The Hyatt Regency is a 5 star Hotel situated at the Kiev’s city center. It is adjacent to the most popular historical sites in Ukraine such as Kiev-Pecherska Lavra, Sofiyvskiy Sobor, Statue of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and the ministry of foreign affairs. Hyatt Regency Kiev is within walking distance of Saint Sophia’s Cathedral, Saint Michael’s Monastery and the boutiques of Khreshchatyk Street. Besides, the hotel is easily accessible from Boryspil International Airport, which is at most 50-minute drive and 25-minute drive from Zhulyany Airport and Kyiv Train Station respectively.
General Description
The Hyatt Regency has a capacity of 234 rooms, which are classified into the following classes: King/Twin, Deluxe King/Twin, Regency Suite King, Regency Executive Suite, Diplomat Suite, and Presidential Suite. The hotel also provides free wireless internet connections, two telephones and a safe for the guests. In addition, the facility has an outstanding design and excellent guest services. Given the hotel accommodates numerous and diverse customers, the facility is open 24 hours for seven days in a week.
The hotel’s food and beverage department comprises of one restaurant and three bars located strategically within the hotel. Grill Asia restaurant, the main restaurant, offers Western grill and Asian gastronomy. This restaurant features a demonstration kitchen, sushi bar and Lobby Lounge. Moreover, the hotel has adequate seminar and banqueting facilities for any type of occasion.
The Hyatt Regency has an ultra modern club the “Regency Club”. The club is positioned on the ninth floor; it provides its visitors a private lounge area as well as a dedicated concierge. Regency Club guests enjoy complimentary evening cocktail reception with alcoholic beverages and canapés, soft drinks and beverages such as tea, and coffee are served all day long. The lounge also offers a boardroom and wireless Internet connection for the modern business traveler.
Besides the restaurant services, Hyatt Regency provide a perfect meeting facility fitted with hi-tech systems. The business centre offers executive merchants with multimedia state-of-the art technology and swift Internet access. In addition, the seamless meeting facility is fully equipped with modern workstations, efficient translation systems, and secretarial support
In an attempt to be all round, Hyatt Regency provides entertainment to its guest by providing the required facilities and entertainment specialists. The hotel has all the facilities for entertainment to ensure their clients are entertained to their satisfaction. The entertainment is organized according to the demand of the guests, therefore, customers are always invited to discuss with the competent entertainment team on the specification that suits the occasion.
Market Position
Hyatt Regency is situated at the heart of Kiev, thus it is very easy to trace and/or locate it. Ukraine historical sights such as Kiev-Pecherska Lavra, Sofiyvskiy Sobor and the Statue of Bogdan Khmelnitsky surround the hotel. This facility is situated near some popular social places such as Saint Sophia Cathedral and Saint Michael’s Monastery. The presence of these surrounding features generates many guests visiting these sites. In addition, Hyatt Regency is located at the city centre, which is next to the Boryspil International Airport, and the railway station makes the hotel a convenient lodging site for both distant travelers and international guests.
Since, Kiev is both the political and business capital, Hyatt Regency remains the favorite venue for holding political retreats. Therefore, whenever there is a serious political meeting in town the hotel’s conference rooms as well as accommodation is often used by visiting foreign diplomats. Furthermore, the hotel remains the favorite destination for businesspersons and tourists. The hotel also targets individual with some occasions such as parties and weddings. Therefore, the hotel is one of the most prestigious in the whole of Kiev.
Ownership
Hyatt Regency is a brand product of the US Multinational Hotel Company known as Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Hyatt Von Dehn and Crouch, from Los Angeles, established the hotel in 1957 (Tice & Wilford, 2008). After a few years of operation it stated operating branches in other countries. Hyatt started an international branch in Hong Long in the year 1972; later many branches were opened globally (Tice & Wilford, 2008).
Hyatt Hotel Corporations operate several brand names in an order to attract many customers throughout the world. The main brand names are Park Hyatt, Andaz, Grand Regency Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Hotels, and Hyatt Resorts among others (Tice & Wilford, 2008). Hyatt Regency Kiev, being one of the numerous branches of Hyatt, had the advantage of an already established brand name. Although Hyatt Regency Kiev was established recently it has enjoyed a buoyant growth rate, which is causing panic among its immediate competitors.
