Growth Strategy for Kythea Resort, a Case Study

Introduction

In the modern age, travel and tourism have been simplified due to
the advances in communication technology. The trends related to
travel and tourism have increased significantly. Changes in
attitudes, lifestyle, consumerism, the effect of social media all
have added to the appeal of popular destinations and the
development of the hospitality industry. By encompassing travel
and tourism there has been an evolution in the increase in tourism
and hospitality organizations in the market. This is why this
market is becoming competitive. To survive and prosper in a
competitive business environment, communication specialists are
required to develop marketing strategies by which they can
compete in the market. The tourism and hospitality marketing is
becoming dynamic and challenging all around the world because
of its competition (Briggs, 2001) and at the same time they are
moving from traditional marketing practices to innovative practices
because of its market demand. Meeting the customer’s increasing
needs and demands require specialists to develop innovative
marketing strategies and often restructuring their organization.
Organizational structures are key components to developing a
successful business. This is particularly true for large and small
scale businesses. As a business grows, so too do the
responsibilities of the organization and the more functions that
must be staffed and supported. There is no single correct
organizational structure that is a perfect fit for all organizations,
and therefore requires various alternatives as well as
combinations of structures. Many well-known companies have
suffered from failures in organizational design.
Hospitality industry is a fluctuating industry. One of the reasons is
that because it is an industry that depends highly in seasonality
period (Font, Penalva & Sampol, 2011). Seasonality according to
Butler cited in Weidner (2006) is “the temporal imbalance in the
phenomenon in tourism”. In hospitality industry, seasonality can
be illustrated as in a period of time, hotels will be facing its peak
season where there will be high occupancy and in another period
of time, it will face low season where there will be lower
occupancy. The hospitality industry also fluctuates as the result of
global economic crisis (Kapiki, 2012). The financial crisis in 2008
could be one of the examples that can serve as a significant
reason why hotels manager should always be ready and able to
find a way to maintain the hotel business during tough economy
times. After the economic slowdown in 2008, it was recorded that
the average hotel room rate around the world was 14% cheaper
in 2009 than the room rate in 2008 (Kapiki, 2012). This has later
caused a decrease in the revenue earned by many hotels.
Although lowering the price of the rooms can attract guests to
book the room during the tough economic times, it is not an
efficient strategy to be implemented in long term. Many strategies
can be implemented for hotels to sustain its business and there
are seven strategies proposed in the case study for hoteliers to
apply during the economic crisis.
In this case study, we will analyze the success prospects of
Kythea Resort, a hotel located at the Greek island of Kythira, how
it can increase its bookings and revenue and at the same time
detect the possible hurdles and deficiencies the hotel
management has to reach its full potential.

A brief description of Kythea Resort

Kythea Resort is a 4 star resort-style hotel located at the northern

tip of the island, namely the village of Aghia Pelagia, built on a
hillside overlooking the sea. It includes two luxury suites, five
family rooms, 13 deluxe double rooms, 10 double rooms and 3
wheelchair accessible rooms for handicapped people. The
amenities and services that are offered are: a large terrace with
beautiful sea views, an outdoor pool with a poolside bar/lounge, a
restaurant, 24 front desk and concierge services, lobby, free
breakfast, free cribs for infants, daily housekeeping, laundry
services, free self-parking, accessible by elevator and multilingual
staff that is always helpful with inquiries about tours and tickets
bookings.
Kythea Resort is a family owned business, run by the owner, his
wife and children. It’s interesting to note here that the owners,
who are not local, were frequent vacationers returning to Kythira
every summer, till they made their dream come true and built the
hotel.

