Somewhere Hotels
Somewhere Around the World: Rethinking a Hotel Chain’s Positioning in Greece, UAE, and KSA To Drive Growth
Project Type
Innovation
- Research & Audits
Challenge
Somewhere Hotels is a chain of hotels located in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Greece, with the vision to make their guests feel at home wherever they are. RSR & Sons Holding Company approached Blue Hat at a point where Somewhere Hotels were branching out in various hotel categories: Luxury standard hotel (Al-Ahsa), Long-stay apartment hotels (Al-Ahsa and Deira), Urban hotel (Tecom), and Boutique hotel (Vouliagmeni).
The management was looking to perform a full brand audit to evaluate the best hotel category to move forward with, and to align their vision with that category.
Intervention
We began with a brand audit focusing on naming, visual language, offerings, digital channels, marketing processes, brand touchpoints, and company culture. We also audited the customer behavior and service, brand management, brand extensions, and performance metrics (occupancy, daily rates). Our audit also included physical visits by our team of strategists to the various hotel locations, some of which were done as mystery visits, to experiment first-hand the hotels and evaluate the brand experience from a customer point of view.
Our methodology consisted of evaluating the current Somewhere Hotels vis-a-vis existing trends in the hospitality industry. Starting with introspection, our team analyzed and gathered data and comments from OTAs (online travel agents) such as Booking.com, Tripadvisor and more.
We also compared the ADR (average daily rate) and RevPAR (revenue per available room) and conducted a competitor analysis to understand the current positioning of the hotels. Our team also carried out socio-economic research to analyze the state of each market in which the hotels operate in. During our research, we found that each hotel had a different outlook, as opposed to all falling under the same category - as a chain hotel brand should.
To get an authentic critical outlook of the brand, we divided our team into three parties, where each party traveled to a location and audited a hotel in each of Al Ashsa, Dubai, and Vouliagmeni. During our trips, we conducted ethnographic research in the form of informal interviews with several personnel on the premises, including but not limited to the concierge, receptionists, and other staff members. We also carried out a full customer journey audit from the online booking and check in to the final check out, to identify pain points and tackle any obstacle regarding the brand tangibility.
Results
Towards the end of the audit, we included an additional framework that helps board members understand and evaluate the best route for growth and sustainability for Somewhere Hotels. We weighed the pros and cons of every category according to their vision and business criteria (financial, brand positioning, technical know-how, etc.).
The latter included several insightful frameworks, most importantly the Asset Valuator and the Weighted Matrix. The framework helped provide guidelines on how to enhance the current hotels and make rational decisions on which hotel category should tap into for future brand expansion based on factual research, deductive logic, and numerical criteria.
We prepared a full research analysis that contained deduced insights and strategic aims that would drive the financial growth of Somewhere Hotels, focusing on each category. After concluding our research, we managed to view the whole picture of Somewhere Hotels, and where the brand stands.
Our final insights consisted of what touchpoints are crucial to be uplifted based on the customer journey we conducted ourselves. We also made recommendations on which routes to proceed with shall they decide to continue in the hospitality industry. After defining the hotel categories, we also positioned Somewhere Hotels in a specific tier and recommended exactly where they should tap into next.
People Also Viewed
Blue Hat™ - All Rights Reserved.