SWOT Analysis of Marriott Hotels

Munaza Kazmi
Mphill
Department of Management Sciences
Bahria University Islamabad

Marriott Hotels & Resorts

Introduction:

Marriott Hotel was established in the year 1927 by John Willard Marriott. Initially it was a beer stand that he
opened with his wife, Alice Sheets Marriott in America’s capital Washington, D.C. Later they expanded their
enterprise into a chain of Hot Shoppes restaurants and the company went public as Hot Shoppes, Inc in 1953.

Marriott in 1957 opened its first hotel namely the Twin Bridges Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The Key
Bridge Marriott, their second hotel in the Rosslyn neighbourhood of the same city, is Marriott International's
longest continuously operating hotel. Afterwards their son, J. W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr., led the company to
remarkable global progress during his more than 50-year career. In March 2012, at the age of 80, he turned the
CEO responsibilities over to Arne Sorenson, while he assumed the title of executive chairman. Meanwhile, in
1967 Hot Shoppes, Inc. was renamed the Marriott Corporation.

Marriott International:

Marriott International was formed in the year 1993, when the Marriott Corporation split into two companies, i.e.
Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation. By the year 1999, there were over 360 Marriott Hotels &
Resorts in 47 countries, and in 2012 Marriott Hotels & Resorts celebrated the opening of the 500th Marriott
Hotels & Resorts property. Today in the year 2020 it is having the most powerful portfolio in the hospitality
industry, owing 30 brands and 7,000+ properties across 131 different countries and territories, giving people
more ways to connect, experience and expand their world. (We Are Marriott International, n.d.)

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Marriott Hotels Pakistan:

Marriott International Hotel chain came in to Pakistan under the governance and ownership of Mr. Sadruddin
Hashwani, one of the leading business unit of Pakistan Hashoo Group, in Karachi and then another one
in Islamabad in the 1990s. ( (Hashoo Group, n.d.)

Marriott Hotel Islamabad:

A five-star international Marriott Hotel Islamabad is located at the footfalls of the celebrated Margalla Hills,
within close proximity to Rawal Lake, the town canter, President & Prime Minister Houses, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Senate, Parliament House, Foreign Missions, World Bank, Government Offices, corporate sector, Print
and Electronic media offices etc. Marriott offers the guests with 8 unique and diverse restaurants.

Nadia: The all-day dining buffet restaurant offers broad selection of international & local flavours with live
interactive cooking stations for breakfast, lunch, hi-tea and dinner. The restaurant’s Sunday Brunch offers
cuisines from all over the world.

Dynasty: Chinese Cantonese style restaurant serving extensive A la Carte menu & Buffet Lunch from Monday
to Thursday.

The Royal Elephant: A fine dining restaurant offering authentic Thai cosine.

Sakura Japanese Restaurant: Japanese fine dining Showcasing an exquisite menu of traditional delicacies from
the land of the rising sun. With a live teppanyaki table and a sushi counter.

Jason's Steak House: Offering premium U.S.D.A Black Angus steaks, Jason's Steakhouse is a fabulous place to
dine offering the most succulent prime cuts of the worlds' finest beef, broiled to perfection.

Zigolini: One of the finest Italian restaurants in the city, serving authentic Tuscan flavours of Italy, pastas and
thin crust pizzas freshly baked in brick oven.

Lobby Lounge: Lobby Lounge serves signature cakes, ice creams, pastries and la carte menu specialties.

Terrace Café: Lebanese and Mediterranean specialties in relaxed and modish outdoor setting.

The Islamabad Marriott Hotel is a favourite meeting place of politicians, diplomats, businessmen and movers
and shakers of the country. Owing to the perfect location of the hotel, it barely takes half an hour to travel
between the Hotel, the Islamabad International Airport and the places of interests. (Islamabad Marriott Hotel,
n.d.)

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Strategies undertaken:

Since promotion and marketing in hospitality industry depends mostly on aesthetic, serene environment,
catching advertisements, good food & beverages, incomparable service quality also competent sales personals.
Marriott Hotel Islamabad’s governance cultivates a tentative strategic plan at the start of every year for
formulating diverse strategies, which is based on past experiences and expected trends of market and corporate
business by extensive marketing research.

Issues the Hotel facing:

Contemporary not just Marriott but around every country the tourism is facing huge losses for the reason of the
(COVID-19), since no tourist/ guests means no business.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

While one of the leading firms in its industry, Marriott International has several strengths that support it to
prosper in the market. Further these strengths not only support it to shield the market share in existing markets
but also help in penetrating new markets.

• Advantages that Marriott Hotel enjoys includes, it’s strong background, owned and governed by the
market leaders Hashoo Group.