Detecting the problems

1) Remoteness of island and inaccessibility: The island of

Kythira is one of the most southern islands near Crete and is
not easily accessible due to the ferry boat schedule and lack
of frequent routes, especially from the port of Piraeus which
is a popular option for Athenians or visitors transiting from
the Airport. Also, while there is an airport, there are not
enough routes and larger sized aircrafts that would
accommodate more guests.
2) Seasonality: In a way seasonality is affected by the
remoteness of the island, eg. islands like Spetses or Hydra
have more visitors year-round due to their proximity to
Athens. Kythera’s tourist season broadly speaking is
between June and the end of August, although locals would
argue that August is the only month they are fully booked.
Hotels tend to open around Easter and close in early
October.
3) Staffing issues: Again, due its remoteness, the manager
finds it difficult to hire knowledgeable and efficient personnel,
whether it’s for the reception desk, or for labor positions such
as waiters or cook assistants. This results to sometimes
being understaffed and the owners end up filling in these
positions.
4) Lack of organized activities/tours: Despite the island’s
natural beauty and variety of beaches, there are little to none
organized activities that a tourist especially those coming
from abroad can participate in.
5) Advertisement/ public messaging issues: While the hotel
does participate in mainstream popular booking sites, and
pays for some ads, there is definitely a lot of room for
improvement.
 6) Hotel’s distance from village center: While some guests
enjoy solitude and being away from the hustle and bustle of
a town’s/village’s center, there are a lot of people and
especially families that prefer to book hotels closer to the
center where they can have easy access to the local
restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores.
7) Hard commute for non-drivers: For the guests who do not
want to bring their car or rent one, there are very limited
options as there is no bus and the taxi fares are very
expensive to use on a daily basis.

Developing a hotel strategy

One of the most important components of a marketing strategy is

to establish a brand identity. The brand identity encompasses all
the things that we want the business to be and how we envision
the business growing. Defining points like a unique selling point
(USP), a target market, goals, and a brand persona will help us
clarify a strategy that is both on brand and in-line with our target
market.
 Defining Our Target Market

Defining our target market has to be our first step to developing

our marketing strategy. Our target market is made up by the
customers that we want in the hotel. We have to figure out who
the ideal customers are and let this thought flourish.
1. Looking at our current customer base: Who enjoyed our
services? Who did we enjoy serving? Do we have any returning
customers? Why do they return?
2. Looking at our competitors: Are they doing anything to target
specific groups? What kind of customers are they attracting? Is
that in line with who we want to attract?
3. Looking at what we offer: Does our pricing play a big role in
attracting your customers? Or is it location? Do we offer services
that would be beneficial to different tourists, like having staff that
are fluent in a particular language (eg. Italian or French)?
4. Doing some research into demographics: Demographics are
factors such as age, location, gender, income level, marital or
family status, ethnic backgrounds, and occupations that will affect
our customer’s purchasing decision. By figuring out which of
these factors make up our target market, we will be able to
simplify and focus our marketing strategy.
5. Evaluate: As with any marketing strategy, we follow a circular
flow – research, define, evaluate, question our decisions and and
start again. We have to consider if we are happy with the target
market we have defined, whether these people appreciate our
services and if this target market is beneficial to the hotel.

Defining Our USPs

A USP is the core of our identity, and it’s what makes a hotel
special. Our first question is to ask what makes the hotel better
than the rest? Do we offer any experiences that cannot be
experienced elsewhere? Why would a foreigner searching Google
for the best places to stay, stop and linger on this website?
A USP is what will attract customers, make a connection with
them and create a sense of need or desire for them to come and
enjoy the facilities.

Defining Our Goals

Defining our goals is particular complicate because the simplistic
and obvious answer would be that the goal is to increase the
revenue and create a flourishing and successful business.

Getting our goals together has to be a balance of short term,

medium term, and long-term goals that will contribute to our
overall goal like making money, for example.
By defining our goals, it will make it easier for you to focus your
marketing strategy.

Kythea Resort’s goals

1) Strengthen relationships with clients, providing them with a

personalized experience before, during and after their stay to
promote brand loyalty
2) Increase brand recognition online
3) Use social media to increase the amount of quality traffic
arriving at the hotel’s website, improving customer service,
and promoting consumer loyalty
4) Use social media as a channel to attract fresh talent to the
hotel
5) Expand it’s building and add more suites and rooms
6) Overall increase its revenue

Growth Strategies in general

According to French (2003, p. 111), owners of a business are

obliged to ensure that the entity grows constantly. A business
entity development involves five stages. The growth of a business
from one stage to another is accompanied by numerous problems
which the shareholders should be very keen on as this might hurt
business operations. It is therefore important for the business to
develop effective strategies that will counteract any crisis which
may affect growth and development (Scott & Bruce, 1987).

