Table of Contents

Brief overview 3

(a) Current market situation and the Present economic environment: – 3

(b) The product, service and the target market:- 3

Vision, Mission statement and goals 4

Unique features of Star Grand Hotel 4

Position Mapping 5

References 7

Brief overview

Star Grand Hotel and Residences is one of the most successful hotels in Sydney and is a part of the parent group The Star Sydney, which was previously called as Star city casino and was the second largest Casino in Australia.

1. Current market situation and the Present economic environment: – The economic situation of a nation is always a determining factor in the success of the tourism industry. Therefore, the economic ups and downs have an effect of the Star Grand Hotel and Residences as well. It is important to get an understanding of the market trends in the hospitality and tourism industry in Australia. The economic environment of Star Grand Hotel, Sydney can be traced by getting an understanding of the economy of Sydney. This is due to the fact that the policies and expansion strategies must be aligned to the economic developments in Sydney. Sydney happens to be the only global city in Australia and is the leading knowledge based economy in the nation. The FY 2018-2019, a total of $140 billion was generated by the city and the city represents over 7% of Australia’s economy. Nearly half a million jobs have been provided by different sectors in the city, and this testifies the thriving economic environment that the hotel chain operates in. Star Grand hotel would be beneficial if they use the economic environment prevailing in Sydney to its advantage. The supply of hotel rooms increased by 1.9% in the year 2019 as opposed to the increase in demand which grew by 2.8% and this caused the global occupancy to rise by 0.9%. While there has been a significant impact on the performance of the hotels due to the supply growth in recent times, projections in the major cities of Australia suggest that there will be growth in this industry in upcoming years (Pham & Grant, 2017).

2. The product, service and the target market:- The Hotel provides an all-inclusive tourism experience to the customers, which includes accommodation, Food and drinks, hotel and spa facility, departmental stores, event centers and casino. The facilities also include a pool, lounge, bar, and conference rooms. However, it must be recognized that the parent group of Star Grand hotel, is Star Sydney, which is mainly a casino. The best service that is provided in the hotel is the casino facility with a thrilling ambience in accordance to that.

Vision, Mission statement and goals

The vision of the Star Grand hotel and Residences hotel group which is a part of Star Entertainment group is, “to be Australia’s best integrated resource operator, offering unprecedented luxurious experiences across its three Australian properties”. The mission statement of Star Grand Hotel and Residences is, “To thrill”. The goals of the Star Sydney group are evident from the statement of the General Manager that they are planning to invest $500 million over the period of next 5 years.

Unique features of Star Grand Hotel

Unique differentiating features of the Star Grand Hotel and Residences are many, and these give them a huge competitive advantage over the others in the market (Ah Sam & Walker, 2018). This is due to the fact that the services they provide are top notch, in addition to which they strive for excellence. The General Manager has also outlined the expansion goals and plans of the hotel group and it came to light that their phase 1 expansion goals include an expenditure of $130 million for the refurbishment of the astral tower and the residences (De Assis et al., 2017). The hotel aims to provide meeting rooms, state of the art lounge, clubs and business centers. It can be seen that the main focus of the Star Grand Hotel and Residences and Star Group in general is to provide a thrilling experience to the customers and in order to achieve that they have invested considerably in developing their Casino service. The casino service of the Star Grand Hotel and Residences is one of the factors that distinguish it from the other hotel groups in Australia. The hotel group provides an all round experience for celebration and entertainment, and the casino service is complemented by an excellent service of food and drink. The hotel is therefore, first choice of the tourists if they are looking to have an amazing time whilst their stay in Sydney (Flanagan, 2018). The hotel group also provides memberships to their star clubs, which is one of their unique capabilities. With the star membership the customers and guests can get benefits in all three of their properties in the destinations namely, Sydney, Brisbane, and gold coast. Additional rewards and better customer experiences are provided to the star members in all the properties of the hotel group. It is also easy to become a star member and is also economical as it provides discounts in many of the facilities that the hotel group provides.

Position Mapping

Position mapping is one of the most important tools available to the organizations to determine their position in the market in comparison to the competitors. This enables the decision makers of a company to analyze their competitive advantage over the competitors and further improve them as per the market needs. The products or brands are depicted in a Cartesian format with four quadrants. The features of position mapping can best be illustrated with the help of a schematic diagram given below:

Figure: 1 Position map

Positioning basically means the perception in the minds of the consumers regarding specific product or a brand. It makes it easier for the marketers to make comparisons between the products. The position mapping of Start Grand Hotel, Sydney will be done and that will give the perspective of the people regarding the hotels (Schiewe, 2016). Therefore, a position map of the Star Grand Hotel has been created with respect to other hotels in Australia. This will give a comprehensive insight into the position of the Hotel. The position map is as follows:

Park Hyatt Sydney

High quality

Four seasons Hotel Sydney

Star Grand Hotel and Residence Sydney

High Price

Low Price

57 Hotels

Hilton Sydney

Sydney Boutique

Low Quality

Position Map of Star Grand Sydney

The position map given above comprehensively illustrates how consumers perceive the hotel group (Dotan & Dehaene, 2016). It can be seen from the position map that Star Grand Hotel and Residence Sydney falls in the quadrant of high quality and high price, therefore it can be stated that the hotel group provides excellent services however, it is not pocket friendly and not all segments of customers can afford it (Wright et al., 2017). However, the cost of staying at the hotel is justified as the extent and diversity of the services that is made available to the customers is not provided by many hotels. This is therefore a natural competitive advantage over the competitors. Some main competitors like Park Hyatt also fall on the high price high quality quadrant above Star Grand. 57 hotels and Sydney boutique fall on the low price low quality quadrant. Four seasons hotel provides high quality in low price as per the map, and therefore is a threat to Star Grand hotel. Hilton Sydney on the other hand is in the high price low quality quadrant. Since, the main aim of this hotel is to enable people have a good time, with games made available at the casino, food and drinks and many other facilities. This is supported by the mission of the hotel that has been stated in their website, which is “to thrill”.

References

Pham, K., & Grant, B. (2017). Home, James, and don’t spare the horses: the inevitability of a second Sydney casino. Australian Planner, 54(2), 80-92.

Flanagan, R. (2018). Sydney in the Novel Flanagan is, of course, an artist with some international acclaim. Given this, it is indeed odd that he would pen a novel that seems to presuppose familiarity with a setting that few readers outside Australia–perhaps, outside Sydney–would have. Sections of metropolitan Sydney are referred to without much by way of explanation. Some are. Richard Flanagan: Critical Essays, 169.

Ah Sam, I., & Walker, N. (2018). Making their mark. Company Director, 34(6), 18.

Dotan, D., & Dehaene, S. (2016). On the origins of logarithmic number-to-position mapping. Psychological review, 123(6), 637.

De Assis, P. L., Yeo, I., Gloppe, A., Nguyen, H. A., Tumanov, D., Dupont-Ferrier, E., … & Auffèves, A. (2017). Strain-gradient position mapping of semiconductor quantum dots. Physical review letters, 118(11), 117401.

Schiewe, R. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,377,866. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Wright, C., Caudy, R., Kent IV, D. R., Ferretti-Smythe, J. C., Bronnimann, H., & Teodorescu, R. (2017). U.S. Patent Application No. 15/595,912.