Now I look up information about the city and its location through the Internet. I can click on various reservation systems, compare prices, and then make a decision and make an online reservation.
Like me, millions of people will do the same. We don't know how these tourists make decisions, what standards they adopt and what kind of information is important. We can only guess, try and see if we succeed.
The complexity of this growth requires managers in our industry to have new abilities.
Former hotel manager
Until 15 to 20 years ago, a typical hotel manager had to work 24 hours a day for one goal: how to meet the needs of customers. Together with an enthusiastic team, he works under a strict hierarchy and has a clear division of responsibilities. His employees are also willing to work hard, regardless of irregular working hours.
We chose to engage in the hotel industry out of pride and dedication, and it has nothing to do with money.
Hotel investors also have this attitude. Owning a hotel or restaurant makes people feel beautiful, while making money and other things are secondary.
All this has created such a manager: he is familiar with all aspects of hotel management and has excellent skills of thinking about guests' thoughts, but he knows nothing about hotel management except "rules and orders" and is not interested in money and promotion.
The course of hotel management education is also very similar: it is very operational and pays great attention to professional skills and communication with customers.
change
Great changes have taken place in the business environment since 1980s. We have experienced a substantial increase in tourism; Now, together with the IT industry, we have become the fastest economic growth point in the world. 8- 10% of the global workforce works for us directly or indirectly.
Besides, we have new guests who have more money to spend, better education and more experience, so they have higher expectations for the hotel. It is not enough to satisfy customers, we must make them happy.
Investors in the hotel industry are also changing. Generally speaking, banks, pension funds and shareholders all demand higher return on investment. Contrary to the past, they can now easily transfer their funds to areas with higher returns. Hotels and tourism need to be more competitive in the global capital market, and the only way to achieve this goal is to increase the attractiveness of funds and generate added value. The workforce is also changing. Today's employees are more independent in thought and spirit. They are willing to accept some new ideas, such as never too old to learn, professional counterparts, the pursuit of personal value and personal development. In addition, there is an increasing shortage of labor force, which is mainly due to the development of demography and the increase in demand for labor force in other economic fields (such as "new economy").
All the most important holders of funds in our industry: customers, employees and investors, have changed, showing higher expectations, more conflicts of interest, reduced loyalty and so on. The biggest challenge in this regard is that we do know that there will be further changes, and this change will come before we realize it, but we can never grasp the exact direction of the change.
We should have new functions in order to control the new situation.
During the meeting, we will summarize and discuss some important changes in industry management:
From a single "caretaker" to a visionary manager;
Change from operation manager to strategic manager;
The transformation from solving problems to finding problem operators;
From a single warm reception to a business manager;
Change from experience manager to knowledge manager;
Managers who change from single type to diversified principle;
From single operator to instructor.
Hotel management education
The transformation of managers' functions will produce another type of education for hotel and tourism operators.
For example, The Hague Hotel Management Institute has completely changed its curriculum concept by introducing the educational model of "entrepreneur learning".
Students play self-responsible entrepreneurs, and they must solve problems independently with the help of a large amount of information that is easy to obtain now.
Pure theoretical knowledge is secondary, and the focus is on improving the ability to learn and obtain information.
In this mode, teachers guide and consult students in the learning process, and evaluate students' performance, playing the role of "asking questions" rather than "answering".
Nowadays, price reduction is the practice of hotel marketing. But this kind of competition may lead to the decline of hotel quality and restrict the development of hotels. Under the market economy system in China, it is a strategic trend for the hotel industry to analyze the price reduction competition and seek new market competition strategies.
Keywords: hotel/price reduction competition/non-price competition
Hotels/price reduction competition/non-price competition
Upper guide bearing
Classification number of China Library: F7 19 Document ID: Document number A:1001-5124 (2000) 02-01KLOC-0/-04.
