IT is a question including a, b, c, d. in other words there are 4 questions has to be answered. And the answer should be based on the hypothetical case, which is below the 4 questions. Question 1

Based on the hypothetical case, please answer the below questions (Question 1a to 1d). Kindly cite valid academic references (including textbooks, journal articles and other valid academic literature, data and statistics) to substantiate your discussions, analyses and recommendations

Given Athena Hotels strategic effort to change the target segment to focus on Millennial business travellers, you are assigned the below tasks:

a) Please discuss Millennial business travellers TWO main characteristics with elaboration and examples (Note: Maximum words allowed are 700 words, and, Maximum points awarded to this question are 25 points)

b) In view of Millennial business travellers characteristics (as discussed in Question 1a), please discuss Athena Hotels ONE main strength and ONE main weakness with elaboration and examples(Note: Maximum words allowed are 700 words, and, Maximum points awarded to this question are 25 points)

c) Based on Millennial business travellers characteristics (as discussed in Question 1a) and Athena Hotels strength and weakness (as discussed in Question 1b), please make TWO recommendations with elaboration and examples on targeting this segment. ONE recommendation must be concerned about service aspect and ONE recommendation about physical attribute of the hotel. The recommendations are expected to be practical and creative (Note: Maximum words allowed are 700 words, and, Maximum points awarded to this question are 25 points)

d) Preventive maintenance is not important To what extent do you agree with this statement? Based on Stipanuk (2015), please state your degree of agreement. Please discuss preventive maintenance, with respect to other types of maintenance, with elaboration and examples (Note: Maximum words allowed are 700 words, and, Maximum points awarded to this question are 25 points)

The Hypothetical Case

Athena Hotel was a 150-room boutique hotel located in Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was established in 2010. It has four F&B outlets, including one brasserie serving steaks and gourmet burgers, one coffee shop serving mini-scale international buffet, one lobby lounge famous for its hand-drip coffee and afternoon tea, as well as one bar featuring Gin. There is no meeting or banquet facilities in the hotel. Likewise, there is no swimming pool, fitness centre or other recreational facilities. Because of locating next to the habourfront and being taller than other buildings in the area, almost one-fourth of the guestrooms had beautiful full habour view. The overall theme of the boutique hotel was old-school, conservative theme straddling the styles between majesty and modernism, in order to target Generation X business travellers from Europe. This theme was Mr Zs (Owner and General Manager of the hotel) cup of tea.

Mr Z was well-known for its autocratic management, centralized decision-making, and tight financial and operational control. He implemented a lot of cost-cutting measures, for example, not hiring new employees after existing ones resigned. He did not seek any advice from senior management team, or conduct any employee survey to collect frontline staffs opinions. He instructed that all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) had to be strictly followed without any deviation. He ignored the recommendations made by Ms Chloe Kim (Director of Rooms) on renovating the whole hotel or at least the guestrooms. Mr Z was an upholder of Preventive maintenance is not important, and kept cutting expenses on preventive maintenance. Overall, the staff members from management to rank-and-file were de-motivated.

Despite the hotel theme was developed to target Generation X business travellers, this segment found the hotel design too old-fashioned. As such, it witnessed a continuous decrease in patrons from this segment. Another reason for this was the inconsistent service quality. Mr Z ignored the recommendations made by Ms Megan Smith (Director of Sales), who suggested changing the target segment to focus on Millennial Business Travellers. Mr Z decided to target individual leisure travellers and tour groups. Although this strategy has led the hotel to reach break-even, the rooms revenues and ADR suffered a lot. Worse still, there were voluminous negative comments posted on customer review websites. The below comment was one of the typical ones:

The hotel is tacky, ostentatious and tasteless, the guestroom size is too small, the furniture and furnishings are worn-out, the air-conditioning and TV are not functioning well, and internet connection is extremely slow and unstable. The service quality is inconsistent. Obviously, Guest Relations Team are passionate for serving us, and making extra efforts in meeting our needs. But, most of the other staff lack motivation. Let say, Front Desk Agents and Bellboys responses to our enquiries are OKAY, but very robotic. Room Attendants are careless, like forgetting to clear the dust bin, replace the dirty towels, etc.

In December 2019, Ms Charlotte Z (daughter of Mr Z) joined the hotel and assumed the role of General Manager in Athena Hotel, after completed Master Programme in SHTM, PolyU, and worked in the corporate office of an international hotel chain for a few months. She was openminded, humble and willing to listen to opinions before making decisions. Upon assuming the capacity of General Manager, she conducted a brief investigation and found out the below:

Guest Relations Agents performed extremely well, not only because they were passionate for service, but also were led by an enthusiastic, people-oriented Guest Relations Manager (Ms Iris Lee). Despite their dedication, they were still very green because almost all of them were fresh university graduates. Sometimes, they did not know how to handle difficult guests or complaints. There was a lack of Guest Relations Supervisors, because no new supervisory-level staff were hired after the existing ones had resigned. Ms Iris Lee found it hard to provide more training and support for the team, due to being preoccupied with daily managerial and supervisory duties

Front Office Agents and Bellboys who were from the younger generations were not motivated to work, not only because their pay was lower than the industry average, but also were not allowed to do anything extra to WOW the guests

Room Attendants who were from the older generations were not motivated to work. They have worked in the hotel since opening and were experienced. Yet, they just cared about getting the pay to support their own families, and did not care about the work

As Mr Z was an upholder of Preventive maintenance is not important, the hotel was poorly maintained

The hotels theme and the guestrooms design were old-fashioned. It created a feeling of blandness, gloominess and depression. The IT system could not support speedy and stable internet connection

After reviewing the situations in Athena Hotel and having a thorough discussion with the senior management team, Ms Charlotte Z decided to adopt the recommendations from Ms Megan Smith on changing the target segments to focus on Millennial Business Travellers. Before Ms Charlotte Z proceeded with adopting more recommendations from the senior management, she would like to seek further analysis and advice.

Imagine that you were hired as the Management Trainee in Athena Hotel, Ms Charlotte Z asked you to conduct more analysis and address some of issues arisen from these recommendations