Hospitality Essay

Property Case Study

Xinyi (Liz) Xu

Royal Roads University

IHMN 388 Hotel Facilities Management

Year 3

Instructor: Bill Lewis  

Property Case Study

Huntingdon Manor Hotel, as a 3-diamond hotel, is located in 330, Quebec Street, which consists of two buildings regarding Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendary Tea House. The hotel is located in the heart of Victoria, BC, walking distance from downtown and the Inner Harbor. Seattle Clipper Ferry is situated the opposite of the hotel, which attracts those from the United States to stay in the hotel. Huntingdon Manor Hotel evokes the garden of a British country-style hotel, and manicured rose and topiary gardens, scenic ponds and meandering cobblestone pathways create a tranquil atmosphere. The hotel has a unique appearance, which can be easily distinguished. Huntingdon Manor Hotel, which was built from 1980, has around 110 delicate rooms such as Norfolk Room and Newcastle Room. Pendray Tea House, as a historical building, was built from 1875. There are 9 warm suites on the second floor. Pendray Tea House is famous for its afternoon tea, which is located on the first floor. The hotel has several facilities, which can satisfy guests’ requirements such as meeting rooms and business center. Because of convenient facilities, there are several activities will be held in the Huntingdon Manor Hotel such as weddings and conferences.

With the development of Victoria’s hospitality industry, the increasing number of the hotel has been built in the inner harbour, which increases Victoria’s economy. Due to the multitude of competitive hotels in Victoria, Huntingdon Manor Hotel is famous for its appearance and afternoon tea to attract guests to stay. Compared with other hotels in Victoria, Huntingdon Manor Hotel has unique decorations with wooden style inside. Although there are several tangible advantages to increase the hotel’s occupancy, the essay demonstrates that three main problems need to be considered regarding amenities and services of the property, the age of the hotel and the height of the building.

Having established by weaknesses of Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendary Tea House, this section illustrates the amenities and services of the property. Monotonous dining style, limited facilities and pressure services are three significant elements. Firstly, Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendray Tea House offer both free western buffet and menu style for guests, which offer guests a culinary experience. Pendry Tea House provides afternoon tea to the public and guests. “Hotel room sales account for approximately 55% of total hotel revenues as against 23% for food and 10% for beverages”. (Powell and Watson, 2006, para. 1). The authors state that the food and beverage department is the second profitable department in the hotel. However, Huntingdon Manor Hotel does not provide any services for lunch and dinner regardless of some special events or groups’ orders, which will increase the vacant rate. A vacant restaurant will increase daily costs on lighting, fridge and cleaning. Secondly, the Huntingdon Manor Hotel satisfies customers’ basic living needs. Due to the limited scale of the hotel, although Huntingdon Manor Hotel provides Wi-Fi, bike rental on-site from The Pedaler and guest laundry facilities, the hotel does not offer any entertaining facilities such as swimming pool and gym compared with another hotel in downtown Victoria. Guests cannot enjoy the extra entertainment benefits in the hotel. Insufficient numbers of table is another consideration of the Huntingdon Manor Hotel. For example, during the peak season, there are a large number of groups stay in the hotel for eating breakfast in the early morning on the following day, and each group has over 40 persons, which needs sufficient table to provide each guests. Although the restaurant should have more tables to accommodate guests, employer has to consider employees’ working comfortable. “While the restaurant should try to accommodate a required number of tables in the dining area, employer must also consider the comfort and mobility of both your customers as well as the staff.” (Torres, Fu and Lehto, 2014, para. 35). Hence, increasing dining variety, entertaining facilities and lack of tables are three significant factors for improving Huntingdon Manor Hotel. The effective solution that I hold is Huntingdon Manor Hotel can cooperate with some entertaining companies, providing simple lunch in charge and a reasonable layout of the dining room are three solutions. Specifically, there are several entertaining companies that can provide coupons to those who live in the Huntingdon Manor Hotel such as Goodlife Fitness, and kayaking companies. Although due to the scale of the hotel, Huntingdon Manor Hotel cannot build some entertaining facilities, they can use coupons to attract guests, which can increase the reputation of the hotel. In addition, Huntingdon Manor hotel also can provide a simple combo lunch to guests includes salad, chicken or fish and one soup, which needs to be in charge because paying for lunch provides guests s an option and also can improve restaurant profit. Moreover, the Huntingdon Manor Hotel needs to reasonably layout the restaurant. Because of the use rate of the bar is not high, the hotel can reduce the area of the bar so that more space to put the table.