In the fierce market competition, marketing competition is a necessary means for enterprises to win market competition. Competition in marketing is essentially a conflict between enterprises in order to obtain more economic benefits, which is based on products and aims at winning customers. This conflict used to be manifested in commodity prices and became an important means of market competition. In order to gain more market share, enterprises often conduct marketing competition around price. The so-called price reduction competition refers to the competition in which enterprises simply reduce prices and obtain profits in order to improve the trading conditions of products and increase the sales volume of products. Price reduction competition mainly occurs for the following reasons: first, the supply of products exceeds demand in the market, and enterprises hope to get more turnover in order to survive in the industry; Second, in the face of declining market share, enterprises try to gain a leading position in the market by reducing costs; Third, during the economic recession, fewer and fewer customers are willing to buy high-priced products, and enterprises will win their reputation in the eyes of consumers by lowering prices. At first, enterprises may obtain higher sales or profits through price reduction competition, but due to price reduction competition of one party, it is easy to be imitated by opponents. Once imitated, it will trigger a price war in the whole industry, leading to excessive price reduction, thus reducing the income of all enterprises. Excessive price reduction competition will not only affect the income of all enterprises, but also lead enterprises to fall into the misunderstanding of low quality and lose customers' loyalty to enterprises.
First, the current price reduction competition in the hotel industry
At present, the hotel industry has entered the misunderstanding of price reduction competition. The occurrence of price reduction competition is mainly determined by objective factors:
First of all, in recent years, due to the macro out of control, the number of hotels has increased sharply, leading to oversupply of hotels. Take the statistics of 1998 for example. 197 The number of overseas tourists in each region was 53,200102, but the number of rooms in foreign-related hotels nationwide was 70 1 736, and the number of beds was 1 4 1 708. The annual reception capacity is 515,273,420 people, far exceeding the demand. The room occupancy rate was 53.78%, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous year. Therefore, in order to improve the room occupancy rate, many hotels use price reduction to attract guests.
Second, it is influenced by the domestic and international economic environment. Due to the development of clean government construction in China, the consumption of public funds has plummeted, which has reduced the number of hotel tourists; At the same time, the impact of the Southeast Asian financial crisis and some domestic economic problems have led to the general price reduction of travel agencies, conference institutions and other intermediaries. In order to gain more market share in the declining turnover, hotels passively adopt price reduction competition.
The third is the problems caused by the difference between financial subsidies and tax burden. At present, some hotels in China have more financial subsidies and less tax revenue. These factors lead to the difference of hotel product cost. Hotels with lower costs take advantage of these advantages to compete for price reduction, which is easy to make a profit.
Fourth, many hotels face the dilemma of "exit barriers" within the system. This "barrier" is caused by many aspects. For example, some hotels belong to state-owned enterprises, and many employees are laid off when they go bankrupt, so they are forced by social pressure to take excessive price reduction measures to support hotels; Because some hotels can't change careers, they owe a lot of money and take excessive price cuts to deal with creditors, and so on. The existence of various "exit barriers" makes hotel owners often use simple price reduction competition to gain market share to support the operation of the whole hotel, thus forming price reduction competition in most hotels.
Fifth, the quality and level of hotel managers are low. At present, some managers of many hotels, especially middle-level management cadres, don't have a deep understanding of the connotation of marketing competition in the market economy, can't master advanced competition strategies, and can only adopt simple price reduction competition strategies.
These are the main factors that lead to the current hotel price reduction competition. Once the price reduction competition prevails, it will easily lead to a series of disadvantages such as low prices. Mainly in the following aspects:
1. Price competition is an easy way for competitors to follow, which easily leads to retaliation from competitors, and even leads to both losses, which cannot improve economic benefits; Reducing the price can attract customers for a while, but once the normal price is restored, the sales volume will be greatly reduced.
2. The decline of hotel product quality. Due to excessive price reduction, in order to maintain normal profits, hotels can only cut costs, such as reducing or reducing the number of service items and products, which ultimately affects the quality and quantity of hotel products and lowers hotel standards.
3. Affect the brand of the whole hotel. Brand hides product standards, which can improve customers' understanding of products, stimulate customers' desire to buy, and ultimately improve customers' preferences. The price reduction has affected the standard of a hotel brand, thus losing the feelings and preferences of the guests and reducing the image and status of the hotel in society.