STAGE 1- Inception
At this stage, the business is still fragmented in the industry. The
firm centralizes on obtaining customers and producing goods and
services in a very economical way. As a strategy of achieving the
set goals and objectives, it is recommendable that the top
management should adopt direct supervision and individualistic
style. The lower-level managers should monitor the workers to
ensure that they do their work effectively. This will eliminate high
employee turnover which is common in most small growing
businesses.

STAGE 2- Survival
The business revenues and expenses should be properly
managed to avoid risks of collapsing. The firm should use both
entrepreneurial and administrative management styles so that
employees do not squander funds. The firm should have a flexible
structure which allows for rapid changes which are necessitated
by intense competition which the business might face. The firm
owners could not differentiate between profit and cash flows. The
poor accounting system and poor financial management were
very risky to the business (Hughes, 1991, p. 478).

STAGE 3- Growth
At this stage, the firm should use differentiation strategies based
on exchanging volumes for profit margin and forfeiting market
share. The firm should acquire a lot of resources and time in
product and service development. Markets should be expanded to
meet new potential customers. It should expand the products or
services that the firm offers. The management should be well
organized and competent enough to diversify the resources in
order to meet the new demands.

STAGE 4- Expansion
Professional managers are required so as to make effective
decisions for re-investment of funds generated by the firm. The
firm should adopt strategies that are directed to maintaining
customers so as to outwit intense competition. The firm should
develop measures which are focused on customer needs.
Promotional strategy is quite important in meeting customers’
needs.
STAGE 5- Maturity
The firm should encourage innovation so as to achieve price
competition in production and selling. Management should focus
on expense control and finding new opportunities for growth.

Strategy Proposals

1) Personalization options: Technology’s impact has been to

modernize personalization and to allow everyone to receive
a tailored experience, regardless of star rating, and feel like
their stay is unique. This can be achieved in 4 ways: a)
Messaging -The modern guest wants a straightforward,
seamless user experience, right through to booking. One of
the best ways to achieve this is through ongoing messaging
refinement as you learn more about a visitor’s behavior and
intent. For example, if they visit the family room page on the
website, then it’s a safe bet they’ll be travelling with their
children. Therefore, by the time they reach the booking
engine, we can start to personalize their experience toward a
more family-friendly stay b) Booking - Once a user arrives in
the booking engine, there’s further opportunity to tailor the
rates, rooms and packages you present to them c)
Welcomes - Property management systems have evolved
and a multitude of cloud-based systems are now far better
placed to help front-of-house teams greet guests in a more
personalized fashion. Be that a simple smile and “welcome
back” when they’re automatically flagged as a returning
guest, or in more detail, e.g. nudging housekeeping in
advance that they prefer extra soft pillows, so they don’t
even need to request them. It could even be through self-
check-in or online check-in, with their preferences already
known before they arrive at the hotel d) Stays - The modern
traveler doesn’t want to wade through dog-eared guest
directories when they arrive in their room late at night after a
long journey where he feels tired. An on-demand
smartphone generation wants a convenient, personalized
experience; ordering their favorite room service food through
an app, planning the day ahead and digesting hotel
information quickly and easily e) Brand loyalty - When
considering loyalty, a more innovative approach would be
personalized pricing based upon the value of that guest to
your business. This helps bridge the gap between revenue
management and loyalty programs to ensure that on every
single stay, your guest is getting value rather than chasing a
distant and often unattainable points goal.
Generally, personalized experiences are better experiences and
result in a happier guest. Of course, happier guests mean more
positive reviews and a higher likelihood that they’ll return. As we
know, the cost per acquisition of a new customer is far higher
than encouraging repeat stays; thus, the impact upon profitability
through personalizing the guest experience cannot be ignored.
Hoteliers needn’t be scared of technology’s impact upon
personalizing the guest experience. At the heart of good
hospitality is human interaction; the faces and names that get
mentioned time and time again in TripAdvisor or other similar site
reviews. However, technology is rapidly becoming essential in
ensuring that everyone receives a consistent and memorable
experience and hoteliers must start to utilize the full technology
playbook in order to compete with both themselves and
alternative accommodation providers.