Next the Hotel has a sturdy base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to
overcome any supply chain blockages.

• Marriott Hotels being better than anyone else, means that it is comparatively successful at
accomplishment of new projects in diverse countries and ethnic backgrounds, besides in past it had
generated good returns on capital expenditure by constructing new revenue streams. Along with that
Marriott Hotels enjoys having a rich and soundtrack record of incorporating complimentary firms
through mergers & acquisition. Further it has successfully integrated number of technology companies
in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.

• The unique or lowest-cost resources that Islamabad Marriott Hotel have is its effective sales personals
and the employees, who makes Marriott the best.

• Strengths that other can see is Marriott’s splendid performance in new markets – Marriott
International has built expertise at entering new markets and making success of them. Owing 30 brands
and 7,000+ properties across 131 countries and territories giving people more ways to connect,
experience and expand their world (We Are Marriott International, n.d.).

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 • Factors that are means to "get the sale", unique environment, excellent food with variety of options,
reliable service quality provided by their customer service.

• Organisation s Unique Selling Proposition is that Marriott Hotels use distinct and customised services
to attract customers and to create a competitive advantage among the existing competitors, along with
quality control and product innovation.

Weaknesses:

• Weakness are the areas where Marriott Hotel can improve upon is the need for investing more in new
technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to
expand into, Marriott International needs to put more money in technology to integrate the processes
across the board. Right now, the investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the
company.

• Islamabad Marriott Hotels should avoid or to cut down expenses for the reason of contemporary
situation in the country.

• People in market likely to see as weaknesses, the security arrangements with reference of 2008
attack, since the teams of PSL teams didn’t stayed in Islamabad Marriott Hotel this year.

• The factors lead to lose sales, is that the Hotel’s governance has not being able to tackle the challenges
present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories.

Opportunities:

• The prospect of opportunities can be new customers from online channel, since over the past few
years the Hotel has invested massive effort into the online platform.

• Interesting trend that can be observed is the contemporary government’s emphasis on promoting
tourism, which may bring business to hotel (Tourism has significant potential: Qureshi, 2020 ).

• Advancement in technology and infrastructure, building of new roads and airlines. Further to say
strengthening of image of Pakistan globally, since it came in 2020 best holiday destination (Best
Holiday Destinations for 2020, 2019), which means the prospect of boosting of tourism.

• The government new policies can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new
opportunity for established players such as Marriott International to increase its profitability.

Threats:

• The biggest obstacle for Hotel is the terrorism and extremism prevailing in Pakistan, which leads to
serious security concerns, along with that the intense competition from competitors like Islamabad
Serena Hotel.

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 • Competitors as Islamabad Serena Hotel having its own properties and new building constructed in
2000’s, having landscape gardens and comparatively young staff.

• Quality standards of products or services changing with every day, since the world is moving steadily
towards technology. Along the new quality standards have arrived in market, which asks for
development and modernisation.

• New technologies developed by the competitor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to
long term future.

• Marriott Hotel having no bad debt or cash-flow problems, but rising pay level and increasing prices
can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Marriott International, plus increasing prices of raw
material can pose a threat to the Marriott International profitability.

• Recent outbreak of (COVID-19) and possibility of lockdown can have devastating sting effect on the
working of hotel.

Weaknesses that seriously threaten the business is the country contemporary situation and the war and terror.

Recommendations:

Islamabad Marriott Hotel have an issue of parking, which should be solved on immediate basis. Next the
building seems to be very old, which I recommend them to change since it has no gardens, no adequate spacing
for pool and parking, even not proper washrooms in the lobby. The management of Hotel is very nice and
corporative, along with people with strong contact in foreign embassy, which the Hotel can use in building
Pakistan image by doing cultural mingling, which is quiet a plus point for the Marriott Hotel as well in building
goodwill among its loyal customers and earning returns.

Bibliography
Best Holiday Destinations for 2020. (2019, December 14). Retrieved from Conde Nast
Traveller: https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/best-holiday-destinations-2020?
fbclid=IwAR2iPvMoNHefCksEk1_BEb5TkPlkn9ExCtN1uGVuhXs7-BY3TikyATN6EgQ

Hashoo Group. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Hashoo_Group

Islamabad Marriott Hotel. (n.d.). Retrieved from Islamabad Marriott Hotel: https://
web.facebook.com/Islamabad.Marriott.Hotel/

Tourism has significant potential: Qureshi. (2020 , March Thursday, 19 ). Retrieved from
The Express Tribune : https://tribune.com.pk/story/1942197/1-tourism-significant-
potential-qureshi/

We Are Marriott International. (n.d.). Retrieved from Marriott International: https://

www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi

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