4. Affect the enthusiasm of hotel staff. Due to excessive price reduction competition, the income of the whole industry has declined, and the income of hotel employees has also declined. From 65438 to 0994, the slogan put forward by the World Tourism Organization was "high-quality staff, high-quality service and high-quality tourism". The decrease in income will bring anxiety and dissatisfaction to hotel employees. They will complain, vent their grievances, stop trying their best at work, and the phenomenon of employee job-hopping will increase. Hotel products and services penetrate each other, support each other and blend into an inseparable whole. When employees provide services to customers, it is also the time for customers to consume services, which has the characteristics that service products and substantive products cannot be separated. In the era of advocating "people-oriented", without happy employees, there will be no active employees, and there will be no hotels with high service quality.
Some of the above disadvantages are more or less present in hotels, so the price reduction competition has been more and more restricted under the current market economy conditions. If it continues, the hotel industry will definitely go to a dead end or be merged by foreign countries. How to get out of the misunderstanding of price reduction competition is a top priority at present. Therefore, it is the only way to improve the current market competition and quickly improve the competitiveness of hotels to seek non-price reduction competition strategies other than price factors.
Second, non-price competition is the development trend of modern hotel marketing competition.
Under the condition of modern market economy, non-price competition has gradually become the mainstream of marketing. In addition, from the market environment, the rapid economic development has continuously improved the consumption level and purchasing power, and buyers' concerns are not limited to commodity prices. It is no longer that the lower the price, the better the sales volume, but the better the products that can meet the specific market demand. With the development of science and technology, enterprises and consumers can more effectively distinguish competitive goods from their own products (such as quality, function, trademark, packaging, service, etc.). ).
The so-called non-price competition refers to the competitive mode in which enterprises use marketing means other than price to distinguish their own products from competitive products and make them have different advantages to promote product sales. Specifically, non-price competition is manifested as: in the face of various commodities, winning with novel styles and marketable; Facing the same goods, win with high quality; Facing the same quality goods, win at a low price; Facing the same price of goods, win with quality service. With the progress of society and the development of production, people's consumption structure is becoming more and more reasonable, consumption level is constantly improving, and the importance of non-price competition is becoming increasingly obvious, which can not only make up for the limitations of price reduction competition, but also create a more comprehensive and perfect new competitive pattern. Non-price competition mainly has the following functions:
First of all, developing non-price competition is conducive to improving product quality. Quality is the soul of products, the life of enterprises and the foundation of brands. Whether the products produced by an enterprise are marketable and competitive in the market depends largely on the quality of the products. The standard for consumers to buy goods in the market is often quality and price, and the quality of goods is often the final decisive factor. Just like people like to buy brand-name products, one is out of psychological needs, and more importantly, consumers think that brand-name products are excellent in quality, reliable and trustworthy.
Secondly, developing non-price competition is conducive to developing new products and meeting social needs. Enterprises constantly improve old products, actively develop new products, increase color varieties and expand product sales, which also directly affects the competitive strength of enterprises. If an enterprise lacks the spirit of innovation and the quality and variety of its products remain unchanged for decades, it will have no competitiveness and will inevitably lack vitality and vigor. Enterprises should deliberately innovate in the competition, forge ahead, and be superior to others. With the shortening of the service life of goods, it has become the main means of non-price competition for enterprises to launch new products and occupy the market with the highest efficiency.
Thirdly, developing non-price competition is conducive to improving the market sensitivity of enterprise management. In order to survive in the market, enterprises should adapt the direction of production and operation to the needs of the market and consumers. Whether an enterprise can adapt to the market demand and adjust its business direction flexibly in time is the key to its marketing decision. Because the market is always changing, enterprises can only adapt to the needs of the market and win in the competition if they take the initiative to go to the market, deeply understand and study the market and regard the needs of consumers as the starting point and destination of their production and operation.
Finally, developing non-price competition is conducive to improving the economic benefits of enterprises. Enterprise products are of good quality and marketable, and can constantly adapt to market demand for innovation and produce new varieties of colors. Such enterprise products are bound to expand market share, win a large number of repeat customers, increase profits and improve economic and social benefits.
It can be seen that developing non-price competition is conducive to establishing a good corporate image and winning the trust of consumers, thus consolidating and expanding the market.