Transit services: As stated, one big consideration for potential

visitors is the lack of transportation options, especially affordable
ones, at the island. Many hotels already provide shuttle bus or
van services to pick up their guests from airports or other
terminals, and for trips to common destinations. It may be
possible to expand and coordinate such services so they carry an
increasing portion of total trips. There are a number of factors that
can help make transit efficient. It must be convenient, comfortable
and attractive. Schedules and fares must be easy to understand.
If possible, it should be free or payments should be convenient.
For example, it could be funded as part of an accommodation tax,
or some type of unlimited-rides-for-one-fee that visitors pay when
they arrive. Therefore, I would suggest the hotel management
invest in buying a small shuttle bus or minivan that would offer
daily transportation multiple times a day to the closest village, but
also picking up and dropping off guests to and from the airport
and central port. Another option would be to make an
arrangement with local taxi drivers to offer ride-sharing packages
at lower prices (for example, for a ride that would have 4
passengers/guests the ride would cost between 2-5 euro pp
depending on the distance).

Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing refers to the practice

of reaching out to individuals who have significant online
presence and using their influence to get marketing messages out
to a particular audience. Influencers tend to have established
audiences, which may consist of a specific demographic, and
their audience will usually respect their views. In some ways,
influencer marketing is similar to the way celebrity endorsements
work, with the audience trusting a business or brand, because of
its association with someone else they trust or admire. Hotels
might partner with influences to create video content, social media
posts, written content, or other forms of online marketing. The
rationale behind this is intuitive; people are more likely to trust
peer recommendations than traditional ads such as tv
commercials when making travel purchase decisions. Consumers
are looking for authentic advice and have become desensitized to
traditional advertising with self-promotional ads increasingly
ignored or rejected. Furthermore, the digital arena has seen a
greater number of online users downloading ad-blocks on their
browsers. A subsection of influencers are travel Influencers who
are the new generation of reviewers who can provide a real life
experience of the hotel venue through travel blogs and user-
generated content on social media. They reach future customers
by engaging on a personal level and building durable and
trustworthy relationships with their followers, your potential
guests. I would therefore suggest to the management to work with
one or multiple people who are engaged in this type of activities to
help influence other people with travel purchase decisions. We
earlier spoke about defining our target group; our chosen
influencer must align with our desired demographic so that we
can engage with our target audience. Their followers, your
budding customers, will be likeminded individuals with similar
tastes to your typical guest. I would recommend engaging
regularly with the influencers to improve customer service, brand
loyalty and positive brand awareness and let them know about
any future deals you the hotel is offering and provide them with
promotional booking codes to share with their followers.
Communicating with the influencers can provide us with more
data on our present and prospective customers including their
fundamental motivations and expectations when choosing a given
property. Using this information to our advantage can improve the
overall guest experience and can also equip us with the means to
decipher what is required to open into a new market.

