Developing a Boutique Hotel: A case study in New Bern, North Carolina

Abstract

This case study is focused on the main issue related to developing a boutique hotel. The relevant facts of competitive supply, growth of demand forecasts and qualitative assessment. In this short case study discussed detailed SWOT analysis of the situation of opening a boutique hotel. At the last, conduct the possibility of proceeding this program.

Background Information

The concept of “boutique hotel” was born in Europe and the United States in the 1980s. It is located in the large commercial circle of the city. It is equipped with high standard hardware facilities and professional services. It has a distinct theme, unique architecture and decoration design, and individuality. Service, a hotel type featuring design. The “Boutique” originally refers to the “boutique shop” in Paris that is arranged from the storefront to the products that are sold with creative and individual elements. Nowadays, the essence of unique, personality, quality, intimate and so on gradually influence and penetrate into the hotel industry and promote the emergence of 'boutique hotel'. The consumer groups of boutique hotels are mainly high-end consumer groups of the upper class and the wealthy class. The boutique hotel is derived from a stable and mature economic base and a long-term cultural heritage. It is a counter-standardized product that represents a personalized product that corresponds to the standardization of mainstream hotels. Nowadays, boutique hotels have become the trend of the hotel industry. Various localities have invested in the construction of boutique hotels, especially in some areas with high economic exhibitions. Boutique hotels have become a new trend in the development of the hotel industry.

Discussion

Based on the information provided by the case study, I think the main problems of the boutique hotel are two points. First of all, the positioning of boutique hotels is not clear enough, lack of sufficient creativity and personality, no exclusive cultural characteristics, and even simply understand “boutique” as luxury, blindly pursuing luxury rather than cultural characteristics, and initially violated the design of boutique hotels. Original intention. The design is not story-telling and fun, it is difficult to emotionally impress consumers, not impressed. There should be a clear and clear positioning, giving life and emotion to the indoor environment, working harder on home and comfort, and closer to the living habits and quality of life of the target customers. Second, the boutique hotel focuses on the tedious design. In the decorative style, the pursuit of high-end, luxury layout, there are problems of cumbersome, messy, piled up, and copied. Luxury and luxury design is not the same as high-grade, too strong visual impact can sometimes be counterproductive, causing customers' aesthetic fatigue.

SWOT Analysis

Advantage analysis

1. The market is broad, and the development potential is huge. The boutique hotel industry is still in the stage of exploration and development. The overall scale is expanding continuously, the market is broad, the competitiveness is small, and the development potential is huge.
2. Market-oriented, high consumer demand. Different from budget hotels and star-rated hotels, boutique hotels have distinctive themes and meet the individual consumption needs of young people.
3. Excellent service and moderate price. Boutique hotels are more complete than budget hotel management and facilities, and the price is similar.
4. Small scale and low operating costs. Boutique hotels are generally around 20-50 rooms, requiring fewer employees and easier management. And its own features reduce the cost of promotion.

Analysis of disadvantages

1. Blind imitation, lacking unique personality. Some boutique hotels are designed to imitate not to focus on originality, and finally lead to business failure, such examples are not rare.
2. Single operation, the scale advantage is not obvious. The development of boutique hotels is not long, and the market size is relatively small.
3. The management model is not perfect enough to do it. There is not a lot of experience in boutique hotel management. Most of them are based on the management mode of budget hotels and star-rated hotels. However, boutique hotels are different from these two types of hotels, and there are inevitably places in the management.

Analysis of opportunities

1. Boutique hotels cater to the new direction of hotel development. In the increasingly saturated market of this budget hotel and high-end hotel, the emergence of boutique hotels has brought a new direction to hotel development.
2. The continuous development of tourism. Due to the improvement of people's living standards, people's attention to tourism has led to an increase in the demand for accommodation. While traditional hotels can't satisfy people's spiritual needs, boutique hotels bring new choices to people.
3. Market demand is strong. The boutique hotel market is still in the state of development, and the earlier the investment operation, the more profitable it is.

Threat analysis

1. Intense market competition between budget hotels at home and abroad. Because the positioning of the boutique hotel consumer group and the economic hotel positioning have the same intersection, it is inevitable to compete with domestic and foreign budget hotels in the market competition.
2. The rising cost of property has led to an increase in operating costs.
3. The rapid development of the hotel has led to a lack of hotel managers.

Conclusions

I think investors should continue to develop boutique hotels. Compared with traditional luxury hotels, boutique design hotels are not limited to accommodation, more beautiful windows, more comfortable hardware facilities, more special services, and more convenient communication places. Become the reason consumers choose them. In the future, the global boutique hotel industry will show the following developments. The first is the chain of boutique hotels. In order to expand the scale and increase the attractiveness of business travelers, boutique hotels are opening more and more branches to form their own hotel chain. But at the same time, each hotel combines local elements into design features, food and the overall culture, while still retaining its own identity.

Followed by the boutique hotel chain. After the popularity of boutique hotels, hotel chains are actively integrating the unique concepts and facilities of boutique hotels into their own brands. It is foreseeable that there will be more hotel chains in the future to close to the boutique hotel. Under the trend of boutique hotels, the competition in the global boutique hotel industry will become more intense.

Finally, the boutique hotel is a unique product and exclusive atmosphere of the experience economy in the hospitality industry, its future development will rely heavily on other factors outside the industry, such as consumer culture changes and globalization trends. Therefore, boutique hotels, especially boutique hotels with history and culture as the core, will not be included in the track of a unified star sequence or budget hotel, but also rely on their own characteristics and service concepts in the market. Win more room for development.