The non-price competition of hotels is a broader level competition. Therefore, as the basis for formulating non-price competition strategy, products and their promotion activities must start from the concept of the whole product, from the hotel's own conditions, combine the tangible assets and intangible assets of the hotel, and adopt various non-price competition around the promotion strategy of the target market. Generally speaking, the hotel's non-price competition strategy has the following aspects for reference:
1. Product differentiation strategy. The diversity of customer demand will inevitably lead to the difference of market demand. The difference strategy is the strategy that people have no me, people have my superiority and people are superior to me. In order to seek the trust and loyalty of customers, hotels must create differences. The greater the difference, the higher the customer satisfaction. In the competition, they will not squeeze a wooden bridge with their peers, but find another way to win by differences. Therefore, when designing projects, hotels should pay attention to the differences of projects, and leave a deep impression on customers through differences, leaving a good memory. This will greatly improve customer loyalty and return rate.
2. Pursuing personalized service. Hotel guests have personality differences in age, occupation, experience, education level, hobbies, etc. They are * * * for customers, but everyone's situation is different. Only by satisfying different personalities can we improve the reputation and popularity of the hotel and create profits. On the basis of standardized services, provide personalized services and extraordinary services. The concept of Personalized Service originated in developed countries, which refers to the provision of various services on the basis of standardized services, but not limited to standards, but centered on the needs of guests, that is, targeted services, including special services beyond standards. The most basic purpose of customers staying in a hotel is to get the actual service provided by the hotel, and then the value. The hotel's physical products must be combined with services to give value to guests. This value depends on the service level. It is necessary to create a good experience for customers, anticipate consumers' wishes and needs, and do what customers think. The waiter has thought of it and made preparations. What the customer didn't expect, the waiter also thought of it. Therefore, all hotel employees must try their best to understand the whole consumption process of customers, try their best to improve the consumption value of customers as a whole, and create value-for-money hotel products. For example, the five-star Beijing Wang Fu Hotel stipulates that any guest who stays in the hotel for more than 20 times will be included in the "Wang Fu Frequent Visitor List". There are stationery, envelopes, matches and bathrobes specially prepared for him in the guest room, all of which are printed with his bronzing name. This bathrobe belongs only to him. He left the "Wang Fu", put away his bathrobe and kept it, then moved into the "Wang Fu" and took it out and still wore it by him. This personalized service can satisfy the self-esteem of the guests to the greatest extent.
3. Brand strategy. With the further deepening of economic system reform, the degree of world economic integration has deepened. Under the condition that supply and demand tend to exceed demand, the market is a buyer's market, and customers are in an active position and have more choices. Usually, whether a customer buys a certain commodity depends on the degree of customer's trust in this commodity. It is important that customers have brand "preference" psychology, that is, brand loyalty. Under the new situation, the intensity and complexity of competition are getting higher and higher, and world-famous hotels are pouring into China, which poses a great threat to China's hotel industry and also poses new challenges. Brand is a kind of resource. Whoever takes the lead will be able to occupy and use this resource, thus occupying the market. For example, some hotels in Jiangsu have launched "Jiangbei Banquet" and "Qianlong Emperor Banquet". When other catering markets are weak, the business of these hotels is still crowded, largely because of the brand effect. Nowadays, many hotels have poor brand awareness, pay attention to product packaging, and try to cover up mediocre products with exquisite packaging, which will only lead to distrust of customers, but will make most customers more and more wary of packaged products and eventually lose the market. Facing the new challenges, China hotel industry must start with brand management, pay attention to brand power, shape brand image, and finally create brand advantages, so as to defeat competitors.
4. Promotion strategy. The basic function of promotion is to convey the information of goods to consumers and communicate the relationship between producers and consumers, thus promoting the sales of goods. Hotels should use advanced promotion strategies, not just price reduction competition strategies. Hotels can widely promote hotels in the society through news organizations or hotel employees; Carry out extensive publicity through appropriate advertisements and establish a good hotel image; Hotels can also establish long-term cooperation channels with travel agencies, tourism organizers, conference organizers and other intermediaries. , cultivate the hotel's tourist channels. These promotion strategies are the key weights for hotels to improve their marketing competitiveness.
At present, non-price competition has played a very prominent role in modern hotel competition. We must get rid of the dilemma of price reduction competition, establish and improve the market mechanism on the basis of improving the competitive experience of marketers, take advantage of non-price competition, grasp the development trend of modern hotel marketing competition, and formulate hotel non-price competition strategies to ensure the healthy and smooth development of China's hotel industry in the fierce market competition.