Management Structure
Hyatt international has adopted a geographical organizational structure. Each branch of the hotel has local manager who links the branch to the mother company. Since Hyatt Regency is a branch Hyatt Regency International Corporation, the mangers ensure that the Hotel provides similar services just like the other branches. To facilitate equal or similar standards, the hotel uses similar systems, as well as developing online reservation facilities.
The sales and marketing department is organized in a hierarchical order such that control and authority assumes a straight line. Each officer in the management interacts directly with the senior officer and his immediate subordinate; in other words, command and delegation streams downwards from the top to the bottom (Clausen, L. 2006). While in internship, I was directly answerable to my supervisor – Mr. Alexandra Trubitsina, who is subordinate to the sales and marketing department director. General organization chart of Hyatt Regency is represented below.
Hyatt Regency Management Structure
The management structure of Hyatt Regency comprises of Staff who are highly competent from the top most manger to the low-level supervisors and laborers.
Marketing Analysis
This hotel is one of the most prestigious hotels in the area of operation. The hotel largely targets high-end customers. The typical customers for the hotel include businesspersons, celebrities, international groups, big corporate clients, political leaders and diplomats. The Hotel does not discriminate in terms of gender, but it targets mainly the middle-aged persons and elderly. In addition to this, most of their clients are professionals and the rich. Consequently, prices at the hotel are relatively high due to premium pricing. To provide value for customers, the hotel has invested in value and positions itself as a provider of quality services in the market. Coupled with international brand affiliations or linkages, the hotel has registered phenomenal growth thus commanding a market share that is way above its immediate competitors.
Target Markets and Market Segments
The hotel has two segments that it serves i.e. group clients and transient clients. The percentage contribution of both segments or market categories to hotel’s revenues is as shown in chart below.
A pie chat showing the percentage of group customers against transient customers
Hyatt Regency has a large pool of Transient customers; they contribute 83 percent of total revenues. On the other hand, the group customers contribute about 17 percent of the total revenues generated by the hotel. However, when one zeroes in on catering services provided by the hotel Hyatt Regency generates more revenue from group catering activities that from individual catering services. Providing catering services to groups brings in two thirds of the total revenue while individual service brings in a third of the total revenues accruing from catering services. Therefore, the hotel majors in or focuses more on providing group catering.
Selling Advantages and Disadvantages
Hyatt hotel offers quality facilities at competitive prices. The sales department sets prices according to the class reserved by the client. Hyatt hotel has the advantage of having an established brand name i.e. the global popularity of the Hyatt gives the hotel an upper hand in fighting for dominance in the Ukraine market. Nevertheless, in order to attract and retain customers, the hotel provides recreation facilities such as swimming pool, high-speed internet and ultra modern conference services. All these services have attracted many clients to use the facility. However, there is a concern because not all facilities provided are utilized; under capacity has led to a decline in revenue or collecting revenue below facility potential.
Marketing Strategies
The marketing department has tried to come up with a market mix that responds to peculiarities of the market. Hyatt Regency carries out promotion campaign with the aim of attracting more clients into the facility. The hotel uses the both electronic and print media communication channels for promotion; the hotel posts adverts on the internet and on televisions. Further, to announce its presence, the hotel has erected appealing billboards at the entrance. The most effective advertisement method is the online / internet promotion because it mainly targets foreign delegates who rely mainly on the internet for information.
Competitive Set Analysis
Just like other businesses, the hotel industry in Ukraine is very competitive. Hyatt Regency faces stiff competition from other large hotels located in Kiev in fact just a short distance from each other. The main competitor of Hyatt Regency is the Radisson Hotel, which has a long history; having been established in 1903. It has a strong brand name and offers a tough completion in terms of capacity and prizes. Radisson hotel has 255 rooms and offers some unique services such as solarium, massage, and concierge services among others.
The other Hotel competing with Hyatt is Opera. Although, Opera has a relative small capacity of 136 rooms, the hotels offer world-class services and provides a thirty percent discount to online reservations. It also provides American, Moroccan, Russian, Egyptian and French suite. Finally, a four star Rivera hotel also competes with Hyatt for clients in Kiev. The Riviera hotel has a 70 persons meeting facility as well as providing modern services.
These hotels compete for the market share by generating products and superior services to those of their competitors. As the competition intensifies, the hotel management in either hotel has had to switch or introduce product discounts to their customers. The current competition entails developing brand name and other proprietary products. In Ukraine, the hotel industry is characterized by competition in terms of capacity, services delivery, customer promotion and prices. The Competition is made worse by the physical location of the hotels i.e. the four major hotels are located in close vicinity.