Social Media Promotion: It is now vital for hotels to actively

maintain their social media presence in order to increase their
business. Savvy marketers today engage most platforms if they
expect to effectively reach their audiences. It is especially useful
for those in the hospitality industry, because platforms like
Facebook are a perfect way to engage with existing and new
customers. Also, most social media platforms have built-in
analytics tools, allowing hotel management to monitor
engagement. Additionally, social networks often include valuable
components for hotel promotion, such as customer reviews and
the ability to invite users to events. Some steps we can take to
engage with social media would be by: 1) Outlining our Social
Media Strategy- The first step of any successful social media
marketing campaign is to establish a basic strategy. Here, we
need to think about our audience and what they are actually
interested in. Moreover, we need to decide which social media
platforms to use and be clear on what each platform will actually
be used for. During this stage, we will find it helpful to establish
some best practices or social media guidelines, so that all staff
members are on the same page. It may also be sensible to
identify potential targets in terms of the audience demographics
we want to reach, as well as social media influencers you would
like to win over. 2) Setting Specific, Measurable Goals-
Once we have a basic strategy outlined, one of the most essential
social media marketing tips is to set some more specific goals or
objectives. Doing this will help ensure that everybody involved in
the social media marketing strategy knows what you are trying to
achieve and will help to keep them motivated.
Crucially, these objectives or goals must be measurable and
realistically achievable. For example, setting generic targets like
“increasing number of social media followers” would not be a
good idea. Instead, setting specific targets, like “increasing
bookings generated through social media by 20 percent” and
continuously measuring our performance against them. 3)
Optimizing the Social Media Pages- With a basic strategy in place
and some more specific objectives in mind, it is important to
optimize the hotel’s social media pages. This means ensuring
corporate information is listed on them, that location information is
available to visitors and that content is organized in a logical way.
In addition to these basic steps, we should make sure that we are
using a high-quality image of the company logo as a profile
picture, we upload plenty of photos of the hotel, and include a link
to the main hotel website on our social media pages. 4) Taking
Advantage of Paid Advertising - Many marketers turn to social
media platforms because they can generate results without the
expenditure associated with traditional advertising. Nevertheless,
social media platforms like Facebook offer excellent paid
advertising options as well, and it is worth taking the time to
explore these options. Benefits of paid social media advertising
include built-in re-targeting features, the ability to advertise to very
specific demographics, and the enormous potential reach, due to
the number of users on social media sites.6) Engaging with the
audience - One of the most important social media marketing
tactics revolves around actually engaging with the audience on
social media. This means taking the time to respond to their
questions, doing so in a useful and respectful way, conversing
with those who leave comments on the content we share and
generally taking the time to interact. Also using hashtags to keep
conversations about specific topics in one place, so that we can
keep track of them more easily. This has the additional advantage
of making content more easily searchable for our followers too.

Restaurant Upgrade: While managing a hotel is already

stressful, running a restaurant within the premises definitely adds
some extra pressure, and while there are definitely some risks
involved in such an enterprise, there’s also some opportunity for
rich rewards for the hotel. In my opinion, not only does a
successful hotel restaurant have to serve and please the guests
at the hotel property, but it also has to stand on its own as a
dining option for anyone in the local area. This is because many
guests will want to explore the island and the many options
available to them. So, if we can’t convince our guests to stay in for
a meal, we have to attract other paying patrons. A possibility
might even rise for some diners to even decide to make it a night
and book a room directly through the front desk. For this to work
the quality of the product has to be high. The hotel restaurant has
to individualize itself and offer a comprehensive dining experience
which would ideally emphasize on local cuisine. Therefore,
investing in upgrading and changing the interior design, lighting,
decoration and even music but also having an appropriate and
eclectic menu would definitely boost the sales.
Food Tourism/ Dining Events/ Cooking classes: Public interest
in food has been steadily increasing, ultimately transforming food
tourism into the new global trend, even more so fueled by
countless unique food experiences posted on social media sites.
Unlike common tourism, food tourism focuses on culinary
experience—food and drink that are locally sourced, rather than
mere sightseeing. The concept suggests people pursue a
memorable food or drink experience by developing a better
understanding and/or consuming local food or drink with the
essence of culture in them. It is considered first-hand cultural
experience and it is on top of the tourist attraction list. Kythira is
known for its cultural influence from Italy and Crete, and the result
is a gastronomical combination of these two local cuisines, but
also its local production of thyme honey, which is considered of
excellent quality since antiquity. My first suggestion would be to
add some local dishes to the menu, using organic products from
local farmers and also include wines from Kytherian wineries. A
second step would be to organize some special wine and food
tasting events or even cooking classes that would boost the sales
but also promote the hotel. It would also be an omission if we
didn’t add a tour to local beekeeping/ culinary honey making sites,
where guests could learn about sustainable biodiversity and the
important role of bees, finishing with tasting of the famous
Kytherian thyme honey. We could add promotional packages
through our website that would include accommodation and local
food and wine events or cooking classes, by either purchasing a
bundled up package or as an add on product that could be
purchased after the booking.

