guests, such as guests choosing to stay in low-cost budget hotels and local residents commuting to the Resort from home. While our hotel provides a high level of luxury, this comes with a large price tag for guests. Not every guest may be able to afford or even seek this level of luxury in their stay at the Resort. Therefore, we must intelligently combat the threat of alternatives by paying attention to visitor wants and needs.

3. Our hotel faces threats from our suppliers of both materials and labor. Suppliers of materials such as food and beverage, furniture, linens and technology have a great deal of influence on the quality of our guest experience. We must be highly selective in our suppliers to guard against low quality materials. Additionally, our employees are our suppliers of labor, and we must be stringent in our hiring procedures to ensure that they enhance our guest experience.

4. Our hotel faces the threat of high elasticity of demand. When the economy is suffering, people will be much less likely to stay in a luxurious hotel due to the high prices. We must be responsive to the economy and ensure that we are maximizing our revenue in all 54 rooms of the hotel, even during slow economic times.

5. Finally, our hotel faces a threat from potential new entrants. In other words, we cannot allow other themed boutique hotels to enter the market and negatively impact our market share.