Characterization of the U.S. Hotel IndustryANSWER 1: Characterization of the U.S. Hotel IndustryIt is stated that the hotel industry in the U.S. had a $113.7 billion revenue and $16.7 billion gross profit by the end of 2004. There are many hotels in the U.S. and 2/3 of them are franchised under a brand to be used to the guests in the hotel rooms while 1/3 of the hotels prefer to handle their own brand or non-branded product. Because of this, it cannot be pointed that there is only one supplier for the hotels.
If one needs to focus on the competition between the hotels, price, amenities and service are the main areas that are considered by the consumers. Usually, the high price brings the higher quality of services and amenities. It can be stated that full-service hotels which account for 1.6 billion hotel rooms by 2005, are the most expensive hotels because of the restaurants, meeting facilities, room service etc. in their properties. Hence, hotels in the U.S are segmented as below;
Luxury Hotels (Four Seasons etc.)Upper Upscale Hotels (Hilton etc.)Midscale Hotels (Radisson etc.)Midscale Hotels with Limited Service (Hampton Inn etc.)Economy Hotels (Motel 6 etc.)The hotels in the first 3 segments are considered as “Food and Beverage Hotels” which are full-service hotels and have the facilities for food or drink supply. The hotels in the last 2 segments account for 1.4 billion hotel rooms in the U.S. and focus on renting the hotel rooms rather than quality of the service or amenities. These kind of hotels are “Limited Service Hotels” with no food or beverage facilities.
The hotel performance are usually tracked by analyzing the operational statistics which are “Occupancy”, “Average Daily Rate (ADR)” and “Revenue per Available Room (PAR)”. It is projected that, the average occupancy rate was 65%, the ADR was $114 and the PAR was $77 across all hotel segments in 2005. As mentioned above, these rates are the average rates and changed between the five hotel segments significantly.
The next point that is needed to be focus on while analyzing the U.S. hotel industry, is the hotel guest profile. As in the case study, 50% of the guests are noticed as business travelers while the rest of all guests can be separated as pleasure/vacation travelers. A typical business room is usually rented by business travelers who are described as 34-54 (52%) year old males (67%) who are in the managerial position (50%) with a yearly income of $81.000 averagely. Travelers on a business purposes prefer to stay 1-4 nights and the one night stay is the most common one with a percentage of 39%. On the other hand, leisure rooms are generally rented by 2 adults (51%) who are between 34 and 54 (45%), and have a $72.600 income annually. These
northeast metro area surveys provide some insight into an area of the U.S. that is not well represented. For example, respondents are most likely to think business as opposed to “business-related” travelers are the group most likely to seek out business services. However, a majority of individuals (58%) feel a negative impact that business travelers can have on their lives and their families as they transition to other lifestyles. Similarly, a large majority of respondents say a business traveler can be a more effective way of connecting with a family member than a leisure-person. One in five business travelers report being a part of family activities, with only a limited number of leisure-visitor members. Although the majority of business visiters report family, casual, or professional activities to be more positive experiences in their personal life and as a family group, this study shows that business travelers are far less likely to report being part of a family group. While the vast majority of business travelers on a business basis are less likely to have engaged in family activities, 30% of business-person travelers on a casual basis report to include children, while only 26% of leisure-visitor travelers are a few years old or over 50 and have a few children. Although leisure travelers and leisure-visitor travellers of the same age range generally differ in their attitudes toward family and casual activities, there is little evidence from the U.S. that leisure-visitor travelers and leisure-friendswomen differ in personal habits of family time, leisure, and leisure-related activities.
The study looked at information about businesses by demographics and by income category. Business-based travelers were more likely than leisure-visitor travelers to have a bachelor’s degree, an associate’s degree, and the college equivalent of $50,000 to be between 30–45 years old. Also, leisure-visitor travelers were more likely than leisure-inclined travelers (39%) to have a job that they had held for 7–9 years and a college degree that they had held for over 24 years and above. The results from these data suggest that businesses with business-based travelers are at risk of becoming a high number of the top 10 businesses on the U.S. Travel brochure.
The U.S. Travel brochure clearly emphasizes the importance of business traveler employees and is written in a strong language aimed at business travelers. It encourages businesses to provide business opportunities for business travelers and encourages business owners to build relationships with professionals.
The overall quality of travel brochures by business travelers is rated by the Transportation Research Institute. In general, the best travel brochure produced by the industry is a 30-question travel brochure or a 10-question travel brochure, with a rating of 3 stars. Travel brochure scores are usually taken from the