Building on from the idea that the challenge of Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendry Tea House, this section illustrates that the age of the hotel. Both Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendray Tea House were built from the twentieth century. Although guests are attracted by history to stay, hotel ageing is a significant problem. Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendary Tea House have public area problems such as elevators and stairs. Huntingdon Manor Hotel has two elevators to use. Because of usage for a long time, elevators exist a sense of insensitivity and shaking in the elevator when guests are using, which reduces their a sense of experiencing. On the other side, because Pendray Tea House needs to protect the historic building, all of the guests have to walk to the second floor even though they have heavy luggage. These old facilities will be reflected in the negative feedback, which will decrease the loyal guests. Dong, Li and Zhang (2014) argue that “Physical setting including hotels' facility is the most important attribute generating hotel user satisfaction” (para. 9). Moreover, considering the age of the hotel, renovation is a big challenge for the hotel. Yu, Byun and Lee (2012) “Hotel renovation is more efficient and economical with the standardized room size and design as well as standardized appearance and costs” (para. 3). Authors reflect that Huntingdon Manor Hotel’s renovation impacts costs and design. Nevertheless, because of usage for the long-term, Huntingdon Manor Hotel has existed different kinds of issues such as the furniture in each room is old fashion, electronic facilities are ageing and harmful insects is growing, which affect hotel’s operation. Most of the complaints from online travel website are complain about the old facilities. Thus, as an ageing hotel, non-public area and renovation issues and two consideration that Both Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendray Tea House need to be improved. I suggest that the Huntingdon Manor Hotel can maintain elevators regularly. During the period of maintenance, maintenance personnel need to repair one by one to ensure the normal use of guests. In addition, elevator maintenance needs to be done during off-peak hours and posting the sign. In the Pendary Tea House, guests can wait for the front desk clerk to help carry their luggage to the room, which will increase guests' experience. For the renovation parts, Huntingdon Manor Hotel can decoration divide into different areas, which can reduce the loss of employees and profit.

Another line of thought on the consideration of Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendary Tea House demonstrates the height of the building. Both Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendary Hotel have less than four floors, which have a visibility issue. In downtown Victoria, there are several hotels are over four floors. The nearest hotel surrounds Huntingdon Manor Hotel is Grand Pacific Hotel. According to Grand Pacific Website (n.d.), the hotel has 304 guest rooms and suites with 10 floors (para. 1). Even though Huntingdon Manor hotel has a white appearance advantage, and guests could easily look at the hotel from Inner Harbor, Huntingdon Manor Hotel still easily ignored among other hotels in inner harbour Victoria compared with Grand Pacific Hotel because of the hotel’s height. Moreover, there are several types of accommodation in Huntingdon Manor Hotel that are view rooms such as Grand Dorset Suite in Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Superior King Room with Harbour. Although Huntingdon Manor Hotel posts that these types of accommodation offer the harbour view, there is various vegetation are blocked the harbour view because of height. Furthermore, due to the limited height of the hotel, the Huntingdon Manor Hotel belongs to a middle scale hotel. CHEK News website (2018) mentioned that “ Greater Victoria attracts almost four million people per year and those numbers are increasing year over year” (para. 4). Clipper ferry opposites to the hotel directly, which attracts those who from Seattle to stay in Huntingdon Manor Hotel. Due to the convenient location, the scale of the Huntingdon Manor Hotel is restricted by the height, which loses a large number of guests each year. Therefore, visibility and scale of Huntingdon Manor Hotel are restricted by the height, which impacts view and tourists to stay. My recommendation is that Huntingdon Manor Hotel can prune vegetation regularly to ensure guests can have a great view in case of interference of obstructions. Unattended trees will cause vision problems, and some small flying insects will also fly into the room, causing certain problems to the guests, especially in the summertime. Besides, considering the scale of the hotel, both Huntingdon Manor Hotel and Pendary Tea House can increase the room’s price reasonable to seek loyal guests. For the long-term period, increased room’s price can makeup capital from the loss of another walk in guests.

In conclusion, Huntingdon Manor Hotel, as a famous and historical build, has three significant considerations, which impact hotel occupancy rates such as the age of hotel, amenities and services and height of the building. Monotonous dinning form, limited facilities and pressure service belong to amenities and services need to be considered. Then, due to the age of the hotel, several non-guest room’s facilities are ageing, and renovation is a serious problem for improving. Moreover, Huntingdon Manor Hotel’s visibility and scale are limited by the hotel’s height, which easily is ignored.

References

Dong, J, Li, H. X., Zhang, X. F. (2014). Classification of customer satisfaction attributes: An application of online hotel review analysis. Digital Services and Information Intelligence. pp. 238-250. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/ 10.1007/978-3-662-45526-5_23

Greater Victoria tourism numbers on the rise. (2018, May. 29). CHEK New. Retrieved from https://www.cheknews.ca/greater-victoria-tourism-numbers-on-the-rise-455161/ Powell, P. H., &Waston, D. (2006, June). Service unseen: The hotel room attendant at work. International Journey of Hospitality Mangement. 25(2). pp. 297-312. Retrieved from https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/science/article/pii/ S0278431905000435 Rooms &Suites. (n.d.). Hotel Grand Pacific. Retrieved from https://www.hotelgrandpacific.com/ rooms-and-suites.html Torres, E. N., Fu. X. X., &Lehto, X. R. (2014, January). Examining key drivers of customer delight in a hotel experience: A cross-cultural perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 36(24). Retrieved from https://www-sciencedirect- com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/science/article/pii/S0278431913001278 Yu, Y., Byun, W. H.., & Lee, T. J. (2012, November. 16). Critical issues of globalisation in the international hotel industry. Journal of Current Issues in Tourism. 17(2). Retrieved from https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/doi/full/ 10.1080/13683500.2012.761678