Critical Analysis of Attachment Experience
Since commencing my internship at Hyatt Regency, I have acquired a lot of experience, especially in the operations within the sales and marketing department. My main duties were; preparing room list for clients on board each day, making and renewing contracts with individual and group clients’ pertaining the use of the facility. In addition, it was my duty to make follow-ups on clients regarding the bookings. I was also in charge of booking and reservations of rooms and events held at Hyatt Regency. Finally, I was also expected to prepare BEO’s bearing in mind all the requirements while paying attention to details. The BEO’s report provided a compressive but summarized account of all the activities under my control.
Through handling the above mentioned duties, I realize that I have become more confident. The experience has been good as I was exposed to a professional environment that nurtured my soft skills. I am now conversant with the entire hotel’s operation mechanisms, which are closely linked to sales and marketing department. I have come to appreciate the central role of the sales and marketing department in an organization. The department is the backbone of the hotel because it is responsible for bringing clients and generating revenue for the hotel.
Besides, the sales and marketing department ensures correct functioning of the banquet services and event harmonization. Since the department deals with absolutely everything in the hotel, a strong mutual relationship and interdependence exists between employees in the department and those from other departments. This mutual relationship facilitates smooth and cohesive understanding within the premise. Working in such like an environment has helped me improve my interpersonal relationship skills.
Throughout the attachment period, I have proved my abilities of adapting to a new environment and utilizing new application such as Delphi, Opera and Reserve. The two are computer programs, which are used while making hotel reservation and maintaining the clients record for easier referral. Apart from using computers, I learnt the value of paying attention to minor details which otherwise seem negligible yet a small mistake could cause huge problems to the hotel in future.
In addition to that, I have learned a lot about internal corporate ethics and organizational communication within the company. I am thankful to some of the courses that helped me to understand basics of these issues, so I came to my internship with a good foundation. Being able to appreciate theory in a practical scenario has helped me towards more in-depth understanding. Consequently, I have been able to work according to the standards and cooperate well with my colleagues.
My main source of weakness was lack of prior experience in a close working environment and especially in a huge business like Hyatt Regency. At first I felt nervous and devoid of confidence in discharging my duties. Due to nervousness, making decision became difficult due to the fear of commiting mistakes. My other weakness was lake of exposure to complex computer systems, which are used at the hotel. The systems are detailed and require sophistication of skills for one to handle them. I am glad assistance and motivation from my supervisor and the entire team at Hyatt Regency helped me overcome my fears and weaknesses thus becoming resourceful.
It is worth noting that my personal characteristics also contributed in a big way towards my enjoying the internship. Being young and energetic, I had the zest and desire to learn and utilize new ideas and applications. Although I was the youngest in the department, my work rate and desire to work was admired by my supervisor and the other staff. Throughout my internship period, curiosity and determination to perform overshadowed my age. The inherent desire to adapt to the new facilities uplifted my absorption ability thus I was able to grasp all that was required of me. In addition, my hunger for reading shortened my orientation period because I discovered most things by myself.
The experience I have gathered has made me more focused and motivated to face new challenges. Fitting into their system was smooth thanks to the moral support and cooperation provided by the entire department staff. From my experience, Hyatt Regency is an ideal place for nurturing talents into young competitive professionals. The environment and the working condition are conducive for interns to learn and gain exposure of new things in a busy and competitive atmosphere. Hyatt Regency has a well-stipulated work ethic, which governs the entire conduct of employee. From the onset, one learns what ought to be done.
In addition, the hotel has elaborate job descriptions, which govern the activity of each employee including the interns. This gives clear-cut boundaries on what one should do thus providing a limit that determines behavior. Furthermore, the staff, and the managers have personal etiquette and know how to deal with conflicts and differences that arise in the process of working. Finally, the spirit of teamwork prevailing between the employees allows everybody to freely express his or her mind.
Reference List
Clausen, L. (2006). Intercultural Organizational Communication: Five Corporate Cases in Japan. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business book Press.
Tice. J. & Wilford, J. (2008). 100 Best Family Resorts in North America: 100 Quality Resorts with Leisure Activities for Children and Adults. New Hampshire: Globe Pequot Press