Cultural Tours Today’s travelers are no longer content with

merely visiting a destination and have the same experience as
everyone else. They increasingly yearn for something unique and
want to explore the places they visit through a local perspective.
This is sometimes called experiential tourism, where the visitors
yearn to experience the culture, history and nature a place has to
offer. Kythira has a rich history from antiquity, being the crossroad
for sailors, merchants and pirates and a rather unique and diverse
landscape, that includes mile long stretched red sand beaches,
jungle like green gorges, waterfalls, mills, dramatic cliffs and
unique flora that includes the famous flower “Sempreviva”. An
initial step would be to create our own individual in-depth
destination guide and map with the hotel’s logo. Apart from the
food and wine tasting packages we could also include a cultural
package, where the hotel could make an arrangement with local
tour guides that would pick up/drop off the guests to and from the
hotel and show them around the island. Some of the activities
could include a tour at the Enetian Castle at Chora, walking
through the some of the villages, especially those that are famous
for their architecture, visit the local museums and other
archaeological ruins.

Yoga Retreat Wellness vacations are a huge trend right now

and it’s not expected to fade out any time soon. Yoga, meditation
and healthy eating are popular and increasingly can be found at
most upscale hotel resorts. The first step would be to create a
quiet and inspiring yoga sanctuary by constructing a yoga deck or
a poolside “yoga studio” for yoga and meditation sessions, or at
times a designated spot at the beach could also be used in lieu of
the hotel. The purchase of necessary props such as mats would
also be necessary, as of course the hiring of a qualified yoga
instructor that would work for the entire season. And lets not
forget the promotional part, where, as with the culinary and
cultural events, we would add it on our website and social media,
which would be available as a bundled up wellness package or as
an add-on. We could even add videos or live stream from the
yoga sessions that could further motivate and inspire a potential
guest to book at the hotel. Lastly, let’s not forget that yogis are
into healthy eating, which would mean a readjustment of our
menu which would include vegan/vegetarian, lactose and gluten
free options as well as adding power boosting smoothies and
superfood snacks.
Effective staff hiring A short-staffed hotel can lead to stressed
employees, reduced quality of services, and ultimately negative
guest experiences. Reducing staff makes existing employees
responsible for more work, and increased workload adds stress to
complete work and meet performance expectations. Increased
stress lowers morale and employee job satisfaction takes a toll on
an employee’s mental and physical health and can increase time
needed off work. Turnover rates also increase when overwhelmed
workers quit their jobs rather than keep up with increased
workloads at the same pay rate. We already mentioned that
Kythea Resort faces understaffing problems each summer, which
leads to less customer satisfaction and an overtired
owner/manager. My initial suggest would be to plan to prevent
serious understaffing issues and guest complaints ahead of time.
If the owner is anything less than 100% certain of the loyalty and
availability of the hospitality staff, we should prepare the hotel for
the possibility of last-minute employee drop-outs or scheduling
changes. Planning can save us from staffing emergencies and the
issues that can come with being short-handed – especially around
holidays and events. The next steps I would suggest would be as
following: 1) Provide our employees with time off, schedule and
preferences 2) Distribute schedules in advance to make sure
conflicting schedules can be easily fixed 3) Provide a group of on-
call people who can be easily contacted in case we need
additional help at work. Lastly, I would suggest to also contact a
trusted hospitality staffing agency that could help us with future
recruitment and supply us with high quality, well – trained and
efficient employees.

Conclusion

The world is changing fast and we must keep up with its pace.
New trends and technology are emerging by the minute and we
have to do research on a regular basis and help the hotel
management connect with their guests in new ways. By improving
the guest experience and empowering hotel staff with technology
advancements that drive engagement instead of transactions, but
also offer a unique cultural experience that differentiates from
other hotels, Kythea Resort will be able to increase both loyalty
and revenue.

References
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Font, A. R., Penalva, A. M. R., & Sampol, C. N. J. (2011). Efficiency

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Soultana Kapiki, The Impact of Economic Crisis on Tourism and Hospitality:

Results from a Study in Greece, Central European Review of Economics
and Finance, Vol. 2. No. 1 (2012)

French, J 2003, How to rank and work a small business with Australia,
Allen & Unwin publishers, The UK

Mel Scott & Richard Bruce (1987), Five Stages of Growth in Small
Business, Pergamon Journals

Hughes, A 1991, “UK small enterprises in the nineteen-eighties: continuity

and also change”, Territorial studies, Attaque. 25 Number 5, pp. 471-479.